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HomeMy WebLinkAboutCivil Defense Agency, FY 2014-15 DEPARTMENTAL BUDGET REVIEWS 4/11/2014 DEPARTMENTAL BUDGET REVIEWS 2014-15 CIVIL DEFENSE April 11, 2014 Civil Defense (ss) Page 1 There being no objections, the Committee was called back to order at 3:46 p.m., and proceeded as follows: Civil Defense Honorable Mason K. Chock, Sr. Honorable Gary L. Hooser Honorable Jay Furfaro, Council Chair (present at 4:14 p.m.) Excused: Honorable Ross Kagawa Honorable Tim Bynum Honorable Mel Rapozo (left at 4:41 p.m.) Mr. Rapozo: The meeting is called back to order and next up is Civil Defense. So thank you for being here. The floor is yours. GLENDA NOGAMI-STREUFERT, Civil Defense Manager: Thank you for having us and thank you for giving us this opportunity to show you what we have done in the past year and what we are planning to do in 2015. Mr. Rapozo: If you could just introduction introduce yourself for the captioner. Ms. Nogami-Streufert: My name is Glenda Nogami-Streufert and I am the manager for the Civil Defense Agency on Kaua`i. I have a short PowerPoint presentation that summarizes everything that you have in the budget and in the materials. Our mission statement, we are really part of the critical public safety infrastructure system that you have on Kaua`i and Ni`ihau. We coordinate efforts among Agencies as well as prepare, respond to, and recovery and assist in the preparation, response, and recovery from emergencies and hazards and disasters. These are some of the ways that we carry out our mission. We do the Civil Defense Emergency Management functions within the Emergency Operations Center (EOC) and also try to involve the public with awareness and enhance our operational readiness and our partners' operational readiness through training and exercises. I would to indicate that we have the Civil Air Patrol in the audience because they are participating with some of our training and exercises, as well as we were procuring and maintaining operational and interoperable communications. We have a lot of redundant systems but they are all very necessary. These are some of our successes and achievements since January 2013. We have had 13 EOC activations in that time. Most of them were flash flood warnings but we just had a tsunami advisory as well as a severe thunderstorm warning and tropical storm watch and warning. We have done many exercises and trainings primarily for readiness. One was weapons of mass destruction exercise in September of last year, as well as first-responder and emergency management training. Those are some of them that we have done. We have also done skyward for the public and we have done wet weather briefs, NOAA product briefs, and other kinds of training that I can go into, but these are the probably the most important ones. We also do education training and outreach with the public schools, we do their evacuation drills with them. We go to community and neighborhood associations. And we work with our visitor industry with Sue Kanoho and with Costa and with the non- governmental organizations like the Red Cross, Civil Air Patrol, which is quasi- governmental. This particular picture up there is of the Wilcox School because we have them come into our EOC. They get training and some briefings on tsunami and hurricane April 11, 2014 Civil Defense (ss) Page 2 awareness. Elton is one of the people that we have as an instructor. He does a very good job and recently we have had Chelsie who also did it too. These are some other ones that we have done. These are the grants that we have taken care of. Since the year 2000, the Civil Defense Agency has managed over $16 million in grants. That is a very significant amount of it. In addition to which last year...in addition to what you see up here, last year we also bought portable repeaters and radio system upgrades for both the Fire, as well as Police Departments. Personal protective equipment for the Fire Department, helicopter shelter for the Fire Department and we offered assistance to the Firefighters and I will get into that a little later for the 105 radios. In addition, we also assist them with their travel to conferences and to training. This is one of the newest acquisitions that we have, it is the Lenco Bearcat Rescue Vehicle for the Kaua`i Police Department. That was just delivered a couple of weeks ago. We have also done tsunami evacuations zone maps. We have updated the maps. You can see that previously the maps were pretty undelineated and the new ones you can see almost to your house and, in fact you can go down to the house-level to see when you are in the inundation...in the evacuation zones. They are available through the new phone books, the 2014-2015. We have also made them available to community meetings, on the County website, and NOAA website. This is some other things that we have done. To the left there, this is our alternate dispatch center which is in the Fire Department headquarters. Because it is an alternate, it is a little more bare, sparse. This is newer in the current dispatch center and this is the new internet protocol-based 911 system and the consoles. In fact, we are still finishing up with the consoles in the dispatch. As you can see we have got a lot more equipment than we do in the alternate. In communications, these are the kinds of things that we are doing. We are installing Statewide shared blended system radios. We have implemented a ten-year multi-term contract and we think we have saved the County $1.4 million over ten years because the original contract was $1.4 million more than we have actually contracted for. We are doing siren retrofits to satellite cellular activation. The first part of March, we had some glitches in the retrofit, followed up by some repairs. We had a special siren activation the middle of the month, and we had 100% activation of all of them at the end of the month or the beginning of April we did another one. Again we had one that failed, but that has already been repaired. That is a pretty good system when you have everything that is working. This diagram shows the warning sirens that we have. We have 43. 5 repeater sites on-island. These are some of the challenges that we have for the next year. We always try to improve our emergency management efficiency. We have got grant funding that we know has been decreasing over time. There are...it goes up-and-down, but over time you can see it has been decreasing and because of that it becomes much more competitive to get grants. We will talk about that a little bit later. We also have a communications radio systems and radio sites and siren systems that need maintenance. Last year we got David Miyasaki as our Telecommunications Officer and he has done an assessment of all of our radio sites, siren systems, and he has identified all of those kinds of things that we need to have done. You will see that when we get into the budget. We are also upgrading our communication systems. Emergency Operations Center equipment that was put in in 2003 and 2004 is now 10-11 years old and as we know with all electronic equipment, which has not been replaced they can go at any time. We would like to have some replacement of that slowly over time, just the ones that we need right now, to ensure that we do not have a problem when we have an emergency. April 11, 2014 Civil Defense (ss) Page 3 The last one is more of a...based upon what we have seen with Katrina and with Sandy, and what we find is that people are relying more on what the government and the State, Federal, State and County governments can provide. We just do not have that. We have to be able to rely more...individuals have to have more reliance on themselves and the communities need to be more prepared and we are trying to change that expectation so people have a more realistic expectation of what they can get from government. In order to meet those challenge these are our goals and objectives and I will go through each one separately, but it is to improve again the operating efficiency of the Emergency Operations Center, to train emergency responders, to realign some of the positions that we have to better meet emergency operations and that means our Grant Coordinator position to become a full-time permanent position. We are trying to maintain the operational ready status and efficiency of our communications, promote public awareness through education, as well as distribution of emergency preparedness literature and some of our preparedness initiatives. This is a comparison of our 2014-2015 budget. The reason I put this up here is because I wanted to show that although our budget may have increased the proportions have really not increased. Our operating budget has gone from 56% to 55%. The personnel costs even with the new position would only go up by 1% from 22% to 23%. The benefits would also increase, but that is primarily because of the negotiations and the raises that have been granted. Our vehicles and equipment purchase is about 2%. Our utilities is about 7%, it was 7% last year also. This is what it looks like and later I will go through all of these, the differences between 2014 and 2015. You have got these in your printouts. These are some of the...if you recall, our goals and objectives, the first one was maintaining and improving emergency management efficiency and, by the way, I have also updated some of the information that you have in your books. Primarily because we have had some additional activations and we have done some additional things to make sure that our budget is more robust. These are the kinds of things that we are going to be doing. We are going to be completing the update of the County of Kaua`i Multi-Hazard Mitigation Plan. The last one was done in 2009-2010. It has to be updated every ten years. If it is not updated we face the possibility of not being eligible for FEMA recovery funds should anything happen. This is a very important thing that we are getting that started this year with our funds this year. I have cobbled together some funds from areas that we did not need it or we did not need it as badly and the Police Department has given us some of their funds to support our taking over some of their grant management. The second one is that we are going to be developing and updating some of our standardized operating procedures for EOC activations. Some of our operating procedures go back to 1979. We think they need to be updated. We are also updating the Tactical Interoperability Communications Plan and if you have any issues or questions about that, David is here to answer them. Then we are also looking a Greater Aleutian Tsunami or GAT that means we would have a larger tsunami coming from the Aleutian Islands and that means more modeling and mapping and a planning update. The modeling that we had this year that we completed this year under Elton's tutelage was really about an 8.6 magnitude and this would be a 9.1. Has that ever happened? Yes it has happened over thousands of years. Could it happen? It is a possibility and we want to be prepared for it. In terms of exercises and formal training plans, these are some of the kinds of things we are planning and we only do these things with our partners and our partners in this particular case for many of our exercises are all of the Departments within the Administration, as well as non-governmental Agencies and we will have the State involved in some of our exercises. Makani Pahili 14 would be a April 11, 2014 Civil Defense (ss) Page 4 Statewide exercise that will include the National Guard, FEMA, we will have a participant from FEMA within our EOC. We work with the Department of Education, Department of Homeland Security, we will also work with the Civil Air Patrol, the Kaua`i Visitors Bureau for looking at visitor evacuations. We will be working with non-governmental organizations. These some of the kinds of exercises that we are already planning or we have already taken part in. The Pacific Theater Engagement 2014 was just completed. I have left that in there because I think we will have one in 2015, but the 2014 was a tsunami exercise. It was an 8.6 tsunami. We also have weapons of mass destruction, as well as sea burn sometimes known as NBC training, communication exercises. These are some of the trainings...that is not all inclusive. I did not want to put everything in there, but we have got lots of opportunities for more training. We are sort of like the military in same ways. We train and we train and we hope we never have to use it, but if we do have to use it we know we will be ready to do that. In order to make sure that our training is appropriate, we also have after-action reviews for follow-up training and improvement. This is where we are looking for some assistance with a new position to meet our mission requirements. We are trying to establish a full-time Grant Coordinator position. As you can see here, we are partnering with the Kaua`i Police Department. They also needed an additional position for a Grant Coordinator. By taking some of...by managing some of their grants, we think we can save them money and save the County money by eliminating the need for an additional position for KPD. If we have a full-time Grant Coordinator position, we want to be able to retain the grant application and the management experience that we have and the people that we have now. Frankly, in order to do that we need to have some stability for our Grant Coordinator. The other problem with the way we have it right now, the Grant Coordinator position is completely funded through grants or through one grant. Based upon that theoretically she should...the Grant Coordinator should only be working on that grant, but with a small staff of only six people, we had to use her for EOC activations and flexibility for other emergencies that might come up. We need that flexibility and the way to ensure that is to have a full-time Grant Coordinator position that is General Funded. It should be noted from 2000 we had over $16 million in grants and it is not just a process of applying for and closing it out. It is actually managing and administering it. We do this not just for Civil Defense, but also for our partners. We have I think in our budget $30,000 for the Civil Air Patrol as well as all of the other kinds of things that we are doing for KFD and KPD that you have seen in the past. Though we think that this is a requirement that we absolutely have to have. These are some of the acquisitions that the Grant Coordinator has bought and has managed for both the KPD, as well as the Fire Department. Fire engines to control vehicles to our helicopter that was just used in the last rescue effort as well as places to store it. As you know we have a lot of salt corrosion on things and we need to be able to store it and the storage equipment is just as important in some ways. Our communication system, this is one of those things that because we have David Miyasaki with us now we have been able to identify all of the requirements, all of the needs that we have. Frankly, for all different kinds of reasons, repairs and maintenance has been let go for the last several years. We really need to get up to speed with it. We are also upgrading to 800 MHz radio sites for P- 25 specifications. I did not have enough Diet Coke today, I think. We have an AEGIS satellite system that we think has gone belly-up and we need to find a replacement. This does not mean that we do not have anything, we do have everything. We always have redundant systems. This is one of those systems that we would like to upgrade so that we have another redundancy there. We are also trying to promote public awareness and preparedness because there is going to be more of a reliance upon individuals and April 11, 2014 Civil Defense (ss) Page 5 communities taking care of themselves and being able to come back or recover after emergencies. So we are doing a lot more education, outreach, news releases through our Public Information Office and community initiatives like the storm ready and tsunami ready community programs. We are working very closely with the Fire Department on their CERT program. They have really energized this year and we have got quite a few more programs coming up. This is some of our signage program that we are doing. I have also brought some materials here that you can look at, that we have about all of these programs. Today and tomorrow we are at the home show presented by the Contractors Association of Kaua`i. We are available there for any information that people might want. I appreciate your attention. Thank you very much. I am ready for any discussion. Mr. Rapozo: Thank you very much. We will open it up for questions. I know what you are going to ask... Ms. Yukimura: You do? Mr. Rapozo: I just know what you are going to ask. Ms. Yukimura: I do not know what I am going to ask. Mr. Rapozo: Let me ask. That Batmobile that you... What was that? What was the cost of that thing? Ms. Nogami-Streufert: The cost that was $273,005. Mr. Rapozo: $273,000? Is that a rescue vehicle? Ms. Nogami-Streufert: It is a rescue and special services tactical vehicle. In the past three years, we have had three officer-involved shootings, five tactical team incidents where firearms or discharged firearms were involved. So there was a requirement or a need for this. We are the last of three outer island Counties to actually receive it. Mr. Rapozo: I guess, as I looked at your list of all of the issues that are recurring issues because we see it every year, the communication radio systems, EOC equipment, I mean are those funds eligible? In other words, could we have used $273,000.38 or whatever it was for replacement of communication or radio equipment? Ms. Nogami-Streufert: Every year the requirements for the grants change over time. So I am going to have to ask Chelsie to answer that question. This is Chelsie Sakai. Mr. Rapozo: Hi Chelsie, I know you were hoping that we did not call you up, but she did, we did not. I am just trying to figure out as we prioritize these funds, I call it the Batmobile, because that is what it looks like. It is something that is nice to have and when you need it it is great to have. I am not sure how often we need it. The bigger need, I see it, over the last several years is the communication, the radios, the sirens, all of these things that I think are much more of a priority. Could we have used those funds • for... CHELSIE SAKAI, Emergency Management Grant Coordinator: We actually do have quite a bit of money going towards all of those things, but part of the April 11, 2014 Civil Defense (ss) Page 6 Homeland Security Grant requires 25% that goes towards law enforcement purposes. So that is what KPD felt was their need. Mr. Rapozo: The radio equipment, the communication equipment that is law enforcement, right? Is that not part of law enforcement? Ms. Sakai: Yes. We have probably put in closer $2 million towards the radio project. Mr. Rapozo: But we still have some issues? We still have issues outstanding? Ms. Sakai: Yes. Mr. Rapozo: Okay. Councilmember Yukimura. Ms. Yukimura: Follow-up. So it was KPD that made the decision to apply for that vehicle, right? Ms. Sakai: Yes. Ms. Yukimura: How much does it cost to maintain it and where is it being stored? Ms. Sakai: It is being stored in one of those shelters that we purchased for the Homeland Security equipment behind the station. Ms. Yukimura: Behind the Police Station? Mr. Rapozo: It is called the Bat Cave. Ms. Yukimura: I have the same question that Councilmember Rapozo has in my head. How much does it cost to maintain it? Ms. Sakai: That I am not sure. Mr. Rapozo: We can ask KPD. Ms. Sakai: You would get better answers from KPD. Mr. Rapozo: Mr. Hooser. Mr. Hooser: So we do the...we have had this discussion in general about grants and so the Council approves the request and approves the acceptance. Mr. Rapozo: I believe we approved the match. I remember something about a rescue vehicle, but I thought it was a rescue vehicle like a rescue truck. I can see the need. No doubt about it. I just wonder if the priority of the needs for the other issues. Mr. Hooser: My question was did the Council approve the purchase of the vehicle before the purchase? April 11, 2014 Civil Defense (ss) Page 7 Mr. Rapozo: The match. Ms. Sakai: The Council approved the use of the money. The Homeland Security does not have a match. It is a straight 100% grant funded. No matching requirement. Mr. Hooser: So when we approved the funding we knew what was for? The vehicle? Or was it just a certain amount of money and then the Office was allowed to do what they want? Ms. Sakai: I believe this one went through a change request after having gone through the Council's approval. Mr. Hooser: So the Council may not have known the moneys were going to be used for the purchase of this vehicle? Ms. Sakai: No. Ms. Nogami-Streufert: It is a rescue vehicle and I believe it was discussed at some point in time is my understanding. I am not sure how much was discussed, but it is technically for all practical reasons can be a rescue vehicle. So it is a multi-purpose vehicle and not just one or the other. Mr. Hooser: My question was about the process. Not the vehicle per se, but whether or not we approved it and change orders happened. Do those normally come back for another approval? That is it. I am good. Mr. Rapozo: That is a cool truck, I have to say. I would like to have one of those. Ms. Nogami-Streufert: They might let you get into it so you can see it. It holds ten people in there. Mr. Rapozo: Ten? Oh, it is big. Ms. Yukimura: Just a follow-up about that question of how much it costs to maintain? So I have another question. Gosh, I do not have a copy of your PowerPoint, but in one of the slides you showed a mitigation plan? Ms. Nogami-Streufert: A Hazard Mitigation Plan. Multi-Hazard Mitigation Plan, correct. We are doing an update of that. Ms. Yukimura: Okay. It includes the tsunami and those kinds of mitigations as well? Ms. Nogami-Streufert: Yes, it is a multi-hazard plan. Ms. Yukimura: Okay. Because I think the Shoreline Setback Ordinance is part of that Hazard Mitigation Plan. So you might want to just include it in your plan if it is not already included. April 11, 2014 Civil Defense (ss) Page 8 Ms. Nogami-Streufert: We are doing a contract with the University of Hawai`i. They have done it before for the other Counties and so they have done our ours prior to this. So they will be doing the same thing and they will be talking to residents, as well as interested parties, stakeholders before they do this. Ms. Yukimura: Okay. Thank you. Mr. Rapozo: Mr. Chock? Ms. Yukimura: Go ahead. Mr. Chock: Thanks. Glenda, I wanted to ask you a few questions about the budget here that I am looking at for R&M Building, you have an increase of $121,000. I was wondering if you had some specifics that you could share on that expenditure? First page so page 153. Mr. Rapozo: Page 153 on the budget sheet. Ms. Nogami-Streufert: I will ask David to come up and talk to you about that because that is the repeaters, the CD building, Kukuiolono Building, air conditioner, roof repair. DAVID MIYASAKI, Telecommunications Officer: You are looking at the $121,000 increase? Mr. Chock: That is correct. Mr. Miyasaki: We did not do a whole lot of maintenance in past years. When I came on board, we had a lot of failures and downtime. Right now, I am trying to do a little catch-up and that is why the increase is in there. The fire suppression system was not inspected for a long time. It is 20 years old. We are starting to have some trouble, no parts, and I am having to replace some of it. We had air conditioner failures, generator failures, the transfer switch went out. The generator would run for three days and burn out of fuel. That is a whole bunch of catch-up and that is why there is a substantial increase. Mr. Chock: One of the pictures showed the hangar. I thought when we had discussion with the Fire Department, I knew they were talking about...it was a large amount of money for...I think it was for the platform or place at the airport. Is that the same building that we are looking at? I am just wondering? Ms. Nogami-Streufert: What you saw there was the Police hangar but it looks very similar to what the Fire Department has but it is not at the airport. Mr. Chock: Thanks. Ms. Sakai: Actually, the one that was shown was for KPD to store their things and Fire has one similar to that. We also procured one for Fire, a temporary structure for the helicopter at the airport. They have to pay for the pad. April 11, 2014 Civil Defense (ss) Page 9 Mr. Chock: For the pad, that is right. So, we already had a temporary structure? We are in the process of looking for a permanent structure for the pad? Ms. Sakai: That is a Fire question. Mr. Chock: Okay. Just one more question. One more increase in line item 30 which is "Other Services." I would like to request for a clarification on the $26,000 increase there. Ms. Nogami-Streufert: We have Blackboard Connect CTY which is a notification system. That is going to cost approximately $75,000 next year. We have some sire maintenance for about $15,000 and we have eight...Elton? We have eight FEMA containers, some of them are in evacuation or tsunami zones which we have to move. Those are the costs that you see there. There are eight of those FEMA containers that have emergency recovery materials and equipment. Two of them are in very bad shape so we are not going to accept them. That is why you see $6,000 rather than $8,000. That is an estimate. We really do not know how much it is going to cost because we still have to find a site to put them that is outside of the evacuation zones. Mr. Chock: Then the last question regarding to the communication. I know we are investing a lot into the upgrading of it. I am just thinking because I know in the Fire Department we had to upgrade quite often. What is the life span this we are looking at, with this kind of budget increase and incremental budget increases over the next 5-10 years as forecast? Mr. Miyasaki: You are asking about...can you repeat your question? Mr. Chock: Just the communications upgrades and the forecast in terms of the life span of the upgrade and when we might have to look at another upgrade, because I know it is a big budget item. Mr. Miyasaki: It is a big budget item and good and bad, communication equipment, we use them for 15 years. We should be replacing them every 6-7 years, but the way the budget has been, we have been replacing them every 15 years and again that is a little bit of catch-up. The infrastructure right now we are upgrading to the P-25 digital, Federal standards, so we can have interoperable communications with FEMA or KPD or whoever comes on board during a disaster. The life span of the infrastructure and the subscriber is 10-15 years. Mr. Chock: Thank you. Thank you, Chair. Mr. Rapozo: Councilmember Yukimura. Ms. Yukimura: A follow-up on the 800 MHz system. I do not know if I ever publicly welcomed you David, we are very glad to have you on board. Mr. Miyasaki: Thank you. Ms. Yukimura: You worked on the system for many, many years as an employee of Motorola? April 11, 2014 Civil Defense (ss) Page 10 Mr. Miyasaki: Right. Ms. Yukimura: Did you negotiate this last agreement on the maintenance? Mr. Miyasaki: I was part of that. Ms. Yukimura: Which according to the PowerPoint saved $1.6 million? Ms. Nogami-Streufert: $1.5 million. Ms. Yukimura: $1.5 million. Ms. Nogami-Streufert: Yes, over ten years. Mr. Miyasaki: A little bit of inside information. Ms., Yukimura: We had a long-term contract when we first bought the system too, did we not? Mr. Miyasaki: What it was, it was a package deal. That when Motorola sold the system they included the 10-year maintenance. Ms. Yukimura: Right. So we had a good deal for ten years? Mr. Miyasaki: We had a very good deal. Ms. Yukimura: You have given us another good deal? So thank you very much. That is huge and very good. Are we on-track for the...I remember we had a schedule for getting to that P-25? Mr. Miyasaki: Yes we are on track. The Phase II, the CIP that we got was ahead of schedule. The actual completion date is about October...the scheduled completion date is October. We are planning to be completed by June and part of that was because the hurricane season is coming up. So we are really pushing the vendor as far as getting completed. Ms. Yukimura: Excellent. At the same time, you have been...you have done an overall inventory? So that we know where we need to upgrade? Mr. Miyasaki: Correct. Ms. Yukimura: In our regular system? Mr. Miyasaki: Right. Ms. Yukimura: That is very reassuring. So thank you. It really...I know we should have been doing this all along, but the fact that we are getting it done is really good. April 11, 2014 Civil Defense (ss) Page 11 Ms. Nogami-Streufert: I would also like to publicly acknowledge although we are a very small staff, every one of the people that we have at that staff is experienced and very competent as you can tell and they are also proactive. We are always looking forward to the kind of needs not just for today, but for tomorrow. You should also know in 2014 with technical assistance from KCDA, the Fire Department was able to get 105 radios worth $495,000 and there was only a $99,000 match that the County had to come up with. So for a 20% match, we got a lot more radios because we have a Grant Coordinator who can do a lot of the leg work for the Firefighters and for the Police Department for that matter. Ms. Yukimura: I really do have a sense of a very tight team that is emerging. So really happy to see that. There was a question that came up in Parks about use of cell phones of Parks employees during emergencies. The concern about interference because they were thinking of the use of commercial systems, but I was telling them I recall that there will be this interoperability and different channels that could tie Public Works, Police, and all of the County workers who are going to be in a response. I just wondered if that is somewhere in the plans? Ms. Nogami-Streufert: I will let the expert answer that one. Mr. Miyasaki: Yes, as far as the current radio system, it is interoperable. We do have talk that it is shared among the County agencies, Public Works, Fire, Water, and Police. So there is interoperability channels on that that is programmed on every single radio that we have out there. That is one aspect of it. The cell phone request is just not new in public safety because unfortunately we do not do data on our radio system. If it is something that public safety is beginning to deal with as far as going to bring your own device (BYOD) because of the current technologies with the 4G and everything else, there is another system on the horizon. I do not know if you heard of first net? That will bring in the data to public safety. We are looking about five years off right now. Ms. Yukimura: I see. So you are saying there is a function that our existing radios do not have that would be really useful and that is why there is sometimes direction to bring your own phone so you can have that? Mr. Miyasaki: Because we do just mission critical voice and the cell phones can do data with 4G high-speed data. Ms. Yukimura: I see. So in terms of being trained, how to use the...hand-held? Mr. Miyasaki: The cell phones? Ms. Yukimura: The hand-held radios to its maximum and how to use...then you just have them bring their phones? Mr. Miyasaki: It is a call from each public safety agency how they want to operate. For mission critical voice it is the radio system. Ms. Yukimura: And our people are trained to use it in times of crisis? April 11, 2014 Civil Defense (ss) Page 12 Mr. Miyasaki: Yes, they are. Just to make sure we do conduct exercises? Ms. Yukimura: Including our Parks Department? Mr. Miyasaki: Not so much the Parks Department in the exercises that we have been having. I do localized training with them and, in fact I did one, I about six months ago. Ms. Yukimura: Thank you. Mr. Rapozo: Any other questions for Civil Defense? Chair Furfaro: First of all, my apologies, I had to get on a conference call. Thank you for the savings. I have a little different information, David, saved us about $111,000 a year on the system. But my inside information David and my wife are first cousins, I got a different scoop. I missed the piece that ties in with the Fire Department and I just want to reconfirm myself, who is the grant writer that got us the facilities that we have currently at the airport? Did that come out of Civil Defense? Thank you, David. Ms. Sakai: To get the area at the helicopter...? Chair Furfaro: Yes. Ms. Sakai: That was Fire. Chair Furfaro: That was Fire that got it? Ms. Sakai: That got the land? Chair Furfaro: The land. Ms. Sakai: The Civil Defense through the Homeland Security Grant got the temporary shelter for it. Chair Furfaro: So our costs were going to be the addition of pad, right? And finding something that was more permanent with the covering? Ms. Sakai: I believe so, yes through Fire. Chair Furfaro: Yes. But was there not a problem with the location that it had to be turned? Because of the wind or something and the long-term maintenance? Do any of you know anything about that? No? And was the pad and the covering or the new building, was that money that was in a CIP and eventually was that not where the new Police car was going to go as well? Do we know any of that information? Ms. Sakai: I am not sure. Chair Furfaro: I will try to rebuild the history of that thing. April 11, 2014 Civil Defense (ss) Page 13 Ms. Sakai: All I know they came to us for help for the actual temporary shelter. Chair Furfaro: They came to you for the temporary shelter? Ms. Sakai: Yes. Chair Furfaro: Not the permanent one? Ms. Sakai: No. Chair Furfaro: Okay. I am sorry to bother with you folks, but I am just doing some digging here, because the permanent building has to be relocated so that it does not turn into a wind tunnel. The Police vehicle, you helped secure that grant as well from Civil Defense? Ms. Sakai: Yes. Chair Furfaro: Okay. We seem to have had a lot of success with using one grant writer for Civil Defense, Fire, and Police, and that is in our plan eventually here to share a person? Ms. Nogami-Streufert: The plan right now is to share with the Police Department. Police Deputy Contrades and Chief Perry came to us wondering if we could manage and administer some of their grants if we had a full-time, permanent person and Chelsie looked at the requirements, that the Fire Department...I am sorry, that the Police Department had with their grants and we determined it would be possible to do that, using some of the funds that we have for the grant for 89-day hires potentially. To help at least setup some of the system and we could continue it on. The problem is that we have some funds for...we have some granted funds that we might be able to use that way, but we cannot count on having it for very long so we need systems that is more automatic systems and it does take time and we need somebody who knows the entire system. We are doing that with Police and have to look at what Fire's requirements are. When we have Homeland Security Grants or Emergency Management Program grants, they are not just for us. We use that with our partner agencies and primarily it has been Fire and Police. Chair Furfaro: Right. Ms. Nogami-Streufert: So yes, from that perspective she is helping both. And KCDA is helping both agencies. Chair Furfaro: Is the long-term plan, because we were once set up that way where Fire, Police, and Civil Defense and any support for Air Patrol, we had a grant writer split between the groups? Is that something that is reflective in this budget? We are adding a person to help us with this and have all of those agencies bought into one grant-writer? Ms. Nogami-Streufert: This budget is a merging of KCDA that would be administering some of the Police Department grants. We have not looked at what the Fire Department requires, but it should be noted that we provided technical assistance to the Fire Department to get 105 radios with only a 20% County match. April 11, 2014 Civil Defense (ss) Page 14 Chair Furfaro: That is what I heard. Ms. Nogami-Streufert: So from that perspective, yes, we are already helping them. To what extent we will continue do that we will do it to the best of our abilities to the extent that we can, but we would have to look at all the grants that the Fire Department has before we can say it will be under one person. It may be too much for one person, we are not sure. We would have to look at that. Chair Furfaro: How will you keep me informed of the buy-in from all the participants? Ms. Nogami-Streufert: We have a letter that was transmitted to you and Mr. Rapozo. So we know we have the Police Department buy-in on this. If we do take over the Fire Department, then we will most certainly keep you informed as soon as we get that done. We will keep you all informed. Chair Furfaro: And this is a new person? Ms. Nogami-Streufert: This is a new position. Chair Furfaro: Position, not person? Ms. Nogami-Streufert: That is correct. Chair Furfaro: This is a new position? Ms. Nogami-Streufert: That is correct. Chair Furfaro: For this young lady we have high hopes for her because she is very talented. Ms. Nogami-Streufert: We would say that she is very competitive for that position. Chair Furfaro: Okay. Ms. Nogami-Streufert: We are assuming that she will apply for it. Chair Furfaro: Okay. Well-said. I am a bit clearer, but I still have to find out about the hangar. Thank you. I guess I have the meeting back? Mr. Rapozo: Yes, you do. Chair Furfaro: Any further questions for Civil Defense? I guess we are okay. Ms. Nogami-Streufert: Thank you for your time and attention and once again I want to tell you that the staff at the Kaua`i Civil Defense Agency and you have got three of them here, and we have got Karleen Abalos and Mark Marshall, are stellar employees and we would like to acknowledge them publicly in this forum. Without them, with five people, they have been keeping Kaua`i very safe and protected. You need to know that Elton Ushio has been stellar in his performance and everything he has done. He has April 11, 2014 Civil Defense (ss) Page 15 been essentially running the organization to a great extent and we could not have done it without him and I want to thank him for that in front of this panel. Thank you very much for your attention and time and I look forward to hearing from you. Thank you. Chair Furfaro: I will take your comments of their stellar performance under consideration as it relates to the Latin translation, "they are all-stars." Ms. Nogami-Streufert: Precisely and five stars at that. Chair Furfaro: Got it. Thank you very much. Before we wrap up today I want to share with you folks I did get from Economic Development the most current Workforce Investment Act programs and policies and they are going to leave it with me. So getting up to the 22nd, if you want to reflect on actually a lot of the procedures that are covered in here for the Workforce Board, its operational procedures, how do they put together their workforce plan, what kind of Federal laws that they have to comply with? This will be with me for the next 11 days. So you have access to it. I would like to recess the Departmental Budget Reviews until 9:00 a.m. Monday, April 14th and on the 14th I have made an exchange with Vice Chair Chock. We both had appointments in the afternoon. He is now going to be absent and change his appointment to the morning so that we have the right number of people and I will be gone for about an hour and a half in the afternoon to keep my appointment. So until that time, be prepared to cover the Prosecuting Attorney's Office, Transportation, and the Auditor and Elderly Affairs in the afternoon. We are in recess until Monday at 9:00 a.m. • There being no objections, the Committee recessed at 4:36 p.m.