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HomeMy WebLinkAbout04/04/2012 PUBLIC SAFETY & ENVIRONMENTAL SERVICES Committee Meeting MINUTES PUBLIC SAFETY & ENVIRONMENTAL SERVICES COMMITTEE April 4, 2012 A meeting of the Public Safety & Environmental Services Committee of the Council of the County of Kaua`i, State of Hawai`i, was called to order by Councilmember Dickie Chang, Vice Chair, at the Council Chambers, 4396 Rice Street, Suite 201, Lihu`e, Kaua`i, on Wednesday, April 4, 2012, at 9:13 a.m., after which the following members answered the call of the roll: Honorable Tim Bynum Honorable Dickie Chang Honorable KipuKai Kuali`i Honorable JoAnn A. Yukimura Honorable Mel Rapozo Honorable Jay Furfaro, Ex-Officio Member Honorable Nadine K. Nakamura, Ex-Officio Member The Committee proceeded on its agenda items as follows, and as shown in the following Committee Report which is incorporated herein by reference: CR-PSE 2012-02: on C 2012-96 Communication (03/13/2012) from the Anti-Drug Coordinator, requesting Council approval to apply for, receive, and expend funds from the State of Hawaii Department of Human Services, Office of Youth Services Title V Incentive Grant in the amount of $128,198.00, which will be used for a mentoring/advocacy program to prevent youth at risk of becoming delinquent and from entering the juvenile justice system. [Approved.] PSE 2012-01 Communication (03/28/2012) from Committee Chair Rapozo, requesting the presence of Larry Dill, County Engineer, to provide an update on the County's response to the recent storm and flooding on Kaua`i. [This item was deferred.] Mr. Rapozo: I am in receipt of a request for a deferral by Mr. Dill until April 18, 2012. Anyone in the community or in the public wishing to testify on this matter before I entertain a motion to defer? Mr. Mickens. There being no objections the rules were suspended. GLENN MICKENS, RESIDENT: Thank you again, Mel. My question to Larry, I presume he is coming back at a later date. Regarding the storms, Morgan COMMITTEE MEETING 2 April 4, 2012 Pond down there at Lydgate Park, I think it is deplorable that that place has to stay closed for like three (3) weeks and a month to get that place cleaned up. You are depending on volunteers to come down and do that job. If we do not have enough people in the County to do these jobs that we are paying taxes to get, let us get some more people, let us get Larry here and getting to get more people to do it. That pond as all of you know is probably one (1) of the nicest places. Dickie, you know more than anybody; you use it all the time to exercise, for visitors, for everybody. It used to be a great place to snorkel because you can see the fish, and now they have, I think they have kind of messed up on that deal, they have dredged it and there is no sand left in the bottom, and I think that is bad. But it is still the nicest and there is no reason that cleaning this storm debris up, it is going to happen, it has happened over and over and over, it is going to happen more every time the thing...I do not know whether the water can flow in and out of the thing to purify it or what is going. I just hope that Larry is doing a heck of a job; he has got his plate overly full for what he is trying to do for the County as our new Engineer. I just hope that he can do something about that pond in particular. I think those ponds should be all over the island, I think they are great, they are safe for kids, for people, you are going to stop drowning stuff, anyway that is my testimony. Thank you, Mel. Mr. Rapozo: Thank you Glenn. The Lydgate actually comes under Parks, not Larry, but this communication was to get an overview of all the agencies, including Civil Defense. I have been made aware that there were some issues involving transportation, cars, road blockages, and really this is an attempt to figure out if there is anything we need to expand in the disaster response for Kaua`i short of a hurricane, because that is a different story, when we have a tropical storm as we just did. As we approach the budget session, this really was an attempt to find out if there is any areas we need to expand and improve before we enter into the budget. So your points are well taken, and I agree with you, it is just that it should be directed to Parks and not to Larry Dill. Thank you. Any other members in the community or in the public? If not I will call the meeting back to order. The meeting was called back to order and proceeded as follows: Mr. Rapozo: Before I enter a motion to defer, is there any discussion? Mr. Chair? Chair Furfaro: Yes. Could we ask Lyle to come up for a minute? Mr. Rapozo: Sure. Lyle, the rules are suspended. There being no objections, the rules were suspended. LYLE TABATA, DEPUTY COUNTY ENGINEER: Good morning, Lyle Tabata, Deputy County Engineer for the record. COMMITTEE MEETING 3 April 4, 2012 Chair Furfaro: Lyle, thanks for being here and I certainly will support, although I am not on the committee, the deferral for the reasons you mentioned in your correspondence; I hope the others do support it as well. Can I ask you, when we come to April 18, 2012 and the expectations of reconciling the emergency response cost, is that something your department is going to submit to Civil Defense, and it is Civil Defense then going to reconcile those costs? We are in budget session and the way it works is we do have some emergency money set aside that the Mayor can deal with in times of crisis like this to really measure what the final potential impact of the repairs would be. Should we be looking at Civil Defense and are you submitting your portion, I might as well say it, to Civil Defense along with the Police Department and so forth, how do you see that happening? Mr. Tabata: I think in my response for the deferral, we are redirecting the response to come from Civil Defense because they are prime, and all the various departments submitted their information to Civil Defense who is the gate keeper so to speak of the event. And so they are coordinating with the various agencies for the added funding beyond the County's means and they are working with FEMA, HUD, the State, and hopefully we will get a Federal mandate shortly. Chair Furfaro: Okay. And I guess that is, I am taking advantage of having the Chief of Police in the audience and some of the questions that come up for Parks recently. I guess I would want to make sure that we send some kind of correspondence to Civil Defense as they are the keeper of reconciling the cost that they should make themselves available to give us some kind of a picture, Mr. Rapozo. I think that would be wise of us. If you could send it out as Committee Chair, I would appreciate it. Mr. Rapozo: Thank you Mr. Chair. I guess I should have clarified the reason for the deferral; Lyle I think you did that. But let me just say the letter from, I guess it was you for Larry? Mr. Tabata: Yes. Mr. Rapozo: The reason, the request for the deferral was to give the Civil Defense Agency the time to prepare and provide the information as requested, but staff, if you could note that we can send over basically an amended request to Civil Defense. I think the Chair brings up that component that I was not thinking about when I sent it over, the financial impact, and the financial opportunities, or the opportunities for fiscal reimbursement from the various State and Federal agencies. So we will definitely get that out, thank you Mr. Chair. Chair Furfaro: Thank you Mr. Rapozo. Mr. Rapozo: Thank you Lyle. Any other questions for Lyle before he steps down? Thank you Lyle. COMMITTEE MEETING 4 April 4, 2012 Mr. Tabata: Thank you. The meeting was called back to order and proceeded as follows: Mr. Rapozo: Any other discussion? If not I will entertain a motion to defer until April 18, 2012. Upon motion duly made by Councilmember Chang, seconded by Councilmember Kuali`i, and unanimously carried, PSE 2012-01 was deferred. There being no further business, the meeting was adjourned at 9:27 a.m. Respectfully submitted, Ihilani C.J. Laureta Secretary APPROVED at the Committee Meeting held on August 1, 2012: I ` ' MEL RAPOZO CHAIR, PUBLIC SAFETY & ENVIRONMENTAL SERVICES COMMITTEE