HomeMy WebLinkAboutParks & Recreation FY2013-2014 DEPARTMENTAL BUDGET REVIEWS 04-09-2013
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The departmental budget review reconvened on April 9, 2013 at 9:02 a.m., and proceeded as
follows:
Department of Parks & Recreation
Honorable Tim Bynum (present at 10:14 a.m.)
Honorable Ross Kagawa
Honorable Nadine Nakamura
Honorable Mel Rapozo
Honorable JoAnn A.Yukimura
Honorable Jay Furfaro, Council Chair
Excused: Honorable Gary L. Hooser
Chair Furfaro: Aloha. I would like to call back the Budget
Review meetings back from a recess from yesterday. Today, we are covering the
Department of Parks and Recreation and on that note, I would like to say that the
presentation covers about ten (10) sections. In those sections, I have laid out an order in
agreement with Mr. Rapozo first allowing him to make his complete presentation, then we
will go into detailed discussions on Administration, Fiscal, Planning and Development,
Maintenance, Beautification and Stadiums, we will do together, followed by overview of
Recreation, then we would like to get to the War Memorial Convention Hall operations and
the Wailua Golf Course. I do want to let you know that in earlier meetings, we deferred the
Department of Parks and Recreation evaluation of the Wailua Golf Course. For those of
you here for the golf course, the status will have a subcategory on filling the vacant pro
shop concession, filling the vacant restaurant concession, and the status of repairs and
maintenance regarding those two (2) leases. We would like to also have a discussion on
what our possible exposure to the County is regarding Bill No. 2476, regarding the lost
revenue that exists in this budget cycle since the pro shop and the restaurant are vacant.
We would like to have a clear understanding of the impact of that restaurant concession
revenue and the clubhouse recession. I did defer this to this meeting at the request of the
Administration. So, I do plan to get there today. Okay? I think that is probably where we
are going to start. But I want to find out if there is anyone in the audience first,
Mr. Rapozo, that wants to give testimony on the Department of Parks and Recreation for
today?
There being no objections, the rules were suspended to take public testimony.
There being no one present to provide testimony, the meeting was called back to
order, and proceeded as follows:
Chair Furfaro: Seeing no one, I do want to follow-up on
Mr. Abreu's comments earlier on grants queries made with Economic Development. There
is a substantial amount of grant applications which I would be glad to review with him.
But I want to make sure something that was clear, my comments about the four hundred
eighty-eight thousand dollars ($488,000),I think, was concessions on grants given to items
such as East/West Kaua`i Watershed, agricultural products, and so forth. They did not
include Capital Improvement Project (CIP) items that are given in the way of grant, not
Capital Improvements, such as some of the Comprehensive Economic Development
Strategy (CEDS) programs, and it did cover the educational enhancement that we made
available and Visitor Bureau grants. I do have that exact information for him now. I
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promised I would have something for him and I will make contact separately. On that note,
we will go ahead and let you have the floor for your complete presentation and then we will
go through the list. Members, I hope you got copies of what I read from? Good. Oh, not
this one? This one you did? I will make copies right now for questions that we are dragging.
I will get those out to you now. Mr. Rapozo, have you the floor.
LEONARD A. RAPOZO, JR., Director of Parks & Recreation: Thank you.
Good morning Council, Council Chair. First I would like to introduce—Parks is made up of
basically seven (7) Divisions and I brought everybody here so that when we have this
discussion, hopefully we can answer all of your questions. If I cannot answer them, then
hopefully one (1) of the Division Administrators will have those answers for you. So,
starting off over here everybody knows the Convention Hall Manager Eddie Sarita. Craig
Carney who is the Director of Golf Maintenance in Wailua. The gentleman sitting in the
back row that looks like Papa Smurf is actually John Martin who is the Parks Permit and
Security Coordinator and next to him is the Divisional Administrator for Fiscal and
Finance, which is Lynn Kuboyama. Sitting in the dark corner over there is William Trujillo
who is in charge of planning and development and he makes all of our CIP projects move.
George Ahlgren who really has probably the most daunting task. He is responsible for park
maintenance, stadiums, and beautification. Cindy Duterte, who does an excellent job with
our recreation for youth, kupuna, and just about everything else that involves recreation in
our community that the County handles. Of course, you know the other cast of characters.
My Deputy Ian Costa and we cannot be remised about the Finance Staff Department and of
course,Managing Director, Gary Heu.
All of you should have gotten a copy of my presentation and I know unlike my
presentation last year I could spend the whole day talk about parks. But then you would
give me thirty (30) questions about parks. So, I will try to zip through our presentation
because I know you have had time to review our presentation as it should have come over in
soft copy form. I would just like to regurgitate what our mission is. Our mission and goals
of objectives is one of a Department as opposed to individual Divisions. Our mission is to
promote and enhancing the quality of life for residents of our Island Home Kauai.
Everybody within this room that works with for the Department of Parks and Recreation
has their own role and piece in achieving this mission. With a that in mind, our goals and
objectives, which is comprised of the seven (7) Divisions, is to maintain the core services to
the community and improve the quality of the services, the repair, upgrade, and improve
the facilities that are enjoyed by visitor and the residents of Kauai. With that being said,
that is our goal and our mission, is to provide the community with quality services and
facilities. Again, the Department of Parks and Recreation is a relatively new Departments
It was in 2006 as a change of the Charter that we became a Department which has placed
all of the facilities under one (1) Department and it serves to give attention to services and
facilities for parks and for the community in recreation. The overall budget basically is
pretty much the same as last year. Fiscal Year 2013 to 2014, there is really no real
significant change in terms of moneys. As we had mentioned in our last discussion last
week dealing with the Spouting Horn fees or the Revolving Fund, we try to leverage as
much as we can under the term of guise of maintenance. Of course, we had the discussion
with the definition of "maintenance" and the appropriate things to try to lessen as much
burden we can on the General Fund so that we can do our part and yet try to be fiscally
responsible. As you can see from our graphs, the real total budget really has no increases
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involved. In terms of our vacancies, our vacancies, we are moving to fill vacancies. If you
are on page 3 of the budget presentation, all of these vacancies are in the process of being
filled. We have been working with the Human Resources Department which has made our
process much simpler, easier, we have gotten good results from Human Services, the
Department of Personnel Services in trying to fill our vacancies. They have accomplished a
lot. We have accomplished a lot in term of working with them and moving. But there is
still much more that can be improved upon on both sides in terms of working out the
mechanics of it. In all of these vacancies that you see before you, we are either at a
particular stage to hire. I am not real sure if you want to do this now and go over each
vacancy, if you want to discuss this no or we can discuss it and come back to it after I am
done.
Chair Furfaro: I would prefer that we come back to the
personnel matters on the vacancies under the category of Administration.
Mr.Rapozo: Okay. Good. Let us move on to Fiscal and
Personnel. There are successes. Again, Fiscal and Personnel, their big contribution aside
from being the finance side of our Department, the Rangers and the Park Permitting
Division comes under Fiscal and Personnel. They are really, the Rangers, are our eyes and
ears for the Department of Parks and Recreation. They continue to assist in events such as
the Mayor-A-Thon, or the Kaua`i Road Challenge, the canoe regattas in Hanalei,
monitoring fun runs, the coastal path,monitoring the courses, and providing assistance as
needed. Again, they continue to be an asset or a representative of the County in dealing
with our island visitors within parks, giving them valuable information in terms of where to
go and eat or the dangers of the beach. A lot of them come here and they do not know that
they need a camping permit. But rather than initially cite, we educate and we explain to
them or in this case with the camping permit, they get them right there on-site. They will
take moneys on-site and give them their permit, up until the next business day, when if
they continue to camp, they would have to come into one (1) of our Offices to get a camping
permit. But in their off-duties Park Rangers assisted in such events as the Age Group
Track Meet, the Mayor's Invitational Track Meet, they participate in help with Senior Field
Day at Lydgate Park, Summer Enrichment Programs, and helping staff when we have our
University of Hawai`i (UH) green and white game for football, which again will be coming
this year to Kaua`i. They help with the soccer clinics. Our rangers do practically
everything that we can think of in terms of interaction with the community and helping to
provide some sort of oversight and security in some of our events. This also does not
preclude their tough job of also trying to monitor parks where we have commercial
activities and concessionaires, as well as the ongoing battle with illegal camping, and the
ongoing compliance with the other rules that we also always come here to discuss in our
campgrounds.
Some of the challenges that Park Rangers do have is that they are really are a six (6)
member staff and the seventh member being the Security Coordinator who over sees entire
enforcement and permitting section. We have interviewed for two (2) additional Park
Rangers. We have hired one (1). We will be going out for — we hired one (1). We did not
feel that the other candidates would be suitable for the second position. We are going to go
out again and recruit and ask for more names and new people to come on board. That is
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probably not going to take place until after May 20th when the current list will expire and
we will be able to get a new list to see if we can get new candidates. With that being said,
as part of the qualification for the candidate, they are administered a test by Human
Resources. After they are qualified they get the test, they pass the test, then we do
interviews, and then we decide based upon criteria as to whether or not we feel this is the
best candidate for this position. We also in our last budget we were able to redefine a Clerk
to help in this area because we have taken on the task of commercial permitting and that in
itself, as we had discussed earlier, there is a process in which to help to monitor the
commercial permitting of peddlers in our parks and with this additional Clerk that would
be her main focus as well as to assist in doing special permitting for the Permitting Section,
working with leagues to help coordinate permits within leagues and also just to provide
other support. Some of the other challenges are that our vehicles are aged. Two (2) are
them were missed in last fiscal year. We are requesting replacement of these two (2)
vehicles in this year's budget. They are due to high mileage and that was a big request for
this Division.
Chair Furfaro: Lenny?
Mr. Rapozo: Yes.
Chair Furfaro: I need to interrupt you for a moment. The staff
reminded me today, all of this time I have been announcing excused absences and so forth
and I did not do it for the record.
Mr. Rapozo: Sure.
Chair Furfaro: Just give me a moment.
Mr. Rapozo: Sure.
Chair Furfaro: Members, reminder today that Mr. Hooser is out
on official Council business. He is Chairman of our Economic Development (Sustainability/
Agriculture / Food / Energy) & Intergovernmental Relations Committee and the Bills
regarding transit accommodations are being heard today at the State Legislature so he will
be attending for us. Then Mr. Bynum indicated that he will be tardy today, but in by 10:00
a.m. I am sorry, I forget to do that in the beginning. Lenny, I did not mean to interrupt
you. You have the floor again.
Mr. Rapozo: Thank you. We are on challenge for Park
Rangers. With seventy (70) plus parks and recreational facilities including the coastal path
and the new campground at Lydgate, it is a challenge for our Rangers who need to monitor
all of these activities and to do it. Sometimes we have staff that is out sick and people
taking vacation. It is a task of that they have risen up to it along with all of the other
duties that we ask them to do and they do the best job that they can with that. Since we
are on the subject of Lydgate and camping permits and the oversight of the Rangers, I
would just like to address a question that came up last week in terms of it appears with the
addition of Lydgate campground. As the County has increased its camping inventory,
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Lydgate campground, providing an explanation as to why there is a decrease in the revenue
for camping permits. I am going to answer all of this in one (1) blurb here that in Fiscal
Year 2012 the total number of permits that were issued for camping both at the
neighborhood centers, our main Offices, and at the Permit Counter in Pi`ikoi, was five
thousand one hundred sixty-one dollars ($5,161). That is total for the Fiscal Year 2012.
For Fiscal Year 2013, which this is as of April 5th, last week Friday, the total number of
permits is four thousand seven hundred two (4,702), which at this point we are ahead of
schedule or we have issued more permits than in the years past which translates into for
the total Fiscal Year 2012 we have collected revenues of seventy-nine thousand nine
hundred forty-four dollars ($79,944). For this fiscal year, as of March 2013 we have already
collected seventy-three thousand seven hundred twenty-six dollars ($73,726). So, based on
last year's figures and percentage of revenues, we are actually ahead. The estimated
revenues that we anticipate to collect if we have collected seventy-four percent (74%) of
current fiscal year, the balance of twenty-six percent (26%) which would be an additional
twenty-five thousand nine hundred four dollars ($25,904) for a total of ninety-nine
thousand six hundred thirty dollars ($99,630) that is anticipated. So, we are actually ahead
of revenue. There has not been a decrease as the question had asked.
That takes us through the Permit Section where it is real challenging right one for
John and my current Secretary that we were tasked with the current peddlers and
concession Ordinance to regulate and monitor this activity within parks. We went through
the whole public hearing process to establish rules as to how this activity is going to be
taken and I will briefly share it with you. It involves people finding applications for an
activity in a particular area. We have chosen probably the toughest area on the island to
regulate commercial activities and that would be Hanalei. Boating, surf schools, lunch
wagons, and kayaks. The reason to that is that if we can get a handle and get the process
together there, then every place else on this island, we believe, will be a replication and
easier task. We have already had the applications come in as to the different activities. We
have had public hearings. We did community outreach first, what we call the "circuit." We
went from Waimea all the way to Hanalei to address people with concerns and talk about
the rules that we were going to implement or even just the process. Then we had our public
hearings to discuss the process came up with the process, went through the public hearings
to address the activities, had community input at public hearing as to what the community
wanted, we established rules, and we are now working on the Special Management Areas
(SMA) permit for all of this activity in the Hanalei/Black Pot area. The SMA permit looks
like we had hoped to do it as a minor, but I will leave that up to Mauna Kea who has been
working with us from the County Attorney's. It may have to go to a major. But once we get
that SMA permit, we will be able to start implementing or regulating our rules in this area.
Now, with that being said, we have done that with current staff which has been very taxing
not only to the Secretary for the Director, but also for the Permitting Section which falls
under John. So, with the new Clerk that we are moving to hire, her focus was to follow
because it also includes keeping minutes, transcribing public hearing meetings verbatim,
ensuring and being able to track all of these applications for the activities, as well as to be
on top of what is the process and what we need to get done. John has been really good. He
has risen to the task. My personal Secretary for the Director has also assumed a lot of this.
So, once we get this additional Clerk that was funded for us in the last budget up to speed,
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we hope to be able to have it all in place as to how the process will take and that is all just
within the permit section.
Chair Furfaro: Lenny, I need to say something here.
Mr. Rapozo: Yes.
Chair Furfaro: Just being that I am from the Hanalei District
and there are a couple of things that I just wanted to point out and probably better left to a
discussion with Mauna Kea. As it relates to these particular events, first of all, it was
always my understanding that these commercial activities would not happen on Sundays
and not happen on holidays. Okay? That is different now in your work. Holidays are
excluded. That was not my understanding. The other thing I understood for the surf
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schools and other things, we made a commitment for the Hanalei residents especially the
school kids that use the area for surfing and so forth, that the permits would go from
7:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. so that when they got out of school, they would have a beach where
they did not have to compete with the best breaks for the surfing schools. What I mean by
the "best breaks," I am talking about the shore breaks in two (2) feet to three (3) feet surf. I
understand that has been changed to 7:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m. I just want you to know, for me
to find out that way, I am not happy about it. The intent was the sense of play for Hanalei
for the `ohana to get out of Hanalei School, Kilauea School and be able to surf any breaks
there. I just want to let you know and I should not have interrupted. But it is very
sensitive to me what I understood we were doing in limiting holidays and now to find out
we are not, that we had a plan that would go from 7:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. for the commercial
activities letting the keiki o ka nalu to be able to surf in a break after 3:00 p.m. and not
have to compete with the competitors. Keiki o ka nalu is important. All of us grew up in
the islands and we use the beach as a non-chargeable recreation facility. So, letting the
times be changed at this point just did not settle with me very well from what I understand
we were doing. I will continue this discussion with Mauna Kea. What has happened there?
We were supposed to have, I think it was eight (8) instructors in the water at any time with
four (4) surfing students per Instructor from the hours of 7:00 a.m. to 8:00 a.m. There could
be sixty-four (64) people in the water. Now to hear that the times are extended and the
holidays have been canceled, I would just like to find out why.
Mr. Rapozo: We can have the discussion. But Sundays is still
for the families, the surf schools. Currently the boating is...
Chair Furfaro: I do not want go there.
Mr. Rapozo: Okay.
Chair Furfaro: I am not following my own rules. But there
comes a point for myself, when I surfed since I was eight (8) years old and inside when I
find out how I learned about the concept being changed. I just want to let you know, I am
going to take that up with Mauna Kea.
Mr. Rapozo: Okay, we can.
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Chair Furfaro: I owe my colleagues an apology for breaking my
own rules. Let us finish this part. That did not settle well with me. Thank you. I
apologize to you folks.
Mr. Rapozo: Upcoming initiatives for the Park Rangers,
again, is of course training. In managing aggressive behavior, in working with the Liquor
Department, and also includes weaponless defense/self-defense training as Officers present,
and some verbal commands or empty hand control tactics or hard empty hand tactics are
some of the trainings that will be coming up in our Park Rangers in working with the
Kaua`i Police Department (KPD). We are very fortunate that the Kaua`i Police Department
has opened their doors to help in some of the trainings of our Park Rangers in allowing
them to do their work in the safest manner. We are moving—that was part of the fiscal.
In our presentation, the next one up was the Kaua`i war Memorial Convention Hall
and of course the biggest success there is the completion of the replacement of the seats
that the original seats done in 1964. So, after forty-eight (48) years all one thousand
ninety-five (1,095) theatre seats have been replaced. Thanks to this body and with us at
the Administration, we were able to get this project done. But because we had taken out all
of the seats, there was additional work to bring the other theatre up to upgraded. The air
conditioning registers in the theater were corroded and deteriorating and they were
replaced with new stainless steel registers to improve the air quality of the theatre. At one
point there was concern from the Department of Health that the air quality within there
was causing some of the visitors to be sick while we had done a thorough cleaning. We
included putting new tracks and curtains that were installed on both sides the stage so that
it blocks the audience's view from back and it gives it a better effect. We also cleaned the
top of the thirty (30) feet high stage drop ceiling for the first time in the forty-eight (48)
years that that place was opened. We purchased a new commercial type restaurant gas
range for the kitchen and replaced the old stove. A new Chicago faucet was installed in the
kitchen sink to make it easier for our users to wash their cooking and serving implements
and the purchase of a new floor scrubber which can simultaneously strip and clean the
auditorium and exhibit — I am sorry, the exhibit and lobby area to make it less labor
intensive and allowing the cleaning and waxing of floors to be done faster, better, and on a
more frequent schedule. I would just like to point out through this process, Eddie actually
had the use of the scrubber that was used and Kalaheo Neighborhood Center for the gym
floor that is used for the gym floor. But it has a dual purpose to strip and wax, we used at
the War Memorial Convention Hall and that turned out to be a really good piece of
equipment. Eddie put it in and this was funded last year and it is on its way to being
purchased and having it placed at the Convention Hall.
Upcoming initiatives for the Convention Hall. We will continue to work and plan for
the calendar year and hopefully implementation by 2015. We will be having this discussion
as probably revising and possibly increasing the facility fees. Those fees have not been
looked at since, I think, 1996, right? Since 1996, those fees have not been looked at in
terms of its appropriate fee structure. So, that will be done this year and hopefully with
implementation in 2015. Some of the challenges that Eddie continues to face is the
technologically and structurally get updated repairs to the facility and to keep it as best as
we can for the users of the facility. This also includes where we want to maximize the space
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of the facility. So, one of the conversions is the arts and crafts room. If we think about it,
we only notice where we parked the tables and chairs off to the side. Sometimes they use
that little pass-through as the bar during their functions. Well, that is really a space that
is not being utilized to its fullest potential. We are currently now moving, and with your
concurrence, is to convert that into other conference room, someplace where could meet.
You could easily put twenty-five (25) to thirty (30) people in there. What would that entail?
That would probably entail us getting a separate entrance way because if people were to
come in and walk into that door, whatever is going on there, there is going to be some form
of shyness or not feeling right or in the other sense is if we walk in and just meet in the big
exhibit hall. So, what we want to do is have some control where people can access, so that
we can things going on in the exhibit hall, things going on in the theater, and have a
meeting in the conference room. The conference room of course in order to do that, if we
close it off, we would need to do some air conditioning, it needs to get tables and chairs for
the meeting space, as well as bringing some up-to-date easel boards or anything that we
can think of to enable having a meeting. There is nothing wrong with using the current
exhibit halls to store tables and chairs in terms of putting them on the appropriate carts so
that they can be moved around in case we needed to just use one portion of it. There may
be a time where we would have to maximize the place. But nothing wrong with putting
them on the lanai for the time being. After the function, moving them back in. That is
Eddie's next big challenge there, is to maximize the capacity or the space at Convention
Hall which he has already started the process. For years he had the assistance of the SCEP
program workers, which are people from Workwise that are on government assistance that
need to, if they are not actively finding a job or they have put in applications and have not
gotten responses, that they would need to do work for a government agency. Eddies has
that. Some of those people come to his place and they have helped with the lawn
maintenance of the area and we can all attest to what that looks like. Well, I guess the
good thing is that they are running out of SCEP workers. I guess people are being
employed and that takes away a resource for Eddie. So, that makes it a challenge for him
to maintain the grounds and of course that also makes it a challenge for our Parks
Beautification Staff, that also will need to do go there and help Eddie to maintain his area.
Improvements we mentioned the capacity of the facility. He will be re-carpet the
theater area which requires him to replace approximately seven hundred (700) square
yards of carpeting. He will be replacing the light fixtures within the parking lot area which
is about twenty-six (26) of them which will be bird friendly, led, more efficient, and less
Ili cost. We will be replacing the old wooden doors in the kitchen area and hopefully install a
new rollup door to modernize the function of the kitchen area and converting again, the arts
and crafts room, and replacing the existing wood jealousies and windows of the Manager's
Office and the lobby storage room area with new double walls to create a better security
and prevent break-ins or potential burglaries. Eddie has also been the Manager of the
Adopt-A-Park Program. He continues to work with the community and be in community in
helping to maintain the County parks, also doing the interaction with community groups to
find these projects, and to coordinate the necessary materials and supplies that are needed
for the projects to take place, that is in addition to being the Convention Hall Manager. The
success of the Adopt-A-Park, some of the successes that we want to note is that some of
these groups are constant return or they Adopt-A-Park not only for just a onetime event,
but throughout the year. They help us graffiti a lot of the times, park maintenance in
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helping to beautifying or doing the little touches to bring the park up to speed. The
volunteers range from Easter Seals, Kamehameha Schools, Church of Latter Day Saints,
motorcycle groups, bicycle groups, Lions Clubs, I would be remised not to mention the Drug
Court who always contributes with volunteerism. The continued help with ongoing
cleanups with graffiti, ongoing clean up at Kaneiolouma Heiau on Po`ipu. They have also
helped with the new installation of a sprinkler system at Peter Rayno Park which will be
the Senior Softballers. They have also contributed twenty-five (25) picnic tables to the
Kamalani and Lydgate area that worked through the Adopt-A-Park Program to get this
done. He has continued to support the volunteers in the maintenance of County owned
cemeteries. The Ho`olokahi Program remains a process and a away for volunteers to assist
in what is planned and cannot be served to the Adopt-A-Park Program, but it can be
activated quickly if we need it to.
His upcoming initiatives for this particular section of his responsibilities are to
continue to invest as much time and energy as permitted, to increases the Adopt-A-Park
Program, but also to engage in our current volunteers more often in performing more major
clean ups in parks in each district of our County. The challenges for him, as he has noted,
is of course time and effort in engaging with the volunteers and also trying to maintain the
best facility possible at the Convention Hall. He was also given the task of being the
County Liaison to keep the Hawaiian Islands beautiful. But as the Coordinator of
Adopt-A-Park and Ho`olokahi, those two (2) projects remain the number one priority and
his liaison to this particular group, which is headquartered in Maui and Chaired by Jan
Dapitan, has not really materialized in terms of being a really active program here on
Kaua`i. But he stands ready to assist as much as he can in the organization of this
particular Kaua`i Chapter if need be. In our Convention Hall, in the operations, of course
the overall budget is a decrease in twelve point nine percent (12.9%). But we attribute that
decrease mainly to the loss of a staff member. Some of that money was realized, but also
because of the completion of the seats and a lot of maintenance things that were done in
this previous year.
Park Maintenance and Beautification, they are community. They also are involved
in a lot of community outreach and interact with our community surrounding our park
facilities. They provide support in Park Maintenance, Beautification, and the Stadium
Divisions help the community to be connected with one another and within our
Department. For example, this past year included numerous beach cleanup events working
with Eddie as being supporters and providing the necessary equipment needed for some of
these cleanups. I guess the ongoing cleanup that can be attributed to this section is
Lydgate Beach Park where after every major storm or even every Saturday they clean up
the Lydgate Beach area. George ensures there is a roll off there to provide them with the
assistance needed to throw away the debris that they picked up and then on Monday it gets
moved on. He also assists in not only beach cleanups, but volunteer painting projects
including the building of picnic tables and the improvement of our baseball and softball
fields. He works tirelessly with Eddie in those types of Adopt-A-Park projects. The new
automated irrigation system at Peter Rayno, the volunteers provide the labor. But really
George oversaw the technical installation of that particular system, the coverage of the
sprinklers, worked with one of the local irrigation companies in determines what was
appropriate and the spacing and that kind of things. It is also realized in this Section, and
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this is a big Section, that the County or the Department of Parks and Recreation provides
really the main venue for large gatherings of families for different types of events whether
they are birthdays, graduation, weddings, and reunions. They maintain the facilities to be
able to have these gatherings in the appropriate park areas as well as also preparing sports
facilities and the stadiums for which our children, adult, and seniors recreate and compete
for the health and enjoyment of everybody involved. A shout of a big test to their
coordination and their work was the Senior Softball Tournament held in Hanapepe last
year where it attracted teams from the neighbor islands. I think it was over fifty-three (53)
teams. The compliments from the participants as well as the event organizers was a real
tribute to the work that this particular Division does for the community of Kaua`i. We are
always very proud of the positive impact that they have and the services that they deliver
to the residents and visitors.
Training is always one that we stress and try to provide, as much as we can. In the
past year our staff has continued to have training opportunities in tree care, landscaping,
maintenance, pruning, safe use of fertilizer and pesticide, risk management, customer
service is always an ongoing, and some supervisory training for our line level supervisors.
We believe that providing and attending these training classes is extremely important and
is a positive part of what we are trying to accomplish in the Maintenance Division. Last
year through the budget, we were able to secure a new laptop computer, projector, and
screen to help us to provide some of these trainings where we were able that we do not have
to bring in a trainer or we do not have an online feed there. But George is able to use these
equipments to enhance the trainings of his Division. They also respond to emergency
evacuations. Any time that we had a weather system or we are called out by Civil Defense,
they become Civil Defense workers and during our tsunami warnings they moved our
equipment, got them to higher ground to protect it or provide any other support that we
would need. We always have these post debriefings that have identify potential programs
and of course we move to resolve these problems to hopefully keep safe the County's assets.
We continuously try to improve and provide more and newer professional equipment. But
with your help the last three (3) years, we have moved and have purchased a lot of
equipment and a lot of commercial equipment as opposed to previously for us to become a
Department, it appears that more residential type of equipment was being purchased and
so we are providing better equipment, that is the bottom line, with your help. Thank you
very much. A lot of areas —j because we work hand in hand with different Agencies,
communication is always needs to be improved. It always can be better and not just
amongst within our Department because we need to work with the Department of Public
Works, the Department of Finance, the Department of Purchasing, the Department of
Water, and the Mayor's Office. A lot of times we have events such as fun runs or charity
walks that the Department of Parks and Recreation has the mobile stage. It is coordinated
by the Mayor's Office. We need the Department of Public Works to bring a generator to
help with the function. So, there is a lot interoffice communication aside from just the
maintenance part where the Department of Public Works still provides repair for most of
the maintenance that needs to go on within park facilities. A lot of the communication is
something that has improved. But there is always room for improvement and customer
service is one that, I think, we will never stop improving, that all of our park employees
whether you are a Park Caretaker or at our Division Administration level, we always need
to provide good customer service regardless of the situation that arises, that sometimes you
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just kind of have to hold back. But we try to impress upon our staff as being
representatives of the County to provide good customer service.
A challenge is staffing. We have had a few vacant positions this past year and
moving to fill them as quickly as possible is a challenge. But nonetheless, it is moving.
Aging facilities, we are now a Department where now we can put priorities as our facilities.
A lot of our facilities or a good majority of our facilities are old. We are changing in terms of
trying to bring them back up to maintenance that has either been forgotten, neglected , or
has been passed over, over the past years. So, that is a challenge, maintaining these aging
facilities and also trying to keep up with the demand. A lot of these facilities that were
built, the demands have definitely increased tremendously and that has been a challenge,
infrastructure-wise, facility-wise, and meeting the demands of the community. We talked
about communication, moving to improvements is to improve in terms of training. Always
safety training such as tailgate training, bucket chart training, bushwhacker mover
training. These types of things have become regular part of our operations and trainings
are always important to keep them up to speed so that they will not forget or they are
current on the use of the trainings of this equipment. Other improvements are playground
surfacing and equipment replacement. That is a challenge. That needs to improve because
of sole source. Sole source, and we had the discussion last week Wednesday, that sole
source designation is only good for a year. So, every time that we need to purchase a piece
of equipment and it become a sole source, if the year has lapsed then we need to go through
the whole procurement process and that sometimes slows our ability to repair playgrounds
as quickly as we would want to. The good thing is that a lot of times there is more than one
(1) playground that needs replacing so in doing the sole source bidding, we package it.
Same thing with fencing and backstops, several more of our parks and recreation facilities
are in need of fencing and backs up replacement. We are moving to trying to address a few
parks per year to get it done and move to get it. Eventually, hopefully we will catch
everything up. Upgrades to Lydgate and Po`ipu Beach Park, that is moving. We have
gotten the items for the renovations or the fixtures to change them out. Ian Costa,
representing our Department and Lyle Tabata representing the Department of Public
Works (DPW). They formed',a working group where they meet and working with currently
what is going on. Let us take for instance the Po`ipu Comfort Station since that is going to
be under construction. We are waiting for the contractor to sign the contract. The contract
is in his hands. Once the roof is completed,since the facility will be closed,the Department
of Public Works has already removed the fixtures from the facility. Once the roof has been
replaced, fixed, we will be moving in with cleaning of the tile, painting, changing out the
fixtures to what we had talked about a couple of years ago or two (2) years ago in terms of
getting stainless steel fixtures in there, new lights, and upgrading that facility. Then we
will be opening that. We made the commitment to complete the roof as we made the
commitment to Po`ipu Beach Resort Association (PBRA) by June 30th or forty-five (45) days
as the Chair had put in a time line. So, that is continuously ongoing and that is working
with George's staff at the facility. To continue, existing contracts. We had that whole
discussion with the coconut tree trimming contract. Those are some of the improvements
that we need to work on and get it done so that there are not lapses and it does not expose
the County to liability.
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Ongoing equipment replacement, we have bought a lot of new equipment. But as
older equipment needs to be rotated out, we need to fill that equipment as quickly as
possible. Some of the other improvements that we are looking at, of course, are the final
clean up of Black Pot in working with Attorneys in trying to remove some of the previous
owner's things there and providing new water resources or sources of water are being
explored to try to reduce cost, utility costs, and that is the non-potable water. We had the
discussion out in Waimea and we are trying to work with Kekaha and ADC to try and get
potable water to the parks in Kekaha. That one there, is taking more coordination and
effort in working with ADC. But we seem to continue to be moving at the Waimea Canyon
site for potable water. We are grateful that Grove Farm over at Ulu KO Park, that is
potable water that is being used to irrigate that park. All of these opportunities that
provide for us to try to get potable water in substitute-I am sorry, to get non-potable water
to substitute for potable water. We will take advantage of that as best as question.
Ms. Yukimura: Just a clarification. The Grove Farm Park is?
Mr. Rapozo: Non-potable water. For us who grew up here,
ditch water.
Ms. Yukimura: Right.
Mr. Rapozo: It is ditch water.
Ms. Yukimura: Sounds good to me. Thank you.
Mr. Rapozo: The new budget and we are going through the
process. We are going to hire our first Irrigation Repair Specialist in Park Maintenance.
The duties will be to help manage, repair, and maintain our existing manual and
automated irrigation systems, that way we can use water more efficiently, and to help
design and install new irrigation systems at other parks. I think that is something that we
all talked about and we want to have happen. We are moving in that direction. We had a
discussion about County cemeteries. Page 20 communication from the Chair, we wanted to
have this as part of our presentation. There is the listing of the cemeteries and it ranges
from the acreage that as you can see there, from point nine two six (0.926) acres which is
the Wailua Cemetery up to twelve (12) acres which is the Kaua`i Veterans Cemetery. As
you can see, a lot of the availability of plots there are very low and these are community
cemeteries that date back to our plantation era and the community continues to take care
of these cemeteries. We provide whatever assistance we can in terms of providing them
with poison from Eddie's Adopt-A-Park Program or through George's maintenance budget if
he can. We also have sent Beautification over there when requested by our Caretakers,
that if the bushes are overgrown, we send Beautification there to trim back the bushes,
those big types of maintenance, and then we come in. We were asked through the
communication C 2013, if it would be appropriate for the Department of Parks and
Recreation to examine the cost to assist in maintaining these cemeteries. It was discussed
in a previous meeting here that if we were to do two (2) cleanings a year of all of these
cemeteries, what would it actually cost? Mind you, a lot of the cemeteries, for instance the
Kekaha Hawaiian Cemetery. The caretaker who took it upon himself to do it is no longer
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alive and there is no real person there. The families or individually in old the Hawaiian
Cemeteries, you are going to say that this plot is for one family, one family etcetera. These
families have kind of cared for those cemeteries on their own. A few of them are like that.
With that in mind, cemeteries are high maintenance activities because of the weed
whacking involved, because of the people who like to put their little boundaries and their
little headstones. It is not like the Veteran's Cemetery with a flat headstone, everybody is
the same type, and it is easier to mow. So, it would entail a lot. We looked at two (2) full-
time ground keepers. The scope of work were to trim trees and the bushes and the shrubs,
weeding around the graves, mowing, start at one (1) community and work our way to the
other side of the island, and then come back to the other side and start all over again. It
was determined that we would probably need two (2) push lawn mowers, it is here for your
review, two (2) weed whackers, a pole pruner, two (2) chainsaws, hedge trimmers, a truck, a
hand-held blowers, and two (2) Groundskeepers. Of course, this does not include fringes,
but just their base salary at a BC II level and that would be the cost. Of course, once the
equipment was purchased, then we would just have the salaries as ongoing costs. I would
like to point out that the people that are caring for the cemeteries are doing an excellent
job. The Hanapepe Hawaiian Cemetery is the one right when you make the left going to the
Veteran's Cemetery on Kaumuali`i Highway, it is a beautiful place. The Caretaker there is
an elderly Hawaiian gentlemen. He does most of it by hand and you have to take your hats
off to these people that are doing it because I went up there. At first they were very
reserved and what do you want and they are thinking that I am going take over. But I just
wanted to show my aloha and how is it going? How can I help you? Can I provide you
poison? Really, he just said, I do not want nothing. We do not want nothing. We take care
of our own. The Japanese Cemetery was over here, the Portuguese was given over here,
and this is how he told it to me. The Filipinos get over here, we are over here, and we take
care of our own. It is all family over here and we have been doing it for generations and we
are just going continue to take care of our own. That is kind of priceless stewardship that
as a County employee, I am very grateful. There are a couple of them like that on this list
and then the other side of them are that we do not have anybody and we would need to.
One number that strikes out to me as it strikes out to you is the Filipino Cemetery in
Hanapepe which is adjacent to the County cemetery. That community cemetery there
actually, the property for the County goes to the old Humane Society. So, there is a lot of
room for expansion over there. It the Filipino's community as we are taking advantage,
have been burying there because it is an extension of their section. But that is a place
where we could look at for at least that area, if need be. Some of the other cemeteries in the
area, people no longer bury there for one reason or another. Either it is an older cemetery,
there is no room there, or the hurricane takes out some of the cemetery. I am talking about
the ocean side in Hanapepe. So, nobody buries there. They have moved that. Hanamd'ulu
is another example where that would be another example where the community has
continuously stepped up and continued to maintain those cemeteries. For your review, I
hope we provided the information that you requested, Chair for Fiscal Year 2013 in terms if
we had to look at doing something with the cemeteries. Again, in our Park Maintenance
budget, it is an increase of nine point two percent (9.2%). But I would also like to point out
that if you look at the line items, that we do leverage the Park Revolving Fund in
construction and repair& maintenance (R&M) equipment. We try to leverage as much as
we can in that fund to reduce the General Fund.
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We are moving on to Parks Beautification which is a decrease and we attributed
that decrease to the operations where we tried to again, leverage the Parks Maintenance
Revolving Fund. Stadiums, overall was a decrease. A lot of it has do with the fact that we
already got the new equipment so there are no changes there. We move on to recreation.
Recreation is a really awesome Division. They are the hands-on to our community that
provide a lot of services to our keiki and our kupuna and those in between. The Recreation
Division has covered and serviced a wide range of our community events to ages nine (9) to
our oldest participate who look to be ninety-two (92) years of age and they participate in the
programs. I think it is a testament to this Division when we have seniors from out-of-State
because we do not require you to be a resident to participate in this program that stay in
condominiums such as Pono Kai and attend the Kapa'a Senior Center and enjoy the
programs there. We had someone from Minnetonka, Minnesota who worked thirty (300
years in recreation in Minnetonka, Minnesota to come and live in Po`ipu and attend some of
our senior programs and to see the work that we do is just amazing as to what recreation
do. Recreation is the hands on touch, the community Division for our Department in terms
of providing experiences and opportunities that are made available by that staff. Some of
the activities and events include open swimming, swimming classes, line dancing, Japanese
dancing, hula, ukulele, and yoga. Those are some of the activities. But also we cannot not
mention the Winter, Summer, and Spring Enrichment Programs that they provide during
those breaks from school for our community. Of course, the Age Group Track Meet that
attracts in excess of four hundred (400) kids. In two (2) days of events at our stadium,
which stadium which will be held April 27th and 28th of this month. The Hershey Track
Meet, we have community basketball leagues, basketball clinics, senior bowling, ballroom
dancing, softball, senior special event such as Valentine's Day, they have field day, they
have food and craft fair, and as part of recreation, they are helping to coordinate some of
the clinics that we have for our kids which include football, soccer, basketball, as was
mentioned earlier. They help with organizing that and organizing that for our community.
The youth programs, of course, the Summer Enrichment Program were again, a huge
success. We provide a safe, healthy, active, and educational experience for hundreds of
children. I believe last year was nine hundred kids? Seven hundred eighty (780) kids
island wide and that goes from Kilauea out to Kekaha. This year's Educational Team was
Hawaiiana which was designed to educate the kids about ancient and modern Hawai`i.
The kids participated in Makahiki games. They enjoyed a bus excursion to Hanapepe Salt
Pond, as well as to Mahakavi Cave, which is if you have not heard of it, it is down in
Mahalapu`u which is the only probably type of natural cave that is in the State of Hawai`i.
It is approximately ten thousand (10,000) years old. So, while monitoring these nine (9)
program sites, our staff observed the children absolutely enjoying themselves and the staff
engaged with the children and parents and commented how happy and appreciative and
very pleased that they were with the program. I think word of mouth is always the best
advertisement in any type of adventure or endeavor that you undertake and to hear one of
the sites that we have at Wilcox School. But there is another Summer Program at,Wilcox
School that go on when we do and to hear their parents say that they want to come to our
program for whatever reasons, I think, is a true testament to the type of programs that we
have. Spring Break and Winter Breaks, we enroll over four hundred (420) kids at Lihu`e
and Kalaheo Neighborhood sites. We provide daily outdoor and indoor activities including
arts, crafts, song, dance, a pajama parade, nutrition, board games, exercise, and sports
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activities. The enrollment proves that a need for these seasonal programs needs to be
continued for its existence.
Senior Programs, seniors are affiliated with classes and activities and the seniors
with our Department in the Department of Parks and Recreation continues to strengthen
and expand. We service over two thousand (2,000) elderly who enjoy the benefits of
recreational classes and activities that include leisure sports, social exercise, and education
at all nine (9) of our Neighborhood Centers and County parks. Our Recreation Staff is in
charge of all Senior Programs at the Neighborhood Centers and the Senior Programs have
classes from Monday through Friday such as quilting,sewing, ukulele, hula, and different
types of activities. All of this is coordinated by the various Neighborhood Center Managers.
So, as part of their duties, they need to coordinate and manage these Senior Programs and
with seniors and their Instructors, the staff will meet with the Senior Advisory Group
called Na Kupuna Council who update, plan, and inform us of their needs and wants. This
provides us a chance to gather information as well as keep the seniors engaged. With the
Recreation staffs mindset of thinking out of the box, we are able to provide opportunities
and freedom to have seniors in their communities to enjoy their golden years. In addition,
we have increased our senior clientele with the addition of the "Baby Boomer" generation
participating in center activities and programs. We are calling it the 21st Century Senior
and this is totally separate from Elderly Affairs. We classify the 21st Century Senior.
These seniors are retiring younger. They are more active, they are more computer literate,
and these are the seniors that we need to provide programs to address their needs in the
community as well. That is what the staff in Recreation is embarking on. For instance
there is, I think, it is still on Wednesdays. Badminton with the seniors out in Kalaheo.
Badminton for seniors. These are the more active seniors. We converted the Kalaheo
Neighborhood Center gym to have three (3) badminton courts. As we all know, it was
basketball and volleyball. But we did a test with tape and now we have stripes there. So,
there is badminton that goes on Wednesday for seniors. That is an example of the 21st
Century Senior or the "Baby Boomer" seniors that we are addressing and trying to provide
programs for. Some of the other events of course are Senior Fun Day which happens on a
Friday in September where all of the seniors meet at Lydgate Beach Park at the large
pavilion and have games and entertainment for the seniors. This includes horseshoes,
Portuguese Horse shoes, Tic Tac Toe, lawn bowling, and Bingo. With the assistance of
Elderly Affairs, we work with the Fire Department as well and we are able to provide this
day's event. Seniors from all over the island, at events like this, they rekindle their past
relationships and a lot of times seniors create new relationships amongst themselves island
wide. We all know about the Senior Arts, Crafts, and Entertainment Fair held as the
Convention Hall which is a big one. Eddie is the host of this, the host facility of it. Working
with our staff, it is a humongous event where the grandparents dance and show their
talents at this event. There also have the Senior Valentine's Day and it is always fun to
watch that over two hundred (200) seniors attend this thin and they dance. This year they
had Dicky Hamada's Starlighters there playing the music and the Fire Department served
as designated dance partners to any and all seniors that wanted to take that challenge
which I thought was a really nice event for them.
The pools, there is now a demand for aquatic recreation at pools which has
dramatically increased over the years. Throughout the years people have become more
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health conscious and have used swimming exercises a means to improve their health and
quality of life. The public users of our Kapa'a and Waimea swimming pools have increased
by incredible amounts. In our fiscal year open swim and public users have totaled
approximately in Fiscal Year 2001 to 2002, approximately thirty thousand four hundred
seventy-nine (30,479) users. Fiscal Year 2011 to 2012, for open swim at these facilities, it
looks like it increased about three hundred thirty-seven percent (337%) or one hundred two
thousand eight hundred eighty-nine (102,889) people that appear to be using our facilities
at the pool. We will talk about the pool at some point in our discussion. But yes, it is an
important asset that we need to figure out. All of this includes our spring and fall learn to
swim classes. We live on an island. We owe it to our keiki to provide them the opportunity
to swim. They are free to the public as always. We had one hundred (100) students per
swimming pool for a total of two hundred (200) students out of the two hundred (200)
students, eighty-eight percent (88%) of one hundred seventy-five (175) of them completed
the classes or graduated. Both swimming pools are providing fall and spring swim classes.
With that being said, I think that it is really important that we can touch as many kids as
we can to teach them how to swim. There are groups and organizations that utilize the
guarded pool sites as it shows here. High school swim meets, our Summer Enrichment
Program the kids go there and swim as part of the program. Boys and Girls Clubs come,
Boy Scouts, Girl Scouts, the Department of Education, the Fire Department does training,
Department of Land and Natural Resources (DLNR), KPD, paramedics, American Red
Cross, and even the Pacific Missile Range Facility for training. A lot of the times it is not
only for recreational use, but it provides an environment for training and we also try to
work in the training in an effort no to close the pools. When pools with closed on Monday,
we encourage them that they may use the facility all day and have the whole pool to
themselves provided they provide us with the proper certifications. Also on days that
cannot be worked out and they need to do it during a pool day, we will try and work with
the Agency not to close the pool totally, but to still provide the community with an area in
which they with recreate and others can use it for training.
Some of the special programs that fall under Recreation, the Good Beginnings
Alliance which worked with the Kekaha Elementary School in identifying and registering
eligible incoming children. A total of sixteen (16) children were enrolled in the
Pre-Kindergarten Summer School Program, implemented activities that focused on all of
the following types of domains: social, cognitive, motor development, and language skills to
assist the child in getting a good start. Child and Family Services modeled after the Head
Start Program provided educational, social, and emotional experience, as well as
nutritional meals, outdoor activities, and excursions to local venues. The Kaua`i Police
Academy League (KPAL) provides youth programs throughout the islands. In our line item
budget under "special programs," these three (3) have been identified as ongoing grants, I
guess, that we want to do. Good Beginnings and Child and Family Services, they provide a
program for the gap kids. As we have mentioned, we service kids as young as five (5) and
as old as ninety-two (92). It is that pre-kindergarten age that we do not service for
whatever reason that these two (2) Agencies do and they provide these type of social skills
that we need to help them succeed when they go to regular school. It is an extension, it is a
Summer Enrichment Program and so now we are having programs that cover the whole
spectrum of age groups of school kids. KPAL, everybody knows about KPAL and what they
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do within the community. We just provide them a grant that allows them to continue their
activities.
Some of the improvements that has been identified for this Division is to expand the
programs and in the available amount of time that is committed to daily operations. The
Senior Coordinator provides the resources to enhance all Senior Programs to all senior
centers and that is what we just discussed that we are moving towards 21st Century Senior
The Senior Coordinator position that we have, that is her function is to go after and try to
expand this particular segment of our population and take it to the next level. Again, the
21st Century Senior is unlike the other seniors that we know of, that were happy with just
crocheting, doing ikebana, sushi class and that sort of things,crafts. Our seniors are a little
bit different now and we need to address that. We want to secure funds to hire an Inclusion
Specialist to work throughout our Summer, Winter and Spring programs to assist and to
identify risk and special needs children to accommodate their needs and improve their
program experience. It has become evident that especially in Summer Enrichment
Programs that there are kids with special needs and it has been increasing. But we never
had that Specialized Inclusion Specialist to help the staff not only identify it but to have the
staff to coordinate and to work with these type of kids. This past year, we took one (1) of
the positions and we changed the requirements for it and we tried it with the Inclusion
Specialist. We went worked with the Maui County who has an Inclusion Specialist, came
down here, addressed us, helped us train, and to help us to get this person up to speed. It
proved really good in terms of identifying and giving that special child the same kind of
experience that is afforded the other child. There are some kids that have been identified
that the environment in which we are trying to do was not appropriate for them. A lot of
time these programs are respites for families that do not have additional help to help care
for the special child. It helps our staff in dealing with this special child in understanding
what they are dealing with the special child and helping this child to get the most out of
that program. So, that is some of the things that we are doing.
We would like to add, moving on to improvements, or modify the Exercise Program
for our seniors. Drums Alive is a program, Zumba Gold, Aqua Zumba which we tried some
of it through great success, tai chi, yoga, healthy cooking demonstrations to improve our
diets of our kupuna, cultural dance classes (continuing with the Hawaiiana) hula,
Japanese, and the Filipino dances. Those are some of our improvements.
Our upcoming initiatives is that our Recreation Division is committed to seek ways
to realize productive and effective services through a team of committed and dedicated
workforce such as develop goals in delivering services a team at the workforce level,
leadership and communications training, create within the workforce opportunities to
develop job skills through the mentoring of fellow employees who are willing to do a
performance coaching and share their experience for better job productivity. As always, the
challenges that we face is with the improvement and expansion comes change and
sometimes change in job roles and goal and tasks often bring anxiety to one's comfort level
as we all understand that they are all adapted or comfortable in what they are doing. But
as we try to move and broaden our theme, we cannot just sit in one place. We need to offer
new things. Offering these opportunities to build productive efforts to adjust to change will
positively, we believe, affect the work environment. The challenges continue to motivate
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and keep our seniors actively engaged and the challenge is going to attract the new senior
age group, the "Baby Boomers" to join our Senior groups and mentor our older senior
population. With changes in the workplace and organization, communication, and
persistence, senior programs will have a better foundation to beat the aforementioned
challenges head-on. Of course, under Recreation, the neighborhood facilities fall under this
Recreation Division. The maintenance and repairing of our facilities with ill-equipped
personnel. While we rely on the Department of Public Works for maintenance and repair
work of Neighborhood Centers and pools, they often have to wait to get the repair work
done and work orders often need to be followed up on or returned or sometimes we have to,
if they are unable to do the work, we have to move to contract out. A lot of times, these
delays in work, either add to the repair costs or it disrupts our center services and our
activities. We are asking that our Center Managers take a more active role in pursuing or
identifying maintenance needs and we need to keep on top of that as opposed to just
waiting for Public Works to come out and do their inspection. Although the number of
swimming pools has increases increased dramatically over the years, we continue to remain
staffed of at four (4) full-time employees. The growth in popularity and demand for pool
service and activities with the current staff has resulted in some employee challenges such
as absences, worker injury, Worker's Compensation, over time cost, and pool closures with
the lack of coverage sometimes. Overtime for temporary hire employee costs in Fiscal Year
2011 and 2012 was about fifteen thousand seven hundred twelve dollars ($15,712) and
Worker's Compensation payments was in excess of seventeen thousand six hundred
sixty-seven dollars ($17,667), just to pointed out the challenges with the pool personnel.
The Kapa'a Swimming Pool building, we know what that is like and what the ongoing thing
has been. It is in poor physical condition for the past ten (10) years. It is plagued with
ongoing deterioration, concrete walls and beams are peeling, cracked, rusted and corroded.
But the swimming pool itself and the pump room itself is in fair condition. The facility is in
fair condition. The user average for the pool is seventy-five (75) per day, four hundred fifty
(450) per week, about one thousand eight hundred (1,800) per month. Permanently closing
pool, we see a substantial negative impact on the Kapa'a community so we are working to
keep it open and address those needs, as well as continue to look at getting a new site for a
new swimming pool. As can you see the overall budget for the Parks and Recreation staff is
down about ten percent (10%). I am going to hold off on a brief video to show the effects of
the recreation and finish up with Planning and Development.
Planning and Development, as I mentioned earlier, is the CIP arm of our
Department. The projects that have been completed or are in progress so far in terms of
construction are there before you. Some of the highlights in red are to show where the
active stage of where we are effective on when we presented this to you on March 15th. You
can see all of the projects that will, up until recently was a one (1) man wrecking crew. He
did an awesome job in moving projects. But now he has an Assistant and they are making
things happen. We have weekly reports. It is always increasing to see the Will's Division
has been moving projects even faster now that he has an Assistant. We anticipate even
better and greater things when we have the Park Planner come on board, hopefully in
October. Again, the challenges for this Division — successes and achievements is
self-explanatory with what the ongoing projects have been going on. But his challenges, of
course, is being short-bodied by one (1) person. He has a part-time Architect that we
contract and we fund through projects. The critical thing about the Architect is that he is
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able to stamp his own plans which is an awesome luxury that he can do. Improvements it
to proved training for his new and up-and-coming staff which also includes a Hawai`i
Recreation and Parks Society Annual Conference that will be held here on Kauai that all of
our whole Department will be participating and all of our staff will be working at. Will does
a good job in working with our Parks Maintenance Chief, George Ahlgren, to visit and
evaluate the park's inventory and to formulate a prioritize list of capital maintenance
projects to assist in the planning of our future budget. We anticipate when we get the Park
Planner on board that this person would also provide us with the necessary insight and
planning of park maintenance projects that need to take place. For your review is some of
the pictures of some of the projects that William has been working on and his Department
budget had to be reduced. But his overall budget with the new increase of people coming on
board is about six point nine percent (6.9%) with the new Other Post-Employment Benefits
(OPEB) type of requirements. I will skip over golf and let my Deputy explain that.
What we wanted to provide you the last two (2) things is an overtime comparison
and this year we are going to exceed what we had done the previous year in terms of
reducing overtime. We did have some major events come about that we believe is
attributed to the cause of the overtime. For example, the tsunami warning where we have
to deploy and do our work. But also things like the Senior Softball Tournament where we
provided four (4) staff to maintain six (6) softball fields that we created in Hanapepe to get
the field up to what we believe was tournament quality by Kaua`i standards. Most of you
were there participating and saw the job that they did. A lot of the overtime increases are a
result of these types of events that have occurred. I think we have changed polices within
the Department to better manage overtime especially at the stadium complexes where a lot
of it was being done. Also, within our ranks within Park Maintenance, I think we have
implemented policy. But overtime is going to occur and we try to manage it as best as we
can. In the end of your pamphlet, we provided a photo gallery of some of the projects that
the Department of Parks and Recreation has done. We have a lot more pictures, but
apparently, my Secretary said my pictures were horrendous and she did not want to put
them in here. But these are examples of the Boys and Girls Club basketball court that we
monitor as part of the grant. That up at Kapa`a, this is the pore and we all know that they
are working at the portables behind the Convention Hall. They are making a clubhouse
there. On the bottom is the Kapa'a Newtown Park which we are preparing to put the dirt,
put new grass, and level it out. What I wanted to show here, this is what they call a box
scraper that this body helped us to put in the budget. We finally were able to not purchase
it, but get it on Kaua`i. We ordered two (2) of them. And what this box scraper does, it tills
up the field and it helps to make it softened and level it. This is the first time it was tried
out. George Ahlgren who has experience in this type of thins. What this is going to do is
also provide, when we come in with the new dirt for this field, is going to provide a good
interaction and composite together to make it a really nice field. But our Parks people now
will be able to use it so to soften the dirt on baseball fields to using this box scraper. It is a
good thing to have. We thank you for allowing the funding for this. George is working with
our guys to ensure that it is being used, not just here. Same thing with the stump grinder.
We talked about this two (2) budgets ago and we finally got it. This allows us now to get rid
of tripping hazards with stumps within our parks. This is the tree that in Wailua
Houselots, the big rubber tree was there and some genius used the middle of the trunk to
burn fire in it and eventually the tree broke and we had to cut it down. But it came at a
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time when we just got this equipment and we used it that for training. As you can see, we
have everybody from Park's Maintenance to Beautification there to learn about stump
grinder. Now it is one of our favorite machines that the boys want to use to get rid of the
ugly stumps in parks. The recent one, if you go behind by Lihu`e Baseball League (LBL)
baseball, there was a big stump where the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) access
ramp would go up to LBL's thing, we wanted to get that out. They got it out and our
intention there is to eventually grass it, get the cars out there, hopefully fence it, grass it
and provide at least another area kids because LBL is booming in terms of baseball players.
It is good enough for tee ballers. So, tee ball can practice here. We can probably do some
infield practicing with some of the kids but you cannot play a game there. But at least it
provides another practice facility for them, so that is the intent. These are just examples.
These are the temporary fix at Kilauea Park and working with the vendor to get new parts
there and get it done as soon as possible within this fiscal year. The last page, I just
wanted to show that on the other side of everything else, in our programs, this is Coach
Bud. She is the University of Hawaii Women's Soccer Coach and when they come down and
does our clinics, not only the field. I asked them to do a conference for our parents and in
this case, it is the soccer parents. We have done this for soccer. We have done it for golf.
We do for football and basketball. It is a night where we bring the parents. You can see a
nice cross section of people there where she is explaining to them what do soccer coach look
for. You want your kid to play soccer, this is what soccer coaches look for. It is not only the
best athletes on the soccer field. It is also the grades and the citizenship, the way you
presented yourself. They are not going to get something that looks like they are gang
banging. They want somebody that is going to represent their team. She goes through the
presentation. She did the presentation at the War Memorial Convention Hall and these are
soccer parents that went. I just wanted to show an example as to some of the different
things that we are doing. With that being said, before we move on to close out and move on
to golf. Scott, if you can help us. It is a very short video that was put together by Recreation
to highlight some of the things that we do in our community for the Department of Parks
and Recreation.
[VIDEO]
Mr. Rapozo: Thank you. I just wanted to go back to our
mission and our goals. As you can see, we are not seven (7) individual Divisions. One way
or another we are all connected. We all depend on one another, whether it is a facility in
which these programs have going to take upon. So, we have to ensure that George is able to
do it or the program within Recreation. We all have to work together, talk together, and I
think the staff has done an incredible job, including golf. You saw, we have golf classes.
Every facility that we have is utilized to give the experiences and to work and take care of
our communities. It is things like this that makes all of our discussion and our struggles
and what we try to do here, make it worthwhile. With that being said, I am going to step
aside and let Ian do the overview for golf and then we can follow the Chair's schedule.
IAN K. COSTA, Deputy Director of Parks and Recreation: Good morning
Councilmembers. Starting with the Wailua Golf Course successes and achievements, we
successfully completed the conversion of all greens from Bermuda to Seashore Paspalum by
the existing grounds keeping staff. The conversion results in a reduction of approximately
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thirty percent (30%) water usage, forty percent (40%) less fertilizer, fifty percent (50%) less
fungicide, and discontinued use of herbicide. Paspalum, you can use just salt to kill the
weeds. So, that is how we discontinued the use of herbicides. Also, we have completed
approximately fifty percent (50%) of the tees from Bermuda to Seashore giving us the same
benefits. Also, for a number of years running, Wailua Golf Course has received recognition
by way of the "Best of the Best," which is a Star Advertiser recognition which is voted by
the community mailing in votes. Our challenges, of course, the ongoing challenge of
minimizing the gap between the golf course's revenues and expenses by maximizing golf
play by both residents and visitors through green fee proposals and course promotions.
Providing needed ongoing facility upgrades and repairs to the nearly sixty (60) plus year old
facility. These include repairs and upgrades of the cart paths, the course's potable water
lines, as well as repairs to the restaurant that we are undertaking now which include the
replacement of the wastewater lines, as well as replacement of the windows. The original
jealously aluminum windows, as well as the golf course scoreboard which serves as a
platform to post scores for golf tournaments as well as post achievements or milestones for
the golf course such as hosting the Kaua`i open, last year we had the Statewide High School
Golf Tournament, things like that. Another challenge securing a successful restaurant
concession to provide food and beverage service and amenities to patrons and employees of
the Wailua Golf Course while also providing concession lease income. Securing a pro shop
concession to continue to provide on-site golf supplies, equipment, and Wailua Golf Course
promotional accessoriness while also providing concession income. Proposed golf fee rate
amendments to maximize golf play by both residents and non-residents <and lessons.
Develop a value added hotel golf fee amendment to provide incentives Kaua`i hotels to offer
their guests hotel and golf packages. Then ongoing promotion of the Wailua Golf Course a
visitor attraction through the Office of Economic Development and the Kauai Visitors
Bureau (KVB). I do want to add that I have had a recent meeting with the local marketing
resident who pointed out that by some minimal upgrade to the County website to enhance
Wailua Golf Course's link, we can actually capitalize on quite a bit of contacts prior to
visitors arriving. Also, providing for food, beverage, and golf course supply amenities
during lapses in concession contracts. Improvements. Again, the conversion of the tee
boxes to Seashore Paspalum without closure of the golf course at any time by staff during a
little at a time, replacement of the old dilapidated scoreboard structure which will be used
to accommodate tournaments and provide a platform for advertisement of golf course
endorsement and major events. Also, repair and replacement of the clubhouse restaurant
drain lines and windows, to improve the restaurant concession lease space. Also, I would
like to add that in December of last year, 2012, we did upgrade the entire golf cart fleet that
will serve us for the next five (5) years. Upcoming initiatives.
Ms. Yukimura: Excuse me, Ian, what did you just say that you
upgraded?
Mr. Costa: Upgraded the golf cart fleet.
Ms. Yukimura: The seats?
Chair Furfaro: Fleet.
Mr. Costa: The fleet.
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Ms. Yukimura: Oh, okay. Thank you.
Mr. Costa: The previous golf carts actually had been served
us for well over the five (5) year normal contract. I believe we went up to seven and a half
(7 1/Z) years. Upcoming initiatives, continue development of partnership with the Royal
Coconut Coast Association to offer golf vacation packages. We have now registered become
a member of that Royal Coconut Coast Association. Completion of the conversion of tee
boxes to Seashore Paspalum without closure of the golf course or inconvenience to the
golfers, replacement of driving range net and supports, improvement of the cart paths
throughout the golf course, and the installation of a filter system to our irrigation system to
increase reliability and reduce system maintenance. Also, we announced to the University
of Hawai`i and asked them to consider returning the John A. Burns Intercollegiate
Tournament to Kaua`i and they have accepted. So, that is scheduled for next year,
February 18th though the 21St, 2014. That would attract a number of collegiate golfers.
Also, we are hosting in June of this year the Junior World Qualifying which will bring in
approximately one hundred fifty (150) junior golfers Statewide to qualify to go to the
mainland Junior World Tournament. That is essentially it for our written description and
then there are some of the charts that we provide, some of the breakdown of the salaries
and wages. Salaries and wages are approximately two point eight percent (2.8%) of the
budget. Benefits, a little less than minus six point three percent (-6.3%) and I know that
cannot be right. The utilities lease is zero (0).
Ms. Yukimura: No, it is zero percent (0%) difference.
Chair Furfaro: The variance is zero (0).
Mr. Costa: The variance is zero (0) from last year to this
year. Operations minus five point nine percent (-5.9%) for a total of minus two percent
(-2%). To go over the breakdown of the Operating Budget, for this proposed year, the
largest share is the thirty-six percent (36%) which is salaries and wages. Next is the
twenty-eight percent (28%) for operations. Then twenty-four percent (24%) for the
employee benefits. Six percent (6%) utilities and then six percent (6%) vehicle equipment
leases. I guess I would like to also touch on quickly, in reviewing revenues and rounds
played the last eight (8) years. Wailua averages about eighty thousand (80,000) rounds per
year and that number has been holding steady for the last eight (8) years to present
regardless of the economic downturn that we did have. Revenues average in those eight (8)
years about one million dollars ($1,000,000) a year with the highest year coming in 2010
where the revenues were one million two hundred thousand dollars ($1,200,000) and then
the next year was, actually last year, was one million one hundred thousand dollars
($1,100,000). The lowest year in that period I show is 2006 with revenue of nine hundred
forty thousand dollars ($940,000).
Chair Furfaro: Could you explain to us what you are including
in revenue?
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Mr. Costa: Revenue is all the golf play and all of the
concession income?
Chair Furfaro: It is concession income as well?
Mr. Costa: Yes. I was pleased to see that over the past eight
(8) years it is clear to me that the play has remained steady averaging from a low of
seventy-one thousand (71,000) in just golf fees to a high of approximately one hundred ten
thousand (110,000). But it is also interesting to note is that the breakdown of the play,
senior and super seniors make up approximately eight percent (8%) to nine percent (9%) of
the play and contribute two percent (2%) to three percent (3%) of the revenue. Residents
average between twenty percent (20%) to twenty-two percent (22%) of the play and
contribute eight percent (8%) to eleven percent (11%) of the revenue. Juniors, it is about
two percent (2%) to three percent (3%) of play and contributes point one percent (0.1%) to
point five percent (0.5%). The non-residents make up approximately ten percent (10%) in a
bad year or in a bad month, to twenty percent (20%) in a good month of the play, but
actually make up thirty percent (30%) to fifty-five percent (55%) of the revenue
Chair Furfaro: Ian, may I ask if we can have a copy of what you
are reading from?
Mr. Costa: Sure.
Chair Furfaro: Just because when you say revenue, I have to
come back and say is that all revenue? It would be nice for us to have a complete set. Staff,
could we make some copies of this document?
Mr. Costa: With each one of these golf for category such as
senior or resident, that is actually just the golf fee revenue percentage.
Chair Furfaro: Okay.
Mr. Costa: Chair, I actually interpolated this and have
monthly revenue summaries for the past three (3) years as well as an overall summary
2006 to 2010 which can be copied. Then I can copy this as well, which I pulled from those
numbers. I think that is it for our presentation.
Chair Furfaro: Staff, could we get copies of this right now,
please? Mr. Rapozo.
Mr. Rapozo: Just a clarification. You break it down seniors,
super seniors, residents, juniors, and visitors and the percentages should add up to one
hundred percent (100%), right?
Mr. Costa: Yes, well there is a range there.
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Mr. Rapozo: Okay. I will wait for the report because as I
added them up, we are kind of short.
Chair Furfaro: Let us do this, we would like to have that in front
of us so we can digest it and please to the Administration in the future, when you make a
presentation either PowerPoint a copy to us or narrative copy to us. It really helps. Lenny,
is this wrapping up your presentation? Okay, let us do this. Let us take our caption break
now at five (5) of 12:00 p.m. and then we will go back to the schedule that I have. But Ian,
when we come back, could you make yourself available so if we get clarity on that report,
we can do that and only clarity on the report? Then we will go to our outlet.
Mr. Costa: I do want to say that there is a communication
requesting this revenue information.
Chair Furfaro: Yes.
Mr. Costa: This is all being attached to that as well.
Chair Furfaro: Okay. But for the discussion just what you
presented, if you could make sure that Yvette understands what you read from is what we
want to pass out now. We are in recess.
There bein g no objections, the Committee recessed at 10:54 a.m.
objections,
There being no objections, the Committee reconvened at 11:11 a.m., and proceeded
as follows:
Chair Furfaro: Since we have some people in the audience that
are going to take part of this, I need to share with you that I extended to the
Administration an opportunity for you to give us an outline of each Department according
to the schedule that the Council gave, okay? I want to reiterate that if I could, that if you
want us to portray your Department in a way that you are familiar with, please submit to
us the agenda that you would like to follow. I would also like to ask that if I could get this
report cleaned in a computer format so that we can measure the variances outlined here.
Lenny, we are going to take this now and I am just going to say again, I gave you two (2)
hours to give us the big-picture here. But I think we have talked in terms of highlighting
the variances from year-to-year through the actual as a new procedure. Listing the key
goals and what activities are associated with achieving those goals and list something
objectives with measurable outcomes. The who, what, and when kind of scenario and when
we get to the golf course, is what I want to focus on, okay? I just want to say that again.
We are going to have a lot of discussion about the concessions, the golf course, the revenue
cycle and we need to know that these are measurable, obtainable objectives because there is
either a one million dollars ($1,000,000) loss in the golf course and it just grows if we are
missing revenues and concessions. The marketing ideas that somebody had on a discussion
with you on the website, I would like to know a little bit more about it when we get to the
golf course. Is it about blocking tee times? What is this great, new exposure we have in
securing revenue for the golf course? I would like to say that there is also a part and I hope
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we have some real meat to this and I am saying to the financial people, we are still waiting
for the number that says we are not operating the next ninety (90) days with a concession,
with a golf pro shop. What does that do to the existing position of the golf course and
especially since those amenities are the ones that bring golfers. Are we forecasting a
reduction in rounds of golf for the last ninety (90) days of the year too? Those are tangible
items that we need to know about. I do want to say we all really enjoyed, especially, the
video on the real positive things happening. But we have got some issues that we have to
really manage going forward. I would like to start the discussion along the lines of the
agenda that I passed out. Thank you for the presentation and I would like to start on the
discussion with Parks and Recreation on the way of revenue, except we want to keep the
golf course pieces until we get to the golf course. Earlier, Lenny, you said to us that it
looked like you were going to end revenues for camping permits and so forth about twenty
thousand dollars ($20,000) higher than what you budgeted this year.
Mr. Rapozo: Correct.
Chair Furfaro: So, that will be something that we need to chat
about. But you also said that—were you referring to your whole budget being up nine point
two percent (9.2%)?
Mr. Rapozo: Yes — no. The whole budget as a Department is
relatively unchanged.
Chair Furfaro: It is a little over two percent (2%).
Mr. Rapozo: Yes. We have tried to leverage the Revolving
Fund as much as we can to relieve some of the burden on the General Fund.
Chair Furfaro: From our last meeting, I sent a communication to
the County Attorney asking them for the appropriate legal determination because there
were obviously items that do not fit with the standard accounting discussion on R&M
versus CIP.
Mr. Rapozo: Correct, yes.
Chair Furfaro: So, that query has gone out to them. But let us
focus this discussion now on anything related to revenues for Parks and Recreation,
excluding the golf concessions, excluding the golf concession. Do you want to add anything
before I ask members?
Mr. Rapozo: The only couple other things of that revenues
again, would be the Spouting Horn which is major revenue. As of February 27th, we have
collected two hundred sixty thousand one hundred seventy-six dollars ($260,176). It
averages anywhere between — last Fiscal Year 2012, the revenues at Spouting Horn was
collected four hundred fifty-eight thousand eight hundred seventeen dollars ($458,817).
That has been kind of the gauge in four hundred forties (440). The previous year four
hundred forty-six thousand seventeen dollars ($446,017) and the previous year were about
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the same. So, that seems to have been the revenues from that particular activity. Although
we do anticipate that probably those revenues will probable drop in the new contract of the
new bids that we are currently in process of obtaining the contract for the revenues for
Spouting Horn has finished. We anticipate probably this will come in lower. The other
types of revenues that we generate are from our park concessionaires which are the lunch
wagons and those are at one hundred dollars ($100) per month per Ordinance. I do not
have that total with me right now though.
Chair Furfaro: I am going to give the floor to Mr. Kagawa, then
Yukimura. But can you just expand a little bit about the Spouting Horn leases are up, is
that what I heard you say?
Mr. Rapozo: Correct, yes. We are currently going to go out to
bid for a new five (5) year contract with the vendors out at Spouting Horn.
Chair Furfaro: Mr. Kagawa, you have the floor
Mr. Kagawa: Thank you, Lenny. Thank you for the
presentation. Regarding the revenues from our camping permits, we have seen an increase
in this fiscal over last?
Mr. Rapozo: Yes.
Mr. Kagawa: What is the reason for the increase? Did we open
up more permits or did we...
Mr. Rapozo: Both. We anticipate collecting more permits this
year. As mentioned earlier, the total amount of permits that we collected with fees last
year was two thousand eight hundred fifty-five (2,855). This fiscal year we already
collected permits with fees two thousand eight hundred sixty-two (2,862) and with the
opening of the Lydgate Campground the past previous year, that is why I believe we see the
rise in the revenue.
Mr. Kagawa: What is our top, maybe top two (2) camping
permit spots on Kaua`i? Obviously, probably one is `Anini, right?
Mr. Rapozo: Anini, but with revenue generated, I would
believe we would have to look to get a site specific and I am not sure if the program that we
have can do that. But in term of fees costs, the highest one is Lydgate because it is five
dollars ($5) per night per resident and twenty-five dollars ($25) for visitors. So, that would
be where you generate the most money. But in terms of volume, you could probably argue
that `Anini, Ha`ena, and Black Pot would be areas that we see a lot of activity for permitted
people to go and stay. Again, residents are free. So, tourists would generate the revenue.
Mr. Kagawa: Thank you.
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Chair Furfaro: We are going to follow the rule that Mr. Rapozo
managed, that we will go around question by question so that everybody gets fair exposure.
Councilwoman Yukimura, you have the floor.
Ms. Yukimura: Thank you. Lenny thank you for your
presentation, also, Ian. I loved how you highlighted maybe the strongest point of the Parks
and Recreation Program which is the Recreational Program for seniors and kids. It just
shows what services can do to support the keiki and the kupuna.
Mr. Rapozo: But also there is say a connection with every
other Division because if they needed the place, it is at the Convention Hall, they are using
parks, thirty are using golf.
Ms. Yukimura: That is right.
Mr. Rapozo: So, everybody has to do their fair share to get to
that goal.
Ms. Yukimura: Thank you, that is a very important point. On
the revenues which are what I understand is the subject right now?
Chair Furfaro: Yes.
Ms. Yukimura: What is the income for our Convention Hall?
Mr. Rapozo: Convention Hall income? Do you have that with
you Eddie?
EDDIE SARITA, Kaua`i Memorial Convention Hall Manager: Around
eighty thousand dollars ($80,000)?
Mr. Rapozo: Approximately eighty thousand dollars ($80,000).
Ms. Yukimura: Thank you, Eddie. I want to say that the
Convention Hall report exhibits such stewardship of a facility and I so appreciate that
personally. But I think all the people who use that Convention Hall year after year, day
after day, week after week, appreciate that too. It is very interesting that you are thinking
about that space which is very underutilized, that room, and how you could optimize the
use of that space. It made me think of the Police Department even temporarily because
they came before us yesterday and said they did not have a room for training for about
twenty (20) people and as long as the acoustics are okay, so that you do not have conflicts
between the uses, that room might serve them for a while too. Congratulations on that. So,
eighty thousand dollars ($80,000) in fees and 1996 was the last time we raised the fees and
you folks are this year planning to review the fees again. Is that correct?
Mr. Rapozo: That is the intent and hopefully to implement by
Fiscal Year 2014.
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Ms. Yukimura: So, that we would be expecting a Bill of sorts to
come before the County Council before Fiscal Year 2015?
Mr. Rapozo: Yes.
Ms. Yukimura: Is that right?
Mr. Rapozo: Yes.
Ms. Yukimura: It would help to put timeframes to some of your
projected activities and goals in the next year, that would be helpful. But I believe I am
clear now. In terms of revenues that generated from Parks, you have the Spouting Horn
Concessions, you have the other park concessions, and where do the other park concessions
go? What fund do they go into?
Mr. Rapozo: I think that would be a Finance question, what
fund it goes into?
Ms. Yukimura: Can we get somebody from Finance up?
Chair Furfaro: Could you come up, Steve?
STEVEN A. HUNT, Director of Finance: The funding from the
concessions for Spouting Horn goes into the Special Revolving Fund which is a 209. But the
other funds go into the General Fund.
Ms. Yukimura: Under licenses or permits?
Mr. Hunt: I do not have that exact location of the fund. I
can find out though.
Ms. Yukimura: The camping permits and the park concessions,
those all go into the General Fund?
Mr. Hunt: Yes.
Ms. Yukimura: We are not sure what line item yet, but you will
let us know that?
Mr. Hunt: It was probably detailed on the revenue sheet. I
do not have that handy.
Chair Furfaro: Can Eddie respond to that?
Ms. Yukimura: Scott is showing us that on your revenue sheet
that it is going into charges for current services, oh, camping. Then Spouting Horn, other
rentals, go into rents and concessions?
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Chair Furfaro: Excuse me, Finance, can someone from your staff
answer this question instead of us reviewing?
Mr. Hunt: Sure.
Chair Furfaro: Ann, can you answer that question, please?
ANN WOOTEN, Budget Analyst: What was the question again,
Councilmember Yukimura?
Ms. Yukimura: The park concession, other than Spouting Horn.
We all know that Spouting Horn goes into, what is it 209?
Ms. Wooten: 209 Fund.
Ms. Yukimura: But the other concession like the lunch wagons
and the camping permits, apparently they go into the General Fund.
Ms. Wooten: Correct.
Ms. Yukimura: Do you know what line items?
Ms. Wooten: We have charges for current services. I think I
heard someone mention that, that is for camping. That is General Fund current charges,
camping.
Ms. Yukimura: Then the concessions.
Ms. Wooten: Recreation and concessions — rents and
concessions and that were for — I know we did some changes here on our current revenues.
This, for Fiscal Year 2014, and the other part of that question was for what?
Ms. Yukimura: Park concessions like lunch wagons.
Ms. Wooten: That is County registration fee.
Ms. Yukimura: Maybe you can get back to us.
Ms. Wooten: That might be better. That way I can research in
the system similar to some of the items that we had on last week Thursday. Yes, that is
better. That way the information is accurate and I am not guessing off the top of my head.
Ms. Yukimura: Okay.
Chair Furfaro: Ann, can you confirm right now that other than
the Spouting Horn Concessions no other revenue is going into the concession line? Can you
confirm that?
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Ms. Wooten: For the General Fund or for the Spouting Horn
Concession?
Chair Furfaro: Spouting Horn Concession.
Ms. Wooten: Spotting Horn Concession is only Spouting Horn.
Chair Furfaro: It is absolutely isolated?
Ms. Wooten: Yes, correct.
Chair Furfaro: The other question, we will send over then
Ms. Yukimura: Chair?
Chair Furfaro: Go ahead.
Ms. Yukimura: I am just trying to understand all the revenues
that come from the Department of Parks and Recreation. It is Spouting Horn, is it those
park concessions, it is permit fees, and golf course. Those are pretty much the revenue
sources?
Ms. Wooten: Correct and they are all different funds, of
course.
Ms. Yukimura: Right. Golf course goes into the Golf Course
Fund, Spouting Horn goes into 209...
Ms. Wooten: General Fund.
Ms. Yukimura: The others, we are presuming goes into General
Fund, but you will let us know specifically are where they land?
Ms. Wooten: Yes.
Ms. Yukimura: Okay.
Chair Furfaro: Staff, you understand the verbiage they used for
Councilmember Yukimura's question? Thank you Ann.
Ms. Wooten: Thank you.
Ms. Nakamura: I have a follow-up.
Chair Furfaro: We have a follow-up. You have the floor, Vice
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Ms. Nakamura: Just as a follow-up to that, maybe I think we had
asked last year in these budget presentations, if you include the revenue sources that
helped for your operations that way we do not have to dig up information in different
places. It would be very helpful.
Chair Furfaro: Mr. Rapozo.
Mr. M. Rapozo: Thank you. As it relates to revenue, Convention
Hall and your revenue worksheet, we are showing budgeted revenue for the Convention
Hall at fifty thousand dollars ($50,000).
Mr. L. Rapozo: My revenue worksheet?
Mr. M. Rapozo: Well, this came from Finance. It is showing
budgeted revenue for Convention Hall which is Fund 440, showing an amount of fifty
thousand dollars ($50,000).
Mr. L. Rapozo: I apologize. I do not see those. That is for
Finance.
Mr. M. Rapozo: Okay. I do not know how — maybe Finance
again. I guess we should probably have Finance up here during revenue.
Chair Furfaro: Yes. Let us make ourselves very clear, the whole
reason we put together one whole day just on revenue, I have to tell you I assumed Finance
would share that with the appropriate Department Heads. Now if Mr. Sarita is telling us
eighty thousand dollars ($80,000), than I guess my questions is that must be a to-date
number for the year and if that is true then Mr. Rapozo's question on what you are
forecasting ends us saying that we are forecasting about thirty thousand dollars ($30,000
under what we are currently doing. We will send that over in a question.
Ms. Yukimura: Chair?
Chair Furfaro: Go ahead.
Ms. Yukimura: I just wanted to follow-up too in term of our
request for the different sources of revenue from parks, could you please give the annual
amounts proximately? I think I heard a million dollars ($1,000,000) in golf course fees.
Chair Furfaro: No, you heard from me a million dollars
($1,000,000) in operating loss. That is what I was referring to.
Ms. Yukimura: I know that is true. We subsidize the Gold
Course Fund by a million dollars ($1,000,000) plus. But I also want to know what the fees
are and you can break it down into golf fees versus concession fee from the golf course.
They all go into the Golf Course Fund. Then we know, thanks to Eddie, eighty thousand
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dollars ($80,000) Convention Hall. Spouting Horn I believe it is about half a million
(($500,000).
Mr. Rapozo: About four hundred forty thousand dollars
($440,000), around four hundred forty-six thousand dollars ($446,000).
Ms. Yukimura: Then camping permits you were saying to-date
something, but I do not know what they look like on an annual basis.
Chair Furfaro: First of all, let us make sure we use the right
terminology. Eddie, you said eighty thousand dollars ($80,000) year-to-date? That is
current year and it is only reflecting eight (8) months. Okay? It is on the worksheet or
should be on the worksheet. If you are saying projected, that is for next year's budget. I
want to make sure that we are clear. You are projecting next year's budget, you are
currently have eight (8) months of actual and four (4) months of forecast. That is what we
want to make sure that we are getting a comparison on.
Mr. Rapozo: Councilmember Yukimura, with respect to
camping permits, the amount of revenue collected for Fiscal Year 2012 was seventy-nine
thousand nine hundred forty-four dollars ($79,944). To-date for Fiscal Year 2013, the
revenues that were collected as of March 2013, is seventy-three thousand seven hundred
twenty-six dollars ($73,726).
Ms. Yukimura: That is three quarter (3/4) of a year, right?
Mr. Rapozo: It is broken down into approximately
seventy-four percent (74%) of the year that we have collected thus far and based on the
numbers so far, the next twenty-six (26) we project to collect ninety-nine thousand six
hundred thirty dollars ($99,630), which the Chair has reflected as being about a twenty
thousand dollars ($20,000) increase for camping permits.
Chair Furfaro: Let us all use the same terminology right now.
Staff, Scott, please record this somewhere. We have eight (8) months of actual, we have
four (4) months of forecast, and then we have the new budget. Let us use those terms
actuals, forecast and budget. You have to put the actuals together with the four (4) month
forecast to compare that twelve (12) months with the budgeted twelve (12) months. Okay?
Actual, forecast, and budget. Just so we are all using the same terminology. Mr. Rapozo?
Mr. Kagawa? Mr. Bynum.
Mr. Bynum: This is anything related to revenue?
Chair Furfaro: Anything relating to revenue.
Mr. Bynum: Including golf?
Chair Furfaro: No, golf we are going take up separate.
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Mr. Bynum: I just have a couple of questions.
Chair Furfaro: Go ahead.
Mr. Bynum: How is it going at Lydgate Campground?
Mr. Rapozo: Overall?
Mr. Bynum: Yes.
Mr. Rapozo: Awesome.
Mr. Bynum: Great to hear.
Mr. Rapozo: The one thing, was a good decision not to open
p g� g p
the whole campground because parking is not a problem, but a challenge. You may have
one campsite, but my family included, everybody comes to spend the day and everybody
goes home. If we do that, we have opened about a little more than half, I believe, of the
campsite and I have heard nothing, but positives. There are some challenges late at night
with some kids needing a place to do whatever they want to do. The Police have been very
good at responding to those incidents when they are called. In fact, our family was the first
group camp to go and experience it because it was important for me to know what was
going on. That weekend, the campground was maxed out, all camp availability was full.
They had a bunch of Church youth groups there and families there. We experienced it. We
paid our two hundred dollars ($200) or whatever the cost was, seventy-five dollars ($75) a
night for two (2) nights, three (3) night, four (4) nights. It was a good experience. I saw
where there was some improvements that needed to be done in terms of some of the
drainage there when you are camping, some of the amenities there we need to do some
improvements because you have a little sink. But you are going to cook for two hundred
(200) people, that little sink is not doing you justice in terms of washing dishes and trying
to do what you need to do for the camp. Overall, there is a lot of repeat performances and a
lot of people repeat to go camping there including our vendor in Pi`ikoi goes there a lot. A
lot of people have come for camping permits.
Mr. Bynum: The revenues, is that an increase in revenue
related to this?
Mr. Rapozo: I believe the increase in revenue is partially
attributed to Lydgate.
Mr. Bynum: What you are saying is that like a week,
Saturday afternoon when the campers are there and other family members, that would be
kind of the max time?
Mr. Rapozo: Max time.
Mr. Bynum: For example, Saturday afternoon.
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Mr. Rapozo: Yes, because that facility, if you think about it,
you want to go surfing you have something right there.
Mr. Bynum: Kitchens.
Mr. Rapozo: You want to go fishing, right out there. You
want to have some place for the kids to go and swim in a safe place, you have the ponds. It
really has a facility that has everything that you would need for a family to enjoy a camping
experience. Some of the activities that we were worried about or was their previously has
been cut down greatly to almost non-existent. Sometime we do have the kids, like I
mentioned, going there late at night, doing what kids do, and then the Police have
responded very well to those situations.
Mr. Bynum: This premise that if you have intended use of
families present, it cuts down on the unintended use?
Mr. Rapozo: I think so. Our staff and Park Rangers, again,
they are only on duty until 10:00 p.m. but they make that as part of a place to go and visit
throughout the day to ensure everybody can have a good experience. With the invention of
this, I think, with the camera and it being easy to call, I was there on one of the nights
when there were some kids there and I approached the kids and asked them to leave. A
good portion of them did, but other did not. When I asked KPD for assistance, they were
there within ten (10) minutes and everything — that was the only night that we had any
trouble there or any disruptions late at night. It is been a really good experience out there.
Mr. Bynum: Thank you.
Chair Furfaro: Revenue?
Ms. Nakamura: Just to clarify, Lenny, on the camping. So, the
Department of Finance has shown us that the projected revenues for camping in 2014 will
be fifty-two thousand dollars ($52,000).
Mr. Rapozo: Projected revenue?
Ms. Nakamura: Yes.
Ms. Nakamura: Now given that is where you have already
exceeded that and it is only April, in Fiscal Year 2012 it was close to eighty thousand
dollars ($80,000) in revenue?
Mr. Rapozo: Correct.
Ms. Nakamura: Would you expect it to be higher than eighty
thousand dollars ($80,000), actual 2012 with Lydgate opening up?
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Mr. Rapozo: Well, there is a transition period. There is a
transition period and there are probably some feelings of people not all of a sudden — it is
like a new store that everybody goes to the new store to see what is for sale.
Ms. Nakamura: Right.
Mr. Rapozo: But there are maybe some reservations of
skepticism because hearing - there is a lot of publicity as to what it was like down there.
As more and more people use it and talk about it—just my immediate family alone, we had
fifty (50) people. As these fifty (50) go out and talk about the experience, you will have
more interest in this. I think now that the interest is out there, I think this year's portrayal
or revenue might be more accurate than what was in the past.
Ms. Nakamura: If you are at seventy-two thousand dollars
($72,000) now and there are several month months, do you think we will get up to ninety
thousand dollars ($90,000)?
Mr. Rapozo: They project them because this is about
seventy-four percent (74%) of the budget year and we are up at seventy-three thousand
dollars ($73,000). So, based on twenty-six percent (26%) left in the budgeted year we expect
an additional of almost twenty-six thousand dollars ($26,000). We- are projecting
ninety-nine thousand six hundred thirty dollars ($99,630) which will be about twenty
thousand dollars ($20,000) more from the previous year.
Ms. Nakamura: Thank you very much.
Chair Furfaro: Lenny, we would like you to look at the actuals
plus the forecast for this year, to tell us if you can adjust your revenue up in any category.
Mr. Rapozo: Sure.
Chair Furfaro: Okay. Mr. Rapozo.
Mr. M. Rapozo: Lenny, you said in your presentation that you
are not able to separate the revenue by park. We would not be able to separate Lydgate as
far as camping?
Mr. L. Rapozo: I am not sure if the software and have I to check
with John who is the permits coordinator, to see if that information can be extracted by
park.
Mr. M. Rapozo: Okay. Then Councilmember Nakamura touched
on the question that I had. I would ask the same as the Chair, that if we could update — I
guess the question I have is how did the Department of Finance come up with these
numbers because that is just two (2) lines alone what that makes us for eighty thousand
dollars ($80,000) short in revenue and we are all looking for revenue and it may be here.
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Chair Furfaro: It may be over there, yes.
Mr. M. Rapozo: It is just not listed in the forecasted revenue for
2014. So, that is a question we have for the Department of Finance.
Chair Furfaro: We are all square on the terminology we are
using now, right? The eight (8) months actual, plus what we are forecasting for the rest of
the year, and we need to compare that against what you are budgeting for the full next
year. It seems that there might be some found money there.
Mr. L. Rapozo: The budget, you are referring to that document?
Okay. I did not get that document.
Chair Furfaro: Just to check it for us, please. We will send that
over as a request.
Mr. Rapozo: I will work with Steve to get a copy of that to
make that comparison.
Chair Furfaro: Any more questions on revenue? Okay. Let us
put that one behind us. Let us talk about Administration and at this time, this might be a
good time to talk about your vacancies and your variances. Do you have a financial person
1 that could be with you on this or your personnel person?
Mr. Rapozo: Sure. In terms of vacancies in Fiscal Personnel
Division, Lynn is responsible for our Fiscal Department as well as our personnel matters.
There was a change in the structure of our government, County government, in terms of
although it is listed as the Department of Personnel Services we are moving towards a
Human Resource type of Department and these vacancies as depicted in your book, since
March, some of these positions have been filled. As you note, let us start with the sprinkler
repair, Position 900, that is a golf course position. We just received the qualified candidate
after going out for people that wanted to apply, they did the screening, administered the
tests, and there is one candidate who passed so there is an interview that is going to take
place. If you want go position by position we can or I can just say that everything here
listed is either has been filled or is in the process at some point of being filled. I came from
the State and Human Resource, having a Human Resources within our Department and
the change to a Human Resource type of system in the County has made it easier for my
Department now in term of trying to fill these position in terms of updating personnel
descriptions or in some cases looking at Statewide personnel and how do we compare and
try to get a comparable to Statewide and still meet the need of the County. At Least it set a
basis and helps us to test for these positions. In that case...
Chair Furfaro: Lenny, why do not we do this?
Mr. Rapozo: Okay.
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Chair Furfaro: Why do not you touch on any vacancies including
those that you are recruiting now and any new positions that you are adding in this budget.
Then on the other staffing positions, we will ask questions.
Mr. Rapozo: Okay.
Chair Furfaro: After you give us that quick overview, I will
recognize Mr. Kagawa.
Mr. Rapozo: Okay. Our Division Head meeting which occurs
weekly, I set aside about personnel because as soon as there is a vacancy I want to fill it as
quickly as possible for all the obvious reasons in terms of getting the work done, but also to
ease the burden that the people who have to step up to do it. Overall, all of these positions
here are in some form of has moved along the process in the process whether it is research
that is being done, position descriptions that have been created and has been sent either to
us and now awaits approval at the next level. In one case a Park Security Officer 1214, we
have already hired it, that person started, and he is in training. The other Security Officer
we will try to fill in after May 20th because we need a new list. This current list does not
expire. All of theses things, I can report that everything here is in some way moving in
terms of being filled and in one case, in a couple of cases or in one case, there is a
dollar-funded position. But in terms of requesting any new positions, our Department is
not asking for any new position because of the fiscal forecast or the way we are right now.
It may not be the right time to ask for anything new to help us.
Chair Furfaro: Mr. Kagawa, you have the floor.
Mr. Kagawa: Lenny, just a general question and to be honest I
had a person that is I guess has been talking to one of the Caretakers at Lydgate and also
discussing a little bit with UPW. I guess one of the problems with the Caretaker having to
maintain the facility is that he said his position is I guess a Caretaker I. If he were a
Caretaker II, I guess he could clean the grounds a little bit or something. I do not know if
you can just describe to us the difference between a Park Caretaker I and a Park
Caretaker II as far as what they can and cannot do?
Mr. Rapozo: The Lydgate Beach Park is very different than
any other park. When Kamalani, the bike path, campground, and the sports field was all
talked about and all coming to realization, that facility there, the Park Caretakers are one
step higher. They are BC IIs. Their basic Caretaker is a BC I, is that right? Right, BC I.
So, the BC IIs at Lydgate Beach Park are responsible for not only basic maintenance of
bathrooms and grounds, but they also have to take care of the path and the campground,
which is a specialized campground which is detailed because it is site camping, and the
sports field that is lined. They were given a higher rating because of the nature. Last
budget cycle, and we had the discussion here, we wanted to improve the experience with
the restrooms, comfort stations, because it is heavily used by visitors and the community on
any given holiday weekend. We were given an added position of a Park Caretaker I which
is one grade lower. But the focus is not so much of being a Bathroom/Comfort Station
Attendant, but his focus would be to ensure that we do not have a dirty restroom. That is
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his focus. Then after that has been done and the trashcans are good, then he can pick up a
weed whacker and go help and maintain other parts of the park. But that does not stop the
other Caretakers who get a higher rating from doing their morning duties. First thing in
the morning they clean restrooms because this additional help that they get was to help
with the maintenance of the comfort stations. At Lydgate there is the one by the lifeguard
stand, the main pavilion, Kamalani Park, southern comfort station, and by the
campground. So, it is about five (5) or six (6), all through the day. So, we wanted to have a
clean bathroom. He starts at a later time from 10:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. and he starts
Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday, and Monday to get the weekend coverage that we
wanted to have. So, that is why there is the difference in pay. But I am not sure why that
person is saying that they cannot, but really that person, if we are talking about that same
person, their focus is comfort station first and everything else after.
Mr. Kagawa: I think it was just stems from the fact that I
guess he is say thing he has time do more sometimes. Maybe sometimes he does not have
that extra time. But when he does have that extra time that because he is not that high a
grade, he does not want to get in trouble by doing it.
Mr. Rapozo: Well, that is something that he should discuss
with us because in a Park Caretaker I situation, he can do everything in his job description
with the — he can do everything. In his job description he can line baseball fields, line
fields, he can do everything. He may not be getting the same pay because in his
description, they did not have specifically campgrounds. But everything else is in his job
description that he can do, that he would not get into trouble for. You are right, there are
weekends where the place is not going to be as busy as others so you do not have to clean
the bathrooms as often or as well as they need to. He still can pick up a weed whacker and
go weed whack something else. There is a lot of work down there that he can still do.
Mr. Kagawa: Thank you, Lenny.
Mr. Rapozo: Just tell him, if he wants to do other jobs, please
talk to his work informant. I am sure we can accommodate him.
Mr. Kagawa: I know that Lydgate Park is highly used and it
seems like if a worker wants to do more, we can get them to do more. Mahalo.
Chair Furfaro: Mr. Bynum and then Mr. Rapozo
Mr. Bynum: I know last year we put in an additional position.
Has that position been hired?
Mr. Rapozo: At Lydgate?
Mr. Bynum: At Lydgate.
Mr. Rapozo: Yes, sir.
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Mr. Bynum: When did they come on board?
Mr. Rapozo: When?
Mr. Bynum: Yes.
Mr. Rapozo: I believe it was a couple of months ago for
Lydgate. Po`ipu, we just put him on board.
Me. Bynum: That was the other one we did an additional. It
is been recently then?
Mr. Rapozo: Yes.
Mr. Bynum: I just think Clayton, Robert, Blake, Sonny, the
four (4) that I have none for a long time, do a really good job out there and work hard. I
hope whoever the fifth is fits in with them.
Mr. Rapozo: Angel.
Mr. Bynum: Pardon?
Mr. Rapozo: Angel.
Mr. Bynum: I have not met Angel yet.
Mr. Rapozo: He transferred from the North Shore.
Mr. Bynum: Oh, cool. Those guys have varied tasked with
that unique park and overall, I think they do a really good job.
Mr. Rapozo: They do, thank you.
Mr. Bynum: Thank you.
Chair Furfaro: Mr. Rapozo,
Mr. M. Rapozo: Thank you. Lenny, looking at your chart on
page 3 of your presentation and the sprinkler system, you said that one is in the process?
Mr. L. Rapozo: The first one, 900?
Mr. M. Rapozo: Yes.
Mr. L. Rapozo: That is the golf course one.
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Mr. M. Rapozo: Do you know why it took so long? According to
Personnel, that position was vacant since 2008?
Mr. L. Rapozo: It was a dollar-funded position when we came in
to meet some of the budget requirements. It got dollar-funded and it was refunded this last
budget.
Mr. M. Rapozo: This current fiscal year?
Mr. L. Rapozo: Yes, this current budget.
Mr. M. Rapozo: It just takes that long?
Mr. L. Rapozo: Part of it was that we needed to relook at the
position description. All position descriptions now that we are Human Resources (HR) gets
evaluated and it needs to be consistent with all positions within the County and also
Statewide. As part of that review process, they looked at Statewide. In the past you did
not need to have a test to be done. But I thought it would be important to test general
knowledge of an Irrigation Worker. So, I requested that a test be given for this position.
They researched test questions to make it consistent with other jurisdictions and that is
why it has taken longer or long, if you want to consider it long. It moves. It did move
though. You may not see what go on in the back, but there are things going on.
Mr. M. Rapozo: Okay. Then 1345 Irrigation Repair Technician,
on the personnel report it is listed as a Truck Driver.
Mr. L. Rapozo: That was the Truck Driver position out of West
Beautification that was dollar-funded. When the Mayor said we are going to fund all dollar
positions this fund, we said that that truck driver, we are okay in terms of having the use of
the truck driver did not need to be forty (40) hours a week. We can task it to somebody. We
re-described that position because what we really needed in Park Maintenance was an
Irrigation Technician Repair Specialist which is different from the golf course. This one
here, as I detailed in the presentation, there is a little bit higher expectation into different
park to be able to not only repair, but help install and help to create new irrigation. We are
moving with that one where, again, the position description needed to be looked at
Statewide, they need to come up with a test, and the position description has finally been
okayed by the Department. We are sending up to the next level to get the concurrence of
the Mayor and then we can move to actively recruit for that position.
Mr. M. Rapozo: So, that Truck Driver position is gone?
Mr. L. Rapozo: Yes.
Mr. M. Rapozo: It is no longer there?
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Mr. L. Rapozo: Yes. We did not create a new position, we just
re-described a vacant position and we looked that the position to see how we could best
utilize it and still maintain the service that we needed with the other one.
Mr. M. Rapozo: Okay. The last question, the last six (6) position
numbers from 1633 to 1835. There are three (3) Park Caretakers, Equipment Operator,
Heavy Truck Driver, and Groundskeeper. All of those do not show up on the vacancy report
from the Department of Personnel. Is that new?
Mr. L. Rapozo: No. They are all existing that were retirements
or some people left. Most of them, I think all of them are filled already. We filled almost all
of our Park Caretaker positions.
Mr. M. Rapozo: Okay.
Mr. L. Rapozo: The Equipment Operator, we are moving
through the process of hiring that. Heavy Truck Driver was placed on the dollar-fund and
the Groundskeeper, we hired and that person started April 1st.
Mr. M. Rapozo: Thank you.
Mr. L. Rapozo: I also want to make clear, I am not sure what
you see on the vacancy report. But we have a lot of seasonal workers and those vacancies
are large because of the Summer Enrichment Program.
Mr. M. Rapozo: It does differentiate seasonal and those. I did
not count those. I only looked at the ones that were the permanent.
Mr. L. Rapozo: Perfect. Thank you.
Chair Furfaro: Okay. JoAnn?
Ms. Yukimura: Your Park Planner which is the position that the
Council created several years ago, that is according to this, the candidates starts 10/01/13?
Mr. Rapozo: Yes. In the budget requirements of our
Department, we needed to do an eight percent (8% reduction in our budget. So, I taxed that
for every Division, that approximately this with your target date.
Ms. Yukimura: But if there are more moneys, you can hire
earlier?
Mr. Rapozo: Correct, yes. That is why that want starts in
October for that Division.
Mr. Bynum: And that is a specific candidate?
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Mr. Rapozo: We did the interviews and we have a specific
candidate that is awesome. We want to include, in her duties, long-term planning For Park
Maintenance within the facilities of parks as part of it.
Chair Furfaro: Nadine, same subject? Will you yield the floor?
Ms. Yukimura: Yes. On this subjects, yes.
Chair Furfaro: Go ahead, Mr. Bynum.
Mr. Bynum: As I recall, you went out, had candidates, and did
not find anyone that you wanted to hire?
Mr. Rapozo: It was not that we did not wanted to find anyone
that we wanted to hire, we did not find someone that we thought would make a good fit for
our mission or what we are trying to accomplish in the Department of Parks. So, we went
back out again and tried to seek more applicants, if you want to speak.
Mr. Bynum: I wanted to acknowledge that and say it is a good
thing.
Mr. Rapozo: Thank you.
Mr. Bynum: That you hang in there and get the right person
for the job.
Mr. Rapozo: Yes.
Mr. Bynum: I will be anxious to meet this individual. Thank
you.
Chair Furfaro: JoAnn, you are finished with the floor? You still
have the floor.
Ms. Yukimura: Your related question, go ahead.
Chair Furfaro: Why do not you answer any questions first? Are
you still on the same question?
Ms. Yukimura: Yes.
Chari Furfaro: Councilmember Nakamura, have you the floor.
Ms. Nakamura: Lenny, is this woman willing to wait until
October?
Mr. Rapozo: How do you know that is a woman?
II
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Ms. Nakamura: You just said "she."
Mr. Rapozo: Oh, darn.
Mr. Bynum: Smart, right?
Ms. Yukimura: We listen carefully.
Mr. Rapozo: Good job, Councilmember Nakamura.
Ms. Yukimura: I heard it too.
Mr. Rapozo: Yes.
Ms. Nakamura: Is she able to come earlier?
Mr. Rapozo: Yes.
Ms. Nakamura; Because I think this is a huge priority for this
County and if we can find these additional funds that we found today in the revenue side,
that is close to ninety-thousand dollars ($90,000), could we not use those identified
revenues to hire her sooner?
Mr. Rapozo: Yes.
Ms. Nakamura: I would support that.
Mr. Rapozo: Thank you.
Chair Furfaro The minute we find it, the minute we spend it.
Let me ask a follow-up question because Councilmember Yukimura still has the floor. May
I JoAnn?
Ms. Yukimura: Of course.
Chair Furfaro: But are you telling me the reason you pushed her
back to October, that July/August/September not appearing in your budget plan was part of
your eight percent(8%) make up?
Mr. Rapozo: Correct.
Chair Furfaro: Okay.
Mr. Rapozo: Yes, sir.
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Chair Furfaro: You are going to have a conflict with the Mayor
because I would assume that he still wants you to find the eight percent (8%). JoAnn, you
have the floor back.
Ms. Yukimura: Thank you. I totally agree with the Vice Chair,
this position has been needed since it was created, actually since before it was created. I do
commend you also for looking really carefully and not repeating the mistake we made with
the previous hire in this position. I look forward to having somebody really good on board
because that work need to be done. My next question is about the Parks Project Architect
which I believe was not a position approved in last budget.
Mr. Rapozo: Yes. He is not — how can I say this? It is an
eighty-nine (89) day contract and he is working on projects such as Americans with
Disabilities Act (ADA) barriers that are knocked down. In addition, if we have other
projects and he is valuable in the sense he is an Architect, he works part-time, he is kind of
retired, and he can stamp. So, he can stamp his own plans which are very valuable for us.
It helps us in that we do not have to go out for consultants all the time and through our
previous conversations with the Director of Finance, and this is myself trying to be creative
and trying to move projects along with the least resistance and getting the best bang for our
money. We look at a vacant position that we are in the process of hiring and we convert to
an eighty-nine (89) day position to have him do the work. He is on a contract of eighty-nine
(89) days at a time, just gets paid salary, working on ADA barrier knockdowns, and also
doing some other unique thing that arise. We pay him from the fund of that project. Just
trying to be creative. It is not trying to do a new position without doing it.
Ms. Yukimura: Okay. Are we using the permits fund in building
to fund this?
Mr. Rapozo: No, it is using Parks Project Funds for a
particular project. We charge the project for his time.
Ms. Yukimura: I see. With your explanation, I think that is a
very creative and resourceful way. I will be looking forward to seeing how it works.
Mr. Rapozo: Let me
p give you an example Councilmember
Yukimura. The West Comfort Station of Po`ipu, this gentleman was on vacation. He said I
will not be valuable, I am gone. His eighty-nine (89) day contracted ended and he left for
three (3) or four (4) months. He comes back and of course our Deputy did the work for the
Western Comfort Station. We have another project — he is work on ADA barriers again in
such as that it is the transition at the Vidinha Stadium. We are going from park to park
addressing these things. So, he is drawing the ADA to be compliant, the sidewalks,
dugouts, scores. He is doing that. Those designs should be done, we targeted it at the end
of this month. But we also have, as we had discussed, Kapahi Park. The kids did a
beautiful mural on the comfort station. But the roof is in dire need of change. We cannot
find plans for that comfort station since it is so old. This person, as soon his is done on this,
we will pay him with some of the moneys in the budget for that project to design the roof
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and to come up with kind of a standard roof with similar footprint for all so that we can
take this roof, replace this roof, and replace this roof when we need to.
Ms. Yukimura: That is even better. That is wonderful.
Mr. Rapozo: So, that is what this guy is. Again, as positions
get filled, then we have to find another vacant position to kind of get him someplace and
pay him with the project moneys.
Ms. Yukimura: Well, if it shows that it works very well you can
come in and show there is continuous work, you could come in for a permanent position
next budget. But I think the approach that you are taking is very creative. The idea of
beautiful standard roofs, if you can achieve that, makes a lot of sense rather than just
reinventing the wheel every time. So, that is very good. Thank you.
Mr. Rapozo: Councilmember Yukimura, I did think about a
permanent. But I really do not believe at this point that eventually we will max out with
our projects.
Ms. Yukimura: I agree.
Mr. Rapozo: I think this approach is trying to fiscally
responsible, trying to fill our needs, and try to work within what we can to get job done.
Ms.Yukimura: That is very good. Thank you. I have a question
about utilities, but I will wait until afterwards.
Chair Furfaro: We will go around. Mr. Rapozo and then
Mr. Bynum.
Ms. Yukimura: Thank you.
Mr. M. Rapozo: We are on the Administration right now? I mean
as far as the presentation? Lenny, if you could look on page 17 of your presentation, under
challenges, your .third bullet where you say "answering and returning calls is mostly
voluntarily and inconsistent. This can be a challenge in everyday scheduling of work,
verification of attendance, etcetera." Can you explain what that means?
Mr. L. Rapozo: When we have a callout, tsunami warning, trying
to contact our people. Most people today—well, a lot of our staff they have cell phones and
they do not have land lines. In some situations when everybody bombards the system, we
cannot get calls through and that is where it is challenging. We are trying to impress upon
our people that if there is a Civil Defense emergency, we all become Civil Defense workers.
If we call you it is not because we do not need you. You need to try and get a hold of us.
That is where the voluntary things are a challenge.
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Mr. M. Rapozo: I read it as though this is a daily challenge
because it says, "but becomes even more critical when we have an approaching tsunami,
hurricane or even an after-hours callout." So, the way I read this is a daily challenge.
Mr. L. Rapozo: Yes, some of this is per the Collective Bargaining
Agreement (CBA) it allows you to call in by the end of the work day, I believe. It is not like
first thing in the morning you call in that you are sick. That is where the challenge of
scheduling.
Mr. M. Rapozo: Oh, so this is when you have to call somebody
back?
Mr. L. Rapozo: No, no.
Mr. M. Rapozo: No, I mean the communication issue. The
agreement says that they have until the end of the work shift to call in sick?
Mr. L. Rapozo: Yes.
Mr. M. Rapozo: Really?
Mr. L. Rapozo: Yes, so sometimes that is challenging. Hard,
right? If I was to call and the person just so happens flips out, it is my fault. So, that is the
challenge.
Mr. M. Rapozo: If the employee starts at 7:45 a.m., 8:00 a.m.
nobody there, 10:00 a.m., 11:00 a.m., they have until the end of day?
Mr. L. Rapozo: That is what I understand is with the CBA. That
is the challenge.
Mr. M. Rapozo: So, until the end of the day, you cannot call
anybody back?
Mr. L. Rapozo: Correct. I mean, we understand that the person
is probably not going to show up and we have to—but then...
Mr. M. Rapozo: But what if he does? Let us say you call in
somebody to take over this person who has until the end of the work day to call in sick, that
is bizarre. But let us say...
Mr. L. Rapozo: Then is becomes a disciplinary issue.
Mr. M. Rapozo: Let us say Bob never shows up, it is 10:00 a.m.,
and he is on a project to go do something. So, you call in Bill and Bill comes in. He is on
overtime. Then Bill shows up Bob strolls in.
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Mr. L. Rapozo: Yes. We would have a disciplinary issue and we
have lively conversations with the representatives. Normally we plan a project, Backhoe
Operator, Truck Driver, or something, and one of those pieces do not show up then we kind
of...
Mr. M. Rapozo: Then the project does not go.
Mr. L. Rapozo: Yes. The other things we are able to cover within
the working ranks, unless it is on weekend, then we have a problem.
Chair Furfaro: Mr. Rapozo, may I do a follow-up?
Mr. M. Rapozo: Yes.
■
Chair Furfaro: Something is drastically wrong. Most
Bargaining Unit Agreements say that you have eight (8) hours to call in sick before the
start of your shift. Do we have something like that?
Mr. Rapozo: Not prior to your shift, within your shift. Our
Collective Bargaining Agreement does not say that.
Chair Furfaro: How could we ever agree to that because you are
giving us double exposure? Now you have called in a person who may be on a premium
because he is coming back to work and the other person shows up two (2) hours into the
schedule.
Mr. Rapozo: Yes.
Chair Furfaro: Something is wrong there and I am going to
encourage you folks to pursue and understand—somewhere along the lines, somebody must
have made an interpretation that he had the eight (8) hours which was the time of his shift
to call versus eight (8) hours prior to his shift.
Mr. Rapozo: Yes, and...
Chair Furfaro: No, but...
Mr. Rapozo: You are right. There are other things...
Chair Furfaro: Then how do you document it if the person shows
up an hour late for work versus an absentee?
Mr. Rapozo: It is documented.
Chair Furfaro: Why could you document it?
Mr. Rapozo I am sorry.
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Chair Furfaro: If it is the truth, you cannot discipline him.
There is something drastically wrong with that interpretation.
Mr. Rapozo: Well, I guess the explanation would have to be
why were you late? If you are late, you know that you are supposed to work at a specific
time.
Chair Furfaro: But he is not late because the policy says he
could call any time during his shift.
Mr. Rapozo: No, in the CBA it says your shift starts at (x)
amount of time, in this case 6:00 a.m. and you are pau and 2:30 p.m. If you show up late,
you need to explain why. But so what happens is it encourages you to be sick, that is what
it does.
Chair Furfaro: That is exactly what it does.
Mr. Rapozo: It is exactly right.
Chair Furfaro: What I am saying is how could we have ever
agreed to it? How could you ever agree to that? There has to be something wrong with
that. That has to be a violation of even wage and hourly payment by Federal government.
You have seven (7) minutes of a quarter hour to report to work. If it is eight (8) minutes,
you are tardy because it is based on a quarter of a half of a quarter of an hour. I do not
understand that and somebody seems to have made an interpretation.
Mr. Rapozo: There are other interpretations with other CBAs
that allow for other things that you also questioned as well.
Chair Furfaro: Let me ask you, if I look at a Bargaining Units
Agreement, does it tell me in the agreement how much time I have before the start of my
shift that I am tardy because Federal law says more than eight (8) minutes you are tardy,
less than seven (7) minutes, you are not tardy. Okay, because it is based on earning wages
on a quarter hour. Are you telling me that we have something that says before the start of
your shift, we are required to posted by seniority, posted with an end time, right? But our
agreement says you can call in any time during that time?
Mr. Rapozo: This is where my Collective Bargaining, it is like
my Football Rule Book, I always have to refer to it when we deal with things like this. It
does not say the time, but it says the shift shall be whatever...
Chair Furfaro: Yes, but see that is the problem.
Mr. Rapozo: ...and close by the end of your shift.
Chair Furfaro: Because it did not specify an exact time, someone
made an interpretation, I believe, and we have been practicing it. I would really like to you
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pursue this with the County Attorney. Something is not right. Something is not right here.
We will leave it at that.
Mr. Rapozo: Okay.
Chair Furfaro: Mel, are you finished? The Clerk just reminds
me, if we have the County Attorney look at and this is the interpretation, you need to look
into with the Attorney General's Office. It is a Statewide agreement.
Mr. M. Rapozo: Mr. Chair, if we can get a copy of that contract
then I will make that request because it is not Lenny that agreed to that contract. But we
definitely have to get an interpretation.
Chair Furfaro: Whether it is you, whether it is Lenny, somebody
needs to revisit this because in all fairness I do not know how you could do business that
way. Vice Chair wanted the floor next. Mel, were you are finished when you yielded to
me?
Mr. M. Rapozo: Yes.
Chair Furfaro: Council Vice Chair, you have the floor.
Ms. Nakamura: Thank you. First of all I wanted to thank you
and all of Divisions within the Department of Parks and Recreation for all of your great
work. My kids and my family we take advantage of a lot of these facilities and we know
that every Division has to do a lot with limited resource. Thank you very much. The issue
that really stands out for me in your whole report, and I think just with recent discussions
around this table, has been about our aging infrastructure and facilities and that we really
need to get a really good handle on what it is going to take this County get it up to the
standards that we want. It is a lot of different types of facilities and it all impacts our
quality of life on the island. I am happy to hear that your Park Planner that, that is
something that you see to be a core mission of that person because it will take a very
strategic look at - I mean a very strong inventory of the conditions and then the strategies
to deal with them in a cost efficient way. But I believe it is going to be a very big
investment for the County to undertake. I am looking on page 17 and your description of
the challenge and your comment here that a secure, dedicated funding source must also be
identified to start the necessary upgrades of our aging park and recreation facilities. I
think we all need to take a real close look at that funding piece. I just wanted to get your
comments on that.
Mr. Rapozo: Yes. I agree. We talked about for the sake of a
better term, the 209 Fund, and I distributed a letter and with our discussion and
Councilmember Yukimura requested through staff that I provide the May 6, 2010 when we
first started looking at that for her review of. I made copies for everybody. But it was by
her request. In part of that letter if you see backstops and fencing, I think we have
approximately one hundred thousand dollars ($100,000) dedicated to repairing of backstop
and fencing. We cannot repair all the fencing and backstops on our parks with just that
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money. It is our hope that we do a little every year and hopefully we can continue to use
this money to do some of this maintenance work within parks. Of course, some of the
bigger stuff we have to come here for the funding. But I think the little things that we can
try to get through this fund makes a big impact in terms of the facility and quality of the
facility. We are going to come upon some challenges. At Spouting Horn, we may not
visually see what the fencing is aluminum, but the poles and cross pieces are galvanized.
All of a sudden boom, it is all corroded and we have to act upon it. But you are right, some
of the big items that we are talking about, we would have to come here. But I think as far
as steady stream of funding maybe we can leverage the 209 Fund as a source to catch some
of the needs, immediate needs, and make the facilities better.
Ms. Nakamura: I am also looking at one roof fall down here and
another roof you have identified. How pervasive is this problem? Do you just take each
restroom facility?
Mr. Rapozo: Yes, as we can. Yes. We mentioned Kapahi.
Po`ipu was never on our radar, but we talked about Kapahi as one that needs immediate
attention that we are working on. There were some other ones on the radar that we will
probably going to have to replace roofs. Right now, it is kind of like visualizing, take the
tour, and try to do it. But with the Park Planning, part of her job is to kind of look at
everything and get us on a schedule.
Ms. Nakamura: That is what I am hope for.
Mr. Rapozo: That is my intention.
Ms. Nakamura: It is not to say it is not on our radar, but to
proactively do that inventory.
Mr. Rapozo: Exactly.
Ms. Nakamura: To really understand the scope and magnitude of
this problem because I think that is a huge priority.
Mr. Rapozo: Yes. It is a piece that we are catching up. There
is a lot of catch-up in parks, no doubt. But to get to the point and moving forward, how do
we make sure that we do not fall behind again? That is my focus or one of the focuses of the
Park Planner will be.
Ms. Nakamura: Is that going to be — I know there are going to be
many focus, but will that be a primary focus?
Mr. Rapozo: Immediately, I would like that to be the focus so
that we do not run into this problem. I do not like putting out fires. I like to get ahead of
the game and be proactive rather than the reactive part of about his whole thing. But until
we get there, we are just going to manage and do the best we can.
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Ms. Nakamura: Right. So, that just confirms the need to have
this position filled. Thank you.
Mr. Rapozo: Okay.
Chair Furfaro: Before we go any further here, Lenny, some of
these questions bridged into the question of maintenance and you started to talk about
specific parks. I think the Vice Chair was talking about a strategy and a plan that is
dealing with an Administrative scope of this position. May I ask when we get to a later
part of today, that you share with us the job description for the Park Planner as the first
step. We would like to know what the scope is of the Park Planner. Mr. Rapozo, you have
the floor.
Mr. M. Rapozo: Thank you, Mr. Chair. It is a follow-up to
Councilmember Nakamura's comments as it is stated on page 17, where you said the
council support will be needed and we appreciate and understand that. The 209 Fund is
one of the funds that I think the Council setup for that specific purpose. As we developed
this new Park Planner position and the person comes on board, I am hoping that that
person will have the latitude, I am losing my voice. I do not know way.
Ms. Nakamura: Talking too much.
Mr. M. Rapozo: They are all clapping in the back.
Mr. L. Rapozo: Those are the people that have seen you for the
last week and a half.
Mr. M. Rapozo: Yes, I know. I feel fine, it is just that the voice is
p � just
. Anyway, some of the uses of those funds, I think, were in questionable in m
g g Yom'
Y> q my
opinion. What is your intended use going forward for those funds as far as maintenance?
You were not here in 2008, you were not here yet. I just want to read this issue because
this is an issue that came up in 2008 at the meeting that this Bill was passed. It was the
final reading and there was no discussion except my comment. The only reason I want to
bring this up is because it is like we are going through it again. But I said Mr. Chair, I do
want to just explain really quick for the public's information is that these two (2) Bills are
going to clarify to basically clarify the intent of this Council that all the fees generated from
the leases at Spouting Horn would be transferred to a Special Fund specifically for Park
Maintenance that can only be used for Park Maintenance. Although that was the intent of
the Council, it appears that there was a potential for some misunderstanding so these two
(2) Bills would clarify that. It would create the Revolving Fund and specify in the
Ordinance that the lease payments will be transferred directly to that fund for Park
Maintenance use only. That was back in 2008. Again, before you were here. I bring it up
because I think it is clear that the intent of the Council of 2008 was that these funds were
going to be used solely for what Councilmember Nakamura is talking about, that when a
facility is in need of repair, restrooms, whatever it is, that that is what those funds would
be used for and not just at Salt Pond, for all of the parks. I just want to make sure that we
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all understand, otherwise we have to dig into that Bill again and try to amend it even more.
Is that your understanding? Again, you were not here?
Mr. L. Rapozo: In our last discussion, the Chair made it very
clear and moving forward, we are going to definitely do a better job of managing that fund
and work with the Department of Finance. Previous years an interpretation was done, not
by myself, as to how some of these funds could be dedicated the way they were and so they
were using that. That call was made, but other things that are in there, I take some
responsibility for the water maintenance contracts that we were talking about, I will take
responsibility for. But everything else in there I had hoped to be done within the Ordinance
the way it was intended to. Based upon our discussions the last time that I was here, I will
definitely will do a better job of managing the way that it was intended to be managed. I
make that commitment here.
Mr. M. Rapozo: That is just what I think is critical.
Mr. L. Rapozo: I am hoping that if you see the letter that we
produced for the Department of Finance, at the end of every budget cycle, the leveraging of
this did not start until May 6, 2010. This is the first time and that was an attempt to try
and help the General Fund. Hopefully, the project as you will see, will be projects to help
maintenance of that. That was the intent. We may have strayed a bit from what the
original Bill, but we will definitely manager it better moving forward.
Chair Furfaro: Make sure if I can and this is Mr. Rapozo's point.
In 2008 I was on Council that supported that, I was not the Chair at that time. But that
definition that I shared last week has gone over to the County Attorney. Its intent was
very clear, repair & maintenance (R&M) according to a definition from Generally Accepted
Accounting Principles (GAAP) that I sent. I hope we all understand there was intent for
you to have that repair & maintenance moneys available.
Mr. Rapozo: Message received, Chair. I think in moving
forward that maybe we can produce a copy of the letter annually that when we try to
leverage this so that you folks are not left in the dark as it was previously done.
Chair Furfaro: It is in the County Attorney's interpretation with
the Finance Director at this time.
Mr. Rapozo: Okay.
Chair Furfaro: Steve, did you want to?
Mr. Hunt: Yes. I just wanted to add that the actual
language that is in 23-3.7(F), it actually does not refer to as repair & maintenance. It refers
to as improvement & maintenance
Chair Furfaro: I understand. But it does not say Capital
Improvement either.
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Mr. Hunt: No.
Chair Furfaro: Let us make sure, you of all people understand
the intent and the definition that I just read to everybody from the General Accounting
Practices, it is there for your repair & maintenance, not CIP improvements. But the
County Attorney is going to get together with you and we are going to focus on the intent of
what is the Council's choice. Okay? Ms. Yukimura.
Ms. Yukimura: Yes, I totally support a Repair & Maintenance
Fund, a source of funding for you and even a large amount of money as long as you can
provide us with a plan as to how that money will be used and we can see that there is a
rhyme and reason for it because you have done a survey of the buildings, you know which
ones are the most critical and you know if you do not do this, something is going to fall
down and you know that if we do this every year in a preventive maintenance mode, we will
extend the life of these facilities. I am so glad that you got the Planner coming on board. I
really like the idea of this eighty-nine (89) day contract with an Architect and looking for
standard systems as long as they are aesthetic and functional and fit the parks. I love that
direction. I just think that just like the Highway Fund and the Golf Course Fund, there is
some accountability in terms of reporting to the Council as to how the money is going to be
spent and then a report back on how the money was spent. I also want to point out that if
you can make the golf course more self-sufficient, that might release up to one million
dollars ($1,000,000) back into the General Fund for parks.
Chair Furfaro: Members, I would like to say between the
revenue discussion, the Administration on personnel vacancies, as well as some of the
presentation we had, I would like to say when we come back, I would like to go to the
planning and development phase of the Department of Parks and Recreation. If that is
acceptable, members? We start a little talk on the Planner but I would like to start with
that when we come back. Mr. Kagawa.
Mr. Kagawa: Does that mean we are going skip fiscal? For me,
I looked over fiscal and I have no questions for them. But we can get fiscal go.
Chair Furfaro: Since we were talking about some of the things
that we need from the understanding of the Repair & Maintenance Fund, we went over
some of the vacancies, and they need to come back with us with the revisiting on the
forecasted revenue. I was thinking that we can go planning and development when we
come back. If that is acceptable to everybody, that is fine. Okay. Mr. Rapozo, he answered
me. Mr. Lenny Rapozo. When we come back, we will probably pick this up on the
discussion with the planner.
Mr. Rapozo: Sure.
Chair Furfaro: If a job description already has been — we would
like to start coming back with a draft of that job description. Is that fine, everyone? We are
in recess until 1:30 p.m.
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There being no objections, the Committee recessed at 12:30 p.m.
There being no objections, the Committee reconvened at 1:39 p.m., and proceeded as
follows:
Chair Furfaro: Since we have the Administration in the
audience too, I am going to take another moment to share a couple of things. Mr. Barreira
and for Mr. Hunt, the last couple of years we have been trying to make some improvements
in the budget process. I want to bring you folks back to this comment about Georgina
Kawamura being available. Georgina was the Finance Director for Maui County and Maui
County, as some members have shared with me, have what they implemented which is
called "program budgeting" and it was something that the Council twelve (12) years ago
looked at. The format is a Maui format introduced and it is kind of lost its way along the
line because of other issues within the County of Kaua`i. But I would encourage you, we
have been implementing a few changes along the way, year after year, constantly trying to
make some improvements. But I am struggling with the last couple of days, seeing a few
shortcomings. Some members do not understand revenue is part of their Department, if
they have revenue income and they should know it. We have cost centers, big ones, like
public safety and so forth that they kind of,spread out their mission so you kind of miss a
constant mission that everybody in the Department buys into. But this program budgeting
process that we looked at once twelve (12) years ago is certainly something that I would say
going in the future years, that we take a look at that again. That even went down to the
equivalent of the staffing guides, even indicating when a half-time person is needed as we
talk now about the scope of having an Architect on board to help with planning in the
Department of Parks and Recreation. Not quite a full-time position, but certainly we could
look at the value that person brings. I would like to encourage that we have that
opportunity to look at that. In Maui, it is currently still in place, but it started back with
Georgina. I am sure that you might even recall if you were here, we actually brought her
over to make a presentation. If I could ask a favor, after we are through with this budget, if
we can look format or maybe send a couple of our Budget Analysts to Maui for the day. It
might be nice. That would be my suggestion. Also Steve, I have more correspondence on
setting up of the set up of parks and recreation narrative along the way. Now, what you did
mention, this also refers to repair & maintenance as well as improvements. Obviously,
improvements could be interpreted to mean CIP. But it does not necessarily mean that you
are not necessarily improving a facility that you already have. But there is some additional
narrative I would like to share with you.
Now we are short two (2) members, but we do have a quorum. We will go ahead and
start and we will talk more as it relates to the next line item for parks referencing planning
and development. I do reserve the right, when get to the golf course, to let you know that
everything is open for discussion there from revenue, to number of rounds, and to product
improvement. Lenny, you have somebody joining you for planning and development. If
they could start by introducing themselves and making whatever presentation they would
like to make.
Mr. Rapozo: As far as presentation, we are just here to
answer the questions. We presented from the overall.
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Chair Furfaro: Why do not you go ahead and introduce yourself
for the record.
WILLIAM TRUJILLO, Parks Project Manager: For the record William
Trujillo, chief of Planning and Development, Department of Parks and Recreation.
Chair Furfaro: Welcome, William.
Mr. Trujillo: Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Chair Furfaro: We have a hand raised from Mr. Kagawa.
Mr. Kagawa: Thank you, William. I have a couple of
questions. Is your Planner Division looking at fixing existing projects such as our pools,
that kind of things because our pools have been, well Waimea, has been there since the
1960s? I was wondering is it under your jurisdiction to look also besides new things that
some of the older facilities need?
Mr. Rapozo: I think right now, the way it is set up, the pools
fall under recreation. It has been like that since the Department of Parks and Recreation
was created. William, of course, plays as a vital role in helping to with major projects
within the pool such as if we want to relocate the pool or try to build a new pool then that is
going to fall under him. But large maintenance projects, he has always been willing to help
to help to get the contracts going, to do the bids, and that kind of things. But the R&M with
the falling maintenance at Kapa`a, it has been done by the Division of Recreation and
William assists them.
Mr. Kagawa: I guess I do not want to get too deep into the pool
discussion because we have an agenda item in Parks Works / Parks & Recreation
Committee where we can go deep into that. But I guess you kind of answered my question
and that was are we looking at, as one of your projects, looking at moving our Kapa'a pool
g p p
to someplace maybe higher in elevation near the school or something because I had some
discussions with Councilmember Nakamura and we both kind of agree that it may be a
better solution to not spend as much money in our existing Kapa'a pool site because of the
fact that it is really not a good location as far as being in the flood zone and tsunami zone.
It would seem to make more sense to be similar to Waimea pool where it is nearer to the
high school or the elementary school as in Kapa'a's case. I am just wondering. I even had
that discussion with our Principal at Kapa'a and he thinks that is a great idea, that he
would be willing to work with the Department of Parks and Recreation to have that pool
because we have a lot of surfers that attend Kapa'a and a lot of them end up swimming. It
would seem to make a lot more sense to have the pool out of that tsunami zone so it cannot
sustain damage like Kekaha sustained during the hurricane.
Mr. Trujillo: To answer your question, Councilmember
Kagawa, in my opinion, the first step for the improvements at Kappa's pool once we get
what is currently there stabilized in terms of what facilities need to be done, to me, the next
step would be going out and figuring out where is a good place to have the pool? Is it there?
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Is someplace else? With no real ties in particular right now, we are kind of looking at the
whole area as blank slate as where else can we put it? We heard various ideas or
suggestion of where else it could be. Close to the schools, close to where Kapa'a Newtown
park is. Of course, we go into landownership issues and all that. But that is definitely one
of the ideas with the Kapa'a pool long-term, is where else can we put it?
Mr. Rapozo: Councilmember Kagawa, in our CIP request we
have a Project Initiation Document (PID) for site location and design of a new Kapa'a pool.
That was presented last year and did not get funded so this year we are resubmitting it and
with the current events, we are hoping to get that funded to start the process and that
would definitely fall under the purview of William's Department to see the scope and get it
done.
Mr. Kagawa: Thank you. Second question. I saw in one of the
priorities that we are looking at developing Kekaha Gardens Park. Just getting a ball field,
I guess even maybe a basketball court. How is that going right now?
Mr. Trujillo: Currently for the Kekaha Garden Park, we have
a consultant. He is finalizing the plans for that one. We hope to have it out to bid the first
quarter of next fiscal year to go to construction. It is definitely one of the priorities of the
Mayor to make sure that one is done as soon as possible.
Mr. Kagawa: Is that going to be in phase like the baseball park
or basketball court first?
Mr. Trujillo: No, the intention right now is to have it all done
all one time.
Mr. Kagawa: Sounds great. Thank you.
Mr. Trujillo: Thank you.
There being no objections, Chair Furfaro the presiding officer, relinquished
Chairmanship to Mr. Rapozo.
Mr. M. Rapozo: Councilmember Yukimura.
Ms. Yukimura: Thank you. First a follow-up on the pool. You
say that the citing of a new pool is part of the CIP budget?
Mr. L. Rapozo: Correct. Well, request.
Ms. Yukimura: Okay. What is the idea, to hire a consultant to
figure out the location?
Mr. L. Rapozo: Site and design, yes.
_ - . .v
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Ms. Yukimura: What is the status of pools in our parks plan?
Mr. L. Rapozo: In the parks plan for the Kapa'a Newtown,
Kapa'a site, an area was identified across from Kapa'a Newtown Park as a possible site for
a pool/neighborhood center combination. As William had mentioned, there have been other
ideas floating around that maybe it should be up by the middle school where there is talk of
a Police substation in that area. There has also been some discussion of having it behind
Kapa'a Elementary where Easter Seals is. There is, some land open over there. So, those
have been the discussions in the park plan. It was identified as a possible location to be
across of Kapa'a Newtown Park, keeping in mind that the other park facilities are close by
so that in the parks plan that is one of the locations. As far as Waimea is concerned, no
changes have been identified in the park's plan for any changes to the Waimea Swimming
pool.
Ms. Yukimura: I hope not, after we have put— I do not know how
much money into renovating it into a beautiful pool
Mr. L. Rapozo: Actually, we are doing more renovation work
right now with some of the facility.
Ms. Yukimura: I was wondering why are we doing renovations to
the Waimea pool, when we just did them?
Mr. L. Rapozo: The deck was done — I am sorry, we need to do
more work with the deck and some maintenance work needs to be done with the shower
facilities and the roof.
Ms. Yukimura: Was that part of a phased plan or were those
things determined after the first renovation?
Mr. L. Rapozo: After the first renovation.
Ms. Yukimura: We were not planning we discovered that those
needs after the first renovation?
Mr. L. Rapozo: Yes.
Ms. Yukimura: Okay. I think you mentioned, Lenny, I am not
sure now. Where there is some kind of fencing, but galvanized iron is rusting, was that
yesterday?
Mr. L. Rapozo: At one of the pools or are we talking about
Spouting Horn?
Ms. Yukimura: Maybe it was Spouting Horn.
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Mr. L. Rapozo: We were discussing fencing in the 209 and some
things popped up that we did not realize.
Ms. Yukimura: I am wondering that whether in the design of all
of our facilities, that we incorporate into the specifications things like salt resistance and I
presume ADA because one of my questions is for Kekaha Gardens. Is design is all ADA
accessible?
Mr. L. Rapozo: Yes.
Ms. Yukimura: Is that included?
Mr. L. Rapozo: Yes.
Ms. Yukimura: I mean, there are so many things that if we do in
the design process, we save money and then having to retrofit later because we did not
think about it in the design process. Is there a way that we have a checklist in terms of
I!,
every time we build a park facility, we are doing all of the best practices in design?
Mr. L. Rapozo: That is part of design.
Ms. Yukimura: I am glad you are writing it down.
Mr. L. Rapozo: But ADA is part of the design many pretty much
everything that we have to do now to get the clearance.
Ms. Yukimura: Yes, I know. ADA is, but are there other things
like salt resistance? If it is a beach park it is by definition in salt. I should have asked this
question of buildings as well. For example, we are now talking about and even if in our
park facilities like our neighborhood centers, making sure when we do the designs the
acoustics are good. Those are just examples. But somebody and maybe if you have an
architect who is good, they help you develop a checklist about all of those things so that our
designs are really well thought through.
Mr. L. Rapozo: Yes, thank you
Ms. Yukimura: Thank you.
Mr. M. Rapozo: Any more questions for planning?
Ms. Yukimura: I have one more.
Mr. M. Rapozo: Go ahead.
Ms. Yukimura: What is the status of our parks plan?
Mr. Trujillo: The Parks Master Plan?
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Ms. Yukimura: Yes.
Mr. Trujillo: Currently there is a pre-final draft provided by
the consultants. In the past couple of weeks it was provided to the Department of Parks
and Recreation staff to review to give final feedback. We are going to give the staff a couple
of weeks to review it, give the consultant the final feedback, and then they will finalize it
and go out to the community one more time as a presentation for it, as well as to this body
and to the Administration for what the final job is.
Ms. Yukimura: Will it come to the Council for adoption by
Resolution?
Mr. Trujillo: Yes.
Ms. Yukimura: I will? The timetable for going out, will the
Council get a copy when it go out to the community?
Mr. Trujillo: Yes.
Mr. L. Rapozo: We can provide that.
Mr. Trujillo: Yes, I am just trying to figure out how the
timeline will work.
Ms. Yukimura: Even if you do it electronically. Will there be a
presentation of the pre-finals to this body like we had for our Multi-Modal Transportation
Plan?
Mr. Trujillo: For the pre-final? I do not remember at what
point the presentation to the Council was going to be at. If you folks are requesting one, I
am sure we can provide one, pre-final.
Ms. Yukimura: I think that would be helpful to keep us
informed, as well as possibly to get some input.
Mr. Trujillo: Yes. Okay.
Ms. Yukimura: Thank you.
Mr. M. Rapozo: Any more questions?
Ms. Yukimura: I have another one.
Mr. M. Rapozo: Go ahead.
Ms. Yukimura: I am look at this Committee of the Whole report
for our meeting of our last Committee Meeting and in it the Chair stated he hoped that
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information would be presented during Department's Budget Review on the structural
assessment on existing park restroom and the outcome of that assessment and associated
costs. Do you have that for us today?
Mr. L. Rapozo: As we had started our discussion the last time,
we did as you called it a "toilet tour" and as we kind of alluded to aside from the western
comfort station, that did not come upon our radar as a site that would need. We identified,
I believe, four (4) other sites that we are looking at some roofing and structural
maintenance work would need to be done. One is Kapahi Park, the other one was Kapa'a
Newtown Park near the skate park...
Ms. Yukimura: Can we get something in writing?
Mr. L. Rapozo: Something in writing?
Ms. Yukimura: I think that was part of the request earlier.
Mr. L. Rapozo: I did not see a writing. But I thought it was able
to be discussed at the meeting.
Ms. Yukimura: It would be good. But we sort of need to have
your list and report. I guess that is why, earlier on, we felt that the Park Planner position
is so urgent because I know you are both loaded already and this would be part of this kind
of systematic evaluation of our facilities and then a plan to systematically upgrade it.
Mr. M. Rapozo: Go ahead.
Ms. Nakamura: During the break I was talking to staff about the
efforts that have been done to-date to document it and it sounds like that you did some
analyses in order to get to today's budget presentation. So, there is a list of priorities and
some costs associated with those. But I guess what I am not clear is, if it is in the form that
you can share?
Mr. L. Rapozo: Not in a written form here. But we are ready to
discuss what we were talking about.
Ms. Nakamura: I guess what we are looking for is something in
writing that shows what are those priority needs, maybe intermediate needs? I do not
think you looked at long-term needs. Then what are some of the estimated costs associated
with those priority needs so that we can start looking at, at least short-term.
Mr. L. Rapozo: We can put something together for you in
writing.
Ms. Yukimura: We will get that as part of the follow-up and is
that addressing of this in the budget right now?
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Mr. L. Rapozo: Of the maintenance?
Ms. Yukimura: The structural assessment of the restrooms, that
resulted from your toilet tour.
Mr. L. Rapozo: There are some. We have some budgeted moneys
in the current one to address, things like Kapahi Park. We also see the needs of some
others, but not to the point that we need to act upon it immediately where we do not think
it poses a public safety risk. But we should address it very soon.
Ms. Yukimura: Okay. You are going to put this all in a report to
us?
Mr. L. Rapozo: We can.
Ms. Yukimura: Okay. As I am recalling from the Po`ipu
restroom, there was bad ground termite?
Mr. L. Rapozo: Termite.
Ms. Yukimura: It was termite?
Mr. L. Rapozo: Termite-eaten.
Ms. Yukimura: Yes. Did you say you folks do this kind of
analysis of all facilities in terms of termite damage and repair?
Mr. L. Rapozo: We just look at what need to be repaired.
Ms. Yukimura: Because I mean, on my house, right, they come
annually to check for ground termites and things like that. Do we do that with our
facilities?
Mr. L. Rapozo: I guess the answer—well, for me, my expectation
would be the we have a Park Caretaker there. They are there every day. They should be
on this and that is part of the ongoing training that we need to impress upon them. They
should be able to recognize some of the facility maintenance needs or even just question to
come and take a look at this, this might be happening. But in the West Comfort Station it
was not determined until one of the fascia boards were removed that it came to light.
Everything was enclosed up until that point.
Ms. Yukimura: That is my point. I live in the house every day.
But I am not an expert on ground termites so they come with a golf club, tap, and check out.
They have a knowing about the sound.
Mr. L. Rapozo: I am sure there is a service the we could probably
pay for that.
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Ms. Yukimura: I am not trying to give you details about how to
do it, but I am concerned whether we have a systematic way. I like the way that your
Caretakers are your eyes and ears and they should file reports whether it is ponding of
water or whatever that need attention. I love it if you are training them to do that and
making sure that is part of the job description.
Mr. L. Rapozo: Or just impressing upon them that they should
be doing that work, yes. Currently, we do not have a systematic way to check for ground
termite as part of the plan.
Ms. Yukimura: I mean, is that a good idea in terms of taking
care of our facilities or is it...
Mr. L. Rapozo: That is a good idea.
Ms. Yukimura: Okay. There might be an additional cost to that
so will you folks come back and tell us what the plan is and what the cost is?
Mr. L. Rapozo: For the ground termites?
Ms. Yukimura: Well, just for overall. Ground termites are one
part of it, but I would guess dry rot, holes in the roof, whatever may be the problems with
the facilities. The idea that the sooner you catch it, the cheaper it will be to fix it, right?
Thank you.
Mr. M. Rapozo: Thank you. Councilmembers, if you could send
your questions over and use the sheet so that we can track it was a budget question and not
just a request that will come over after budget. Use the form so that we can track the
question and what I heard was pretty much an inventory or report from the toilet tour, I
guess as it was adequately called, as well as how do we address the day-to-day use and use
of our facilities. So, pose it in questions and put it on the form so we can at least track it.
Councilmember Nakamura or Mr. Chair.
Chair Furfaro: May I add? If it does not go on the form, it does
not go over. That is the rule.
Mr. M. Rapozo: Then it becomes a normal question that could
come back in three (3) week and these questions, I think, it is important for the budget. So,
we want to make sure that we use that form. Councilmember Nakamura.
Ms. Nakamura: Thank you. Lenny, I wanted to ask you about
the budget for this section. The Parks Project Manager, the Parks Administrator is?
Mr. L. Rapozo: William.
Mr. Trujillo: Myself, yes.
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Ms. Nakamura: Then the Park Planner is the one that is going to
be starting sometime in this year. The Parks Project Manager, is that the open position?
Mr. L. Rapozo: No, we hired.
Mr. Trujillo: He just started at the beginning the February.
Ms. Nakamura: This would be comparable to a CIP Project
Manager?
Mr. L. Rapozo: Yes.
Ms. Nakamura: Given the number of projects that you have, this
person will be able to track all the CIP and move the projects?
Mr. L. Rapozo: He has been, right? He has been working it well,
he has been.
Ms. Nakamura: William continues to do project management at
the same time?
Mr. Trujillo: Correct.
Mr. L. Rapozo: He runs the Division now. Actually, it is given
him the ability to be more of an Administrator or Manager because William was everything
at one point.
Ms. Nakamura: Yes. I am just wondering in terms of the number
of projects that you have as Parks Project Manager, can handle all of those projects?
Mr. L. Rapozo: William, do you want me to answer that? If
William could, there is no reason he cannot because now it is a Division of two (2) as
opposed to just being William.
Ms. Nakamura: Then how do you differentiate between project
that is run by the Department of Public Works versus the Department of Parks and
Recreation?
Mr. L. Rapozo: Most of the projects that are being run by
Department of Public Works are projects that are carried over from when the Department
of Parks and Recreation were part of Public Works. We have been trying as a Department,
or we have not been trying, but we have taken on everything that belongs to the
Department of Parks and Recreation as being a parks project. Any new project, we take it
on as one of our projects. William has been doing that work. The bike path started with
Department of Public Works and continues to be. But we are involved. Hanalei
Courthouse is a project that the Department of Public Works has been doing the oversight
and design work. So, they continue to do that. Everything else, we try to handle. If it is a
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Department of Parks and Recreation project, we take care of it in the Department of Parks
and Recreation.
Ms. Nakamura: Thank you.
Mr. M. Rapozo: Mr. Chair.
Chair Furfaro: I really debated about showing these photos. But
I think we need to be honest with everyone because we are talking about project
management. If you could just show the photos I have about our parks and just leave it up
for three seconds, no narrative, just go forward. Thank you. William, how often do you get
out to our actual facilities?
Mr. Trujillo: How often am I, officially for work? At least two
(2), three (3), four (4) times a week.
Chair Furfaro: Well, that is good to hear. The Kapa'a pool, a lot
of that cement work was related to the bathrooms being closed and even the laminated
beams over the two (2) locker rooms that are very concerning, the backflow equipment for
the pool itself, and whenever they backwash the pool. I mean, it is substantially old and I
do not know how much more time it has. We have stainless steel water users for the public
when they are there. I want to thank you for the Park Planner position that we have, but
can you give me a better idea since we have not even begun the discussion of where we are
relocating the park and some of the other particulars in your area? What kind of money do
we have to spend to get ourselves to acceptable level of upgrade for some of these parks,
Hanamd'ulu and so forth that you would be comfortable with and how are we doing that
reconciliation of the need while we wait for the Park Planner? How are we handling that as
a group, which includes the lifeguards? How are we doing that?
Mr. Trujillo: You are talking about the Kapa'a pool?
Chair Furfaro: I am talking about the Kapa'a pool, the
Hanamd'ulu, all of those that really need the attention. You do not know how much— I got
a sigh from one of the Councilmembers because I went this way, but those photos tell you
how far behind we are. I mean, we are behind and we need to have a real strategic thought
about the moneys. I think this is what the Vice Chair was mentioning, to get ourselves
caught up. We need an influx of some money to fix these things.
Mr. Trujillo: Correct. I agree there are facilities that we are
significantly behind. Obviously, your photos point out a few of them. The Kapa'a pool is
another one, that is definitely — and we are talking health and safety. We are not even
talking—it would be nice to...
Chair Furfaro: We are talking about meeting the minimum
requirements of health and safety.
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Mr. Trujillo: Right, exactly. Of course, that is the most port
part of it. I recently, as part of the toilet tours as we call it, which was the Chief of
Maintenance and myself went across the island and I will not say every, of the eighty (80)
something parks, maybe we hit sixty (60) something of them. We did skip some of the
smaller parks without facilities. To get an idea of really what are we talking about out
there for major issues, fencing, basketball surfacing, are the structures sound? In that one
(1) pass, which took us I would guess in terms of real time probably three (3) working weeks
to go to each one. We had an idea. We do need to go back to do it again because when you
start in Hanalei or Kilauea Park, well you would think it would be nice if we did this out
there or they could use more grills and things. But as you go across and you notice
Hanama`ulu Beach, the pavilion is rotted out. The Kapa'a pool is falling and then you start
reprioritizing in your head. How important was that new grill? I think we go through the
same process with our budget. Well, we do need and it would be nice if we had this small
projected up and ready to go. But really, we could use that money to start moving forward
with relocating the Kapa'a pool and projects that call out with louder voices. I do know we
are taking information from the toilet tours, looking at what else we have in the budget,
and we will take a better idea of really what else need to be done and really who is going to
take it? Some of these pieces, like Lenny was saying, are things that the Department of
Public Works was doing and now they are not. That is part of the transition.
Chair Furfaro: You have answered my part. I was one of the
Councilmembers that supported the idea about separating the Department of Public Works
from the Department of Parks and Recreation and one of the cautions that went up
immediately was this fact that the repair and maintenance people that are in the
Department of Public Works, we needed to have kind of the same team in the Department
of Parks and Recreation.
Mr. Trujillo I agree.
Chair Furfaro: It just, to me, I can tell you about the laminated
beams from six (6) years ago. But now the broken tiles and it is not even a repair to
prevent somebody from falling up against a wall and seriously injuring themselves. It is
very concerning. Gary, you do not know how much I debated about showing these photos,
but it is bad.
GARY K. HEU, Managing Director: No, I think that is fair. I just
wanted these maintenance issues. Prior to the beginning of the whole budget process, in
fact, you mentioned the Kapa'a pool and in part that is what kind of solidified this notion of
an Executive Maintenance Management Team. The Mayor has been convening a weekly
meeting every Monday prior to our Department Head Meeting so that usually starts about
8:00 a.m. We have Lenny Rapozo in there. We have got Ian Costa as the Deputy. We have
Larry Dill and Lyle Tabata in there. We have got Ernie Barreira from the procurement
side because we felt it was necessary to pull this team of people together to really put the
focus where it needed to be and to make sure that we got the commitments that we needed.
Now you just mentioned when the Department of Parks and Recreation was separated out
from the Department of Public Works, there has been an ongoing debate, I think, relative to
how to best accomplish those maintenance activities and you can debate it whichever way
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you want. But the bottom line is that I think everybody now has the message in terms of
how important this work is and how it needs to be prioritized. I think if you talk to the
Department of Public Works folks now in terms of how they are prioritizing their work
orders and the tools that they are putting in place to be able to better manage that, we have
made huge strides just in the last, I would say month and a half. I met personally with
Larry Dill one day and said, "Larry, if your Deputy, Lyle, needs to sit every afternoon with
the Building Maintenance Supervisor to prioritize the next day's work, if that is what it
takes, that kind of focus, that that is what it takes." We certainly do not expect Lyle do
that for the rest of his career here. But until people get and have the understanding of how
important this is, we need to keep that level of focus on it. Again, in the Mayor's state of
the County address, he spoke about if the toilet is not flushing and if the water faucet is not
fixed then we need to drive people out there. There discussion right now in terms of our
May 8th submittal, whether we will be coming in and reallocating some positions specifically
for the purpose of Building Maintenance. It is not our intent to add additional bodies to the
organization, but with the vacant positions that we do have, we are going to take a hard
look at those positions to see if additional Building Maintenance positions should be
prioritized over some of the current vacancies and it does not matter where the vacancies
reside in the organization. If we feel it is a higher priority, that is what we will do. I just
wanted to make sure from the Administration standpoint, you understand how serious we
are on this. On the bigger things, obviously, those could turn out to be some capital costs
involved in those things.
Chair Furfaro: Gary, I would like to say this.
Mr. Heu: Sure.
Chair Furfaro: You are talking to someone who spent
thirty-eight (38) years in the resort business and we never started by referring to something
as the toilet bowl tour. Already the statement, I mean, come up with an acronym like keep
everything new or can fix. But what I am saying is some of these items are beyond R&M
items.
Mr. Heu: Yes.
Chair Furfaro: I just want to know, is somebody evaluating this
piece and saying to us, we are going to borrow some bond money to build a new pavilion. A
new pavilion would qualify for money. That is what I am asking for, Gary. I understand
what you are creating, but we are way behind in some places. I think we need a bigger shot
in the arm to get it corrected.
Mr. Heu: Yes. I think again, that is part of what William
and his team are doing right now, is doing that of analysis. So, there is really a two (2)
prong thing going on. You have the larger projects that will take more effort, a lot more
time, and a lot more money. Then you have things that we can get in there and hit very
quickly and make a difference. Again, I just wanted to share that with the Council.
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Chair Furfaro: We came back saying that we were going to talk
about development, this planning process, and the new position that we have that is
coming. But I just wanted to be as honest as I could with you, we are falling behind?
Mr. Heu: Appreciate that.
Chair Furfaro: Thank you, Mr. Rapozo.
Mr. Heu: Thank you.
Mr. M. Rapozo: Thank you, Mr. Chair. I just wanted to add
something. What I just heard William is working on this Master Plan that is pretty
visionary. I believe that is the one that we did have a briefing, right?
Mr. L. Rapozo: The Parks Master Plan.
Mr. M. Rapozo: In that Park Master Plan is the relocation of the
swimming pool, amphitheater, and all of these projects and we are going to go out to the
community shortly with this plan. Yet, we have things like what we just saw. I guess does
that make sense? Does that make sense to go out to the community because really, I think
the Chair said what will it take? What it will take is really a moratorium on any new
projects. Until we get our projects at a level where number one it is safe, Hanama`ulu is
not safe. Hanama`ulu, I think we funded that renovation/restoration many, many years ago
and it still sits there today. I do not know how to answer the constituents when they ask
how are we going to pay for that because they are right. We cannot even pay for what we
have to catch up on. The statement I think that I am looking for is unfortunately because
of these tough fiscal times, we cannot proceed on this Master Plan. Get those resources
across so we can start working on the core function, on the core services that we are
supposed to be providing. But that pavilion is one that has been in that state for quite a
while now.
Mr. L. Rapozo: Could I answer?
Mr. M. Rapozo: Sure.
Mr. L. Rapozo: We continue to have ongoing talks with
community and yes, there were moneys appropriated to renovate or even demolish and
rebuild. We have had recent discussions with the community with regards to those options.
The community has expressed to us, the Neighborhood Association, that they want to
rebuild not renovate because again, as we mentioned we talked about being in the flood
zone. It takes it to a whole new level if we wanted to renovate. I would present it to the
community as much as those people that came out, and presented all of the fact and figures
and to renovate that particular pavilion would be crazy. The community said, " We want to
get rid of it. Well, what is the alternative plan?" As part of the path project, the path
project will come along the top of the property there as it goes along the old dairy and
behind that pavilion, we want to make the connection to the path to the park in bringing
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people there. As part of the path project, we can do the amenity or we can build a new
pavilion for them.
Mr. M. Rapozo: Let me just—that is what I am afraid of and that
is what I am concerned of is that a lot of that kind of projects is being controlled by the path
because we want to leverage Federal money. That pavilion should have been demolished or
fixed years ago. That is a health and safety hazard. It is. I understand what the
community wants. But I am saying that I am concerned that a lot of these projects are
because the funding is available with the path, we are putting these on hold until we can
utilize — and that is not a bad thing. But when it becomes a health and safety hazard that
is where I think...
Mr. L. Rapozo: If you allow me to continue, because of the
decision since I know community members had met with some of these Councilmembers
and that discussion did take place. So, we then did move for a Demolition Permit. Now, in
going through the Demolition Permit we find out, the Department of Parks and Recreation
does, with the help of Doug Haigh and the Department of Public Works, that one had been
initiated in 2008 and for some reason in 2010, in October is my recollection, it kind of
stopped and I had no knowledge of this. But because it is in a conservation district use
area, I am asking the Planning Department, why did it stop? Why did not we continue?
So, we are at that point now. We talked to the community. As soon as we get that permit,
we are going demolish it because you are right. You have people there, they put up the
fence, as soon as they put up the fence, they hammer the fence, and there is all this of
nonsense going on. It is better to demolish it and also the discussion was if we can move
the facility four (4), five (5), six (6) feet this way, we are out of the flood zone. So, we can
keep it, build it back to the same type of structure and structure that the community said
they want. The Mayor has prioritized that project. So, when we layout the pathing,
depending on the path, but like you said, I do not know if it is a bad thing because it gives
us money to build the amenity at least. That is with trying to be creative to get to the
needs of the community are and to get it there.
Mr. M. Rapozo: Lenny, I am not going to disagree with you. But
I am going to tell that you the savings will be minuscule compared to someone getting hurt
in that place.
Mr. L. Rapozo: As soon as we can figure out what the — I already
had the question in with the Planning Director why did it stop and let us get it moving and
let us get it done. Then we can demolish and hopefully that eliminates it. I agree.
Mr. M. Rapozo: I guess if it is 2008, the Demolition Permit was
granted.
Mr. L. Rapozo: Initiated.
Mr. M. Rapozo: Initiated, that is probably when we funded it, the
repair or whatever we are going to do and then you said it was stopped in 2010?
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Mr. L. Rapozo: For whatever in tracking it, it just has not moved
in 2010 and I do not know why. That is my question to the Department of Planning.
Mr. M. Rapozo: They could not give you the answer?
Mr. L. Rapozo: Not immediately, no.
Mr. M. Rapozo: That is why it is so bad over here. My God. B.C.
How are we on the tape? We have to take a short break for a tape change. Thank you.
There being no objections, the Committee recessed at 2:27 p.m.
There being no objections, the Committee reconvened at 2:31 p.m., and proceeded as
follows:
Mr. M. Rapozo Mr. Bynum, did you have a question?
Mr. Bynum: Hi everyone. I want to sincerely apologize for
coming in late. It was unavoidable. But I would hate it if I asked you something that you
have already been asked. I just wanted to focus on some ting that we have talked about in
the past and get a current update. The first is the Kapa'a Newton Park. We were talking
about that restroom near the skate park needing a new roof and that is one of the
restrooms that we did ADA and reduced, so there is only one (1) stall in both the men's and
women's sides. We have discussed this several years ago as a very high priority for
replacing that comfort station because you have the roller rink, the skate park, and senior
baseball. It has very intensive use there and I think that I saw in CIP and I am thrilled
that the basketball court lights are coming back there that have been gone for five (5) or six
(6) years. That is good news. But that will intensify the use there. Is it on your radar to
replace that restroom? Should we be spending money on new roofs when we desperately
need a new comfort facility there?
Mr. L. Rapozo: We did identify that as replacing the restroom at
this point. We did indentify in the very near future to replace the roof before it becomes a
problem.
Mr. Bynum: The roof is just the...
Mr. L. Rapozo: The top.
Mr. Bynum: Not the structure?
Mr. L. Rapozo: No.
Mr. Bynum: Well, I would really like to keep that on the
radar as a place. I go to senior baseball games occasionally and I literally see people
waiting fifteen (15) minutes to use the bathroom. Have you been there on a Sunday when
they have a bunch of seniors there?
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Mr. L. Rapozo: Normally, they play on Saturdays and we
provide them with port-a-potties because they do not want to walk that far to the bathroom.
Mr. Bynum: We have port-a-potties there?
Mr. L. Rapozo: Well, when they have home games there at the
request of the seniors and because a large amount of the seniors.
Mr. Bynum: Enough said. I hope that gets on the radar as a—
I think we have identified that three (3) or four (4) years ago as a high priority where the
capacity is really constrained. I have that right, in looking at CIP that is out to bid that
will replace the basketball court lights at Kapa'a Newtown Park.
Mr. Trujillo: No, the Kapa'a Newtown Park, we are redoing
the lights at the softball field. We have designs for the basketball court/tennis court/hockey
rink, but that one is not going out for construction yet.
Mr. Bynum: This is a question I have asked every year for
four (4) years, I think. Those lights rusted out and fell down like five (5) years ago. What is
the estimated time of arrival (ETA) on that? Here is say whole bunch of people who do
pickup games there at night that cannot do them anymore.
Mr. Trujillo: That one is just a matter of funding.
Mr. Bynum: It is a matter of?
Mr. Trujillo: Funding.
Mr. L. Rapozo: Funding. The designs are done, it is a matter of
funding meaning that the designs for retrofit of all the light facilities have just been
completed. We have (x) amount of dollars allotted to us for the retrofit of lights in this
fiscal year. These (x) amount of dollars were distributed for the softball field there, Waimea
Canyon Town Park, and Koloa Softball Park.
Mr. Trujillo: And Kekaha Park.
Mr. Bynum: But this is a retrofit project, right? Just because
the lights are rusted out...
Mr. L. Rapozo: That is right.
Mr. Bynum: it had lights, right?
Mr. L. Rapozo: Yes, it is a retrofit project. We were allotted (x)
amount of dollars for retrofit of lighting in our facilities and the designs are done for the
facilities. But in terms of going out for construction with the (x) amount of dollars that
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given to us, the priorities were given to the softball field which is being used, Waimea
Canyon Park, and Koloa softball field for the retrofits.
Mr. Bynum: Not in fiscal year?
Mr. L. Rapozo: As moneys become available we can move for
that kind of construction.
Mr. Bynum: I am just trying advocating for those pickup ball
players that now we are going on six (6) years. This is something we had that was actively
used and not available. How many lit basketball courts do we have in the Kapa'a to Lihu`e?
Mr. L. Rapozo: Isenberg is one in Lihu`e. Kapa`a, that would be
the only one.
Mr. Bynum: My next question is about...
Mr. M. Rapozo: Hang on. Any other questions pertaining to the
lighting retrofits? Go ahead.
Ms. Yukimura: How much money will it take to put those lights
back since you have the design in place?
Mr. Trujillo: I do not have that number.
Mr. L. Rapozo: I do not have that number. We have that
number available but...
Ms. Yukimura: Would you please make that money available
then? Can I ask a question about the bathroom?
Mr. M. Rapozo: Yes.
Ms. Yukimura: Why would we change the roof if we are at some
point going to change the bathroom space?
Mr. L. Rapozo: That was a request to change the bathroom
space. We did not have that in your current plan, but the roof needs to be changed
Ms. Yukimura: Well, I think last year I asked for an inventory of
all the bathrooms that had been diminished.
Mr. L. Rapozo: We did provide that to you.
Ms. Yukimura: And a plan for a priority of restoration. Is that
part of the budget this time around? Do you have the list priorities?
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Mr. L. Rapozo: We sent it over last year because that is the
same plan that I worked off to talk about the structures. Then, we are going to provide it
again with the new request.
Ms. Yukimura: Which are your priorities for converting back to
two (2) bathrooms for the women's side?
Mr. L. Rapozo: We do not have a priority at this point.
Ms. Yukimura: Well it sounds — I mean how much do we pay for
portables as an ongoing cost?
Mr. L. Rapozo: I do not have the exact number, but we can look
in our budget for you.
li Ms. Yukimura: Anyway, I am thinking why change the roof
when maybe within the next five (5) years we are going to say we want to convert the
bathroom to two (2) bathrooms in the women's side? I mean, you should do it all at once. It
would be so much more cost effective.
Mr. L. Rapozo: I did not say we were going to change — maybe I
should said we are going to repair the roof, there needs to be repair on the roof.
Mr. Bynum: Can I answer that question?
Mr. L. Rapozo: Sure.
Mr. Bynum: Even if we are in this budget, it would still take
two (2) years before a new restroom was there. It is a small roof. If it is leaking, you need
to repair it. I thought you were talking about there were structural problems with these
roofs. But if it is just the roofing, even if we had prioritized this and it was in the budget,
we would still need to repair the roof, right?
Mr. L. Rapozo: Yes.
Mr. Bynum: Thank you.
Mr. M. Rapozo: Thank you.
Ms. Yukimura: I thought you were changing the whole roof.
Mr. L. Rapozo: No.
Mr. M. Rapozo: The portable toilet line item is two hundred
forty-one thousand twenty-five dollars ($241,025).
Ms. Yukimura: May I?
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Mr. M. Rapozo: Yes.
Ms. Yukimura: How much does it cost to convert? You folks
have a model now because you have done it a couple of places, right? You reconverted it
from a one (1) bathroom to two (2) bathroom? How much does that cost?
Mr. L. Rapozo: I think we need to look at the structure itself
because we did it at Isenberg and the Kapa'a Newtown Park comfort station is not the same
design like Isenberg. It may be differ in terms of costs. But if you are talking about the
portable port-a-potties, the demand has gone up for port-a-potties in terms of usage.
George did an excellent job in reworking the contract so that we got a better deal two (2)
years ago. But what had he did in this contract this year it that they raised the price, it is a
higher price.
Ms. Yukimura: Well, that is the thing. You are going to be
forever dependent on these temporary contracts. Why not create permanent bathrooms
that serve the need?
Mr. L. Rapozo: Currently; I do not think we can it.
Ms. Yukimura: But two hundred forty thousand dollars
($240,000) a year can pay off the bond money on a new bathroom.
Mr. L. Rapozo: Ha`ena State Park, with the connections, costs us
five hundred thousand dollars ($500,000) to do a bathroom.
Md. Yukimura: That is two(2) years of portable toilets.
Mr. L. Rapozo: Give me five hundred thousand dollars
($500,000) and we will we build you a bathroom, whatever you want.
Ms. Yukimura: Of course. But we would have to do without
portables for a year. But do you not see that is crazy to pay two hundred forty thousand
dollars ($240,000) a year for ten (10) years.
Mr. L. Rapozo: But I understand Councilmember Yukimura.
But again, you give me five hundred thousand dollars ($500,000) and we will put a
bathroom wherever you want.
Ms. Yukimura: We will take it from the Parks Fund from
Spouting Horn.
Mr. Rapozo: If that is what you want Councilmember.
Ms. Yukimura: That is a much better use of that money.
li
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Mr. M. Rapozo: The two hundred forty-one thousand dollars
($241,000) covers the portable toilets for the entire island.
Mr. L. Rapozo: Island wide, exactly. Not only Kapa'a Park.
Ms. Yukimura: I thought it was just...
Mr. L. Rapozo: That is what I am saying, you are going to have
one (1) bathroom one (1) place and you are going to get...
Mr. M. Rapozo: And we are going to lose about three hundred
(3000 or four hundred (400)...
Mr. L. Rapozo: Exactly.
Ms. Yukimura: But I would like to know wherever we put
portables, and I am sure there are some special events that you need portables, do those
include special event portable as well?
Mr. L. Rapozo: Exactly.
Ms. Yukimura: That is one kind of thing. But do you real when
we converted to ADA without thinking about we were so single purpose, all we were going
to do is convert to ADA, and we were not thinking about why we first put in two bathrooms
for women when we built them in the first place? We unthinkingly did all of that. I would
like to know how many of the portables cost is because of that error basically that we made
when we converted. George is saying no many.
Mr. L. Rapozo: Yes, I was just going to say not many but we will
let you finish your statement.
Mr. M. Rapozo: Moving along.
Mr. Bynum: Can we go to a different topic?
Mr. M. Rapozo: Yes. Any other questions?
Ms. Yukimura: I have other questions.
Mr. M. Rapozo: Hang on because we go around the table.
Anybody else has another question?
Ms. Nakamura: I do.
Mr. M. Rapozo: Go ahead Councilmember Nakamura.
Ms. Nakamura: One last thing on restrooms.
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Mr. Bynum: One last thing on restrooms.
. Mr. M. Rapozo: On restrooms, okay.
Mr. Bynum: I mean, I hope that we start looking at
retrofitting those as resources become available and I advocated pretty strongly for
port-a-potties at the motorcycle cross and that became an ongoing regular exp3ense for the
County because we need to meet the recreational needs. If that is the only way, long-term
we have a plan for that, I think. Maybe we do not. But that is a separate discussion. But I
think that Kapa'a Newtown Park is one. I cannot think of a higher priority in an existing
park. I could be wrong though.
Mr. Rapozo: Councilmember Nakamura.
Ms. Nakamura: Yes. I have a question on page 33 of your report.
You mentioned eleven (11) acre soccer park. Is there a location for that?
Mr. L. Rapozo: That is, Councilmember Bynum, that is the one
behind the Kaua`i Products Festival Fair in Kapa'a on the backside?
Ms. Nakamura: Alright. I just wanted to confirm that that was
Kapa'a soccer park.
Mr. Bynum: We will talk about that on April 16th, right? I am
saving all my questions.
Mr. L. Rapozo: On the CIP?
Mr. Bynum: Yes.
Mr. L. Rapozo: Okay.
Mr. M. Rapozo: Any other questions? Do you have a follow-up?
Ms. Yukimura: No, a separate question. I agree with
Councilmember Rapozo about the Parks Master Plan and how we should really pay
attention to repair & maintenance of our existing facilities before we go and build all of
these other things. But to me, the Parks Master Plan should be addressing this dilemma.
It is a plan that sets a policy that the first thing we do is to bring all of our facilities up to
par and have a maintenance plan that will keep them up to par. Then it would include the
new parks and we have to prioritize. We cannot just make the Parks Plan potpourri of our
desires. We have to say what is the biggest need for the general good of the island. I hope
it does not have this amphitheater in it in Kapa'a Town because I do not see that as a
priority, whereas it should be looking at a cultural, performing arts, and sporting arena.
What I am saying that is a plan for how we are going to develop — what is the span of the
plan? Twenty-five (25) years?
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Mr. L. Rapozo: Twenty (20).
Ms. Yukimura: Twenty (20) years. And that those guide us. But
it means that we have to make some really tough decisions about what our priorities areas
as a community and that is what we had to do with the Multi-Modal Land Transportation
Plan. It was not like this is what we want and put it all in the plan. No, it said what we
were going to do first.
Mr. M. Rapozo: Bring it back.
Ms. Yukimura: Thank you. My question is, and it is very
specific, on this problem that you mentioned on page 18 with the playground surfacing and
equipment replacement. I would like you to explain what the problem is that is not
allowing us to quickly repair and keep in good shape all of this playground equipment
around the island from Kalawai Park to...
Mr. L. Rapozo: Well, sound like you want to discuss the Kilauea
one? The Kilauea, as I had mentioned in the previous meeting here, the company that
provides us with that playgrounds is the same company that provides us with other
playgrounds this island. So, what happened was we did get moneys to fix the playground at
Kilauea and also to add and not only fix the surface, but also to add features that would
address those children with ADA need as well, ground elements, as they are called because
that does not have ground elements to satisfy this group of people or kids. It is a sole
source like most of these recreational playgrounds are and when we put together the list of
what we want and what we need to fix not only that playground, but other playgrounds
that are supplied by this particular company in the State of Hawai`i, we did this sole source
exercise required by part of procurement and the Hawai`i company said we do not take
purchase order. We do not want to be sole source. We do not take p urchase orders. That
started this whole other avenue that we needed to o to the National representative. So, we
g p ,
are working with them, doing the sole source with them, it has been currently advertised
thirty (30) days that we will be doing a sole source for the company, are there any other
companies in Hawai`i. We are just doing the process. As soon as that is done, we will be
able to order the parts needed and fix the playgrounds. That has been the challenge and we
find that not only with most of our playgrounds that people win the bid, they are the sole
source company, and when we have problems like this, we have a problem getting the
parts. George has been working with this and has been working with them to try and get
over and to get the parts that we need.
Ms. Yukimura: Is there a way we can design the contracts like
this one when we first purchase the playground equipment and require them to supply the
parts for the life of the equipment?
Mr. L .Rapozo: That is some of the discussion that we had at the
last Council Meeting, Councilmember Yukimura, and that is what we need to work with,
Attorneys, to see if we can do that in terms of the bids specifications.
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Ms. Yukimura: You do not know that yet whether you can or
cannot?
Mr. L. Rapozo: I do not know yet.
Ms. Yukimura: That was a while back. It was a year ago, right?
Mr. L. Rapozo: Last week, I think, when we discussed this sole
source thing. The problem at Kilauea, we talked about a year ago and budgeted moneys for
the fixture. But in terms of what had happened for the sole source procurement, we just
talked about it last week.
Ms. Yukimura: Do you have a list of all of the play ground — did
we not get all of this playground equipment mainly during a year or two (2) or maybe five
(5) year period?
Mr. L. Rapozo: My understanding is that the Kilauea one is
probably the first playground that the County ever got this type of playground.
Ms. Yukimura: How many...
Mr. L. Rapozo: And that is why the .ADA elements are not
included in this particular playground that we need to include now.
Ms. Yukimura: That is very good. How many of these
playgrounds do we have on the island?
Mr. L. Rapozo: For this particular vendor?
Ms. Yukimura: No, I am thinking just like our bathroom
evaluations.
Mr. L. Rapozo: We can get that number to you. I do not have
that at my disposal right now.
Ms. Yukimura: Do we have a plan for upgrading them all in a
timely basis?
Mr. L. Rapozo: There is a playground replacement schedule that
we have.
Mr. M. Rapozo: We will send it over on a question.
Ms. Yukimura: We have the moneys to do it?
Mr. L. Rapozo: No, we do not. It is a plan and if there are
moneys available to do this, we do. If not, we just push it off to the next year.
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Ms. Yukimura: Why would you not use the money from the
Spouting Horn Fund to do it?
Mr. L. Rapozo: Because we are trying to address these other
issues that I showed you in the letter with the Spouting Horn moneys. It is a matter
priority, what do we want to fix, right?
Ms. Yukimura: Well, and it is a matter of how the community
gets to say what their priorities are when there is no public process for them to address the
funding allocations. Thank you.
Mr. L. Rapozo: Thank you for that.
Mr. M. Rapozo: That is why we pay Lenny the big bucks.
Mr. L. Rapozo: That is right.
Mr. M. Rapozo: To make that decision.
Mr. M. Rapozo: We may not agree. But as much as I value —
man my voice is really going, the playgrounds, I think on the level of priority during these
tough financial times it is tough. The main thing is that we keep them safe which you have
been doing. Did you have another question Mr. Bynum? Go ahead.
Mr. Bynum: North of Anahola, how many football/soccer
fields does the County have in its inventory?
Mr. L. Rapozo: North of Anahola?
Mr. Bynum: Yes.
Mr. L. Rapozo: I believe we only have Kilauea and Waioli Beach
Park.
I!,I
Mr. Bynum: We have one (1) field at Kilauea that doubles as
a baseball field? It is the same field, right?
Mr. Trujillo: Baseball, softball, and soccer field.
Mr. Bynum: Multi-purpose, right?
Mr. Trujillo: Correct.
Mr. Bynum: We have field space at Waioli that we do not own
and we are not allowed to put restrooms or any other amenities, correct?
Mr. L. Rapozo: Correct.
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Mr. Bynum: What is the plan to meet the recreational needs
of the North Shore because per capita, by far, they have a desperate need for new facilities?
First of all, do you agree with that statement and second of all what is plan?
Mr. L. Rapozo: At this point, we do not have any — I should not
say land because we just purchased some land in Black Pot that we could put fields there if
that is what the community desire. You are all shaking your heads no. But yet we want
fields on that side. So, we need to make a decision now.
Mr. Bynum: Well, do you agree this is a tire dire need?
Mr. L. Rapozo: I agree. But we need to look at where we can get
land to do that.
Mr. Bynum: yes. We need a regional park on the North
Shore. I mean, we need a big chunk of land. Do you agree?
Mr. L. Rapozo: Sure.
Mr. Bynum: Well, it is the plan that never starts that takes
the longest to complete.
Mr. L. Rapozo: That is right.
Mr. Bynum: What is the Department Parks and Recreation's
plan to address these recreational needs?
Mr. L. Rapozo: Let me ask you this, Mr. Bynum. Mr. Bynum, as
opportunity arises we take advantage of these opportunities, correct? If we can find an
opportunity where a regional park can be done on the North Shore, why would we not? We
need to find that opportunity.
Mr. Bynum: I agree.
Mr. L. Rapozo: We had an opportunity to purchase land down at
Black Pot and we did. We spent an incredible amount of money there.
Kr. Bynum: I see that as a separate issue, Lenny.
Mr. L. Rapozo: Well, we could put a baseball diamond down
there, we can put a soccer field down there if that is the needs of that area. Why do not we
do that?
Chair Furfaro: Excuse me, I think we need to be a little more
realistic.
Mr. L. Rapozo: I understand.
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Chair Furfaro: No, you need to be a little more realistic in
responses to the Councilmembers. That was a fair and legitimate question of where can we
acquire land? Mr. Bynum.
Mr. Bynum: I do not mind having this discussion. I just think
we have to give faith opportunity. We have to look and seek land if necessary.
Mr. L. Rapozo: Let us all work together and go find a lot.
Mr. Bynum: The County owns seventy-five (75) acres in
Kilauea too and maybe we should have an honest discussion about that at some point.
Mr. L. Rapozo: That is a fair statement.
Mr. Bynum: Well, I am all into let us talk the truth. The
truth is that the another is the North Shore has dire needs and we should be looking for at
least starting the plan of how we will address that inequality on a per capita basis because
that is identified in our Parks Master Plan. I think that is a reasonable question and I
know it may take some time. But it would be inappropriate, right, for a Councilmember to
go out and talk to land owners about land, that would be inappropriate would it not?
Mr. Rapozo: JoAnn does it all the time, seriously. Send her.
Mr. Bynum: Well, anyway. I have made my point. I just
would really like to hear a more thought out answer. I will make a lot of people on the
North Shore angry by saying that we need to take a close look at the seventy-five (75) acres
we acquired in Kilauea and whether the stated use is pragmatic, practical, and obtainable?
Mr. Rapozo: Good discussion for another time because that
has nothing do with the Department of Parks and Recreation right now.
Mr. Bynum: Well, it has do with land that County owns.
Mr. M. Rapozo: I actually never thought of that Black Pot area
as a sporting and it is viable, it could be and maybe we should look at that. I know JoAnn
is shaking her head no but that is the point of this discussion. Everybody is different and
that is something that have I to take a look at, that is pretty cool. Any other follow-up
besides the agriculture park side, just the...
Ms. Yukimura: Yes.
Mr. M. Rapozo: Go ahead, Councilmember Yukimura.
Ms. Yukimura: This is an issue that should be addressed in the
County's Parks Master Plan and even if it says there is a need and there should begin a
search for the proper place to put it. That should be part of it. Black Pot is a ridiculous site
and I want to point out that when Mr. Rapozo was talking about how big and immediate
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the demand for camping at Lydgate was when we opened it up, I wrote a note and said,
"Yes, we probably are going to wish that we had kept that Lydgate soccer park land for
camping, for ocean related activities," which was my position when that park came up
before us. A mother just told me the other day, I have two (2) kids and they are playing at
Lydgate Park and then they are paying at Kapahi someplace. It is hard for me, whereas if
they were all in one place, maybe centralized, you could have tournaments. It would be
easier to maintain and parents could move back and forth among the fields. That is the
kind of planning that needs to come forth in our Master Parks Plan and I look forward to
seeing it there.
Mr.M. Rapozo: Mr. Chair, I do not know if you are ready to take
this back?
Chair Furfaro: I think I am and I think we also need to move on
beyond planning and development.
Mr. M. Rapozo: Maybe we all have to go back and look at the
revenue side of the budget because we have no money. I think that is the reality of it and
we have no money for anything. I love the dreams and the vision and I am talking on this
side of the isle, not your side of the isle, that we need to be realistic. Before I hand it back
over to you, I think we have beaten the park planning to death and every time we get to the
table we hit it again and again. We all understand what the park plan needs to be and we
will wait that from the Department of Parks and Recreation. Thank you very much,
Mr. Chair.
There being no objections, Mr. Rapozo the presiding officer returned Chairmanship
to Chair Furfaro.
Chair Furfaro: Go ahead.
Mr. Bynum: Just again, I apologize for being late at the
beginning of your presentation and I wanted to acknowledge William who has really been
holding down the fort. I appreciate your work a lot, William, and it is thrilling to hear that
you will seen be fully staffed in that Planning Division. I am sure that we will see some
improvement in terms of moving things through and just a learning curve about
understanding what obstacles are. You learn this, William, and then the next one is easier,
right? I hope.
Mr. Trujillo: That is the hope, right?
Mr. Bynum: Thank you.
Chair Furfaro: Will, do you prefer being called William?
Mr. Trujillo: William, Bill, I am fine with either.
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Chair Furfaro: I just wanted to make sure. William, I think
that comment, we all recognize your contribution and so forth and sometimes it is necessary
to share. We did not get in this hole overnight. It has been a number of years, one of the
moves in separating the Department of Parks and Recreation from the Department of
Public Works was to evolve to something that resembles a high standard and yet a
manageable position and we are just going through the work pieces right now. Lenny,
thank you very much for the job description and I hope you will accept some comments back
if there are some from the members for the Planner. Also, on the radar screen today, we
also realize that for a North Shore regional park, we probably need to solicit about
twenty-five (25) acres of land and some of us are not embarrassed to ask people that
question. We will take it from there.
Mr. Rapozo: Thank you.
Chair Furfaro: I would like to close out planning and then as
you requested, we are going to take maintenance, beautification, and stadiums.
Mr. Rapozo: That is all one Division.
Chair Furfaro: All one division, right?
Mr. Rapozo: Yes. So, that is where I would like to go at this
point. You have a question? William, thank you.
Mr. Trujillo: Thank you, Chair. Thank you, Council.
Chair Furfaro: Who do you have coming up to join you?
Mr. Rapozo: George.
Chair Furfaro: Good. It is all together maintenance,
beautification, and stadium all comes with George.
GEORGE AHLGREN, Parks Maintenance Operations Chief: Good afternoon.
Chair Furfaro: George, thank you very much for being here and
I will give you some time if you would like to make a short presentation or informational
piece that you want to share with us dealing with stadiums, maintenance, and
beautification.
Mr. Ahlgren: Nothing additional. I was hoping just maybe to
clear up an earlier point about the staffing and the amount of time that our staff are given
to call in and if someone is out, then we call somebody else in. The scenario does not get
quite that bad. We have clear...
Chair Furfaro: I am glad to hear that. Please, give us the good
word.
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Mr. Ahlgren: The good word is that we either have anticipated
that or through history and practice have covered that. The Park Caretaker II in each
district is specifically given the responsibility on a daily basis to cover for his staff that are
on vacation or sick. We do not call someone else in at a premium to cover for a person
missing for the day. We also in each district...
Chair Furfaro: I would have hoped you would have said, George,
who has an excused absence. I do not think there is anything in the contract that
references missing.
Mr. Ahlgren: Just initially he would be missing and then it
will turn out later if it is an excused absence or leave without pay. Initially, he is just
missing and we do cover for that. We also have in each district a Rover and that Rover is
not assigned to this park or that park, he roves. So, between those two (2) options in a
particular district we are not left without coverage at a park. I just wanted to assure
Council that we are not calling people in on overtime and then...very awkward.
Chair Furfaro: That is part of the answer, but that is not the
answer that I am looking for George.
Mr. Ahlgren: Correct, understood.
Chair Furfaro: We want to know what the procedure is, who is
in control when the fact that somebody is absent, and what kind of time do they have to
inform us? But thank you for speaking to the coverage issue.
Mr. Ahlgren: Yes. You are welcome.
Chair Furfaro: Go ahead.
Mr. Rapozo: I have a clarifying question because I had
received a call — the employees watch this on TV believe it or not, County-wide when they
go home. I am not saying now. I got a call and he had no problem using his name, but I am
not going to state his name here but I will definitely talk to you afterwards. That at
Lydgate when someone calls in sick, they are calling people back in. I guess you folks use
BC Its or BC Is or IIIs. A supervisor calls in sick or on vacation and rather than move the
person up, according to this guy they are calling people back in from a day off and getting
paid overtime. He is saying you folks are talking about saving money, well why would you
not just move the person to temporary assignment versus calling somebody back in from a
day off and he said that is happening constantly happening at Lydgate. I just bring that up
because I think that is what is happening and that it is quite different from what you just
said.
Mr. Ahlgren: Lydgate is certainly one of our more unique
parks. The coverage there —because now especially with the camping that we have there, I
felt that it was important not to leave a position vacant even for a day. It causes us to fall
too far behind at one of our largest and most popular parks. So, I get the call, I do at
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3:45/4:00 in the morning saying so and so is going to be sick today. Can we call somebody
in to cover his shift? I will think, well today is Wednesday. It is the day that the
campground is closed and we get the opportunity to do the thorough cleaning in the
campground, I will grant the overtime for that person to come in to make sure we do not fall
behind at Lydgate Park. There is not Rover in Lydgate Park.
Mr. Rapozo: But what about the floater?
Mr. Ahlgren: There is not a Rover at Lydgate.
Mr. Rapozo: Oh, so it is separate? Lydgate is handled a little
differently?
Mr. Ahlgren: Yes, it is handled a little differently. There is no
Rover there.
Mr. Rapozo: Alright. Thank you.
Chair Furfaro: Thank you for clarifying that you are receiving
the calls at 3:45 a.m. You are not getting them at 2:45 in the afternoon, "Oh, by way I did
not come to work this morning."
Mr. Ahlgren: No.
Chair Furfaro: We got that right.
Mr. Ahlgren: I get them early in the morning.
Mr. L. Rapozo: At least for Lydgate.
Chair Furfaro: We are making progress. But thank you for that
clarification. Mr. Bynum.
Mr. Bynum: Did not Lydgate just pick up their fifth guy that
we put in the budget last year?
Mr. Ahlgren: Yes, we did.
Mr. Bynum: That situation—with five (5) people, it is going to
be easier to cover for vacation and sick than with four (4), right?
Mr. Ahlgren: It should be. It should be much better. But this
person again is tasked primarily with just the restroom cleaning part so that is not really
helping when it come to the campground per se.
Mr. Bynum: Got it. Okay. Sorry, I just meant that as a
follow-up.
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Chair Furfaro: I was going to recognize Mr. Kagawa first but
Mr. Rapozo spoke up. You were going to give us some clarification, so I let it roll. Our first
question for you on the operations. Mr. Kagawa, you have the floor.
q Y p g Y
Mr. Kagawa: Thank you, Mr. Chair. I will start at the
stadiums. Recently, we fixed the baseball scoreboard. I was glad to see that that was
working this Saturday. I talked to people at the stadium and they said that the way they
fixed it, because I guess they fixed it first and then it broke again and the way they fixed it
is they took parts from the football scoreboard and used it to repair the baseball scoreboard.
Now, my question to you because I think it is a waste of labor to keep taking parts back and
forth. Are you ordering new parts for the football scoreboard because I think at some point
if we keep interchanging these parts it is like something is going to go wrong. I am
wondering if you are getting spare parts because I think when we have big events especially
if we have a five thousand (5,000) spectator crowd watching the Kaua`i 'Interscholastic
Federation (KIF) game and the scoreboard is not working, it is going to take away a little
bit. I want to make sure that we have a working scoreboard and if we turned it on now,
obviously it would not work because we took critical parts out of it.
Mr. Ahlgren: Good question. Thank you. Scoreboards are very
similar to playground equipment if you can imagine that they are all fair play scoreboard
and to get parts for fair play scoreboards requires us to go through the process described
earlier for playground equipment in getting a sole source and there has been for many
years since before I came, a sole source vendor on O`ahu that we went to. We had to renew
the agreement every year and this particular vendor, Roger Hill Limited, supplied with us
parts. Just about six (6) months ago I have been trying to reach Roger Hill Limited only to
find he had passed away and the son had tried to run the business, but just folded. So, was
not returning my calls. So, I needed to start all over again and call Missouri or Ohio
someplace where fair play has their main office and trying to find out who is going to be my
new sole source supplier, go through that process of establishing the new person as sole
source vendor with the County, and get them up to speed with the Hawai`i Compliance
Express (HCE) compliance. All the vendors that we deal with have to be HCE complaint.
Now, I finally have a new person and I have placed an order for those parts that we needed
and spares.
Mr. Kagawa: Thank you, George. Another question on the
stadium. The wooden bleachers are concerning me because I grew up playing at that
stadium and I know the person who actually constructed bleachers. He was a lead
carpenter at Hanapepe Base Yard. His name was Alan Yamamoto, I believe. He bragged
about— I guess as old and retired, he bragged how much the carpenters in their time did
and actually built a lot of things. They say now you contract everything. But anyway, I am
drifting off the subject. But a three (3) an crew built all of those wooden bleachers and if
you really look at it, it is just an amazing accomplishment because there is big lumber and
sixty (60) years later, it is still standing and working. I am kind of afraid because maybe a
year or two(2) ago I felt loose planks and I am wondering before the upcoming season if you
have plans to send a carpenter crew in or contract somebody to make sure that the boards
are all safe? I think we should walk every step of those bleachers with somebody heavy,
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like two hundred (200) pounder at least and make sure that it is safe because I think
structurally it is still pretty strong. But I think every year as it ages, we have got to keep
that yearly maintenance.
Mr. Ahlgren: This is Hanapepe football field?
Mr. Kagawa: Yes, stadium.
Mr. Ahlgren: The project to replace those?
Mr. Rapozo: Yes, eight hundred thousand dollars ($800,000)
is part of the CIP and William has been the head of that project. It is in design. The
associate have the design. They are working on the design. The design came back once
before, we sent it back because we did not like what was presented to us. Imagine, like you
said you grew up. Do you know where they players come walking out in between the
bleachers?
Mr. Kagawa: Yes.
Mr. Rapozo: Well, they gave us a design that would all
bleachers so the players would have to run around. It is kind of crazy to us. We did not
like it and we sent it back. It is still in the design process. As soon as we get that done, we
will move to construction. The other things about making sure every plank, I think staff
can do that, that walk-through, to ensure that. If we need to do some repair work, then we
can do the work order.
Mr. Kagawa: How long do we expect the wooden bleachers to
be used, one (1) more season, two (2) more seasons maybe?
Mr. Rapozo: As soon as this bleacher project can be done, we
will move them out. As soon as we want to replace it. Councilmember Kagawa, just a little
bit of insight on the project. The trick is the announcer's booth because it is attached to the
myrtle bleachers. As we are moving towards aluminum, it think Mr. Yamamoto would
have a difficult time to do aluminum now is that the standard is. So, we would have to
contract it out anyway and we are not replacing wood. But the trick is to attach the
announcer's booth to the bleachers appropriately so that it is stable.
Mr. Kagawa: Okay. Moving on since I am going to cover all of
my questions. George, first I want to let you know that I looked at how many employees
have you under you. I always told Lenny you have the toughest job in the County and
think you have the second toughest because you have a lot of people under you. I do not
know if it is fair job to have that many people under you. But one of the issues that came
up to me is the issue that we have at Kapa'a Stadium, Kapa'a Ballpark. I have a lot of
complaints and I have seen it where I have seen people in the community, coaches, trying to
mow it when it is above the waist. I have seen it that high during the rainy season. It
seems to stem with issues between the employees who cannot get along and I am just
wondering. It was even so bad that a team told me they could not find their balls in the
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outfield at one time when it was really long and I actually saw a couple of coaches mowing
with their personal mowers and if you can imagine how big that ballpark is with a hand
push mower, it could take you two (2) days of eight (8) hour work to maybe mow it all. It is
so high that you mow a little bit and the mower will get stuck already. I do not think I have
seen that happen recently. I have known one (1) situation that Kapa'a seniors had a big
tournament and me, Lenny, Ian, and the Mayor all got the same calls. But it falls on you
and your worker there. They made a commitment to do the maintenance after each game
and everything. Then I think the Supervisor got sick and the other two (2) workers said
that they are not going to man the field. It just ended up a mess because if you tell them
straight out that after the games you clean up your own field, fine. But if you tell them you
are going to do it with your County crew and then you do not do it, they get mad and that is
what happened. They made a commitment to maintain the field after each game and they
did not show up. I think myself, the Mayor, Lenny, and Ian, we all got an earful. But when
you have three (3) people that seem to not get along, is there any way you can separate
them? I think it is a case where sure, we do not want to talk about it. But when it starts
hurting the community and you have three (3) people that are not doing their jobs because
they have issues, can you move them around something, George? I do not know if it is
appropriate to answer now. But I just wanted to be straight up and answer the question.
Chair Furfaro: Excuse me. I appreciate you asking the question
straight up. But George you need to be very sensitive to a personnel issue here.
Mr. Rapozo: I was just going to say.
Chair Furfaro: If you can assure Mr. Kagawa, after you have
resolved some conversations on the matter because it is a personnel matter, I would
appreciate it if you just got directly back to him and not now.
Mr. Rapozo: We can talk about it offline.
Mr. Ahlgren: I just might add I do so much appreciate the help
from the community when those times come up. It is a very spontaneous style of
Adopt-A-Park and we are deeply indebted to the community for the help that they gave us
in our parks. Since that time, we have gotten a new replacement lawn mower for Kapa`a.
The staffing situation just in general has improved. I think we are committed to and can
provide a better level of maintenance at Kapa'a Newtown Park.
Mr. Kagawa: Thank you. Good news.
Chair Furfaro: We are on the subjects of maintenance,
beautification, and stadiums. Questions? Go right ahead, Vice Chair.
Ms. Nakamura: I have a question relating to the base yard and
the movement to the new site. Does the whole operation move over or just part of it? What
happens to the existing site next to the river?
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Mr. Rapozo: We need to further discuss this with the Mayor.
The intent is to move everybody over, but it does not appear that we will have enough room
for everybody at this point. We are looking to take everybody over except beautification and
they will work out the current Kapa'a Base Yard and move everybody else to the new site.
If for whatever reason it allows us to move everybody over, that is the intent. Until we get
evicted from the old site, then we have to move everybody over.
Ms. Nakamura: Does the County not own the existing site?
Mr. Rapozo: Yes.
Ms. Nakamura: This is the one next to the canal?
Mr. Rapozo: Yes.
Ms. Nakamura: What the County Housing Agency interested in
doing some elderly housing at that site at one point?
Mr. Rapozo: I have heard that. But nobody told me that yet.
I like the base yard being there that is why.
Ms. Nakamura: How much more space do you need to move
beautification out of there?
Mr. Rapozo: What do you think?
Mr. Ahlgren: Part of the problem is in the amount of space
allocated to the Department of Parks and Recreation for parking of vehicles, trailers,
mowers and the mobile sound stage, part of it is office space that we have now and storage
space that is not provided at the new base yard. That is why we are trying to figure out a
good way to split. The supervisor and the PC Its that report currently to the existing base
yard, those people could move over to the new base yard. But right now it seems like
beautification and some of our equipment and storage of dirt, sand, rock, dust, and picnic
tables that are in repair, all of this things, there is not really room set aside for us in the
new base yard for that square footage of equipment.
Mr. Rapozo: Can I just add to that? Because of the location of
it, it provides us an opportunity to move the equipment that sits out at the stadium, at the
Kapa'a Newtown Park, to move that over to the base yard and have them there. At least
we have a place for them to put our equipment under shade which we do not have right
now. It is not only moving the base yard, but we would have the added equipment from the
park across the street.
Ms. Nakamura: Are you saying that there is no space at the
Kapa'a Base Yard to accommodate this additional space that you need?
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Mr. Rapozo: As George has mentioned, with the materials
that we need, to do our work, would not have that same type of space available where the
new base yard is.
Ms. Nakamura: There is no space available?
Mr. Rapozo: Yes. We actually could probably use the open
space outside. But then you probably come in the morning and see two (2) truck tires right
up to the pile that was there and then pile has probably gotten a little less. Where we are
now, we can close the gate, lock it, and our materials are safe.
Chair Furfaro: Councilmember Yukimura.
Ms. Yukimura: Are you saying that we are lacking space at the
new site mainly because we do not have it gated? If we did fund a gate or something, there
would be more space there?
Mr. Rapozo: No, not all. We are saying there is not enough
space to put our material inside the base yard.
Ms. Yukimura: Why deposit we figure this out before we —
because I thought that in the whole plan of moving there, someone had figured out that
that would be enough space.
Mr. Rapozo: That decision was made prior to our
Administration coming in. When we came in, that project was going already. I cannot
answer that. We cannot answer that question, that was before our time.
Chair Furfaro: I guess from a loss prevention standpoint, you
could give it some thought. Maybe we do need a gate.
Mr.Rapozo: They are going to have a gate there — oh, you
mean we would have to fence off the additional area?
Chair Furfaro: Yes.
Mr. Rapozo: Yes, we might have to do that.
Chair Furfaro: The gate does not keep you out if there is no
fence around you.
Mr. Rapozo: Right.
Chair Furfaro: It just tells you that if you take something, you
just have to walk a little farther to take it. You can have the floor, JoAnn. Go ahead.
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Ms. Yukimura: Did I misunderstand? I thought you said if we
did fence in an area that is not presently fenced, we would have enough space?
Mr. Rapozo: Right now the way the foot print is laid out, yes.
This is the Department of Parks and Recreation area, they said, this is your area Parks and
Recreation.
Ms. Yukimura: The Department of Public Works said that to
you?
Mr. Rapozo: Yes. We do not have an area that would
accommodate the material that we use for some of our ball fields.
Ms. Yukimura: Have you negotiated?
Mr. Rapozo: Or the vehicles, all of the vehicles.
Ms. Yukimura: But you have told the Department of Public
Works what your space needs are?
Mr. Rapozo: As I mentioned, this project was before our time.
Ms. Yukimura: I know.
Mr. Rapozo: And yes, we made that.
Ms. Yukimura: I mean the people who did it before your time
obviously did not think through all of your needs, right, for the Department of Parks and
Recreation? So, you folks have now thought through how much land you need besides? You
have the amount you need, you have the amount you have been assigned, and you know
you need so much more, right?
Mr. Rapozo: Yes.
Ms. Yukimura: How much more do you need in area?
Mr. Ahlgren: I do not have the square footage in my head right
now. Just for example, I think we have two (2) or three (3) parking spots for the
Department of Parks and Recreation and I think we probably have a dozen vehicles.
Ms. Yukimura: This is just employee vehicles, not specialized
tractors or whatever?
Mr. Ahlgren: Correct. Just County Parks and Recreation
vehicles. I think we have three (3) parking spaces over there. There is no room for trailers
and no room for the mobile stage.
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Chair Furfaro: What if we sent over a question and you take the
time to make an estimate of what kind of land area do you need and then identify for us
County vehicles and employee vehicles in two (2) separate numbers, square footage. We
will send that over as a question and if you could prepare something relatively soon, it
would be appreciated.
Mr. Ahlgren: Okay.
Chair Furfaro: Mr. Bynum. Oh...
Ms. Yukimura: Go ahead.
Chair Furfaro: Mr. Bynum, go ahead.
Mr. Bynum: Hi George. At Lydgate, I go there a lot. I know
those people for years and I think they do a good job and they have pride in what they do
there. I see that pride on a lot of the west shore parks, it is obvious, right, on West Side? Is
there an identified employee who is responsible for each area? Take Lihi, for example,
another place I go frequently. The maintenance has been real up and down since we built
that park. It has tremendous potential, pretty high usage. Is there an employee who is
identified as responsible for that? Do you know what I mean? In order to feel a sense of
pride, you are responsible for this. If something is wrong, it is on you. If something is right
and it is great, it is on you. Do we have that kind of accountability identified?
Mr. Ahlgren: Yes. Well, at several levels. There is myself.
There is the East Side Supervisor who supervisors all of the PC Its on all of the East parks,
then there is the District Supervisor for Kawaihau District in which Lihi Park is situated,
and then finally there is a sign schedule. The people sign up for — that is part of the bike
path. That is one half of our bike path schedule right now and so there is an employee that
signs up for the schedule and it says Lihi/bike path. So yes, on several levels there is a
person assigned for responsibility for Lihi Park.
Mr. Bynum: There is an employee who says. "This is my park
and I am going to make sure it looks good?"
Mr. Ahlgren: The answer is yes and no. That is why one of my
prime vacancies is and so the person who is assigned to that park, technically by the
schedule, is also the person that is filling in as temporary assignment to the PC II in the
Kawaihau District. I am a little thin at Lihi Park right now.
Mr. Bynum: I had a long history with parks. When I worked
for the Mayor's Office, I staffed the parks in meetings with the Mayor. The Mayor, at that
time, developed along with the Department of Parks and Recreation, developed a form that
each person is identified for this park, who is responsible, and then a detailed check list.
How is the fence line? How many toilets? Are they stained? Are they broken? What is
their — because what we discovered at the time was that there were busted up park grills
that had not been used for years that were an eyesore in the park. So, we asked questions
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like well why would you not remove it if you cannot repair it? Do we still have that? Do the
employees still fill out a check form on the status of the parks on a regular basis?
Mr. Ahlgren: That is a challenge for us. That is asked of them,
getting that done on a regular basis, and having them notice things in their parks
themselves and fill out a work request to get them repaired is something that I am still
working very hard on getting them to do on a regular basis.
Mr. Bynum: For what it is worth, during those time and this
was when Bernard was the head of community assistance, Mel was the Parks person. But
the employees at least for a period knew that if they did not turn that in at the end of the
month, they were going to get a call and a reprimand for not having the paperwork done.
Then we would sit in that meeting and we would say—because it is work issues. You and I
talked about it a number of times. It is a frustration. The other thing, the original parks
plan was that all of this maintenance was going to move into the Department of Parks and
Recreation. So, I assume Lenny, that is no longer the plan, right?
Mr. Rapozo: No. We still discuss that.
Mr. Bynum: Okay, because that was Bernard will
remember. In the first year we were going to do this year, we are going to create the
Division and then Planning Department, and then it was two (2) years later we are going to
move maintenance into the Department of Parks and Recreation, so employees would move.
Mr. Rapozo: That is still a possibility. It still has not
happened. It is still a possibility.
Mr. Bynum: But about the relationship between when a parks
worker fills out a work order, are you getting responsiveness from the Department of Public
Works?
Mr. Ahlgren: It has recently improved.
Mr. Bynum: Recently improved?
Mr. Ahlgren: Yes.
Mr. Bynum: That sounds good.
Mr. Ahlgren: Yes.
Mr. Bynum: Because it is two (2) stages because when I was
following up on this before it was like the Department of Public Works would say, "If you do
not give us a work order, we do not know there is a bad drinking fountain over there or a
leaky faucet."
Mr. Ahlgren: Yes.
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Mr. Bynum: They, at least in that area, documented their
work orders really well. So, we saw a big improvement by getting the workers to put the
orders in. We are all passionate about this because we love parks. We, all of us as
Councilmembers, get a pretty high volume of park complaints.
Mr. Ahlgren: Yes.
Mr. Bynum: I would like to say when those get passed on, you
folks have been really responsive and I appreciate that. But half the time you say to
yourself, "Why did the Park Caretaker deal with it? Why did it have to go from a member
of public to a Councilmember, to George or Lenny?" Obviously, we are not going to instruct
your workers. We are going to ask are you aware of this situation and then you folks
follow-up.
Mr. Ahlgren: We could be more consistent than that. I have
certain parks and certain staff members that are quite diligent in that area and others that
are not as good. So, working towards some consistency is something that I am aware of and
working on.
Mr. Bynum: I appreciate that. In my mind, it would be cool if
there was a web page that listed every park and it said, Joe Smith is responsible For Lihi
Park. We are going around, right? If I go to a different topic, I should yield the floor, yes?
Chair Furfaro: Yes, you should if you go to another topic.
Mr. Bynum: Thank you for those answers and I know it is a
struggle.
Chair Furfaro: I have a housekeeping announcement. I want
the golf course folks to know that they have earned a reprieve because where we are at and
how much time we have left, it is not going to happen today. I am going to schedule two (2)
hours and we are filling up the first day quite well. The 19th of April from 2:30 p.m. to 4:30
p.m., we will do the golf course and the concessions there. Right.
Mr. Bynum: He is on vacation.
Mr. Rapozo: Chair, can we look for another date? Ian has
some personal matters that he has already taken leave for that day.
Chair Furfaro: Sorry to hear that, sir. Let me look.
Mr. Rapozo: Okay. Thank you.
Chair Furfaro: Ian are you gone on the 18th as well?
Mr. Costa: No.
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Chair Furfaro: Okay. Let us do — oh we cannot do the morning
either. So, give me another date.
Mr. Bynum: No, go ahead. I will make it work.
Chair Furfaro: We are going to do 2:30 p.m. to 4:30 p.m. on the
18th. Now, I want members to know that the morning of that date is still available, but I
already have two (2) people who cannot make that in the morning. Let me ask the choice,
would you rather pick another day to do in the morning or would you commit to an
afternoon on the 18th around 2:30?
Mr. M. Rapozo: I am fine.
Chair Furfaro: Does it work for you?
Ms. Yukimura: That is fine with me.
Ms. Nakamura: That is fine.
Chair Furfaro: 2:30 p.m. to 4:30 p.m. on the 18th for Wailua Golf
Course, make note of that. I am sorry Tim.
Mr. Bynum: That is okay. I will make changes.
Chair Furfaro: Those of you associated with the golf course and
the concessions, you no longer need to wait here for us. My apologies. Now one of the other
things when we are talking about maintenance here, and this has been — and both JoAnn
and Mel can give personal testimony to this. I am still waiting since the day I got elected to
have a definition of a regional park and its staffing, a district park and its staffing, and a
passive neighborhood park. I will send it over.
Mr. Rapozo: Chair.
Chair Furfaro: Yes.
Mr. Rapozo: I know I sent it over to you last year because I
got it out of our annual report. That the is where it is defined. My Secretary is watching
right now, I will tell her do one more up for her immediately.
Chair Furfaro: It is here in the annual report. Draw a line
through that, scratch.
Mr. Rapozo: Okay.
Chair Furfaro: Thank you. I have the annual report. Thank
you. We have definitions now. Thank you. Going around for questions. JoAnn and then
Mr. Kagawa again. Maintenance, beatification, or stadium. Any of those areas.
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Ms. Yukimura: I wanted to go back to base yard and I know this
may seem totally out box, but we may get to it sometime. With respect to parking issues,
have you thought of doing a survey of employees to see how many would use free bus
passes? This is not a County-wide bus pass system. It is for where have you limited
parking as an alternative way to handle parking because I think it was Mr. Kagawa who
predicted or he has heard that some people say that gasoline will be five dollars ($5) a
gallon by next year or even maybe this year at the rate it is going. Mr. Charlier has said
that when a family can get rid one (1) car, that is fifty thousand dollars ($50,000) in
mortgage money.
Mr. Rapozo: I think...
Ms. Yukimura: There is a value that becomes more and more
apparent and so in trying to solve and look at where parking problems are popping up,
everywhere. It is going to get worse as the population grows. Anyway, that is just a
question and a thought to consider.
Mr. Rapozo: Our parking problems were mostly pointed
towards our equipment, not so much of the employees.
Ms. Yukimura: It sounds like two (2) to three (3) parking spaces
versus twelve (12) parking spaces for employees.
Mr. Rapozo: No, for trucks.
Mr. Ahlgren: County-issued vehicle.
Ms. Yukimura: Okay. Then I misunderstood. I thought I asked
is this employees? But no. Then excuse me for misunderstanding. Who is our new Project
Manager in the Department of Parks and Recreation?
Mr. Rapozo: Brian. Sorry, Will, what was his last name? Van
Gorp.
Ms. Yukimura: And he is already on board?
Mr. Rapozo: Yes, he started in February.
Ms. Yukimura: Thank you.
Chair Furfaro: First of all, before I give you the floor. I want to
compliment you on the annual report and the descriptions.
Mr. Rapozo: Thank you.
Chair Furfaro: When is it watered, what is the mowing
schedule, fertilizer—good job.
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Mr. Rapozo: Thank you.
Chair Furfaro: Mr. Kagawa.
Mr. Kagawa: I will try to be really quick because I want to get
Eddie up and I do not have much questions or anything but praise for Eddie on the
Convention Hall. As far as the toilets, I hate to talk about this. But toilet paper issue that
was brought up to me by one of our plumbers in Buildings. We all talk about the
coordination that goes on. But the plumber told me obviously he hates to go out when he
called by the Department of Parks and Recreation and they say that the toilet is plugged.
He said it is a very common problem and he says the reason why most of the time that he is
called on those is when he sticks his hand in there, he pulls out something like a shirtsleeve
or towel or things that basically when they ran out of toilet paper, they use something and
normally that something is plugging up the toilet because obviously besides waste, toilet
paper should be the only thing that goes down there. I know physically because I go
camping a lot. Every summer we go a lot and I see —like Anini, for example. I see there is
a roll on there and then there is two (2) rolls maybe sitting on the ledge. But I am just
thinking that maybe what is happening is that people are stealing those. I do not know
what is the root. Unless we have a camera which would be against privacy laws. But there
is a toilet mystery going on and I am just wondering because they are going to use the toilet
no matter what and if they ran out toilet paper, then we have our problem, yes? I am
wondering when the plumber tells you where can they were plugged, whether you as the
manager is trying to get a new game plan. Maybe we have to go with the big roll that
cannot be removed. I do not know. But I was just wondering if you were trying to devise a
new game plan to solve this mystery because if it is plugged, it is a big turn off to our
residents and our visitors. I do not want to put the spot on our workers because it is really
the public that is doing it. We have got to try and outsmart them, I think.
Mr. Ahlgren: One thing we have done is that we have started
to replace a lot of old and broken toilet paper dispensers. The style we had used in the past
were too easily vandalized, just one (1) kick to the spindle and it would be broken and then
all you had was the two (2) side arms. We have recently begun replacing fifty (50), sixty
(60), seventy (70), one hundred (100) toilet paper holders with two (2) and three (3) roll
stainless steel holders that have a pass through bar and lock that are all keyed the same for
the maintenance staff to have access to. We have already seen a drop in the amount of
missing toilet paper, probably in a short time may even pay for the dispensers that I am
buying now. I think you will see an improvement in that. Also from my experience, I would
just make the comment that I am not always convinced just lack of toilet paper or not.
People for some reason, do not always treat their public facilities as well as they could and I
have seen unimaginable amount of things pulled out of park toilets when there is of toilet
paper available. It is both. I think we are doing a good job in addressing the missing toilet
paper and there not being toilet paper because we can provide two (2) and three (3) rolls at
a time on lockable dispensers.
Mr. Kagawa: Thank you. I am glad that we made
adjustments. But the plumber told me that majority of the time he notices the coincidence
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that there is no toilet paper and then ultimately the shirt sleeve or whatever in there.
Anyway, thank you.
Mr. Ahlgren: Thank you.
Chair Furfaro: Mr. Rapozo, you have the floor.
Mr. M. Rapozo: Can I switch gears? I just had a quick question
about the cemetery.
Chair Furfaro: Go right ahead.
Mr. M. Rapozo: I believe there may be a CIP project. But what
are the plans? I just got this E-mail and that is why I am bringing it up. The VA secretary
Eric Shinseki was here earlier in the year. Were we aware of that?
Mr. Ahlgren: Yes.
Mr. M. Rapozo: Were we invited to a meeting with him and we
did not show up?
Mr. L. Rapozo: Ian went.
Mr. M. Rapozo: You did know Ian?
Mr. L. Rapozo: He was there.
Mr. M. Rapozo: Because I am reading this E-mail and I guess
Mr. Shinseki was quite upset that no one from the County showed up. I do not know if that
is accurate or not.
Mr. Costa: We were invited. I could not appear. Tony
Elliot, and he also informed me that it was not necessary. But I have been putting a lot of
effort into the bettering of cemeteries.
Mr. M. Rapozo: I am just reading this and Mr. Shinseki,
according to his E-mail, and this from the Veteran's Council not Mr. Elliot, that
Mr. Shinseki has allowed or authorized funding, one hundred percent(100%) funding. Do
you know anything about that? For improvements that he has already authorized.
According to this he has authorized the funding to improve and he was quite disappointed, I
guess, with the condition of that cemetery. We have talked about this for many years. We
funded it. But what I am reading here and I will follow-up Lenny, with you more in detail.
But apparently he is saying why it he VA along to fund one hundred percent (100%) of the
project and the County is not willing to support it? I am not sure what he means by that
statement.
Mr. Costa: That could not be further from the truth.
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Mr. M Rapozo: Okay. We do not know anything about the
funding from the VA?
Mr. Costa: I do. They, when I say they, Department of
Defense (DOD), any project funding that they come forward with is managed by the State
Department of Accounting and General Services (DAGS). So, there were a few recent
projects. Number one, subdivision of a six (6) acre adjacent expansion site and then a
master plan was recently approved through the Planning Commission. I believe that
funding is for part of that future expansion into that six (6) acre. There are a number of
projects going on. Another on is restoring all of the gravestones.
Mr. M. Rapozo: This is what he stated and apparently this is
what he has agreed to fund is realignment of the headstone, the cracking or peeling off the
paint to the pavilion, wider roadways to allow for additional parking, pre-installed crimps,
basically he sums it up by saying the cemetery, and these are quotes from him. The
cemetery should be of National standards because the people who are buried are not the
average Americans, they are the ones who served honorably. I want to make sure we
pursue this because I do not want the funding to disappear.
Mr. Costa; I think there is a discrepancy in the
cracking/painting because we actually have, I believe, four hundred fifty thousand dollars
($450,000) funding to retrofit, if you will, the communal hall. I have been specifically told
by DOD and DAGS that their funding because the County is in charge of the maintenance,
their funding cannot be used for R&M, that it is used specifically for expansion or
reconstruction and that is why we are still pursuing. We have a contract for that. We have
consultants that are — first phase they did an analysis of the structure itself and code
deficiencies. We are now having them do the design for that retrofit to the existing
building.
Mr. M. Rapozo: Well, I would just ask that and I will send over
something and maybe something over to Mr. Shinseki because I was not aware of this. I
guess he was not too happy that no one showed up. I wish I would have known. I would
have gone.
Mr. Costa: I would have gone too. I believe I was off-island.
I believe that the notice we go was two (2) or three (3) days.
Mr. M. Rapozo: Last minute?
Mr. Costa: Yes.
Mr. M. Rapozo: These people come, I understand that. I will
follow-up with him and your Department as well. He was not happy apparently and this is
his exact words. "The men and women who have served our Country in our Country's times
of need deserve a final resting place, a shrine-like cemetery. I do not see it here." That is
powerful words from Mr. Shinseki. We will follow-up, Mr. Chair. I would ask that we
follow-up.
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Chair Furfaro: Actually, I am going to follow-up this way. I am
going to ask the Mayor and yourself to trace how that came about and that is very
sensitive. I lost a brother in Vietnam and I have a father who was a prisoner of war. There
is a lot of respect for the process there. But more important, Mr. Rapozo and I from 2004
were bird dogging improvements with the Veterans on our share and will ask the Mayor if
Beth could structure some kind of an apology letter that comes from the members of the
Council and we would all like to sign it. I was not aware of his visit. Is that acceptable to
you?
Mr. M. Rapozo: Yes.
Chair Furfaro: JoAnn.
Ms. Yukimura: I have a question about water. I see that it has
gone from—I mean it has gone up to three hundred thousand dollars ($300,000).
Mr. Ahlgren: Based upon actuals, yes.
Ms. Yukimura: Have you researched whether these are
reasonable uses or there is some abuse?
Mr. Ahlgren: I look at every single water bill and it is a bunch
of them every month. If I see anything out of line, it gets copied and sent over to the East
or West Side Supervisor to investigate. I think we have done a really good job at correcting
and saving on water by identifying suspicious or unknown spikes in water use and have
corrected those very quickly. Those are real numbers. That is just the real cost of doing
business. The past several budgets we have gone over in that area and that is just a budget
correction to get to a real number.
Ms. Yukimura; Let me ask it this way. Has the per unit price of
water gone up over the last four (4) to five (5) years?
Mr. Ahlgren: Yes.
Ms. Yukimura: Have you verified that the increase in dollar
amounts is due to the per unit price going up and not to the volume of water going up used?
Mr. Ahlgren: What I am saying in the last several years we
have overspent in that area and I am bringing the number up to the real number that we
actually spend. We have been under budgeting in that area.
Ms. Yukimura: Okay. Basically, the volume of usage has been
about the same?
Mr. Ahlgren: I would say so.
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Ms. Yukimura: Okay. I will ask for a submittal of the actual
volumes over the last five (5) years.
Mr. Ahlgren: Okay.
Ms. Yukimura: Is that a lot of paperwork?
Mr. Ahlgren: Well, yes. It is research through the Water
Department. I do not have access to that information.
Ms. Yukimura: Well, this is kind of like what we faced when we
trying to find out about our electricity usage that we did not have data in a form we could
really use, understand, or track.
Chair Furfaro: Why we do not this, JoAnn. Let me make a
suggestion. What if you provided us the meter numbers that you get bills for and we will
send the request for the history to the Water Department?
Mr. Ahlgren: Sure.
Chair Furfaro: But you give us the billing numbers, okay?
Mr. Ahlgren: Okay. Thank you, Chair.
Ms. Yukimura: But when you say you were tracking it, you were
tracking it based on aggregate?
Mr. Ahlgren: Each month's bill.
Ms. Yukimura: An aggregate bill?
Mr. Ahlgren: No, every month's bill.
Ms. Yukimura: Per park?
Mr. Ahlgren: Per park.
Mr. L. Rapozo: Per meter. George looks at every bill per meter.
Chair Furfaro: Okay.
Ms. Yukimura: Thank you.
Chair Furfaro: We have a follow-up from Mr. Bynum. But let us
clarify, give us the metered numbers associated with a specific park.
Mr. L. Rapozo: Yes.
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Chair Furfaro: Then we will get the information from the Water
Department. You have the floor,Mr. Bynum.
Mr. Bynum: Do we pay full consumer rate for the water?
Mr. Ahlgren: I believe so.
Mr. Bynum: Why do not we pass legislation that is the
County pays agriculture water rates?
Mr. Ahlgren: I would love it.
Mr. Bynum: Well, I am hearing that there are lots and lots of
abuse of the agriculture water program. That is just a rumor. I have no facts. But I have a
different take on water going back as a park activist when we could not get the County to
turn on sprinklers that already existed because they can afford the water bill. When I was
p Y Y
a park volunteer our team out together a team that was going to install irrigation around
Lydgate Park campground one hundred(100) yards out from the campground. The County
said, "Do not do it because we will not turn it on because we could not afford the water."
Lenny knows this is one of my pet peeves, is that we have parks that are unusable because
there is no grass that is irrigated. Anyway, I have a different take on water. I would be
upset if you were whittling it down too tight because I really believe that you are tracking
that pretty well and the love the Chair's idea to give us the meter and we will get the
information from them.
Mr. Ahlgren: Thank you.
Mr. Bynum: I am being very patient because I am hopeful
that at some point say, "A neighborhood park should have at least one thousand (1,000)
square feet of grass that you could sit down on with your little kids and feel good about. If
we could just do two hundred (200) square yards in `Ele`ele Nani and two hundred (200)
square yards in Lau Kona Park. But that was not my question, that was a water follow-up.
I have a different question and it is my turn.
Chair Furfaro: I want to say. I am going to give maintenance
another five (5) minutes. I want to give the Convention Hall at least half an hour.
Mr. Bynum: I have one more.
Chair Furfaro: You want to do it now before I recognize Vice
Chair?
Mr. Bynum: Up to you.
Chair Furfaro: Go ahead.
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Mr. Bynum: Are there any park properties that you think
should come off our inventory because they have very little or no public use?
Mr. Ahlgren: I have to give that some thought Councilmember.
Mr. Bynum: Are you familiar with the Wailua River View
Park?
Mr. Ahlgren: Yes.
Mr. Bynum: What are the maintenance requirements of the
Wailua River View Park?
Mr. Ahlgren: Mowing.
Mr. Bynum: We mow that park? Where is this?
Mr. Ahlgren: If it is the one I am thinking of yes. It is like a
circle.
Mr. Bynum: Wow, maybe I misunderstand where it is. It is
something that came up several years ago that we had this park and maybe others that are
overgrown and not being used.
Mr. Rapozo: I think that might be the park that we are
thinking about because we also had some car problems that looked like it was being used as
a storage area for a local tow truck company. We were finally able to get them off of that. I
think that is the same park we are thinking about and there were some mowing issues
there that we needed to address. It is a small little circular park.
Mr. Bynum: Other than that one, I do not want to mention
name. But there are parks in our County that I visit occasionally that I do not think people
use at all. I mean, they just do not go there. If it is valuable property like this Wailua
River View Park, the last time I checked it out, it was just a big empty field. It looked like
house lot that nobody built the house. I thought hey, let somebody build a house there.
The County could use to improve, to put the dog park in at Wailua Homesteads Park which
I do not think will happen, but that is another story.
Mr. L. Rapozo: Oh, it is coming around.
Mr. Bynum: Oh, really? Anyway, this is a serious question.
If there are parks that really have little or no public value, then it is an asset that we might
want to look at to afford to build full capacity restroom at Kapa'a Newtown Park or
something. That one in particular, we are just going to leave in the County inventory and
have it be a liability when it has no public use. I think there are a couple of others that look
like that, but I have never seen a human being use them. I will talk to you offline about
that.
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Mr. Ahlgren: Okay.
Mr. Rapozo: We did get call about the cars being dumped
there.
Mr. Bynum: Well, that is one I really think we should take off
our inventory, dispose of that property, and improve the other amenities that we are doing
in that area. It is just a thought and that is my last question for maintenance.
Chair Furfaro: Okay. Council Vice Chair.
Ms. Nakamura: Thank you. I wanted to thank you for this
complete list of cemeteries and available plots. I wanted to ask you Lenny, when you spoke
to the caretakers, how many of these thirteen (13) cemeteries are being taken care of by
community stewards?
Mr. Rapozo: All of them. Well, some of them do not have
caretakers. But we rely totally on the community. It is not something that beautification
goes out there regularly. We only go out there if they need assistance with getting back the
bush or cutting and maintaining a tree or something.
Ms. Nakamura: Currently, all of them are being taken care of?
Mr. Rapozo: Yes.
Ms. Nakamura: Thank you. I am sorry,just a follow-up.
Chair Furfaro: Go ahead. Is the thinking that it is available to
anyone with ties to the plantation or can anyone from that era?
Mr. Rapozo: It is just a public cemetery, anybody that needs a
place. I will say though, that some of them and I noticed this in particular with the
Hawaiian Cemetery that it is been dedicated already for family plots, you know Hawaiian
style. It has all been dedicated for family. They know who the families are and they have a
designated area.
Ms. Nakamura: Are we complying with Department Of Health
standards in the burials?
Mr. Rapozo: Yes.
Ms. Nakamura: We are?
Mr. Rapozo: Because the burials are being handled by
appropriate Agency's so they are still required to get the appropriate permitting or okays to
it. It is just the care and maintenance of the facility itself is done by the community.
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Ms. Nakamura: Thank you.
Chair Furfaro: JoAnn.
Ms. Yukimura: About this box scraper and it is sort of a
follow-up to Councilmember Kagawa's question about maintenance for senior softball
tournaments and so forth. Will this help level the field?
Mr. Ahlgren: Yes.
Ms. Yukimura: Because I know that was one of their issues.
Mr. Ahlgren: I was a little surprised. We had some very
skilled equipment operators. But they were not familiar with this attachment that is
frequently used on construction sites and landscapers. A box scraper, you can tilt it up and
then right there he is ripping the field with teeth that can come down at various depths.
Then when you are through loosening up the soil, you have a very nice feathering scraper,
leveler tool. I intestinally bought one that was small size. It looks way under size in that
picture for the size of work that you are going. But I am trying to get them trained and use
to using it. But the size will be appropriate for all of our softball fields, nice tight turns and
be able to do a nice job.
Ms. Yukimura: That is wonderful news. I am sure the senior
players will be very happy and there is nothing like getting the right tool to do the job.
Thank you very much.
Chair Furfaro: On that note, thank you very much. I would like
to bring up Eddie, if I can. George, thank you very much.
Mr. Ahlgren: Thank you.
Chair Furfaro: On a personal request, Lenny may I ask that
should your Office get information about a dedication, a visit from a Federal Chair of an
Agency, I mean, perhaps I was a little too sensitive to the reality. But many of us are
around the table are descendants of many World War II Veterans. Councilmember
Yukimura's dad served as well. It is really good to keep us also as part of the short list
when an announcement comes in.
Mr. Rapozo: Will do. I have been going to that particular
cemetery since 1900. I use to take my grandmother. My grandfather is a World War I
Veteran and I have seen it progress. I cannot even tell you how much it has come a long
way.
Chair Furfaro: No, you do not need to — Mr. Rapozo and I have
been nurturing this since 2002. But I am talking about somebody from the President's
Cabinet comes, I mean, and then on top of that he is rooted to Kaua`i. If you could just do
that?
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Mr. Rapozo We can. I will keep that in mind. Thank you.
Chair Furfaro: I did not mean to sound selfish. We need to
recognize what is referred to as the greatest generation that served our Country and all
other foreign wars.
Mr. Rapozo: And my tutu is there too with my grandpa.
Chair Furfaro: Mr. Sarita, welcome.
Mr. Sarita: Good afternoon.
Chair Furfaro: Good afternoon. We would like to first give you
the floor and ask if you would like to share anything about your facility and at the same
time, allow us to compliment you on your stewardship there. I like that idea about us
actually inheriting potentially another conference room by that redesign. I am sure it will
be well used. You have the floor for anything that you want to share with us before we go
into Q&A.
Mr. Sarita: Thank you, Chairman Furfaro and
Councilmembers. I appreciate your recognition of some of the successes and achievements
at the Convention Hall. I am particularly proud of the new seats that were installed last
year, with your support on the previous year. We were able to get the funding and got the
project done in three (3) months. I am particularly proud of that. However, we have been
concentrating a lot of effort in upgrading the theater and while there is still a few more
things do in the theater, I have turned my attention now towards the exhibit halls and the
exterior of the facility. Rightly you speak of the planned renovation of the existing arts and
crafts room converted into a meeting space. We found that the room has been
underutilized. It has been carried on the records as the arts and crafts room. But all of
these years, I believe, it has been used merely as a storage room. When I spoke to the
Director and he came down to take a look, it was his suggestion to convert it into another
conference room. There is a real need for another conference room to serve the smaller
groups. As you know the two (2) exhibit halls are rather large and they are not appropriate
for some of the small groups of twenty(20) or thirty (30)people. I get a lot of requests from
people like that and having to accommodate them in the larger halls, they cannot afford the
prices. Usually they want to use the larger halls because of the convenience of the
restroom. However, when I tell them the fee, they all jump back and get taken aback and
say "No, we cannot afford that." Now with the idea of having an added smaller hall
available with an independent entry access along with air conditioning, that would serve
this kind of demand and hopefully produce another revenue stream for the Convention
Hall. Along with looking at exhibit the exhibit halls I already have under contract to
replace all of the existing jalousie windows, twenty-six (26) jalousie windows around the
exhibit halls from the aluminum framed type existing, forty-eight (48) years old windows to
vinyl windows. I also have under contract to replace the existing twenty-six (26) dome
lights on the outside with approved fixtures that would be in compliance with the
Shearwater fledgling requirements. The lights have been cleared by the Attorney's Office
and the contractor is supposed to start any day now with replacement. I also have under
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contract to install three (3) photovoltaic lights along the pavement towards the Lihu`e
County Park and the existing portables to provide more lighting for the parking lot. All
three (3) projects are slated to start and I hope we can get them finished before the end of
this fiscal year. With that said, I would like to open it up for questions.
Chair Furfaro: Mr. Kagawa and then Mr. Bynum.
Mr. Kagawa: Eddie, I just want to thank you for your good
work with your staff. I would be hesitant to look at raising rates, but we will always be
open. I think the Convention Hall, under your direction, has certainly been a place where
our community has really had good times. It is a place to celebrate a lot of happy occasions
and the kind of events that we handle is just enormous, there is a lot of demand. You have
done a good job of taking care of the facility for as old as it is. It looks great. Like I say, it
is in high demand. Thank you for that. Also for your work with the volunteers around the
island. Keep up the good work and mahalo.
Mr. Santa: Thank you.
Chair Furfaro: Mr. Bynum.
Mr. Bynum: Hi Eddie. I was listening to what you were
saying about the need for a conference room and I agree. Is that something that is in the
works?
Mr. Santa: Yes, hopefully we can get it funded through the
next fiscal year 2014 CIP funding.
Mr. Bynum: Then I was under the impression there was some
efforts being made to improve the acoustics in those backrooms. Am I mistaken?
Mr. Santa: The acoustics, there has been a lot of discussion
about that. There is nothing wrong with the acoustics at the Convention Hall. It is just the
way— I found that the way the hall were built, initially, the two (2) exhibit halls, there was
not two (2) exhibit halls initially built. It was just the one (1) smaller one adjacent to the
kitchen and lobby and the larger one was added about eight (8) or nine (9) years afterwards.
When the construction was done, I found that in between the two (2) halls they put the air
conditioning ducts above the floor height and that is what is causing the sound. The sound
goes up vertically, but it does not then travel horizontally. The sound is shared into the
entire two (2) rooms. It goes up to the ceiling and with the people's presence and
murmuring and so forth, it drowns out the sounds. The problem is really everything when
somebody is speaking on the stage in the larger exhibit hall, people in the smaller hall
adjacent to the kitchen cannot understand what the person is saying and it gets garbled. It
is not because of the acoustics. It is just because of the way the halls were constructed. To
try and mitigate that, what we found is and I have advised the users is to put,up two (2)
speakers between the two (2) halls. They being two (2) speakers up front by the stage, two
(2) speakers between the two (2) halls, and another two (2) speakers at the back between
the lobby and the smaller hall. If that is done, the sound gets transmitted equally around
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and there is no garbling. So, we can take of it and mitigate that problem that way. That is
most cost effective way. The other way is reconstruction.
Mr. Bynum: The center room is the smaller of the two (2)
meeting halls that you have talked about. I am talking about being in a meeting with
fifteen (15) to twenty (20) people around a table with no amplification and I think it is an
acoustics issues. I thought that somebody was dialoguing with a constituent who kept
talking to me saying that I am working with County. Anyway, I will not belabor this. But I
have been to some other community buildings where they had the same kind of problems
and did these wall treatments that look artistic and beautiful and changed the acoustics
dramatically. It was not a huge cost and it is an art. There are specialists who do that and
because I agree with you, Eddie, that is a tremendous use. Having a smaller room would be
good. But being able for twenty (20) to thirty (30) people to meet and hear each other would
be good as well. I thought it was in the works about that. I am sorry. That is enough
already.
Mr. Sarita: No, I am not aware of that.
Mr. Bynum: In terms of the big auditorium, what an awesome
asset for our community and the new seats are great. The acoustics in there are
outstanding when whoever the sound man is knows what they are doing. What a great
asset and thank you for your stewardship and caring for that facility.
Chair Furfaro: Eddie, may I just throw something out to you
because I do not have too many questions. You run a have very good operation. I just want
to say that. But could you check with Mr. Scott Greenleaf? He is a sound specialist and I
have used him. he is on Kaua`i and I have used him many times for a banquet facility and
maybe he can give you some feedback on the smaller breakout room..
Mr. Sarita: I know Scott. I will contact him.
Chair Furfaro: He is excellent. JoAnn, you have the floor.
Ms. Yukimura: Eddie, I do not know how many budgets have you
come before us and your presentations. But always, you are prepared, you know your
facility really well and you take on the projects as we need them. This is a beautiful picture
of the new seats that you have submitted. But also having the new tracks curtain is a
wonderful thing too and that you are putting in lights in the parking lot is really excellent
work. My question is about the bathrooms in the second room. It is a design flaw I guess
because when people flush the toilets, the whole room hears it.
Mr. Rapozo: So, the acoustics are good.
Ms. Yukimura: That kind of acoustics, we do not want.
Mr. Sarita: I understand what you are saying
Councilmember Yukimura.
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Mr. Rapozo: Only the middle room we have to work on.
Ms. Yukimura: Maybe a follow-up project at some point,
depending on your priorities, I mean I was just brainstorming like maybe we could have
outside entrances to the restrooms and you close those two (2) doors or something. But
from a functionality point of view it is a terrible design flaw and it was done way before I
guess any of us. But that is an improvement that if you can figure it out, would be truly an
improvement.
Mr. Sarita: Yes, the only way I found that we can address
that situation is to have the users close the doors so that it dampens the sound of the
toilets. The toilets are the vacuum type and when they flush it, there is a large, loud
sucking noise.
Ms. Yukimura: Maybe there is room for an internal door. I do
not know.
Mr. Sarita: Something like that. But when you close the
doors, the sound is not as noticeable.
Ms. Yukimura: I see.
Mr. Sarita: but then the doors are open and the reason they
doors are kept open is because a lot of people like to come in and do their business and get
out so they leave the doors open.
Ms. Yukimura: Right. Well, maybe we need doors that just
always close on their own.
Mr. Sarita: You just have to encourage people. Especially for
meetings, to have the doors closed.
Ms. Yukimura: Well, it just points out the importance of
designing our facilities because these flaws are so expensive to correct and if they are
incorporated at the beginning ,you do not have to think about them.
Mr. Sarita: It will cost a lot of money to try. The style
retrofit with quieter ones.
Ms. Yukimura: Yes. Well, anyway, this is such a community
asset and you have been so instrumental in taking good care of it. So, thank you for that. I
really feel like this sporting and performing arts arena that I hope we will plan, has to be
planned so well. It has to be designed like the designers of Convention Hall did fifty (50)
years ago. They thought ahead fifty (50) years. Thank you so much.
Chair Furfaro: I just want to add, forty-five (45) years ago those
vacuum toilets were the first version of low flow toilets. So, that is part of the problem. If
Ef
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we ever change those toilets, do not get the—it probably was conceptually. But the low flow
toilets make just as much noise. It is a trade off there. Vice Chair, you have the floor.
Ms. Nakamura: Thank you Eddie for your good work. I wanted
to you to ask you about the capacity issues and what are we seeing in terms of overall
usage? Are we maxing out in term of capacity or are we pretty good?
Mr. Sarita: As I stated in my report, more and more people
are seeking out the Convention Hall and I think there were earlier beliefs going back ten
(10) years or more, if the hall was updated that more and more people would want to come
and use it and that has been the case. We have having a lot of people now wanting to come
and use as an example, they are starting to make reservations for 2014 and they are
rapidly filling up, especially the exhibit halls. The theater now, we are attracting more and
more inquiries from people that have large events, promoters. We have a lot of church
services, of course there. Easter Sunday, the New Hope Church had an event there that
attracted nearly two thousand (2,000) people. Of course, we have had events like, the
Mixed Martial Arts (MMA) events that draw one thousand three hundred (1,300) to one
thousand five hundred (1,500) attendees so it is becoming highly used and handled
properly. It can still accommodate more events. It is just a matter of scheduling and of
course with our intention to revisit the idea of revising our working on our rate structure,
that may have some effect on the usage. The Veteran's Hall now charges, I am told, two
thousand dollars ($2,000) a night and that has made a lot of people come to the convention
hall and people are smart, they do not want to pay two thousand dollars ($2,000) when can
use the County facility which is less expensive. We have got to revisit that and look at it
and of course improve our revenue stream for the future. I still think there is room to
increase the capacity of the Convention Hall. For example, if roofing were to be put on the
open concrete driveway on the Hardy Street side, that could produce more floor space to
attract trade shows. I asked my people who want to trade shows, but they want twenty
thousand (20,000) square foot of display space. We only have eight thousand (8,000). So,
we have to expand the capacity of the Convention Hall without high costs and thereby
attract more people and more usage.
Ms. Nakamura: Thank you.
Chair Furfaro: Okay. Eddie, again, I just want to tell you your
stewardship of the facility deserves praise. We thank you for all of the improvements you
are making along the way and congratulations to you and your team there.
Mr. Sarita: Well, I appreciate those comments Council
Chairman. I would like to actually give the credit over the last ten (10) to fourteen (14)
years that I have been the Manager there, to the existing Council that has supported the
facility and all my budget requests along with the three (3) Administrations. Everyone has
been supportive and that is the result you see today.
Chair Furfaro: Thank you. Thank you for sharing that. Okay.
Before we wrap up today, the Mayor is going to want to come up and say a few words and I
also want to share a chart with you folks so that we can sit the tone for the Wailua Golf
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Course discussion. Mr. Mayor, if you want to come up and Mayor, thank you again for
being here.
BERNARD P. CARVALHO, JR., Mayor: First of all Chair, I just wanted to
say that I too what you know and all of you know that any time any government official
especially that level comes to our beautiful island, that we share that information and be
assured that will happen.
Chair Furfaro: Thank you.
Mayor Carvalho: wrapping up Just wra in it u because we have been there
as far as the Department of Parks and Recreation, been here for twenty-eight (28) years
and in Department of Parks and Recreation or so. Just the creation of the Department,
which I was involved in, and the understanding and the need for it to happen because of the
volume and the need to separate from the Department of Public Works because eighty
percent (80%) to eighty-five percent (85%) of what was done really involved Department of
Parks and Recreation. So, it became the creation in 2006 when the people voted and from
that point on, it took such a tremendous amount of time and effort to create these Divisions
and this whole new Department and having to deal with many of the challenges and the
Union issues. One last — I am going to say my green box, one last Division that did not
happen which is the repair & maintenance piece of this new Department. We have that all
documents and there were some challenges there at that time. I acknowledge that. Now
we become elected in 2008 and point is that we are totally committed and I say upfront in
my state of the County that we are focused at looking at maintaining our existing facilities.
We have developed teams internally. The Department of Parks and Recreation depends on
the Department of Public Works still and we need to keep coordinated and I want to assure
you and people that we have come out with different ideas as we move towards hopefully
that green box, when the Department of Parks and Recreation will have their own
maintenance team. But until then, we have worked closely in getting different software in,
looking at our repair & maintenance programs, and how to prioritize better. Like I said, we
are coming back May 8th to develop this first responder team, Lenny's restroom patrol if you
will, taking it to a different level and just in general. The forming of the Department
happened and be assured again that with this whole maintenance discussion and many
other parts as we move towards the golf course too. But just for today's discussion, we are
totally committed. I know we talked about coming out with a facility, the neighborhood
center facilities as an example, during fumigation if we have to, doing painting overall,
changing of windows, down to doorknobs, and just the whole repair & maintenance
program. I am committed. We are committed to that with you and so I wanted to make
sure that you understand that we are still evolving and yes it is taken time. But we will get
that together. I just wanted to make sure that was clear from my standpoint. I have been
there, I know it, as far as this particular discussion. We have a whole new team and a lot of
members have left, retired, and moved in, we have new energy, a new vision, great
leadership between the Department of Public Works, Department of Parks and Recreation,
and so I think with that new movement and understanding, are we are going to get to the
place that we can do a better overall job at maintain our facilities overall. So, that is the
direction that we are at. Thank you for the time.
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Chair Furfaro: Thank you very much Mayor. Thank you very
much for being here the last several days. A couple of items for a head's up. Can I get my
projection up there? As we go to the afternoon of the 18th and we are going to talk about the
golf course in total. I will share this with you, Lenny now and I will pass it out to the other
Department Heads. But as we look the golf course, we just have one (1) slide to put up and
it is already pau hang time for the projector, I guess. There we go. It is just warming up.
On another subject I want to share when we go to the CIP program, I want to make sure
that housing and Mr. Heu, you and I have talked about this, but I want to make sure that
when we get to CIP, I am going to allow discussion on Lima Ola Housing Project because
there is money in the CIP section for that project. So, I feel I needed to share, when we get
to housing on the budget on operations it is about operation. But when we get to CIP, we
will allow discussion on that project. I just wanted to give you the head's up, okay.
Ms. Yukimura: May I say something about that?
Chair Furfaro: Yes.
Ms. Yukimura: As the Housing Chair, I have asked the Housing
Department — I hope I cc'd appropriately, for a pro forma on the development and for a
bunch of information that would allow us to understand what the vision is and how it is
going to be achieved, also, how it fits in with the housing needs around the island and our
smart growth principles.
Chair Furfaro: So you got a head's up on what the
Councilwoman is looking for but that is not going to be in the housing discussion, that is
going to be in the CIP discussion because it comes up on this hit list here. Then on the golf
course, I will share that with you. This is my piece. But now we have the revenues in blue
up there, we have the red column reflecting the number of rounds, and then you have the
little index over here that basically says what the average cost of that round is if we are
doing that many rounds for the revenue that comes out of that market segment. I want to
make sure that we are doing that kind of research when we talk on the 18th in the
afternoon. We need to understand the whole revenue picture at the golf course including
the concessions, food and beverage operations, and so forth. So, just to give you a heads up
and this is information that you have given us for a month in your own statistical numbers.
I will get that electronically out to the members. We can get that copied to Ian and
Mr. Lenny Rapozo for now. On that note, all the members you need to know that we will
start at 8:30 a.m. tomorrow, right, 8:30 a.m. tomorrow? You have got to out your ukana
away or toss your `opala, whichever it is and we are go to be now recessed until Thursday.
There being no objections, the Committee recessed at 4:31 p.m.