HomeMy WebLinkAboutMayor's Office FY2013-2014 DEPARTMENTAL BUDGET REVIEWS The departmental budget review reconvened on March 28, 2013 at 1:33 p.m., and proceeded
as follows:
Mayor's Office
Honorable Gary L. Hooser
Honorable Ross Kagawa
Honorable Nadine Nakamura
Honorable Mel Rapozo
Honorable JoAnn A. Yukimura
Honorable Jay Furfaro, Council Chair
Excused: Honorable Tim Bynum
Chair Furfaro: I want to start on the review, as planned, on the
Mayor's Office, which includes other components that comes under the Mayor's Office. I
also think it is important to point out—and we keep comparing things...earlier I made
mention of the many tasks that we had at-hand. I also want to remind everyone that
comparing apples and apples is very difficult over the last eight (8) years because many
new items have been implemented, including, I wanted to remind you that in 2008 the
voters added the Office of the County Auditor, which added operating costs, as well as voted
to add a Boards and Commissions division, which added costs. Those are not part of my
earlier comments when I tried to reconcile, but I wanted to point that out, too. On that
note, since Boards and Commissions also come under the Mayor's Administration, I will
suspend the rules and give you the floor.
There being no objections, the rules were suspended.
Mr. Heu: Thank you, Chair and Councilmembers. For the
record, Gary Heu along with Mayor Carvalho. I believe this portion of the agenda
addresses the Mayor's Office, and currently there are a number of different entities that fall
under the Mayor's Office as the Council Chair identified like Boards and Commissions,
Life's Choices Kaua`i, as well as our Americans with Disabilities (ADA)/Equal Employment
Opportunity (EEO) program. I thought maybe where we would start would be just—First
of all, let me make a slight adjustment. What was just handed out to you folks was a
mission statement and goals for the Mayor's Office, and I would ask that I believe all of the
Budget presentations were transmitted over to the Council and the Mayor's Office Budget
presentation looks something like this. I am not sure if you folks have yours handy or have
been able to breeze through it. I know that it is a lot of information to digest on top of the
detailed line item Budget. We transmitted actual Budget presentations for all of our
Departments, and I think historically, the way we have done that is as the Departments
were preparing to come over, we would transmit them over individually. This time what we
did is we asked all of our Departments to have their Budget presentations ready to be
transmitted over to the Council all at once. You guys got the whole bunch of them.
Again, going back to the Mayor's Office presentation, I would ask that you
substitute what was just handed out to you for the identified mission goals and objectives
that are imbedded in the presentation. Hopefully, you will like this better. I do not know.
Maybe that is a good place for us to start, which is a real quick discussion of the mission of
the actual Mayor's Office itself. As I identified, there are various interests that are
attached to the Mayor's Office, but the core function of the Mayor's Office is supported by
eight (8) individuals, including myself. Our mission is a fairly simple one. It is to provide
Administrative support to the Mayor, to enable him to effectively fulfill his responsibility to
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manage the affairs of the County. It is very broad. It covers basically everything, and that
is pretty much—if you are familiar with the functioning of the Mayor's Office, it is pretty
much what we do. We support it all.
In identifying a few goals, because obviously we could go on and on and on all day,
but we identified some of the more critical goals that we have set out for ourselves. The
number one goal, and you have heard the Mayor say this repeatedly in public is "to
encourage community participation in County Government." The objectives that we have
set out in order to accomplish that particular goal were number one, "to engage citizens
twice a year through community outreach meetings." We just recently finished a round of
those meetings. We were in Kekaha, Koloa, Kapa`a...and I am missing one. I promise we
were in four (4) different locations. It was Hanapepe. Thank you very much. Now on top of
that, we also tried to get out once a year to the various—those meetings that I just
identified are...we just opened them to the public and say, "We are going to be in Kapa`a.
Please come and hear what we have to share and tell us your thoughts." On top of that
once a year, we try to meet with specific community organizations. For example, the
Kilauea Neighborhood Association or the Koloa Neighborhood Association. A lot of times it
will be the same people who show up to both of those types of meetings but again, it is just
additional opportunity for the Mayor and his team to share things that are happening in
County Government, and then to hear back from the community. When we do go out to
these community outreach meetings, we take the whole crew. We have got Department
Heads, Deputies, various appointees, and staff people, so a lot of times we will outnumber
the community participants. However, the Mayor feels it is very important that the
community see and put faces to the names of people they hear about and who they have to
deal with to address some of their concerns. The second objective is to create the
opportunity for community input,in determining Budget priorities. I think we spent a lot of
time discussing that this morning. I think there was a lot of good discussion in terms of
how we could improve upon that effort, but this is the first year we did it We thought it
was important to take a first step. Our intent is to continue to do that as part of our
outreach to the community and again, encouraging community participation.
Our second goal was to increase the efficiency of Government operations. One could
write a book, I suppose, of all the ways to do that What we have chosen to do is to hone in
on very specific things that we feel are of value and attainable. The number one objective is
to facilitate regular internal stakeholder meetings which are comprised of our weekly
Department Head meetings and monthly Administrative professional meetings. The
Department Head meetings are an opportunity for important initiatives to be
communicated to Department Heads, as well as an opportunity for Department Heads to
provide information and feedback to the Mayor on a weekly basis. That is pretty much
something that Department Heads can count on in terms of having those types of access.
Of course, over the next four (4) weeks, we are not going to have them, only because we will
be here meeting with you folks during the Budget Review Process. The Administrative
professional meetings are held once a month, and they are facilitated by the Mayor's
Executive Secretary, Cathy Simao. Those have turned into very valuable meetings in terms
of not only exchange of information. What Cathy does is bring in guest speakers. I think
her last meeting might have actually been in this Chamber. They rotate the locations of
those meetings. They have been to the Department of Water. They have been to the Police
Department. It is just an opportunity because a lot of these Administrative professionals
are Department Secretaries and Clerks. A lot of times, probably for decades, they have
been stuck behind their desks in their office, and really do not have a broader appreciation
or understanding of all the rest of the County operations so it is an opportunity to get out
there and do that type of activity. It is also an opportunity to talk about process
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improvements in terms of really, the Administrative professionals are the backbone of
many of our operations. Their perspective is valued and so these meetings provide an
opportunity for that type of dialogue and exchange of information.
Our other objective is something that the Mayor implemented probably within the
last e r r
y a . A three ee (3) day document approval turnaround in the Mayor's Office. That
sounds like it would be an easy task, but I assure you, it is not. There are not too many
Department Heads here because when I talk about the three (3) day turnaround, they will
all be shaking their heads, but that is a goal. We try to do that, but you can imagine the
volume of documentation that flows through the Mayor's Office on a daily basis. A lot of
times, there will be reasons why we cannot approve a document in three (3) days, because
there is not sufficient information or information is inaccurate. Every piece of information
that flows over to the Council comes through the Mayor's Office. I will be the first to admit
that sometimes we do not catch everything. We do our best, but there will be times where
your Staff is gracious enough to help us out and identify things that we have missed. We
appreciate that kind of relationship with Council Services Staff in helping us to do our job.
Our third goal is "to effectively communicate with internal and external
stakeholders." To that end, objective number one is "to maintain a communications team
that responds to public and media inquiries in a timely manner." That can mean a lot of
things to many different people. Our communications team—and I think we have one of
the best ones around, is headed by Beth Tokioka as our Communications Director. Also
part of that team is Mary Daubert, who you are all familiar with, and Sarah Blane. Timely
manner to the media means "we have a deadline of this afternoon, and we need this inquiry
taken care of by then." Timely manner to our constituents. Again, would probably be fairly
immediate. We do our best, and sometimes we are just unable to get that information when
people desire it by but nonetheless, we always attempt to follow-up and make sure that
people are provide the information that they seek. A lot of times the inquiries are fewer
inquiries, but are more people who have concerns and are raising concerns to our attention,
and want some relief to their concerns. A lot of times, we find ourselves being the "clearing
house" for communicating with Departments in trying to follow-up on different issues that
should be attended to.
Our second objective is "to meet as soon as possible with affected community groups
when critical or important issues arise." We do our best, and I cannot say that in every
single instance we are able to do that. It is probably not practical, but using as an example
something that this Council has discussed and deliberated on recently, which is the Kekaha
Vertical Expansion. As soon as it became apparent to us that, that was something we were
going to have to pursue, the number one thing that we did was we attempted to touch bases
with each Councilmember to give Councilmembers a head's up that this was taking place.
Then we setup probably I would say within a week to a week and a half after we made the
decision that this was how we were going to need to proceed. We scheduled a meeting with
the community. I will be very honest with you, for those of us who knew we were going to
have to make that trip out to Kekaha, we were not exactly thrilled we would have to deliver
that message, but I have to tell you in all my time here with the Mayor's Office, I have
never seen a community meeting like that. I say that in a good way because obviously we
did not believe that we did not had the best of news to deliver to the community, based on
the historical dialogue that had taken place. We found that the discussion was very civil.
There were even people who were surprisingly supportive of the concept, so that just
amazed me because I think we all had our flak jackets on and we were ready for a very
lively discussion. Although it was lively, it was all very positive and in my opinion, very
constructive. That is something that the Mayor believes strongly in. If there is an issue
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that affects community, the best way to deal with that is to get out there and be part of that
discussion.
The next objective, and the final one, is to support the goal of effectively
communicating with our stakeholders which is "to communicate with Councilmembers
early and often regarding Budget and other critical matters." I hope that has become
apparent for Councilmember Kagawa and Councilmember Hooser, being new or returning
to the Council after having spent some time away. You maybe do not have much to relate
that to. For other Councilmembers who have been here for a longer period of time, I hope
you have seen an elevated level in the reaching-out and communicating on Budget matters
and other things. It is our intent to continue that. I know that between the Mayor and
Council Chair, there is an agreed upon protocol that we use for communications. I know
that can be very challenging to Councilmembers, as well as Administrative Staff
sometimes, but I think the intent was and is a good one in terms of creating some sort of
sense in terms of how we were able to manage our communications. Again, it takes a lot of
work on everybody's part to attempt to adhere to that, but again, I think that the overall
effect is that hopefully you see that you get to communicate and get the information that
you need. I believe it also respects the time of people on the Administration side, who are
very, very busy. Again, in trying to accomplish and accommodate both of those needs. In a
nutshell, that is what we are about in the Mayor's Office. Like I said, we have other
entities attached to the Mayor's Office and we will step through those various programs. I
do not know if I want to call them "divisions," because I am not necessarily a proponent of
creating more and larger organizations. If you have not had a chance to read through or get
through our presentation, I would encourage you to do so. I think at this point in time,
because part of the presentation will go into more detail about all of the good and wonderful
things that we get to do in the Mayor's Office. I guess where I wanted to get to, to make the
best use of your time is to start going through the various entities that are attached to the
Mayor's Office. The largest one of those is the Office of Boards and Commissions. At this
point in time, unfortunately our Administrator of the Boards and Commissions is not here
with us today. Hopefully she will be returning early next week, but we are fortunate to
have Teresa Tamura here with us. For those of you who have not had the opportunity to
meet Teresa, she is sitting there in the front row. She said, "Gary is there any way I can
possibly come up to the table and sit you with guys?" I said, "Of course." We will ask
Teresa to come up. If there are specific questions that the Mayor or I cannot answer,
hopefully Teresa might be able to. If not, we will get back to you. I think we had some of
this discussion not long ago when we were doing some of the appointee interviews and
approvals by the Council. I think Paula was here sharing some of that information that
basically her group provides support and oversight for fourteen (14) Boards and
Commissions, as well as two (2) Advisory Committees. In total, that represents about one
hundred thirteen (113) volunteer Boards and Commissions members. It is no small task. I
think that what we have seen in the recent past is...I think because of that support, at least
I believe it is, that our Boards and Commissions are a lot more active today than they were
let us say, ten (10) years ago. They are able to be more active, engaged, and productive
because of that great support that the Office of Boards and Commissions provide. We also
provide a number of training sessions during the course of the year to help educate and
elevate the functioning of those Boards and Commissions. A lot of those trainings are open
to on a space-available basis, or available to anybody on the Administration side or the
Council side who wants to avail themselves of those types of learning experiences. The
Office of Boards and Commissions also functions as our State Legislature—I do not want to
say "interface" because they are not necessarily interfacing with members of Legislature on
a daily basis, but they do help to coordinate the activities between our Department Heads,
lobbyists, and the various committees at the State Legislature on the House and Senate
NNE
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side. It is no easy task. I think that we all know how quickly things move during the
Legislative Session, so a lot of times we are dealing with very, very narrow turnaround
times. Sometimes, it is a same-day type of thing that we become aware of a particular bill,
that we have to make decisions as to whether or not we want to provide testimony, have
that testimony drafted, and then submitted. Things move at a whirlwind pace and during
the session, we all kind of just hang on, hope for the best, and try to make sure that our
interests are being addressed. I know there was discussion on the Council floor yesterday,
as the Chair made reference to this morning. There was a discussion with our lobbyists.
They have a role to play, but at the same time, Teresa and Paula in our Office of Boards
and Commissions also play a critical role relative to some of the monitoring and the
coordination that takes place. I give them a lot of credit for staying on top of that stuff.
Currently, I believe at the beginning of the session, Teresa and Paula took it upon
themselves to go through a couple thousand of bills. What came with that exercise was
there were about six hundred (600) bills that were identified as things that we really should
keep an eye on, so they input those bills into the bill tracking system that we have. What
happens is that any activity relative to a specific bill that is being tracked through bill
tracker will pop up with notification to us if there is any activity on that particular bill and
it allows them to notify the appropriate Departments or Divisions that should vet the issue.
Perhaps even submit testimony, if that is deemed appropriate. That covers the basic
functioning of that organization. Currently besides Paula and Teresa, we have three (3)
support clerks. They support the various Boards and Commissions and Advisory
Committees. They also have a clerk who supports the operational side of the organization.
If you folks have any questions, I would be open to entertaining them and whatever I could
not, I know Teresa is biting at the bit to be able to say something on the mic.
Chair Furfaro: Okay. I have some questions that I want to direct
at you folks. As you know in 2008, and with Charter Amendments that way they are, what
is different for us is the fact that there is almost two million dollars ($2,000,000.00) of
additional staffing and costs related to those two (2) Charter Amendments that the citizens
voted on, which is the creation of the Office of the County Auditor, and the creation of
Boards and Commissions. Boards and Commissions show up now in our Budget at about
eight hundred eight thousand dollars ($808,000.00) for five (5) persons. Could you give me
just a quick overview of the value we are getting with that financial investment?
Mr. Heu: Sure.
Chair Furfaro: You described some of it. One hundred
seventeen (117) commission members and the coordination of taking minutes. You even
touched a little bit on the Legislative part. Our lobbyists indicated to me yesterday that
there was this new tracking equipment program that existed in the office there that we
were not aware of. The more I probed, it seemed to be more like a pop-up report that you
just described that there is a tracking and existing website for the Legislative practice. If it
is different, could you explain that to us a little bit more?
Mr. Heu: Okay. I guess we will take that in a couple of
different parts. First of all, Chair, if I am counting right, we have six (6) positions in that
organization. I think last year the Council might have approved an additional position.
Chair Furfaro: I thought Theresa moved out of that position so
that is why I dropped it?
Mr. Heu: No, she is actually in Life's Choices Kaua`i.
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Chair Furfaro: Yes, but she was originally...
Mr. Heu: She was physically located in the same...we had
a number of different instances...
Chair Furfaro: Okay. That clarifies it for me.
Mr. Heu: Yes. Speaking to the value, I cannot say much
more than if you were to pull the various Boards and Commissions members that we have
because I think it would probably be a unanimous type of acknowledgement in terms of the
level of support that they current receive, especially if any of them had been around in the
good old days where there was no Office of Boards and Commissions. I think some of that
used to fall on Aunty Kaui. I do not know how she kept up with some of that stuff. I think
at that point in time, her main function was to assure that we were aware of vacancies that
were coming up and trying to flag people that we needed to find additional people who were
willing to serve. That is a function of the Boards and Commissions' responsibility. It is
probably one of the tougher functions, and I think I spoke with Council about how rough
that can be nowadays in terms of finding people who are willing to serve. For a number of
different reasons, people are not as anxious to be part of that process anymore. That is a
very, very challenging part of the job. Relative to the level of support that they provide to
the Boards and Commissions, I think that the best way to determine that would be to pull
commission members, and I think you will find support for what I am sharing with you
today. Like I said, as the commissions have gotten more "active," some of the issues they
are dealing with are a lot more complex than they began five (5) or ten (10) years ago. They
are willing to take on some of those more complex types of issues. It has been interesting to
watch the progression as they feel more supportive, as they feel like they are more part of
the system and process, and they become more engaged. A lot of times, I think they look for
issues to become part of and participate in and to make a difference.
Chair Furfaro: Is it my understanding that as this thing
evolved, as well as the changes we made or made demands on with Ho`ike, Granicus, and so
forth; that contract oversight is done by Boards and Commissions as well?
Mr. Heu: Yes it is.
Chair Furfaro: It is tied not just to the Council Meetings, but to
all Boards and Commissions public viewing. They are managing those contracts as well?
Mr. Heu: They are, yes.
Chair Furfaro: Okay. Questions?
Mr. Heu: I am sorry, we did not answer one of your
questions which was the functioning of the actual bill tracking system. I am going to turn
over...
Chair Furfaro: I was not expecting the answer today. I wanted
to make sure you understood that when the lobbyists said it yesterday, we were not aware
of it. We are here tracking the Legislative website. We did not know there were any
upgrades that they were referring to and so forth. I will be sending that over as a question.
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Mr. Heu: Are you sure? Teresa can answer it right here
for you and save yourself the trouble.
Chair Furfaro: Absolutely, let us hear it.
TERESA TAMURA, Administrative Aide: Teresa Tamura, Office of Boards
and Commissions for the record. I want to say maybe about a couple of years ago, the
lobbyists probably started the web tracking system. We procured it for the past two (2)
years now, so this is our second year here. We have provided training for the entire County
Staff who would be tracking Legislative bills. We have had training for everyone. I want to
say there are a number of people. That is the same tracking that we are on as well and I
want to say that probably Council Services is as well. That is the web tracking that they
are talking about. I do not know if there was anything else. Can I clarify anything else on
that?
(Ms. Nakamura was noted as recused from the meeting at 2:00 p.m.)
Chair Furfaro: She is recusing herself from Boards and
Commissions on any questions, so we are going to stay focused on that right now. The way
it was conveyed to us was not necessarily—I responded by our people are now tracking the
Legislative website, but they delivered it like it was an additional piece of software
processed from some other vendor.
Ms. Tamura: Okay. It is true, it is Jupiter Solutions. They are
a separate vendor. The lobbyists brought in on a couple of years ago before we procured it
on our own. It is separate from them at this time. They are not on the same system as us.
They cannot see what we are tracking. Our lobbyists cannot see what we are tracking
because they do not have access to our account.
Chair Furfaro: If it is something that they are not doing
anymore, did they lower the fee?
Ms. Tamura: No.
Chair Furfaro: No?
Ms. Tamura: No.
Chair Furfaro: So we are tracking it with something that was in
their original contract, but their contract stayed the same?
Mr. Heu: I think what happened was that they introduced
us to that system.
Ms. Tamura: Yes.
Mr. Heu: Then, we independently procured it outside of
the consultant services of the lobbyists. I think perhaps...I am not sure if this is where you
were going, but we are not asking them to necessarily track all six hundred (600) bills
because we do not necessarily want to dilute their effectiveness. There are specific bills
that we have asked them to pay close attention to, which were the bills that were identified
as part of the...number one, the County's package...
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Ms. Tamura: Yes.
Mr. Heu: Then beyond that, some of the big hitters that
are going to impact us potentially, financially, as far as all of the various TAT bills that
were originally floating around like the Public Utilities Franchise Tax.
Chair Furfaro: Those are the ones I tied at the end because we
had not heard, or did not get very much information from them. Here is my real point; you
said"so it would not dilute their effectiveness." This teabag has been used about the fourth
time. They did not make a very good impression on me yesterday. That is my statement.
Their presentation was pretty diluted. Now, I am seeing that we buy the software and we
are doing some of the pop-up tracking, which used to be in their fee but their fee was not
adjusted. I just want to say that I have some concerns there, Gary.
Mr. Heu: Chair, I understand.
Chair Furfaro: Mr. Hooser, and then Mr. Rapozo. Let us stay on
this subject while Nadine is out okay.
Mr. Hooser: I would suggest that obviously with the Mayor's
permission, perhaps for the next Legislative Session, they would coordinate between the
Council and the Administration because we are also tracking, and so there is a lot of
duplication, I believe. We have a common interest. We might have different priorities with
some of these bills, but we have a common interest. So if we could look at that with the
next Legislative session. The lobbyists that were here, I believe the print out that they
gave us was off the regular State of Hawai`i thing. It was not anything...that is free. I
share the Chair's thoughts that I was not impressed by the presentation, quite frankly. Is
that a year-to-year contract?
Mr. Heu: It is.
Mr. Hooser: Okay. That is in the Budget right now?
Mr. Heu: Actually, I think we took it out.
Mr. Hooser: Okay. Thank you.
Mr. Heu: If it had been another year, we might have left it
in but given the fiscal conditions that we are dealing with in having to make those tough
decisions, we thought that was it be an area where we would hold back on.
Mr. Hooser: I think this will be the last because we have a lot
to do, but because it personally affects us in the County, I think we are the most effective
lobbyists; the Council, Administration, and various Department Heads. As long as we can
track them and we have good people and Staff here, we need less outside impacts. I know
the travel is a concern and being there right away. I would love to work together more as
my committee in the Council with you next time.
Mr. Heu: To your point, Councilmember, about needing to
work together in terms of our Staff and your Staff, I think there was a point in time where
there probably was more communication relative to Legislative matters. I think as things
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evolve, we have gotten away from that. I would agree that if there are synergies to be
gained by reestablishing that type of relationship, I think that would work for all of us.
Relative to the need for a lobbyist, I think that is a philosophical debate that has gone all
over the place in the past. I think one thing that has really improved our ability to respond
is this web tracking software that we have. It is a very valuable tool. Over the years, in the
recent years, I found that the value of the lobbyists was more to—if something popped-up
on us that we really did not understand what it was about, we could shoot it to the lobbyists
and ask, "What is this bill about? Can you tell us if there is any traction? What are you
guys hearing in the halls? Should we be concerned?" Those kinds of things. Again, what is
the value of that? I do not know. I think collectively, we need to have that discussion and
decide whether or not that is something of great value to us.
Chair Furfaro: Okay. We have several members who have
questions in the following order; Mr. Rapozo, Ms. Yukimura, and then Mr. Kagawa. I
would like to remind everybody that Councilwoman Nakamura has recused herself from
this part of the meeting, so let us stay focused on the subject at hand so that we can get her
back in to join other parts of the discussion. Mr. Rapozo, the floor is yours.
Mr. Rapozo: Thank you, Mr. Chair. The bill tracking system
that we use, when was that purchased? How much was it?
Ms. Tamura: We pay...I want to say it is a service. He bills us
quarterly. We have four (4) payments, and I think the total is fifteen thousand dollars
($15,000.00).
Mr. Rapozo: How much?
Ms. Tamura: Fifteen thousand dollars ($15,000.00).
Mr. Rapozo: For the year?
Ms. Tamura: Yes, for the year.
Mr. Rapozo: We have had that for?
Ms. Tamura: Every year we get it. The past two (2) years.
Mr. Rapozo: No, I mean how long...
Ms. Tamura: I know for sure for the past two (2) years. I came
on last year, but Paula was doing the tracking. She was on the website last year when I
came on. We have it this year. I want to say for the previous year that, that is probably
when the lobbyists introduced that to the County.
Mr. Rapozo: Okay. The rights are not owned by the lobbyists?
Ms. Tamura: No.
Mr. Rapozo: How different is that system from the Capitol's
system?
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Ms. Tamura: I guess the difference is that we can track the
entire County on there, so they are separated by Departments. You will have Planning,
Public Works, and Water. We can see what each Department is tracking, specific to that
Department.
Mr. Rapozo: You mean in the County?
Ms. Tamura: Yes, in the County.
Mr. Rapozo: Our County?
Ms. Tamura: Yes, our County.
Mr. Rapozo: All of the Department Heads have access to this?
Ms. Tamura: All of the Department Heads have access to their
portion of it. I think Paula, Cindy, and I have access to all Departments. If anyone has
questions, need help submitting testimony, or questions on bills; they can contact me,
Paula, or Cindy.
Mr. Rapozo: Are we on that system as well?
Ms. Tamura: Yes.
Mr. Rapozo: Who, Ashley?
Chair Furfaro: We have two (2) people that are trained. Aida
and Ashley.
Mr. Rapozo: Ashley, you are familiar with that system?
ASHLEY BUNDA, Legislative Analyst: Yes, but I do not have access to all of the
Departments.
Chair Furfaro: That is the problem.
Mr. Rapozo: Ashley is our—this is my opportunity to thank
Ashley for her work.
Ms. Tamura: Right.
Mr. Rapozo: She does Statewide tracking for Hawai`i State
Associations of Counties (HSAC) and for our County as well. She does a tremendous job.
She utilizes the Capitol website.
Ms. Tamura: Yes. I will go back and forth on (inaudible).
Mr. Rapozo: I am not saying she needs access. I am just
trying to figure out is that something we need, or can we get that accomplished with the
Capitol's website?
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Ms. Tamura: Since this is my first year, I have been taking
notes of how we could possibly improve the web tracking. I am going to talk to Harry
because he is the one who does the training for us. There are probably certain features on
there that could be improved and whether it is available or not. Hopefully the cost will not
go up on that, though. Little things like having subaccounts for Public Works, like the
Solid Waste Division or Wastewater because if it is under Public Works, they get
everything that goes to Public Works. That is not specific to their Division under Public
Works. There are different features that I think could benefit...
Mr. Rapozo: Is there more costs to have more users on the
system?
Ms. Tamura: No.
Mr. Rapozo: Unlimited?
Ms. Tamura: Yes. As far as we know, every Department or
agency has an assigned account and they can add clients. You will have an Admin access
where you can upload anything and make changes as the Admin. That Admin user can add
clients to it where they can look at the bills they are tracking, but they cannot make any
changes to it.
Mr. Rapozo: Okay. We could get access through Ashley?
Ms. Tamura: Yes.
Mr. Rapozo: Okay. I think it is important. I do not think
anybody should be restricted from that. It is like "the more the merrier."
Ms. Tamura: Right. I agree.
Mr. Rapozo: Somebody in Parks may want to track a public
safety bill, or a...
Ms. Tamura: Yes, I agree.
Mr. Rapozo: I think it does matter. As far as the lobbyists,
Gary, I think I agree with you that it is a philosophical debate that you could have. I do
value the function of a lobbyist. I do not value the function of the lobbyists that we just got
at sixty thousand dollars ($60,000.00). I think based on what we saw yesterday—and I am
not sure where that miscommunication was? I am not sure if they were given the direction.
I am not sure if they were...because I expect a lobbyist to be what you said that when
something pops-up, they need to let us know. Even if there is a remote chance there is
some impact to the County. We have to remember, we get four (4) lobbyists at the Capitol
every day; a Senator and three (3) Representatives. We have to reestablish that
communication as well. They should be calling us. They are free. Well, they are paid by
taxpayers but free to the County. I think we need to utilize them a lot more. They are our
premier lobbyists, but I definitely see the value of a lobbyist. I do not know if—Gary, you
may know this, but if there is an opportunity to get a lobbyist on a per hour basis? I am not
sure if they are able. I am not sure if they take on those kinds of cases. For sixty thousand
dollars ($60,000.00), let us say a lobbyists about one hundred fifty dollars ($150.00) an hour
or one hundred dollars ($100.00) per hour; we would have a lot of opportunities to call up
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the lobbyists and say, "Hey, do me a favor. Run to the Capitol and find out what is going on
with this bill." Then they can just send you a bill for three hundred dollars ($300.00). I
think that goes a lot longer than paying out sixty thousand dollars ($60,000.00) and then
getting a report that is pulled off of the Capitol website.
Mr. Heu: Yes, I think that would be definitely something
to look into. You pay maybe a retainer fee on a usage basis.
Mr. Rapozo: We know what we need to lobbyists for.
Mr. Heu: Yes.
Mr. Rapozo: We are our best lobbyists, but when we need that
extra...as Mr. Pacopac...whether people that like that term or not, the backroom
discussions are vital in Government. They need to go and explain to certain Legislatures.
We are blessed because three (3) of our Legislators have County Council experience, and
many other Representatives do not. Sometimes, they need to be reminded that, "Listen,
this is why it is important to the County. You been in the Government all-State, and you
have not had that opportunity to work at the County level." That lobbyist is key in those
situations. I would not say that the lobbyists are not necessary, but I agree that it is
something that we have to keep some form of. I would just ask that we take a look at that
option as well. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Chair Furfaro: Councilwoman Yukimura, you have the floor and
then Mr. Kagawa.
Ms. Yukimura: Thank you. I was noticing in your mission and
goals that there are no real goals for the Boards and Commissions section, and I was
wondering whether you might consider a couple of these like, increasing the number of
women serving on Boards and Commissions.
Ms. Tamura: Yes, we have been looking into that.
Ms. Yukimura: I do not know how you could—and then you may
have specific ideas about how to turn it into a goal or an objective. Even just having at
least one (1) woman on every commission, which is a pretty low goal but I guess there are
some like the Police Commission that at this point do not have some female representation.
Ms. Tamura: We are addressing that. Thank you.
Ms. Yukimura: Perhaps women watching this program now will
also think to volunteer for an area that they may be interested in. For several of the
commissions, one of their main jobs is to evaluate and oversee the Department Head. That
is under their—or basically their appointee, like the Planning Commission, Water Board,
Human Resources/Personnel, and the Civil Service Board; which is a very, very key
function, because the Department Head managers are pivotal in terms of County
performance. I was wondering if there might be some thought or maybe you have been
thinking about it already, in terms of how to train our boards and how to find best practices
for evaluating executive leadership?
Ms. Tamura: We had a training scheduled this year for that
effective training for the Department Head of appointing commissions. Although, I want to
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say that Department of Personnel Services (DPS) or the Human Resources Department
(HR) had their own evaluation that they are looking into and considering. That went over
the DPS and HR to Tom there. It is up to him for approval. Once that gets approved, then
we are going to look into doing training for all Boards and Commissions.
Ms. Yukimura: DPS is creating a best practice format for
evaluating?
Ms. Tamura: It is the evaluation and how they came about it.
The Civil Service Commission proposed that to DPS.
Ms. Yukimura: We as the appointee of the Auditor and the
Clerk; we are going to be getting that too?
Ms. Tamura: I do not know.
Mr. Heu: Yes, I think that is the intent. Again, it was an
initiative that came out of the Civil Service Commission in terms of taking a look at our
outdated evaluation tool and see if we could upgrade it. I think they looked into best
practices relative to the tool, itself. They have spent quite a bit of time and effort on it. As
Teresa said, it is with the Department of Personnel Services for review right now. Once
that is "approved" then the intent would be to roll that out to all of our Departments, both
Commission appointed Departments and Department Heads of Departments, as well as the
the Administrator of Departments and the County Council.
Ms. Yukimura: Right. I know there is this separation of powers,
but to the extent that we would like to use the same system, or at least have some training
in it. Of course then it becomes Council's discretion to use or not to use whereas with your
Department Heads, you can say that this is the Administration format. To the extent that
we can share information and process, it seems that it would useful. My experience on this
body is that this body can always use more training in this executive search and executive
evaluation. Our Chair is very experienced, but a lot of the Councilmembers have not had
that much experience, and yet we select two (2) key Department Heads in the County.
Chair Furfaro: I do want to say that I believe the Department of
Human Resources has sent something over to us, previously.
Ms. Yukimura: Okay.
Chair Furfaro: That was on the follow-up of...I went and made a
presentation to the Civil Service Commission. That evolved into an item that they sent to
DPS, and maybe a year ago they sent something over to us. I need to dig it out, but I just
wanted to (inaudible) my memory.
Ms. Yukimura: Okay. Anyway, I am glad that there is some
process going on and possibly putting it also or articulating it as an objective so that it is
there as a focus would be good. Lastly, you have improved greatly with the time of
submitting nominees to the Council. I have a lot of history on this so compared to the past,
there has been a great improvement. Maybe you have set goals on that, and are meeting
them like within thirty (30) days or sixty (60) days of a projected vacancy.
6
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Ms. Tamura: Yes, we have. I know in the last goals that I did
look at, we wanted all vacancies filled by March 31st. We still have five (5) vacancies.
Ms. Yukimura: I know it is not an easy thing, but that is your
goal, so you have holdovers for three (3) months?
Ms. Tamura: Yes.
Ms. Yukimura: You could also start earlier, right?
Ms. Tamura: Yes.
Ms. Yukimura: So that you could actually have them take over
by January 1st. Okay. That would be helpful to articulate a goal there too. Lastly, you do
have orientation and training for new board members, right?
Ms. Tamura: Yes.
Ms. Yukimura: I have seen word about Parliamentary Procedure
classes which is very good. What other kind of training do you do?
Ms. Tamura: We have Effective Meeting Management in
February. The orientation is in March. We have Parliamentary Procedures in April. We
have two (2) sessions for Sunshine Law. The previous year...I guess the Responde Sil Vous
Plait (RSVP) or the attendance level was not too large so they condensed it into one (1) class
or one (1) training last year. I want to say they have it on their website, Office of
Information Practices (OIP) website, so we might think about having the board members
complete the test. You can do a test on there now and print out a certificate if you pass the
test on the OIP's website.
Ms. Yukimura: Yes, because some people may not need the
training, and may already have a lot of background.
Ms. Tamura: Yes.
Ms. Yukimura: Is it a requirement that board members be
trained in these areas by a certain date or is it based on the discretion of the board
member?
Ms. Tamura: Based on the discretion.
Ms. Yukimura: Maybe all you have to do is just publish who has
been trained and who has not. Thank you.
Chair Furfaro: I am going to have to intercede here before I give
Mr. Kagawa the floor. We need a tape change. When we come back, Mr. Kagawa, you will
have the floor.
There being no objections, the meeting was recessed at 2:28 p.m.
The meeting reconvened at 2:32 p.m., and proceeded as follows:
March 28, 2013
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Chair Furfaro: We are back from the tape change. Mr. Kagawa,
you have the floor, and then Mr. Hooser.
Mr. Kagawa: Thank you, Mr. Chair. I too, have a question on
the lobbyists. Yesterday, I think I was the only one defending our lobbyists because my
main priority this year is "how are we going to get through this Budget?" I know that the
TAT is something that will have to be fought for again. I have let Mr. Pacopac and
Mr. Matsuura know that their main job is to fight for that and make sure that we get the
full amount, not any less. They seemed to have assured me they would fight hard. I was
just wondering if we have a continuing list of priorities that we have given to them, and
what is their record? I heard during lunch from another member that their track record
last year besides getting the TAT back, which is huge—getting the TAT back in full and
paying them sixty thousand dollars ($60,000.00); that to me is a good deal. If they just
have that alone, anything else would be a bonus in these economic times. I was wondering
this year if they have accomplished anything big on our priority list or anything on our
priority list thus far in this session. If you need time, you can answer it later.
Mr. Heu: We have a contract, and I am not sure if you
folks have all seen the contract and the Scope of Work. There are very specific tasks that
they are supposed to be performing. Having said that, in the past years, our marching
orders besides giving them specific bills to track and help us either get it approved or to kill;
are marching orders have been that they are supposed—our main concern is anything that
has a fiscal impact on the County. Obviously, there are other Legislative matters that
surface that are of importance, but primarily ours is of fiscal concerns. In other words, any
type of bill that would somehow reduce current funding from the State to the County is a
concern of ours. Any bill that we transfer a responsibility that is currently with the State,
but is being proposed to be transferred to the County without the funding to support that is
of concern to us. Those are in general, the marching orders. Again, in terms of this year, I
think the jury is still out because most of the bills that we are concerned with are still alive
and well.
Mr. Kagawa: I guess more or less I was wondering if we had a
batting average almost. For example, like twenty (20) on our priority list, and how many
did they get? As of last year, I heard they just got the TAT and everything else that we
pretty much wanted, they did not get. I know that in these difficult economic times, it is
hard to get what we want. I know this year we have one (1) bill where if it does not go the
way we want, we may have to pull our lifeguards off the State beaches. I do not know what
the verdict is going to be on that one. Again, I guess we need that constant communication
because nothing has passed yet, right? My second question is—and I did not really get this
answered by our lobbyists yesterday. It deals with protocol. I want to give you an example.
Say there is a bill that will limit the County's authority to regulate the agricultural
industry. I am okay per say with that bill being heard and letting the Legislature decide on
it. Maybe there are other Councilmembers who want that bill to be killed immediately.
How does this work? The orders of what the lobbyists should work on comes from you guys,
so how does it work where we get the input on what the lobbyists will do for us?
Mr. Heu: That is an interesting question. I think probably
the best example of how that is typically dealt with is the Kaua`i County Package. The
Kaua`i County Package is a package of bills between the Council and the Administration
that we have agreed upon. That is kind of like a safe zone to help us with these bills
because it is something that both entities have agreed on. Outside of that, it is basically
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looking out for, like I stated, of what the best interest of the County is from a fiscal
perspective.
Mr. Kagawa: Say a new bill comes up, like how they always
do; they introduce bills daily that are surprises. If we have unanimous support and if the
Mayor supports it, then it is okay if we ask our lobbyists to help us, right?
Mr. Heu: That probably goes outside of historically what is
done because usually we try to vet that stuff before the session, but like you said,
something may pop-up midsession where a bill is gutted and the contents are replaced with
something that could be very detrimental to the County. I think in those kinds of cases, we
would want to work together and pull in all the resources we could, including that of our
lobbyists to try and defeat something like that.
Mr. Kagawa: How would we treat something where we have
maybe four (4) members agree, three (3) members disagree, and the Mayor agrees? Is that
something we proceed on? If the support is not unanimous, we say, "No, lobbyists..."
Mr. Heu: That is a good question. I do not know if we have
on the fly, ran into something like that.
Chair Furfaro: It is majority rules at the Council.
Mr. Heu: I beg your pardon?
Chair Furfaro: It is majority rules at the Council. If we wanted
to add something to the package, we need the majority votes. I just want to make sure that
we are interpreting this as if we do not have a majority—not just a majority of the entire
body, but unanimous...everything does not have to be unanimous that goes over from the
Council.
Mr. Carvalho: I think he is asking—are you asking something
separate from the package?
Mr. Kagawa: Yes, something from the package. I will just be
straight up. I am talking about these new seed/corn types of bills that are coming up. They
are not only coming up from Kaua`i. They are coming up from Maui and Moloka`i. Those
have split votes, as far as where we are at right now. I just want to make sure that we have
a process that allows our lobbyists to proceed given...we have not even thought about it
when we have a split vote here and the Mayor with his opinion. I think we should only
order our lobbyists to do something if the Mayor supports it because you guys basically
handle the lobbyists. I think when we have a Council majority and the Mayor's support
that should be strong support. I am just wondering if we have considered that because now
each year, we are going to have more of these types of issues.
Mr. Carvalho: I think to be assured that what the responsibility
from what I understand is with the Administration as far as working with the lobbyists;
however if new bills need to be...we work together in the package. That is one thing. If
there is anything new that comes about, be assured that we are going to be over here
asking, "What is up with this?" We also welcome you folks coming over as well to see how
we can work collectively. I can say that up front. I know that there are a lot of times where
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other things just pop-up that could benefit...or we can work together on and support it
separate from the package too. That is totally open.
Mr. Kagawa: Thank you. I guess I asked that questions
because we had that recent Ag housing structure Bill that passed in last session that just
caught everybody by surprise. I think we all need to try and get better with the system
that we have. I am totally lost when it comes to the Legislature. I am just trying to get a
handle on this job, but hopefully maybe Teresa can get me signed up on the next training.
Thank you. Mahalo.
Chair Furfaro: Before I recognize Mr. Hooser who is next, if your
questions are going to focus on Boards and Commissions, that keeps Nadine out. If your
questions are not continuing on Boards and Commissions, then I will bring her back in.
Mr. Hooser: I have one (1) question on Boards and
Commissions and one (1) on the lobbyists' issue.
Chair Furfaro: May I ask you to do the Boards and Commissions
one first, and then we will bring her back in.
Mr. Hooser: Sure. It was mentioned that the goal of filling
the commissioner seats—and I would be remiss if I did not ask about the Planning
Commission Environmental seat. Have we been able to find a qualified candidate who is
going to be put forth soon?
Ms. Tamura: Yes.
Mr. Heu: Yes.
Mr. Hooser: Okay, that is very good news. Thank you.
Mr. Carvalho: She is.
Mr. Hooser: It is a "she." Okay, that is even better. Chair
that was my question. Thank you.
Chair Furfaro: If your next question is about the lobbyists, I just
was informed again that the lobbyists are under Boards and Commissions.
Mr. Hooser: Okay.
Chair Furfaro: We will keep her out if you have questions there.
Mr. Hooser: Okay. Even though there are no lobbyists in the
Budget, I agree with Councilmember Rapozo that philosophically speaking, there are times
when we need somebody on the inside there. I think sixty thousand dollars ($60,000.00) for
what we were getting was not sufficient but moving forward under this contract or the
contract that we had, it is my understanding that the lobbyists was obligated in inform the
County when bills came up that was relevant or important to the County. I do not know if
that means—again, moving forward, is that just to inform the Administration or also to
inform the Council. We give them the package so that is an easy list, but it also says
clearly that they are supposed to be on their toes watching out for us and inform us when
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stuff comes up. I think the issue we have in common, and Councilmember Kagawa referred
to it but I will do it more generally, is bills that take away power authority from the
County, regardless whether it is seed/corn companies or anything. The bill comes forward
that lessens the Mayor's authority and lessens the Council's authority; then I would think
we would both be concerned about that. As a rule, oppose those kinds of measures. Is that
accurate to say that as a rule, we would oppose measures that attempt to take away the
power and authority of the County? Okay. I know on Senate Bill 727, Mayor, you did
testify against that, as did I and some other Councilmembers. It was not seed/corn specific
but it was very broad and it was very bad. I think those are the kinds of bills that I expect
our lobbyists to inform us, not to decide how our approach is going to be but to inform us,
and we would then decide whether we want to oppose it, unify it, or separately. Moving
forward if we do have a lobbyist, will they be responsible for keeping us informed as well as
keeping you informed?
Mr. Heu: We could include that in the Scope of Work.
Mr. Hooser: Right. If we agree on the approach, that is fine.
If we do not, at least we are aware of this is the bill that we are paying for. We are paying
for the services that we would expect to be kept informed of those kinds of measures also.
Thank you very much.
Mr. Heu: I think currently, the way we become informed of
things, sometimes the lobbyists will pop something up to us but we—I am not sure if you
folks are made aware of by HSAC Staff.
Mr. Hooser: Ashley and Facebook are the two (2) most...
Mr.Heu: Okay, because our side of the house, the Mayor is
part of the Hawai`i Conference of Mayors (HCOM), and we have got some good staffers
supporting that initiative and a lot of times, that is where some critical heads up come
from.
Mr. Hooser: Right. Thank you very much.
Chair Furfaro: Mr. Rapozo has one more question.
Mr. Rapozo: I just want to almost feel responsible for the sixty
thousand dollars ($60,000.00) because I think you remember last year. I think the Budget
was twenty-five thousand ($25,000.00) or something. Councilmember Yukimura started
asking these tons of questions of these lobbyists. I remember this and my comment was, "If
you guys expect these lobbyists to do all of that work, then we have to pay them." Then we
did. The report was about the same as it was last year. I agree with Councilmember
Kagawa that they are quite effective, but is there a possibility—because I know HCOM and
HSAC often times agree. There are a lot of issues that are the same, and yet there are
some that they do not disagree but it does not rise to the level that satisfies all the Mayors
or all of the Counties. Is there a way to kind of put together a multi-jurisdictional team
prior to the Legislative Session—and it could be with you and Ashley so we could work
together with a common focus going in? If in fact we do get a lobbyists, come up with a
scope that will satisfy both sides...I think that will be effective because obviously, I would
not have a problem if the lobbyists lobbied for an HCOM package item even though it was
not on HSAC, and I would expect that same courtesy that if it is not in the HCOM package
but if it was on the County package—if it is on the County, you would approve but if it was
it
March 28, 2013
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an HSAC item that could utilize the services as well. Something that we could mutually
agree upon, "What will this lobbyist lobby for?" I am not suggesting we put another sixty
thousand dollars ($60,000.00) in there but I definitely think as we go through the Budget
that, that still is a possibility that we could get some funds for some lobbying. Is that
something we could do? Thank you.
Mr. Carvalho: You said HSAC is only hooked into the
Government website?
Mr. Rapozo: Yes, we use—Ashley explained to me on the
break why she chooses to use the Capitol website. It is simply because she is tasked with
tracking Bills from individual Councilmembers.
Mr. Carvalho: I see.
Mr. Rapozo: She basically has to set-up different tracking
systems but she is our tracker. Thank you.
Mr. Carvalho: Okay.
Chair Furfaro: On that note, I think you folks that know I asked
the County Attorney to kind of review that 1993 understanding or the County Attorney's
interpretation of this. I am going to ask that when Al is prepared to answer that question,
he has a separate discussion with Mr. Hooser, who represents our Economic Development
(Sustainability / Agriculture / Food / Energy) & Intergovernmental Relations (EDIGR)
Committee. Mr. Rapozo is the President of HSAC. Gentlemen, could I ask you to kind of go
through and digest what the County Attorney's opinion is on the management of that
contract. I will leave it with the two (2) of you for your comments and feedback. Is that
acceptable?
Mr. Carvalho: Yes.
Chair Furfaro: Thank you very much. Are there anymore
discussions that will deal with the Boards and Commissions? If not, I will ask Nadine to
come back in.
Mr. Carvalho: Could just say something in wrapping up and
answering your question regarding the Boards and Commissions team, and the effort to
eventually oversee all Commissions. I think Planning was the next one, Historic, Open
Space, Water, and all of the different Boards and Commissions coming under the Office of
Boards and Commissions. They are working closely with the ones that are not currently
under them right now, but eventually the bigger picture is to have them be housed and
managed under this particular Office, just for your information.
Chair Furfaro: Sure. I understand your vision, Mayor. I just
wanted to point out again that having a Boards and Commissions group was an eight
hundred eight thousand dollar ($808,000) addition to Budget Comparisons. Adding an
Audit was a one point two million dollar ($1,200,000) addition to our Budget and so forth. I
always use the term "value" and you obviously see the value. I see the value but we concur
with managing the vision to constantly make improvements. JoAnn, have you one (1) more
on Boards and Commissions?
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Ms. Yukimura: Yes.
Chair Furfaro: Go right ahead.
Ms. Yukimura: Mayor, on your last comment, you are saying
that right now Boards and Commissions is not overseeing the Planning Commission?
Mr. Carvalho: Not yet. We are in the transition period.
Ms. Yukimura: I see. You mean in terms of staffing it for the
minutes?
Mr. Carvalho: Yes, staffing for the minutes and certain parts of
Planning that needs to remain with the existing staff between Paula and Mike. They are
working on transitioning with what is going to come over to Boards and Commissions,
which includes Open Space and Historic Preservation.
Ms. Yukimura: Okay. You have existing personnel to do that in
Boards and Commissions?
Mr. Carvalho: That is the part and we are working on that
transition right now.
Ms. Yukimura: I see. It may involve transfer of staff from
Planning?
Mr. Carvalho: It does include the transfer, yes.
Ms. Yukimura: Okay. It is a balancing of staff support.
Mr. Carvalho: Yes. "What will come over? What will remain?
What will be added? What are the duties, responsibility, and so forth?" The discussion is
in progress as we speak. I just wanted to point that out.
Ms. Yukimura: Thank you for pointing that out.
Chair Furfaro: I am going to ask Councilmember Nakamura to
come back in. Thank you, Boards and Commissions. I would like to make a note over here,
too that from Ashley Bunda to our entire staff, they do a pretty outstanding job tracking
things because they are also keeping track of seven (7) council members. Between us, we
submitted one hundred one (101) pieces of testimony on various items, so I want to thank
them. We are going to continue here and I think we have Teresa here for the next portion.
Mr. Heu: Actually, if we could just so that I do not get
confused, I am going step our way through the presentation and go in that order. This will
be brief and the Teresa will be up.
Chair Furfaro: I saw your hand JoAnn. I will give you the floor
in a minute. Let him finish.
Mr. Heu: The next segment of our presentation was the
Capital Improvement Program. As you mentioned this morning, Mr. Keith Suga is here.
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Chair Furfaro: He is in the back.
Mr. Heu: We might not bring him up, only because he has
a whole day to himself further on in Budget.
Chair Furfaro: Yes, we gave him a whole day.
Mr. Heu: I believe when Keith first came on, we did a
meet-and-greet with Councilmembers to explain what his role was, what he was doing, and
give people an opportunity to get to know Keith. The one (1) thing that I wanted to point
out though, which was very good news to me is that we have been talking for a while now
about this Capital Improvement Program management software. We are pleased to report
that by the third week of April, we intend to have a contract in place for that to procure
that software. It has been a long time coming. There has been a lot of due diligence in
terms of finding the right system for the County. I believe that Keith, as well as our
Deputy County Engineer Lyle Tabata actually traveled to Oahu to meet with Kamehameha
Schools who employs the same system. Again, we are very excited about that upcoming
procurement. You folks will have a lot of additional time to speak to Keith as we work our
way through the Capital Improvement Program Budget. If any of you had a specific
question that you wanted to ask of Keith, we can bring him up. If not, we will move along
to Life's Choices.
Chair Furfaro: No, we will not move along to Life's Choices, no
we do not have questions for Keith because we will have him for a full day, but you are not
getting off that easy. Councilmember Yukimura has questions for the Administration.
Mr. Heu: Which one?
Ms. Yukimura: Actually, Chair, what I wanted to say is that
Council Vice Chair has questions about the Mayor's Office in general. I do too but I would
like her to go first.
Chair Furfaro: I knew you did. For some reason I knew you did.
Who wants to have the floor first?
Mr. Rapozo: Lathes first.
Chair Furfaro: Go ahead. Vice Chair Nakamura, you have the
floor.
Ms. Nakamura: Thank you very much for your revised mission,
goals, and objectives. I think it is a big improvement from your initial submittal and covers
more clearly of what you are trying to achieve in a measurable way. I did want to ask you
on your second goal of"increasing efficiency in government operations." What I see under
II, 1 is "activities." Activities will help in the communications but what do those activities
actually achieve? It sounds like that are the ongoing communications but are there any
specific efficiencies in government operations that you would like to achieve in the next
year?
Mr. Heu: That is a good question.
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Ms. Nakamura: The reason why I raise this is because during
last year's Budget process, we heard from every Department and there were some pretty
common themes that I got out of it. I wanted to just throw that back to you to see if that is
something that you feel should be addressed? Some of the themes that came out to me had
to do with the hiring process and the length of time it takes every Department to go from
conception to having a body in place. In the example of the Transportation Planner, I think
took a year and a half to fill that position. Sometimes waiting helps because you get the
right person but because we are moving into a new organization and a new director that
will be coming on board, I think it is important to have real good baseline data on what is
the average time it takes to fill a position so that when we have someone new on board, we
can say—if it takes the average six (6) to nine (9) months, in the case of the Transportation
Planner a year and a half, what is that we want to get to? What would be the best
turnaround time, whether it is two (2) or three (3) months? I am not sure, but I think that
should come from the Administration.
Mr. Carvalho: Well as far as I am concerned, as soon as
possible, right?
Ms. Nakamura: Right, but what is really realistic?
Mr. Carvalho: I know with the Human Resources now in place
and their presentation, they are going to come in with some overall goals and objectivities
that will really show "what are some of the targets areas? What are we looking at in
training? How are we handling new employees overall?" I think that will be the point—if
you are asking us, me personally, I think we have moved. As you can see, a lot of the police
positions have moved where we are getting orientations. We are moving in that direction of
being more efficient in the timely manner. Realistic would be thirty (30) days maybe? I am
not sure.
Ms. Nakamura: I would like to know what our baseline data is for
how long it is taking. I think when I asked staff, I got different response from talking to
different Directors. What is real is what is— and what is that we want to aspire to? That
was one (1) of the areas under "efficiency." Another one is people also—Directors also
talked about the lengthy procurement process. Just last week, I think we met with Ian
Costa about the priority needs at Po`ipu Beach Park and from the time the Mayor went over
there and said, "This is a priority," it is six (6) months later and it is still in procurement. It
will not be done until June which is the most recent projection. How do we address that
process? What are the stumbling blocks that are making some of these important needs to
sort of just not get done sooner?
Mr. Heu: If you are looking for an answer right now, we
could either call up Ernie Barreira or just in global terms, I think number one (1), I have
seen an improvement in organization and process. In other words, very early on in the
Fiscal Year, Ernie will shoot out an E-mail to all Departments in terms of "these are the
deadlines for various types of procurements." Everybody has a head's up early on if you
have a procurement of"x amount" of dollars for this type of project, then that request has to
be into procurement by Department fails to meet those deadlines, then the consequences
are that it could be an extended period of time before that procurement is secured.
Ms. Nakamura: I think this is a Parks and Recreation situation
where somebody from the Administration says, "This is a priority to get the Po`ipu Beach
park...
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Mr. Carvalho: Yes, I said that.
Ms. Nakamura: It is a priority and yet from October to now, there
have been many delays from what we were briefed in the whole process. It is the
procurement and delivery of that. That is the most well-used beach park by residents and
visitors and has really has substandard restrooms. The question is if you see that as an
issue because maybe it is not from your perspective.
Mr. Carvalho: No, definitely.
Ms. Nakamura: You do?
Mr. Carvalho: Definitely. I think as we progress through our
discussions, you will see some of the progress that has taken place, some of the initiatives
and commitments we have made, whether it is new software, going paperless, or all the
parts that can help it move more quickly. Of course, there are other issues that happen on
a daily basis in the procurement world. When there are areas that need immediate
attention because it affects the people who utilize this particular facility, it should be taken
care of in a timely manner.
Ms. Nakamura: Right.
Mr. Heu: Councilmember, just one (1) real quick thing
because we are talking about that specific instance. I think we would all have to have a
good understanding of the specific set of circumstances related to that facility. My
recollection of it was although we may want to talk about the procurement process, I think
there were some permitting issues that were also part of the delay in that whole process.
To be quite honest with you, I do not have a full understanding, sitting right here of what
all of those specifics were. I would say there were other circumstances involved, too.
Mr. Carvalho: I think your question was for us; the
Administration and the Mayor's Office, "How do we perceive this working?" That was your
question.
Chair Furfaro: I wanted to expand on this a little bit. It was
very concerning because both Nadine and I met with certain staff members because the
issue keeps coming back to the Council with some urgency. After it was explained to us
some difficulties with the permitting process and so forth, we were almost assured that
things were going to move quickly. I want you to know Mayor, they gave us a date for July
that they would have it done before the start of summer. There was a little bit of pointing
fingers which was not good.
Mr. Carvalho: That was not good.
Chair Furfaro: There was pointing fingers about procurement
and who was doing what, when. That certainly expressed to me of the importance your
Department Heads are the ones who need to take care of their own internal customers.
Department Head to Department Head is an internal customer. The citizens are our
external customers.
Mr. Carvalho: Totally.
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Chair Furfaro: I just want to tell you that it did not sit very well
with me. Vice Chair Nakamura did extract a commitment for a date. You should look into
that, please.
Mr. Carvalho: Yes, we are.
Ms.Nakamura: Under the whole goal of government efficiencies,
and this cut across many different Departments as well, was the whole records system for
personnel management information, overtime, sick-leave, and not really knowing the
retirement benefits. It is something that cuts across all the Departments. I am not sure
whether that is going to be in Personnel's strategic plan or whether it is within your
purview?
Mr. Heu: Actually, right now, there has been an internal
team that has been convened. We have got representatives from different stakeholder
groups to make sure that when we go out and procure a system, everybody needs are going
to be met. Folks in HR may look at it from one (1) perspective and folks from Finance and
Accounting may look at it from a different perspective. That team has been convened and
they have been meeting.
Ms. Nakamura: Okay. Thank you. It seem like those are the
objectives like reducing the hiring and procurement improvements. Those would be
measurable objectives that I do not see in here. You mentioned the motor pool and trying to
consolidate. Does that come under Finance or is that a joint, interdepartmental thing?
Mr. Heu: That is a joint discussion that is taking place
right now. Most recently, our Finance Director has been in discussion with Glenn Sato, our
Sustainability Manager. We do not want to work at cross-purposes or duplicate efforts, but
it is obviously of common interest from both the Finance perspective as well as a
sustainability perspective. Councilmember, just for clarification purposes, the goals that
were set out here were very specific to carrying out the mission for the Mayor's Office,
specifically. We did not do the twenty thousand (20,000) foot level type of goal-setting only
because some of those goals are already imbedded in the various Departments.
Ms. Nakamura: We could probably expect to see these goals in
the Departmental Strategic Plans?
Mr. Heu: There is a good possibility.
Ms. Nakamura: Okay. We will be looking out for that and just to
make sure there is a home for it and that it is being addressed.
Mr. Heu: Yes.
Ms. Nakamura: The other thing that you mentioned in here has
do with the Endangered Species Probation Compliance that we have met the conditions of
probation, and we have been deemed by the court to be in full compliance. I wanted to find
out what does this mean and what do we need to plan for moving forward?
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Mr. Heu: Let us see. I believe the County Attorney's Office
was here not long ago and they provided you folks with a briefing. Did that briefing include
the specifics regarding probation? I think you guys went into Executive Session on that.
Ms. Nakamura: Yes. I think they were waiting for some final
court decision.
Mr. Heu: Okay. That has now been completed. We are no
longer on probation. What that essentially means is that we are currently at-risk. The
County is currently at-risk because we have no permit. We do not have a license to "take"
and they explained what "takes" are to you folks. As we enter the upcoming fledgling
season, if the County does not have a license to take and an approved Habitat Conservation
Plan. If a bird was to come down near a County facility and the Fish and Wildlife folks and
the Department of Justice folks were able to prove and make the connection between the
downed bird and our facility; we could be fined. The Department of Justice could once
again come after us. The one (1) thing that may provide the County some coverage at this
point in time is the fact that we are still engaged in attempting to work towards a permit.
That did not necessarily stop the Department of Justice from taking action against Kaua`i
Island Utility Cooperative (KIUC), even though they were actively pursuing a permit. We
have been working closely with the State Department of Land and Natural Resources
(DLNR) and the Fish and Wildlife service to attempt to move forward and get a permit. It
has been an incredibly long and drawn-out process and somewhat expensive. The fact of
the matter is that currently there is an applicant's group here on Kaua`i, collectively trying
to get a permit. Andrea Suzuki and Jodi Higuchi are two (2) of our Deputy County
Attorneys who have led this project for a few years now. Lynn McCrory was part of this
group. As we all know Lynn has moved on so now Jodi and Andrea have stepped up, and
they are now kind of taking the leadership role for that group. My understanding is that
there is going to be a meeting probably within the next couple of weeks that will give us a
better fix on where we stand. The bottom line is that currently we are waiting on DLNR
and Fish and Wildlife for a draft plan. We still have nothing concrete to hold onto, and part
of the great frustration that I have personally being involved in this over many, many
years, is that it has been many years and we have been unable to come to an
understanding of what the cost of that permit would be for the County. That has always
been a concern for me because I said without decision-makers and policymakers such as you
and the Mayor, and without knowing what that number is and what the exposure is the
County, how can we possibly understand if we are on the right track in seeking this permit?
Obviously, the alternative to seeking a permit is that we shut down all of lights and there
would be no evening activities. That provides the greatest protection for the County and
minimizes the County's risk, but I do not think that is necessarily an acceptable type of
decision at this point in time, not understanding the costs. If someone was to come back to
this body and to the Mayor and say, "well, in order to obtain that permit it is going to cost
the County thirty million dollars ($30,000,000) a year." We are probably going to say, "You
know what, we are going to turn off the lights." But we do not know. We do not know what
that number is. When you ask "what are next steps and what can we anticipate?"—that is
the next step we have been waiting on for a number of years now. I wish I could say that
we are very close, but I do not have a real good sense of that at this point in time. Until we
do get to that point to either shut down the lights or pursue the permit, again, I think as a
County we are somewhat exposed.
Ms. Nakamura: Is the approval of a Habitat Conservation Plan
the next step and then from there you apply for the permit?
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Ms. Nakamura: The approval of the plan would lead you to
acquiring the permit. I think before we even get to that point that we are saying, "Let us
push forward with this Habitat Conservation Plan," personally, I would want to know what
the number is. Why go through that whole process if the number is something that
collectively we cannot tolerate?
Ms. Nakamura: Who determines that number?
Mr. Heu: That would be Fish and Wildlife and DLNR.
III Ms. Nakamura: And DLNR?
Mr. Heu: Yes.
Ms. Nakamura: Have we had conversations with them about
what that number might be?
Mr. Heu: Yes, we had exhaustive discussions over the
years and the number has been all over the place. We cannot get a good fix on it. It is a
frustration that I have discussed with our consultants over the years. We have had this
discussion with Fish and Wildlife folks, as well as DLNR folks. It has been year after year
of the ground shifting on us. Hopefully, we will get closer this time around, but I could not
give you an exact date as to when we could anticipate that and I certainly could not even
take a shot at giving you a number in terms of what the cost would be to the County on an
annual basis.
Chair Furfaro: Are you finished?
Ms. Nakamura: I am not finished but I think Councilmember
Rapozo has a follow-up question.
Mr. Rapozo: Thank you, Mr. Chair. Years ago the Council
funded the Habitat Conservation Plan. That was years ago, and I believe we put in two
hundred fifty thousand dollars ($250,000). What is the status of that?
Mr. Heu: I do not know if you folks recall, but through the
years—initially we were going to push forward with our own plan, and then DLNR came to
us and I think they were in front of the Council at one (1) point in time, advocating for a
permit that would be sought by this collective group of applicants. At first we were not that
open to that suggestion because we thought it is possibly just so much easier for us to...
Mr. Rapozo: I remember that discussion. It was you up here
and we had three (3) options. Option A was the big one collective with everyone. Option B
was the County alone. Option C was "do nothing." I voted for Option A but majority passed
Option B, which we wanted to do it on our own. We did it on our own. Now, years later,
where are we on the Habitat Conservation Plan? Have we even started on that plan?
Mr. Heu: As far as the collective one?
Mr. Rapozo: No, whatever. I guess I am confused now
because I thought that process for the HCP or the Habitat Conservation Plan was in
motion. I just thought that was the case and it was taking a long time. I guess my question
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is, "Have we even started? Have we applied? Have we hired anybody to help us with the
1 n�
a I know we put in that quarter million bucks years ago.
p p q Y g
Mr. Heu: We had a consultant. A lot of the expense
involved in developing a plan is just a lot of data collection. They were assisting and going
through that process. I would say we were probably a good sixty-five percent (65%) and
seventy percent (70%) into the process. We had not gotten to an actual application yet. At
that point in time throughout that period, we were being constantly encouraged by DLNR
to participate in this larger effort. It was pitched to us that it would be probably an easier
process because it is something that Fish and Wildlife, as well as DLNR endorsed.
Mr. Rapozo: We would have had access to technical support
and access to possible Federal funding. That is how it was presented.
Mr. Heu: That was all part of it.
Mr. Rapozo: Right.
Mr. Heu: Finally, KIUC signed up as did the County. We
said, "Okay, if this gives us a better opportunity at securing a permit in a timelier manner,
which is not a bad thing." Especially at that point in time we were going on probation. I
guess I am trying to be diplomatic about this.
Mr. Rapozo: The real simple question is, are we in the process
of getting a permit? Really, if we are, what are we doing? What I am hearing today is that
there will be no lights. It is real simple. We are not going to get a permit before the
fledgling season. There is no way.
Mr. Heu: No.
Mr. Rapozo: I think it is safe to say to all the public watching
that we will not have lights again. Obviously, we are not going to have. I think the
misconception—and I apologize because I was not here for the meeting or the briefing; was
that once we get past the probation, we would be able to resume normal operations and that
is just not true.
Mr. Heu: Yes, I think that was a misperception. As we
have been going out to do our community meetings, this has been part of the presentation
to the communities that we have gone to is that we had a segment done on endangered
species of birds, in part because we need to help with an educational program that helps the
public understand that just because we are on probation does not wind things back and
mean that all of a sudden we are going to have all night games again.
Mr. Rapozo: Right. I guess how far are we away from getting
a takings permit so we can resume the night activities?
Mr. Heu: I wish I knew the answer to that question. I do
not because if you told me five (5) years ago we would be sitting here and still without a
permit, I probably would not believe that.
Mr. Rapozo: Where are we in the stage?
March 28, 2013
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Mr. Heu: We are in the stage that we are waiting on a
draft plan.
Mr. Rapozo: From the consultant?
Mr. Heu: From DLNR.
Mr. Rapozo: How long have we been waiting?
Mr. Heu: We have gone through iterations. This was as
far back as a year ago.
Mr. Rapozo: What we will do Mr. Chair—because I do not
think it is appropriate for the Budget discussion. There is no budget item in here in this
year's budget for HCP.
Mr. Heu: There are some lighting retrofits.
Mr. Rapozo: I think the bigger issue is the permit. Even if we
do all of the retrofits, we still have to shut them off.
Mr. Heu: Yes.
Chair Furfaro: We are already entitled to from our discussion
for another session with the Attorney's Office.
Mr. Heu: There is going to be a follow-up discussion?
Chair Furfaro: Yes.
Mr. Heu: Okay.
Mr. Rapozo: I want to hear from DLNR as well. That is who I
want to hear from.
Chair Furfaro: We will broaden that as well.
Mr. Rapozo: If they are holding it up...
Ms. Nakamura: And United States Fish and Wildlife.
Mr. Rapozo: Whoever is the one saying that we cannot or
what is the hold up? My memory says that we put the money in, we were supposed to get a
plan, and we have not. That has to be about eight (8) years.
Chair Furfaro: I just want to caution us because you used the
term "miscommunication." I do not want to go into any breach of Executive Session but I
interpreted it as we were on our way. Let us leave it at that and include some of these
others for a new posting. Acceptable, Mr. Rapozo?
Mr. Rapozo: Yes. Really, I want to have a public posting
because I want the public to understand where we are at. The legal issues can be done in
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Executive Session, but as far as the process and where we are at in the process, that should
be done in open.
Chair Furfaro: Al, I want to remind you. We went into
Executive Session because there was some possibility of concerns we might be breaching
some conclusion to this. I thought we were entitled to a conclusion. I will sort through that
and we will maybe set up two (2) sessions.
Mr. Rapozo: I believe that the Executive Session occurred at a
time prior to the final court determination, correct?
Chair Furfaro: Yes, but we were supposed to get a follow-up
after the court's determination which has happened so we need to have both.
Mr. Rapozo: We are off probation at this time and now I
believe we can have open discussion in terms of where do we go from here?
Chair Furfaro: Your concerns are understood.
Mr. Heu: What I might suggest is that we coordinate that
with the County Attorney's Office.
Chair Furfaro: I think I just said that, Gary.
Mr. Heu: No, in terms of the timing because I mentioned
an upcoming meeting so the briefing for the Council would probably be best if it was after
that upcoming meeting.
Chair Furfaro: I think that is what we are waiting for, which is
to hear from them on the date that we have come to a final understanding. We will close
this discussion now by saying we will post for two (2) briefings.
Ms. Nakamura: Another item on your page 8, at the very top,
"the Kekaha Host Community Benefits." There is discussion about a second round of
soliciting proposals and I was just wondering, what is the balance of grants in the grant
account?
Mr. Heu: We are going to ask Beth Tokioka to come up and
address that.
Ms. Tokioka: Aloha, Beth Tokioka, again. The short answer to
that is the balance that they have available to grant at the present time is one hundred
fifty-seven thousand two hundred ninety dollars and eighty-two cents ($157,290.82). They
have one hundred twenty thousand dollars ($120,000) in grants that have already been
approved by the Mayor and dispersed. They have a pending recommendation of seven
hundred eighty thousand dollars ($780,000) for the photovoltaic project, which has been
recommended by the Citizen Advisory Committee (CAC) and Mayor's approval is pending
more details on the plan and the rollout of that program. They have basically one hundred
fifty-seven thousand dollars ($157,000) right now that they could grant out.
Ms. Nakamura: Okay. For the consulting firm Smith, Dawson
and Andrews, what was the contract amount? One (1) of their deliverables are something
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that they did was to draft a successful grant application. I was just wondering what grant
was that?
Mr. Heu: I think it identifies it there. It was the Technical
Assistance Grant for the Housing Department via Housing and Urban Development (HUD).
Ms. Nakamura: Okay. I see.
Mr. Heu: I believe that the current funding was fifty
thousand dollars ($50,000), if I am not mistaken.
Ms. Nakamura: Do you feel that have you gotten good value out
of this contract?
Mr. Heu: Absolutely. The main purpose of retaining this
consultant firm was knowing that earmarks had gone away and we were going to have to
place a lot more focus on grants. We needed to better understand the lay of the land and
get perhaps a little more technical assistance in term of us writing more successfully for
grants. What we found as far as the services that SDA provides is that one (1) of the first
things that they told us is when we apply for a grant, a lot of times we will not be successful
on the first go around for any number of reasons. What they helped us to do is once we
were notified that we have been unsuccessful, they immediately go back to the agency that
the grant was applied for with, and we ask for an agency review. They will walk into this
agency, be around a conference table with them, conference call us in, and we will step
through the application with the agency. We found that to be a very, very valuable tool in
terms of maybe improving our opportunities for success. That was one (1) of the things that
we had never, ever done and in fact, one (1) of the first things that we raised to them was—
I am not sure if you folks remember, but a couple of years ago we applied for a
sustainability grant. We had Marie Williams and a bunch of folks working on that and
working really hard, but ultimately we were not successful. We asked if we could have a
review of that particular grant. Unfortunately, I guess these agencies have a set period of
time in which they will discuss those applications with you. We fell on the outside of that
but we feel very strongly that having that type of tool available to us will help us to become
more successful in the future. Most recently, we had a safer grant that we had applied for
the Fire Department and once we received notification we were not successful in that
application, I would say that we were in a Teleconference Agency Review with them
probably within a week after notification. In fact, I have a report from them. I think we
received it in January sometime of the activities that they were involved in with the County
maybe for the first six (6) months of the contract. I can forward that onto Council so if
members are interested in seeing the type of services and values that we are receiving that
Washington, D.C. consulted.
Ms. Nakamura: Thank you very much.
Chair Furfaro: Before we go any further, I have a couple of
housekeeping notes. It is our intention to end these Budget sessions at 4:30 p.m. If we
have a need for Call-Backs, we have several open dates. I just want to make that
announcement. I do not want to exhaust our entire staff by going beyond 4:30 p.m. every
day so our sessions end at 4:30 p.m. Number two (2), I neglected to inform you folks that
Mr. Bynum had made contact with me after lunch. He was a bit under the weather so he
has been excused for the second part today. Those are just the housekeeping
announcements.
msn
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Ms. Yukimura: One (1) quick one is on
your goal number 2,
"facilitate regular internal stakeholder meetings." You may have mentioned who that is
but I was not clear.
Mr. Heu: It is the weekly Department Head meetings and
then the monthly administrative/professional meetings.
Ms. Yukimura: Okay. That is the generic category?
Chair Furfaro: I used the same terminology, JoAnn, when I was
talking about the procurement issues internally, as your internal customers.
Ms. Yukimura: Right, as your internal customers. Thank you.
On the Smith, Dawson, Andrews; that is our D.C. lobbyist's category or are you calling it a
D.C. consultant?
Mr. Heu: We call them our consultants.
Ms. Yukimura: Is that in this coming agenda? The Budget?
Mr. Heu: It is not.
Ms. Yukimura: Okay, but it was a fifty thousand dollar ($50,000)
contract for this present year?
Mr. Heu: Present year.
Ms. Yukimura: It appears very interesting. You will not be
doing any work into the future and did you cut this out because of the Budget limitations?
Mr. Heu: That is a good question. Actually, I am glad that
you asked that question because although it is not reflected as a request in the Budget
Fiscal Year 14, we are currently riding off of a contract that was executed at the end of last
Fiscal Year. We are not actually using current fiscal year moneys for the contract that is in
place right now.
Ms. Yukimura: I see.
Mr. Heu: In other words, it was an encumbrance. Actually
with the current Fiscal Year dollars, we intend to procure services for the upcoming year,
and hopefully things will shift and there will be funding for it in the subsequent Fiscal Year
15 Budget.
Ms. Yukimura: Okay. That sounds good. Do they ever come to
the island or is this all consultation by phone?
Mr. Heu: Actually they were here in October for a very
brief period of time, and we kept them busy from the moment they landed until the moment
they left—I should not say "they" because there was on (1) individual who came down. She
was doing an assessment with each Department to understand the needs and to be able to
explore the possibilities for grant opportunities. Those meetings started very early in the
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morning and went into the evening. Out of that came the report which was one (1) of the
things that came out of the report—the report was one (1) of the things that came out of
that visit.
Ms. Yukimura: Is there a chance that the Council could have
some time with this person?
Mr. Heu: Yes. In fact, part of the contract is for them to
make another visit. We do not anticipate that visit to be one of those wall-to-wall meeting
type of things, and if we can coordinate that and have them here on a Wednesday then
there would be an opportunity to come before Council and provide an on the floor report to
you.
Ms. Yukimura: As you know, the money for the Multi-Modal
Land Transportation plan came from this Council from a Council request. We have lobbied
National Association of Counties (NACo) and Intergovernmental Relations, plus our
relationships with the Congressional Delegation. That could also work into some of these
monetary requests and our common County goals. Thank you. I noticed in your goals you
do not have any sustainability goals articulated?
Mr. Heu: Again, these goals were not global in nature.
Ms. Yukimura: Were you going to discuss the sustainability
goals in Economic Development? Is what that when it is going to come up?
Mr. Heu: Yes, and you will see there is also a segment in
our presentation that involves sustainability. It time is permitting and if it is the desire of
the Council, we can bring Glenn Sato up. Majority of the presentation will be part of the
Office of Economic Development.
Ms. Yukimura: Okay. I can actually see in your goals. I like
your basic breakdown because this is far clearer than we got last year or the year before, or
the year before. I just on my own added a section of Boards and Commissions goals. It
seems like another category, which is very much appropriate for the Mayor's Office is to
move forward on initiatives that will prepare the County to meet the future, or maybe it is
just to move forward on initiatives. Under that you have sustainability, the adolescent
drug treatment, and a few others. I am just sharing with you that that is how it is coming
across to me when you put you begin to categorize your goals. As to sustainability, if that is
coming up in Economic Development, I will wait until then. I believe that was it. Thank
you.
Chair Furfaro: Mr. Kagawa, then Mr. Hooser.
Mr. Kagawa, Thank you, Mr. Chair. I just have a couple of
questions. I want to make sure we get to Glenn and Teresa before 4:30 p.m. You talked
earlier in your presentation about protocol and how you wanted communications going
through, and I was just wondering if there is some flexibility to that. Recently it was a
Thursday and Waimea High School's baseball coach gave me a call and said, "We have a
game on Saturday and I guess in talking to the stadium manager at Hanapepe, he said that
the scoreboard was not working." If I send a communication over through you on Thursday,
you probably get it in your box maybe next week. I am just wondering if at that point, if
there is flexibility for myself because I was hoping that I did not break the rule that you
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want. I called Lenny and he got someone out there quickly and it was fixed. Is that kind of
request okay?
Mr. Heu: Again, that is why I said the protocol is a
challenge to manage because you do have situations like that, even the day you called me
up with for the permitting or...it had to do with the Genetically Modified Organisms (GMO)
issue. To me, that is part of our job, to take on those unanticipated, urgent kind of things.
The bottom line is just like you did that day, you can give me a call and swoop into action
and make that happen.
Mr. Kagawa: On that one, it kind of felt like the protocol was
met because basically, I was informed that when we have requests, we have to make sure
we go through you or the Mayor.
Mr. Heu: Yes.
Mr. Kagawa: I felt like that one was okay. On that other one, I
simply called Lenny and I was hoping that I was not violating any big rule. Even if I am a
member of the public, before I was elected I would call whatever Department and say, "Oh,
this bathroom is broken." We have some flexibility.
Mr. Heu: I defer to the Chair also. For us, I think we need
to be flexible. Understanding why the protocol was put in place, imagining a Department
Head getting pulled in seven (7) different directions because he was receiving calls and
requests from everybody. That was just a way to try to kind of give it more structure in
terms of how these conversations take place.
Mr. Kagawa: Understood. I just wanted to clarify. I did not
want to interrupt Councilmembers Rapozo and Nakamura. It is my recollection, and my
recollection is not always one hundred percent (100%) accurate, but after we had the
meeting on the shearwaters that after the agreement was met or complete, we would meet
back in my Committee with an update. Even prior to that, I talked to Thomas Kaiakapu at
DLNR and he expressed his willingness to participate. We could call Thomas and have
everyone there so we can discuss—my goal personally, and I know there is nobody that
wants the night games to happen more than our Mayor. He is one (1) of the most famous
players to come out of Kaua`i, if not the most. It is those night games that really attract our
youngsters to work hard and try to be something special like Jordan Dizon, and I think the
Mayor helped paved that way. To me, if we could have a goal by—maybe not this upcoming
football season but the following season, maybe in 2014. Let us have that as a goal where
we can have our night games back like we have had for the past sixty (60) years or
whatever.
Mr. Heu: Councilmember, just so that I am clear, when
you say"full night games," are you anticipating games that go to 8:00 p.m. or 9:00 p.m.?
Mr. Kagawa: Well, like we used to. We had all of our night
games played in the KIF season. I think if we work on that and get that management plan
down, we can at least get whatever they will agree to, I guess. I just wanted to give it that
full effort because I think I do not want to be the only island that does not have night
games for our youth. I know the Mayor feels the same.
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Mr. Heu: Just as a matter of full disclosure, I am not
saying that cannot happen but it is a matter of how much is the County is willing to pay for
those full night games. For the last couple of years, we have been calling night games that
start at 4:30 p.m. and end right when the sun is going down by 6:30 p.m. or 7:00 p.m. If you
are talking about going back to a time that the games were played totally in the evening,
then that can probably be done, but then the cost to the County will increase accordingly
because the exposure is greater in terms of us actually taking birds.
Mr. Kagawa: Just for me, and I have never seen a full stadium
on these afternoon type of games. Look at last alumni game, where we had people who
were reliving their past playing and we had a full stadium of six thousand (6,000) people. I
know that the people do show up for KIF football. We do not have much night events and
they really stepped up for the KIF games. I think as long as we are trying our hardest to do
what we can, I think it is all we can do, really. With that, I am good. Thank you,
Mr. Chair.
Chair Furfaro: Before I recognize Mr. Hooser, it might be better
for us to use the last forty-five (45) minutes of the day to have your Anti-Drug Coordinator
Department reviewed. Glenn can always come back during the Economic Development
Review. I just wanted to point that out.
Mr. Hooser: My question will be kind of specific, maybe not
short, but since we are here to talk about the Budget and our objective—the Mayor's Office
has given us our Budget and we now need to evaluate that Budget and pass a Budget. If
our goal is to pass such a Budget and minimize increases if you would, and maintain
services, then there are different ways we could do that. We could just stamp your Budget
and send it back. In my mind, that would not accomplish what we are supposed to do. We
can go through, pick things, cut things, increase things, and fiddle with the tax rates and
all of that kind of stuff. Would it be possible for—and this would go to every Department,
actually—for you to suggest an additional five percent (5%) cuts to your kuleana, rather
Y Y gg p ( ) Y
than have myself or the Council go through...if our objective was to cut further, no one
knows better than how to do than that the Administrator in charge of that? Would it be
possible for you to suggest an additional five percent (5%) as guidance for the Council?
Mr. Heu: You are talking specifically for the Mayor's
Office?
Mr. Hooser: Yes. In round numbers, it is my understanding
it is about ten percent (10%) that we have to come up with; fourteen million dollars
($14,000,000) off one hundred fifty-eight million dollars ($158,000,000) Budget, right?
Mr. Heu: You are talking about in terms of offsetting the
proposed revenue increases?
Mr. Hooser: Yes.
Mr. Hooser: If we would look toward half of that as additional
savings through cost-cutting measures, in round numbers that is about five percent (5%). I
would think the most efficient way to accomplish that would be to ask the various
Departments for their suggestions, rather than have us try to second guess what is needed
and what is not.
MKS
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Mr. Heu: If that is what the Council collectively decided,
that would be something that we could contemplate. If you are asking me today, I could not
tell you if there is an additional five percent (5%) reduction we could take out of Mayor's
Office. We have people putting together our Budget but when we got down to the final
2012+10 exercise, it helped to facilitate that discussion. For the Mayor's Office, it was
pretty painful. Like I said earlier today, if we cut something too short, we do not have that
flexibility given the system that governs us to be able to quickly respond to that. It is a
good question. I cannot give you an answer today. You can always cut but the question is,
"What is going to be the implications of those cuts?" If we say, "These are all things that
need to be done, so do we lose a body?" Those are some tough decisions that need to be
made. I could not sit here today and say, "Yes, we can go ahead and do the five percent
(5%) reduction. I think that we wrestled with getting to the point where we are at now.
Like anything else, if we were in the private sector and somebody said to cut an additional
five (5), we would cut n
a additional five (5).
Mr. Hooser: To be clear, I would think it would be used as
guidance. I am not suggesting that—we could just require five percent (5%) and do it but in
terms of guidance, the Council might be looking for guidance. If the Council collectively
asked, then you would be able to provide your preference. I know it is painful and it is also
painful on this side of the table also. That is an option, if we asked for it and you with look
at it.
Mr. Carvalho: I think we have tried our best to really work
internally in looking at all areas and trying to come up with a formula. The additional five
percent (5%) that you are suggesting—it is difficult. We are going to look at different areas,
maybe even bodies, which we do not want to do. We have laid out everything for you on
what we have to go through, but at the end of the day it depends on collectively what you
folks suggest or we can work together on. I think with the exercise we have placed on the
table and really kind of stressed it to this point where we would not have to impact core
services. I think that was the bigger part; services and staffing, which is needed to
continue. I know.
Mr. Hooser: The point is would you rather us look into the
various Departments if we were going to be cutting or would you rather offer up what you
think would be the priorities? I guess that is the fundamental question. We can leave it at
that.
Mr. Carvalho: Yes, let us leave it at that.
Mr. Hooser: That is point. It is a lot more efficient, I would
believe, if you say, "I do not want to do it, but if you are going to do it this is what I would
need; five percent (5%) off this and five percent (5%) off that and spread it around the way
you want." Thank you.
Chair Furfaro: I want to get into Life's Choices. Remembering
again, each meeting will just be recessing with the Call-Back schedule that we have. On
that note, may I say thank you very much for our first day. May I ask Theresa to come up?
Theresa and Life's Choices, I want to let you know there is goes to be a point here where I
have to leave because I have my quarterly diabetic checkup. I will turn it over to
Mr. Rapozo as the Vice Chair of the Committee of the Whole. Mr. Rapozo, remember when
we get to 4:30p.m., I would like for staffs purposes, to keep it at that. The call will be to
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recess the Committee and we will start again Monday with Public Works for the whole day.
Mr. Rapozo, I will give it to you now so that I can slip out as quietly as I can.
Chair Furfaro, the presiding officer, relinquished Chairmanship to Mr. Rapozo.
Mr. Rapozo: Thank you, Mr. Chair. Welcome, Theresa. We
can start by identifying yourself for our captioner and then start with your overview.
THERESA KOKI, Life's Choices Kaua`i Coordinator: Theresa Koki, for the
record, Life's Choices Coordinator.
Mr. Rapozo: You can start with your overview.
Ms. Koki: Our Life's Choices Office as you know was
renamed from the anti-drug program to Life's Choices Kaua`i last year in April. Right now,
we do have—in 2003 from a Resolution that actually the County Council introduced, our
program was formed within the Office of the Mayor. I have to make a statement now on
the correction of my body, which is physically upstairs with the Mayor's Office. My
immediate supervisor is Gary Heu; however my Budget is still with the Office of Boards
and Commissions because I changed mid-year into the Fiscal Year so it is still managed
there. Our resource staff upstairs, Cathy, helps me with travel and Cindy does all of my
purchases with the grants. My County Budget is still downstairs with the Office of Boards
and Commissions. Last year, there was a position approved through the Office of Boards
and Commissions to be my clerical assistant with my meeting minutes. The meetings that
I manage are four (4) teams and one (1) is the Drug Action Team which consists of all of the
Chairs of each of the respective committees, Prevention Enforcement, Treatment and
Community Integration. Treatment and Community Integration are two (2) committees,
but they meet on the same day at the same time because they really operate cohesively.
One (1) of our top priorities for the Holoholo 2020 for the Mayor's Office is our
Adolescent Treatment Center, and right now I am managing consultant contracts for them.
Most of you had either a summary or preview of the feasibilities consultant's first phase of
their work. They are finalizing phase two (2) and it should be done by the end April in the
first week of May. One (1) of our main goals this year is to update our Kaua`i Community
Drug Response Plan which expires. I am also looking into researching some software tools
to track our coalition and our committee's progress so we can have solid data on our
accomplishments, as well as where we fall short. I continue to search for grant
opportunities for our teams in prevention, treatment, community integration, and even
enforcement. This year, we have been very busy with legislative tracking, as well as with
all the marijuana, alcohol, and even prescription drug bills and the ingredients used to
make crystal meth.
I think that one (1) of the things that is noted in September, my office of four (4)
became an office of one (1) person. Like I said, the Mayor has since then established other
people in place to assist me with our finance and our meeting minutes. One (1) of the
biggest projects that we have and has been successful and we are continuing to expand is
our County Data Bank Collection. We started with the Strategic Prevention Framework,
State Incentive Grant where we tracked all of the underage alcohol consumption/arrests,
alcohol poisoning in three (3) of our emergency rooms here, and now we are expanding that
with suicide statistics, as well as other drug overdoses. In the beginning of this Fiscal Year,
I was able to attend a national convention for the first time, which is a Community Anti-
Drug Coalition of America in Nashville. That gave me a real big insight on where
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prevention is moving towards. Other than that, we do celebrate national events like Drug
Recovery Month with a health fair in September and Alcohol Awareness Month in April.
We are going to have various events throughout the—we try to strategize with each
Department of Education district, so we just worked with Kaua`i High School in "Shattered
Dreams." We are going to be working with Waimea and Kapa'a in some town hall meetings
for Alcohol Awareness Month. In the next couple of weeks, I am going to be working with
Purchasing and a committee on selecting a vendor for the Office of Youth Services Grant for
a youth suspension program that I believe was awarded this Fiscal Year. We were able to
get—I think it was thirty thousand dollars ($30,000) for starters for access to recovery for
people to access treatment programs, as well as culturally based activities for their recovery
process from the Alcohol and Drug Abuse Division. Also secured, was working with the
Kaua`i Transportation Department and getting some bus passes for transportation for our
people in recovery to get to and from where they need to go. That facilitated the process.
We do not manage the grant here. It is directly managed from the Alcohol and Drug Abuse
Division to the treatment providers. That stemmed from a million dollar grant that O`ahu
got as a pilot program for the first few years. We went it various meetings and got Kaua`i
to be the second leg of that grant. Hopefully, we will have better opportunities and more
money coming into the County. Do you have any questions?
Mr. Rapozo: I am sure someone has. Councilmember
Nakamura.
Ms. Nakamura: Theresa, thank you for the update. I was
wondering, when you add up all the grants, current and future; what numbers are we
looking at?
Ms. Koki: In the future, I cannot predict what numbers we
are looking at right now. I can say that I have about seven (7) grants right now and it is
very small. Other than that, we facilitate grants that come here that go directly to the
service providers. I am not certain, but I can get you that.
Ms. Nakamura: Yes, maybe if you could do just get a follow-up
and summarize in a table format the source, the amount, and what the proposed use of the
grants would be.
Ms. Koki: Okay.
Ms. Nakamura: I wanted to ask you about the community drug
response plan. I wanted to ask that although it is 2008-2013 plan, have all of the goals
been accomplished where you feel there is a need to update the plans?
Ms. Koki: A lot of goals have been accomplished or it is
goals that with this Fiscal, we do not think we can accomplish it. That is one (1) of the
important pieces I am seeking, which is a survey tool so we can track our successes. It has
been really hard to get data from all of the providers. We try to do it in our meetings and it
is hard to collect that information, but we believe we wanted to have a facilitator meet with
each of these groups—service providers I should refer to them as, to get what we
accomplished with each committee in their respective areas as well.
Ms. Nakamura: You think that most of the objectives have been
accomplished?
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Ms. Koki: I would not say most of them have. We are still
working on some.
Ms. Nakamura: Right.
Ms. Koki: It needs to be updated.
Ms. Nakamura: One (1) of the things that the Council approved
this Fiscal Year was a one hundred fifty thousand dollar ($150,000) grant pilot program
which we had some discussions with the Hawaiian Community Foundation. They were
looking into matching those funds. Has there been any follow-up with actually
implementing this pilot program as a way to leverage County funds and as a way to find
alternative programs for our youth?
Mr. Heu: Councilmember, in response to your question, as
Theresa indicated, she is now a one (1) man shop. I do not believe she has the capacity to
take that on at this point in time.
Ms. Nakamura: That was the reason why we looked at Hawaii
Community Foundation, recognizing that the County does not have the resources. It really
does not make sense to hire a body to do this, so what the Hawai`i Community Foundation
would do because they do this on an ongoing basis, is work with an advisory committee that
would help to direct the funds and do the paperwork. They do this all the time with State
grant programs and tobacco-free funding. They partner, so you do not need to hire bodies to
do that work.
Mr. Heu: You envision a process in which the County
has—in other words, this would be just be money that would be granted out to Hawai`i
Community Foundation?
Ms. Nakamura: You would do a request for proposals. They
might be one (1) that could apply. You pay a service fee but they do all the work and they
grant it out—it was afterschool and preschool programs.
Mr. Heu: Kind of the bigger picture is that if it was just a
matter of handing the money over to somebody, and there is really no management of those
funds by the County, I think that is one (1) thing. I think that is why we were initially—I
think we all would like to enhance the Life's Choices program. We were in discussions to
look at ways that we could actually not only provide additional monetary resources, but also
Human Resources to that program. We were engaged in at least two (2) formal discussions
with stakeholder groups. I think you were involved in at least one (1) of those meetings, as
well as Councilmember Yukimura, when we were kind of looking at big-picture. "Where do
we see the program going?" "How can we provide additional resources?" Unfortunately, we
got into this situation where realizing the fiscal condition and understanding that as much
as we wanted to do it, we were not going to be able to propose a "new position" to help
accomplish this work and further enhance the Life's Choices program. I am not saying that
we have given up on that because as we have been talking to other Departments, we are
seeing that when we go across the street and propose a Budget to Council, we are not going
to add any new bodies into the organization.
Ms. Nakamura: I do not think the pilot program was going to add
bodies. That was never the intent.
March 28, 2013
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Mr. Heu: Yes, but I
am saying sa
just y g thi s from my
perspective. I still think it would have taken some effort on someone's part to make that
happen. I guess what I am saying is that as Theresa's immediate supervisor, I do not think
she has the capacity to do that and still try to accomplish all the work that she needs to do
in any given day. I can understand the frustration of having budgeted those funds and not
seeing it move. On the other hand, we are also looking at it as—given our fiscal situation,
when we are looking for opportunities to actually cut back on spending to create a Fund
Balance that will help us balance the Budget in a future year. These are the kind of
opportunities, and I use that loosely, that we look for. I did not see that we were going to be
able to spend that money so that becomes part of the Fund Balance that we move forward
to help Budget Fiscal Year 15.
Mr. Rapozo: That money was not used?
Mr. Heu: No.
Mr. Rapozo: Are there any other questions for Life's Choices?
Ms. Yukimura: As a cosponsor of that program, I guess I want to
express my disappointment that this really innovative program with some real prevention
possibilities has not been implemented. I do appreciate the discussions that the Mayor's
p p pp yo s
Office participated in, and I hope that we can move out of those discussions into a clear
p p p a
direction that is going to be able to move programs like this. I wanted to ask about the
data. Do we have similar to what...I think Kaua`i Planning and Action Alliance (KPAA) did
in terms of children data when they made their presentation before the Council recently.
Do we have a data framework that has identified the indicators that you are looking at and
what we are going to measure in terms of program effectiveness and achieving the goals of
the Life's Choices Office?
Ms. Koki: I believed I mentioned earlier in researching for
software. Councilmember Yukimura, each grant has different indicators. Some are
regarding alcohol, age of first use/consumption, and others are regarding suicide data and
things like that. Are asking if it is incorporated in the Drug Response Plan?
Ms. Yukimura: No, I am asking if—it sort of relates to Council
Vice Chair's question about whether we have achieved the goals of the plan. The plan was
in 2008-2013—the one (1) that you are saying that now is time to update it.
Ms. Koki: You are asking about the Kauai Community
Drug Response Plan? That was my question. We do not have a tracking system to measure
our success.
Ms. Yukimura: If you have a plan, you need to know the goals
and objectives that are hopefully measurable and you want to know how you are going to
measure whether you are achieving your plan. We need to identify the indicators that
would give us this data or this feedback, right? I think we had this discussion at our last
drug summit last year. In order for us to know how we are going to update the plan, we
have to know how much of the existing plan we achieved. If we did not achieve much, what
went wrong or what did not work? Then, for the next five (5) years, you will know what
your strategy is going to be to get to those goals or maybe you got to those goals and you can
March 28, 2013
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celebrate that and say, "What is the next step?" You sort of need those measurement
systems and the question is whether we have such a measurement system.
Ms. Koki: In each section of the Drug Response Plan, there
is a measurement tool on the bottom but I do not think was very successful. Before we craft
a new drug plan or update it, like I mentioned, we were researching to see if we can track
all of that data prior to measure our success. That would be part of the whole proposal
before we craft the new drag plan or update and the collection of the data first.
Ms. Yukimura: All Right. Usually, you want to have that sort of
data collection system in place in year one (1) of the plan so for years two (2), three (3), and
four (4), you get guidance and even change your plans throughout the five (5) years. I was
part of that planning process. We did not do that. It is hard to go back because you do not
have a baseline from the first year to see where you are now in the fifth year. We need to
do that for sure if we are going to do a plan update. My other question is about the
Adolescent Drug Treatment Center. You said we are done with Phase 1. I think we were
all briefed that there is a need for six (6) or eight (8) beds, I think. The next phase would be
to look at programs and what would be the best way to respond to that need. That part of
the feasibility study is going to be completed by, you said, either mid April or the end of
April?
Ms.Koki: Their contract is until the end of April but there
is this thirty (30) day period where if they submitted Phase 1 and they were waiting a
couple of weeks for me to review, then we could extend that into May. They are going to be
having a community meeting in May before they sum up the final plan.
Ms. Yukimura: When does the Council get to see this?
Ms. Koki: As soon as they are done with the second phase,
so probably the end of April.
Ms. Yukimura: Okay. We were holding back on the moneys for
Architect and Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) because we did not get a clear idea of
the program response to the need. I am assuming those moneys are still intact because we
have not really developed what the program is going to be or what form. We are not even
clear if it is a facility or not. I hope we are not designing and spending money on something
that we do not know that we need yet. Is that the case? If so, how much money is left? I
understand that it is encumbered because it has been given to the architects but they were
not given a Notice to Proceed and they were told that was not going to happen until the
second phase of the plan.
Ms. Koki: We are here in the second phase of the plan, so
we did give the Notice to Proceed to both the Architect and the Environmental Assessment
Consultant; however, no moneys have been expended yet.
Ms. Yukimura: If they are starting work on it, we are obligated
to pay, if we have given them a Notice to Proceed.
Ms. Koki: Yes.
vism
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Ms. Yukimura: I am concerned about that because if the
program's second phase is not done, we do not know what form our response to the defined
need is going to be.
Ms. Koki: First of all, there is a procurement process of
when you go through whole procurement process and select consultants that you have to
award in a certain period of time. Secondly, these consultants have to get their
presentations as well, from the feasibility consultants of where they are right now. In order
to meet with these other consultants to even discuss what is going to happen in the future,
you have to enter into a contract award with them.
Ms. Yukimura: You are saying that any work on these contracts
of the Architect and the EIS Consultant will be for meetings to meet with the feasibility
Phase 2 report out right now?
Ms. Koki: Yes. Both contracts, as I did submit them to you
when I came to discuss it, shows it is in five (5) different phases, so there are stop and go
periods. If the scope of feasibility consultants does not prove that it is affordable or
sustainable, then the other two (2) contracts would be canceled.
Ms. Yukimura: Okay.
Ms. Koki: There is verbiage in
e the contract that I worked
with the County Attorney to state that specifically in there.
Ms. Yukimura: I am glad to hear that. I look forward to hearing
about Phase 2. I think it was a wise move to get a feasibility consultant. They appear to be
very qualified, and I actually trust that the information that they will be giving us will
enable us to address Adolescent Drug Treatment needs. Thank you.
Ms. Koki: Thank you.
Mr. looser: We did not have a chance to meet yet but I did
look at the first phase of the report, which I need the second phase to know because the
feasibility study will show whether it is affordable or sustainable.
Ms. Koki: Correct.
Mr. looser: The first phase seemed to say that, "Yes, we need
one," which I thought had already been decided years ago. What you are saying is that the
architect our any work will not proceed until we find out it is feasible, affordable, and
sustainable.
Ms. Koki: That is correct.
Mr. looser: Okay.
Ms. Koki: Right now, they are researching the service
model options, which could be 24/7 treatment/residential, outpatient, or both.
Mr. Hooser: And who is going to pay for that, how is it going
to be paid, and whether the funds are available...
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Ms. Koki: Yes, and where the money comes from and they
are checking with all of these funding sources, as well as people who have provided
treatment in the State of Hawai`i and the mainland, and how they have done it
successfully.
Mr. Hooser: To see if there a willing provider, if you would, or
who is willing and able to do it?
Ms. Koki: The funding source, yes. The provider itself
comes later on in another Request for Proposal (RFP) to bid for the center itself.
Mr. Hooser: Once the funding source is identified?
Ms. Koki: Yes. In their scope, sometimes they do find
someone who is very interested in doing it but we cannot have those discussions because of
procurement laws.
Mr. Hooser: Okay, got it. You had mentioned that you track
drug bills at Legislature?
Ms. Koki: Yes.
Mr. Hooser: I know there is an Adult Decriminalization for
small amounts and then there is medical marijuana, shifting it from the Department of
Public Safety to the Department of Health.
Ms. Koki: Yes.
Mr. Hooser: Does the County have a position? Are you
offering testimony on those bills?
Ms. Koki: Yes.
Mr. Hooser: What is your position?
Ms. Koki: On which one?
Mr. Hooser: On both of them. The decriminalization first.
Ms. Koki: Of marijuana?
Mr. Hooser: Yes.
Ms. Koki: We are opposed.
Mr. Hooser: And the medical marijuana shifting from the
Department of Public Safety to the Department of Health?
Ms. Koki: I did not provide testimony on that because I did
not feel it was up to us to say which the Department of Health and Public Safety should do,
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but I do believe that the Department of Health is already overburdened with what they
have to do.
Mr. Hooser: You did not provide testimony on that one?
Ms. Koki: I did not.
Mr. Hooser: Okay. With the decriminalization, is that a
policy of the community group or the County, or is that the Mayor's position? How is that
position worked out?
Ms. Koki: What we do is we discuss it in our committee
meetings, and then I do advise the Mayor and then he says after the committees give him
some information, he will meet with the other mayors on what their take is through
HCOM. The decriminalization of marijuana is believed by the Senate to be appropriate
that it is just going to be a one thousand dollar ($1,000) fine. In our committee discussions,
the people that are going to be caught with less than an ounce could probably not afford
their one thousand dollar ($1,000) fine, so they still would not free up the courts which is
what they are saying is going to happen. In my discussions with the Police Department, it
is really going to tie up the police to arrest the person, bring them to the station, and
measure their marijuana and then release them, arrest them, or give them a citation for
one thousand dollars ($1,000). It is just going to start more crime, I believe.
Mr. Hooser: I was just interested to see if you had a position
and what the position was. Thank you.
Mr. Rapozo: Thank you. Are there any more questions?
Budget questions?
Ms. Yukimura: Yes.
Mr. Rapozo: Okay.
Ms. Yukimura: Well, it is about the marijuana bill. I just
wanted to know what number it is and is there clear prohibition for youth in it?
Mr. Rapozo: Councilmember Yukimura, I just want to make
sure because we have to end at 4:3 p.m. and I am interested in that discussion as well. As
you know, we posted it yesterday with Mr. Kamita who could not make it.
Ms. Yukimura: Okay.
Mr. Rapozo: We will definitely entertain that because I think
it is important, but not so much for the Budget. Are there any more Budget questions for
Theresa? I have one (1). Theresa, you said you went from an office of four (4) to office of
one (1) and you had three (3) staff members. They were all grant funded, right?
Ms. Koki: Yes.
Mr. Rapozo: I was not because the Council cut your positions,
right? Those were grant-funded positions?
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Ms. Koki: Correct.
Mr. Rapozo: I just wanted to make sure because we have two
(2) new Council members here.
Ms. Koki: In the very beginning, there was just one (1)
general funded position under Mayor Baptiste and he had other resources in grant funds as
well for an Outreach Coordinator and a Clerk. Recently, I had a huge grant. I think it took
us over three (3) years. In the beginning of the second drug plan, I just came on board. It
was already being crafted so that is why I am now looking into the survey measurement
tool.
Mr. Rapozo: We appreciate what your office does. Personally,
I would like to see more attention on drugs. I know we spent a lot of resources on alcohol,
which is good as well but we do have some major—I realize that a lot of the funding that
comes down is for underage drinking. I do not know what we can do to help that effort. I
am disappointed as well with the funding that was set aside for the early learning or early
education piece. I appreciate your response, Gary. I know it is very difficult. Theresa is
spread very thin already. I do believe that the discussion was trying to partner up with
another agency that could have facilitated the use of those funds so that is something we
have to look at as we move forward.
Ms. Koki: I apologize, that what—it is hard to manage
grants that are given out and it is not just—the procurement for me to write an RFP
whether Hawai`i Community Foundation would apply for the money or not, will take me six
(6) months going back and forth. There were a lot of loose ends and I am still trying to tie
up with the Strategic Prevention Framework Grant. All of their staff left on September
29th and we are left with the audit and the responses. I have been spending a lot of time in
that area as well. Equally as important, we have got a lot of stuff done with that grant that
I do want to continue. It does take a lot just to manage the contracts. It is easy to score
and give it out, but to write the RFP and later on then have them report responsibly is very
hard regarding receipts, audits, and everything that way. That is one (1) of the other
things that I'wanted to make sure. I am disappointed as well that we were unable to help
these people', but it takes a lot to just manage—it took me six (6) months just for that
approval of the Office of Youth Services Grant, and we still did not give them the contract.
Then we have to extend it because it is almost the ending. It is hard.
Mr. Rapozo: We definitely appreciate your work and
understand that it is tough being a one (1) woman shop.
Ms. Koki: I wanted to comment on the drugs. I know we
did spent a lot on alcohol prevention, but for the age of first use for the boys and girls in
Hawai`i; we have the highest on Kaua`i. I think it is equally important because at the same
time they are doing alcohol, they are doing drugs.
Mr. Rapozo: I hope you are not getting the wrong message
here...
Ms. Koki: No, I wanted to introduce this, that I have been
collaborating with the University of Hilo Pharmacology School and they have interns here.
I have talked with several doctors regarding the prescription drug epidemic, so we are going
to form a group and start doing some publicity on warnings and things because the
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medicine cabinet is in people's homes. We are getting together with some realtors who tell
people when they have their house up for sale to take away their medications because that
is where people are getting it from as well, when there is an open house. We are working
diligently on that. Even if it is a party of one (1), I do have a lot of volunteers who are very
passionate, to balance the alcohol and the drugs.
Mr. Rapozo: I think having heard what you just said, I think
the value of what you are doing out in the community would definitely warrant an update
to the Council at a committee meeting, just so you can cover all the basis; not just alcohol
and marijuana, but all. I think what you are saying is exactly right. We are seeing so
many kids being addicted. You said it best, that it is in the medicine cabinets now. There
are grandmas and grandpas who are getting their drugs stolen from their own
grandchildren because it is so accessible. The University of Hawai`i at Hilo School of
Pharmacy—we just came from a Hawai`i State Association of Counties (HSAC) meeting or
presentation that they are hurting as well. They are looking for State funding so we are
going to be sending some testimony in support of a State Bill that can get them some funds.
The interns are here on island so we can take advantage and utilize them as well.
Ms. Koki: Yes. If I may add, we are also working with the
Emergency Room Physicians on what comes into their emergency room
Mr. Carvalho: I just wanted to acknowledge Councilmember
Nakamura because we did speak about the one hundred fifty thousand dollars ($150,000)
and you did tell me and ask me if that was something that we could look at. I want you to
know that I did look into that. It is something that I think we should continue to look at
and work towards because it is important. Same with Councilmember Yukimura. We did
talk about some other...I just wanted you to know that I acknowledge that and if we could
actually get the program going, or at least the RFP process. I just wanted to make sure you
understood that. Thank you.
Mr. Rapozo: Thank you. Are there any other questions? If
not, thank you gentlemen and ladies. At this, we will recess until Monday morning at
9:00 a.m.
There being no objections, the departmental budget review recessed at 4:30 p.m.