HomeMy WebLinkAboutEconomic Development FY2013-2014 DEPARTMENTAL BUDGET REVIEWS April 11, 2013
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The departmental budget review reconvened on April 11, 2013 at 1:47 p.m., and proceeded
as follows:
Office of Economic Development
Honorable Gary Hooser
Honorable Nadine K. Nakamura
Honorable Mel Rapozo
Honorable JoAnn A. Yukimura
Honorable Jay Furfaro
Excused: Honorable Tim Bynum
Honorable Ross Kagawa
Chair Furfaro: Welcome Mr. Costa. I want to go through a little
bit of housekeeping items before we start. To those of you in the audience that are here,
welcome. For Budget procedures, we take testimony at the beginning of the Budget
hearings. For this time right now, we can address anything in the Office of Economic
Development that you came to give testimony on, simply by signing up. We will do that
upfront before we have any presentation. We also have three (3) people signed up and
present, I believe, Gregg Kravitz, Linda Vass, and Renee Hamilton. Is there anyone else
who would like to sign up? Come right up. You can drop it right at the podium. Now if
others of you are here for the purpose of a resource for Mr. Costa, he can call on you
afterwards, but if you want to give specific testimony at this time regarding anything I will
start by calling the first speaker. Let us start with Renee Hamilton and then we will go to
Linda Vass, and then to Gregg Kravitz.
RENEE HAMILTON, Executive Director for YMCA: Renee Hamilton for
the record with Young Women's Christian Association (YWCA). Linda Vass is one (1) of our
board members and she still may be at court. She was hoping to be here.
Chair Furfaro: Renee, I hope you understand because we have
different rules and we take the testimony upfront.
Ms. Hamilton: I understand, thank you, Chair. Thank you,
Councilmembers for the opportunity to testify. I am here on behalf of the YWCA of Kaua`i.
I put together some handouts that I believe you received that summarize the services that
are funded through the Office of Economic Development, which are our Sexual Assault
Treatment Programs and our Family Domestic Violence Programs. I just wanted to
highlight the services and numbers served for you and the work that we are doing with the
County funds that we receive, especially the continuum of care that we have for the victims
of domestic violence and sexual assault. Know that each dollar that we are funded because
of both programs being under one (1) roof, we are able to provide services for both
populations. The same staff is cross trained, so we are really able to serve two (2)
populations with the same funding whereas in other locations and other Counties, you had
different programs that do the different funding, and then have to compete. I think we are
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very fortunate to have this under one (1) roof and feel like we are able to better serve our
community then. We do have the 24-hour hotline phones or in person crisis counseling
available. The County funds do help support that. We had over one thousand three
hundred (1,300) calls come into our hotline in one (1) year. These are statistics from 2012.
We also had two hundred fifty-six (256) hours of in person crisis counseling. Our 24-hour
year round Family Violence Shelter that does provide the shelter, meals, clothes, and other
basic necessities, maybe diapers, depending on who is coming into the shelter at that time.
We had four thousand (4,000) bed days this past year, so women and families coming in for
a total of four thousand (4,000) bed days, eleven thousand (11,000) meals, and so on. For
our Clinical Counseling Treatment Services, two thousand one hundred (2,100) counseling
hours were provided, and that included men, women, boys and girls, or anyone who came
into our program for issues relating to domestic violence or sexual assault receiving
counseling services. Forty-one (41) children specifically came in for specialized treatment
for interfamilial sexual abuse. In the initial Budget, there is a reduction to the funding for
our programs, which I wanted to share my concerns about. I did share in this handout, as
well other funding reductions that we continue to face. We have reduced expenses basically
to the amount that if we have any further reductions, our continuum of care will change.
We will not be able to provide all of those services, which will put our community, I think,
at greater risk and not provide the services for victims and their families that are so
important. We have taken the steps, as you can see, to reduce our expenses and at the
same time, doing our best to find other funding sources, but the support from the County is
really crucial for us. We appreciate that and the Office of Economic Development for the
past few years now. Thank you.
Chair Furfaro: I have a couple of quick questions. I do not need
to have a lot of questions but just some clarity here. How does the YWCA actually count
bed days, for example? Is that related to a 24-hour period or is it related to mother and
child being counted as two (2) bed days?
Ms. Hamilton: For each day a person is there, for a 24-hour
period, yes.
Chair Furfaro: You count it by the person?
Ms. Hamilton: Yes.
Chair Furfaro: If a mother comes in with two (2) children and
stays with you for two (2) days, we are going to count that as six (6) bed days?
Ms. Hamilton: Correct.
Chair Furfaro: Got it. Just very quickly; because your Budget
goes to the Administration and then it goes to us in their format, what was the dollar of the
total reductions?
Ms. Hamilton: The initial request was for one hundred ten
thousand dollars ($110,000).
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Chair Furfaro: For all programs?
Ms. Hamilton: Yes, for those two (2) programs.
Chair Furfaro: We have more questions, but we are just going to
limit to just understand your presentation right now. JoAnn, did you have a question on
her presentation?
Ms. Yukimura: Yes.
Chair Furfaro: Go right ahead.
Ms. Yukimura: First of all, thank you for your work.
Ms. Hamilton: Thank you for your support.
Ms. Yukimura: We know how crucial it is for the well being of
our people here. Your family violence shelter, those four thousand (4,000) beds, has it been
increasing?
Ms. Hamilton: Yes.
Ms. Yukimura: Are you at a max?
Ms. Hamilton: We have had a spike this past year and it
fluctuates up and down. I do know that there were, I believe, two (2) periods of time
throughout the year where we were full. We do our best to find other locations and try to
find other resources for those families, but we do everything that we can. We throw the
futons on the floor and put as many people into our shelters as possible.
Ms. Yukimura: The lost of its Violence Against Women's Act
(VAWA), the Federal VAWA moneys...
Ms. Hamilton: Correct.
Ms. Yukimura: Is that part of the sequestration or a general
decline because of the Federal budgetary situation?
Ms. Hamilton: The first couple of Budget cuts were because of
the general Budget situation. We do not know the impact yet on the VAWA money because
the bill was just reauthorized. There has not been funding of the reauthorized VAWA Bill
yet in the Federal level.
Ms. Yukimura: When will you know? Do you know when you
will know?
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Ms. Hamilton: We do not know. I do not know what that
timeline will be for them.
Ms. Yukimura: How much of a lost is there from last year to this
year? Or is there of VAWA moneys?
Ms. Hamilton: We did not have VAWA money last year either.
We did not get that funding.
Ms. Yukimura: Okay.
Ms. Hamilton: This will be the second year in a row. Before in
the past, we averaged between sixty thousand dollars ($60,000) to eighty thousand dollars
($80,000).
Ms. Yukimura: Other Federal sources have not really popped up
either?
Ms. Hamilton: No.
Ms. Yukimura: Okay. Thank you very much.
Chair Furfaro: Are there other questions as it relates to the
presentation?
Mr. Rapozo: Thank you, Renee. You said your original
request was one hundred ten thousand dollars ($110,000)? The current funding is one
hundred fifteen thousand dollars ($115,000)?
Ms. Hamilton: The same amount. I am sorry. I will make that
correction.
Mr. Rapozo: It is one hundred fifteen thousand dollars
($115,000)?
Ms. Hamilton: Yes.
Mr. Rapozo: On the shelter...I do not know if you folks have—
I am sure you do. How much does it cost to run the shelter?
Ms. Hamilton: The total Budget for the shelter in a year is
about three hundred thousand dollars ($300,000).
Mr. Rapozo: Three hundred thousand dollars ($300,000)?
Ms. Hamilton: Correct.
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Mr. Rapozo: Obviously, that is with other grants and private
donations?
Ms. Hamilton: Yes.
Mr. Rapozo: What is the total cost for the Sexual Assault
Treatment Program?
Ms. Hamilton: Two hundred thousand dollars ($200,000). It is
because of the 24-hour crisis services and having the shelter staffed twenty-four (24) hours
a day.
Mr. Rapozo: Okay. For the two (2) programs, it costs around
five hundred thousand dollars ($500,000)?
Ms. Hamilton: Yes.
Mr. Rapozo: If not for this County funding—and I share the
frustration with the Federal government, but it is what it is. The current Budget proposal
is showing twenty thousand dollars ($20,000) for each program. What impacts do you see
in the shelter program?
Ms. Hamilton: I do not believe that we will be able to offer in
person crisis counseling.
Mr. Rapozo: In person crisis counseling would probably be the
first to go?
Ms. Hamilton: Yes. We already cut the prevention education
from those two (2) programs, which have already been reduced because of the other Budget
cuts. We have to have somebody at the shelter but I think going out into the community
island wide, on a 24-hour basis, we would not be able to do that.
Mr. Rapozo: That is a pretty vital part of your operation?
Ms. Hamilton: Yes. That means there would be no support for
victims who are sexually assaulted who make a police report or forensic exams; there would
be no support for them, none. Or even domestic violence victims who want to meet in a
public place before they come to the shelter and things like that. There would be no
support for them.
Mr. Rapozo: Currently, if a victim calls the police and they
are taken—prior to the physical.. what did you call it?
Ms. Hamilton: The forensic exam.
Mr. Rapozo: You folks would provide support people there?
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Ms. Hamilton: Absolutely.
Mr. Rapozo: That is the in person crisis?
Ms. Hamilton: Right. Actually, what happens frequently is that
a victim calls our crisis line first and they hear about their options. They are offered the in
person crisis counselors, and they are very grateful for that. I think it helps encouragement
them to continue with making a police report. If they do not have support, I believe our
reports will go down because there is no victim centered support with them at that time.
Mr. Rapozo: Okay. Thank you.
Chair Furfaro: Are there any other questions? I would just like
to go one (1) time because we have a long day. Are there any other questions just on the
report? Renee, thank you very much.
Ms. Hamilton: Thank you very much for the opportunity.
Chair Furfaro: Ms. Vass is not here?
Ms. Hamilton: No, she must still be—you know how it is with
lawyers and court. Thank you.
Chair Furfaro: Thank you, Renee. Let us go to Gregg Kravitz.
You have six (6) minutes to give testimony. At three (3) minutes, the alarm will go off and I
will just acknowledge that we're at the halfway point. You have 6 minutes.
GREGG KRAVITZ: Thank you for allowing me to speak this
morning. Gregg Kravitz is my name and I am a paddler with the Namolokama `0 Hanalei
Canoe Club up on the North Shore. I just want to take a couple of minute and share sort of
a success story with you. I know a lot of times you hear a lot complaints and everything
else, so maybe this will be an upbeat thing for you. Six (6) years ago, Namolokama was a
financially struggling canoe club like most of them here on the island. The idea came up
about "how to do a fundraiser?" Some of you may know Barbara and Dick Smith. They
have been in Hanalei now for twenty-five (25) years. They came up with an idea other than
just doing a bake sale; they thought how they could have some impact to the community.
As a result, they came up with a swim meet, and perhaps some of you have been there or
your kids have gone there. For the last six (6) years, I just want to share with you what has
taken place. For the first year, there were sixty (60) swimmers that took place. Every year
it has grown. Last year in 2012, we had one hundred eight-four (184) swimmers show up at
Hanalei Bay. Dick is no longer going to be president of the club and Barbara has thrown
her hands up after six (6) years to let somebody else do this. We have got sort of a new
team that has stepped in to handle this, and we decided that while we could continue in
their footsteps and just have basically Kaua`i residents show up every year, we thought,
"How is it possible to generate more interest in the swim meet?" "How can we get more
than one hundred eighty-four (184) swimmers coming to the event?" "How is it that we can
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meet the greater needs of the community, raise better awareness of swimming, and also
have some sort of economic benefit while doing that as well?" The concept was simply to set
a goal this year of three hundred (300) swimmers coming to the North Shore. You probably
know some of the swimmers here, the Coach for the YMCA, Billy Brown. I spoke to him
and spoke to some of the other competitive swimmers and they came up with a couple of
ideas. I just wanted to share with you the ones that we took in. One (1) was to change the
name. Instead of the "Namolokama Open Water Swim," we changed it to the Hanalei Bay
Swim Challenge." The other is that we reduced the races from three (3) to two (2); left the
keiki in there for two (2) races, but reduced the adult swims from three (3) to two (2). We
also changed the way we refer to them in miles. Most people refer to swim in meters, so we
have done that. We wanted to bring more of an international flavor to it. ' The whole
concept was how we could bring more attention to the North Shore and swimming if we sort
of maxed out on all the swimmers here. The idea was to focus on other islands, as well as
the mainland. That has been our goal. Those things take money and so I would just tell
you what we done recently as...
Chair Furfaro: First three (3) minutes. Continue.
Mr. Kravitz: Okay. We have created a website that is up
partially. We have a Facebook networking and creative things like that, that we all have
got going. I will just sum up and tell you how the system is working, not dealing with
County or City at all here in Hawai`i, being a full time resident for just a couple of years. I
have been a homeowner since 2004. I have been popping over two (2) blocks away and
talking to Jay in his front yard about our ideas of bringing something to the North Shore
and he seemed encouraging. I talked to the folks at the Office of Economic Development,
George and Nalani; great people there. I saw Sue walk in from the Visitors' Bureau.
Everybody has been real positive about, "How is it that we can take this swim meet and roll
it into something greater than just a local event." "Can we make it some kind of a North
Shore type of signature event?" As a result of that in talking with other people, I brought
along today—maybe can you hand these out here. This is the new logo for the swim meet.
Also, there are a couple of ads that were now on in the Summer Edition of the Kaua`i
Family Magazine. We are trying to strive to get more of the keiki tuned into swimming and
coming to the swim meet, so we can have our own local swim meet. I met with Coach 0 just
two (2) days ago for lunch. It would be great for those kids not is to have to fly everything
for all these events, but to have an international and national event here on Kauai; that is
what we are attempting to do. The impact economically, more people and these swimmers,
if you know swimmers like Dr. Potter, these people will go anywhere for a swim and they do
not need to drag a surfboard or skis. They just simply bring their Speedos and they are
ready to go. What you see there is the magazine ad that is in the California Family Edition
that is coming out in the summer issue for the kids. The other full page is a magazine you
are familiar with, maybe only a year and a half old, the Kauai Lifestyle Magazine. It is a
real glossy, high end piece. She has offered us a full page, full color ad in there which is
the piece that is going in there. We have got a couple of sponsors there helping us along. In
conclusion, I would just like to say that we are an agenda item for today for a five thousand
dollar ($5,000) grant from the County, and we could certainly put that to good use in
bringing more attention to the North Shore. We can be the preeminent event up there and
generating more and better interest from swimmers and their families, and not only local
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keiki, but the local swimmers as well and other people who are looking for Kaua`i to be a
destination resort on an annual basis. Thank you.
Chair Furfaro: Thank you, Gregg. Are there any more questions
on Gregg's presentation?
Ms. Nakamura: Thank you for being here and for educating all of
us about this new program. I think it sounds like a good opportunity and it is good to see
that you have corporate sponsors behind you on this one, like Hanalei Plantation Resort,
St. Regis, and Oceanfront Realty. It was part of the recent study that we did on sports and
recreation opportunities on this island, which kind of points to projects like this that will
help to—when is this going to be held?
Mr. Kravitz: It will be on July 27th. It is always going to be
the last Saturday in the month because, one (1) reason is, that it seems an optimum time
for Hanalei Bay. Where else can you swim in an area that gorgeous and that flat for open
water swimmers? There are also no canoe races that weekend. It is a bye weekend.
Ms. Nakamura: Not quite the shoulder season. Okay. Thank you
very much for pursuing this.
Mr. Kravitz: Thank you.
Mr. Hooser: It sounds like a very exciting program and again,
thank you. There is a lot of (inaudible) on water safety and educating people in the
community, and visitors and residents alike about how important it is to be safe in the
water. My question would be, "Are you in communications with the lifeguards, water
safety?" "Do you have a water safety educational component that would be woven in if not
already?"
Mr. Kravitz: The answer is yes. Hopefully by next year, we
will have that a lot tighter. I stopped at the hospital...and what is his name?
Mr. Hooser: Dr. Downs?
Mr. Kravitz: Yes. In trying to work with him, I think we can
put something together there. The other is just the fact that we are more tuned into about
safety here with our own race. We have one (1) of the local vendors up there, Hanalei
Beach Boys, Janet Mitchell up there. Her and her husband rent standup boards and they
have agreed to donate for the morning event of twenty (20) standup boards, because that is
sort of how you outline the race because you have floating craft up there. We have got that
working and we have somebody who is going to work with our standup people on doing
safety issues, so if there is an issue in the water, they can learn how to pull somebody out
on the water on a board and so forth. We intend to move more into that and make certainly
a day of it. There is no question that this is perhaps a highlight in all the bad press we are
getting on water issues. Here is something that we could point to as stepping up and doing
something about that.
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Mr. Hooser: Dr. Downs and the lifeguards are involved in the
competition?
Mr. Kravitz: The point is that have I discussed with him the
possibility of doing something. At this point, I do not know if we could put something
together in next sixty (60) days, but it is certainly a start for that.
Mr. Hooser: Thank you very much.
Chair Furfaro: I am going to need to take care of a Council
matter. Can I turn it over to you, Vice Chair?
Mr. Rapozo: Okay. Are there any questions for Mr. Kravitz?
Ms. Yukimura: Thank you very much for your presentation. It is
a wonderful community based entrepreneurial effort from what I can see and very good for
the community. What is your involvement? How is this race being run? Do you have a
paid staff or is this basically a voluntary effort?
Mr. Kravitz: You are pretty much looking at the lead guy
here.
Ms. Yukimura: Good for you.
Mr. Kravitz: There is nothing paid whatsoever. I paddle with
Namolokama quite frankly, and with Dick and Barbara bowing out so the club looked
around for somebody to step in and help move this thing. I have been in Sales on the
mainland so I raised my hand. It seems like I just sort of stepped up to that. It really is
not a paid thing. It is all volunteers that want to put this together. The idea started as just
a swim meet and I think looking at it, for me stepping in to see this thing that has been run
so well for six (6) years, it does not seem like it is much more of a step or two (2) to get this
thing to have a destination buzz about it. That is what I got excited about, in sorting of
creating a wheel. We have the wheel rolling; it is just a matter of making it a little quicker,
fancier, and fine tuning it. I would love to bring the Kauai Lifeguards, Monty Downs, and
that whole group. I have to tell you that everybody whom I talked to has really been upbeat
about this. Sue has given me a whole list of people, and George as well. If we can get some
support from the County just so—I would like to have the seal on our website, just to show
that it is a legitimate thing here. This is sort of a watershed year for us, coming from
simply hanging flyers, and the coconut wireless telling people about it to actually bring in
people. I should just mention that Hana Hou just sent me an E-mail yesterday. They are
not doing an article but they have got our pictures in there. They have got two (2) great
pictures that are going to be in the June/July issue about the event. There are people who
are picking up the buzz about it. Nobody is getting paid, just a lot of hard work.
Ms. Yukimura: It is a wonderful reflection of the North Shore
community. Thank you very much.
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Mr. Rapozo: Thank you very much. Our next speaker is
Kamealoha Hanohano-Smith.
KAMEALOHA HANOHANO-SMITH: Aloha mai kakou apau. A laila,
makemake wau e hdpai ka leo ma hale is kakou apau no keia wai me hiki is makou na
kumu na po e hana ma Ke Kaiaulu `O Anahola. E wala'au me oukou e pilina ka makou
papahana ma Anahola. My name is Kamealoha Hanohano-Smith. Thank you very much
for giving us the opportunity to speak about our program that we do in Anahola. I guess in
the Western perspective, we would be considered a project based marine science project, but
we are really more of a traditional resource management project that teaches kids different
aspects of marine resources that we have in the area. The presentation I can give to you
folks today can be done in three (3) sections. The first section of course is the introduction
of the geographic area known as Anahola, so you folks can become familiar with our
program. The second is the abstract that we brought forward to propose for possible
funding, and then the third is to talk a little bit about the community impact and that
would be the community that we work in, the students or the youth that we target, and talk
a little bit about the impact that a program like this could have on the population that we
work with. Just to let you know, in terms of population, although we are based in Anahola,
I would say two-thirds of the kids that we work with actually come from the Puna District,
which is a district just below Anahola or just below Ko`olau. On the island of Kaua`i, I
think we have six (6) districts and most of the students come from the Kapa`a area actually.
A third of the students come from the Ko`olau area, primarily from Anahola. We are a
project based program and we use two (2) places to do our program; one (1) is a Ko`olau Hui
at Church. That is where we house our classes when it rains. Outside of this, mahalo to
the Department of Parks and Recreation. We also hold our classes in Anahola County
Beach Park, where we gather to start protocol. We use the bay as a living lamp to conduct
observation, science experiments, and gather data about near shore marine vegetation and
marine resources. Anahola County Beach Park encompasses several cultural kipuka.
Kipuka is kind of a historical site. That includes Anahola Bay, Kanahawale, Kahala,
Halaulani, 'Aliomanu, Kuaehu, and Kalaiokali`u. These are some of the names that most
people do not even know, but these are some of the place names of places in Anahola and
around Anahola Bay. Depending on the movement of the water, we kind of go up and down
the coastline on the North East side of Kauai, and also depending on where the fish go. We
kind of follow that pattern as well. The program works to monitor coastal marine
vegetation.
Mr. Rapozo: That was your first three (3) minutes. You have
three (3) more minutes.
Mr. Hanohano-Smith: Okay. How about if we just go to the second
part. Let us do that. Anahola like other communities is looking to strengthen its
accountability for the health and long term sustainability of its marine resources. In 2011
and 2012, in partnership with the County of Kaua`i and others, Kaiaulu staff work with
students on a Hawaiian language emergent on aina/kai stewardship program, here in
Anahola, to revitalize local fishing traditions and cultural resource management practices.
We came together at the beach and one (1) of the project deliverables that we had is a
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calendar. If I could give one (1) to each of you, that would be great. You guys like? It is
free. Mahalo to the Western Pacific Management Council for underwriting the costs. We
were able to get enough for people in the community. This year, we only did it in English,
but our real goal of course is that we believe in Kaiaulu`O Anahola that Hawaiian language
is an essential and necessary component of indigenous stewardship and environmental
stewardship conservation practices. This year we did it in English but next year, our goal
is to put one in Hawaiian as well. The other project deliverable that we have is a book
called `O Anahola Ku`u Kula`iwi. We work with the children to do research on different
place names in Anahola and other areas in the Ko`olau District. That was a lot of fun. In
terms of some of the impact on at least with the kids who came to our program—I think
ninety-five percent (95%) of the students self reported an increase in use of Hawaiian
language and traditional resource management practices and seventy-five percent (75%) of
the kids indicated a strong desire to incorporate some of what we learn there, into their
academic studies. For this coming year, we have three (3) project deliverables that we are
working on. One (1) is in the area of Cultural Stewardship. The other one is
Environmental Stewardship, and the last one is Economic Sustainability and Resources.
Economic Sustainability and Resources refers to the project deliverables and the ability to
sell some of those materials. We are working with a nonprofit on the island of O`ahu and
that is helping us put together a marketing and business plan. We understand that we love
doing the nonprofit stuff and it is good, but the program has to be able to sustain itself. For
us, that is a really big component of what we do. Does that mean it is pau?
Mr. Rapozo: You can summarize.
Mr. Hanohano-Smith: I can summarize? Okay, mahalo.
Mr. Rapozo: Maybe like thirty (30) seconds or so.
Mr. Hanohano-Smith: Right on. Mahalo to the County of Kauai, but
really the strategic result that we are trying to address is the issue of conservation and
environmental sustainability. We seek to increase awareness of cultural uses of natural
resources and historical sites, increase the availability and access to cultural knowledge
and develop strategies to promote sustainable management of resources in North East
Kaua`i and neighboring coastal areas in collaboration with local government agencies,area
businesses, and other like minded community based organizations. Mahalo.
Mr. Rapozo: Thank you very much. The reason I was smiling
when you started to talk in Hawaiian is because we have a captioner.
Mr. Hanohano-Smith: Oh, hello. She was reporting all of that?
Mr. Rapozo: I do not know where she is, maybe in North
Carolina or something. I can only imagine what came on that screen.
Mr. Hanohano-Smith: E kala mai.
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Mr. Rapozo: Were you guys watching? It goes to the
mainland and the person types exactly—like if you look at the monitor right now.
Mr. Hanohano-Smith: Oh, hello.
Mr. Rapozo: I was smiling because you were funny; I was
smiling because I was thinking that this lady must be going crazy. Are there any
questions? Go ahead, Councilmember Nakamura.
Ms. Yukimura: Kamealoha, thank you for the presentation and
for the program. I do not know if you mentioned it, but it is mainly immersion or it is
mainly taught in Hawaiian?
Mr. Hanohano-Smith: Everything that we do, we have a commitment to
at least the two (2) languages, which is English and Hawaiian, so we offer the program in
English but the hope is that when the kids come, they will be inclined to also jump in there
and learn Hawaiian. Kids are great. They learn. They do not ask too much.questions.
They kind of just follow what the kumu says so we like that. Yes, so two (2) languages.
Ms. Yukimura: How many young people are enrolled in your
program?
Mr. Hanohano-Smith: Last year, our target was only fifteen (15)
because that is the amount of resources that we had. We ended up serving, I think over one
hundred (100). It was not popular because we are popular people or anything, but it was
popular because there is such a need and such an interest in being able to parlay what the
kids do in their daily lives to something academic. It also adds another program in the
community in which the kids are able to come to for either afterschool or intersession.
Ms. Yukimura: This connection you are making between science
and cultural knowledge and everyday life is really a wonderful thing. I believe you have
some scientists who are working with you as well? Or people with some science
background?
Mr. Hanohano-Smith: Yes, okay. We always have guest lecturers who
come and work with us to help us with the science. We do not have anybody currently
working for us fulltime because we need money. Anyway, we do not have anybody
currently working with us fulltime, but we, like for myself, Hawaiian immersion—my
background is not—I am not a classically trained science teacher or anything like that, but
I am familiar enough with principles that we have to do when we are teaching elementary
school kids that the level of science that we teach is comfortable. The best thing about this
is the kids. You cannot imagine-you really do have to come out and see. These kids are
pretty amazing and the amount of connections that they are able to make with things that
they do in project based learning and in the class; it is nothing short of phenomenal. To be
able to do it in Hawaiian language—it is pretty good. It feels good and feels like it is the
right place to be doing it.
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Ms. Yukimura: My last question is that you were talking about
an underwater imu or what do you call that?
Mr. Hanohano-Smith: Yes. That is the fish trap. Every year we want
to increase their understanding of different fishing techniques, so we did like an
underwater aquarium and use rocks and stuff. Where we live, most people,have imu in
their backyard. This is an underwater imu in which we are able to catch fish. That is the
easiest thing to do with little kids. I think this year, we are going to be working a lot on
actually showing them how to do nets and we are going to align that with math standards.
Ms. Yukimura: Thank you very much.
Mr. Hanohano-Smith: Mahalo.
Mr.Rapozo: Are there any more questions?
Ms. Nakamura: I just wanted to clarify. This is an afterschool
and intersession program?
Mr. Hanohano-Smith: Yes, we partner with several different program
and organizations so it is really that we work with their schedule. If their schedule allows
to us have classes afterschool, then we have classes after school. Some do not, so we have
those during the day and then also definitely during intercession. Yes.
Ms. Nakamura: It sounds like a great cultural place based
learning.
Mr. Hanohano-Smith: Yes, it is a lot of fun.
Ms. Nakamura: Thank you.
Mr. Hooser: In terms of the County Budget, how much
County funds are and what percentage of your Budget is County funds?
Mr. Hanohano-Smith: How much can we ask for?
Mr. Rapozo: The proposal is five thousand dollars ($5,000).
Mr. Hanohano-Smith: Yes, I know that the proposal is five thousand
dollars ($5,000). We actually get a grant from—the Castle Foundation renewed our grant
so we have been receiving funds from them. We are waiting for word from the Office of
Hawaiian Affairs, and then of course from the County. You folks put down five thousand
dollars ($5,000).
Mr. Rapozo: That is what is in the proposal.
Mr. Hanohano-Smith: Yes.
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Mr. Hooser: Your overall program Budget for the year is?
Mr. Hanohano-Smith: It is about one hundred twenty-five thousand
dollars ($125,000) a year. That is a dream. We are not there yet. Our goal every year is to
make sure we can at least make that much amount of money to underwrite the difference
in costs. The biggest expense—salaries and stuff like that aside...we are mobile. The kind
of equipment that we need is kind of expensive. Nowadays, there is a lot of technology.
That kind of stuff is kind of expensive.
• Mr. Hooser: To operate the program right now, it is about one
hundred twenty-five thousand dollars ($125,000) a year?
Mr. Hanohano-Smith: One hundred twenty-five thousand dollars
($125,000) a year. Thus far, we have been able to raise a little over half of it with other
moneys. We are real excited as we start this new year with everything that we got thus far.
Mr. Hooser: Sounds like a great program.
Mr. Hanohano-Smith: Yes. It is a lot of fun. You should come and
check us out.
Mr. Hooser: Thank you.
Mr. Rapozo: Thank you, Mr. Hooser. If nothing else, thank
you very much.
Mr. Hanohano-Smith: Thank you very much.
Mr. Rapozo: Say a very short closing.
Mr. Hanohano-Smith: You want me to say it in Hawaiian?
Mr. Rapozo: Yes.
Mr. Hanohano-Smith: Okay. Mahalo nui loa. A hui hou.
Mr. Rapozo: What is her name BC? Carol. Hi, Carol. This is
Jay Furfaro. Okay. Our next speaker is Keao NeSmith.
KEAO NESMITH: Aloha kakou. `O wau `O Keao NeSmith no
Kekaha, Kaua`i. Good luck, Carol. If she needs help let me know. Mahalo for this
opportunity. My name is Keao NeSmith. I am from Kekaha and born and raised there.
My purpose here is to tell you a little bit about this project, that with the collaboration of
Mayor Carvalho and Nalani Brun of the Office of Economic Development, have been
working together on. This is a project that I called "Kauai Nui Kuapapa." It is an old
phrase found in chance with regards to Kaumuali`i and Kaua`i in particular. The phrase
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Kaua`i Nui Kuapapa is a phrase that talks about the entirety of Kaua`i as a place, as our
center. What this is, is a project where we are going to do signage on each moku and
ahupua a of Kauai on the sides of Kaua`i highways. There are five (5) moku or six (6)
depending on what time period you are talking about. I forgot the exact number but there
are about fifty-three (53) ahupua a on the island. This project stands from lots of
conversations with friends and family around tables at the beach around fires, about these
places that we were born and raised around our surroundings here. These are things that
we do not get taught in school, so we come home and talk about them. From scratching our
heads and wondering, "How come we do not know about the names of these areas? We
know it is called "Inters" Beach. What is the real name?" These names are actually there.
The project involves a lot of research. I have been reading a lot through the Hawaiian
language newspapers from the early 1800's, all the way through to the mid 1900's. A lot of
other sources, private family collections, and so forth are also the type of research that I
have been investing in the project itself. I work with a team. This company in Honolulu
called (inaudible - "Past or Projects?"). They are the tech experts. They develop signage
and stuff like that. Another guy who is a cartographer, so he develops unique maps, 3-D
maps, color coded, or any type of maps you need. He is developing the maps. That also
indicate the borders of moku and ahuapua a for the purpose of this project. Essentially, it
entails moku signage, which will have a particular shape to it so that it is identifiable as a
sign, and then the ahupua a signage will be of another shape so that they also can be
identifiable because you are driving along the road. Each will be color coordinated. In
other words, five (5) different colors representing five (5) moku. Ultimately, what I hope
this will do is create an opportunity for Kaua`i people, especially businesses, community
associations, churches, and the Boys and Girls Club to come to take on the identity of the
area. Also inclusive in the project is that I am reminded by the emblem we have on the
wall over here, which are those unique features that are uniquely Kaua`i. Nowhere else
will you find those particular things? You will not find those types of poi pounders, you will
not fund Mokihana, and will not find Nounou and all of those stories associated with it
anywhere. Our unique identity is our economic base. If we are going to have all of these
icons that we can take and use as branding and marketing aspects that businesses can take
on, no matter what they are here on Kaua`i, they can now be identified by a simple icon;
simple logo that they will create that hopefully can be linked to their part of Kaua`i. There
is a website that we are working on that will encapsulate the entire project from beginning
to end, and also in segments. There will be pages on the website that will talk about each
of the moku and identifying features of the moku from ancient times to modern times. It
will have history, cultural icons, that are symbolic of the area and it will have these
slogans. For instance, for America, they use the phrase "Land of the Free." You do not
even say the word America but everyone knows what place that is. We have slogans like
that from ancient times that are unique to each moku and each ahupua a on Kaua`i. We
want people to first of all know what these are and then use them. These can be slogans
that the high schools can use. They can take on these icons. I want to feature a native
plant that is unique to areas—not necessarily unique, because our native plants are found
everywhere; however, Na Pali has some native plants that are only found in Na Pali.
Again, an icon and symbol of the area. Because of our strong connection with mauka and
makai, not only do we have a native plant but also a fish that again will be associated with
each moku. Again, we hope that this type of knowledge will become a part of us in our
homes and in our communities. The full name of the project is Kaua`i Nui Kuapapa, with a
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subtitle, "Talking About Our Island." What we want to do is get our people talking amongst
ourselves, "Yes, by the way, what is the name of this ridge? What is this whole flat plain
that we pass by all of the time and do not know the name to?" Moku signs; ahupua'a signs,
and not only that, but beach signs where Kaumuali`i and Kuhio Highways pass along the
beach. We want people to know what the traditional names of these beaches are. For
County parks and State parks, we want to add the traditional names of these areas so that
people do not just know Salt Pond as Salt Pond,but as Kaunakaiole. We are not looking to
remove any signs, but we are looking to educate the public as to what the real name of this
place is, inclusive of Lydgate Park or any park.
Mr. Rapozo: Thank you. Are there any questions for
Mr. NeSmith?
Ms. Yukimura: That is a wonderful project. I am recalling that
years ago...ten (10) years ago, then Councilman James Tokioka and I introduced a
Resolution asking for proper Hawaiian spelling and use of Hawaiian place names. You are
taking this to a whole other level with signage, interpretation, and connection. That is so
exciting. I am always correcting people who are saying "Secret Beach." I say, "No, that is
Kauapea." To have that now in signs and with stories and conversations as you described,
within the island; that will embed the knowledge even more.
Mr. NeSmith: Mahalo. Of course, it does involve this thing of a
sign you put up there. I am very concerned about the impact on the environment so we
want to minimize the impact. I do not want to be making more signage when I prefer less
signage. It is just these are very special signs and we do not want to make them intrusive.
Ms. Yukimura: It is wonderful that you are thinking about all of
that because that is reflecting the whole Hawaiian approach; the indigenous approach.
Mr. NeSmith: Right, because in the past, we did not need the
sign because it was common knowledge. Now that knowledge has been brushed off to the
side for the past several decades, we would like to reintroduce.
Ms. Yukimura: Thank you very much.
Mr. Rapozo: Thank you. Any other questions?
Mr. Hooser: I just have a Budget question. For the length of
the project and the overall Budget, where your major funding is coming from?
Mr. NeSmith: Mahalo for that. There are two (2) or three (3)
phases of the project and we are towards the end of phase 1 at this point. Phase 1 is the
research involved in this whole project. Inclusive of searching for maps, whatever maps
there are to be found, we want to find them all that make references to what the borders
are. We do not want to say that one (1) is correct and the others are not. We just want to
report and cite what all the data is. That is an example of the type of research. Then we
have my team members who are the tech special visits, and they professionals at what they
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do. There are these cost factors. Phase 1 is for research to find out what the numbers are
supposed to be. Phase 2 is the actual work and putting up the signs. The cost of the signs
themselves—the cost of replacement signs, if one (1) should get taken out for whatever
reason; we worked with Ray McCormick of the Kauai Office of the Department of
Transportation to go over what considerations we need to keep in mind as we do this. We
have had meetings with him. Phase 2 is the actual work. Phase 3 which will come later is
the curriculum development, and I will work on that after the infrastructure is already put
in place. I worked with the Nalani Brun of the Office of Economic Development on that and
again, much appreciation to Mayor Carvalho who has been very supportive. The funds so
far have come through the auspices of the Office of Economic Development. As part of the
end of Phase 1 and going into Phase 2, we are going to talk some more, so I am talking
more with Nalani about that. The numbers are not definitely set yet, and we do not know
how much it will cost for Phase 2 but we are in discussion for that.
Mr. Hooser: We are looking for funding support for Phase 1
right now?
Mr. NeSmith: Funding has already come from Nalani Brun's
office, and we are not done with Phase 1 yet, so the deliverables for that are for instance,
having the website up and generating a report that will inform Phase 2, as far as funding is
concerned.
Mr. Hooser: The approximate cost of Phase 1?
Mr. NeSmith: About twenty-five thousand dollars ($25,000).
Mr. Hooser: Do you have an idea on the cost of Phase 2? I
understand there is a lot of work to go before you get there.
Mr. NeSmith: There is a lot of work and there is much more
involved. An example is that we also would like to have interpretative signs at only a few
points, so maybe only five (5) points around the island. The interpretative signs will be pull
over points where you can pull over, and we want to take advantage of those pull over
points that already exist. For instance, we would like to have it be a bigger sign about like
this, made of natural wood. On it, we are going to have this type of–you know what a Quick
Response (QR) code is? It is kind of a code where you can use a smart phone. We want
something like that. Dave Deluca of Castle Projects in O`ahu; we have been in discussion
and are working on this particular feature where if you have this app that goes up to your
smart phone, there is a code that will appear on the interpretive sign with some
instructions there. With this app, you take a picture of it, download the app, and then hold
your Smartphone up to the scenery you are looking at, say Kahili mountain, and it will be
preprogrammed and capture and generate a video, maybe a forty-five (45) second video with
someone, maybe a kupuna from the area taking about the names of the rains, winds, and
story particular related to the area. It can get expensive. We do not know what the costs
will be right now. One (1) sign, we found from Ray McCormick's office, can cost from four
hundred dollars ($400) to five hundred dollars ($5000 just for one (1). We are talking about
five (5) moku and fifty-three (53) ahuapua'a so it gets very expensive. We will be in
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discussion with the members of the Department of Transportation at the State level.
Hopefully they can take care of the cost of that itself. We are hopeful that we can actually
get them to do that so it lessens the burden on our end. There are lots of moving parts.
Mr. Hooser: Thank
you. Sounds like a very exciting and
worthwhile project.
Mr. NeSmith: It has been really enjoyable so far.
Mr. Hooser: Thank you.
Mr. Rapozo: Thank you. Are there any other questions?
Ms. Nakamura: I just wanted to thank you very much for this
briefing and I want to thank the Office of Economic Development and the Mayor for putting
this in the Budget because it is something that will benefit everyone; residents, visitors,
and everyone to just be educated about our culture and our places. There is a Visitor
Industry Plan for Kaua`i, and I am looking at Sue and Nalani because we worked on it a
while back. This is one (1) of the priorities in the plan as a way to communicate and
educate our visitors here. I am hoping that we can approach Hawai`i Tourism and
Authority (HTA) for funding to leverage the County funding and to help us implement this
really important piece. Thank you so much for your very good work.
Mr. NeSmith: Mahalo nui. It has been a pleasure because the
primary target audience really is our local population, probably over our visitors because
there are already thousands of sites out there for visitors. There are thousands of specials
and they can go to hundreds of sites. But our local population is in need of this. It comes
from this whole idea that an informed and educated community is a healthy community.
Ms. Nakamura: I am just thinking of ways to pay for it.
Mr. NeSmith: Yes, awesome. Mahalo and I am glad that you
have I excitement that I can see.
Mr. Rapozo: It is a great project and we as Councilmember
have to tie it into Economic Development somehow. I think that was what Councilmember
Nakamura was aiming for. I agree with you one hundred percent (100%). Kids today and
even myself; we do not know a lot of these areas. We never knew because it was not taught.
Mr. NeSmith: Right.
Mr. Rapozo: There is so much culture and history here. I just
had one (1) Budget question. You said you have already received funding from the County?
Mr. NeSmith: Right, through Nalani's office.
Mr. Rapozo: How much was that?
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Mr. NeSmith: Twenty-five thousand dollars ($25,000).
Mr. Rapozo: This is the second twenty-five thousand dollars
($25,000)?
Mr. NeSmith: Yes, second twenty-five thousand dollars
($25,000) and really, that does not cut it. It is great, mahalo nui, but whatever you guys
can slate for it would be excellent.
Mr. Rapozo: Yes, we have the tough job of having to balance
this out at the end of the process and it is tough.
Mr. NeSmith: Right.
Mr. Rapozo: It helps when it is in the Budget to begin with.
Mr. NeSmith: Absolutely.
Mr. Rapozo: With the Mayor's support, it definitely helps a
lot.
Mr. NeSmith: Absolutely.
Mr. Rapozo: I appreciate the session. I wish we could have
you here longer. That is so awesome. We will take a recess for ten (10) minutes.
There being no objections, the meeting was recessed at 2:45 p.m.
The meeting was reconvened at 2:57 p.m., and proceeded as follows:
Chair Furfaro: Our next testifier is Kehaulani. Welcome.
KEHAULANI KEKUA: Aloha mai kakou on this beautiful day. My name
is Kehaulani Kekua and I am the kumu hula of Halau Palaihiwa `O Kaipuwai but I am
here today to talk about Ka `Aha Hula `O Halauaola, which is the fourth world conference
gathering on hula that has been scheduled for July 10-18, 2014 to convene here on Kaua`i
island. I have some information to share. I was not really sure if I was going to speak, but
I thought might as well take advantage of opportunity since I am here. Mahalo nui for
giving me this time. Ka `Aha Hula `O Halauaola was founded by master kumu hula,
Hokulani Holt from Maui, Pualani Kanaka`ole Kanahele from Hawaii island, and Leina'ala
Kalama Heine from O`ahu island. With hula as being the most recognized cultural art form
of Hawai`i, is through hula that countless generations the masters and practitioners have
maintained and passed on invaluable insight and wisdom of Hawaiian culture and lifestyle
practices. Even what the two (2) gentlemen, prior to me spoke about; we come from an oral
culture, so everything was orally documented and passed down from generation to
generation through mo olelo; oral tradition stories, hula, and chants. Today we continue to
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see that as a very valuable conduit to maintaining the ancient wisdom and what makes us
very unique here in Hawaii. The first world conference on hula took place in 2001 in Hilo.
It happens once every four (4) years. In 2005, it traveled to Maui. In 2009, to O`ahu and it
is coming to Kauai in 2014. The reason why we skipped—it would have been this year, but
it was the 50th anniversary of Merrie Monarch, which we are all still on a high about.
Therefore, the conference gathering will take place next July. We are here to ask for the
support of the County of Kauai. We had an opportunity to meet with the Mayor, as well as
George Costa and Nalani Brun from the Office of Economic Development. They were very
supportive and quite excited about this endeavor. I am not exactly sure but I think the
original funding request went in for thirty-five thousand dollars ($35,000), and I think it
has been cut down to ten thousand dollars ($10,000). Anything that can help to support
this endeavor is greatly appreciated. I know that for the last conference on Maui—I do not
have the exact amount, but I believe the County provided support of at least fifty thousand
dollars ($50,000). The conference does not happen until next year. We are currently
ongoing, seeking funding sources through grants, OHA, HTA, and other fundraising
sources. One (1) of the unique aspects about Ka `Aha Hula `O Halauaola is a year route,
which actually we are starting at the end of this month. We will hold training sessions to
train kumu hula and their alaka i and their students on Kauai first because we are the
host island, and then we will travel to all the other islands, eventually to the east and west
coast on the continent, as well as overseas to Japan, Europe, and anywhere else where
there is an interest. We do this training a year in advanced. We teach all the protocols for
the ceremonies and the chants so that everyone has an entire year to prepare themselves.
When we convene for the opening ceremonies for the conference, we will have people
literally from around the world, in mass, participating in the opening ceremonies that will
kick off the conference. The opening ceremonies are based on the hula kuahu, which are
ancient ceremonies that have been perpetuated through the guild of traditional hula
practitioners. The funding that we are seeking is to support that training. On the second
page of the handout that you have, there are six (6) goals that are bulleted. Of course they
include: the encouragement of preservation of ancient art forms, and learning and
enrichment platforms for people from Hawai`i and around the world. Most importantly, I
believe that we have an excellent opportunity to promote and showcase Kauai island as a
distinguished destination and repository of authentic Hawaiian culture, history, and the
renowned traditions of Kauai's primordial hula knowledge. The conference gathering will
feature one hundred (100) master kumu hula, artisans, and practitioners who will be
teaching and presenting. We anticipate at least one thousand (1,000) participants to this
world gathering of hula. It is with great anticipation that the hula world is really looking
forward to coming to Kauai because Kauai has a very long standing history of hula
excellence. We appreciate any consideration that you can offer to support our endeavors to
begin going out into the community, and then throughout the archipelago of Hawaii, and
towards the continent and overseas to being to teach the Kauai selected chants, protocols,
and ceremonial dances, all of which will focus on Kauai. Mahalo nui.
Chair Furfaro: Thank you very much. Let me see if we have any
questions. Your funding cycle will fall in the FY2014-2015 budget because we start July 1.
tl Your dates again?
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Ms. Kekua: It is July 10 18. We are currently before the
Council and the Council to ask for support for planning and for the preconference training
which will enable us to not only do the training but to promote Kauai as a cultural
destination.
Chair Furfaro: I just wanted to make sure that everybody was
clear.
Ms. Kekua: Yes.
Chair Furfaro: There 2 phases to that.
Ms. Kekua: That is correct.
Chair Furfaro: Questions?
Ms. Yukimura: This is very exciting. How often does this world
conference happen?
Ms. Kekua: It happens once every 4 years because we
literally invite the world to come. It is once every 4 years. The first one took place in 2001
and the most recent world gathering... and it is not just for hula practitioners, it is for
anybody who is interested in Hawaiian culture. There is a spectrum and myriad of
offerings for people to engage in learning about the Hawaiian culture and because hula is a
major conduit that connects us to every aspect of Hawaiian culture, history, and lifestyle
that is the platform that we are utilizing for this.
Ms. Yukimura: You are applying for funds from OHA or Hawai`i
Tourism Authority?
Ms. Kekua: Yes, as well as through other grant funding
sources but definitely we are submitting large grant proposals and presentations, to the
HTA as well as to the Office of Hawaiian Affairs.
Ms. Yukimura: Excellent, thank you.
Ms. Nakamura: Thank you very much for your presentation and
for educating all of us. I wanted to ask you what is the percentage of off-island visitors that
you expect at this conference?
Ms. Kekua: Well I do not exactly have that number in front
of me. But I think on the fourth page of the handout that you have, in the second
paragraph, it indicates the most recent gathering which was on the campus of
Kamehameha Schools in 2009 on Oahu, we had 4,483 people attend this. Of that number,
delegates came from Hawai`i, 21 States from the continent and 11 Countries including
Japan, Mexico, Canada, French Polynesia, Poland, Switzerland, Germany some of the
most oddest places you would think they would even know about hula, but it is so
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widespread around the world and we wanted to invite people back to the nucleus and
birthplace of hula and learn from the best. Masters that are still living and able to pass on
the information and the knowledge. So I do not have that exact number, but I can
definitely get back to you.
Ms. Nakamura: Thank you very much. Offhand is it more than
half?
Ms. Kekua: Yes. A good number of the participants come
from the continent and outside of Hawai`i and we have seen those numbers grow
tremendously and we are quite happy about that.
Ms. Nakamura: That would be good information to have. Thank
you.
Chair Furfaro: Kehau, it is very nice to see you. Thank you very
much for your testimony. Mr. Costa? George, I do not know if my staff informed that we
would like to go to 4:30 today. We got good feedback and testimony, but I would like to give
you the hour and a half and is it possible that your office can take appointments for you so
we can spend the next hour and a half on your presentation?
GEORGE K. COSTA, Director of Economic Development: We will try to go through
our presentation as quickly as we can. I have a 4:00 appointment but I will reschedule that.
Thank you for this time to present our Fiscal Year 2014 budget. First of all, I just want to
purpose our presentation by saying that first of all I want to acknowledge Mayor Carvalho
for the opportunity to work in Office of Economic Development. Not in my wildest dreams
did I think I would be working in government and public service, but I have settled into my
role and I feel that the short time that we have within County Government and on this
planet Earth, I want to do my part to see what we can do to help our people. We have so
many opportunities. I know we have a lot of issues that are controversial, but I know in
working with the Administration, with the County Council, I know we can come to a really
good place. So I wanted to start with that and I also I wanted to acknowledge the Office of
Economic Development, we have a really good team. I have been in Office for 4 years and
really come to embrace the team members that are there and today, they are going to have
an opportunity to share their portions, their sectors of the Office.
First of all, for the Office of Economic Development we want to stress it is in our
annual report and on our website, but to stress our mission which is the Office of Economic
Development works in partnership and I want to emphasize "partnership" with the
community, with business, and government sectors to create economic opportunities
towards the development of a healthy, stable, and balanced economy of the County of
Kaua`i. OED promote and nurtures sustainable economic development that is consistent
with the community's needs and priorities and also our goals and really,we try to live these
goals almost on a daily basis and it is assisting businesses. That Office is unique. We work
with so many different organizations within our community and I want to thank them,
whoever maybe watching this presentation for their continued support and their
collaboration throughout the years. Also, we our goal is to improve Kaua`i's economy
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through economic diversification, economic self-sufficiency, and economic opportunity for
all. I firmly believe 4 years ago when I started with the County, I was here before you, I
have been with the County for only 3 months and I was asking for $1,000,000 to help
market Kaua`i because our visitor industry was really suffering through the global
recession that we were experiencing. I am very pleased to say that what we are
experiencing today was far beyond my wildest dreams that we would recover as quickly as
we did. However, our economy is so tenuous, so fragile, that every day is an opportunity to
try and diversify our economy. Our visitor industry, our main economic engine relies on
people coming from other places and with the rising cost of fuel, that could change in an
instant. We also want to maintain and provide access to statistical data and I will cover
that later on in my presentation and also carry out of functions of the 6 sectors in the Office
of Economic Development tourism, energy, sustainability, workforce development,
agriculture, and film. I looked at the number of business and community partners that we
have and I counted 48 and already in looking through the list, I noticed I missed quite a
few, but in our daily lives in the Office of Economic Development, I can honestly say that
throughout each month, we almost least one time during the course of the month meet with
at least 48 of these different organizations and it is truly a collaboration in the community.
And what I would like to do is have 4 specialists come up and present their sections. What
I did, I revised the presentation, which you have there, so that each specialist will come up
and give the `entire presentation, their accomplishments, their challenges, their
improvements and then their initiatives. And if you have questions for them at that time
that would probably be the best opportunity. And then once we are done, then we move on
to the next one. So in that order, I would like to introduce first up would be Nalani Brun
for tourism and Ben Sullivan will cover the energy piece. And then Glen Sato will be
presenting the sustainability portion and then after that, it would be Kaeo Bradford our
newest member in our Office of Economic Development who is our Workforce Development
Specialist and I will come back and cover agriculture, film and wrap up the Office of
Economic Development.
Chair Furfaro: George before you go any further, I want to make
sure that on April 16th everybody understands that is a separate meeting on CIP.
Mr. Costa: Right.
Chair Furfaro: And in the CIP is where we discuss the CEDS
projects because that is CIP-funded.
Mr. Costa: Correct. So, at this time, Nalani Brun.
NALANI BRUN, Specialist IV—Tourism: Aloha. As you know tourism has been
doing very well lately. As you can see from your little chart there, we were up on arrivals
7.3% and more updated information we have even up 10% in arrival through February of
this year. As you know, with more arrivals it gets more and more crowded so we do have
challenges that come with being crowded. I want to definitely -- my first thing I am going to
be talking about is my fabulous other half, Sue Kanoho and all the wonderful work she
does. A big part of my job is not marketing, thank goodness. She and her team do
gangbusters for this island and a lot of these numbers are all about her staff and her and
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the partners that she has, our industry and thank goodness for them, because they handle
it with zest and zeal and such wonderful ways that they do it. It is a very nice partnership
between all of us. I can honestly say I went to meeting with other islands, and they love to
watch Kaua`i work because we work together and it is like magic, so we are kind of the
bruhaha of the islands. I am proud of that. When we give money to the islands, last year
$200,000 to the Kauai Visitors Bureau and we can actually target that money to where we
would like it to go. A lot of times the Visitor Bureau's hands is tied by what the HVCB
wants them to do and County money gives them a chance to target money where they think
the money should be going and it allows them to get creative and to quickly react to
opportunities that they may not be able do. So we are very grateful for any money to give to
them. For example, they were able to help push the Royal Coconut Coast up this year. They
have been kind of lagging behind and as you can see they are starting to pick up and it is
because we are allowing them to get direct-marketing to the people that they are able to
market to and actually use their properties. That is really important. They did a California
miniseries, which are is always important, one of our big markets and the Canadian sales
blitz is another big market for us. They are outdoorsy like we are. The money goes to the
MCI market. A lot of the money that comes from HVCB is cut often in convention areas and
the money that we give them helps to boost that area. Again this year, that is what we will
be asking for. It also went this last year to the Kama'aina Program and our "Kaua`i loves
Elvis" I think sue did all by herself practically and of course we always try to boost
military travel to the island because they are big fans of the island and they like to relax
and we are all about relaxing. In our copy you will see the other things that they have
done. When we beg, they are right there at the door to help us. In addition to that, tourism,
the Hawai`i tourism money is put together with our money and we do an RFP and ask for
what great ideas does the community have for festivals and events and product
enhancements and we have a great committee that gets together and what we can do in
next year? That is basically what we do. We do about 33-35 projects per year, that get
funded and then we kind of manage that. So at any one time I probably have two years' of
grants I am trying to manage at one time. We did complete — Po`ipu Sand Study with the
Parks and Recreation Division that did just finish. Which I am so happy because I can
apply to the HTA for Hawaiian resources and cultural money again. I do plan on doing had
a because as you can see we have fabulous projects in the pipe. We did sponsor a grant
program, because one of our challenges is that the HTA plans on cutting off all funding to
any grantee that has had funding for four years. So as of 2015 a lot of the festivals and
events are just not going to get any grants at all. I am not a proponent of that and I believe
that if you invested money for so long, you want to stay in there least to keep them
running, but they do not want to do that at this point. So it is been much of a rush of trying
to train them, as much as I can to get their money or ways of making money up as high as
they can. So they will survive in 2015. We are updating our Kaua`ifestivals.com website
through one the CEDS Programs, the cultural and arts program. We are changing it from
Kaua`ifestivals.com the Kaua`i signage program is a big one for us and it is been the best,
program ever and we are working with them to teach them how to do budgeting and how to
connect with all the different government agencies. So learning process for us, learning
{ process for them and for sure the best project we are going to put out there in a long time.
Of course...
Chair Furfaro: Excuse me, you do a very good job.
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Ms. Brun: Thank you. We have great projects. So moving
right along. A lot of our big challenges are getting crowded and with being crowded comes
horrible things, like drownings and all of those things. So we really want to put every effort
into getting those ocean safety guys and ocean safety information out into the hands people
to get them. Everybody has been wonderful as far as our partners are concerned. Of course
you saw the TV, the TVs went up in the baggage claims area and all the rental cars are
taking our brochures to stick in the cars. Realtors have taken them and I am delivering
them to the Realtor Association and they are sending them out to their vacation rentals it is
not for lack of people trying. They are trying to get that information out there and it is just
a matter of hitting the right people at right time. They want to maintain that momentum of
trying to get that information out there. So that we do not lose anyone. And improvements
are we are aisle trying to up update the RFP process and getting the money out to people as
quickly and easily as possible because we want them to do the work more than being
tortured by the paperwork. That is my kuleana, to make it easy and train them and build
capacity while we are at it. Our upcoming initiatives we want to continue to build the
kaua'ifestivalsandeasts.com and we are changing out the logo to include the events that are
much more encompassing. We are initiating the next round of CPEP Programs earlier. We
are going to do it earlier and each has required us to include for-profits in the mix. We do
that for their funds, but we do not do for County fund. It does not work for our Charter.
Ms. Yukimura: I am sorry what is CPEP?
Ms. Brun: County Product Enrichment Program (CPEP).
We are doing periodic training programs to help the festivals and events as they look at
losing funding in 2015. We are looking at how to do better merchandising. We had our zero
waste guys in there, if you can name, it we have done it trying to help them out. In
addition to that, I am trying to get CFEC Certified a Festival and Event Certification that.
I have done one year and it basically gives me access to all the great information that I can
move over to our festivals and events. We are going to continue do the grant workshop and
the signage project will continue on, but we want to start the signage phase. So I am in the
mode of prepping for grant writing to HTA, because they should be starting earlier this
year and is in several other spots, OHA and others that we will look for other funding
sources for a lot of different programs this year. My daughter is graduating this year, so I
expect I will need to be keeping myself very busy. So I have lots of ideas of what I am going
to be doing.
This next year we have in the budget $170,000 to go to the Kaua`i Visitors Bureau as
this year's consumer promotion grant. $100,000 is in there for golf television show. We
have not had a television show in a long, long time and we sure would like to have one.
Luckily, my other half, Sue Kanoho, is here in case you want to ask more questions about
that. There is so much that she can and cannot say, but that is in here in the budget. We
have $30,000 for the NCI support. $18,000 they would like to use as an online romance
program and that is because we were named the most romantic island and you want to use
that to your advantage. $5,000 is for the Iwaki City Marathon and the Admin fee. We have
the County Product Enrichment Program which is $65,000 which is the match that we use.
This year, I am a little boosted up in the Product Enhancement Program, and that is
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because I am going to be doing so many new projects this year, because I need to keep busy
and basically, I want to use $40,000 of that as a match to go after the HTA's natural
resource or Kukui`ula Project and I want to use the other $40,000 a match to go after
another project. I have a lot of great ideas of what I want to do, but it is a matter of timing
when the grant becomes available and which is ready? I have a list of ones that I think
might be ready. In the CPEP Program, ideas were we had a great program with Waipa
that was not ready to be funded. They had one they wanted to do - we established native
plants in the area and kind of fixing up the area. That was another one not ready yet. There
is a shuttle idea that we are pondering over to kind of pilot during the summer months
when it is really bad out there. We have a lot that maybe we can get to use, we have got to
get agreement from DLNR to use it and see if we can run a shuttle back and forth as a pilot
and if that work we may be able to expend it out further. That is just a pilot project that
might be one of the things that we would like to look at. Some other moving forward on
Hawaiian curriculum program. So those are just some of the ideas in there, but though are
where we would use the two slots of money. Other than, that we have the airport greetings
program that many, many times has saved us with a visitor and the entertainers. We have
the Kaua`i Marathon in there for another $25,000. And I know that they have been funded
for three years and it is the same theory I have with the c pep programs that are going to
lose their funds. I think once you have funded them for several years and I wouldn't pull
out completely and to leave enough in for advertising, if you can, to make sure that the
numbers stay there. Because without that little bit of advertising, you have kind of thrown
your investment out the door.
Chair Furfaro: Nalani, I want to remind you, when this started
we agreed to three years and if it did not breakeven we were going to walk away from it.
That was understood. We gave it a fourth year to see if we could get to breakeven. So I
want to make sure that was the original discussion and we are doing it a fourth year.
Ms. Brun: So, we are looking for a break even.
Chair Furfaro: We are looking for a break even event.
Ms. Brun: A challenge, I like that. I take that challenge.
Mr. Rapozo: Mr. Chair, I just want to clarify, that is what the
guy said. That was not the Council saying, we are going to pull out. He said he only needed
3 years.
Chair Furfaro: I want to make sure that we are really clear on
what we did. It was their piece. Because they were losing money, too.
Ms. Brun: I agree. Thank you. The other one is of course
cannot Kaua`i Nui are place names project $25,000 and I have - I have the Hawai`i Canoe
Racing Association. The State Championships coming in August. They had applied to the
CPEP Project too, but they had a glitch in their grant and it could not go through. And I
hate to not fund them because that is a huge event. You have 1700 canoe paddlers
depending on Hanalei Bay along with a ton of canoe and they are really operationally
3
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needing some help. So it would be really great to help them out a little bit. Other than, that
of course we do have the hula conference, which this year that money would be used
basically as a marketing tool. They are going to go out and try to get them to all learn the
chants and to me, if they learn the chants they are probably going to come. So you are
probably nailing your audience there and next year look at supporting the conference itself.
Other than that, I am open for questions.
Chair Furfaro: Okay. I will start on a couple of questions for
you. Related to tourism in particular, I disagree with everybody's perception that we are on
a roll. It is going full forward. In fact, I think we have a situation in the economy right now
where the stock market is doing so well right now because on the other end the Feds are
flooding the market with low-interest.
Ms. Brun: I know.
Chair Furfaro: So, people in the banking world are now
investing in the market and because they are finding significant quarterly earning they are
now traveling using that growth. Because they had a lot of pent-up demand. Who at the
State Office of Economic Development might be able to dissect that more and tell us what is
driving that peak? I think you know after 38 years in the hotel business I know how to read
the statistics, but on the flipside is this a permanent swing or pent-up demand and that
very scary situation in Korea and I do not need the answers now, but to see something that
tells us what they think is in the State Office of Economic Development is happening, you
know?
Ms. Brun: I agree, I think there are a lot of scary things out
there and we do have a really great relationship with a lot of the relationships Dr. Tyan
and Dr. Agnus with questions like that and this is a great time to start asking.
Chair Furfaro: I would like to make that request and I would
like you to prove me wrong about that this growth is going on. We would love to fill up May
and early December, maybe we have got to start shifting the occupancy if we got this kind
of growth curve. But what is really going on in this trend and should we not try to analyze
it a little bit more? Did you place any funding for the new Royal Coconut Coast kickoff?
Are we just kind of in there as a complimentary partner now with our golf course being a
member? Because we are still going to have to talk about, did we put any money in there to
that membership or to get it kicked off? I know they offered us one-year membership?
Ms. Brun: For the royal coconut coast association?
Chair Furfaro: What do we have there are we riding this first
year free membership?
Ms. Brun: We do not have anything in there? But we can
adjust that for sure.
April 11, 2013
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Chair Furfaro: I think that is going to be an important question
that we get to review the golf course, the Pro-shop and the restaurant. I hate to be burning
this free membership when we do not have the amenities to serve the visitors. The
restaurant is closed, the Pro-shop is closed. You answered my two questions and Nalani,
thank you very much. And I love your enthusiasm at the table. JoAnn, you wanted
questions?You good?
Ms. Yukimura: Only thank you for your good work.
Ms. Nakamura: Thank you, Nalani for your wonderful work and I
am glad your daughter is graduating. The North Shore Transportation Feasibility Study, I
saw that in the budget here. Recently when we worked on the Multimodal Transportation
Plan and had a chance to talk to the consultant who worked on that plan. And his take on
this, because we talked about the need for shuttles, not only in North Shore, but in Po`ipu—
Ko loa area is that you should not design separate shuttles that it should be part of the
existing transportation system and that there is a need to integrate it and that makes it
more financially feasible.
Ms. Brun: Yes.
Ms. Nakamura: I just wanted to find out, is that kind of the
approach you taking with this?
Ms. Brun: Yes, we are working with Celia. So right now we
are working with Celia and going back and forth on how this would integrate with the bus
system? So really we have not gotten that far yet. We are just trying to get over the hump
with DLNR and properties. Because really, it is a property issue of where things would run
out of? We knew that from even the North Shore Plan that had just come out, where would
it stage? Whether anything that we have, where will the shuttle stage at? That has kind of
been the discussions are where would it be? And study itself did pick out a couple different
places and we have not had enough time to plant people around a table and to agree to
where we could actually do it.
Ms. Nakamura: Okay.
Ms. Yukimura: I have similar concerns, if you will, total support
as I think Vice-Chair is of the idea of a North Shore shuttle. We sort of touched on that
subject in the parking workshop at Po`ipu, because there is a potential need for the shuttle
in Po`ipu and the consultant for the Po`ipu parking was also the consultant for the multi-
modal, Jim Charlier, and he said there were 3 models on the mainland of a resort area that
handles an area shuttled through a public-private partnership. Celia was part of the
conversation. So I think the way to approach it is from a system-view of how you could
make that work? Not just solving the problem at Ke`e Beach but how a whole system might
work and my take from Celia is that the... and we will hear on Friday is that tomorrow?
The next level is for what was she calling?A short-term plan for implementation. That may
bring in these shuttle ideas, but it needs to be done, I think, in study with the whole bus
system and looking at models of the public-private partnership that might help incubate
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such an idea. So I am not sure one it should be in Economic Development. It might be
better off in Celia's budget and I think the timing part might need some thinking. Whether
it is a this-year project or next-year project as they address the immediate elephant in the
room, which is no base yard space? But in the search for base yard space they might we
providing a component for the North Shore shuttle, too. So I think it is a matter of
integrating it with the planning and system development that the Transportation Agency is
doing.
Mr. Rapozo: Is this study—this item in the current budget?
Ms. Brun: It is. It is not in the tourism section. It is in the
"other" section. That is why I am a little loss.
Mr. Rapozo: How long has it been in the budget already? How
many years?
Ms. Brun: I do not know.
Mr. Rapozo: Is this the first year? Now, I am confused
because I asked you if it was in the current budget... so, it is not in this current fiscal year?
It's a new item?
Ms. Brun: It is in this budget.
Mr. Rapozo: The proposed budget.
Ms. Brun: Yes.
Mr. Rapozo: It sounds familiar that is why, I do not know why
it sounds familiar.
Chair Furfaro: We have had discussion.
Mr. Rapozo: What is this study to do... just the shuttle? To
determine if it is feasible to have a shuttle on the North Shore?
Ms. Brun: I am... can I yield this question to George?
Mr. Rapozo: Okay. I question why it is even in OED.
Ms. Yukimura: It is on page 44.
Chair Furfaro: Wait a minute, Mr. Rapozo has the floor. George,
he has a question for you.
Mr. Costa: As Councilmember Yukimura mentioned, I guess
this has been talked about for a while and the. State actually has ongoing right now looking
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at just the Ke`e Beach shuttle, if any of you have been done there over the last few years,
there is just no parking and people are backed up all the way to the park. So in addressing
that, and it is part of the Mayor's Holo Holo 2020 Plan. Because Nalani, I and Celia have
attended those State meetings, talking about the Ke`e shuttle. When you look at the North
Shore, you are really talking about the Hanalei area, too. Because you know, if they
control, I guess, parking in Ke`e, at some point it is going to backup somewhere and it is
eventually going to back up in Hanalei. So this was just to plant the seed and look at a
North Shore Transportation Plan. And it would really need somebody, a professional
seasoned transportation, like Mr. Charlier, to look at that whole thing. So we have, I
believe $30,000 in the budget and I do not know if that is enough, but it's something to start
the discussion and really look at that?
Mr. Rapozo: Is the State contributing at all?
Mr. Costa: Well, the State is doing... when we inquired with
the State, they are just looking at Ke`e.
Mr. Rapozo: That is the bigger problem. If you had to do it in
phases, that is obviously the first phase but Ke`e is a State Park? And they are not
contributing?
Mr. Costa: Not right now. They said they would be willing to
be part of the discussion but their concerned with just Ke`e.
Mr. Rapozo: For them it is a concern. That whole highway is
a State Highway and we are struggling here with money and I just am wondering if now is
even the time to do that? I guess that is what frustrates me, George, the State wants to do a
lot of things and they force us to do a lot of things and they do not fund it and we are
cutting stuff in your budget, like for the YWCA. We are cutting for what I believe are
important services. And that is what I am struggling with. I wanted know if the State is
even going to participate? 50/50 would be nice, but to just come and say we have to fix Ke`e
and have the County pick up the tab, I am having a rough time with that. Thank you.
Ms. Yukimura: When you look at parking as we were doing in
Po`ipu, you tend to focus on the place with a parking problem, but if you look in the region,
there are many parking problems and to just address one is not really taking the proper
scope probably. And the other thing this is related to planning, and how many visitor units
we have slated for this island now and into the future?And what kind - how we are going to
handle it and it is not just about Ke`e, but the turnout point and everywhere that has to be
involved in our planning.
Ms. Nakamura: I was just going to say for Mr. Rapozo's
fI edification, it was part of the Ha`ena State Beach Part Master Plan and that is where these
recommendations came out and we are a little more refined. But it is just in a very
preliminary state. That plan has not even been formally adopted yet. The issue here
though is a timing concern. Because when we met with Jim Charlier about, talking about
Ha`ena, North Shore and Po`ipu and the need for shuttles and his point was before you can
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work on that, you really need to have someone in the Transportation Agency, who is a
Planner, a Transit Planner and you also need to deal with the current issues of scheduling
and you have to deal with those issues first and then secondary work on those shuttle
issues. So he saw this as a few more years out in priority. That was our recent discussion
anyway.
Mr. Costa: Yes and that is my understanding it is a few
years out, but we have a problem now. And so we have a property owner that has come
forward and said, hey, I would be willing to open up my property at least to have a parking
lot now while we are working on this plan. So it is just a matter, like I said, Nalani and I
being part of these different meetings and then people are starting to look at us and saying
can you help? So that is where we come in.
Chair Furfaro: George, I think in 2006-2007, it was a period of
time when Mr. Rapozo and Councilmember Yukimura were not on the Council. I will
selectively get some stuff for you. That study was 6 years ago and I will tell you, it was Ke`e
Beach with the State and Hanalei Town and the middle of town. Okay? That to keep cars
out of the lower area. It is been complicated now where this Saturday activity in Hanalei. I
live in Hanalei. 'I was at the bridge last Saturday to get into town to go to Aunty Lydia's
house took me 45 minutes because of the activity in the park. 400 cars, okay?The permit is
for 25. That does not sit well with me. That needs to be resolved. But we have other
landowners that are coming forward, because they see the similar problem. Then there was
the plan up at the parcel near the heiau. Okay? That was going to be the center park-and-
ride. And it was going to serve also the employees of the North Shore, there would be a
shuttle to Kilauea Town from that area. So as hotel workers got off and so forth,
somewhere I have all of those pieces and we will gather them up, but I agree with
Councilmembers Yukimura and Nakamura that we need a professional Planner to put
those pieces together. The hotels need worker shuttles and the community of Kilauea
needs access just in and out to the workforce area in Princeville. We have got traffic
problems in Hanalei with the narrow bridge, the road repairs and then of course we have
the parking issue down in Ha`ena. So I will collect those things. There are actually some
maps to that effect from that discussion. On that note I would like to move on. Go ahead.
Ms. Yukimura: I will tell you there is also this Long-Range
Transportation Plan that the State is updating for the island of Kauai. And most of that
route is State highway so it should also be on their agenda to address. They are setting up
a plan that will govern the funding for road development for the next 10, 20 years. And you
need to get on that list for that kind of funding. It should be an issue that is brought up.
The Public Works Engineer and others are on the Committee and Citizen advisory
Committees that need to put that on the agenda for the State to look at. Because they have
resources they should be using to address that.
Chair Furfaro: Nalani, thank you for your presentation.
BEN SULLIVAN, Specialist IV—Energy: I am the County Energy Coordinator.
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Chair Furfaro: Ben, before you go too far, may I extend to you
my appreciation for what you are doing and with Mr. Sato in energy. We have an electric
bill that is remaining constant while the Kilauea consumption is dropping, which is great
because the rate keeps changing based on oil, but we are watching the kilowatt usage in
year-to-year it is been pretty much maintained and I think we are making progress. Is
Glenn here?
Mr. Costa: Yes.
Chair Furfaro: Glenn, thank you very much.
Mr. Sullivan: We appreciate that and I want to pass that
praise to Glenn and the other employees because I have only been here a year and getting if
I feed on the ground and happy to the progress and looking forward to more. One of the
biggest priorities that we have had since actually I took the position is establishing a better
data system, so not only we look at total kilowatt hour consumption for the County, but look
at it by Department and by building. So last year we did a lot of research and I think we
came back to you in December and asked for approval to proceed with a tool, a one-year
trial. I am happy to report that we have that tool in place. It is taken a little time to learn it
and I am getting up to speed on it and we are cleaning up the data, but I expect this
Summer into Fall we will be training other County employees how to use it and take
advantage of it. So, I am very excited about that. So that was bullet number 1 with the
"successes." I as you think you are aware, we worked with the Energy Policy Advisory
Committee over 2012, with yourself Council Chair and Councilwoman Yukimura and
Councilmember Hooser and discussed the next set of recommendations for that KESP in
terms of keeping that effort alive and making sure we are headed in a positive direction. I
think at this point we are working very hard to make it come together. There is quite a few
things that happened that were positive. We continued to work with Kekaha Community
Benefits grant recipient out there in Kekaha to get their project,which they had identified
as using a lot of those moneys that have been allocated as a result of the impacts of the
landfill in the community. Their vision for that is primarily for solar photovoltaic, but we
have also voiced concern and we want to make sure there is consideration for solar hot
water as well. They have been receptive to that in general, but again I want to emphasize
that is their project and we are there to facilitate and make sure it is administered
responsibly. One of the things that we accomplished this year with a lot of support from the
Mayor and the transit agency is following right up with the approval of the MLTP, the
Transportation Coordinating Committee is in place. I am sorry, the Multi-Modal Land
Transportation Plan.
Some of the smaller successes, but ones that we thought were worth pointing out,
myself and Glenn, worked with the Staff Level Green Team on Refrigerator Replacement
Program. It was the first time we closely monitored the specific saving down to a good level
of granularity and we were happy with the result and our intention is to continue going
forward with all the energy-efficiency programs that we implement. Interestingly the new
software we put in place has a function to allow us to input projects and saving and you can
see those as they align with usage, which we think is very valuable going forward. We have
continued to get ourselves educated and trained in appropriate areas and the Mayor has
._ .
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April 11, 2013
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made it a priority within the Holo Holo 2020 to get more lead buildings in the County and I
was fortunate to get my lead accreditation, that allows us to interface with consultants in
terms of what is possible in the lead system and should we consider that in various
facilities? That has been a resource. Overall the communication has gotten better and really
the whole team is embracing how do we solve this energy problem? It is obvious to anyone
looking at the system that we cannot do it alone, but every department is stepping up and
we are in the process of establishing a system where every department can really clearly
communicate an internal plan and work with us in Economic Development to execute a
plan to reduce their own energy consumption by department. So that is something that we
hope to report more detail and success on next year. As far as challenges, it is really
similar to a lot of other areas. You know, the scale of the energy opportunity, I think is
enormous. We have tremendous opportunities to continue savings and there is only so
much band width we have. And the other aspect of that is because of the small scale of the
community, we only have so much expertise. So where we can, we reach outside to other
resources, but that is always a balance that we have to try to find and strike. One of the
other challenges that I think that is unique to energy, although someone may argue
differently that the industry is dynamic and we set in motion plans that often take year
those implement and while that is happening, the market changes dramatically, whether it
is the amount of tax credits available or the price of a given service or even the way the
service is offered as a practice can change in short order. So that is a challenge that we're
working always constantly to resolves. Improvements, as far as what we have
improvements over the last year, we are working hard on a sustainable operations plan
that is actually very far along and we are very excited about it. Again, this relates to each
department participating and committing to energy reduction opportunities, and we will be
looking forward to coming out with more of the outcomes of that soon. I think I will leave
that for Glenn, because he is actually the one leading that effort internally. The staff level
green team, this I think you have an opportunity to interface already, is doing great work
and they have identifying change and giving people an outlet and County employees an
outlet to say here is an opportunity and that work its way through the system and it's
really a success. Let me talk about upcoming initiatives. In the next Fiscal Year there are
several big items that we hope to be tackling and on top of the list are developing the
methane for use at the Kekaha landfill. I think this has come up for discussion numerous
times before the Council and it has to be developed by the Navy and the County would be
basically receiving some sort of benefit from giving the methane to the Navy to use to
generate electricity. That has been an arduous task, but we are looking at the possibility
of utilizing the methane in the County Transportation Agency and buses and other vehicles
that we hope to capture in that way. That is very exciting and can I give more details on
that, if you would like. PV project at the Police facility at the Police, Civil Defense, OPA
facility is high on the priority list. The County Street Light Replacement Program excuse
me, "project" is very high. We identified I think 2800 high pressure sodium street elements
and those- the energy consumption on those we think can be cut almost in half if we swift
to LED's. And another nice thing about the dynamic market, LED like solar photovoltaic
have been dropping in price. You will see that in the request for funding. I think I touched
on most of the item and you can see those in the budget. Consulting services at $62,000.
That is - we do not know which project is going to break first and I cannot say for sure
which will go to one or other, but street elements will take experiment help and Kekaha
landfill will take experiment help and those money will be allocated to the project that
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appears ready to go in the order that they appear as an opportunity. And we are obviously
always pursuing outside resources to help get the job done there. Federal government has
an excellent program called the landfill methane outreach program that we have signed up
to be participants in and once they get our paperwork and application, they should get back
to us in the next month and offer us a free resource. There are plenty of other examples of
example projects, there is the municipal solid state street lighting consortium to basically
learn from other municipalities as to the best way to go about this type of project. The last
item in the budget request, energy monitoring pilot program. You guys have already given
us the authorize to proceed on a one-year trial of software and either proceed with that
vendor or select another vendor and we will need funding to continue that, $10,000 to
$15,000 and the remainder will be likely used for sub metering at strategic locations. We
could probably do three or four locations and perhaps a few more depending on the cost and
complexity of each location. We heard you last year when you said it was an important
priority. We are going to start doing that more and more as we go forward. That is the
presentation. I imagine there are some questions.
Chair Furfaro: I just have one follow-up question. First of all, I
want to thank Mr. Hooser for replacing me on what originally was Councilmember
Yukimura and myself. Thank you, Mr. Hooser.
Mr. Hooser: You are welcome.
Chair Furfaro: On the second piece, you and I had some
thorough decision about the Navy situation because the methane gas provides us an
opportunity to really do something with the cost of our buses. Okay? I want you to know, at
the event that I was with Councilwoman Yukimura and Councilmember Nakamura on
dealing with Boys and Girls Club, I had an opportunity to sit down with the
Congresswoman and I turned over your projections that you shared with me to her. And I
asked her to intercede on our part to find out is the Navy going to pursue this opportunity?
Because we have an opportunity and we want to make sure that the federal representatives
are aware there is mutual benefit for both of us there. And we need to get an answer. I
have been on the council 12 years and this has been a discussion item for 10 years. Thank
you for what you and the team do. I will give you the floor. You were the first one to raise
your hand.
Ms. Yukimura: Thank you, great job, Ben. You spoke highly of
this Refrigerator Metering and Replacement Program. Can you tell us how much energy
you are trying to save? Are you measuring that?
Mr. Sullivan: I am going to let Glenn provide that information
because I believe he brought some of the specifics actually.
Ms. Yukimura: Alright, I will ask that when he comes up. And I
want to second what the Chair has said about the methane project. It is been languishing
for too long and the idea that we might be able to use it as an alternative fuel for our buses
is an exciting one. Our Multimodal Transportation Plan has pointed out that it is 30% of
our budget and if the price of gas doubles, it will be most of the bus budget and we cannot
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afford to have that be that way. So an alternative fuel is something that we should urgently
pursue. And if this landfill gas, which is escaping and causing global warming now, could
be used instead to fuel our buses, go for it. Thank you.
Mr. Sullivan: Thank you.
Mr. Rapozo: So what is the deal with the PMRF in it is our
land; right?
Mr. Sullivan: The dynamics are such that the best economic
return on the resource is to utilize the electricity locally. So certainly one opportunity would
be to sell the methane to KIUC and they put it on the grid, but because Navy is there, they
could capture the electricity but also capture the waste heat and that would dramatically
improve the project's economics. The reason I think you guys have been talking about it for
ten years, because they go round and roundabout with procurement issues and things like
that and previous view that county that was there wasn't another economic way to develop
it if the navy was not involved. So we have been waiting for them with a lot of frustration
and Glenn has worked tremendously with them, being patient and with pressure, but it has
not happen because of the system dynamics. What has changed in terms of opportunity,we
were doing research and there has been a significant development in terms of
manufactured projects and the ability to extract methane and use it in vehicles and that
opens up the door for a direct use. It does not messily imply we cannot do the project
because the percentage that would go into a bus is only a small percentage of what is this,
but it does let some things start to happen. When we believe will accelerate the benefit.
Mr. Rapozo: We are basically waiting for PMRF to pay for the
infrastructure?
Mr. Sullivan: We had been. At this point, we are moving
forward with this in parallel. So it is our view there is plenty of resource there and we can
continue to look at it for the bus.
Mr. Rapozo: And they can buy whatever?
Mr. Sullivan: Yes.
Mr. Rapozo: So, what is the cost of a methane system out
there?
Mr. Sullivan: I have done some research I have some
preliminary numbers that I would be reticent to put out to the public right now. We are
talking about the investment for a fueling system being maybe $3 million. Certainly we
have to cap the landfill and there are expenses with that.
Mr. Rapozo: Are you saying right now we could get an
equivalent of 800,000 diesel gallons?
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Mr. Sullivan: If we could capture everything there, that would
be the equivalent. As you are aware, we could not utilize that because you have to think
about the logistics and transformation of the vehicles themselves. You would have to go in
and convert the vehicles for use with methane. But yes, there is a lot of fuel there.
f
Mr. Rapozo: Probably a discussion for another time, but ten
years, I think it is time to tell the Navy, enough is enough and let us get it done.
Chair Furfaro: We did extend the courtesy to Congress
Representative to query that for us.
Ms. Nakamura: Have there been any discussions with KIUC
about the methane?
Mr. Sullivan: Yes. KIUC has been very involved and actually
one of the points that the County was clear to emphasize to PMRF when we discussed this
with them, again, Glenn has more of the history than I do in the last year one of the point
we made it is critical to us that KIUC be at the taking whole time, because this is this
aspect of the project that certainly PMRF is a big customer to KIUC and that it benefits
everybody and that they are cooperative and we rely on them for electricity. So they need to
be involved. I think I am answering your question although I am not certain if there is
more.
Ms. Nakamura: If we are going to use the methane to power our
buses do they need to be involved?
Mr. Sullivan: No, no, no; the other use for the methane is to
generate electricity. If we were to build generators and more likely scenario is that PMRF
builds generators that puts electricity on the grid and PMRF would have the heat coming
off those generators.
Ms. Nakamura: So what we need is a feasible study to see what
strategy we are going to pursue?
Mr. Sullivan: That strategy has been pretty well explored and
there are several study on that and what has not been exploded and some of the funding
that we'll like lay use this year is the feasibility of the vehicle use? and so there is plenty of
publicly documented information that says this is feasible in general term and talking to
the transit agency and they say it is a good idea, but we have not been able to access an
expert and in our analysis, which is really a preliminary analysis and say what is going to
get in the way of doing this here? What obstacles will we see and how do we proceed? That
is the stage we are at. It is our view that the opportunity for electricity generation is there,
but we need to leverage development of the resource one way or the other and the only way
we see is to develop it for direct use for ourselves and that will open the door for whatever
will happen with the landfill ultimately.
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Ms. Nakamura: So, what is the budgeted amount for this line
item?
Mr. Sullivan: The budgeted amount is for consulting services
inclusive of the various technical assistance that we need -I think it is $62,000.
Ms. Nakamura: Thank you.
Chair Furfaro: Thank you very much. And we wish you a good
day and George, you will bring up who next? We are not going to finish on time, Scott—you
and I should talk about options here.
GLENN SATO, Sustainability / Green Manager: I guess as you have heard from
Ben, we work as a team and I am so glad he has the background and knowledge. The
transitions had been very, very smooth and, in fact I think you see the acceleration in the
number of project and scope of projects and you can see the increase because of his
background and knowledge. And I just want to give kudos to Ben. At the same time, I am
trying to work on developing a very different type of program. It is such a broad scope,
more generalized. So just let me kind of go down the line. In the last year, it has been
mentioned that we have worked a lot with the staff-level Green Team and that is the first
step in trying to develop internal programs to make county operations for more sustainable.
Part of that work was to complete data-collection to do a carbon footprint analysis for
electricity and fuel. It was good with electricity and KIUC and fuels was another one. I
think you know what the problems were. We ended up just using bulk fuel purchases; with
the new fuel management system that is coming into play right now through public works,
we hope to improve that metric. And actually get fuel consumption, which I think is a
better indicator. But with that kind of baseline information, we completed our carbon
footprint analysis and we started work with the Administrative Green Team to develop a
county operations sustainability and climate action plan. We had a series of 5 workshops
starting in October, October, November, December, January, and April. We just finished
the last workshop this morning. And from that effort we hope to come up with basically a
County operations sustainability plan, which at some point in the future we will share with
the Council. We have also worked a lot with local organizations, such as Kaua`i Community
College, Lihu`e Business Association, Kaua`i Planning &Action Alliance. To keep discussion
on sustainability moving. Those organizations have their own initiative moving ahead and
addressing being more sustainable. I think it just help all of us together to just keep the
communications going. I am also working with University of Hawai`i, and an organization
called the Global Island Partnership. We are trying to develop a follow-up on the Hawai`i
Sustainability 2050 Action Plan that was done through the legislative bill and from that
we want to try to convene a working group, a statewide working group to come up with
statewide metrics. So everybody can kind of report and talk the same language. We also
formally joined ICLEI stand for International Council for Local Environmental Initiative
and it is basically a statewide organization where they have software and modeling
programs that we can use. They also have success stories from other community where we
can learn from them and hopefully we can get up to the level of the more successful
organizations. You know challenges, I think you know the data-collection aspect needs to
be improved substantially. I see movement in those areas. The challenges are there, but
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we see movement, fuel master collaboration with KIUC, you know? We keep getting very
good information on the billing information and use facility by facility and
Ben mentioned the facility monitoring program that he has instituted. So we hope to get
even better data that way. Another challenge is - and I think the County operations
sustainability plan is going to address that - is the changing the county culture to think
sustainability as one of the first steps in project or program planning. That, I think there is
a lot of enthusiasm and a lot of people have that thinking in mind. We have to spread the
word. The Mayor is 100% behind this and first thing, one of the things that we talked
about in the County Operations Sustainability Plan to link the project initiation document,
that with a checklist, you know, like whoever does or come up way project proposal, have
them look at sustainability in mind? And we actually created a checklist that we hope to
institute and hope to make a common practice that everybody goes down the checklist and
the checklist basically would ask very basic questions have you thought of sustainability?
Have you thought of energy use? All of those things. Improvements, I think the staff-level
green team is a very, very great advocate in the organization. It is on the staff-level, and
we are working internally in a very proactive manner. Ben mentioned the refrigerator
replacement program. Through grant funding we purchased 21 energy star refrigerators
and so far we distributed so of those refrigerator and we are doing it by metering each
refrigerator or any refrigerator out there. And, we are going with the worst, so-called
"energy hogs," and we are replacing them systematically. It is not so much what they look
like, but the performance that we are interested in. So far the worst one we have seen is a
47-year payback on a $600 refrigerator, after roughly half a year we are paying that back
through the energy savings. So the ten distributed so far, we are continuing the metering
and hopefully we can find more bad examples, bad refrigerators out there. Improvements - I
motioned the Administrative Green Team, the Management-Level Green team operations
plan. We just completed the workshop. So we need to develop the program to the point
where we can actually be very effective in implementing action steps. One of the upcoming
initiatives is we need to—it is a given. We need to keep improving our data-collection. And
the ability to develop better metrics. You know, that saying you cannot manage what you
cannot measure is very true. So the more information that we can gather, the more data we
have, then we can gage our progress in those specific areas. I think you noticed that I am
trying to, in this early phase, I am trying to concentrate on County operations. But at the
same time, it is really hard to ignore what is happening around us. So I am very interested
in the general plan update process, smart growth planning, complete streets, safe routes to
school, and that I think is more islandwide. But it's something that I am trying to get
involved in. And I think just talking in more sustainable manner of bringing these topics
up in the discussion, with these different groups, I think just helps. And that is pretty
much what I wanted to present to you. My budget is very minimal. Asking for $20,000,
and some travel funding. For $20,000 I' hope to provide some matching funds to the
sustainability group, that is developing the statewide metrics. I also would like some of
those funds, if I do not need to use all of that for the metrics program, just to have to
support various initiatives along the way. Very conservative at this point. I think as we
develop action plans with various departments, you are going to see more budget requests
coming through at that point.
Chair Furfaro: Let me do a little bit of a housekeeping
summary. George, we have not had time with you, okay? We still want to cover Workforce
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Development. And we have a lot of detail to discuss with you on the items in economic
development. So I am thinking if we go to 9-11 on the morning of the 22nd. We can finish
these 2 up, we can do the CIP and the CEDS items, if that is acceptable with you? 1 want to
just give courtesy to Diane, to ask her, while we talk,would you look at your availability for
Monday?And if that is okay with you, we can do Workforce Housing because at 4:30, I have
2 members who are committed elsewhere and we will lose a quorum. We started 15 minutes
late and from your grant projects we had almost 1 hour and ten minutes of testimony. So it
was doing the right thing for the right people that were here. But it will affect our schedule.
Are you okay for the 22nd?
Mr. Costa: Just from the outset, I think I am. I just need to
check my calendar. For the 16th we are scheduled for CIP?
Chair Furfaro: We are look at combining the Economic
Development portions of CIP because we are free. We have a two-hour window there in the
morning?
Mr. Costa: On the 22nd.
Chair Furfaro: We can do this follow-up and do the CIP for
Economic Development, too. We will do the other departments on CIP, but just hold
Economic Development. Diane, does that work for you? Okay. I am going to say 9:00 -
11:00. Scott, will you make a note on that. For your Staff that was here from Workforce
Development, that date works for you? Thank you so much. On that note, we will send out
the appropriate notices when we recess today. Let see, we still have 2 minutes and I will
give the floor to Councilmember Yukimura.
Ms. Yukimura: I wanted to ask questions about your
Refrigerator Replacement Program. Well, first of all, congratulations on your work and
thank you, Glenn. The .7/.4-year payback, that means that you are paying for the cost of
these refrigerators in less than half had a year to three-quarters of a year?
Mr. Sato: Yes. That is very extreme case, but it just shows
you that we have some really bad refrigerators in County Offices.
Ms. Yukimura: Yes. So, you are in the process... and are you
going to document the savings over the life of the refrigerator?
Mr. Sato: That is easy to do.
Ms. Yukimura: I would like to have... it really helps us to have
performance results or what the results are of your effort and I think there are some very
good result here,but it would be nice to have them quantified and presented.
Mr. Sato: What happens is that we purchased these meters
that we can just hook up the refrigerator.
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Ms.Yukimura: Right, I have used it at my house.
Mr. Sato: And with that information we create a baseline
of what was there and then we put in the new refrigerator and we have actually confirmed
that it is actually produces very efficiently. Then we can compare the old one with the new
one.
Ms. Yukimura: How long is a refrigerator's life usually?
Mr. Costa: 7 to 10 years.
Mr. Sato: Right.
Ms. Yukimura: Because I just want people to understand
because KIUC has a subsidy program for people to change their refrigerators and if you pay
off the costs that mean for the rest of the year, you are saving money.
Mr. Sato: A lot of times, but people think that oh, I have
this refrigerator and it is lasting me 15 years and they are so proud of it. Like I was really
proud that my truck lasted like 17 years. But what I did not realize was I was really
paying for that, you know? For that longevity and when I switched to a more efficient truck,
I mean, my bills went so far down. The same as the refrigerator.
Ms. Yukimura: Correct. What I want to know how we are
incorporating this in our purchasing standards? And now I almost also thinking that most
of the refrigerators do not go through Purchasing or do they? They do? So do we have
standards to make sure that we are turning offer the faucet, i.e., we are not even as we get
rid of bad refrigerators, or energy-guzzling refrigerators we are also buying them? Do you
see what I am saying? If the reports go through the purchase process, do we have standards
for those refrigerators that ensure we are getting the most efficient refrigerators into our
County Offices or operations?
Mr. Sato: That is where I think it will be my job to work
with Purchasing and work with the various Departments. Any time we go out and
including Ben, any time we go out and purchase something that draws electricity or
requires power, that we look at the most efficient model out there.
Ms. Yukimura: But you are very conscious. There is a County of
a thousand employees and I do not know how many departments, so if you put it into the
purchasing system, you do not have to think about it anymore. You know what I mean?
And somewhere there is a sustainability procurement code that some jurisdiction has
figured out. And maybe that is also a project for your Office to work with Purchasing and
your priorities about where you want to make the first changes in the purchasing process.
Because we have standards and criteria for everything, whether it is toilet paper or big
equipment. Right? Or cars or whatever. And we should be incorporating those
sustainability standards over time in all of our purchasing.
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Mr. Costa: To Glenn's credit and with the help of Diane
Zachary, I did not attend all those 5 sessions, but the couple that I did attend, that is what
they are actually working on, standard purchasing practices and standards on buying
green, buying energy-efficient?
Ms. Yukimura: You can put recycling standards on that. But
they are not always self-evident, you know? You might think something is better, but you
really have to go through whole sustainability analysis to make sure that they really are.
Thank you.
Chair Furfaro: Okay. Now, I have a little summary here for a
moment, but I want to go around the table, Mr. Hooser are you okay with the schedule that
I shared?
Mr. Hooser: Yes.
Chair Furfaro: Everybody else is good with that? Okay. Let me
restate it George. 22nd we are back from 9:00 — 11:00. We are going cover
Economic Development, the overview with you, Workforce Development, and Economic
Development CIP portion. Okay? Now a note for the Administration, Ernie, so that means
that the CIP on the 16th, which is scheduled, will now be focused on Planning, Parks,
Housing, and Transportation. Okay? We are all good with that. Okay. I want to thank
everybody for today and I am going recess this meeting until 9:00 tomorrow morning. We
will start with the Prosecuting Attorney, Transportation, County Auditor and Elderly
Affairs. We are in recess until tomorrow 9:00.
There being no objections, the Council recessed at 4:35 p.m.