HomeMy WebLinkAbout 12/04/2013 Council minutes COUNCIL MEETING
DECEMBER 4, 2013
The Council Meeting of the Council of the County of Kaua`i was called to
order by Council Chair Jay Furfaro at the Council Chambers, 4396 Rice Street,
Room 201, Lihu'e, Kauai, on Wednesday, December 4, 2013 at 9:00 a.m., after
which the following members answered the call of the roll:
Honorable Tim Bynum
Honorable Mason K. Chock, Sr.
Honorable Gary L. Hooser
Honorable Ross Kagawa
Honorable Mel Rapozo
Honorable JoAnn A. Yukimura
Honorable Jay Furfaro
APPROVAL OF AGENDA.
Mr. Rapozo moved for approval of the agenda as circulated, seconded by
Ms. Yukimura, and unanimously carried.
Chair Furfaro: This is a period for public comment under
Council Rule 13(e). Is there anyone in the public who wishes to testify on any item
posted on today's agenda for three (3) minutes?
PUBLIC COMMENT.
Pursuant to Council Rule 13(e), members of the public shall be allowed a total of
eighteen (18) minutes on a first come, first served basis to speak on any agenda
item. Each speaker shall be limited to three (3) minutes at the discretion of the
Chair to discuss the agenda item and shall not be allowed additional time to speak
during the meeting. This rule is designed to accommodate those who cannot be
present throughout the meeting to speak when the agenda items are heard. After
the conclusion of the eighteen (18) minutes, other members of the public shall be
allowed to speak pursuant to Council Rule 12(e).
Chair Furfaro: Seeing no one, we will go to the minutes of
the previous meetings.
MINUTES of the following meetings of the Council:
September 11, 2013 Council Meeting
September 25, 2013 Council Meeting
September 26, 2013 Special Council Meeting
October 8, 2013 Special Council Meeting and Continued on October 15, 2013
Special Council Meeting
November 6, 2013 Council Meeting
November 6, 2013 Public Hearing re: Bill No. 2503 and Bill No. 2504
November 7, 2013 Special Council Meeting
November 15, 2013 Special Council Meeting
November 19, 2013 Special Council Meeting
COUNCIL MEETING 2 DECEMBER 4, 2013
Mr. Bynum moved to approve the Minutes as circulated, seconded by
Ms. Yukimura.
Chair Furfaro: Is there any discussion on any of these
items? The Chair recognizes Councilwoman Yukimura.
Ms. Yukimura: Chair, may I ask that the October 8, 2013
Special Council Meeting and the November 15, 2013 Special Council Meeting
Minutes be excluded from this motion to approve so that I can read them?
Chair Furfaro: Certainly. Mr. Clerk, would you please note
that Councilmember Yukimura requested that the October 8, 2013 Special Council
Meeting and Continued on October 15, 2013 Special Council Meeting, as well as the
November 15, 2013 Special Council Meeting, not be approved on this particular
scheduled agenda.
RICKY WATANABE, County Clerk: So noted.
Chair Furfaro: Thank you. Is there any questions from
members?
Mr. Bynum: Just very briefly, I would like to point out
the incredible volume of work this represents that came from our Staff over the last
few months. Anybody who has read our minutes know how well they are done
verbatim. I just wanted to recognize this increased volume of work.
Chair Furfaro: Thank you for your comments and it is
acknowledged by all Councilmembers as well.
The motion to approve all Minutes except for the Minutes of the
October 8, 2013 Special Council Meeting and Continued on October 15, 2013
Special Council Meeting and the November 15, 2013 Special Council Meeting
was then put, and unanimously carried.
Chair Furfaro: The vote is 7:0. The October 8, 2013 Special
Council Meeting and Continued on October 15, 2013 Special Council Meeting and
the November 15, 2013 Special Council Meeting will be scheduled for approval at
the next Council Meeting.
Mr. Watanabe: Chair, can we get a motion for a deferral on
the October 8, 2013 Special Council Meeting and Continued on October 15, 2013
Special Council Meeting and the November 15, 2013 Special Council Meeting?
Mr. Bynum moved to defer the Minutes of the October 8, 2013 Special
Council Meeting and Continued on October 15, 2013 Special Council Meeting
and November 15, 2013 Special Council Meeting, seconded by Ms. Yukimura,
and unanimously carried.
Chair Furfaro: Let us go to the Consent Calendar, please.
COUNCIL MEETING 3 DECEMBER 4, 2013
CONSENT CALENDAR:
Resolution No. 2003-31 — RESOLUTION SUPPORTING THE AIR FORCE
C-17 GLOBEMASTER III OPERATIONS AT THE PACIFIC MISSILE RANGE
FACILITY AT BARKING SANDS ON KAUAI (Deferred 06/26/2003 pending
completion of the environmental assessment): Mr. Rapozo moved to receive
Resolution No. 2003-31 for the record, seconded by Ms. Yukimura, and unanimously
carried.
Resolution No. 2010-10 — RESOLUTION CONFIRMING MAYORAL
APPOINTMENT TO THE BUILDING BOARD OF APPEALS (Gerald T. Nakasone)
(Deferred 01/06/2010 pending interview): Mr. Rapozo moved to receive
Resolution No. 2010-10 for the record, seconded by Ms. Yukimura, and unanimously
carried.
Resolution No. 2012-34 — RESOLUTION SUPPORTING THE HAWAI'I
STATE ASSOCIATION OF COUNTIES' PROPOSAL OF ESTABLISHING A
POSITION FOR THE HAWAI'I STATE ASSOCIATION OF COUNTIES STATE
DIRECTOR (Deferred 03/28/2012 pending Hawaii State Association of Counties
(HSAC) information): Mr. Rapozo moved to receive Resolution No. 2012-34 for the
record, seconded by Ms. Yukimura, and unanimously carried.
C 2013-370 Communication (11/19/2013) from the Director of Finance,
transmitting for Council consideration, proposed amendments to
Ordinance No. B-2013-753, as amended, relating to the Fiscal Year 2013-2014
Operating Budget, by Revising the Amounts Estimated in the General Fund. (Office
of Economic Development, Executive/Consultant Services (Joint Fact Finding Group
(JFFG) Scope-of-Work Environmental Public Health Impact Study (EPHIS)) -
$100,000): Mr. Rapozo moved to receive C 2013-370 for the record, seconded by
Ms. Yukimura, and unanimously carried.
C 2013-371 Communication (11/20/2013) from the Mayor, transmitting for
Council consideration and confirmation the following Mayoral Reappointments to
the various Boards and Commissions for the County of Kaua`i:
(1) Building Board of Appeals
• Miles Tanabe —Term ending 12/31/2016
(2) Board of Ethics
• Kurt Akamine —Term ending 12/31/2016
• Brad Nagano — Term ending 12/31/2016
(3) Board of Review
• Jose Diogo— Term ending 12/31/2016
(4) Board of Water Supply
• Clyde Nakaya —Term ending 12/31/2016
(5) Charter Review Commission
• Ed Justus, IV— Term ending 12/31/2016
• Charles Stack—Term ending 12/31/2016
(6) Civil Service Commission
• John Low — Term ending 12/31/2016
COUNCIL MEETING 4 DECEMBER 4, 2013
(7) Cost Control Commission
• Glen Takenouchi— Term ending 12/31/2016
• Joanne Nakashima —Term ending 12/31/2016
(8) Fire Commission
• Heidy Huddy-Yamamoto —Term ending 12/31/2016
• Eugene Jimenez —Term ending 12/31/2016
(9) Liquor Control Commission
• Dane Oda —Term ending 12/31/2016
(10) Planning Commission
• Wayne Katayama —Term ending 12/31/2016
• Angela Anderson— Term ending 12/31/2016
(11) Police Commission
• Randall Francisco — Term ending 12/31/2016
• Charles Iona — Term ending 12/31/2016
(12) Public Access, Open Space, and Natural Resources
Preservation Fund Commission
• Luke Evslin—Term ending 12/31/2016
(13) Salary Commission
• Sheri Kunioka-Volz—Term ending 12/31/2016
Mr. Rapozo moved to receive C 2013-371 for the record, seconded by
Ms. Yukimura, and unanimously carried.
C 2013-372 Communication (11/20/2013) from Councilmember Bynum,
transmitting for Council consideration, proposed amendments to Chapter 5, Section
5-2.3 of the Kaua`i County Code 1987, as amended, relating to the County Motor
Vehicle Weight Tax, effective January 1, 2015, pursuant to Hawai'i Revised
Statutes (HRS) Section 249-13: Mr. Rapozo moved to receive C 2013-372 for the
record, seconded by Ms. Yukimura, and unanimously carried.
C 2013-373 Communication (11/20/2013) from Councilmember Bynum,
transmitting for Council consideration, proposed amendments to Section 21-9.2 of
the Kaua`i County Code 1987, as amended, relating to Integrated Solid Waste
Management, to increase the tipping fees for business, commercial, and other non-
residential haulers: Mr. Rapozo moved to receive C 2013-373 for the record,
seconded by Ms. Yukimura, and unanimously carried.
Chair Furfaro: Is there anyone in the public who wanted to
give any testimony for these items? Seeing no one, there is no one who wants to
testify for the record. Let us go to our next item please.
COMMUNICATIONS:
C 2013-374 Communication (11/01/2013) from the Chief of Police, requesting
Council approval to accept a multi-year grant in the amount of $750,000 from the
United States Department of Justice, Office of Community Oriented Policing
Services (COPS) for six (6) new police officer positions to establish a new beat in the
Kawaihau District.
COUNCIL MEETING 5 DECEMBER 4, 2013
Future funding for the grant is proposed to be allocated as follows:
• Year Two (2): $600,000.00 (Grant Funds), $91,357.44
(Asset Forfeiture Funds)
• Year Three (3): $150,000 (Grant Funds), $614,847.35
(County Funds)
• Year Four (4): $804,604.00 (County Funds)
Mr. Kagawa moved to approve C 2013-374, seconded by Ms. Yukimura.
Chair Furfaro: We will cover all four (4) years in this
discussion. Chief, can you please come up?
There being no objections, the rules were suspended.
DARRYL D. PERRY, Chief of Police: Good morning Chair and
Councilmembers.
Chair Furfaro: Good morning to all of the members of our
Police Department that is in attendance as well. Thank you for being here. Chief,
you have the floor.
Mr. Perry: Darryl Perry, Chief of Police for the County
of Kaua`i. Thank you for having us here today to go over the COPS Grant. I cannot
believe that it has been six (6) months since we were here, asking for approval to
submit an application for the COPS Grant. Since that time, the application was
submitted and we were awarded seven hundred fifty thousand dollars ($750,000),
but we need your approval for the grant. We sent information in, and I know you
have that information, but for those who forgot or maybe need a little reminder and
for those who were not on the Council at that time, we would like to briefly go over
and summarize the COPS Grant.
Chair Furfaro: Chief, I am going to move over to a mic here,
so I can watch your presentation as well. Thank you.
Mr. Perry: When I first got here, we had about thirty
(30) vacancies. Our Staff for the authorized Staff was one hundred fifty (150)
officers. We have thirty (30) vacancies and we are having a very difficult time
filling those positions, but since then, we have been able to streamline our
recruiting and training process, so now we are actually on the verge of filling all of
our vacancies. With that said, we did is some research and the information up here
was presented to you before, but this is just a review. The Bureau of Justice
statistics and National Crime Victimization Survey came out with this
"population-driven" police force ratio. The ratio is, on average, two point three (2.3)
officers per one thousand (1,000) population or the de facto population of about
eighty-six thousand (86,000) people on the island, including the military and
visitors. We are below that national ratio. Interestingly, with that taken into
consideration, this was based on departments in the United States that have
jurisdictions that are close by. If they needed to leverage their assets, they could
request from the other neighboring police chiefs to assist them in certain types of
situations. The recent Newtown incident is one example where the jurisdictions
adjacent to the Newtown shooting responded immediately, so they were able to
assist them in investigating that scene. Kaua`i and all of the islands are unique in
itself, the reason being because we are the only game in town and we cannot reach
out to Honolulu Police Department, Maui Police Department, or Hawai`i Island
Police Department to request assistance. Actually for the ratio you see here, we
COUNCIL MEETING 6 DECEMBER 4, 2013
should be on the high ratio side; two point three (2.3) instead of two point three zero
(2.30). For our sake, let us use the average. Based on those numbers, we are
actually down by about forty (40) officers, where we should be nationally.
I wanted to talk a little bit about the beats. The beats are basically
geographical areas and designated areas, and how we arrived at the beat
boundaries is based on calls for services, population density, and officer safety
concerns on how fast it would take an officer to respond to a certain location or to a
certain type of call. The last beat expansion occurred in 1989, so for the last
twenty-four (24) years, we have had no expansion of any beats or officers. I can
understand why because we were not able to fill our positions, but things have
changed and today we have done that.
If you look at the numbers up here, we have ten (10) beats currently. Back in
1989, there were almost twenty (20,000) calls for services. In 2011, we had
thirty-six thousand (36,000) calls for services and an eighty-three percent (83%)
increase. We have had no increase in beat officers. The de facto population has
increased, of course, by twenty-eight percent (28%) and still, we have not expanded
our beats or increased our officer staffing.
In 2008, we did a projection of where we should be by 2025. Perhaps this is a
"pie-in-the-sky" type of wish list, but nevertheless, we went ahead and created what
we foresee to be by 2025 of how the beats will be structured. Again, this was based
on calls for services, population density, and officer safety concerns. We worked
with Planning and the community to derive these beat boundaries. Hopefully
within the next future, probably not during my lifetime, we can see this come true.
We actually added eleven (11) new beats for the projections.
The island is divided into five (5) main districts. The districts that we are
talking about being the busiest is District 1, which is the Lihu`e area and District 4,
which is the Kawaihau area. This is the proposed new beat that we are asking for.
Perhaps Stacy could explain the boundaries of the new beat.
STACEY PERREIRA, Police Officer: For the record, my name is Stacey
Perreira. Currently, how the Kawaihau District is set up is that we have two (2)
different officers that respond. They cover from South Leho Drive, which you can
see in the little picture on the right, just past the Wailua Golf Course. On the left is
North Aliomanu. That is the area and everywhere in between, all the way up to the
Homesteads, that is where two (2) officers cover on any given shift. Of course, it is a
mixture of residential, agricultural, commercial, and retail space. We have a lot of
resort destinations in Kapa'a Town and Wailua. We also have the Hawaiian
Homelands which is in the Anahola area. That is currently what our two (2) officers
are covering.
Mr. Perry: Before submitting for the grant, we saw the
need for a beat expansion and to work in conjunction with the community. That is
why when we saw this grant come up, we thought that this would be a perfect time
to submit an application. Before we go into the Community Oriented Policing
program... Stacy will explain that in more detail. We reviewed what the grant
encompassed. There are strict guidelines on how to submit a grant. At the
conclusion of the grant, we submitted it and it was evaluated based on their
criteria. Our County had the highest score that was ever seen in the grant
applications. Normally, they would allow a five percent (5%) increase in staffing
and they gave us just below that. They almost gave us the maximum score of the
COUNCIL MEETING 7 DECEMBER 4, 2013
amount of officers that we needed. If we were to extrapolate that number out,
based on our score for a larger departments, say with two thousand (2,000), that
would be anywhere from fifty (50) to one hundred (100) officers that the COPS
Grant would have allowed. We got the maximum for the amount of work that Stacy
did. I will give to you, Stacy, and you can explain the Community Oriented Policing
Services concept and what our goals and objectives are.
Ms. Perreira: Of course, like the Chief said, this is through
the Department of Justice and it is a Community Oriented Policing Services Grant.
Just so everyone is on the same page, "Community Oriented Policing" is a
philosophy that combines traditional aspects of law enforcement with prevention
measures, problem-solving community engagement, and community partnerships.
In a nutshell, that is basically what Community Oriented Policing is.
When I started to write the grant, there were some things that I had to
identify in order to fulfill the requirements of the grant. Part of that, of course, is
coming up with goals and objectives, as well as using that philosophy and
identifying what we are already doing in our Department, what we need to improve
in our Department, as well as where we are lacking in our Department based on
community oriented policing. We came up with this goal and the goal is to increase
the number of first-responders for the Kaua`i Police Department (KPD) to allow a
more even distribution of cases among officers, while promoting community policing
strategies aimed at prevention, solving, and controlling crime. That is a mouthful,
but given the expansion, that is what we hope to accomplish. Some of the objectives
that we came up with is that in the beginning, you need to increase the sworn
personnel, first-responders. We asked for five percent (5%), which is seven (7)
officers and we got six (6). We are hoping to hire those first six (6) officers in the
first twelve (12) months of the project. With the streamlined process that the
Department has now... I do not foresee that as an issue at all. The second thing
was to establish the new geographical beat assignment based on the increase of
sworn personnel in the first fifteen (15) months. We already have a good idea of
where we would like that to be. Of course, we can always revisit what the current
numbers are to make sure that when we do place the officer in the Kawaihau
District, it is where it is most needed. We are looking at possibly placing that
person more in the business district, so that we can revitalize our community
policing and get more involved with our community and our businesses. Of course,
assign the officer to that particular beat within the first fifteen (15) months as well.
Number three is to enhance existing community oriented policing strategies within
that new geographical beat. That is not to say we are not looking at doing it for the
entire island, but specific to this grant, this is what we need to make sure we
address with the grant, which is what we will be doing with the community and
how we will be working with the community specific to this project, as well as with
the beat assignment.
We have several things that we already are doing within our communities.
Specifically in Kawaihau, we do already have Neighborhood Watch Program that
Sergeant Green works on with the community and we are hoping to get our officers
that will be assigned in that area more involved with that. We also have the
Mayor's Crime Task Force that we hope to get more involved with as well. That is
basically for our businesses. We also want to help promote safety for our businesses
to combat against burglaries, thefts, and things of that nature. Of course, number
three (b) is to promote proactive community oriented policing within the Kawaihau
District. We also want to make sure that we provide training for all
first-responders to promote the Department's community oriented strategies. We
COUNCIL MEETING 8 DECEMBER 4, 2013
want to make sure that everyone is one the same page in our Department, knowing
what community oriented policing is. It is not just about the community, but it is
about the community and our Department working together to help solve crime
when it is identified in specific areas.
Chair Furfaro: Stacy, at this point as I mentioned to the
Police Chief, I think we are going to take a short break and recognize our guests
that are here. May I have the Staff acknowledge them? I am not sure how many
people we have coming in, but if we can all get a little closer together, it would be
helpful so we can vacate some chairs. Thank you for your understanding Chief.
There being no objections, the meeting recessed at 9:22 a.m.
The meeting reconvened at 9:45 a.m., and proceeded as follows:
Chair Furfaro: We are back in session. We will continue
now.
Ms. Perreira: Moving into project activities, it is kind of
redundant, but I will quickly go over it. We came up with the project activities
specific to the goals and objectives. With the assistance of the COPS Grant, it is the
immediate goal of the Kaua`i Police Department to expand our beats from ten (10)
beat assignments to eleven (11) beats. Of course, in order to achieve this goal, we
need to increase our patrol officer and first responders by... the grant it is says
seven (7), but it is actually six (6) positions that we were awarded. We will be able
to meet our needs with the six (6) officers. The next thing is to establish the
geographical beat assignment. We talked about that and currently where the
officers are working from, South Leho all the way to North Aliomanu. That will be
divided up into three (3). More specifically, we are looking at possibly focusing in
the business district of the Kawaihau District. Next is to enhance existing
programs within our Police Department. The Department of Justice recognizes...
they are heavily into the School Resource Officer (SRO) program, as well as Drug
Abuse Resistance Education (DARE) and all of that. We have youth programs,
DARE and Kaua`i Police Activity League (KPAL), and our SRO program is highly
notable in our community. We also want to continue to support that, as well as
enhance some of our existing programs such as the Mayor's Task Force,
Neighborhood Watch Program, and revitalize them and get our officers that will be
in those areas involved, as well as throughout our community. Then of course, as
we said, is provide in-service training to all first responders on with the community
oriented policing strategy is and what our overall goal as a Department is on
moving forward, not only to fulfill the grant, but become more of a proactive
Department with responding to targeted areas, areas that we recognize need more
assistance, and so forth.
Our project evaluation that we submitted with the grant was to keep track of
who we hire, when we hire, and how we hire. We are required to submit these
project evaluations on a quarterly basis. These are our benchmarks that we need to
make sure that we meet, which is what we put forth. First is hiring within the first
twelve (12) months of the project, the geographical beat assignment, enhancing or
specifically defining which beat it will be, where it is, and what the geographical
location will be for that beat. Then of course, providing in-service training, as well
as making sure that we enhance our existing programs, continue to improve on
programs, and possibly expand on programs with community oriented policing.
COUNCIL MEETING 9 DECEMBER 4, 2013
Our current community partnerships, our youth programs like KPAL, DARE
program, School Resources Officers, and our Explorer Program. Our Community
Relations Officer plays a huge role in our community oriented policing. He goes to
different schools, starts up our community watch programs, assists with Cop on
Top, (inaudible), and endless amounts of stuff that our Community Relations
Officer does. Again, like the Neighborhood Watch Program and Mayor's Crime
Task Force, we started within the last— when was this Citizens Police Academy
started? We have already had two (2) and we are probably having a third Citizens
Police Academy. It has been quite successful. Media communications— we have
over the past several years, our website is a huge area where our public can go to
and find different information on statistics, what our Department is doing, how we
are doing, and crime mapping. There is a bunch of tools that you can go to on our
website as part of the community to see what is happening in their neighborhoods
and so forth. We will continue to enhance that, as well as make sure different
public events are publicized for the community.
Mr. Perry: We talked a little bit about the history of
KPD and our staffing concerns. We went into what the grant is about and the
benchmarks that we want to establish and meet. This is the meat of the whole
thing, the funding breakdown. I will have Deputy Chief Michael Contrades speak
on this and we will go into more detail later.
MICHAEL CONTRADES, Deputy Chief of Police: Good morning
Chair Furfaro, Vice Chair Chock, and members of the Council. For the record,
Michael Contrades, Deputy Chief of Police. Like the Chief said, this is a big part of
it. "How much is this going to cost?" In terms of funding breakdown, what we are
proposing is that for the Fiscal Year 2014, if we are allowed to accept the grant,
there will be no funds expended. The reason being is that you are able to draw on
the funds once you hire the people, so for the Fiscal Year 2014, we do not anticipate
being able to do so. For Fiscal Year 2015, we are planning and anticipate being able
to hire these positions, if allowed in July of 2015, so this would be.... I am sorry,
July 2014, Fiscal Year 2015. Six hundred thousand dollars ($600,000) in grant
funds would be used. There would be no County Funds used and we would use
ninety-one thousand three hundred fifty-seven dollars ($91,357) of Asset Forfeiture
Funds. In Fiscal Year 2016, there will be one hundred fifty thousand dollars
($150,000) in grant funds and six hundred fourteen thousand ($614,000) and a little
extra in County Funds. After that, we would not be able to drawdown on grant
funds anymore. We would have expended that. Fiscal Year 2017 would cost eight
hundred four thousand six hundred four dollars ($804,604). In total, what we are
requesting of the County over the four (4) year period is two million two hundred
twenty-four thousand fifty-five dollars ($2,224,055). Chief, could you go to the next
one?
Chair Furfaro: Excuse me, I have a question before you go
any further. Could you go back to the other slide? The current State of Hawai`i
Organization of Police Officers (SHOPO) contract expires in year 2016, I believe.
Have you put in a contingent for what the negotiated new settlement would be in
the year 2017/2018? Is that based on current contract negotiations?
Mr. Contrades: That is based on current contracts, so at the
ending of the contract, that is what the cost would be. We are unable to determine
what SHOPO may get at that point in time.
COUNCIL MEETING 10 DECEMBER 4, 2013
Chair Furfaro: Understood, but that could be adjusted by
about forty thousand dollars ($40,000) a year from 2017 forward. It is possible.
Okay. Thank you very much for the slide. Sorry for the interruption. Thank you.
Mr. Contrades: Again, we are humbly asking for your
acceptance of the grant and KPD being allowed to create this new beat. If you
average it out, it is roughly five hundred fifty-six thousand dollars ($556,000) a year
for the four (4) years that we are asking for.
Chair Furfaro: Is that the end of the presentation?
Mr. Contrades: Yes.
Chair Furfaro: Okay. Just give me a moment to go back to
my seat. Members, are there any questions on the presentation? We will start with
Mr. Bynum.
Mr. Bynum: First, I want to thank you Officer Perreira
and the Chief for an outstanding presentation. Mr. Contrades, thank you very
much. We have come a really long ways from the thirty (30) officers vacant to
almost being fully staffed, and it took a lot of things and a lot of effort on your part.
I think the Administration and the Council assisted, but I have told that every
Chief that has ever stood here that when you can hire new officers, I will be in your
corner. We have arrived at that. Thank you. Congratulations. I think that is
great for our community. I do have a few questions, but I want to say that the fiscal
challenges for the County are very significant, and a lot of that is because of the
Police Department, but that is okay with me. Our Police just had a contract
negotiation that is going to bring officers' salaries into the range that hopefully we
can keep fully staffed and you can accomplish new beats. This has been the goal for
a long time, and to be here today should be a huge celebration. I want to thank you
for all of your efforts, all of you, to arrive at what I consider a historic moment
because I have been involved in the County for fifteen (15) years and we have never
been fully staffed. I have publically made that commitment many times. I do not
ever want to be an obstacle to expanding the force when we are at that opportunity.
The idea that we have a grant to assist us with that is great, but I come in with eyes
wide open. This grant pays about a quarter of the cost of these new officers, and
then we are going to pick up the full freight. We have been waiting for this and now
it arrives. It comes at a challenging time, but it is our responsibility to fund this
and create a safer community. With that said, may I ask a few questions? I also
see this grant, and I have followed it and read it, as a renewed commitment to
community oriented policing. KPD has always done that. I think I told you the
story, Chief, in the past. When I first got involved when there was a grant for
SROs, that the Department could use. That was really critical. I was a Therapist
at the time, working with kids. It was like, "Wow, you had this money and you did
not put these officers in the school?" I know now that was naïve because the Chief
then would have loved to put those officers in the school and use those grants. You
have to make triage choices. I am going to be really happy when KPD is in a
position where they do not have to do that. I see that as a commitment to these
programs as well, a renewed commitment. Is that correct?
Mr. Perry: That is correct.
Mr. Bynum: So SRO officers are currently in high
schools?
COUNCIL MEETING 11 DECEMBER 4, 2013
Mr. Perry: Yes, they are.
Mr. Bynum: Did we get ever them in the junior high
schools?
Mr. Perry: Not yet, but that is in the future. We are
looking at getting them in middle schools where they are most influenced and we
need to get to them.
Mr. Bynum: Twenty (20) years ago, when I naively
criticized the Police Department for not following that grant, the goal was at that
time to put the officers in the middle schools. I can see that happening over the
next couple of years, right? Also, you mentioned Police Explorers which is a
program that we have a strong commitment to as well. Is that correct?
Mr. Perry: The Police Explorers right now... for lack of a
better term, in "hibernation." We are looking at getting a Program Manager. In
our re-description of a position to a KPAL officer— we will be using that position to
assist us with KPAL and the other youth programs, including the Explorers
program.
Mr. Bynum: Those are other kinds of goals that we have
had to have a full-time dedicated KPAL officer, or two. I am glad that we have
arrived at this point. We are going to have a lot of dialogue about how difficult it
will be for our community to fund all of the Hawai`i Government Employees
Association (HGEA) and contracts because our workers have waited a long time. It
is our responsibility to fund these things and that is going to be difficult. Other
than that, I appreciate this presentation and this moment we have arrived at.
Thank you very much.
Mr. Perry: Thank you.
Chair Furfaro: Members, I want to remind you that six (6)
months ago, the discussion was about giving them the approval to apply for the
grant. That approval occurred and they made a presentation. This agenda item is
now about approving the grant as presented, and that is where our discussion
should be focused on. I think some of the topics that have come up need to be
expanded in the budget review, too, as Mr. Bynum is talking about some of the... I
think the Chief used the word of programs that went into "hibernation." Make sure
that we have those kinds of discussions at budget time as well. Councilmember
Yukimura, you have the floor.
Ms. Yukimura: Chief, Officer Perreira, Deputy Chief, and
members of the Police force— first of all, congratulations on the outstanding success
in filling positions. It has been a longstanding problem. Councilmember Bynum is
correct; your accomplishment in the last couple of years has been extraordinary and
I hear is being watched and studied by other jurisdictions because you have done so
well. In particular, I want to recognize Lieutenant Gausepohl who led the effort
under your leadership. Thank you. That is really an outstanding performance. I
also want to acknowledge your efforts on the grant, which I have done some grants,
and they are a huge, huge effort. Thank you for all of that work. I have some
questions. Just so that I can better understand the grant proposal, "first-responder"
means what in this context of your grant?
COUNCIL MEETING 12 DECEMBER 4, 2013
Ms. Perreira: It means our patrol at the patrol level; the
lowest level of entry into our Police Department.
Ms. Yukimura: Okay. Your definition of "community
oriented policing," how do you define it?
Ms. Perreira: It is on one of the first slides. It is basically
a combination of getting the community, taking old traditions of policing along with
new aspects of policing, and combining that with prevention measures utilizing the
community to our benefit and working together with the community helping to
solve crime.
Ms. Yukimura: I am a little confused about what your
indicators will be for showing that you are preventing crime. I am also not clear
about what the problem is. Is our crime rate going up? I did not see any of the
statistics in that.
Ms. Perreira: One of the things with the grant is that we
had to specifically identify "a problem." There are tons of problems in our
community that we could address, but we had to pick a specific problem. In our
case, Kawaihau District is the largest residential and business district. They also
have the highest burglary rate, both businesswise and residential. When I wrote
and approached the grant, that is what I focused on because that is our highest area
of concern and an easily identifiable target area.
Ms. Yukimura: Do you have the burglary rates over the last
five (5) years in the different districts?
Ms. Perreira: I can tell you what I have in front of me. I do
have it here. Over the past three (3) years from 2010-2012, the Kawaihau District
alone reported six hundred fifty-five (655) residential burglaries and one hundred
eighty-six (186) business related burglaries, which accounts for approximately
sixty-five percent (65%) of burglaries across all three (3) districts. Across the island,
Kawaihau District makes up sixty-five percent (65%) of that.
Ms. Yukimura: Okay.
Ms. Perreira: The Kawaihau District also makes up
seventy-six percent (76%) of all related thefts, so that is a high target area.
Ms. Yukimura: Right.
Ms. Perreira: In that same time, with those burglaries,
approximately two million one hundred twenty-seven thousand dollars ($2,127,000)
worth of items were reported as stolen.
Ms. Yukimura: Okay. I would like to just stay on thefts and
burglaries for a moment.
Ms. Perreira: Sure.
Ms. Yukimura: You said the burglaries are seventy percent
(70%) or something like that.
COUNCIL MEETING 13 DECEMBER 4, 2013
Ms. Perreira: For the Kawaihau District alone, they make
up sixty-five percent (65%) of all burglaries.
Ms. Yukimura: Okay. And seventy-six percent (76%) of
thefts?
Ms. Perreira: Yes, across the island.
Ms. Yukimura: What is your goal with respect to this
program? Will it be to lower the number and rate of burglaries and thefts in
Kawaihau?
Ms. Perreira: There are a couple of things. When you look
at burglaries, burglaries are one of those crimes where you hope to catch them, but
you might not. What we are trying to do is through education, with the different
residents in the area, as well as along with businesses, educate them on how to
maybe protect their property better, safeguard their homes better, and safeguard
their businesses better when they are not there. Through education, we hope to
possibly lower that number as well.
Ms. Yukimura: How is this new grant, COPS, going to help
with education?
Ms. Perreira: Being able to put an officer in that area will
do several things. One is allow for the calls for service to be distributed more
evenly. Our officers will hopefully, with the hope of having more officers, be able to
respond at a quicker rate. Also, work with the community through community
programs which is what community policing is, work with the different
communities to be able to identify what time of day they are happening more, what
they are seeing out on the streets, being more aware of what they are observing in
their own community, which in turn will help assist us.
Ms. Yukimura: I understood that maybe it is problem
oriented policing... what is it called? That is part of your community oriented
policing... problem solving policing?
Ms. Perreira: It is actually called "problem solving/problem
oriented policing is what that is.
Ms. Yukimura: Okay. If burglaries are a big problem, how
are you problem solving with the community?
Ms. Perreira: Through education on two (2) things. It is
education of the community, as well as having them be more aware of what is in
their community so they can assist us. You cannot look at it as one aspect; you have
to take both. You have to look at problem solving and community oriented, and
then put it together to help assist and solve crime.
Ms. Yukimura: I understand that problem solving is Police
working with the community to figure out what the problem and the solution is?
Ms. Perreira: Identifying it, right.
COUNCIL MEETING 14 DECEMBER 4, 2013
Ms. Yukimura: I am hearing that you have decided already
that education is the way to solve the problem of burglaries.
Ms. Perreira: It is not a way to solve it...
Mr. Perry: May I interject just a little bit here as we
continue on?
Ms. Yukimura: Okay.
Mr. Perry: Often times, the community forgets that the
Police are not the ones that are going to solve the crime. When we do solve the
crime and arrest the perpetrator, we have other elements within the criminal
justice system that have to work in coordination with the Police. If any one of those
factors breaks down, then we are right back where we started from. What I am
trying to tell you is that community policing has to do with the community and
problem solving, but we also have to reach out to the Judiciary, the Prosecutor's
Office, and to corrections because we are all in it together. When we look at these
numbers, people often ask, "What you are doing about it, Police?" We are arresting
these individuals and they come to us and say, "You guys know who they are. Why
do you not arrest them?" Because we have a certain thing called the "Bill of Rights"
and the "Constitution" that we have to abide by. These numbers, while we are the
ones that take the report, are skewed because we are not the only ones involved.
Our goal is to reach out to the community and have them talk to their Judiciary,
whoever it is in there, the politicians, and whoever else helps us to make the
community safer. That is what this is all about.
Ms. Yukimura: Chief, I hear what you are saying, that it
takes a team to bring burglaries and thieves to full prosecution, which presumably
will help to lower the burglary and theft rates. I am assuming that you and the
Police Department work closely with the Prosecuting Attorney and the Judiciary to
do that, and you could do that even now without the extra beat. All of these things
that Officer Perreira is talking about— I am presuming that you are doing that
right now on our beats and that you are getting some results that can show what
works and what does not work.
Mr. Perry: Well, we are doing the best that we can with
what we have, but we expect to enhance this relationship. We expect to go out to
have our officers have time to go out in the community because right now, we are
going from case-to-case, to case-to-case. Unless we have Rod Green out there— he
is covering the whole island. This new position will allow us to do that and spend
more time with the community, look at whatever problems they have, and dialogue
with them on a one-to-one basis. That is what our expectations are. As it is today,
the numbers show that we are down. We have always been down and it has become
a norm this County that you operate with what you got. I understand the fiscal
constraints, but that has become the norm. In other jurisdictions, that is not
acceptable. It really is not. Those new officers will be specifically assigned to
reduce crime and create a safer environment for our community. The overall goal is
to reduce the burglaries and the thefts, but there is no guarantee in that. The
reason why I say that is because we are not the only ones involved in the
prosecution of these individuals. That is why I say that. These numbers may not
go down, but we will be out there doing the best job we can because we have the
Judiciary, the Prosecutors, and the corrections also involved with this. We are only
one element of this whole process.
COUNCIL MEETING 15 DECEMBER 4, 2013
Ms. Perreira: Again, if I could just kind of go back to the
goal of why we were awarded the grant and why we scored so highly on the grant. I
believe we did that because we were able to identify what we are already doing in
our community on community policing. Having the new beat only enhances that
goal of community oriented policing. The requirement of the grant is basically what
I talked about in our project evaluation. That is what they want to see happen.
There was no specific number that we had to give them in terms of how we are
going to reduce it. What we are saying is, "Yes. Overall, we want to see those
reductions." But in order to see those reductions, we want to make sure that we
provide education in our community on how they can assist us and work with our
community to reduce that. Again, like I said, we do not know for sure if it is going
to go down, but...
Ms. Yukimura: Well, I am hearing one thing that it is
education. I am hearing the Chief say that it is a lack of working together among
the enforcement agencies. If that is the case...
Mr. Perry: No.
Ms. Yukimura: Am I hearing correctly?
Mr. Perry: No, it is all encompassed in our objectives. It
is all together. We do not divide one or the other.
Ms. Perreira: I am also speaking on the grant. When I
speak, I am specially speaking on what the grant is requiring.
Chair Furfaro: Excuse me, one speaker at a time.
Ms. Yukimura: Okay.
Chair Furfaro: Councilmember, do you want to get
clarification to the statement that you just made to the Chief?
Ms. Yukimura: Thank you, yes.
Chair Furfaro: Chief, I want you to respond to the
Councilmember on clarification on this goal and mission.
Mr. Perry: Will do. It is all encompassed. That is my
answer.
Ms. Yukimura: Chief, when we give out money to any
Department, not the Police Department, and the Department says "we are going to
do this and this is how we are going to do it because we have analyzed what the
problems are and how we are going to reach our goal." We give the money with the
expectation that the goal will be reached. We also ask questions about how they
plan to do it based on past experience, based on analyses, and so forth. We expect a
really concerted action to reach one's goals. I am trying to be clear on what the
goals are. If the goals are to reduce burglaries... I am even thinking of the former
Prosecuting Attorney who would set goals like that to reduce crime or burglaries by
ten percent (10%) in next five (5) years. That is what I think we want to see from
all Departments, and a commitment to reach that goal. I am not clear about what
COUNCIL MEETING 16 DECEMBER 4, 2013
the goal is with respect to reducing burglaries and thefts in Kawaihau. Excuse me
if I am not listening correctly or anything like that. I guess I am looking for a clear
goal and a commitment to the goal.
Ms. Perreira: Our goal, based on what was written in the
grant, is what we presented. That is our goals and objectives.
Ms. Yukimura: I know, but it says "to increase the number
of first-responders to allow more even distribution of caseload among officers, while
promoting community policing strategies aimed at preventing, solving, and
controlling crime." That tells us what you are going to do in terms of the
organization of the Police force; it does not tell you what results are going to happen
in the community like lower burglaries, et cetera. An objective, to increase the
number of sworn first-responders by five percent (5%)— again, that tells us your
operations goals, but does not tell us your outcome goal. You are going to "reduce
burglaries or reduce juvenile delinquency." That is kind of what we want to know.
What is going to be the outcome for the community? r guess that is the kind of
indicators that I am looking for. I think you have in mind that you are going to
achieve those, but they are not articulated here. It would be helpful if you would
articulate them.
Mr. Contrades: If I may?
Ms. Yukimura: Sure.
Mr. Contrades: Our objective is to reduce the burglaries.
There is not a percentage because that is difficult to do. I could tell you ten percent
(10%), but we may or may not reach that goal. There are a lot of things that occur
whether burglaries happen or not like police presence, officers solving cases,
detectives solving cases, individuals being prosecuted, individuals being released
from prison, and a lot of those things are beyond our control. Part of the reason why
we are asking for this grant is because based on those statistics provided, obviously,
there is a serious problem within the Kawaihau District in terms of crime. There
have been two (2) officers working in that area since 1989, and probably before. We
cannot continue to operate this way. We need to have additional officers. Each of
the officers, depending upon the day, take "x amount" of cases. What we are hoping
to do is distribute those cases more evenly, instead of amongst two (2) officers, we
would have three (3) officers. Doing that would give them more time to interact
with the community. When I worked on the north shore as a commander, one of the
projects that we did, because we had the time, is that we went to the businesses,
talked to them, and asked them, "How are things going? What problems do you
have? Is there anything that we can do to help you?" It was a very, very productive
method of one; getting to know the people that we serve, and two, trying to deal
with whatever issues that they have. There is absolutely no way we can do that in
the Kawaihau District right now because it is a matter of, as the Chief mentioned,
going from case to case to case all day long. You take a case, you need to write the
report. Some days officers will go from a traffic collision, to a burglary, to another
burglary, to a series of thefts, and the only interaction that they are getting is with
the poor victim that they are trying to help. We want to be more proactive, but in
order for us to be more proactive with the community, we need the time to do so.
With only two (2) officers within that district, they do not have the time to do it.
Ms. Yukimura: Thank you for that explanation. I have not
been able to really do all of the research I probably should do, but from what I
COUNCIL MEETING 17 DECEMBER 4, 2013
understand of community oriented policing, and Officer Perreira mentioned about
targeting... maybe it is about instead of having the people drive around in the
districts during their work, targeting areas that are of concern, so that using
existing personnel but using it more effectively; which I heard in other communities
that is getting out, walking, but being close to a car in case you need to go. That
kind of effort, I am reading, is one way to use existing personnel more effectively.
Mr. Contrades: Again, when you have only two (2) officers
and they are being called all day long to different calls, you do not have much time
to do that. That is why we need the extra personnel. Presently, that is how we
have been conducting police operations, which when we identify a hotspot, we try to
put our resources towards that. Quite honestly, it is very rare that the officers get
to patrol anymore. When I started back in 1994, there was a lot of time to patrol
and do enforcement, but today it is not like that. They do not have time to patrol
and they do not have as much time to do enforcement. What we are trying to do is
get to the point where they have more time, they are not all being called to different
calls all day long, and we can utilize those resources to deal with those issues.
Ms. Yukimura: Is it not true that in some districts, you are
able to actually do more community oriented policing?
Mr. Contrades: Absolutely. Like I said, when I was in
Hanalei, we tried to do a little more of that than normally would.
Ms. Yukimura: I know. Your service was extraordinary, I
must say.
Mr. Contrades: Thank you. The busy districts like
Kawaihau do not have that time and that opportunity, and that is what we want to
give them, which is that time and that opportunity.
Ms. Yukimura: It is not a matter of assigning or changing
the beats, so that the people in the less intense districts can do that work?
Mr. Contrades: That is an argument that has been made
over the years. On face value, it sounds like it would be a simple answer and
something that is easy to do, but when you are a beat officer who is working out in
Waimea and your nearest person to help you assist is in Kalaheo, and you end up
getting into an altercation, that ten (10) to fifteen (15) minutes that it takes for
them to get there seems like a lifetime. It is not just about distribution of workload,
but it is also an officer safety thing because you are talking about geography and
distance in which you have a response time for assistance. While it would seem
that the answer would be to take people away from the outer beats who are not as
busy, that leaves officers vulnerable. The response time to go and assist them
would be tremendous. That is why we are having difficulty doing that and we want
to expand the beats instead of contracting them and bringing them into the busy
areas.
Chair Furfaro: On that note, may I ask the Councilmember
if she would yield the floor to other members.
Ms. Yukimura: Yes.
COUNCIL MEETING 18 DECEMBER 4, 2013
Chair Furfaro: I believe Mr. Hooser and Mr. Rapozo have
questions. Thank you, Councilmember. Mr. Hooser, you have the floor.
Mr. Hooser: Thank you all for being here. Thank you to
the officers for being here today, too, to support this important initiative. Health
and safety are obviously the core function of what we do here, so I appreciate the
work that you do and I understand how much work goes into identifying and
writing and doing all of the work necessary to achieve the grant, so I applaud you
for that. I do have some questions. One is specific to the numbers here, but I did
not see a line item for "overtime." Is that included or is that missing?
Mr. Contrades: Overtime is not included.
Mr. Hooser: Okay. It is expected that none of these
officers would get overtime?
Mr. Contrades: It is hard to gage how much overtime
because it depends on circumstances. I may get a call from an officer at the end of
their shift, and I am not able to ask somebody else to take it because I am involved
in the case. That may result in overtime, so it is difficult to say that each officer
should have "x amount" of overtime. Some days you do it and some days you do not.
Mr. Hooser: If you averaged out overtime among officers,
what would that number be?
Mr. Contrades: That is something that I would have to get
calculated for you.
Mr. Hooser: I think historically, that is a significant
number in the budget. I think we need to work with real numbers that are as solid
as we can get. As you know, this asks the County right now to pay eight hundred
thousand dollars ($800,000) a year in year three (3), four (4), and forever after that.
As you also know because you were here for last year's budget, we were asked to
raise, I believe, every single tax and fee that we could possibly do just to balance the
budget. I think we expect to have a similar situation moving forward, so it would be
important to have accurate numbers. I do not know if you can do that today to give
me an estimate of the overtime or round numbers.
Mr. Contrades: One thing I would like everyone to consider
though is that when you have a more even distribution of work, report writing over
time should go down. One officer is not taking the bulk of cases or two (2) officers,
so being able to spread that across three (3) officers instead of two (2) should help
with a reduction. I know overtime is always a concern and we have been doing
everything that we can to minimize it. With the inclusion of the new officers who
have actually become beneficial in the sense that they are out on the road now, our
canceled days off having greatly reduced. We are doing everything that we can to
minimize that overtime.
Mr. Hooser: I appreciate that. I do believe it should be a
line item though. I think it is an expense that the County is going to have to pay.
Whether it is five percent (5%) more than average or five percent (5%) less than
average, or whatever that number is, I believe that a tangible number should be
budgeted for that in order for the County to anticipate with future COPS. Are you
standing up to speak? Chair, should we hear from the Finance Director?
COUNCIL MEETING 19 DECEMBER 4, 2013
Chair Furfaro: I was hoping to hear from the Finance
Director towards the end. I think I had a side conference with him because we are
going to have some financial questions altogether. If you would like the time now
for these specifics, I will give you the time, but please know, Steve, that does not
cancel my comments to you that I want to hear from you at the end. Go ahead
Mr. Hooser, you have the floor.
Mr. Hooser: I guess if you could address the overtime
budget question in general. Since you are here, I am assuming that the Kaua`i
Police Department has consulted with the Mayor and the Administration, and the
Administration has a position on this with regards to the budget like how we are
going to pay for it and what those costs will be. May you speak to that?
STEVEN A. HUNT, Director of Finance: Thank you. Steve Hunt,
Director of Finance for the record. Overtime is treated as a single line item for the
Police budget. It is not on new positions. Our discussions regarding overtime was
that this is an investment. Certainly, you do not see overtime savings on the front
end because there are a lot of field training officer time that goes in and overtime to
get these new officers up to pace. But I think on the back end, you will begin to see
those savings in overtime. Those are the discussions that we have had with the
Police Department in terms of this position. It is a requirement to keep this for four
(4) years. Naturally, I think the intent is to keep it longer, but to me, it is a pilot
beat to see how this goes. If there are measurable results that potentially we see
and reduction in crime as an investment, there could be return on investment (ROI)
as well. Property values for those areas that are being serviced, especially
commercial, that is subject to burglaries— some of the private residences in higher
ends could actually see property values increase with a greater police presence.
Again, it is to be measured, but it is something that I think we are willing to invest
in, and that is the Administration's position on that.
Mr. Hooser: I want to ask a specific question. In terms of
the cost to the County in additional overtime that is not now budgeted for four (4)
years, that would be relative to the seven (7) new positions, as well as any accrued
overtime to train those. What would that number be in the year-to-year for the
purposes of getting an accurate accounting of what this will cost the County?
Mr. Hunt: I believe the Fiscal Year 2014 Budget, the
current budget, is the one that will likely need to be adjusted for overtime. Going
forward, it is my hope that through the budgeting process for Fiscal Year 15, we do
not see any escalation and that overtime line item will be absorbed by these
additional officers coming into the force and providing that coverage that they can
live within their existing overtime budget, which I believe was is one million eight
hundred thousand dollars ($1,800,000) for this year. The prior year for Fiscal Year
2013, I believe, was closer to two million three hundred thousand dollars
($2,300,000).
Mr. Hooser: In terms of taking one million eight hundred
thousand dollars ($1,800,000) divided by the number of officers, taking an average
per officer and adding "x number" of new officers; you do not anticipate overtime...
Mr. Hunt: I think there is going to be less overtime for
those officers that are currently receiving overtime, and that overtime will be
spread out more evenly as well.
COUNCIL MEETING 20 DECEMBER 4, 2013
Chair Furfaro: Mr. Hooser, I want to remind you that I do
plan to have him come back if you want to broaden the questions.
Mr. Hooser: It probably relates to what the...
Chair Furfaro: Go right ahead then.
Mr. Hooser: I hate to be duplicate of the whole thing, but
I believe there are only three (3) ways to pay for this. One is through existing funds
through the Police Department, trimming other areas and moving money around to
move it forward. The other is to do similar to the County as a whole; going into
existing services, rearranging priorities, cutting services as needed; and the third
would be raising property taxes. What does the Administration envision how we
are going to fund the eight hundred thousand dollars ($800,000) a year and the six
hundred thousand dollars ($600,000) for the second year?
Mr. Hunt: Because that is forecast out fairly far, I
really cannot speak to that at this point. Property taxes by themselves will be
raised because we are seeing new construction and we are seeing property values
rise. There are some potential major projects like Safeway, `Ghana o Hanalei, and
things that may come online during those periods that may add to the tax base.
Without increasing the rates, there may be additional property tax revenues to the
County. Again, those are fiscal years that are yet to come. I cannot really predict
that at this point. I would think that would likely be the largest source of funding,
which is going to be coming from Real Property Taxes in some venue.
Mr. Hooser: In the second year, there is six hundred
dollars ($600,000)...
Mr. Hunt: In Fiscal Year 2016, correct.
Mr. Hooser: The Administration envisions paying for this
through revenues from property taxes?
Mr. Hunt: Yes. I believe that would be the primary
source. I do not know... once we have the officers in, there could possibly be even
further reduction in overtime that could pay for a portion of that. It has yet to be
seen.
Mr. Hooser: Thank you. I would like to ask the Police
Chief a couple of follow-ups.
Chair Furfaro: Go right ahead. Steve, do not plan to leave.
You still have the floor, Mr. Hooser.
Mr. Hooser: Thank you. I would like to ask a brief
follow-up question on Councilmember Yukimura's questions which are very valid
questions. I would think as a layperson, and I understand adding new people and
new resources distributes the working load and makes it easier and more efficient,
but what I would hope to see is a line on the graph saying "this is crime in the
Kawaihau District and we add six (6) or seven (7) officers, eight hundred thousand
dollars ($800,000) a year," and that line on the graph changes. "We are spending
money, and the benefit from spending that money is a reduction in crime." I think
COUNCIL MEETING 21 DECEMBER 4, 2013
that is what the budget process calls for. If any Department is asking for more
money for something, then what will get out of it besides just a happier workforce or
less stressful work— I understand that those are important values also. I really do,
and that is why I voted in support of the raises, and I have always been very
supportive. At the same time, to see a tangible... if in fact we have a problem,
which I believe we do, then that problem would be represented by numbers. If we
spend "x amount" of dollars, then that problem would be better, and that is not
what I am really getting from the presentation. I get a lot of other things. I
understand that there are other parties involved like the Judiciary, the Prosecutor,
and everybody else. At same time, this is a significant amount of money that will
likely go forever. It would be nice to know that there was a goal. I understand the
danger of setting goals that maybe it will not happen, but I believe that goal-setting
is important and it forces you to look at it. "It is going to reduce crime in the
Kawaihau District by twenty percent (20%), how we are going to measure that, and
whatever that percentage is." May you address that, Chief?
Mr. Perry: Okay. Thank you. As you know, it is very,
very difficult to— we can set goals and I can give you a number like fifteen percent
(15%)... "We are going to reduce burglaries by fifteen percent (15%) and thefts by
twenty percent (20%) with the implementation of these officers, and here is how we
are going to do it." The reality is that it may or may not happen. Every year, I set
goals. For example, for this year, I set zero (0) fatalities on the road. That was my
goal. We went out and gave a whole bunch of tickets and arrested people driving
under the influence. Did I reach my goal? No, I did not. Today, last night, we had
our seventh fatality. Based on those numbers, you would say, "You have not
reached your goal. Let us take your officers off the streets. We do not need them
because you are not reaching your goal." With respect to the Kawaihau District, let
us get back to the question at-hand. I can go ahead and give you a number... I can
give you a number right here. We can add that into our presentation if that would
satisfy you. Whether it will be realistic or not, I do not know, but I can give you a
number. It is not a defeatist attitude, but it is a reality check on the way things are
today. With respect to taking into consideration the amount of officers that we have
and additional officers working in conjunction with the Prosecutor's, the Judiciary,
the corrections, and all of the social agencies that are involved in reducing the
crime; I can give you a number right now of ten percent (10%) for burglaries and
fifteen percent (15%) for thefts. We will put that number in our report.
Mr. Hooser: Thank you.
Chair Furfaro: Before I recognize Mr. Rapozo, and I will get
to this later with the Finance Director, but I want to make sure we understand that
there are goals and then there are measurable goals. I want to make sure that
when we come to budget and we are looking at "goals," we are talking in terms of
measurable goals that we can periodically do a cross-check. Thank you, Chief. I
just wanted to add "measurable goals."
Mr. Rapozo: Thank you, Mr. Chair. Thank you Chief and
all of you for being here today. I am a little confused. Is this a crime reduction
grant or is this a community oriented policing grant?
Mr. Perry: It is community oriented policing.
Mr. Rapozo: That is what I read. I am not sure if I have
something different from the rest of them because this is what I have: "list your
COUNCIL MEETING 22 DECEMBER 4, 2013
goals, lists your objectives, and lists..." It is a very finely written report by the way,
so I am not sure if the other members got it. They also have a project evaluation
slide, which talks about how you are going to measure what you said you were going
to do, as it relates to community oriented policing, not crime reduction. I am not
sure where that got inserted here and all of a sudden we are talking about
burglaries and thefts. We are talking about creating a new beat and enhancing
your community oriented policing. Am I reading that correctly? Is crime reduction
a byproduct of a good community oriented policing program?
Mr. Contrades: Absolutely.
Mr. Perry: Yes, it is.
Mr. Rapozo: That is something that we would expect to
see if we are running this community oriented policing properly. Correct?
Ms. Perreira: Yes.
Mr. Rapozo: I have to frame these as questions because
that is the rule. I will have time for my comments later, which will not be pretty. I
am assuming that you are going to monitor overtime throughout this project?
Mr. Perry: Yes, we are.
Mr. Rapozo: Is reduction in crime a measurable? Yes, of
course. Property values— I heard this earlier... property values. What I did not
hear was officer safety. An extra beat—is that what you are proposing?
Mr. Perry: Yes.
Mr. Rapozo: One more human body out there; not a
computer, a computer program; not a consultant; and not a study, but a human that
can go out and assist the public. That is what this is about, correct?
Mr. Perry: A trained officer.
Mr. Rapozo: Yes.
Mr. Perry: Yes.
Mr. Rapozo: I am hearing a lot of... I do not know what I
am hearing. It is like objections. Yet, since 1989, there was no increase in beats
and we are still operating? These are questions, so you have to answer "yes" or
"no."
Mr. Perry: Yes.
Ms. Perreira: Yes.
Mr. Rapozo: We are still operating with ten (10) officers
and three (3) supervisors on the island of Kaua`i serving sixty thousand (60,000)
people plus the tourists population of eighty thousand (80,000) people. Now we are
up to eighty thousand (80,000) to ninety thousand (90,000) a day.
COUNCIL MEETING 23 DECEMBER 4, 2013
Mr. Perry: Yes.
Mr. Rapozo: Thirteen (13) officers; ten (10) plus three (3).
Mr. Perry: Yes.
Mr. Rapozo: The numbers that we have seen about
overtime because it has been a huge problem with Kaua`i Police, but were the
historical numbers not based on fifteen (15) to twenty (20) vacancies?
Mr. Perry: Yes.
Mr. Rapozo: It is not accurate to even look at those
numbers going forward because you pretty much have full Staff?
Mr. Perry: With the inclusion of our latest recruit class,
and Stacy has the numbers there, we have shown reduction in our callbacks and
overtime. We do not have the overtime numbers, the money value, but we have the
number of days that were canceled that showed a huge reduction.
Mr. Rapozo: If you have that available, what was the
reduction? A percentage is fine. An actual number is fine. I do not need to know a
dollar amount. Anybody can understand that cops get paid "x amount" of dollars.
Every day that they are not being cancelled off is a huge savings to this County.
What was the reduction in overtime in cancelled days off? Let us just use the
canceled days off.
Mr. Contrades: In terms of canceled days off, and that occurs
for many reasons like vacancies and vacations that we have to account for, people
who are injured, personal illnesses, and the like; in September, we had two hundred
thirty-two (232) cancelled days off.
Mr. Rapozo: I am sorry. In September, you had two
hundred thirty-two (232)?
Mr. Contrades: Yes.
Mr. Rapozo: Okay.
Mr. Contrades: In October, two hundred thirty-eight (238);
in November, one hundred eighteen (118); and projected in December is sixty-one
(61). The reason is that the new officers who have been trained and done with their
field training are now out on the beat taking care of the community.
Mr. Rapozo: That is one-fourth (1/4) of what it was in
September. Chief, you and your team should be commended because that is the
numbers we have to look at. The fact that since you guys have been fully staffed,
the number of canceled days off... you are at one-fourth (1/4) of what it was when
you had all of those vacancies. I think that is vital for this body to think about.
This is like commonsense. You do not need a study. If you get more people filling in
the slots, is it not true that your overtime will be reduced dramatically?
Mr. Contrades: Yes.
COUNCIL MEETING 24 DECEMBER 4, 2013
Mr. Rapozo: So I think what Mr. Hunt said earlier, that
as we move forward and maybe you guys can figure this out, and I do not need it
today because this needs to move forward today, in my opinion. Maybe you can
prepare what would be the anticipated savings. You just take two hundred
thirty-two (232) canceled days off and you subtract sixty-one (61), that creates a
financial savings to this County. That is going to exponentially grow as we move
forward. That is just the way it works. That will create a figure of savings for KPD
that I would be interested in getting because all of these moneys will have to be
used to backfill the future costs of this program.
Mr. Perry: Okay. What we can do too is get the amount
of savings we have saved the County in the other grants that we have used for our
officers. There is an overall savings, not only with respect to this, but the other
grants that we have acquired.
Mr. Rapozo: Chief, I would expect that as you in your
budget discussions with your team that savings from other areas that you created
would be moved to fund these positions. I think that is expected of us from you. I
am hoping that that is your mindset, that, in fact, KPD is going to try to fund—
Mr. Hooser talked about the various ways that we can fund this... three (3) ways;
one of them is existing funding. It will take some creative work on your part to
move available funding into this program, so that KPD will be used primarily, and
then whatever needs to be supplemented would be done through the General Fund
or other sources of revenue.
Mr. Perry: Yes, those discussions are already underway.
Mr. Rapozo: Thank you.
Chair Furfaro: Before I give the floor to Mr. Kagawa, Chief,
thank you and the comments you made on the callback numbers. Those are what I
referred to as the "measurable" variances and you are to be commented. Please
make sure that we have those key statistics in your budget report.
Mr. Kagawa: I agree with Councilmember Rapozo. I think
you did an excellent report and application. If you did not do one, then we would not
have gotten it. Great job. I know money is tight at the Federal level, but I think
the Department of Justice can see as well that when we reduce crime, it is better for
everyone. Thank you for that. Although I am going to approve it because I have
strong support, I just wanted to get some clarification for myself, as well as the
public. I am looking at the grant, the fiscal sheet, and it says, "subtotal for six
officers," so we are adding six (6). Then I see in this presentation that you have for
seven (7).
Ms. Perreira: The seven (7) was what was written in the
grant. That is what we asked for as part of the grant and they approved six (6) out
seven (7), so they are funding six (6) of seven (7) positions.
Mr. Kagawa: Okay. To get some clarification, we are
basically adding another beat between Lydgate to Anahola?
Ms. Perreira: Yes.
Mr. Kagawa: There are two (2) of ten (10)?
COUNCIL MEETING 25 DECEMBER 4, 2013
Ms. Perreira: Yes.
Mr. Kagawa: We are adding one (1) of six (6), I guess?
Ms. Perreira: Yes. Well, the six (6) officers— maybe you
could go into what that entails.
Mr. Contrades: Based on our scheduling and based upon the
fact that officers need days off, vacation, and the rest; in order to create a beat, the
number that you need was, I believe, six point five (6.5) so that is why we asked for
seven (7). We believe we can still do it with the six (6). That is what it takes
because it is not all six (6) will be working just in that beat itself. People will be
rotating in and out of it, but six (6) is the number you need to create a new beat.
Mr. Kagawa: Okay.
Ms. Perreira: I want to also make sure we understand that
when we talk about these six (6) officers, in a given shift, we are only adding one (1)
officer. It is not like all six (6) are coming on all at one time, just one (1). We go
from ten (10) to eleven (11). I thought that was a big thing the last time we came.
Mr. Kagawa: I saw in one of the highlights that instead of
having two (2) officers cover a certain area, there will now be three (3).
Ms. Perreira: On any given shift.
Mr. Kagawa: That already gives our largest residential
and commercial community an extra person, so it is tremendous. It is a thirty-three
percent (33%) increase in that area so it is just great. My final question is, we had
the support of the businesses and Deja Vu send it... but is the crime rate really bad
in that business district or they are just sending in support because they feel it will
be extra safe, I guess?
Ms. Perreira: It is hard to tell you off the top of my head
where it exactly happens, but the Kawaihau District in itself makes up for majority
of both thefts and burglaries, and that encompasses from the ocean to the
mountains.
Mr. Kagawa: Okay. About six (6) months ago, I was
watching the news and I saw that the Kailua community had this big gathering
with the police. I guess they were having a spike in crimes there. I just thought,
"Thank God that we are not at that point on Kaua`i." You guys really have things
pretty much under control. I do not think we come up as often on the news with
these crime things. I think that, in itself, makes us more attractive than the other
islands for visitors and everything, which is our main industry. I want to thank you
for your work. I am in full support. If I go seven hundred fifty thousand dollars
($750,000) and you guys are basically figuring about one hundred thousand
(100,000) per with everything added in, it gives us almost over the next four (4)
years, two (2) officers or one and a half officers (1.5) for free, which is a tremendous
deal that we see in no other Departments. I want to thank you guys for this grant.
I am in full support. I think our largest community has asked for it. They are
supportive of it. I think we owe it to our taxpayers to do our best to keep them safe.
Thank you.
COUNCIL MEETING 26 DECEMBER 4, 2013
Mr. Perry: Thank you.
Mr. Rapozo: I just have a clarification question.
Regarding that seventh man or woman, seventh officer and the six point five (6.5); I
think one of the concerns that I am thinking right now is that should you run into
an issue where that beat becomes short, does that create a new overtime problem
or do you run with the short beat? I think those are the things that I would ask
that you consider as you submit your overtime numbers. Is there an opportunity or
a possibility that that would be... because if you constantly run short in that beat
and you are filling it up with a guy on the day off, then you are defeating the
purpose of the grant. I would ask that you seriously consider a policy that that is
the extra beat and should they... you are probably surprised hearing that from me,
but because of the financial ramifications and the fact that I really do not want to
see us create the extra beat only to create more overtime expenses for the County.
Mr. Perry: Those discussions are underway and the
Deputy and I and others have discussed whether or not to fill the beat if somebody
calls in sick or we are unable to have an officer there. Right now, the preliminary
decision was not to fill the beat and to wait until the officer comes back and we are
able to have him in there. In the meantime, the project itself will have... because it
is a community oriented policing grant, we can have our Community Sergeant step
in and assist in that matter. That is exactly what we did not want to do, which is
incurring more overtime, but we will have to work with SHOPO on that.
Mr. Rapozo: Obviously, Chief, every circumstance is
different. It is unique and it is case-by-case. You would make that final call,
obviously. In the evening shifts, I think you should have it filled, even if it does
incur some overtime. I think for me, obviously, the crime reduction is critical and
important. I think it was Ross's question about the crime rate, but it is getting
worse. I think we know that if you talk to the community in Kapa`a. They are
afraid. They are not locking their shops at night, going home comfortable that it is
not going to be broken into and that is not where we want to be. In circumstances
like that, I think it is important because of officer's safety as well. We put that even
above the crime reduction.
Mr. Perry: The chances of not filling the beat because of
shortages are, today with the resources that we have and new officers that we have,
will be very slim, very slim.
Mr. Rapozo: Thank you.
Chair Furfaro: Mr. Chock.
Mr. Chock: I just wanted to congratulate you for all the
hard work you folks did on this grant. I know how difficult it is. I have been
writing grants for a while and from a nonprofit perspective, it is often chasing
money to start something that you cannot finish or sustain. That is really what we
are talking about here. I think just for clarification on the direction of the
discussion earlier about goals versus objectives, I think broadly projected outcomes
is really something that we can start to envision together about what we can see
specifically. So that aside, I am fully supportive of the need. I do not need
statistics to know that we need this. I was wondering if there was any clarification
of the details of the grant in terms of how we might creatively restructure it if
COUNCIL MEETING 27 DECEMBER 4, 2013
necessary. I know how these grants typically work, but there is always a chance
that we default on these things. I am very scared when I look at what the future is
holding for our budget hearings and where we have to go with the budget. If there
is anymore that you can offer, I think that what we need to start think about is
being proactive on how be to be creative. That is only going to happen by us
collaborating more. If there are more about those details, I would love to hear that.
Mr. Perry: I just wanted to mention— and I made some
notes here, but when I was with the Honolulu Police Department, we created a
mission statement, and then we went into what we described as "measurable
outcomes," as the Chair had mentioned. It is not just measurable outcomes in a
vacuum. I personally use the formula. You have your mission station, your vision,
and our objectives and strategic plan to get the measurable outcomes. What we did
is we have our outcomes of what we want to do based on what the criteria is, and
that is exactly what we did with the criteria for this grant. You have to combine the
mission statement, the vision, and the objectives to get your measurable outcomes
but we always start with the measurable outcome, and then we work this way.
"Does it fit into the measurable outcome?" This Department does have an
understanding of what measurable outcomes are all about, and that is how we base
our operations and do things. I just wanted to make that clear.
Ms. Perreira: I did want to comment real quickly on what
you were talking about the grant specifically. A portion of the grant was identifying
what we do currently. When I started writing the grant, a lot of larger police
departments have community policing down to a science. When I did my research
on what we do versus what other departments do, I started seeing that we do all of
these things. We just do not have a specific name that we have identified. In order
to write the grant, I had to start doing that and say, "This is how we are doing it.
This is the names that other departments are utilizing." A big portion of that is
when we look at our strategic plan and combining what community oriented
policing are, there are all of these areas that we had to touch upon. For example,
the community partnerships that we have, the problem oriented; what it is and how
we approach it, as well as crime prevention, geographical responsibility for the
grant, proactive problem solving, and combined community response; how we expect
the community to respond with us in terms of the grant, as well as emphasizing
analyses. All of that is in the grant and what I was required to put as part of the
grant. A big part, as well as training is that this is what we provided to them. They
said, "Yes. We identified that you are doing these things." They expect that of
course these things are worked on and are being utilized every day. One of the
things that the grant people did say was, "We cannot alter these things. This is
what you said you do, so you cannot alter them." Although they say, "Yes, go ahead
and enhance them," that is what we plan on doing. All of these different
subcategories of what community oriented policing are; we will have to report back.
I believe that is a measurable outcome in terms of how many meetings we attend,
what we do with the community, how we are interacting with the community, and
focusing on community oriented policing. I wanted to make sure I answered that in
terms of what the grant does.
Chair Furfaro: Chief, I am going to hold my questions
because I am going to ask for two (2) of the Commissioners to join you when it is
time for my questions. I am going to go around the table a second time for members
with questions right now.
COUNCIL MEETING 28 DECEMBER 4, 2013
Ms. Yukimura: Thank you. What about cars? Are
additional cars going to be needed if you have an additional beat? If so, should the
expenses not be included in the budget?
Mr. Contrades: From speaking with the Patrol Commander,
there would not be a need at this time for additional cars.
Ms. Yukimura: How will that work?
Mr. Contrades: Based on the fleet that they have, the cars
are rotated. Not everybody gets a take-home car or is assigned a car personally. If
they have to share cars to make that happen, then that is what they will do.
Ms. Yukimura: I guess the difference between a "take-home"
car and a car that move from shift to shift... you are planning having a car move
from shift to shift?
Mr. Contrades: Yes.
Ms. Yukimura: That is what the plan is?
Mr. Contrades: Yes.
Ms. Yukimura: I know there is a lot of talk about
measurable outcomes, so what exactly are your measurable outcomes for this grant?
Ms. Perreira: For the grant, our measurable outcomes,
which what the grant asked for— I know you are asking for something different and
you want numbers to go along with crime statistics, but what the grant requested,
what we were approved for, and what we got the grant for was what our project
evaluation is and how we will evaluate it. That is what we will be answering to the
grant for.
Ms. Yukimura: Where is that in your application?
Ms. Perreira: In last page, there is a portion that says
"Project Evaluation." That was the one (1) through four (4) that we had on the
slide; increasing the number of sworn personnel by five percent (5%) or in this case,
six (6) officers. That is our measurable goal. "Establish one geographical beat.
Enhance community policing efforts."
Ms. Yukimura: Okay, I understand what you are saying.
Ms. Perreira: Those are specific to this grant.
Ms. Yukimura: I guess this is a question for the Chief. Right
now, we are just talking about six (6) patrol-level officers, but your goal is to
ultimately get to a full beat with a Sergeant and a Captain. Is that right?
Mr. Contrades: Through the grant and the six (6) positions,
the initial goal is to create a beat. They will be supervised by a current supervisor,
and more than likely, the supervisor that works out in Hanalei. But our overall
long-term goal, and I do not know how long that will be, is to create our own district
in that area with a commander, three (3) sergeants, and enough Staff to deal with
COUNCIL MEETING 29 DECEMBER 4, 2013
the entire district. For now, we are just asking for the six (6) officers to create an
additional beat. The supervisor will be a current supervisor.
Ms. Yukimura: Okay. You mentioned a lot of your programs
like KPAL, DARE, your Citizens Police Academy, and so forth. How do you
measure the effectiveness of those programs?
Mr. Perry: Could you clarify on each of those programs?
Ms. Yukimura: It is related to achieving goals.
Mr. Perry: For example for KPAL, what measurables
are you looking at?
Chair Furfaro: I am going interrupt here for a second. I am
going to allow the question, but I am going to remind members the agenda item is
the grant. If you have police goals, missions, and measurable objectives, I will give
a little leeway, but I want you to reserve those for budget time. Thank you Chief.
You got the floor to answer Councilwoman Yukimura.
Mr. Perry: Could you clarify that please?
Ms. Yukimura: Thank you, Chair, for the reminder. If I can
explain, you will see that it is related. Whenever there is very little money, which is
the situation we are in— I think our Finance Director said we are going to start our
next fiscal year budgeting at minus ten million dollars ($10,000,000). If we commit
to certain programs, that means we are going to either have to cut other programs
or raise taxes. Especially when we are in those situations, we look at the return on
investment that for every dollar expend, what is the return on investment in terms
of producing results that you want for the community like reducing crime, et cetera?
When your goal and your mission is to create a safe community that is low in crime
where people are in partnership with the community and where our young people
are growing up, strong and capable of resisting crime, drugs, and those kinds of
attractions; then you want to know that every dollar you spend is achieving that.
You want to spend it on the most effective programs rather than the less effective
ones. That creates an organization, whether it is a department or a county, that
constantly evaluates. If they are not reaching their goals and say, "How can we
reach the goal? What will get us to that goal?" That is the power of a goal and it
really makes you do everything possible to achieve it, and to discard the things that
are not really moving you towards the goal. That means that you evaluate all of
your programs for whether they are getting you toward your goal or not. My
question is how do you evaluate the effectiveness of your different programs?
Mr. Perry: Could you ask me which programs you are
talking about? You want me to give you a general statement?
Ms. Yukimura: Well...
Mr. Rapozo: Point of order, Mr. Chair. We are on the
grant like you said. She is going into programs of the Department which is not on
the grant.
Chair Furfaro: Chief, I have decided that we are within
three (3) minutes of a caption break. It might be a good time for us to take a caption
COUNCIL MEETING 30 DECEMBER 4, 2013
break now. I want to make sure that if your response to the Councilmember is that
you can address those in the overall budget plan, I would suggest we do that. If
there is anything that you would like to touch base with her at this point when we
get back and touch on the grant, I will go ahead and allow it. Let us take the
caption break to think clearly through this question and answer period. Save
budget questions for budget time. I am going to take the ten (10) minute caption
break now.
There being no objections, the meeting recessed at 11:03 a.m.
The meeting reconvened at 11:14 a.m., and proceeded as follows:
Chair Furfaro: At the request of members in the audience
who are on time limits, I will take a break to take public testimony.
Mr. Watanabe: The people who want to give public
testimony are Robin Danner, followed by Lorraine Rapozo.
ROBIN DANNER: Aloha and good morning. For the record, my
name is Robin Danner. You are looking at Kawaihau District. I appreciate the
Chair for allowing me to testify. This is my very first Council Meeting, and I have
to say that it is far more frustrating in person than watching you on television. I
thank you for allowing me to testify, as we have to work, but also given sixty-five
percent (65%), I am probably being robbed right now, more likely than any of you.
What I want to say to you is that this is a "no-brainer." If there are
Councilmembers that want a different grant with a different goal, that is a different
process. This grant— and what was been really frustrating sitting in the audience
and listening to this conversation, we are talking about funding. Where is the
conversation of all of the funding that was saved by this Council over the last thirty
(30) years when the Police Department was failing to fill thirty (30) positions? Did
you leave the money aside and wait? My district has been suffering that failure for
thirty (30) years, and now you want me to suffer more failure because the County
Council did not plan ahead? You want to treat my community like a scientific petri
dish. We are people. It is humanity. Sixty-five percent (65%)— do you hear that?
This grant is on the money. We are way behind the national curve on community
policing. It works. Our Police Department has all of the components of policing.
Your conversation— this goal is not about cops. It is not about your budget. It is
about this. It is about the children of Anahola, that are being tortured and it is
about the parents and the adults in Anahola that are ready. We are ready and
willing to participate fully in community policing. Those two (2) things... those two
(2) stars have lined up. That was not always true. We had a community that felt
like, "Save us. Save us County. Save us cops. Stop bad things from happening to
us." We are not there anymore. We have evolved and we have moved forward. We
are with a Police Department that because they had one (1) officer who had the time
to come and talk to us and explain the reality. We finally realized that we are the
people who are going to save us. We are the people who are going to reduce crime
rate. We are. My examples to you, Mr. Chair, of our readiness for this to happen
now in the last ten (10) years, we have built a school in our district without a dime
of your money. We have built a marketplace.
Chair Furfaro: Your first three (3) minutes are up. You
have another three (3) minutes.
COUNCIL MEETING 31 DECEMBER 4, 2013
Ms. Danner: We have built a café and a community
kitchen. We are on the way to creating jobs, which has everything to do with crime.
We are in the process of implementing anti-drug and anti-crime by the community.
We have implemented the first neighborhood watch. We did not know that is what
was called because we called it "evening stewardship." We have just recently
developed an eight (8) acre youth and cultural campground in the second highest
area of drug trafficking on this island. We did that. It is the perfect opportunity to
match what we are doing with what the Chief and our police officers are about to
do. Do not study me anymore. Do not study my children anymore. Do not put on
the burden of my community anymore, your burden of leadership which is to figure
out how to fund the perhaps most important thing happening today, which is not
criminal jailment. The most important thing happening at the Kaua`i Police
Department is community policing and bringing us to the table. They have got to be
there. We are so supportive of this. Our community association will today commit
and give this County and Police Chief free, no-cost space for a substation in Anahola
on our property in our facilities because we believe it so much. I want my children
to say, "Hello Officer Green." I do not want my children to be fearful. I want to
know every officer's name. It is not about catching criminals, Councilmembers; it is
about deterrence and prevention. You can only do that not with the gun, but with
an officer and additional officers in our beat that we can be human with. This is
humanity. Thank you very much.
Chair Furfaro: Excuse me, Robin. This is your first time
testifying to us, but have you ever testified to the Police Commission?
Ms. Danner: No.
Chair Furfaro: Have you ever made these offers on space
and so forth to the Mayor?
Ms. Danner: Yes.
Chair Furfaro: Good. Could we get copies of those offers?
Ms. Danner: Of those offers?
Chair Furfaro: Yes. Thank you very much for your
testimony. We do agree with you that volunteerism is something that nobody can
measure. It needs to continue in building community. Thank for your testimony.
LORRAINE RAPOZO: I never wanted to come to the Council. I
think this is the second time in my life.
Mr. Rapozo: Please state your name.
Ms. Rapozo: I am sorry. Lorraine Rapozo. I work for the
Department of Human Services for thirty (30) years with Child Protective Services.
I would like to compliment the Kauai Police Department in front of you for the help
that they have given to our children and the dedication that they have had with us.
Like I said, I will be retiring on December 31st. It has been remarkable working
with them, even if I have issues, but that is okay. I am here because I firmly
believe this grant is what we need. Robin is strictly Anahola, but I am talking for
the whole island. I worked for thirty (30) years from Lihu`e to Koke`e with the
Department. I have lived in Anahola for thirty-one (31) years now and I was born
COUNCIL MEETING 32 DECEMBER 4, 2013
in Kilauea, so I know this whole island. This grant needs to happen and you are the
ones that are going to make it happen. You are the people's choices to be sitting
here. I do not care where the money comes from, it needs to happen. Again, I beg
you. Happy holidays and thank you for having me here.
Chair Furfaro: Lorraine, congratulations on your thirty (30)
years of service. We appreciate all that you have done. I know you have been very
committed to your work and we appreciate it.
Ms. Rapozo: Thank you.
Chair Furfaro: Chief, we are going start off with the
question that Councilmember Yukimura had for you, but you need to reply only to
those that are attached to the questions as it relates to the grant.
Mr. Perry: I believe you asked me to comment on the
Citizens Police Academy. One of the biggest issues that we had was concerning
misunderstanding or misinformation about the role of the Police Department. What
the Citizens Police Academy is about is to have more informed citizens as to what
our roles are. With respect to the program as community members graduate, we
expect them to be more involved in community programs such as the KPAL
program. We expect them to relate to others within their area and share the
information about how to reduce crime and what things to look out for. It is kind of
like an extension of the Police Department. We also expect them to assist us in
understanding and relating to other members of the community of what we do so
that there is also a reduction in complaints against police officers. If they have that
information and they are aware of what our restrictions are, then we expect the
Citizens Police Academy graduates to relay that information to other members of
the community. By and large, the philosophy of Citizens Police Academy is to have
more informed citizenry within that particular community.
Ms. Yukimura: Chief, do you know whether there has been a
reduction in complaints against the police officers?
Mr. Perry: Interestingly, it went up and then it went
down. It varies and this is a phenomenon, but when the community has more
confidence in the Police Department, the complaints actually go up. We have seen a
rise in complaints, but now it has decreased. I can get those numbers for you.
Those numbers are also skewed by individuals who make multiple complaints and
individuals that perhaps have mental health issues. Each complaint that is filed
with the Police Commission or with us has to be recorded and has to be investigated
completely. Those numbers go up-and-down accordingly.
Ms. Yukimura: Thank you.
Chair Furfaro: Are there other questions for the Chief, the
Deputy Chief, or the grant writer? If not, I am going to excuse them.
Mr. Chock: I was wondering if this is a recurring grant.
Is there an opportunity to reapply for it? If so, when?
Ms. Perreira: There are other grants, but specific to this,
no. They have other things related to hiring, but not this particular grant.
COUNCIL MEETING 33 DECEMBER 4, 2013
Ms. Yukimura: So that means that next year, there will not
be a Community Oriented Policing Services Grant application?
Ms. Perreira: There is, but not one we can apply for. We
got it so we will not be reapplying for it.
Ms. Yukimura: Right. It is an annual program that
jurisdictions can apply for?
Ms. Perreira: Yes.
Ms. Yukimura: We could not apply for it for some other
programming like another beat later on, too?
Ms. Perreira: They have other programs, like I said. Not
this specific one, but they have specifics for addition of SROs and other positions
that we could tap into. But for this particular grant, it goes for three (3) years with
the notion that for the fourth year, we will be picking those positions up. We have
applied for this grant multiple times and never gotten it. This is the first time we
have even gotten close to getting this particular grant. I think it is important to
know that should we not get this grant, I do not know if we would ever get that
opportunity again.
Ms. Yukimura: Okay. Thank you.
Chair Furfaro: Thank you. Are there any more questions
for the grant writer or Deputy Chief?
Mr. Rapozo: I just have one more.
Chair Furfaro: Go ahead, Mr. Rapozo.
Mr. Rapozo: I am assuming this is time sensitive and that
we would need this approval today?
Mr. Perry: Yes.
Mr. Rapozo: Thank you.
Chair Furfaro: Any more for this group? If not,
congratulations to you, young lady. I think the entire Council approves and
concurs. Your effort has paid off. Thank you very much. I am going to let Officer
Perreira and Deputy Chief Contrades go. I am going to ask the two (2) Police
Commissioners to come up and join the Chief.
Chair Furfaro: Gentlemen, may I ask you both to introduce
yourself?
RANDALL FRANCISCO, County of Kaua`i Police Commission Member:
Randy Francisco.
JAMES R. O'CONNOR, Chair of the County of Kaua`i Police Commission:
Jim O'Connor. Chair of the Kaua`i Police Commission.
COUNCIL MEETING 34 DECEMBER 4, 2013
Chair Furfaro: Thank you for being here. I guess I first
want to say that this is a sizeable grant over a period of years, but at the end of the
grant, because this Council cannot find itself in any kind of position earmarking
future funds, it is against the process of the Charter. I wanted to know if the
Commission for future councils would be, in fact, acknowledging that you approved
of the process for this grant and you will be writing a support letter from the
Commission to the Council on this grant application. At the end of the period of
time, it then becomes a cost associated with the County.
Mr. O'Connor: As you know, this is part of our
responsibility and I was in remiss not seeing that is not on your desk in front of you
now, but I will assure you that we have had two (2) specific meetings on this and
have formally approved the Department going before you for this approval of this
grant. Yes, I will have the letter to you in your hands shortly. It is already done.
We really do not need another meeting for it, but just to put it in.
Chair Furfaro: I would just like to have one from the
Commission supporting these efforts before we get into budget because the financial
consequences are in the future.
Mr. O'Connor: We will be involved in that process as well,
Chair.
Chair Furfaro: I would like to also say that we have recently
heard testimony from Anahola and so forth. I would like to know if the Police
Commission with the Police Chief would be working on something more substantial
in the way of a five (5) year plan as we are hearing about this expansion of the
beats. I would like to have kind of a strategic plan that is reviewed by the Police
Commission that talks long-range on some of the things that the Chief has exposed
us to today, and I think the Chief would probably appreciate the same in terms of
staffing manpower and programs. Is that something that you folks will be working
on in future?
Mr. O'Connor: Absolutely. Thank you for reminding us,
Mr. Chairman. For one thing, we have heard about it during the length of our term
here and sort of vicariously through living in the community for a long time. This is
a twenty-four (24) year period that we have gone through from talking about these
ten (10) beats. It did not hit me too much until I got on the Commission a few years
ago. It is almost ludicrous to tell you the truth. I am tired of hearing from
constituents about it. It is inconceivable to me that we could have a Police
Department that has been able to function as well as it does now. We are very
proud of that by the way. People come up to me and say, "You do not mean that
there are two (2) people from Anahola to Hanalei that are available at any one
time?" I say, "Yes, I do." Does this greatly increase it? No. I look at this grant as a
catalyst and it happens to be focused on community oriented policing, which I think
is terrific. The Department is correctly designated the proper area to augment
with this grant. It is also critical that we look forward down the road, and we start
doing the forward planning... five (5) years is just the minimum that we should be
doing.
Chair Furfaro: I am asking for that because as we just had
Ms. Danner here sharing with the Council, we do not have a formal document that
we can look at that talks about future proposed staffing, subdivisions, and
measurable goals other than some discussion here. For example, the Police
COUNCIL MEETING 35 DECEMBER 4, 2013
Department should be very proud of the fact that we have filled so many vacancies
that we have. Also a measurable goal— when I was on the Council twelve (12)
years ago, we had one million five hundred thousand dollars ($1,500,000) in
overtime per year. We peaked about at two million two hundred thousand dollars
($2,200,000). We are actually around one million eight hundred sixty thousand
dollars ($1,860,000) from last year. That is a three hundred thirty-five thousand
dollar ($335,000) reduction in overtime. That is a measurable item.
Mr. O'Connor: Absolutely.
Chair Furfaro: That needs to be part of these presentations.
I think some of the goals that Councilmember Yukimura talked about and so forth
could be reflected on this. At the same time, I also want to let you know that I
think we know that you are going to need some outside help for the five (5) year
strategic plan, and I kept it short-term because money, as pointed out earlier by the
Finance Director, is a challenge. If we need some facilitating on a five (5) year
strategic plan, the time to show us the need is at budget time.
Mr. O'Connor: Absolutely.
Chair Furfaro: Mr. Francisco, would you like to add
anything?
Mr. Francisco: Thank you for the opportunity. I do want to
convey my congratulations on behalf of the business community. I did submit
testimony that on stand on behalf of the Chamber, but I also wanted to convey the
sentiments of the Kapa'a Business Association along with the recently revitalized
Royal Coconut Coast. As you know, they were recharged to help develop the area in
terms of marketing and promotion. One of the things that I learned a few years ago
when we started the crime prevention seminars, initially with Chief Perry who just
came on board, was we needed to do more outreach as a business community
because we cannot have it where everything is based in the Lihu`e area.
Recognizing that, it gave me an opportunity to go to the north shore and meet, for
the first time, Deputy Chief Contrades. What I learned from that was while they
were doing a great job, the challenge was, "How do you dispense excellent service in
an area that is the size of that area that touches upon the Kawaihau District?" I
came to the conclusion that when I first became aware of this grant, having been
someone that managed about ten million dollars ($10,000,000) in grant funds, that
anything that you do to receive external funds leverages your capacity to deliver
programs that meet budget and so forth. While the challenges what metrics and
questions on the "how," I think the grand vision is, as the Chief had said, they are
looking to 2025. Coinciding with this is the hope that our economy, as we move out
of the recession, is moving towards economic security with the development of new
shopping centers and job creation. I think this corridor deserves to have this kind
of expansion. I recall going out to the Kapa'a Business Association meetings and
the number one comment was crime. It seemed that you tend to lose confidence if
crime is up and you wonder how you are going to get help as a business operator.
Seeing that the activities in the area continue to grow, I just came to the conclusion
that this grant will restore some sense of community and confidence. The message
that I wanted to convey is that it is about a partnership and the notion of the
philosophy that community policing really goes to the heart of this.
Several members of the Chamber are serving as volunteers on the Mayor's
Crime Task Force, as well as on the initial training programs that allowed members
COUNCIL MEETING 36 DECEMBER 4, 2013
of the community to participate and go out on a ride or go through some idea of
what the Police Academy is about. I think opportunities like this only help to not
enhance, but leverage our ability to develop the kind of partnerships that our
private/public sector needs to continue to develop. I hear the frustration from Robin
Danner, but I think if we continue to leverage these opportunities, it grows our
capacity to create a better Kaua`i; a Kaua`i that is not only safe and one that does
not require me to say as I did in January. I think the Chamber, for the first time,
needs to have a press conference which is unprecedented for me just because I was
never planning to have one. Earlier in the year, as you know one (1) year ago, we
were known as the island that had someone on the north shore literally gallivanting
through certain parts and causing a bunch of crime, such that a Japanese tourist
was attacked. I think the message here is having another officer in a new beat will
hopefully convey a sense that it is a little safer because our public safety is
improving. I would like to say as a Commissioner and as a grants writer; I look
forward to working closely with the Department, assuming that I will be approved
today for the next three (3) year term.
Chair Furfaro: I think that is quite possible. I want it make
sure that we understand the bigger part here. For myself, as being the senior
manager for many years in resort areas and so forth, I do not think the answer from
what I have heard today is just about approving a grant for a new beat. That is
what I want to make sure you hear. The Charter also does set us up with a Police
Commission. What I am saying to the two of you from the Police Commission based
on some of the things that were presented today, I have no problem encouraging
Mr. Francisco to find himself writing a grant for fifty thousand dollars ($50,000) so
that we can do a five (5) year strategic plan on staffing and facilities for the Police
Department. This is just a small piece of what I am hearing from today. We need a
five (5) year plan. I certainly will be offering my support to this grant today, but I
would like us to have some dialogue with the Mayor, who is an ex-officio of the
Police Commission, and see if we are not looking at some moneys to be available for
a long-term strategic plan to address some of these things. I also want to say to the
both of you gentlemen, thank you very much. It is much appreciated that you as
Commissioners are here and your volunteerism and work is recognized for being
here. Thank you.
Mr. Francisco: Thank you. I anticipate that we will be
taking you up on that offer. I think the strength of this particular grant is it
demonstrates that there will be grant history and experience. It will add to that
resume of future grant applications. I think the grant itself, having received
support from our Congressional Delegation, says a lot. I think it only gives us more
incentive and inspiration to apply for additional grants in the mix beyond the COPS
grant.
Chair Furfaro: Thank you, Commissioner. Are there any
questions for any of the Commissioners or the Police Chief? I am going to ask the
Director of Finance to come up. Thank you, gentlemen. Chief, you are welcome to
stay there. Thank you again. Mr. Hunt, could you introduce yourself again?
Mr. Hunt: Sure. Steve Hunt, Director of Finance, for
the record.
Chair Furfaro: I think you heard from my comments that
based on some of the things that we heard today, it is some serious considerations
we need to do and at a minimum, a five (5) year plan for the Police Department.
COUNCIL MEETING 37 DECEMBER 4, 2013
Perhaps there is an opportunity through other Federal agencies to apply for some
grant moneys through writing for specifically a five (5) year strategic plan on
staffing and facilities. I am certain some of that is available. I also want to say to
you, in my interpretation in looking at some numbers and I have some experience in
looking at numbers, I would be correct in saying that one of the measurable pieces
is the fact that overtime in the Department is on the way down, especially with the
addition of some recruits and the effort that the Chief put in. I think that is
something that needs to be reflected in our plan. How do we ultimately get enough
officers to a point that one of the rewards is still having an overtime line, do not get
me wrong, but continuing to manage those payroll concessions? The premium pay
is the halftime cost. Would you agree that my numbers are pretty correct?
Mr. Hunt: Yes. I would say that although for Fiscal
Year 2014, we are still potentially looking for additional overtime moneys because
of the front-end loading of this. It is an investment and although the canceled days
have decreased, the Field Training Officer (FTO) involvement in training these new
recruits is certainly front-end loaded. As we work our way forward, we would hope
to see some financial savings in those overtime costs.
Chair Furfaro: That, in itself, is something that is ongoing.
Steve, I need to share with you— this references Mr. Hooser and Councilwoman
Yukimura's question. When I was Finance Chair from 2002 until 2007 or 2008, I
worked on this finance building report so that we could look at where building
permits are being issued, their value, and then calculate what we might see in the
way of an increase in potential property taxes based on having an index over here.
For example, for the last one we received, I am rather point disappointed. If you
could convey this to the Building Division, it was February of this year. In that
report, it indicated that year over year, the value of the permits that have been
issued have gone from ten million four hundred thousand dollars ($10,400,000) to
thirteen million six hundred thousand dollars ($13,600,000), and that is going to be
very important for us when we are looking for money in year 2017 to have some
kind of indication. That is what I designed this permit reporting process for, so that
we could see how we are doing year-over-year. The second item I want to reconfirm
is that it is not just for the Police Department here. We need to use this like
Councilwoman Yukimura's approach on the Solar Water Heating Bill and looking at
those values and increasing. That is so important for us to know that there is
money coming in the Building Division for future tax credits and so forth. Just as a
side note, we cannot be seven (7) months behind. If somebody could look into that, I
would really appreciate it. The Comprehensive Annual Financial Report (CAFR)-
the narrative basically said that we were about ten million dollars ($10,000,00)
short, but I want to make note that that is ten million dollars ($10,000,000) short
without knowing the outcome of the CAFR.
Mr. Hunt: You are talking about for the initial budget
Fiscal Year 2015 presentation?
Chair Furfaro: Yes.
Mr. Hunt: That is correct.
Chair Furfaro: Okay. That is not unusual for us to see this
lag before we see the final assumptions made on where we are controlling costs as it
is?
COUNCIL MEETING 38 DECEMBER 4, 2013
Mr. Hunt: Correct.
Chair Furfaro: So I am correct in saying that. I just want to
make note.
Mr. Hunt: Correct. Our projection was about twelve
million eight hundred thousand dollars ($12,800,000) in Unassigned Fund Balance
and the CAFR, once determined, will hopefully be close to that.
Chair Furfaro: So we are forecasting twelve million dollars
($12,000,000), but we will not know that until we see the CAFR?
Mr. Hunt: Correct.
Chair Furfaro: We have a new date confirmed for
December 17th on that. Okay. I would hope that I could gain the Administration's
support on a five (5) year strategic plan for the Police Department on staffing and
facility building. Those are the only comments that I have for you, Steve. I want to
thank you for being available to us. I will see if there are other questions from
members. Councilwoman Yukimura, you have the floor.
Ms. Yukimura: Thank you. Steve, it would be so wonderful
for me if we could pay our obligations for this new beat by overtime savings. I know
Councilmember Rapozo was moving in that direction and I appreciate that he did
that. Is that a possibility?
Mr. Hunt: Certainly, overtime incorporates more than
just actually having positions that are out sick, on leave, or on work compensation.
It also includes actual holiday pay. There is a certain percentage, certain dollar
amount that is going to be required regardless. People serving on that beat during
a holiday are going to be paid overtime. I would imagine that the new beat would
add a little bit more to that if they are serving on a holiday or holidays. From the
perspective of having those reduced canceled days and actually receiving full
workforce, those savings should be real.
Ms. Yukimura: What is the cost of the holiday pay for a fully
staffed Police Department?
Mr. Hunt: I would defer to the Police Department
Fiscal Officer to answer that. I do not have that number.
Ms. Yukimura: Do we, Chief?
Mr. Perry: I will ask our Fiscal Officer. I do not have
those numbers.
Ms. Yukimura: Okay.
Chair Furfaro: We will send it over as a question,
Councilmember. How about that?
Ms. Yukimura: That would be good. Do you have an
estimate outside of how much you think outside of holiday pay could be saved by a
fully staffed Police Department?
COUNCIL MEETING 39 DECEMBER 4, 2013
Mr. Hunt: Again, I think only time will tell. Certainly,
we are not hoping to exacerbate overtime. If anything, we are hoping to see flat
overtime to a decrease. My gut feeling is probably fifty percent (50%) of the salaries
of those eight hundred thousand dollars ($800,000) that will be obligated in later
years is a goal that we would set. I do not think one hundred percent (100%) of
those salaries will be from overtime savings.
Ms. Yukimura: Okay. Thank you.
Mr. Perry: With respect to overtime, and we have
discussed this before and perhaps the Deputy can expand on this, but as you know,
we are a twenty-four/seven (24/7) service and there are situations where we need to
respond sometimes in an emergency situation like a hostage situation. There are
other times where we have to expend overtime. For example, for the recent
Genetically Modified Organisms (GMO) Bill where we expended quite a lot of
overtime funds on that. It was well-worth it because we want to make sure that
everybody is safe. Those are the types of examples that make it very difficult for us
to predict how much we are going spend annually. We try to do a good job and the
Deputy and I have put in place restrictions on overtime. We have to do our due
diligence. Again, it is very, very difficult to predict, and perhaps the Deputy can
expand on that.
Chair Furfaro: I want to caution you that this is going to
budget issues again. I would like you to briefly respond. We can send things over to
you in questions. The agenda item is the grant. Go ahead, Deputy Chief.
Mr. Perry: I just wanted to answer the question about
holiday pay and overtime. We expend about twenty-five thousand dollars ($25,000)
per holiday. What we do to try to control that though is that there are only
essential people working on the holiday. Every administrative staff or if we have
additional officers on staff for the day are what we call "forced-off." They get the
actual holiday of. Basically, you have thirteen (13) people working. We cannot get
away from that. That is our minimum staffing in order to safeguard the
community. So roughly twenty-five thousand dollars ($25,000) per holiday.
Ms. Yukimura: Thank you very much. Presumably or my
simplistic thinking, but if there are twenty-one (21) holidays in the County system,
then it is times...
Mr. Contrades: I believe it is times fourteen (14) holidays.
Ms. Yukimura: Okay. Thank you.
Chair Furfaro: I want to clarify this again. There are
fourteen (14) holidays of which you have a minimum staff of thirteen (13). Those
thirteen (13) would be on straight time, so the difference on the holiday pay is only
the premium because they would have been there anyway on a regular day. I want
to make sure that since we are kind of shading off the agenda here a little bit, we
can send more questions to you in writing.
Mr. Hunt: I just wanted to add one more potential
savings that could help fund this, I guess. It relates to officer safety as part of my
job in risk management. I would suspect that having officer safety being a priority
COUNCIL MEETING 40 DECEMBER 4, 2013
would reduce some of the work compensation stress cases and incidences... there
could be measureable savings in work compensation combined with overtime that
make it closer to funding those positions. Again, it is a probability game. We
cannot guarantee it, but it could certainly be a likely outcome.
Chair Furfaro: Thank you for that clarification as an option.
Are there any more questions? If not, Chief, I am going to excuse everybody and I
will call the meeting back to order so we can have some discussion.
There being no objections, the meeting was called back to order, and
proceeded as follows:
Mr. Bynum: Our County is improving. Our County is a
much stronger and better County than it was five (5) or six (6) years ago. Those
improvements come at a cost. I am totally celebrating today. I have waited in this
community for years to expand the Police force. Thank God we are there. The
numbers speak for themselves. All the rest of the discussion we had today is all
germane and appropriate, probably at a different time and place than today. We
should be celebrating as a community and we should celebrate the strength of our
Police Department that we have arrived at this. Thank you all very much. We had
community oriented policing because of the extraordinary police officers.
Community oriented policing in a small town is obvious, right? I am pleased to say
that I know the officers in the audience today by first name, three-quarters of them.
Is it not great that we live in a community like that? It is tough to be a police officer
in a small town. There are officers out who have written me tickets and arrested
my family members, but did it appropriately. They have to do that every day. It is
a tough job. Thank you all for the work that you do. Let us celebrate that we have
arrived at this place where we can expand our force and protect the community
better. That is what you all want and that is what we all want. Over the last few
years, people want things from our County. They want better police protection and
better parks. Over the last few years, citizens have told us to create a Parks
Department, have an Auditor's Department, and expand our bus. Then we have
these challenges of environmental clean-ups that suddenly cost us a couple million
dollars a year that we did not plan for or huge overtime because the Council puts a
controversial bill up. You guys have to respond to all of that, and you do, and I am
proud of all of you and what I have observed of the Police Department despite all of
the huhu and challenges. Through all of that, extraordinary police officers have
stepped up and served our community above and beyond. Is it not great that we can
get to the point where you are not doing that because you are passionate and you
will always do that because of that? We actually could have school resource officers
and officers assigned specifically to the community outreach.
I am going to close with this. We saw three (3) generations of police officers
up there today, right? We saw the Chief, with his wisdom and experience. We saw
our Deputy, who is just outstanding. He is one of the people that I have seen— I do
not know if you remember this, Mike, meeting with the business community in
Kapa'a and they were so misinformed and misunderstanding of our Police
Department that they said things that were offensive to me, and I am sure they
were to you. It was because they are passionate about safety and they did not
understand. For the community to understand and your Department to understand
those, I know the relationship of Kapa'a business is much better now than it was
then, and that was because of the extraordinary efforts by police officers. Thank
you, Mike, for that. Then you have Officer Perreira who is here today. We see this
in our Fire Department, too, where people at levels learn how to write grants and
COUNCIL MEETING 41 DECEMBER 4, 2013
get passionate and inspired about improving their Department. I only have one
thing to say; you need seven (7) officers for a beat. I have been here and listening
to you all these years. Six point five (6.5) full-time equivalent (FTE) is what you
need to sufficiently staff a beat. It is better to go half above than a half below. If we
are going to expand it and create a beat, let us do it the way you said. I would
encourage you to put that extra position in the budget. We are going to have
extraordinarily difficult times. It is just going to be really tough because... well, we
will go into those financial issues at another time. It is our responsibility to make
this happen and the next beat to happen when you are ready. Thank you.
Chair Furfaro: Mr. Kagawa, you have the floor.
Mr. Kagawa: Thank you Chair. First of all, I want to
thank Officer Stacey for doing a superb job. Thank you for all that you do and the
rest of the Department who helped her with this grant. The year of 2013 has been a
great year for KPD. We finally filled all of our vacancies thanks to Kaleo Perez and
the rest of your group. Great job. Was that fourteen (14) vacancies or so that we
filled? The biggest class ever. We opened up the Waimea substation and it is a
beautiful facility. It was a lot bigger than it.was. The Kapa'a substation is now at
the Armory and much bigger and better. I think the officers have wanted that for a
while. Those are just a few things that have been done in 2013. Now we have this
new beat in our largest community, residential district, and commercial district. I
think this is our core function of County government, which is to protect public
safety, and our Police Department is on top of the list. That is our job. This new
community oriented policing that we are going into is just great to hear. I want to
see the results in the future. I think I like to watch police television, real television.
You really get to see that an officer's job is just much bigger than arresting people
when they get in trouble; it is actually working with the community to make sure
that they try and take care of things, so our officers can concentrate on bigger
issues. It takes a police officer to teach the community what to do, what not to do,
and I think we are going to be headed in that direction. Finally, I want to say that I
agree with our Finance Director, Mr. Hunt. I look at this as a good investment that
will have positive financial returns to our County via increase property values and
increase tourism. With all the trouble that is going on with the outer islands. You
see them in the news. Hawai`i island had some... Maui... Honolulu, of course.
Kaua`i has been off the radar in that department and it is that is a good thing. We
need to keep it that way and make it better by having that additional beat. I will
strongly support this. Again, I want to thank the police for really doing an
outstanding job. It is the most important job of our County. Keep up the good
work. Thank you.
Chair Furfaro: Thank you, Mr. Kagawa. Anyone else?
Mr. Rapozo, you have the floor.
Mr. Rapozo: Thank you, Mr. Chair. Thank you all again
for being here. I think I have settled down some, so this should be painless. First of
all, Chief, thank you for the accomplishments in your term, your tenure. I think
Mr. Kagawa talked a lot about it. I think former Chair Kaipo Asing won a lot of
lunches from betting with the former Police Chiefs that they would... whenever
they came up, they promised, assured, and guaranteed that we would fill up the
positions in their tenure and they were never able to do that, but you did. It is a
testament to your Department, your Staff, and your team.
COUNCIL MEETING 42 DECEMBER 4, 2013
We often times hear from the community that the County has to run more
like a business. I heard some terminology today like "return on investment" and
business terms that does not apply to public safety. If that was the case, we would
not have a fire station in Hanalei because they just do not have enough calls to
justify the investment. You throw that out the window when you are talking about
public safety. We have to provide a service to everyone on the island. Return on
investment— I agree with Mr. Kagawa that we will see some definite returns in the
way of savings, and that is true, but that cannot be the sole purpose of expanding.
Response rates— one of the biggest complaints I hear from the public is that it took
him one (1) hour to get here; one hour and a half (1.5) to get here. That is what is
going to happen as population grows, crime increases, and you do not increase the
Police Staff. It is just going to happen. It is going to be two (2) hours, and then
three (3) hours. There is going to come a point where it is going to be some
municipalities on the mainland where you call the police department and they are
going to say, "We do not take those complaints anymore. Call your insurance
company." It is happening. God forbid that we get to the place where we have to
start laying off police officers. What you folks do with what you have is just
incredible. I think Commission Chair O'Connor said it best, "It is ludicrous to think
that we can operate as well as you do with ten (10) beats." Think about it.
Just as a reference, the Kaua`i Fire Department; eight (8) fire stations and
sixty-four (64) firemen on any given shift. Ten (10) beat officers. How many calls
do the Police get versus how many calls do the Fire Department get? I am not
diminishing the role of the Fire Department because I think it is necessary, but we
are splitting hairs to increase the Police Department Staff by one (1) beat. "What is
your return?" "What is the crime rate?" "What is this?" One (1) accident involving
three (3) fatalities throws your goals and objectives out the window. One (1) crime
spree through Kapa'a Town at night with eight (8) burglaries throws your goals out
the window. You are not talking about normal situations in police work. I think
we, as Councilmembers, need to understand. We are not dealing with a normal
operation, County function. You are talking about a function that can change at
any given time. You guys play by different rules. We have an opportunity today to
help you. Throughout the years, you guys come up and we do certificates for this
and certificates for that, and every one of us takes our chance to say how great a job
you guys all do. Here is one opportunity that we can sit here and help you do
better. Frankly, I get frustrated when I hear some of the questions. This grant was
the only grant I can I remember that we required you guys to come for an
application and acceptance. This body said, "No, we are not going to do it all like we
do for Wastewater and all of the other Departments. No, you are special. You
come back and tell us when you got accepted, so we can make sure we agree with
how you are going to use it." That is not right, but we did that.
Today, do you know how many bus drivers on the road right now? There are
thirty (30). Then we have ten (10) police officers. As you can see, I am a little
frustrated because I am biased to public safety. I think you guys deserve as much
as you get. The money? Really? We just went through a discussion on
Bill No. 2491 where there was no concern about how we were going to pay. We just
needed to pass that Bill. Today, all I heard were questions about things that are
not even related to the grant. That bothers me because it tells me that our
priorities are not, in my opinion, where it should be. People get upset with my
comments, but it is what it is. Was that it? I get five (5) more minutes? I thought I
had ten (10) minutes.
Chair Furfaro: You do. It is your time.
COUNCIL MEETING 43 DECEMBER 4, 2013
Mr. Rapozo: I do not usually need ten (10) minutes, but
today I will. I think the public needs to understand because we hear the
complaints. "The cop gave me a ticket. He was rude." Have a cop working seven
(7) or eight (8) days in a row, seeing blood, fights, murders, domestics, and
drownings. It is hell. Take a look at that and think. We have an opportunity to
help. The impact will be so minute; one (1) more beat. To the County, it will not
even be noticeable. They will not see three (3) more police cars in Kapa`a. But to
that officer in Kapa'a that now has his caseload lessened by maybe half; do you
think it is going to make an impact on him? You are damn right it is going to make
an impact only him, his family, his health, or her health. We do not think about
those things. We think about returns on investment and how we are going to pay
for it in three (3) to four (4) years. Really? We will pay for it. If we are so broke at
that time, I expect the Chief to incorporate those bodies, six (6), like we are hiring
forty (40) people; and incorporate them into the retirees that go out in 2015 or
whenever it is. You guys are going to have cops that retire, which creates what?
Vacancies. You put those six (6) people in those spots and we are creating such an
argument about a new beat.
I remember when the Chief took over and I remember when I asked him,
"Chief, what I would like to see is a five (5) year beat expanse process, five (5) beats
per year." I am so thankful that you did not bring this up, Chief, because you would
have gotten beheaded. You are only asking for one (1) and partially funded by a
grant, not even our County money. This is a "no-brainer," as Robin Danner said. It
is a "no-brainer." This thing should have been approved right away. It should have
been approved after the presentation, called this meeting to order, and approved it.
Because I have never seen a grant request that has gone through so much scrutiny
for public safety for an opportunity for this body to place an extra beat in Kapa`a. I
do not know if my colleagues have taken up the offer to go ride along on a Friday
night or Saturday night. It really does not matter because bad things happen on
weekdays and bad things happen in the morning. One of my worst calls ever was at
6:00 a.m. for a multiple murder suicide in Hanama`ulu. That was in the morning
while people are drinking coffee. In fact, some of you are here in this room that had
to g and witness that. We forget. We just think you guys are cops; tough, macho,
and strong. It hurts me when we have to fight for an extra beat. It really does. I
think this should have been passed. I am hoping that we can make this happen and
get more beats as Mr. Bynum said. You guys deserve more beats. You guys are
entitled to more beats. Just for one more beat having to sit here for three (3) hours
or so, not counting the application meeting that you guys gave, not counting what
you guys went through in the budget, and the future budget hearings coming up. I
pray for you folks. I think people just do not appreciate what you folks do. I am sad
for that. Anyway, Mr. Chair, I appreciate the extra time. It is not extra time, but I
just apologize, I guess, if I offended anybody, but it is time that enough is enough.
It is time that we start giving you guys what you need. Does it cost money? Yes it
does, but I could go through our budget and I could fund you guys extra beats if they
allow to remove what we did not need, but I do not have that power. Thank you.
Chair Furfaro: Mr. Hooser, you have the floor.
Mr. Hooser: Thank you Chief, Police Officers,
Commissioners, and members of the public who are here today. I want to echo what
Councilmember Bynum said. I think this is a time to celebrate and it is a long time
coming. I first met the Deputy in Kapa'a in front of my business in an incident. I
called the Police and he shows up... I would not say twenty (20) years ago. It may
COUNCIL MEETING 44 DECEMBER 4, 2013
not have been that long, but it was about there. I remember to this day of how
impressed I was by then beat officer... I am not sure what your rank was at that
time. I continue to be impressed by the good work that the Kaua`i Police
Department does. I remain a resident of the Kawaihau District for over thirty (30)
years. I had tenants there in Kapa'a Town in a small rental property. I hear the
calls. I was also a former member of the Kapa'a Business Association. There is no
question that I enthusiastically welcome the additional support for the Kawaihau
District. I think the whole island would benefit, not just the Kawaihau District.
Having said that, I do not think it is unreasonable, as a Councilmember, for me to
ask questions to probe into the reasoning and what hopes to be accomplished on
behalf of the community as a whole. I think it is reasonable for the community as a
whole to know that if the community is going to be investing eight hundred
thousand dollars ($800,000) a year, that there will be some benefit to the
community; a tangible benefit. It is not meant to be critical of the Police
Department, but I think it is a reasonable question to ask. If we invest this money
in the Police Department, how will the community benefit? Will there be a
reduction in crime? I do not see any issue with asking those questions. I was happy
for the responses that I got.
I also think it is reasonable to ask questions about the budget and about
overtime. That is our job. The budget discussions are imminent. We are already
doing them individually with the Administration. Because we have been told that
there are ten million dollars ($10,000,000) we have to find moving forward, it is
difficult to separate this conversation with the budget as a whole, even though the
agenda item is not about the budget. We are being asked to approve a significant
amount of money of future spending and we do not have the money. The reality is
that there is no money, so we are being asked to spend money that we do not have.
Given those circumstances, I think it is even more prudent for me and others as
Councilmembers to ask some tough questions. I think the Chief and others are
perfectly capable and have done a good job in presenting the answers to those
questions. Unfortunately, months from now when we go to balance the budget and
are looking at tax increases and fee increases, the room will not be full of police
officers saying, "Yes. Let us raise property taxes." You can be sure that the
Chamber of Commerce will not be here saying, "Yes. Let us raise property taxes."
But those are the difficult choices that we have to make, so I think it is appropriate
and prudent for me to ask those questions today, which I have done. It does not
distract or detract from my support of the Kaua`i Police Department and for my
acknowledgment of the good work that all of you do in your community. I want to
thank you for that. I will be supporting the grant. I am thankful for all of the work
that has gone into it. I appreciate you being here and appreciate your
understanding the role that we have to play as Councilmembers in representing the
people who elect us. Thank you very much.
Chair Furfaro: JoAnn, did you want the floor next?
Ms. Yukimura: Yes.
Ms. Yukimura: Thank you Chair. Thank you everyone for
being here. Contrary to what some of you may be thinking, I am not against
expanding the Police Force. I did go on patrol with Officer Pia on a Friday night to
find out exactly what you experience. I appreciate the work that you do and the
sacrifices that you and your families make. I hope you understand that none of my
questioning is to detract from that appreciation I have of all of you and the work
that you do. As Councilmember Hooser stated, we have a job that has to represent
COUNCIL MEETING 45 DECEMBER 4, 2013
all of the people of Kaua`i, all of the Departments of this County, and the needs are
tremendous. Every day, people rely on riding the bus getting to or from work, to
school, or to their senior centers. We have a really difficult affordable housing
problem that is getting even worse now because the economy is revving up. Our
parks need attention. Your families enjoy our parks. Some of your families are in
our housing programs and those are the things that we have to keep going, too. To
make commitments— this is a budget issue because we are making commitments
for future budgets. We are making a commitment before we see all of the other
needs that this County has. My questions are not because I do not appreciate what
the Police Department is doing, but they are because I have high standards for
every Department that comes before us. When we give or commit more money to a
program, the Council needs to be assured that it will give us the best return on
investment in terms of services and results for our community. I think that is what
you are all about, too, so I do not feel like we are different in that matter. I do
believe that every dollar that we spend has to give us the best return because we
are taking that from another need and use. All of us, all of the County
Departments, have to be so accountable for making sure that the money is being
used well. I really appreciated the discussion here. Hard questions make for really
creative thinking and thoughts, and Councilmember Rapozo's request to the
Department about... what was it? Mel, help me here.
Mr. Rapozo: The only thing I talked about was the
canceled days off.
Ms. Yukimura: Right, how you would handle holiday pay.
Actually, the Chief and Deputy Chiefs response about how you are dealing with
cars for this particular beat are showing that you are thinking about how to
minimize the costs and yet, give the service that you want to give. The thought
about reducing overtime, and that was Councilmember Rapozo's point, being able
now to fund some of the costs of that new beat. All of these are issues are
reassuring to me in terms of how we are going balance the budget. I know it seems
tedious at times, but I feel like we are doing joint problem-solving here. The
questioning and the answers are raised to help this. The reason why some of my
questions seem to be related to the budget is because they are related to the budget.
This is an early budget commitment without us being able to look at all of the other
needs. I am to the point where I am thinking that I can support this because of all
of those mitigating issues that have been raised, so that we are not having to pour
out full-on eight hundred thousand dollars ($800,000) in two (2) years. I am still
very, very concerned about how we are going to make the budget. Many of you are
property owners and do not want to see your real property taxes raised either, but
those are some of the balancing acts that we have to do. Please forgive me if I am
trying to do that.
Chair Furfaro: Okay. Mr. Chock, you have the floor.
Mr. Chock: Thank you. I just want to start by saying
that the world is changing so rapidly. Government's role is changing as well, so I
think about what Einstein says about how we keep doing the same thing over and
over, and trying to get a different outcome. There is definitely this need for us to
think and do things differently in every Department. That is what we are here to
do, right? I am looking for solutions in this. I do not think there is a question about
whether or not we want or need it, but I do think that every Department will have
to look at this kind of stuff in the future and what we can do differently to provide
the better outcomes for our community. I do not think it is a secret that I am an
COUNCIL MEETING 46 DECEMBER 4, 2013
advocate of prevention. I think what you folks have created here with the scope of
the grant, with the idea of community oriented policing is exactly the direction and
the foresight you should have had in getting this completed. I am like
Councilmember Bynum because I am celebrating as well. I think that this is the
right response and the right direction. It moves us in the direction of putting the
responsibility back in the community because in the long run, that is what it is
going to take, no matter what happens. That is the sustainability piece that we
need. I do not want to belabor this. I am here to approve this and move forward on
this. I do think that we are going to have to scrutinize just about everything that
comes to this table because there are some difficult financial needs ahead. I think if
we plan and strategize together, then we will have the best outcome that we can.
Thank you.
Chair Furfaro: I guess it is my turn now. First of all, Officer
Stacy, I want to thank you for a good job over the last six (6) months and to all the
people that supported you. I do not think people realize that the first step really,
for us here, was some critical thinking as it relates to strategic planning. The first
piece we had was, "What are we doing about officer recruitment to reduce our
overtime?" Without addressing that, we will have this ongoing occurrence of
premium pay. My hat is off to the Chief and my compliments with the new recruits
and what we have done. Step one in this critical path is certainly accomplished.
The next step is this five (5) year plan and I am going to say to the Commissioners
quite frankly, the Charter prevents this Council from being involved and directly
directing the Police Department. We have you there and this Council will offer you
the kind of support so we can do this five (5) year plan. That five (5) year plan has
to have measurable, tangible outcomes. Those are the kind of facilities we need in
the future, as well as those costs related to increase staffing and the new beats.
Those are the challenges that are out there. Facility needs— I think with
Engineering and help from the Mayor, we are starting to make some improvements,
but those are the two (2) key things that need to be in this five (5) year plan. I
would encourage community input to the Police Commission as we had the two (2)
ladies here from their communities today. The Commissioners really need to see
that. I look forward for your letter of support as we get into the budget year and get
closer and closer to this. I appreciate the Finance Department sharing with us the
forecast of these future costs, as well as some assumptions we have to make about
SHOPO contracts and items that we can look at and savings, as the Finance
Director said, that we can back into. This is a process that I very much appreciate
and it is the business of this Council. I thank my colleagues for the questions that
they asked because that is part of their job. I want to make sure that for the budget
this year, there are not any additional costs. We have no say over future years. It
will be the future Councils that will and that is why we need the strategic thinking
about tangible, measurable results in a plan that future Councils can, in fact,
embrace and understand the decisions we made. It is very much appreciated by
this Council.
I want to tell you that on Sunday night, I got home from Hilo, and was home
rather late. At 8:00 p.m., I was driving through Kapa'a Sunday night and there
were two (2) police cars parked across from Smoky Louie Gonzales' old home. They
had one (1) person in handcuffs on the corner and the second officer was down the
street with another suspect. That really hit home to me about the support that
officers need when there is a crisis because these two (2) officers were separated. I
just pulled on the side, obviously, thinking that in my assistance... I do not know
what I could assist with, but I just stayed pretty close. It really hit home Sunday
night when I saw that these two (2) officers operating with two (2) suspects and only
COUNCIL MEETING 47 DECEMBER 4, 2013
two (2) officers at different locations. I do want you know that your work is very
much appreciated by this Council. Going forward, I want the Police Commission to
get really involved with a presentation about a five (5) year plan. On that note, may
I ask for a roll call approval on this grant request?
The motion to approve C 2013-374 was then put, and carried by the following
vote:
FOR APPROVAL: Bynum, Chock, Hooser, Kagawa, Rapozo,
Yukimura, Furfaro TOTAL— 7,
AGAINST APPROVAL: None TOTAL— 0,
EXCUSED & NOT VOTING: None TOTAL— 0,
RECUSED & NOT VOTING: None TOTAL— 0.
Chair Furfaro: Thank you very much. Thank you to the
Police Department. We are going to break for lunch.
There being no objections, the meeting recessed at 12:28 p.m.
The meeting reconvened at 1:41 p.m., and proceeded as follows:
Chair Furfaro: We are back from our lunch recess. Clerk,
please bring us to the next item on our agenda.
COMMUNICATIONS:
C 2013-375 Communication (11/07/2013) from the County Engineer,
requesting Council approval to purchase a replacement Flail Cutter in the amount
of $23,000, by utilizing funds in the Department of Public Works, Roads Division,
Other Supplies Account No. 201-2072-624.61-02, to assist with the Levee
Maintenance Program and other Islandwide Road Resurfacing projects:
Mr. Kagawa moved to approve C 2013-375, seconded by Mr. Rapozo.
Chair Furfaro: Is somebody here from Roads or
Engineering? May I ask them to come up please? Mr. Kagawa, I will give you the
floor.
Mr. Kagawa: Thanks for coming, Lyle. I have never heard
of a flail cutter, so can you could explain what that is and if twenty-three thousand
dollars ($23,000) is a reasonable price to pay for a flail cutter? What levee is it
going to be used on? Waimea? Hanapepe?
There being no objections, the rules were suspended.
LYLE TABATA, Deputy County Engineer: Good afternoon members and
Chair. Lyle Tabata, Deputy County Engineer for the record. The two that we are
asking to move funds to purchase is an attachment for the excavator that would go
in there and act as a flail tool, rotating assembly tool, that would allow us to more
efficiently mow down the vegetation on both levees.
Mr. Kagawa: They use that flail cutter on both levees?
Mr. Tabata: Right. The Chief of Roads Division, Ed
Renaud, can expand on the discussion.
COUNCIL MEETING 48 DECEMBER 4, 2013
ED RENAUD, Chief of Roads Division: Ed Renaud for the record. Good
afternoon Council Chair and Councilmembers. We use it island wide for different
ditches and what not, so it is a very valuable tool. The thing is when we first
bought that equipment, the first one, it was only for the levees so it was not heavy
duty. Then we found out that we needed this all over the island, the Kekaha
Landfill, and what not. After a while, it breaks down.
Mr. Kagawa: Ed, I kind of asked this question and maybe
you can answer it, but is twenty-three thousand dollars ($23,000) the going rate for
something like that?
Mr. Renaud: That is what I was told by (inaudible).
Mr. Kagawa: Okay. Thank you.
Chair Furfaro: Councilmember Yukimura.
Ms. Yukimura: Thank you, Lyle and Ed. It bothers me that
this very high-usage piece of equipment has been inoperable since March 2013,
which means you have been trying to operate without it? Do you have another one
that you have been using in the meantime?
Mr. Renaud: No. We do not have another one. What
happened is that we were trying to use labor and see what would happen with it,
but with the labor it cost us too much. It was not productive.
Ms. Yukimura: I see.
Mr. Renaud: We needed to look for moneys and I said,
"We do not have any moneys here and there, so I am going borrow some from here
and then another one, I am going to replace it back when I am complete with my
signs retroactivity project, I should have something to put back into this account.
That is why I went there because there was no other place to move.
Ms. Yukimura: What you are saying is that the length of
time that it took from when it broke down to now is because you had to wait for
money and move it around? I am just concerned or I guess looking at how we might
make this piece of equipment available sooner when it is so valuable and when it
breaks down. I was just trying to understand procedurally what the hang-up was in
waiting so long, but you were actually experimenting with labor instead?
Mr. Renaud: Correct. We were trying to use labor because
we were trying to find where we would get the funding from. We looked at all
avenues and the only avenue was that I would have to look at my own
administrative "Other Services," but to be sure that I can replace it back.
Ms. Yukimura: Okay. Thank you.
Chair Furfaro: I am deeply disappointed gentlemen. We
just did a budget four (4) months ago and this piece of equipment has been broken
since March. Now you are going to manipulate the money we gave you to pay for it
because you need it now. We just signed off on a budget four (4) months ago. If it is
such a valuable piece of equipment... unbelievable. Anybody else have a question?
COUNCIL MEETING 49 DECEMBER 4, 2013
Ms. Yukimura: I do.
Chair Furfaro: Go ahead.
Ms. Yukimura: I have toyed in my mind with not requiring
you folks to come up for Council approval when you have key pieces of equipment
like this, but that is one thing. The other thing is the money, of course, right? You
need money and then you need... and I guess the Chair was saying that perhaps
you should have asked for it in our last budget.
Chair Furfaro: That is what I was saying because in March
you said we found out how valuable a piece of equipment it was. That is March.
We are doing the budget in April, May, and June. Here you are moving money that
we allocated for other projects to get this piece of equipment. I am just telling you. I
am going vote for it, but I am sure not going to buy into the process. I expect more
from you folks.
Mr. Tabata: Thank you for that comment. We will take
that very seriously.
Chair Furfaro: Thank you. I appreciate that.
Mr. Kagawa: I just want to ask one final question because
I get asked this by the community. We do a lot of work on the levees and keeping it
trimmed. Do we want some vegetation on the levee to hold the levee in place? Is it
preferable that we get rid of all vegetation? If that was the goal, then we would look
into possibly using Rodeo or something that is approved for use near water. What
is the object? I have heard two sides. I have heard one side that we want to get rid
of the vegetation, and then I heard the other side that we want some vegetation.
Mr. Renaud: The vegetation that we have right now on
the levee is really weeds and whatever we are going to put on there... we have a
contract to put grass on it, so this year we can maintain it better and easier. That is
what it is about; the bottom line.
Mr. Tabata: If I may add, we had to present selection of
grasses that the Army Corps of Engineers approved for us to use, and that has been
approved. You talk about weed control— the recent construction completed at the
Hanapepe levee... we had approved Seashore Paspalum and we irrigated with the
river water, which we found through a contractor who tested the river water, is only
two percent (2%) less salt content than the ocean. If you go to the levee now, you
will see that there is no guinea grass growing because the saltwater killed the
weeds, but it is helping the grass grow. That is something we are implementing
and we found that is able to help us move forward with that grassing project.
Mr. Kagawa: If I can follow-up on that. With that
Hanapepe levee, we are using Seashore Paspalum and the irrigated river water,
and it is controlling the weeds?
Mr. Tabata: Yes.
Mr. Kagawa: Do you have to add additional salt? That is
what the golf courses use the salt for.
COUNCIL MEETING 50 DECEMBER 4, 2013
Mr. Tabata: By my witness, and Ed can confirm, it is
handling the needs adequately.
Mr. Kagawa: Thank you for that because I brought up
Rodeo, but as much as possible we do not want to use pesticides. One, it is costly
and two, sometimes they cause damage to the environment and reusing water from
the river would not cause any damage. Thank you for that.
Chair Furfaro: To the Deputy Engineer, when we are
utilizing these funds from the Department of Public Works road maintenance areas
from the supply account, we are going to reduce the supply account by twenty-three
thousand dollars ($23,000). Do you have other miscellaneous funds available or do I
have to ask this budget cycle for the details regarding your "Other Supplies"
account if we can move that much money? This is like other supplies, so I would
assume this is like a miscellaneous kind of factor.
Mr. Renaud: No, I think we are going to be okay because
we had a contract for brief activity to be with the Federal update and put in one
hundred thousand dollars ($100,000) for that. In negotiating with the consultant—
and the thing is that we came in a little lower for the inspection and verifying which
sign has to be in place, and then the next step was to purchase the signs so we could
replace those signs that are so-called "illegal." With the numbers that we got back
from the vendors in Honolulu, I had enough money to move from there where I was
going to have a little savings. That is why I said from that account, I put it back in
the tree account of the other services because that is where we move trees that are
beyond our control.
Chair Furfaro: Just be prepared for a little bit more scrutiny
this budget cycle on the miscellaneous line, as well as budget other funds. Be
prepared for questions from me.
Mr. Tabata: Okay.
Chair Furfaro: Are there any other questions? Mr. Bynum,
you have the floor.
Mr. Bynum: I am sorry, if you already answered this, I
apologize. Is the flail an attachment to a tractor?
Mr. Renaud: Yes. It is an attachment to the excavator
because it has the reach. The one that we are bringing in can take out so-called
"trees of certain size."
Mr. Bynum: Right.
Mr. Renaud: The other ones were mostly for grass and
smaller cutting materials.
Mr. Bynum: Well, it is a great piece of equipment that
can have uses beyond levees, right?
Mr. Renaud: Correct.
COUNCIL MEETING 51 DECEMBER 4, 2013
Mr. Bynum: What an improvement in the levees over the
last few years. Thank you.
Chair Furfaro: To the Engineering Department, do not
misunderstand my questions here. My questions are focused. We should have
known this sooner rather than move money. I have no question about using the
flail because what you in your own statement said was that you were planning to
use labor. Probably from the expense side of it, the labor would have been more
expensive than having the right tool to do the right job. I am just bothered that we
knew about this in March and here we are four (4) months after the budget and you
are moving money around from miscellaneous and supply accounts. We are going to
have a tight budget and I am going to expect more detail next time around.
Gentlemen, thank you very much. Is there any other discussion? If not, may I ask
for a roll call vote?
There being no objections, the meeting was called back to order, and
proceeded as follows:
The motion to approve C 2013-375 was then put, and carried by the following
vote:
FOR APPROVAL: Bynum, Chock, Hooser, Kagawa, Rapozo,
Yukimura, Furfaro TOTAL— 7,
AGAINST APPROVAL: None TOTAL— 0,
EXCUSED & NOT VOTING: None TOTAL— 0,
RECUSED & NOT VOTING: None TOTAL— 0.
C 2013-376 Communication (11/19/2013) from the Director of Planning,
requesting Council approval to apply for and receive technical assistance from
Smart Growth America to conduct a Parking Audit Workshop for the Lihu`e Town
Core area that would engage local businesses, property owners, and other key
stakeholders by addressing all five (5) elements of parking; demand, supply,
economics, enforcement, and administration; to assist local stakeholders to see the
issue in the context of overall growth management and economic strategies:
Mr. Kagawa moved to approve C 2013-376, seconded by Ms. Yukimura.
Chair Furfaro: I am going to suspend the rules and have a
representative from Planning come up.
There being no objections, the rules were suspended.
LEE STEINMETZ, Transportation Planner: Good afternoon Mr. Chair
and members of the Council. My name is Lee Steinmetz and I am the
Transportation Planner with the Planning Department.
Chair Furfaro: Welcome. We are going to start with a few
questions for you, Lee. I will start with Mr. Bynum.
Mr. Bynum: Are you writing this grant?
Mr. Steinmetz: Yes.
Mr. Bynum: Congratulations.
COUNCIL MEETING 52 DECEMBER 4, 2013
Mr. Steinmetz: Thank you.
Mr. Bynum: I appreciate that you are applying for it. I
just have a couple of questions. We did a parking study as part of the master plan
for the Civic Center. Are you aware of that?
Mr. Steinmetz: Yes.
Mr. Bynum: It did some of this analysis, so I just want to
make sure you are aware of that and that is a good starting point. I remember
some of those options. I just appreciate the initiative to do this and engage the
community in this dialogue. We have done that before in the past, but it has not led
to outcomes as much as it is now. We are making changes downtown, which is
great. Finally. This is timely and I appreciate the initiative.
Mr. Steinmetz: Thank you.
Mr. Bynum: Make sure you look at that study.
Mr. Steinmetz: Yes, absolutely. We are using this to
implement the Lihu`e Civic Center Master Plan, as well as the Lihu`e Town Core
Urban Design Plans. Of course we will look at the information that is in those
plants to move them forward, but then use this to help refine that and take it
further.
Mr. Bynum: Right. You are saying things that I want to
hear. We do not want to recreate the wheel. We want to build on the work we have
already done in the Lihu`e Town Core Plan and in the Civic Center Plan. There
were traffic studies done that I think may have been redone or need to be redone. I
do not know, but I think this is great. Thank you.
Mr. Steinmetz: Thank you.
Chair Furfaro: Councilmember Yukimura, do you have
questions?
Ms. Yukimura: I do. First, thank you for applying for this
grant. I understand it will be used to build capacity as well amongst our local staff?
Is that correct?
Mr. Steinmetz: Yes, that is correct. What we really want to
do are two (2) things with this workshop; one is to build the capacity of our Staff
and community members to understand the various aspects of parking; parking
management, parking supply, parking demand, and how we even assess demand of
parking. We want to get a better understanding of those tools and we want to use
this area. Because some work has already been done, we want to use the Lihu`e
Town Core area as the venue to build our capacity and also further our solutions in
this area. We did this previously, as you know, with the Po`ipu Road Design
Workshop in Koloa and Po`ipu Road where we had similar outcomes. We wanted to
come up with design solutions for Po`ipu Road, but we also wanted to build the
capacity of our Staff to understand how we can do design workshops in new ways
and in better ways, so a very similar approach.
COUNCIL MEETING 53 DECEMBER 4, 2013
Ms. Yukimura: This is an Environmental Protection Agency
(EPA) sponsored grant?
Mr. Steinmetz: Right. It is an EPA grant through Smart
Growth America, which is the one who provides the technical assistance. It is free.
It is not a grant in terms of cash, but technical assistance that comes and helps us.
There is no match and there is no charge for that. It just so happens, coincidentally,
for this particular workshop, Jim Charlier is the person who is hired to be the
technical assistance. He has done a lot of work on our island and knows Kaua`i
really well. If we are awarded the grant, he would be the one we would be working
with.
Chair Furfaro: Good deal.
Ms. Yukimura: That is excellent to hear since we know and
have worked with Mr. Charlier in the past. As you said, he knows our community.
I just want to thank you again for going for this grant because I think Lihu`e is very
ripe for a parking audit to help us analyze our problems, find solutions, and make
Lihu`e a more livable and functional town and place. Thank you.
Mr. Steinmetz: Thank you. I would also like to thank you,
Councilmember Yukimura, because you were actually the one who brought this
grant opportunity to our attention. Thank you as well.
Ms. Yukimura: I am glad if it helped.
Chair Furfaro: We all thank you. Thank you, JoAnn.
Mr. Kagawa, you have the floor.
Mr. Kagawa: Thank you, Lee. When we first closed `Eiwa
Street, we ate lunch out there and kind of watched how the traffic moved. Is this
grant related to everything like `Eiwa Street and the whole...
Mr. Steinmetz: Yes. It is related to the whole Civic Center
and also the Town Core. To use a couple of examples for that, we have the Lihu`e
Civic Center Master Plan which is the plan that recommends the closure of `Eiwa
Street. The idea is really to create a more campus-like setting for our Civic Center,
Historic, County Building, and the State Building so everything is more pedestrian
friendly. There is more of a campus, greener, and we start to see that greening
happening with the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) improvements that were
recently installed. All of that, of course, has an implication on parking, so we need
to understand the parking implications in order to implement that plan. As part of
the Lihu`e Town Core Urban Design Plan, a key part of that is Rice Street
revitalization, looking at economic development of Rice Street and possible traffic
changes on Rice Street. Parking is really key to that, too, to make sure that we are
making good parking decisions that will support the economic development of Rice
Street at the same time.
Mr. Kagawa: I know it was early in the year when I met
with Lyle and Doug, and I guess we were kind of set on the plan as is, which
included the closure here. For me, I think I want to see and I want this Smart
Growth America to look at how effective has that closure been because I am still
getting a lot of complaints from residents who have looked negatively on the impact
of closing `Eiwa Street. I guess they are getting frustrated at this left turn here on
COUNCIL MEETING 54 DECEMBER 4, 2013
`Umi. At times, the traffic coming up Rice is heavy and only a few cars can only get
by on the traffic light. I guess it is one of the things that hope they can look at. I
know we proposed reverse-in parking on `Umi, which to me, if it is a problem area,
does not make sense because on a heavy traffic flow, it will cause cars to stop and
that leads to more traffic. But I know it is further up. I realize that it is not right
at the turn. I just have some concerns that some of the residents still have not
gotten used to this closure and expressed frustration that we did it permanently.
They feel like we are not open to other ways of accomplishing that left turn. I know
it is a tough job to try to accommodate all users, but we are in the heart of Lihu`e. I
think we want the vehicles to flow. We also have a school nearby so lunchtime and
after school hours, it is piling up. I was just wondering if Smart Growth can look at
those impacts, and not only take businesses', County, and State people's concerns,
but also drivers' concerns. I can give you some names of some people who have
some complaints and they only see it their way. It would be good if we can have
both sides, too, and maybe we can compromise.
Chair Furfaro: Before we go any further, Mr. Kagawa had
made two (2) suggestions here; the left-hand turn with the light and the parallel
parking here. I do want to compliment Engineering because they installed a
left-hand turn light. It is complete as of Friday, so my compliments to Engineering
for taking Mr. Kagawa and Mr. Rosa's suggestion and acting. Lyle, thank you very
much. I think it was complete on Wednesday.
Mr. Kagawa: Thank you. Great news. Again, there will
be new impacts now. Maybe all of those complaints will go away. I just want to
make sure that we are not only looking at the pedestrian side, but the vehicle side
as well. You know what I am talking about, so good job.
Mr. Steinmetz: Yes. I want to agree with a lot of the points
that you made. First of all, everything is related to everything else, so we really
need to be looking at the connections, how traffic flows, and parking. It is all
related. Another advantage of this technical assistance is that by building the
capacity of our own Staff, we are able to take these Smart Growth principles, but
apply them locally so that we are really coming up with local solutions that work
well here, and our Staff understands how to do that. I think that is another real
advantage. I also think we will be looking at other traffic improvements on Rice
Street that will address many of the concerns that you are bringing up. This will be
something that we will be working on overtime. By all means, we want this to be a
community process, so we get a lot of community involvement and hear what
everybody has to say.
Mr. Kagawa: I just want to close by saying that I offer my
service to assist in helping if it goes through.
Mr. Steinmetz: Thank you very much.
Chair Furfaro: JoAnn, you have the floor.
Ms. Yukimura: I wanted to also add a group of people who
are concerned about parking, and that is the tenants in the Lihu`e Town Court... the
condo project. They have called me already to ask if we are going to eliminate
parking. I do not know how far the plan is, but for on-street parking on Rice Street,
they are concerned because that is a big part of their parking. Including them in
this conversation and in this workshop will be very important. Thank you.
COUNCIL MEETING 55 DECEMBER 4, 2013
Mr. Steinmetz: Thank you.
Chair Furfaro: Thank you. I have one piece. On the five (5)
elements for parking, I am pretty familiar with it based on the fact that for
thirty-nine (39) years, I was in private business. We measured the amount of
parking needs that we have, whether it is for banquets, houseguests, restaurant,
and so forth. In the elements that you evaluated here, am I to assume that as we
talked about the demand, enforcement, and supply in economics that you included
commercial tenants along this way as part of this evaluation? What is this criteria
here in the elements that you looked at on the "economics" of it?
Mr. Steinmetz: I think there are a couple of parts to the
economic component. First of all, I think we will be looking primarily at public
parking, not private parking. Although, I think as part of understanding the full
demand, we will really need to understand both. But to me, there are two (2)
economic components. I hope to learn more from this workshop, too, so I do not
know if I have all of the answers. The first part of that is how does parking support
economic development? For example, there are different types of businesses. Some
do better with on-street parking. Things like florists, barbers, and those kinds of
businesses where people just want to stop, go in, and go on their way. I think there
is very much an economic development component of parking of looking at how
parking supports the types of development that we want to have. The other
economic components are costs and potential revenues associated with parking.
There is parking enforcement which has costs. There is the possibility of paid
parking in some areas which has potential for revenue. I think it is really
important as we develop a parking program and parking management that we
understand the potential costs and revenues associated with that.
Chair Furfaro: Just so you remember, when we issue a
ticket, the money goes to the State. I wanted to know if we were including
commercial businesses that would give you feedback about their need to have street
parking for the purpose of their business. Obviously, we can measure ours as
people go in for permits and so forth. They pay fees for those. I just wanted a little
better understanding of the element here that is called "the economics." Thank you
for the comments. JoAnn has another question. Go right ahead.
Ms. Yukimura: Is it not true there is an impact on economic
activity from walking also?
Mr. Steinmetz: Sure. The more that we can create
"walkable districts," there is certainly a benefit to that as well. That all contributes
to the mix of businesses that we have. It is related to the type of land use that we
develop in terms of where we put buildings, sidewalks, and all of those things. That
is definitely part of it as well.
Ms. Yukimura: Thank you.
Chair Furfaro: Mr. Rapozo?
Mr. Rapozo: I just have a follow-up to the Chair. That
works well if you are designing a new community or if you are designing a new
area, but this is an existing— we are basically trying to retrofit Smart Growth
principles into an existing community. My concern is for that on-street parking for
COUNCIL MEETING 56 DECEMBER 4, 2013
the existing businesses. I think you answered the Chair's question, but how are we
addressing that? How will we address those? Is it the plan of the Administration or
Planning to eliminate street parking?
Mr. Steinmetz: We have been working on various scenarios
of what Rice Street might look like. We really want to have a community process
before we finalize the outcome, but we have options that retain on-street parking.
We also have options that remove on-street parking. We have options where in
certain areas, it may be more important to have on-street parking than others. For
example, in this part of Rice Street, we have a lot of off-street parking so maybe
on-street parking is not as important as say further down Rice Street where there is
limited off-street parking.
Mr. Rapozo: For example, right here in front of Central
Pacific Bank and the Historic County Building, there are those businesses going
down. I do not know where the off-street parking is.
Mr. Steinmetz: I am thinking further up right here at the
Civic Center where we have ample off-street parking. I do not really have an
answer for you of what the plan is because we do not know yet. We really want to
get input, but we fully recognize that there are areas where having on-street
parking might be a benefit. That is something that we just have to have more
discussion on.
Mr. Rapozo: I think for some areas it is vital for the
success of the businesses. If you take away the on-street parking, you take away
their ability to survive. I think that is more my concern because off-street
parking— although they may be off-street and available, they are still private.
Mr. Steinmetz: Right.
Mr. Rapozo: Those parking stalls belong to other
businesses and I do not know if they are open to allowing "their" parking lots. What
I am afraid will happen is that these private entities that have the space will start
charging for parking because it is for their benefit for their customers and clients
and not the general public.
Mr. Steinmetz: All I can say is that nothing has been
decided and everything is on the table. We do really need to look at those conditions
very closely.
Mr. Rapozo: Thank you.
Chair Furfaro: Mr. Chock.
Mr. Chock: Mr. Steinmetz, I just wanted to ask because I
did not see it in the proposal in terms of timeframe. I understand that you get
notification by January. When is the workshop starting? I know that you have a
specified amount of time before you want to implement some of the practices?
Mr. Steinmetz: Right. Basically what Smart Growth
America told us had is that they will notify the recipients towards the end of
January, and then try to schedule the workshops within a year from that time.
COUNCIL MEETING 57 DECEMBER 4, 2013
Sometime within a year after January, we would schedule that but we do not have
any more information than that right now.
Mr. Chock: Thank you.
Chair Furfaro: Lee, thank you very much for giving us
feedback on the progress of this. Is there anyone in the audience who wishes to to
testify to this item? Seeing no one, I call the meeting back to order. Is there any
discussion members? If not, may I ask for a roll call vote please?
There being no objections, the meeting was called back to order, and
proceeded as follows:
The motion to approve C 2013-376 was then put, and carried by the following
vote:
FOR APPROVAL: Bynum, Chock, Hooser, Kagawa, Rapozo,
Yukimura, Furfaro TOTAL— 7,
AGAINST APPROVAL: None TOTAL— 0,
EXCUSED & NOT VOTING: None TOTAL— 0,
RECUSED & NOT VOTING: None TOTAL— 0.
Chair Furfaro: Thank you. Next up, we have Resolutions. I
want to remind everyone that I had sent out a note if you had queries because these
are all reappointments. If you had a query, you were to contact me and we would
handle it as an individual item. My plan is to have all of these read first, and then
do one approval on these reappointments. I did not hear from anyone on any
questions regarding re-interviewing these existing Commissioners. I would like the
Clerk to read all. Is there anyone that would have a comment on the request I am
making?
Mr. Bynum: I want to just make this comment now. I
appreciate that. These are all, as you mentioned, people who are serving our
community that choose to be reappointed. I intend to support all of them. If they
were not reappointments, then we would have different discussions. Thank you
very much.
Chair Furfaro: This is only for reappointments.
Mr. Bynum: Right. Thank you.
Chair Furfaro: I will turn this over to the Clerk to begin
reading, and then we are going to have a single motion and single vote on all of the
Resolutions. Go right ahead, Scott.
RESOLUTIONS:
Resolution No. 2013-76 — RESOLUTION CONFIRMING MAYORAL
REAPPOINTMENT TO THE BUILDING BOARD OF APPEALS (Miles Tanabe —
At-Large)
Resolution No. 2013-77 — RESOLUTION CONFIRMING MAYORAL
REAPPOINTMENT TO THE BOARD OF ETHICS (Kurt Akamine)
COUNCIL MEETING 58 DECEMBER 4, 2013
Resolution No. 2013-78 — RESOLUTION CONFIRMING MAYORAL
REAPPOINTMENT TO THE BOARD OF ETHICS (Brad Nagano)
Resolution No. 2013-79 — RESOLUTION CONFIRMING MAYORAL
REAPPOINTMENT TO THE BOARD OF REVIEW (Jose Ricardo da Silva Diogo)
Resolution No. 2013-80 — RESOLUTION CONFIRMING MAYORAL
REAPPOINTMENT TO THE BOARD OF WATER SUPPLY (Clyde Nakaya)
Resolution No. 2013-81 — RESOLUTION CONFIRMING MAYORAL
REAPPOINTMENT TO THE CHARTER REVIEW COMMISSION (Ed Justus, IV)
Resolution No. 2013-82 — RESOLUTION CONFIRMING MAYORAL
REAPPOINTMENT TO THE CHARTER REVIEW COMMISSION
(Charles Patrick Stack)
Resolution No. 2013-83 — RESOLUTION CONFIRMING MAYORAL
REAPPOINTMENT TO THE CIVIL SERVICE COMMISSION (John Low)
Resolution No. 2013-84 — RESOLUTION CONFIRMING MAYORAL
REAPPOINTMENT TO THE COST CONTROL COMMISSION
(Glen H. Takenouchi)
Resolution No. 2013-85 — RESOLUTION CONFIRMING MAYORAL
REAPPOINTMENT TO THE COST CONTROL COMMISSION
(Joanne P. Nakashima)
Resolution No. 2013-86 — RESOLUTION CONFIRMING MAYORAL
REAPPOINTMENT TO THE FIRE COMMISSION (Heidy K Huddy-Yamamoto)
Resolution No. 2013-87 — RESOLUTION CONFIRMING MAYORAL
REAPPOINTMENT TO THE FIRE COMMISSION (Eugene Keith Jimenez)
Resolution No. 2013-88 — RESOLUTION CONFIRMING MAYORAL
REAPPOINTMENT TO THE LIQUOR CONTROL COMMISSION (Dane Oda)
Resolution No. 2013-89 — RESOLUTION CONFIRMING MAYORAL
REAPPOINTMENT TO THE PLANNING COMMISSION (Wayne Katayama —
Business)
Resolution No. 2013-90 — RESOLUTION CONFIRMING MAYORAL
REAPPOINTMENT TO THE PLANNING COMMISSION (Angela M. Anderson —
Environmentalist)
Resolution No. 2013-91 — RESOLUTION CONFIRMING MAYORAL
REAPPOINTMENT TO THE POLICE COMMISSION (Randall Francisco)
Resolution No. 2013-92 — RESOLUTION CONFIRMING MAYORAL
REAPPOINTMENT TO THE POLICE COMMISSION (Charles Iona)
Resolution No. 2013-93 — RESOLUTION CONFIRMING MAYORAL
REAPPOINTMENT TO THE PUBLIC ACCESS, OPEN SPACE, AND NATURAL
RESOURCES PRESERVATION FUND COMMISSION (Luke A. Evslin—At-Large)
COUNCIL MEETING 59 DECEMBER 4, 2013
Resolution No. 2013-94 – RESOLUTION CONFIRMING MAYORAL
REAPPOINTMENT TO THE SALARY COMMISSION (Sheri Kunioka-Volz)
Ms. Yukimura moved to adopt Resolutions Nos. 2013-76, 2013-77, 2013-78,
2013-79, 2013-80, 2013-81, 2013-82, 2013-83, 2013-84, 2013-85, 2013-86, 2013-87,
2013-88, 2013-89, 2013-90, 2013-91, 2013-92, 2013-93, and 2013-94, seconded by
Mr. Chock.
Chair Furfaro: Are there any discussion members?
Mr. Kagawa.
Mr. Kagawa: Thank you Chair. I really want to thank all
of the people that are serving and for giving up their time to the community. We
have such a stellar list of people with great backgrounds. I want to thank Paula
and her Staff. I think we have really stepped up our Boards and Commissions and I
think that Office has really worked great for the community. I just have one issue
that I just have to bring up. It will not affect my vote, but it has been brought to my
attention by some members of the Charter Commission that there are two (2)
members; one of them who is on the list now that are really pushing for districting.
It is a push that is made by them in hopes that they would run and benefit from the
districting. My only concern with that amendment that goes out is that they can do
whatever they want, but my concern is that a lot of the times, the public voters do
not take the Charter Amendments seriously when they vote. They will just go in
and check all "no" or all "yes," and they will not really get into detail as to what they
are voting for sometimes. I believe that sometimes the outcome may not be what
the voters want, whereas I think when they elect the Mayor or Councilmembers, I
think they pay attention to who they are checking. Again, it is not to say that I am
against them serving, but I want to let them know that please consider that
districting Kaua`i is not districting Honolulu. It is apples and oranges. The
population here compared to the population in the City and County of Honolulu is
apples and oranges. To slice up a small pie does not make sense. Thank you, Chair.
Chair Furfaro: Thank you. Very well-summarized. If that
occurs, and the voters on Kaua`i have chosen for "At-Large" on previous times, but it
is the voters' choice. Thank you for the comments.
Mr. Rapozo: Thank you Mr. Kagawa for bringing that up.
I was not aware of that. I guess this question is really going... it will be sent over in
writing to the County Attorney Al, that if in fact, there are members serving on the
Charter Review that are advocating for districting and they intend to run; if that
poses a conflict of interest and should they be participating in the Charter activity
knowing that the outcome may, in fact, benefit them? I do not know. But if that is
something that you folks could look at Mr. Chair, I would appreciate it.
Chair Furfaro: We will send that question over.
Mr. Rapozo: Thank you.
Chair Furfaro: Is there any further discussion?
Mr. Hooser: Mr. Chair, since the issue has been raised, I
think it is only fair— I have spoken to many members of the Charter Review
Commission and I do not know of any of them that have said that they are planning
on running and taking this action to facilitate that at all. Whether any Charter
COUNCIL MEETING 60 DECEMBER 4, 2013
member runs in the future, I think we should encourage more people to run, quite
frankly. Whether or not districting is a good idea or bad idea, it would be up to the
people to decide.
Chair Furfaro: As I said, it is up to the voters.
Mr. Hooser: Thank you.
Chair Furfaro: So noted. It is not the first time it has been
on the ballot. Mr. Bynum, before we take the vote on all of them, you have
something for the floor? Go ahead.
Mr. Bynum: I just want to thank all of these individuals
for their service. It warms my heart to see people reapplying and I know a lot of
the good work that has happened from these individuals. I have to use this
opportunity to say to the Mayor that next time you make an appointment of a new
person to the Police Commission, that Commission needs more diversity. It needs a
woman. The Board of Water needs a consumer advocate and a woman. These are
reappointments, so thank you for your continued service.
Chair Furfaro: Point well-made. Without volunteers in our
community, we would not have a very effective County government. Volunteerism
is extremely important. On that note, may I have a roll call vote on all nineteen
(19) reappointments?
The motion to adopt Resolution No. 2013-76 was then put, and carried by the
following vote:
FOR APPROVAL: Bynum, Chock, Hooser, Kagawa, Rapozo,
Yukimura, Furfaro TOTAL— 7,
AGAINST APPROVAL: None TOTAL— 0,
EXCUSED & NOT VOTING: None TOTAL— 0,
RECUSED & NOT VOTING: None TOTAL— 0.
The motion to adopt Resolution No. 2013-77 was then put, and carried by the
following vote:
FOR APPROVAL: Bynum, Chock, Hooser, Kagawa, Rapozo,
Yukimura, Furfaro TOTAL— 7,
AGAINST APPROVAL: None TOTAL— 0,
EXCUSED & NOT VOTING: None TOTAL— 0,
RECUSED & NOT VOTING: None TOTAL— 0.
The motion to adopt Resolution No. 2013-78 was then put, and carried by the
following vote:
FOR APPROVAL: Bynum, Chock, Hooser, Kagawa, Rapozo,
Yukimura, Furfaro TOTAL— 7,
AGAINST APPROVAL: None TOTAL— 0,
EXCUSED & NOT VOTING: None TOTAL— 0,
RECUSED & NOT VOTING: None TOTAL— 0.
The motion to adopt Resolution No. 2013-79 was then put, and carried by the
following vote:
COUNCIL MEETING 61 DECEMBER 4, 2013
FOR APPROVAL: Bynum, Chock, Hooser, Kagawa, Rapozo,
Yukimura, Furfaro TOTAL— 7,
AGAINST APPROVAL: None TOTAL— 0,
EXCUSED & NOT VOTING: None TOTAL— 0,
RECUSED & NOT VOTING: None TOTAL— 0.
The motion to adopt Resolution No. 2013-80 was then put, and carried by the
following vote:
FOR APPROVAL: Bynum, Chock, Hooser, Kagawa, Rapozo,
Yukimura, Furfaro TOTAL— 7,
AGAINST APPROVAL: None TOTAL— 0,
EXCUSED & NOT VOTING: None TOTAL— 0,
RECUSED & NOT VOTING: None TOTAL— 0.
The motion to adopt Resolution No. 2013-81 was then put, and carried by the
following vote:
FOR APPROVAL: Bynum, Chock, Hooser, Kagawa, Rapozo,
Yukimura, Furfaro TOTAL— 7,
AGAINST APPROVAL: None TOTAL— 0,
EXCUSED & NOT VOTING: None TOTAL— 0,
RECUSED & NOT VOTING: None TOTAL— 0.
The motion to adopt Resolution No. 2013-82 was then put, and carried by the
following vote:
FOR APPROVAL: Bynum, Chock, Hooser, Kagawa, Rapozo,
Yukimura, Furfaro TOTAL— 7,
AGAINST APPROVAL: None TOTAL — 0,
EXCUSED & NOT VOTING: None TOTAL— 0,
RECUSED & NOT VOTING: None TOTAL— 0.
The motion to adopt Resolution No. 2013-83 was then put, and carried by the
following vote:
FOR APPROVAL: Bynum, Chock, Hooser, Kagawa, Rapozo,
Yukimura, Furfaro TOTAL— 7,
AGAINST APPROVAL: None TOTAL— 0,
EXCUSED & NOT VOTING: None TOTAL — 0,
RECUSED & NOT VOTING: None TOTAL— 0.
The motion to adopt Resolution No. 2013-84 was then put, and carried by the
following vote:
FOR APPROVAL: Bynum, Chock, Hooser, Kagawa, Rapozo,
Yukimura, Furfaro TOTAL— 7,
AGAINST APPROVAL: None TOTAL— 0,
EXCUSED & NOT VOTING: None TOTAL— 0,
RECUSED & NOT VOTING: None TOTAL — 0.
The motion to adopt Resolution No. 2013-85 was then put, and carried by the
following vote:
COUNCIL MEETING 62 DECEMBER 4, 2013
FOR APPROVAL: Bynum, Chock, Hooser, Kagawa, Rapozo,
Yukimura, Furfaro TOTAL — 7,
AGAINST APPROVAL: None TOTAL— 0,
EXCUSED & NOT VOTING: None TOTAL— 0,
RECUSED & NOT VOTING: None TOTAL— 0.
The motion to adopt Resolution No. 2013-86 was then put, and carried by the
following vote:
FOR APPROVAL: Bynum, Chock, Hooser, Kagawa, Rapozo,
Yukimura, Furfaro TOTAL— 7,
AGAINST APPROVAL: None TOTAL— 0,
EXCUSED & NOT VOTING: None TOTAL— 0,
RECUSED & NOT VOTING: None TOTAL— 0.
The motion to adopt Resolution No. 2013-87 was then put, and carried by the
following vote:
FOR APPROVAL: Bynum, Chock, Hooser, Kagawa, Rapozo,
Yukimura, Furfaro TOTAL — 7,
AGAINST APPROVAL: None TOTAL — 0,
EXCUSED & NOT VOTING: None TOTAL — 0,
RECUSED & NOT VOTING: None TOTAL— 0.
The motion to adopt Resolution No. 2013-88 was then put, and carried by the
following vote:
FOR APPROVAL: Bynum, Chock, Hooser, Kagawa, Rapozo,
Yukimura, Furfaro TOTAL— 7,
AGAINST APPROVAL: None TOTAL— 0,
EXCUSED & NOT VOTING: None TOTAL— 0,
RECUSED & NOT VOTING: None TOTAL— 0.
The motion to adopt Resolution No. 2013-89 was then put, and carried by the
following vote:
FOR APPROVAL: Bynum, Chock, Hooser, Kagawa, Rapozo,
Yukimura, Furfaro TOTAL— 7,
AGAINST APPROVAL: None TOTAL— 0,
EXCUSED & NOT VOTING: None TOTAL— 0,
RECUSED & NOT VOTING: None TOTAL— 0.
The motion to adopt Resolution No. 2013-90 was then put, and carried by the
following vote:
FOR APPROVAL: Bynum, Chock, Hooser, Kagawa, Rapozo,
Yukimura, Furfaro TOTAL— 7,
AGAINST APPROVAL: None TOTAL— 0,
EXCUSED & NOT VOTING: None TOTAL— 0,
RECUSED & NOT VOTING: None TOTAL— 0.
The motion to adopt Resolution No. 2013-91 was then put, and carried by the
following vote:
COUNCIL MEETING 63 DECEMBER 4, 2013
FOR APPROVAL: Bynum, Chock, Hooser, Kagawa, Rapozo,
Yukimura, Furfaro TOTAL— 7,
AGAINST APPROVAL: None TOTAL — 0,
EXCUSED & NOT VOTING: None TOTAL— 0,
RECUSED & NOT VOTING: None TOTAL— 0.
The motion to adopt Resolution No. 2013-92 was then put, and carried by the
following vote:
FOR APPROVAL: Bynum, Chock, Hooser, Kagawa, Rapozo,
Yukimura, Furfaro TOTAL— 7,
AGAINST APPROVAL: None TOTAL— 0,
EXCUSED & NOT VOTING: None TOTAL— 0,
RECUSED & NOT VOTING: None TOTAL— 0.
The motion to adopt Resolution No. 2013-93 was then put, and carried by the
following vote:
FOR APPROVAL: Bynum, Chock, Hooser, Kagawa, Rapozo,
Yukimura, Furfaro TOTAL— 7,
AGAINST APPROVAL: None TOTAL— 0,
EXCUSED & NOT VOTING: None TOTAL— 0,
RECUSED & NOT VOTING: None TOTAL— 0.
The motion to adopt Resolution No. 2013-94 was then put, and carried by the
following vote:
FOR APPROVAL: Bynum, Chock, Hooser, Kagawa, Rapozo,
Yukimura, Furfaro TOTAL— 7,
AGAINST APPROVAL: None TOTAL— 0,
EXCUSED & NOT VOTING: None TOTAL— 0,
RECUSED & NOT VOTING: None TOTAL — 0.
Chair Furfaro: Paula, thank you very much. On that note, we need
to take a tape change. I would also like to take a break at the same time. We are
on a ten (10) minute recess.
There being no objections, the meeting recessed at 2:24 p.m.
The meeting reconvened at 2:34 p.m., and proceeded as follows:
Chair Furfaro: We are back from our tape change and quick
caption break. We would like to go to Bills for First Reading. To the Clerk, could
you have the reading done please?
BILLS FOR FIRST READING:
Proposed Draft Bill (No. 2513) — A BILL FOR AN ORDINANCE AMENDING
ORDINANCE NO. B-2013-753, AS AMENDED, RELATING TO THE OPERATING
BUDGET OF THE COUNTY OF KAUAI, STATE OF HAWAII, FOR THE FISCAL
YEAR JULY 1, 2013 THROUGH JUNE 30, 2014, BY REVISING THE AMOUNTS
ESTIMATED IN THE GENERAL FUND (Office of Economic Development,
Executive/Consultant Services (Joint Fact Finding Group (JFFG) Scope-of-Work
COUNCIL MEETING 64 DECEMBER 4, 2013
Environmental Public Health Impact Study (EPHIS)) - $100,000): Mr. Rapozo
moved for passage of Proposed Draft Bill No. 2513 on first reading, that it be
ordered to print, that a public hearing thereon be scheduled for January 16, 2014,
and that it thereafter be referred to Finance & Economic Development (Tourism /
Visotr Industry / Small Business Development / Sports & Recreation Development /
Other Economic Development Areas) Committee, seconded by Ms. Yukimura.
Chair Furfaro: Is there any public testimony on this item?
If not, is there any discussion members? Mr. Kagawa, you have the floor.
Mr. Kagawa: I just flew to O`ahu last week and I met with
Mr. Gill again from the State Department of Health. He reiterated to me that the
EPHIS would be a good thing for us to do. Actually, it is something that I think our
County has wanted the Department of Health to do for a while. I think if this will
help the process along to help get some answers as to the effects of agriculture and
pesticide use on the environment, as well as to the health of people. Anything that
will give us some of those answers, I think is a good step. I will be supporting this.
Thank you.
Chair Furfaro: Is there any more discussion? Council
Yukimura.
Ms. Yukimura: If there is one thing that came out as a
consensus out of the discussion from Bill No. 2491 is that we need more and better
information about some of the impacts, especially of large-scale pesticide use on our
island. There was certainly enough anecdotal information to say that we need to
look at things closer. This study, I think, is very important, and I am glad that
Councilmember Kagawa spoke to Gary Gill at the Department of Health because I
believe this study will bring in agencies and draw upon resources from the different
Government agencies, as well as other partners to look at this question. I envision
this to be a joint community effort, that is an effort that we all embark on together
and hopefully when we get the results, we can together use the results to create
better laws if necessary or better solutions for the problem that is facing us.
Chair Furfaro: Any more comments before I speak?
Mr. Bynum?
Mr. Bynum: Yes, I am going to be in support of this,
obviously. We have gone through a very difficult period with disagreements and
veto overrides, but we have passed the law. There were clearly areas that we all
agreed on and this was one of them. Part of my takeaway from all of this was that
the State's a responsibility to malama aina in almost every level is in crisis.
Whether it is (inaudible), the Department of Land and Natural Resources (DLNR),
the Department of Health, Agriculture Division, or the Natural Resources
Conservation Service (NRCS); they are not functioning to malama aina any longer
and the County has had to step up when it was important and this is. Thank you.
Chair Furfaro: JoAnn?
Ms. Yukimura: I want to thank you, Chair, for identifying
where we could get this money from. I want to thank the Mayor and Finance
Department for initiating this Bill and bringing it forward. Assuming we pass this
today, we will have both administrative and legislative support for this study, which
to me, sends a great signal out to the community and is a good start.
COUNCIL MEETING 65 DECEMBER 4, 2013
Chair Furfaro: Go ahead, Mr. Kagawa.
Mr. Kagawa: I have one last comment, too. I also had time
last week to meet with Thomas Matsuda from the Department of Agriculture and
there were twelve (12) recent cases that they investigated on Kaua`i; six (6) were
because of residential use of pesticides; four (4) were because of small farmers; and
two (2) were because of the seed corn companies. I just wanted to point that out
that the complaints are not only from the seed corn companies. Thank you.
Chair Furfaro: Before I call for the vote, I just want to
remind everybody that it is becoming more and more obvious as we go forward on
certain things that the financial needs and the criteria set aside that we look
towards the State on; we need to do a stronger effort in lobbying. I will give you a
few examples here. When Councilwoman Yukimura and I went night hunting for
Coqui frogs, we found no money from the State to help us. Almost one million
dollars ($1,000,000) million went to Hawai`i island. Yet for three (3) years, we had
to fund that particular piece to get us to a point where we could manage the Coqui
frogs at the County Council level with the Invasive Specifies Council. In three (3)
years, we spent almost two hundred and five thousand dollars ($205,000) of County
money to do it, but our County can basically say, "We can manage Coqui frogs." I
will tell you that it is at a very, very challenging status on Hawai`i island, to the
effect that I think they have pretty much given up on it. That was one. Then it
came to the Important Agriculture Land Study, the four (4) Counties had to share
seventy-five thousand dollars ($75,000), which was the only allocation that they
have. We basically said for us to do it right, for the right reason, for the right
people; we formed our own citizens group and we funded the Important Agricultural
Land Study at the County level. We took no State money because there was no
money. It comes to the point where they pass mandates, but they do not pass along
the financial pieces to go along with those mandates.
As you know, my hometown that I consider is Kilauea. When we had the
clean-up at Kilauea from Kilauea sugar, there was money that State made available
to us, but in my thanking Mr. Gill, he indicated to me that another project of that
size, they would need County financial support. We, as a body, need to be aware
that each time we are doing these things, we are stepping into areas that we think
the research, the study, and the correction needs to happen, and it is money that we
seem to be advancing. Now my discussion and my E-mail references this one
hundred thousand dollars ($100,000) and I want to make sure that we understand
that to me, it is a cap of what we are putting aside. This is not an item that we can
keep coming back to renegotiate. The scope of the bid has to be very clear and it has
to include the stakeholders to get us to that point because there might be a bigger,
second part to this a little later. The whole State would be very interested in what
we are going to accomplish here. We have about one hundred thirteen thousand
dollars ($113,000), maybe one hundred eleven thousand dollars ($111,000) now that
JoAnn had referred to thanking me earlier, but I want to thank Steve for helping
me identify what we are going to do with a tax bill that we are going to collect from
the agricultural community that will be made available to this. But it is a cap.
Please be focused on the trend here. The trend is that we keep stepping into areas
that are not our financial responsibility, but they clearly are for our community and
is our kuleana. We need to be aware of that.
COUNCIL MEETING 66 DECEMBER 4, 2013
Mr. Hooser: Chair, I was not planning on adding to the
conversation, but because of the remarks you made and others, I would like to say a
word or two.
Chair Furfaro: Go right ahead.
Mr. Hooser: First of all, I agree with you one hundred
percent (100%). I am going O`ahu tomorrow on my own dime, I have to add, and
meeting with Legislators in both the House and the Senate. I will be back on
Monday doing the same thing. I have invited the Chairman of the Ways and Means
Committee in the Senate to come over the following week to meet with residents
and also if Councilmembers want to meet with him. As you know, that is the money
Committee. The awareness at the State Legislature of the people that I am talking
to on a regular basis is higher than it has ever been. I have no doubt, whatsoever,
that the State as a whole will benefit immensely from the increased awareness and
effort that our Council has made in this particular area. I have no doubt that the
funding for more inspectors is going to happen. Whether it will happen enough—
but I know it is going to be increased as a result of the efforts of Kaua`i County. The
entire State will benefit, and I believe the leaders in the State, Government, as well
as otherwise, realize that the State has dropped the ball on this and that Kaua`i
County has pointed that out. As a result, I think they are going to pick up the ball
to a larger extent, not to preempt what we are doing necessarily, but to add to it and
to add value to the work that we have done. I feel real good about the State in the
coming Legislative Session in stepping up to helping us, as well as the rest of the
State on this issue. Thank you.
Chair Furfaro: Thank you for those comments and we wish
you a successful trip. The money bill that I put together and introduced for these
agricultural inspectors is in front of them. I would also like to take the time to
thank Mr. Kagawa for his continued focus with Honolulu. I would certainly make
myself available to meet with The Ways and Means when they are here. Again, my
comments were just about the recent things that we have had to step up to the plate
and some word of caution.
Mr. Kagawa: Chair, if I could just add one more result of
my meeting. I specifically asked for Kaua`i on how much of the Department of
Agriculture was going to go up and he said one (1) Inspector and one (1) Education
Specialist. We will go up to two (2) Inspectors and one (1) Educational Specialist.
That is the proposal.
Chair Furfaro: Thank you for getting that clarification for
us. On that note, is there any more discussion?
Mr. Bynum: I want to thank you for your comments
today, Mr. Chair, because they were right only the mark, especially about the State
having a financial responsibility, but us having a kuleana. It was well-said. Thank
you.
Chair Furfaro: Okay. On that note, may I ask for a roll call
vote please?
COUNCIL MEETING 67 DECEMBER 4, 2013
The motion for passage of Proposed Draft Bill No. 2513 on first reading, that
. it be ordered to print, that a public hearing thereon be scheduled for
January 16, 2014, and that it thereafter be referred to Finance & Economic
Development (Tourism / Visotr Industry / Small Business Development /
Sports & Recreation Development / Other Economic Development Areas)
Committee was then put, and carried by the following vote:
FOR PASSAGE: Bynum, Chock, Hooser, Kagawa, Rapozo,
Yukimura, Furfaro TOTAL— 7,
AGAINST PASSAGE: None TOTAL— 0,
EXCUSED & NOT VOTING: Furfaro TOTAL— 0,
RECUSED & NOT VOTING: None TOTAL— 0.
Proposed Draft Bill (No. 2514) — A BILL FOR AN ORDINANCE AMENDING
SECTION 5-2.3, KAUAI COUNTY CODE 1987, AS AMENDED, RELATING TO
THE COUNTY MOTOR VEHICLE WEIGHT TAX: Mr. Bynum moved for passage of
Proposed Draft Bill No. 2514 on first reading, that it be ordered to print, that a
public hearing thereon be scheduled for January 16, 2014, and that it thereafter be
referred to Finance & Economic Development (Tourism / Visotr Industry / Small
Business Development / Sports & Recreation Development / Other Economic
Development Areas) Committee, seconded by Ms. Yukimura.
Chair Furfaro: Is there any discussion? Mr. Rapozo, go
right ahead.
Mr. Rapozo: Mr. Chair, it is not normal or not usual for
us to vote against first bill readings, but I will not be supporting the Bill. I think we
went through the exercise in the budget of last year, heard all of the discussion, and
heard from the public. Now we are coming up on a new budget year in a few
months. We heard from the Finance Director earlier today that we are awaiting the
CAFR and waiting to find out where our financial position is going to be, actually in
a couple of weeks... maybe two (2) weeks. We are going to get a briefing on the
CAFR to find out exactly what the rollover will be into next year. I think the, and
my comments will be for the two (2) items today, that now is not the time to be
discussing another potential tax increase. Like I said, we have discussed this in
length. These two (2) items did not pass during the budget and I think this would
be more appropriately presented during the budget after we have the final report
from the Finance Department with the CAFR to find out exactly where we are at. I
do not think the people will appreciate the County Motor Vehicle Weight Tax, as
well as the Tipping Fees to be increased. The arguments have not changed. People
are struggling right now. I think, as I have stated during the budget proceedings, I
do not believe we have seen enough effort put in the cost-cutting measures in our
County. We constantly look at ways to generate revenue. We are also discussing
potential changes with the General Excise Tax power in the Counties. We have a
lot of opportunities and options still available to us and I think we should explore
other options before we increase our citizens' taxes. Again, not normal for Councils
to vote against first reading bills, but I do not consider this a... it is a first reading
bill, but it is one that we addressed a few months ago and it did not pass. I will not
be supporting it today. Thank you.
Chair Furfaro: Okay. Mr. Kagawa.
Mr. Kagawa: I too, will not be supporting it on first
reading because of the same reasons. In May, we did not approve it. I voted no.
COUNCIL MEETING 68 DECEMBER 4, 2013
Some of my reasons was; number one, for residential users, a typical car might go
up from seventy dollars ($70) or a little more. I do not think we should do it right
now. We said "no" in May. The other one that kind of stuck in my head was a
major Kaua`i-owned trucking company owner telling me that the cost of his large
trucks might put him out of business. I thought about that and it kind of stuck
with me because we are seeing a lot of these out-of-island, out-of-state companies
that are really taking over our local companies' business because they are able to
sustain those downtimes and they have more capital. I just think this is one area
where if we can at least relieve our local residents and enable them to compete for
jobs and sustain those downtimes. I think is really important. For those reasons, I
will not be supporting it and I would be happy to entertain this Bill during budget.
Thank you.
Chair Furfaro: Thank you. Councilmember Yukimura.
Ms. Yukimura: As to the two (2) Bills, one of the Motor
Vehicle Weight Tax and Solid Waste Fees, I have concerns about both of them, but I
think we need to position them and hear input from the public about them. I think
it is suitable to do it now. We can always defer final action on the Bill to the budget
session, but we need to look for more revenues. Also, people need to pay for the
services rendered. Vehicle weight taxes by weight cause damage to the roads,
which then need to be repaired to be maintained proactively. We are expecting a
full report from our Roads Division during budget, and from all prognostications, it
is going to be a large bill we have to pay to proactively or do preventative
maintenance to our roads, which if we do not do, we pay one way or the other. We
pay by car repairs or we pay by repaving the roads. We have to be responsible in
figuring out how to keep our infrastructure in good repair. This is one way. We just
passed a Bill that is committing us to eight hundred thousand dollars ($800,000) a
year for an additional police beat. We cannot neglect other areas of our County
services. I think it is responsible to position all of these Bills, at least for final
passage, get all of the input, and then make our decisions that we have to make. I
think we should at least pass these Bills on first reading.
Chair Furfaro: Okay. Mr. Bynum.
Mr. Bynum: It has been an interesting day. As I said
earlier, since I have been involved in County government, our citizens have asked
us to step up. They asked us to fully fund the Police Department and get more
beats. They asked us to create a Parks Department and they voted to create a
Parks Department. They voted to create an Auditor's Department. They want us
to pave our roads correctly and Public Works is going to pave them correctly from
now on. These are positive things, but they cost money. We are engaged in a huge
environmental clean-up that we should not have had to budget for, but we have to.
The Administration last year did an analysis of fees. I am a supporter of user fees.
When they are done properly and they make sense, then the people who are
benefiting are paying and they are part of our funding mix. The Administration
recommended these two (2) fees and the Council did not agree. A lot has happened
since then. Councilmembers who said they were going to vote against this today
voted for millions of dollars in increased spending. You cannot have your cake and
eat it, too. It is just that simple. If you want this level of service, you have to pay
for it. It is our responsibility to do that. HGEA, Police, and Fire— they held off on
benefits. They pay more of their medical. We went through this economic down
turn. We are going to discuss that a lot over the next few weeks because we made
decisions during this period that got us in a pretty tight jam right now. In the long
•
COUNCIL MEETING 69 DECEMBER 4, 2013
run, how do you vote for millions of dollars of spending, and then say, "But I am not
even going to consider revenues to address those concerns." This is about
positioning these Bills to be part of the mix. Councilmember Yukimura has it
correct. I am putting these Bills forward, so I am going to support them because I
believe this is an appropriate part of our revenue mix. As we go into this period, the
Mayor has to give us a balanced budget and we have to have one at the end of the
day. If these fees do not come from here, they are going to come from somewhere
else. I will not go into all of the details because this is first reading, but especially
the tipping fees are good, social, public policy at this stage. I will be prepared to
defend those, presuming we get through first reading today, which is typically what
we do and set that for a public hearing. If we do not pass the Bill on first reading,
the public does not get to chime in at all because what we do today is set-up a public
hearing and engage the public process. It makes prudent sense to make these Bills
available, should we choose to use them as part of our revenue mix. Thank you.
Chair Furfaro: This is first reading. Is there anyone else
who wants to speak the first time before I speak? Go ahead, Mr. Rapozo.
Mr. Rapozo: I just want to say that the public hearing
occurred a few months ago. We had this discussion and I guess what frustrates me
is that Councilmembers do not get their way, so they just reintroduce and keep
trying until they get it passed. That is the frustration. We had the public hearing.
I heard from the community and continue to hear from the community. It is a few
weeks away from Christmas and we are giving them a Christmas gift of a tax
increase. That is not right. As far as approving the cost items earlier today, I did,
but I also expect the Administration to come across with some cost-savings
measures that I have not seen. We still have a whole bunch of positions that are
funded that are not filled. We have not seen any attempts, in my opinion, enough to
warrant a tax increase at this time. Like Mr. Bynum, he will defend his position
and so will I when we get to the Committee Meeting. Thank you.
Chair Furfaro: I am going to go on in first reading and keep
recognizing people and I would like to keep my comments for the end, but I let
Mr. Rapozo speak a second time, so Mr. Bynum and JoAnn may also speak.
Mr. Bynum: We can see how spirited this discussion will
be going forward because we have huge challenges, right? I have heard Mr. Rapozo
talk about cost-savings from cutting, but I have not seen him put much cost-cutting
proposals before the Council, so I will be interested to see... he said earlier, that we
should not spend money where we do not need to. I am really interested to see
where you think we are spending money that we do not need to. We will do that
over the next few months. Thank you.
Chair Furfaro: JoAnn.
Ms. Yukimura: Councilmember Bynum has talked about
people asking for these services like parks, an Auditor, and those kinds of things.
Our responsibility as County government is to provide those services efficiently and
effectively. That is why I was asking the questions this morning of the Police and
will ask of it every single Department, including the Mayor. I have many concerns,
especially about the Solid Waste Division in terms of the management there. It is
not like I am totally in favor of these fees right now. They can be amended. They
can be modulated. They can be killed. I think we have to have this discussion and
that is why I will be voting on first reading for them.
COUNCIL MEETING 70 DECEMBER 4, 2013
Chair Furfaro: Okay. I am going to speak last here if I can.
I want the Finance Director to take note of my comments here. When we get to
January 16th, I want some information made available to the Council. At the last
look, I think we had seventy-eight thousand (78,000) register vehicles in the County
of Kaua`i. I would like to make sure that we have a pure understanding of cars,
trucks, trailers, and the whole bit, so make certain that is available to us, okay? As
far as the cost-cutting, I have to tell you that I was so disappointed in the Roads
Division about forty-five (45) minutes ago. They make a twenty-three thousand
dollar ($23,000) swing on what is really a line item for miscellaneous expenses and
supplies, and they do not blink an eye at moving that kind of money. Well, maybe
that is where the cost-cutting has to come from during this budget round. You keep
finding twenty-three thousand dollars ($23,000) that they put in the budget and say
they need, but they can move it later. I am pretty good at budgeting and I did it for
thirty-nine (39) years in the visitor industry and even at Sheraton Waikiki and the
Princess Ka`iulani, who had a bigger Operating Budget than the County of Kauai.
Maybe that message has to come from you folks and maybe we have to enforce it a
little bit. Steve, can you prepare that information for me? I would also like to let
you know that we are looking forward to the CAFR coming and it will come up on
the 17th. We will have that information by the time we get to January 16th, so that
is a big help. The Building Department has fallen seven (7) months behind on their
building reports. I take that personally because I helped design that form, so that
we could forecast future income based on the value of building permits. If we need
to wake them up, we will wake them up, but I need your help on that, Steve, along
with the variance reports. We have not seen a quarterly financial report for some
time, but we are due for one soon. You have one in your hand. Thank you so much.
In the meantime without it, we are kind of flying blind. I just want to remind
everybody that the purse strings are attached here. Right here. I will be
supporting this because of the timing element. We will be able to get a view of the
CAFR, and then we will have a better understanding where we are at on
January 16th. We need some additional information, Steve. If nobody else wants to
speak, I am going to call for the vote.
The motion for passage of Proposed Draft Bill No. 2514 on first reading, that
it be ordered to print, that a public hearing thereon be scheduled for
January 16, 2014, and that it thereafter be referred to Finance & Economic
Development (Tourism / Visotr Industry / Small Business Development /
Sports & Recreation Development / Other Economic Development Areas)
Committee was then put, and carried by the following vote:
FOR PASSAGE: Bynum, Chock, Hooser, Yukimura,
Furfaro TOTAL— 5,
AGAINST PASSAGE: Kagawa, Rapozo TOTAL— 2,
EXCUSED & NOT VOTING: Furfaro TOTAL— 0,
RECUSED & NOT VOTING: None TOTAL— 0.
Proposed Draft Bill (No. 2515) — A BILL FOR AN ORDINANCE AMENDING
SECTION 21-9.2 OF THE KAUAI COUNTY CODE 1987, AS AMENDED,
RELATING TO INTEGRATED SOLID WASTE MANAGEMENT: Mr. Bynum moved
for passage of Proposed Draft Bill No. 2515 on first reading, that it be ordered to
print, that a public hearing thereon be scheduled for January 16, 2014, and that it
thereafter be referred to Environmental Services / Public Safety / Community
Assistance Committee, seconded by Ms. Yukimura.
COUNCIL MEETING 71 DECEMBER 4, 2013
Chair Furfaro: Is there any discussion? Mr. Kagawa.
Mr. Kagawa: This is another Bill that we denied in May
and I voted no at that time. I still feel the same way for the following reasons:
number one, after talking to some of the people at Garden Island Disposal, et
cetera, they had no problem with the tipping fees going up. The only worry that
they had was for the businesses that they will be passing on these increased costs
to. They said many of these businesses are struggling to pay their bills and
struggling to have enough revenue to call them additional times or what have you
to satisfy their needs of rubbish pickup. That concerns me that our local businesses
may be adversely impacted by passing a Bill that we denied six (6) months ago. The
second reason why I feel it is not proper at this time is because I believe that there
are is vast improvement that needs to be done in the Solid Waste Division as far as
recycling, et cetera. My counterpart, Councilmember Yukimura— we have good
agreement on what she says. We have been stuck at that thirty percent (30%) or
what have you for such a long time. I continue to go to our County parks and I see
recyclables in the rubbish cans. We need to really change the thinking of our
residents. This is a huge problem. In the meantime, we are stuck doing the same
mistakes that we have been doing from the early 90's. In the early 90's, I was an
Analyst like the Analysts here and I was in charge of Public Works. We looked at
plasma arc and all kinds of stuff, and it never has come to fruition. I think coming
in, I really hope that we could possibly get into some type of waste to energy. I just
recently heard that I think Maui is on track to change into bio fuel and they are
going to be turning every type of rubbish into energy. That is just amazing. They
will vastly reduce their need for landfilling. I think our Solid Waste Division— I
know they are really trying to find the right fit for it, but I think at some point, we
just need to set our minds that that is the only alternative, which is to go into that
kind of direction. The building of rubbish at Kekaha is reaching its end. If we
think fast and do something fast, I think we can avoid Ma'alo, or at least the need
there will not be as urgent. I can see increasing our tipping fees if it is going
towards something positive, but if it is just increasing our tipping fees for the sake
of doing the same thing and just burying it, I am not for it. At this time, I am not
for the direction that we have been going. I look for a new direction from the Solid
Waste Division. I will be voting no. Thank you.
Chair Furfaro: Thank you for your comments. Mr. Bynum,
and then Mr. Chock.
Mr. Bynum: I just want to let folks know that we are
going to ask the Solid Waste Division to look at the goals that were set, our adopted
Integrated Solid Waste plan in 2008, where we are currently on those goals, and
what their projected completions are compared to the plan. This is the first reading
Bill, so I do not want to go into tons of stuff. Again, I am assured that there is a
public record out there. We adopted these plans and we can analyze it. I do not
want to go into those details other than to say that Solid Waste is a place where our
General Fund hugely subsidizes the cost of running that Division. That means if
the businesses that are dumping trash do not pay this fee, then other taxpayers pay
it. The trash gets generated and it gets dealt with one way or another. The fees we
charge are not even close to the cost of service for that whole Division. We should
have had a plan to address that over time, but we just have accepted that our Solid
Waste Division is going to be a drained from the General Fund. Again, we have
fixed costs that we have to meet, right? We need to have a robust and fair mix of
revenues to do that. My closing statement is that we would not even be having
these discussions if the State had not stolen thirteen million dollars ($13,000,000)
COUNCIL MEETING 72 DECEMBER 4, 2013
from us. We are chasing ten million dollars ($10,000,000) and we lost thirteen
million dollars ($13,000,000) from visitors who come here. A lot of people are
saying, "Okay, we lost that money forever. Let us get it from our local taxpayers
instead, so the visitors who use all of the services pay nothing and we are going to
get that from you guys." We have got to have this big robust discussion about how
we fund the commitments that we have made. We have made those commitments.
I think this is part of the mix. It will be a trigger for us to discuss the Solid Waste
issues and to understand why this is an important fee for bigger reasons. We will
have that discussion as we go through the Bill.
Chair Furfaro: Mr. Chock, you have the floor, followed by
Mr. Rapozo.
Mr. Chock: It is first reading. I feel like I really agree
with what Councilmember Kagawa was going in the direction he is going. I think
that we need to find the time to discuss this more. I want to hear more from the
public about it. Hopefully through that discussion, we will get to some solutions.
We can move at a different direction, but I like the option here and I am willing to
approve this on first reading. Thank you.
Chair Furfaro: Mr. Rapozo.
Mr. Rapozo: Thank you Mr. Chair. Mr. Chock was not
here during the budget discussions, so I am sure he will hear it. Mr. Chair, imagine
that next month your hotel's food costs went up by forty-three percent (43%).
Imagine forty-three percent (43%). That is what the tipping fee for the municipal
solid waste is proposed— forty-three percent (43%). Imagine that, Sir. Can you
imagine going to your chefs and preparing your menu now and saying, "My gosh,
our food costs have just gone up forty-three percent (43%)." What is that going to do
to your menu pricing? You are not going to eat it; you are going to pass it on. It is
the same thing here and I do not think we see that. Everybody assumes that all
businesses have a lot of money and cash flow is fine, but forty-three percent (43%)...
that is just in your normal daily waste. That is just in your normal daily waste,
your municipal. It goes up twenty-five percent (25%) for asbestos containing
materials. That should be higher. That is the hazardous waste that requires
special handling. That is where the increase should be where we have special
handling requirements. But no, your regular trash gets hit forty-three percent
(43%), asbestos-containing materials is just twenty-five percent (25%), and dead
animals are thirty-two percent (32%). That is what this Bill is doing. For the forty-
three percent (43%), I just do not know if some businesses can absorb that but we
are not thinking about that because we just want to get this thing passed. The
Finance Director said earlier that property values are increasing. We know that.
In some areas, it is increasing substantially. I read the "for sale" publications. That
is going to generate more Real Property Tax revenue for this County. We get new
developments being proposed; that is going to generate more tax revenue for this
County. I guess what I am saying is, and as I said in last Bill, we are in the middle
of two (2) budget cycles. We do not have all of the information right now to make a
determination of when we should increase any taxes. I am not supporting it,
obviously, because I understand what the impact will be and I know what the public
sentiment will be. I do not know what the justification or rationale is. Was it just
arbitrary and capricious and just picking a number from the sky? Forty-three
percent (43%)? That is just too high for me and it is too much for our small
businesses to absorb. Thank you Mr. Chair.
COUNCIL MEETING 73 DECEMBER 4, 2013
Chair Furfaro: Are there any more comments? JoAnn, go
ahead.
Ms. Yukimura: Even though I seconded the motion on Solid
Waste Fees, I have severe reservations as I have expressed before. It is true that it
would be appropriate to ask the users to pay for the cost of service, but not when the
cost of service includes the cost of horrendous mismanagement. That is what I do
not want to keep throwing money at. That is not right to ask our users to pay for
that and that is what my concern is. I have asked Public Works that if we spend
the nine million dollars ($9,000,000) slated to expand the old landfill instead on
diversion infrastructure like the Materials Recovery Facility (MRF) and we
accelerate our efforts on that, can we lengthen the life of the landfill and use our
dollars for the future rather than the past? I have not yet gotten an answer on that.
Those are the kinds of management issues in the Administration that have to be
addressed and have to be vetted here before us because it puts us into a horrible
dilemma if they are not properly managed. I see this Bill as a chance to address
those issues, which I think we must address on behalf of the taxpayers and the
users.
Chair Furfaro: Is there any more discussion before I speak?
No, okay. To the Director of Finance, as I mentioned earlier, I will be sending over
a memorandum from myself on the vehicle weight tax situation, number of vehicles,
types, total revenue, and so forth. I will also be sending over questions regarding
solid waste, and in particular, some of the new collections that we have like
curbside, tipping fees, and so forth so that we have a good understanding. I would
like those available to us on January 16th. Thank you very much. On that note, I
would like to call for the vote.
The motion for passage of Proposed Draft Bill No. 2515 on first reading, that
it be ordered to print, that a public hearing thereon be scheduled for
January 16, 2014, and that it thereafter be referred to Environmental
Services / Public Safety / Community Assistance Committee was then put,
and carried by the following vote:
FOR PASSAGE: Bynum, Chock, Hooser, Yukimura,
Furfaro TOTAL— 5,
AGAINST PASSAGE: Kagawa, Rapozo TOTAL— 2,
EXCUSED & NOT VOTING: Furfaro TOTAL— 0,
RECUSED & NOT VOTING: None TOTAL— 0.
Chair Furfaro: Thank you. Before I adjourn the meeting
today, it would be probably wise that I make note that for the COPS Grant, there
were twenty-one (21) pieces of testimony that came in favor of that support. I just
want to make note of that. I have just recently caught up on it. It has gone from
our Congressional people to the other neighbor island Police Chiefs who have
encouraged us for the exception. That should be part of the record. On that note, I
would like to thank everybody. Our meeting for today is adjourned.
COUNCIL MEETING 74 DECEMBER 4, 2013
ADJOURNMENT:
There being no further business, the meeting was adjourned at 3:39 p.m.
esp• l ully submitted,
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JAD ► .-• •" • N-TANIGAWA
Deput ounty Clerk
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