HomeMy WebLinkAbout 05/28/2013 Special Council Meeting Minutes SPECIAL COUNCIL MEETING
MAY 28, 2013
The Special Meeting of the Council of the County of Kaua`i, was called to
order by the Council Chair at the Council Chambers, 4396 Rice Street, Suite 201,
Lihu`e, Kauai, on Tuesday, May 28, 2013 at 9:03 a.m., after which the following
members answered the call of the roll:
Honorable Tim Bynum
Honorable Gary L. Hooser
Honorable Ross Kagawa
Honorable Mel Rapozo
Honorable JoAnn A. Yukimura
Honorable Jay Furfaro, Council Chair
Excused: Honorable Nadine K. Nakamura
Chair Furfaro: Aloha, good morning. I would like to call to
order the Special Council Meeting and Agenda scheduled for May 28th, on or about
8:30 a.m. and I would like to say again, this meeting is to handle the Budget and
the Real Property Tax Resolutions that we have been working on for the last four
weeks. This is the second and final reading. I would also like to note that
Councilmember or Vice Chair Nakamura is excused for today.
APPROVAL OF AGENDA.
Mr. Bynum moved for approval of the agenda as circulated, seconded by
Ms. Yukimura, and unanimously carried.
Chair Furfaro: At this time I would like to take public
testimony. We scheduled the meeting for 8:30 a.m. and it is now five after 9:00 a.m.
We have waited, if any members of the public would be here and, in fact the
audience has no attendance for this Special Council Meeting and let the record so
note, please. No public testimony. I would like to start with a review of the
Committee Reports.
COMMITTEE REPORTS:
COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE:
A report (No. CR-COW 2013-08) submitted by the Committee of the Whole,
recommending that the following be Received for the Record:
SPECIAL COUNCIL MEETING 2 MAY 28, 2013
"COW 2013-03 Communication (05/15/2013) from Committee of the
Whole Chair Furfaro, transmitting the proposed increases to, deductions
from, and other proposed amendments (plus/minus sheet) to the Mayor's
Fiscal Year 2013-2014 Annual Operating and Capital Improvement Projects
Budgets,"
Mr. Rapozo moved for approval of the report, seconded by Ms. Yukimura.
A report (No. CR-COW 2013-09) submitted by the Committee of the Whole,
recommending that the following be Approved on second and final reading:
"Resolution No. 2013-41 - RESOLUTION ESTABLISHING THE REAL
PROPERTY TAX RATES FOR THE FISCAL YEAR JULY 1, 2013 TO JUNE
30, 2014 FOR THE COUNTY OF KAUAI,"
Mr. Rapozo moved for approval of the report, seconded by Ms. Yukimura.
A report (No. CR-COW 2013-10) submitted by the Committee of the Whole,
recommending that the following be Approved as Amended on second and final
reading:
"Bill No. 2471 — A BILL FOR AN ORDINANCE RELATING TO THE
OPERATING BUDGET AND FINANCING THEREOF FOR THE FISCAL
YEAR JULY 1, 2013 TO JUNE 30, 2014 (Mayor's Operating Budget),"
Mr. Rapozo moved for approval of the report, seconded by Ms. Yukimura.
(See later for Bill No. 2471, Draft 1)
A report (No. CR-COW 2013-11) submitted by the Committee of the Whole,
recommending that the following be Approved as Amended on second and final
reading:
"Bill No. 2472 A BILL FOR AN ORDINANCE RELATING TO
CAPITAL IMPROVEMENTS AND FINANCING THEREOF FOR THE
FISCAL YEAR JULY 1, 2013 TO JUNE 30, 2014 (Mayor's CIP Budget),"
Mr. Rapozo moved for approval of the report, seconded by Ms. Yukimura.
(See later for Bill No. 2472, Draft 1)
The motion to approve the Committee of the Whole Committee Reports was
then put, and carried by a vote of 6:0:1 (Ms. Nakamura excused).
RESOLUTION:
SPECIAL COUNCIL MEETING 3 MAY 28, 2013
Resolution No. 2013-41 — RESOLUTION ESTABLISHING THE REAL
PROPERTY TAX RATES FOR THE FISCAL YEAR JULY 1, 2013 TO
JUNE 30, 2014 FOR THE COUNTY OF KAUAI
Mr. Kagawa moved to approve Resolution No. 2013-41, seconded by
Mr. Rapozo.
Chair Furfaro: Any further discussion? Mr. Bynum?
Mr. Bynum: Regarding Real Property Tax rates, finally
this year we made substantial changes to the tax rates. Because we did not have
any choice, we needed to generate close to $10 million of revenue through fees,
because, in my opinion, we waited so long to really manage our revenues
appropriately. We made a good start at doing that this year. I still have a very
dire concern about who pays what portion of the bill. Our Real Property Tax
Ordinance asks the Council each year to determine its revenue needs and then have
a policy discussion of who should pay what portion of those needs. You know, what
is a fair acquisition? Fairness in taxation is very important to me. I think to all of
us. But we have created a special class for resident homeowners, that has led to
thirteen years in a row of increases for the majority of homeowners. You know,
during the economic downturn, while every other tax category was having decreases
in their taxes, while we did not adjust rates as assessed values fell, seven of our tax
categories got very large tax reductions over a four-year period. The only tax
category that did not get reductions was resident homeowners and, in fact, they did
not have reductions, they had increases. We have yet to fully address the inequities
and infairness about who pays what portion of the bill. We went a long ways in this
budget. We still need to address the homeowners taxes that have gone up for
fourteen straight years.
Chair Furfaro: Any further discussion? Mr. Kagawa, then
Councilwoman Yukimura.
Mr. Kagawa: Thank you, Mr. Chair. I did not expect in my
first term as Councilmember to be approving tax rates and it is something when you
come into politics that you try to avoid raising costs on the taxpayers, because you
have been there and you sat there and you have been frustrated by thinking that
how can we raise rates when things in the County do not get better? We have a lot
of paved roads that are very poor, Puhi, Kekaha, Hanapepe Heights, they just
paved one street and the rest of the streets are still in horrible condition. Yet, we
justify here by saying that we are going to raise property taxes just to keep up what
we were doing in the past. So I must ask myself what is that? Is that...are we
going to get better at what we do? Are we going to continue doing the same thing?
I understand that we are broke. I understand that we need to be responsible.
However, I understand that we also have a lot of employees working and we need to
do a better job of taking care of the necessities, responsibilities of our County.
Thank you.
Chair Furfaro: Thank you, JoAnn you have the floor.
SPECIAL COUNCIL MEETING 4 MAY 28, 2013
Ms. Yukimura: Thank you. So my way of thinking the
Administration actually finally paid attention to the revenue side of the budget and
this is a good thing. The imbalance of dropping assessed values and unchanging tax
rates, which resulted in lower taxes for resorts, apartment, commercial, and
absentee residential property over the last few years is now being corrected in this
budget. Hopefully we have learned our lesson, and will never again neglect to
review on an annual basis the tax rates and fees. It hurts our services that the
County provides, if we do not at least keep up with inflation. It hurts the public,
when there are huge jumps in fees and taxes rather than a more gradual approach.
I agree with Councilmmember Kagawa that there needs to be improving
performance as well, but I also think we need to keep our tax rates and fees
updated. As Councilmember Bynum said, there is one area that we left
unaddressed this year and that is the unacceptable descrepancies amongst similarly
situated owner-occupied properties due to the two percent cap on local residences
and I commend Council Finance Chair Bynum for his consistent efforts in this
respect. The majority of the Council chose not to support his proposal in this budget
session and to begin to correct this session, I hope that next year we will be able to
address this issue, because we must address it if real property taxes are to be
equitable and fair.
Chair Furfaro: Any further comments? Before I do a roll
call vote, Mr. Clerk, I also want to comment that in this year, we were able to create
the new tax category for Transient Vacation Rentals (TVR). I think that was a
process that has taken a while. We still have TVR issues that we are dealing with,
but, in fact those that got bona fide TVR status now fall in a TVR tax category. Roll
call please.
The motion for adoption of Resolution No. 2013-41 on second and final
reading was then put, and carried by the following vote:
FOR ADOPTION: Bynum, Hooser, Kagawa, Rapozo,
Yukimura, Furfaro TOTAL — 6,
AGAINST ADOPTION: None TOTAL — 0,
EXCUSED & NOT VOTING: Nakamura TOTAL— 1,
RECUSED & NOT VOTING: None TOTAL— 0.
Chair Furfaro: Thank you, now if we can go to Section F, if I
can. We have Bills for Second Reading that came from the Committee of the Whole.
BILLS FOR SECOND READING:
Bill No. 2471, Draft 1 — A BILL FOR AN ORDINANCE RELATING TO THE
OPERATING BUDGET AND FINANCING THEREOF FOR THE FISCAL YEAR
JULY 1, 2013 TO JUNE 30, 2014 (Mayor's Operating Budget)
SPECIAL COUNCIL MEETING 5 MAY 28, 2013
Mr. Hooser moved for adoption of Bill No. 2471, Draft 1 on second and final
reading, and that it be transmitted to the Mayor for his approval, seconded
by Ms. Yukimura.
Chair Furfaro: Thank you. I will let all of you know that I
plan to give everyone an opportunity to speak towards the end of the meeting on the
operational issues and the budget in general. But is there anyone that wants to
speak on this item, and let the record again show that there is no one in the
audience.
Bill No. 2472, Draft 1 — A BILL FOR AN ORDINANCE RELATING TO
CAPITAL IMPROVEMENTS AND FINANCING THEREOF FOR THE FISCAL
YEAR JULY 1, 2013 TO JUNE 30, 2014 (Mayor's CIP Budget)
Mr. Hooser moved for adoption of Bill No. 2472, Draft 1 on second and final
reading, and that it be transmitted to the Mayor for his approval, seconded
by Ms. Yukimura.
Chair Furfaro: Now I would like to have an opportunity to
recognize each one of our members for up to ten minutes, which is allowed in our
rules to speak on the matter regarding the operating budget and taxes and the work
that this Council has done. I will start, Mr. Rapozo, do you want the floor?
Mr. Rapozo: Sure. I do not know if I will take ten
minutes, but anyway, I am very happy to support this budget. It is the first budget
that I have supported in the last three years. It is not a perfect budget. I think that
there is still a lot of improvement throughout this County, as it relates to fiscal
responsibility. I still think we spend too much. I think we need to
pursue...continue to pursue external sources of funding even though we know that
the pot is dwindling, Federal and State moneys are becoming much more difficult to
get. But we all have to remember what the County is responsible for and that is to
provide core services, core, necessary services and when times get tough, it is
up to us to start to limit the extras. It is a tough thing to do for elected officials, but
it is something that we need to do. Public Health and Safety, Parks & Recreation,
Elderly Affairs, those are core areas that we have to focus on and as you know, I
had proposed numerous cuts that did not get the support of some of the extras and
it is tough to tell a non-profit agency that is trying to do a good project in the
community that we cannot afford it. But as you know, we were forced to raise taxs
this year and as difficult as Mr. Kagawa said, to explain to the constituents, that we
are going to raise your taxes and fees, and yet, they do not see the benefits. They do
not see the parks improving. They do not see the roads improving. It is tough and
that is the scenario that we are currently living right now. This County has many
inefficiencies and we heard of examples of duplication of services between
SPECIAL COUNCIL MEETING 6 MAY 28, 2013
Departments and that needs to be addressed by the Administration and not this
Council. That is the dilemma, the frustration, when we are here, trying to
encourage the Administration to be more efficient because there is that separation
of power. That is the frustration on my part, a majority of these Administrative
issues needs to come from them. Including the tax rates. I mean, they know that
best. So I look for them. I challenge the Administration in the next year number
one, internally to look for the inefficiencies and fix it, as duplications...they know
the duplication occurs and they know we have multiple Departments doing the
same thing. As these positions and people retire, reassess and readjust and reduce
the size of County. I challenge the Administration to do that. It is very difficult for
us to come up here and pick the positions that we believe are not important and I
asked the Administration as we went through the discussions to come back with a
five percent further reduction and they said they could not do it. But this Council
found some areas to cut. So I challenge the Administration with that, go ahead and
lead by example in this effort to reduce the size of government, reduce the costs, and
not reduce the services to the community.
The other thing is a fair and equitable tax system, real property tax system.
Again, they need to come up with the proposals. They need do the analysis. They
have access to the data and all of that. That should not be the Council function,
although, it has become that. I would much rather see the proposals come from the
Administration, that creates or improves upon the system that we currently have.
As difficult voting for property tax and fee increases, although I did not support
most of them, I am supporting the budget, because I believe it is the best budget
possible, considering the circumstances.
The other thing is and I have spoken of this numerous times throughout the
year, is our Cost Control Commission. We have a Cost Control Commission that is
tasked with finding the duplications, that is tasked with looking for programs,
Departments, and I do not believe they have done that. I think they have done a
good job at looking at ways to increase revenue, but that is not their focus and I
disagree with the County Attorney, that they have the authority or the ability to
review and recommend increases in taxes. I disagree with that interpretation. I
believe that they have the authority to review tax...the real property tax system,
because they need to. But as far as as making recommendations to this body and
that Commission is a very powerful Commission, I believe their function is to look
into the individual Departments, individual programs to determine if, in fact, it can
be done more efficiently. That is what I am hoping that the Mayor will task the
Y p g Y
Cost Control Commission in the next year is to come up with some real cost-cutting
measures, not revenue enhancing measures, but cost-cutting measures. Because if
anyone thinks that next year is going to be easier than this year, they are terribly
mistaken. It is not. We have Collective Bargaining increases this year that is going
to...it just exponentially grows. To think we are out of the woods is a mistake.
SPECIAL COUNCIL MEETING 7 MAY 28, 2013
Of course, as I have spoken a little while ago about the external sources of
funding, we have the ability and mechanisms in place to generate revenues from
fines, from civil penalties through the Planning Commission, through the Building
Division. We have not taken on that function and that needs to be done and the
excuses need to stop. Oh, well, it is vague how many warnings we have to give
them...that is pathetic. Again, they all have to come together and it is a joint effort.
We look like the bad people here. We get criticized for hammering some of the
Administrators and Directors because they are not doing their jobs. But somebody
needs to provide that oversight and that is our job.
All in all, like I said, am I happy with the budget and think it is perfect?
Absolutely not. I think there are a lot of things we could have done better, but
considering the economic times and financial situation of this County, I believe it is
the best that we could come to in that period of time. So obviously, I am supporting
the budget, and I do want to thank the staff and my colleagues here. Staff, Jade
and Ricky, all of your people, throughout this process were just incredibly
professional and efficient. I also want to thank the Administration for getting the
responses to us, quicker than I have ever seen it in all my years and some of them
came the same day, via E-mail, which is much appreciated. I still got some
responses after the budget, but the improvement was much appreciated. With that,
that is all I have. I did not use my ten minutes, but have two minutes and twenty
six seconds left. Thank you.
Chair Furfaro: Mr. Bynum, I will go to you.
Mr. Bynum: Okay. This was the most difficult, but also
the best budget process that I have been involved in and that is saying something,
because it was not always easy. Let me start by saying that the County of Kaua`i as
an organization overall is an outstanding organization. I am proud to be part of it.
I am proud to be a County worker. I am proud of the vast majority of the people
who work for the County, that work hard every single day, serving our community.
There are all of these jokes about government waste and certainly there is
government waste. Any big organization has employees that you are not always
proud of. But overall, we got a great group of people doing a really good job. Things
are improving in our County. They are improving dramatically, and the struggle we
had with budget this year is a good example of that. I am just going to talk frankly
for a few minutes. I have been on the Council for many years and the first few
budgets were just a joke. The Administration would send over here a very lengthy
document and we would have lots of hearings that we invest meaningful time and
were insightful and purposeful, the Council, which is our Charter responsibility to
take command of the financing of this never happened. When every budget would
come and the Council would find something that would be big and controversial,
whether it was the red car that the Mayor was driving or the Ka Leo program or
this position or that and there would be a whole lot of political wrangling about one
SPECIAL COUNCIL MEETING 8 MAY 28, 2013
or two issues and the rest of the budget went through unscathed. How do I know
that? Because I worked for the Mayor. Why are they cutting the Ka Leo positions
and it upset the Mayor, but it was in the long run, let them argue about Ka Leo for
the next few weeks and the rest of the budget sailed through. The Council was not
taking its responsibility.
This Council is finally beginning to take its responsibilities and that comes
from the current leadership of this current Chair. Under the last Chair when it
came up to do budget, I would say can we talk about revenue, which is half of the
budget, and we did not even discuss it, not for five minutes and today we had a full
day this budget session to talk about revenues and we were talking about revenues
all throughout the budget. That is a vast improvement. That is a very good thing.
We found...Councilmembers were very diligent all around the table. We found good
places to cut the budget, that the Administration even agreed and that is the beauty
of democracy and the collective mind. You know, but we also have made very
fundamental changes in the property tax system in the last three years and the
Mayor put forward a proposal to fundamentally change taxation here from zoning to
use. This year, we are implementing that, and it is an astronomical change,
creating new tax categories, one that is very, very, very important and I am very
excited about is the Mayor's proposal that the Council supported is if you are a
landlord, and you rent a home, whether you live here or not, if you rent it long-term,
with a one-year lease at an affordable rate, you can have the homestead class rate.
You can have the lowest tax and the homestead class should always be the
lowest tax rate. Those are our resident homeowners and it is currently still in my
opinion still too high at $3.05, but it is a great incentive. So if you own a property
and want to vacation rental it, fine, we will tell you to pay the vacation rent at
$8.00. The homestead rate is $3.05 and is that is a wonderful incentive. We should
incentivize local renters.
Now I want to tell one story. I just talked to Ernie in the audience about it,
about how complex government is, and sometimes we just go down this road,
because we started. So that was a cut that I suggested that we make $100,000 for a
Lihu'e Bypass Study. So let me tell you really briefly in my ten minutes, that was
in the Long Range Transportation Plan of the State since the 1990s and the State
had no investment in following up with that plan. When we decided to site the
landfill at Maalo, there was a thought that we may need that route, so we do not
route trucks through Hanama`ulu, because there is a specific law that you have to
look at specific communities as Hanama'ulu is and the impact of siting a landfill
and it looks like we would have to build the road. The County went to the State and
said come on, please study this. We will pay for the study, if you will do the study.
This is for a State project. A State project that will never happen. Well, now we
found out we do not need the bypass for the landfill. So we should let this go. It is
not going to happen. But no, we are almost going out to bid and there are matching
SPECIAL COUNCIL MEETING 9 MAY 28, 2013
funds. So we are putting $100,000 of taxpayers' money out to chase $400,000 of
Federal taxpayers' money to do a study that will hit is sit on a shelf and not lead to
any change in our children's lifetime. That is a good example of chasing good money
after bad and I said when we voted on that, we have been waiting for the Kapa'a
relief route for 25 years and I found out this week the State agreed that they would
never build that and they killed the project. So what we all knew for years is now a
reality.
We desperately need to address the tax inequities that are in the homestead
class. We have people with equally valued homes one paying $600 a year in
property taxes and a person right across the street paying $1,800, for no other
reason than the luck of the draw. Taxing needs to be done fairly. There are going
to be a number of proposals that the Administration is going to work on, I hope
collaboratively with the Finance Chair and Council Chair to make this year, where
we really get our house in order. To make this year the year that this Council in
the next couple of budgets fully takes its responsibility under the Charter to be the
fiscal agents of the County.
My last statement, because I have thirty seconds. This is a great County. It
is not a beast. It needed to grow. We are a small town, but we are also a
sophisticated community that has the world as our investor. We get outlowered,
outmaneuvered, outbamboozled, outpoliticked to the detriment of our local people
and we are here to serve the resident people who live and work on Kaua`i, not the
people who want to invest here, not the people who want to do business here. We
represent the people who live and work here. I am going vote for this budget.
There were things that I wish wer not in there and other things that I wish were,
but overall, this was the best budget process of all...as crazy as it was...and I have
run out of time for thanks, but the Administration was great this year. Our Staff
was so on it and learned from last year and anticipated our needs and that made a
long way to making this an efficient budget process and to thank the Council Chair,
who has become quite adept at dealing with the strong personalities who sit around
this table, making some mistakes, but overall doing an outstanding job. Thank you.
Chair Furfaro: JoAnn and then Mr. Kagawa.
Ms. Yukimura: Thank you, Chair. I can say without
• reservation that of the seventeen Council budget processes I have been involved
with, this budget process has been the best. Do not get me wrong, there is much
more that needs to be improved and I did not agree with all of the decisions, but
there were many big steps forward this year that I would like to acknowledge. First
of all, this year's budget process has reflected more accurately and honestly the
County's actual financial situation. This budget process imposed more discipline in
reflecting accurate balances and in requiring Departments to think more clearly
about their goals, and more rigorously how to cost-effectively achieve their goals.
SPECIAL COUNCIL MEETING 10 MAY 28, 2013
The Departments' presentations were considerably better than previous years, and
I want to thank all Department Heads and Agency Heads and their staff for their
efforts.
I want to especially acknowledge the Administration's Budget Team, Finance
Director Steve Hunt, who is brand new, but really rose to the occasion and then also
Budget Director Ernie Barreira and Budget Analysts Ann Wooton, and Ken
Shimonishi all who deserve to be commended. I also want to recognize the
Departments and Divisions...and these are special Divisions that showed
exceptionally responsible and creative thinking in their budget processes and they
really jumped out at us as the presentations were made and they treated taxpayer
money as a scarce resource and figured out how to achieve their jobs within limited
means and I am thinking of the Agency on Elderly Affairs, our Transportation and
Housing Agencies, our Finance Department, especially the Divisions of Purchasing,
and IT, or Information Technology and the Automotive Repair Shop in Public
Works. Just stellar work. Not only in the presentations, but in the doing of their
work. I also want to acknowledge the Road Divisions in Public Works and the CIP
team in Public Works and Planning and the Personnel Department...that are still
working...their work is in progress, but they are showing excellent progress in
terms of making positive and significant system changes.
The second big step forward I have already mentioned, that the
Administration has finally paid attention to the revenue side of the budget and I
have already discussed that.
The third big step forward, Tim has mentioned. There was much more time
in this budget process for fact-finding and interaction with various Departments
and Agencies. This allowed Councilmembers to better understand the budgets
overall, and the challenges and approaches of various Departments. Hopefully,
therefore, our review was more constructive and informed. I want to say thank you
to the Administration for its outstanding efforts to keep communications flowing
between the Departments and the Council. Thank you for your early budget
briefings. Thank you for your prompt responses to your questions, your openness to
our inquiries, ideas, and suggestions.
Thank you to the Mayor for being present in these Chambers, which was a
first. Then mahalo to Chair Furfaro for setting the tone and allowing
Councilmembers a depth and breadth of inquiry that was never allowed before and
for sharing your independent analyses and framing that helped all of us make
better sense of the budget and mahalo to Finance Chair Bynum for your analyses of
data and trends as well.
The fourth big step forward and it is actually a continuation, because the
Council staff has always been incredible, but this year's staff was more proactive
SPECIAL COUNCIL MEETING 11 MAY 28, 2013
than ever and initiated new processes that made our Council budget process better
and paid attention to details and serviced each Councilmember's inquiries and
concerns and followed up and tracked all questions and answers between the
Administration and the Council and kept their good humor and kindness in spite of
the grueling hours and complex issues. So mahalo to our Staff for your skill, your
dedication, and your commitment to excellence. Especially thanks to Jade
Tanigawa, Scott Sato, Yvette Sahut, Ashley Bunda and of course our Clerk, Ricky
Watanabe. Our supporting staff who in Decision Making were, Darrellyne
Caldeira, Codie Yamauchi, and Allison Arakaki and all of our Clerical Staff who
rotated and are doing all of the work on the voluminous minutes, thank you.
As to the substantive budget changes and decisions that we made, I am very
grateful we have chosen to pay in full our payment and pension obligations. To me
this is pono. It keeps faith with our employees and it makes future budget decision-
making easier, because we will not be facing the looming unfunded liabilities that
the State and other Counties are facing. I am glad that we have covered basic
public safety needs by funding the basic needs of Police, Fire, and Water Safety. I
know it never feels like enough, but I urge those Departments to think creatively
and out of the box and I want to commend and cite one example in the Police
Department that represented a 400% decrease in costs and I think that is what
Councilmember Rapozo is talking about, in terms of how do we do things better for
less. That was the cost of meals for detainees in the temporary holding cells, which
dropped from $30,000 to $6,000 because those in charge first got clarity about their
goal, which was not to give detainees a full course meal, but was to adequately feed
them. They figured out that frozen burritos and a microwave accomplished that
and saved $24,000, which is a small amount in the budget, but it is the process,
when applied could save us hundreds of thousands of dollars.
At the same time in talking about the Police, I must say I am regretful in my
vote in Committee against the overtime money for Police overtime response to rave
parties and I do not know what I was thinking because I have known about the
problem ever since then School Relation Officer Paul Applegate educated our Drug
Prevention Committee about that problem and I am glad I can vote on the budget
that does include it and thank you to the Committee and Councilmember Kagawa
h made the motion to add it to the budget. I am glad we have restored the
o adet e t edt e
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budget for addressing domestic violence and are continuing the Food Stamp
Program at our Sunshine and other markets. and that we have continued our
support of the Humane Society animal control and efforts in the Comprehensive
Economic Development Strategies plan and hope that the Administration uses the
money wisely with the Food Hub concept and do their due diligence with a
deliberate site study for the Food Hub. I am excited about the concept of an
Islandwide Ag Park System and I hope that the Administration will work closely
with the agricultural community and appropriate resource people to develop the
SPECIAL COUNCIL MEETING 12 MAY 28, 2013
concept, so that we will see working agricultural parks in several parts of our
island.
I am of course very thankful that we have continuing to grow the Kaua`i Bus
by addressing the crowded, peak-hour routes, and key bottlenecks in the expansion
process. So we can support our families in saving moneys, in transportation
moneys, and also help to reduce the congestion by getting cars off the road as more
people ride the Bus. Finally, the budget process has been the best process thus far
for me because of my Council colleagues around the table. We have not agreed on
everything, we worked together with respect and aloha. We have synergized our
strengths and our different perspectives and skills have offset our individual
weaknesses and oversights. It has been a privilege to work with all of you on this
budget.
Last paragraph, the Council has done its part with respect to the budget, the
job now goes to you, Department Heads and staff. Under the separation of powers
outlined in the Charter, it is now your turn to implement, adjust and accomplish.
We want to see you succeed, because then the people of Kaua`i will be well-served.
I agree with Councilmembers Rapozo and Kagawa about the need to see visible
improvements in service, and we need to have addressed the stories of inefficiency,
poor planning, poor management, some of which, unfortunately are true. So with
that, thank you so everyone, and go to it...mahalo.
Chair Furfaro: Thank you, Councilwoman. Mr. Kagawa.
Mr. Kagawa: Thank you, Mr. Chair. You know, I would
like to start by thanking you for your leadership. I think you have done an
excellent job, in my first term of showing me how a leader should treat his fellow
members and giving me all of the time and the information that I needed and I
really appreciated it.
Chair Furfaro: Thank you, Mr. Kagawa.
Mr. Kagawa: Members, I know we do not agree all the
time, especially from my side of thinking. However, I think that is what makes a
unit strong, is when you have people advocating for a lot of different issues and
people. So thank you. I want to thank my two colleagues, Mr. Rapozo and Mr.
Hooser particularly. Part of getting myself to accept this budget was not giving the
Administration every increase that they had and you stood with me in opposing the
tipping fee and the vehicle weight tax, which I just thought that in those two areas
were maybe excessive to the public. I think if it were a smaller increment, I may
have been able to accept it, but I was really glad we were able to knock those two
down at least. It is a give and take and I appreciate your support on that. This
year was a tough year. We came in with a big job to do. I think we could not make
SPECIAL COUNCIL MEETING 13 MAY 28, 2013
all the cuts that we needed to cut in order to prevent property taxes from going up,
because they just were not there, at least not to our knowledge, where it would not
affect public health and safety and the basic services that needed to be done. So I
am comfortable supporting some of the tax increases.
I am concerned about the hotel industry taxes. Not the TBRs, but the basic
hotel industry. I have heard from a few people who oppose it, particularly Sandi
Kato-Klutke, who just recently retired and she was kind of bothered by statements
that were made regarding comparing ourselves to Maui and the Big Island, and how
our increases will still make us a little lower than them. She pointed out the fact
that we are not Maui. We are not the Big Island and I use those comparisons also at
times, you know, in regards to parks and what have you. But in the visitor
industry, I can see where she coming from. Kaua`i is really unique. We attract
visitors of a different kind. They come here for the beauty of our island. The Big
Island they have a lot of lava rock and the volcanos there and Maui is almost like
going to O`ahu these days. So I do not want to always base visitor industry type
increases on the neighbor islands and I think we have to be careful of, that because
we are really different. We want to be different, at least we want to keep it rural
and I think we want to keep our costs down in that area. I think it will be passed
onto to our visitors.
One of the great thing s that I have experienced just prior to today's meeting
was we had a huge Lihu`e Baseball Bash that we just held here. We had sixteen
Mustang Teams, sixteen Bronco Teams, and five Pony Teams. That is about at
least twenty five teams from O`ahu, Maui, and the Big Island that came down here
with their parents and it was a huge impact down here. The common theme from
them is that it is not cheap to come to Kauai and it is not. You can go to Las Vegas
for almost the same price when you compute the hotel and everything. We have to
watch...in the old days when I was young, going to the neighbor islands was not
very costly, not like now. We have to be careful because I think those types of
events that really benefit the businesses and are the unsung heroes of our economy.
I had a lot of people from Brick Oven who said they had a ton of business this week.
I would just like to thank the Chair, it was a good ride for the first time. I think I
have gotten invaluable experience during this first budget session. I will be
supporting the budget.
Chair Furfaro: Thank you Mr. Kagawa. Mr. Hooser you
have the floor.
Mr. Hooser: Thank you Chair. A lot has been said so I
am going to keep my remarks very brief. I want to say that it was a very good
budget discussion and very good budget process. I want to comment the staff. A lot
of people do not realize how much we depend on our staff. When we ask for
information, the information is provided promptly and it is accurate. The risk to
SPECIAL COUNCIL MEETING 14 MAY 28, 2013
having it being provided inaccurately is huge to us as individual Councilmembers
personally to us if we were to quote information that was not right...the downside is
big...there is a lot of pressure and they have just done a fabulous job. I want to
thank all of the Council staff.
Working with all of you as has been said, it has been a good experience. I
saw the Council taking increasing ownership of the budget process. In the past
when we received the Mayor's budget, it used to be stamped and then we go home
after asking a couple of questions. We realize that no, we should take ownership of
this and I think that is going to be an increasing trend. There was a lot of
discussion about needs and wants. Robust discussion that resulted in the
Administration perhaps toning down their May 8th submittal because of the
questions that we asked.
Councilmember Kagawa in his first term...a lot of first termers sit back and
just quietly watch. No, he rolled up his sleeves and not only opposed some of the
increases as did I, but took responsibility to look for cuts to offset those.
Councilmember Rapozo also willing to ask tough questions and ask more tough
questions and also to dig for the cuts. It is a very good team. Councilmember
Bynum and the work on the tax overhaul...I was disappointed that we were not
able to move forward with that but look forward to more work and possibly moving
forward next year on it. I know how much work it takes to dig through all of that.
Councilmember Nakamura is not here but she represents a steady hand here at the
table and also makes a huge contribution. Councilmember Yukimura is just
relentless in her pursuit of the things she loves and supports and her values. I
commend her for that. Just relentless in her tenacity in supporting the Bus and
Affordable Housing and things that we all support, but just really tenacious and I
admire that a lot.
I have to say though Chair, I respect the Police Department cost cutting also,
but feeding pre-detainees frozen burritos may open us up to lawsuits, cruel and
unusual punishment. I would rather them be fed non-GMO, local vegetables. The
Council has done a fabulous job and Chair I want to hand it to you for steering us
through some trecherous waters. There are some strong personalities at the table,
some strong personalities across the railing, and a lot of moving parts with this
budget. At the end of the day, your leadership has been a success and I thank you
for that. I would be remiss if I did not acknowledge the Administration, the Finance
Director and support, Ernie...they were really forthcoming and direct and
pleasurable to work with. Thank you.
Chair Furfaro: I guess it is my turn and I would like to start
by saying it was great having every member at this table bringing real issues into
the discussion and doing it with respect and expressing their values and their
rationale behind those items that needed to be decided on. We are doing things
SPECIAL COUNCIL MEETING 15 MAY 28, 2013
different and I believe better. This is my third year as Chair. Two years ago, we set
aside time just to look at revenues. Three years ago, we started by having a
template to look at the budget. As a group, we constantly are making
improvements and that is because of the staff commitment. We have a wonderful
staff commitment here. We found ourselves always having the right kind of facts in
front of us and I think you mentioned that Mr. Hooser which helps us come to the
right kind of conclusions. No one ever made a bad decision by having too much
information.
The approach we had this year was exceptional. We reviewed revenues and
also finding ourselves reviewing the cost portion. As some of you know, I will be
visiting with the Cost Control Commission at their next meeting, because I will
brief them as well on our budget process so that they are fully informed of the
concerns and the opportunities that are in front of us. I also have said this before,
but I would remind you that my next step, I think is to actually work on an
Ordinance that addresses fees on an every three-year cycle. That it would be
required of us. It is very tough for people to see fees jump when they have not been
reviewed, some of them for fifteen and sixteen years. We have to have a continuity
and a consistency that allows us to do that.
I want to thank all of you for your continued work, especially you Mr. Hooser,
with our message to the State. The State needs to understand we are partners
here. We want to kokua with them, but now to put a permanent ceiling on the TAT
is going to be a challenge for us. So we need to continue to work there and keep our
relationships as active, but objective with our legislative counterparts at the State.
I was happy for some of the programs we were able to do, special programs for the
YWCA, YMCA with their solar project, and the fact we were able to give some extra
moneys to the Humane Society. It is a little different than they teach you in
business school, with approaching, first giving them the funding and then work out
the details. So I am going to pose that challenge onto the Administration; that we
have a cleaner understanding of next year as we approach the needs and what we
can participate in with the Humane Society.
Host Community Benefits, with the Kekaha group, I think it is something we
were able to put a little extra money in this year, but without the tipping fee there
was no additional shared piece for their proportionate share. It is another thing
that we need to work on and Councilmember Yukimura mentioned to us, the
presentations are constantly being improved and I am planning to nominate the
Head of the Automotive Division for Manager of the Year. His style, his
presentation, his facts, his assumptions on where they needed to go on equipment
were...I mean he was just right on top of it. He had an outstanding presentation
and the Office of Economic Development under George's leadership, I was very
impressed he came to us with programs, whether they were hula, canoe
championships, cultural programs, understanding place-names in our wonderful
SPECIAL COUNCIL MEETING 16 MAY 28, 2013
island community, and even the swim challenge, he provided us a substantial
amount of detail, with these are the right things to participate in to promote the
Garden Island and it just enhances the destination overall for the visitor industry.
So my hat's off to George.
Is that my ten minutes? That is my five minutes. Okay. I do want to say
that I want to continue to see some work done in the challenge we now have with
only paving roads every other year. Now we understand the financial aspect of that
being one where we'll get another ten to fifteen percent more paving capacity, but
doing it in more bulk, but those facts and those comparisons were still lagging a
response from the administration. But I also want to keep an eye on how we are
■
shifting some of the costs between Solid Waste and the Roads Division. We need to
keep track of those two very closely, as we change our approach to doing our
business. At the end of the day, we all did our very best and I am very proud to
work with you as colleagues and we have done the best we can under some financial
restrictions, but this County has always played a conservative role. It is our nature
to be sensitive to the costs that are allocated to the service recipients, which are the
citizens of Kaua`i and they deserve our absolute best.
Overall I want to say that the Council was very cohesive. We used the best
approach with our resources, and I think some of the ideas that came up from the
three gentlemen on the corners, in fact, as it relates to the CIP utilization, the
Highway Funds was most, most appreciated. On that note, my focus going forward
is that I added $1,100,000 of revenue. So now I better pay attention to the bump at
the Golf Course and where those revenues came from. So between finding some
costs, enhancing revenues, I think we got ourselves to a place that we all feel pretty
E comfortable about this budget, and it could only happen for the real commitment
you folks have made as Councilmembers. I have to tell you, the staff we have here,
and the changes that we have constantly made in making improvements, you folks
should be complimented on your commitment, your service, professional, on-time,
and we do not miss a beat...thanks to you. So on that note, Mr. Barriera, Mr. Hunt,
job well-done. Annie, Ken sincere regards for a job well-done and on that note I
think we can call for a vote on this budget.
The motion to adopt Bill No. 2471, Draft 1 on second and final reading, and
that it be transmitted to the Mayor for his approval was then put, and carried
by the following vote:
FOR ADOPTION: Bynum, Hooser, Kagawa, Rapozo,
Yukimura, Furfaro TOTAL— 6,
AGAINST ADOPTION: None TOTAL— 0,
EXCUSED & NOT VOTING: Nakamura TOTAL— 1,
RECUSED & NOT VOTING: None TOTAL— 0.
SPECIAL COUNCIL MEETING 17 MAY 28, 2013
The motion to adopt Bill No. 2472, Draft 1 on second and final reading, and
that it be transmitted to the Mayor for his approval was then put, and carried
by the following vote:
FOR ADOPTION: Bynum, Hooser, Kagawa, Rapozo,
Yukimura, Furfaro TOTAL — 6,
AGAINST ADOPTION: None TOTAL — 0,
EXCUSED & NOT VOTING: Nakamura TOTAL — 1,
RECUSED & NOT VOTING: None TOTAL — 0.
Chair Furfaro: Tomorrow, reminder, Special Meeting.
Tomorrow we have a visit to the Ma'alo site for the landfill and I want to caution us,
facts and information given to us during the tour, more than acceptable to ask
factual questions. No discussion until we get back to the Council Chambers, please.
And our narrative, Yvette, that went over to the Mayor's Office for review and
release? It will. Very good, on that note, I will see all of you tomorrow at 9:00 a.m.
Aloha.
ADJOURNMENT.
There being no further business, the meeting was adjourned at 10:03 a.m.
-: fully submitted,
JADE K. •UNTAIN-TANIGAWA
Deputy County Clerk
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