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HomeMy WebLinkAbout04/12/2019 Office of the Prosecuting Attorney, Transportation Agency, Housing Agency, Department of Liquor Control Office of the Prosecuting Attorney Honorable Arthur Brun Honorable Mason K. Chock Honorable Felicia Cowden Honorable Luke A. Evslin Honorable Arryl Kaneshiro Excused: Honorable Ross Kagawa Honorable KipuKai Kuali`i The Committee reconvened on April 12, 2019 at 9:00 a.m., and proceeded as follows: Committee Chair Kaneshiro: Good morning. I would like to call back to order the Committee of the Whole Fiscal Year 2019-2020 Departmental Budget Reviews. Let the record reflect that we do have a quorum. On the schedule today, April 12, 2019, we will hear from the Office of the Prosecuting Attorney, Transportation Agency, Housing Agency and Department of Liquor Control.As we do each morning, we will take public testimony.Anyone in the audience wishing to testify? There being no objections, the rules were suspended to take public testimony. There being no one present to provide testimony, the meeting was called back to order, and proceeded as follows: Committee Chair Kaneshiro: Seeing none, I do know Councilmember Evslin will be departing at 10:15 a.m., heading to San Francisco for the Planning award today. Again, Planning won that national recognition. Good. With that, we will start with the Office of the Prosecuting Attorney. Justin. JUSTIN F. KOLLAR, County Prosecuting Attorney: Good morning, aloha, Council Chair, Councilmembers. Justin Kollar, Prosecuting Attorney, for the record. This is my seventh year doing the budget presentation here before the Council and hopefully it gets smoother each time. Before I get started into my extremely brief presentation, I do want to acknowledge "Mr. 40 under 40," Scott Sato here. Extremely humble, and probably going to make my life miserable for having recognized him publicly. It reflects the caliber of staff that we have here at the County. Our budget is pretty much stable from year-to-year at ninety-seven percent (97%) salaries for our hard-working staff. I do have Jamie Olivas and Yvette Sahut here as resource people if we do need that, but I do not think we will. Our only real "ask" this year are increases for Teen Court in the amount $5,000. They are constantly operating on a shoestring budget and I do want to acknowledge the hard work of Hale `Opio, Vonn Ramos, and Esther, with a very important program for our at-risk keiki. We also need to upgrade some of our grant-funded computers that are past their useful lifespan. Other than that, I am here to entertain your questions, and always happy to be here. Thank you. Committee Chair Kaneshiro: Councilmember Chock. Councilmember Chock: Thank you, Mr. Chair. Thank you, Justin. In regards to Teen Court and Hale `Opio, I know the last two (2) sessions that I was concerned about how they could actually live up to the program needs. I see the $5,000 request; from your standpoint, I know that the program is very important. Do you see them capable of meeting the needs of what the program outlines and its goals with this increase? April 12, 2019 Office of the Prosecuting Attorney, Transportation, Housing, and Liquor Control Page 2 Mr. Kollar: They are doing a phenomenal job with the resources that they have. In one of the areas, we are looking at partnering with them and trying to increase services is the epidemic we are seeing in the schools right now of teens vaping. We are working with them, and the Tobacco-Free Hawai`i folks, Valerie Saiki, on working to develop a curriculum to address the vaping problem that we are seeing. In an ideal world the kids are going to get detained at the school for the vaping and hopefully we can get them into a class within a matter of weeks at that point. That is really what we are working on, and currently, I know they are validating some protocols and curriculum for interventions in teens that are developing vaping problems. That is one example of the kind of partnership we are trying to maintain with teen court, and what we see is that most of the kids who get referred to teen court, we never see them again in the juvenile justice system. The interventions do appear to be effective and working. For us in 2009, ten (10) years ago, we had probably eight hundred (800) to nine hundred (900) petitions in Juvenile Court that year. At this point, that is down to less than two hundred (200) petitions in Family Court for juveniles. With no detriment to the public safety, Hawai`i has really been in the forefront of addressing juvenile justice concerns and one way we do that is by diverting more of these keiki into diversionary programs, like Teen Court, that are much faster and much more effective at addressing the root causes of the problems they are having. Usually, it is a family problem, something structural, intergenerational and if we can wrap them in services earlier in the process versus going down into court and filing them with a criminal record, repeated days missing work for mom, dad, grandma, grandpa, that kind of stuff, we nip the problem in the bud. We are very grateful for the work that they do. Councilmember Chock: Thank you for the update. Committee Chair Kaneshiro: Councilmember Cowden. Councilmember Cowden: How many kids are processed through Teen Court typically in a year? Mr. Kollar: We can send you over some exact statistics on that, but it is between one hundred (100) to two hundred (200), is my best guess right now, depending on their resources and how many they can accept into their program. Of that number, there is always a small percentage that for some reason do not want to participate in the Teen Court. Those come back to us and we look at what are other things that we need to do. Do we need to send this to Family Court for an informal adjustment or file a petition or something like that?Most of the kids we refer to Teen Court...and again, we do not get the status offenses—they are referred directly from the Police Department. As far as what we refer from our side is between one hundred (100) to two hundred (200). Councilmember Cowden: $5,000 does not sound like very much money. Do you have other money that is going with that? Mr. Kollar: Yes. We do constantly stay in touch with the Office of Youth Services (OYS) and they have been very generous in supporting that program with the additional funds when they have additional funds that become available during the course of the year. I think last year we were able to get them an additional $25,000 from OYS. We are always looking for funding opportunities. Like I said, they do run on a shoestring budget over there and if you want to give them more money, we will happily send it to them. April 12, 2019 Office of the Prosecuting Attorney, Transportation, Housing, and Liquor Control Page 3 Councilmember Cowden: Hale `Opio is who basically organizes that? Mr. Kollar: They run the program and we contract with them to manage the program. They are a sole-source contract that we have had with them for a number of years. Councilmember Cowden: Okay. I want to contact them and learn more about it. I think this is a great program. Mr. Kollar: Absolutely. I think they would welcome that. Councilmember Cowden: Thank you. Committee Chair Kaneshiro: Councilmember Brun. Councilmember Brun: Justin, thanks. Are we doing something to educate for them not to start vaping? The last two (2) weeks through baseball and stuff, I heard of at least eight (8) kids getting kicked out for vaping. Mr. Kollar: It is everywhere and it is really unfortunate that the legislature chose not to pass the flavor ban this year. That is just an incomprehensible decision from my perspective because it is the flavors that are really getting these kids hooked. Prevention is not so much within our kuleana, but one of the hats I wear as of the Vice Chair of the Coalition for Tobacco-Free Kauai and I know that educators from the Hawai`i Public Health Institute, like Valerie Saiki folks, they do go out into the schools, and proactively educate the kids about the dangers associated with vaping. They are out there doing the prevention piece of things. But right now, there is just not enough education and knowledge in the community about the real dangers associated with it and I could go on at some length about that, but I will not do that right now. Committee Chair Kaneshiro: Councilmember Cowden. Councilmember Cowden: I believe with the Department of Health that is the "808-No Vape Program." Mr. Kollar: Yes. Councilmember Cowden: They are waving signs, going to the high schools, and having them on the radio. There is actually a pretty big effort for 808-No Vape. It is integrated with the schools. That is the Department of Health. Mr. Kollar: Yes, that is the same folks, Hawai`i Department of Health (DOH) they are doing their part, Hawai`i Public Health they are doing their part, and Kaua`i Rural Health Association. The partnerships are there, it is one (1) of those things that just caught...I think it caught everyone flat-footed at how quickly it became such a major issue. So we educate the parents, educate the schools, and educate the kids. It is going to continue to be an issue. Councilmember Cowden: It is a lot of lungs damaged. April 12, 2019 Office of the Prosecuting Attorney, Transportation, Housing, and Liquor Control Page 4 Mr. Kollar: The scary thing is that we do not even know what the long-term health impacts are because it has not been around long enough for us to know. We do know there are a lot of toxic chemicals in the aerosol. It is not water vapor. It is an aerosol that you are basically inhaling. There are a lot of chemicals, it is very toxic and unfortunately, we are going find out fifteen to twenty (15-20) years from now what the long-term health impacts are and it is a pretty frightening prospect; as a parent of a young kid, I certainly share that. Committee Chair Kaneshiro: Councilmember Chock. Councilmember Chock: Justin, do you know if the County is preempted on moving legislation regarding the regulation of vaping? Mr. Kollar: I would have to research that question. I know there was some action at the legislature to preempt County action on these issues. I am not sure what the status of those efforts turned out to be, but I would certainly be in strong support of anything at the County-level to address that. Councilmember Chock: Thank you. Committee Chair Kaneshiro: I have a question...Councilmember Kuali`i is out sick, but I know he always asks questions about vacancies. He might be watching online. Can we go over the vacancies?Basically, Position No. 9112. I think Councilmember Kuali`i usually asks what is the status of hiring. Mr. Kollar: I think we made an offer yesterday. Oh, that is not a vacant position. Committee Chair Kaneshiro: Filled? Mr. Kollar: Yes. The only vacancy we have is one (1) Legal Clerk position, that is Position No. 2828 and we interview candidates this week. We had to go through a couple of different lists on that to get an applicant that was great. I believe we made an offer on that yesterday. Committee Chair Kaneshiro: Okay. Mr. Kollar: Everything else is full. Committee Chair Kaneshiro: I think probably because we received the vacancy report a few months ago—there is 2831, Legal Clerk I. I think it was State-funded. Is that fully funded by another source? Mr. Kollar: 2831 was a position authorized by a grant. The funds were reallocated on that. We did not have a physical space to actually house that clerk. Originally, we were going to house them at the Police Department because they had extra space over there. I guess their needs changed and we lost the space to put that clerk. So we did not end up filling that position. Committee Chair Kaneshiro: Okay. Any other questions from the members? April 12, 2019 Office of the Prosecuting Attorney, Transportation, Housing, and Liquor Control Page 5 Mr. Kollar: Thank you. Committee Chair Kaneshiro: Thank you. Next up we have Transportation. Is Housing here? We will take a quick recess. There being no objections, the meeting recessed at 9:13 a.m. The meeting reconvened at 9:14 a.m., and proceeded as follows: Transportation Agency Committee Chair Kaneshiro: Next up we have Transportation. Celia, do you have anything to say on the budget? CELIA M. MAHIKOA, Executive on Transportation: Thank you so much for giving us this opportunity to be here and share our requests for your consideration. I am Celia Mahikoa, the Executive with the County Transportation Agency and I have two (2) members of my staff here, who will be introducing themselves as well. JEREMY"KALAWAI`A" LEE, Assistant Executive on Transportation: Aloha, Good morning, Council Chair and Councilmembers. Kalawai`a Lee for the record, the Assistant Executive on Transportation. ROBYN NAKATA, Accountant II: Robyn Nakata, Accountant for Transportation. Ms. Mahikoa: Thank you. Again, we want to thank you for the opportunity, and basically, the only item that we would like to follow-up with you on and highlight prior to getting into the full discussion is the fact that we had met with Councilmembers. That was about a year-and-a-half ago going through the Short-Range Transit Plan (SRTP) and had pretty extensive discussions about the recommendations that were coming up. The fact that efficiencies were going to be identified within our existing system, we have had a few delays with the conclusion of that, but meanwhile, our own internal team had taken on a project of reviewing our operation and was able to identify some of the efficiencies that we believe were recommended already. We are able to identify those efficiencies and implement as of October of last year we had a few more actions of fine-tuning in January. Bottom-line, the benefits to the public were that it added were additional weekend service to the highest-demand times, which were commuter times in the morning and late afternoons with individuals getting to and from work for that, as well as adding another hour on to weekends and holiday service. So we were able to do that. We believe that has taken us a portion of the way. We are online with concluding the contract with the vendor to help us identify remaining actions that we can take within existing resources, within the next few...probably two (2) or three (3) months. Then we will be implementing. So part of that is what we are asking is to help us to implement those changes, and the recommendations that will be coming out very soon. Thank you for your consideration in that as well and happy to address any questions that you have in regards to the budget that we submitted for your consideration. Committee Chair Kaneshiro: We can take general questions. It is going to be a little repetitive because Transportation has the General Fund, Highway Fund, and GET Fund. General Fund Admin, Highway Fund Admin, and General Excise Tax Admin, but I plan to go through the budget line item by line item in that order. If you have general April 12, 2019 Office of the Prosecuting Attorney, Transportation, Housing, and Liquor Control Page 6 questions for Transportation, we will take the general questions now. If not, we will go through the budget and take questions then. Councilmember Cowden. Councilmember Cowden: I have a few comments and questions on the narrative. First of all, I want to thank Kalawai`a for giving me a tour early in the season and helped me understand and grasp the physical limitations that are there and we are probably going to need a big investment into other areas. I was happy to see that you are also working for a better workspaces for your people. I think when we look at our issue of not being able to retain staff, part of it is money but part of this is being able to do a good job and being comfortable while at work. I want to say thank you for that. Maybe in the line item by line item, I see it is up about $6,000,000 and I am struggling to find if we are buying new equipment for that, but I could not find the big change. Would that be here? Maybe it is on a different page somewhere. Committee Chair Kaneshiro: Probably General Excise Tax? Councilmember Cowden: That is where the money is coming in. Committee Chair Kaneshiro: Yes. Councilmember Cowden: But I am not seeing where it is going out because it does not seem like there is that big an expense on almost every page in here. Committee Chair Kaneshiro: General Excise Tax budget went up. Councilmember Cowden: Like when I am looking on page 255, I see a big drop, not a big increase. We are going to find that? Committee Chair Kaneshiro: Councilmember Evslin. Councilmember Evslin: I think there is sometimes misconception of the GET funds. Twenty-five percent (25%) of GET is going towards the Transportation Agency. What has your total...what is twenty-five percent (25%) of GET funds and how much has your total operations budget increased from last year? Ms. Mahikoa: The difference between our current fiscal year and the fiscal year that we are here to discuss funding for, we are looking at an overall increase in all funding sources of$2,400,000. If you look at the General Fund, Highway, and GET, the combined increases $2,400,000. The difference in GET from the current fiscal year to the upcoming fiscal year, we are looking at an increase of$1,500,000, which is what the changes are. Councilmember Cowden: Where I was having confusion...I looked at master page 265, where it has 2019, $133,900,000. 2019 going up to $40,000,000 for 2020. That is where I was seeing $6,000,000 change, but I could not find that anywhere else. See that difference on the two (2) columns? So that is $6,000,000 difference, right? But you are saying it is $2,400,000. Ms. Mahikoa: I believe on page 255, the $133,000,000, and $140,000,000 is the complete...that is the complete General Fund. April 12, 2019 Office of the Prosecuting Attorney, Transportation, Housing, and Liquor Control Page 7 Councilmember Cowden: That is $6,000,000, $133,900,000, $140,000,000 and the next column over $140,000,000. I could not find anything in here giving us that difference. Ms. Mahikoa: I believe those totals apply to the entire County. The $133,000,000 to $140,000,000 is the entire County General Fund. Ours would be going from $296,621 to $357,212 the line above that. The Transportation portion of General Fund. Councilmember Cowden: Thank you. Committee Chair Kaneshiro: You can see there was a lot of money shifted and that was because of General Excise Tax. In prior years, 2017, we spent about $4,500,000, but at that time we did not have General Excise Tax money. Now with General Excise Tax money we are able to spread some of the costs out throughout the rest of the budget. From this year to last year we went from $296,621 to $357,212. Ms. Mahikoa: Yes, correct. Committee Chair Kaneshiro: Any other questions on the narrative? If not we will move into the budget. We will start with the General Fund Admin budget.Any questions on...this is on page 251. Any questions on the General Fund Admin budget? I see one (1) vacant position, 9332. Ms. Mahikoa: Yes. Committee Chair Kaneshiro: Is that position still vacant? What is the status of that? Ms. Mahikoa: It is officially filled as of Tuesday, April 16th. Committee Chair Kaneshiro: We will move on General Fund Operations. Any questions on General Fund Operations? Councilmember Evslin. Councilmember Evslin: This is actually from the narrative, but relating to Operations...in the narrative, you reference the challenges that you are facing with your limited baseyard size and the fact that it has not changed at all in eighteen(18)years, despite your fleet size has doubled and your ridership has quadrupled.You mentioned there are some Capital Improvement Projects (CIP) funds which could help for the utilization study. Could you talk about that? How do we resolve the fact that you do not have enough space? Ms. Mahikoa: Basically, we are looking at taking the appropriate steps in order to plan properly for the future, anticipating the need to expand the facility site available for the use of operating public transit here for Kaua`i. We have been counseled that step one (1) will be to do the determination for the facility space needs. That is what the CIP item was that was being requested and up for discussion, but I did not know. Would you like to share some? Councilmember Evslin: The utilization study is going to look at how it can help? April 12, 2019 Office of the Prosecuting Attorney, Transportation, Housing, and Liquor Control Page 8 Mr. Lee: Just to expand on what Celia began, it started with our Short-Range Transit Plan, Multimodal Land Transportation Plan, and General Plan, and now this Fiscal Year 2020,we requested money in our CIP budget for the utilization study to help look at that footprint we exist on currently...all existing services and determine whether or not there is a more efficient way for us to use that existing space. Also, to determine based on guiding future documents where our Agency needs to develop and grow. Part of that study would be looking at the overall footprint of work of what our facility space would be if we achieved that in the documents. It would provide general cost analyses of what those facilities and spaces would be and give us the early stages of architectural design of some of those. Hopefully, that line item exists in our budget after these hearings and we will be able to execute that as soon as the funds become available to us within Fiscal Year 2020. We are currently doing background research on it, just in case the funds remain, to be prepared for that July 1st timeframe. Committee Chair Kaneshiro: Councilmember Chock. Councilmember Chock: Thank you. As it relates to our operations, what I understand, last year there were many discussions around the increased need for weekend and holidays and you folks have done the work that you said you would do. Now we have expanded service. But my question is really about in terms of what you are able to expand on, where are we in reaching the goal that we have initially set for what the community needs as it relates to the expansion of services? Ms. Mahikoa: In comparison to all of the recommendations included in the Short-Range Transit Plan, I would say it is quite a small portion of the full recommendations that are coming. Therefore, all the more to see the full need to be able to map out a clear plan of how to proceed with the recommendations that have come down in order to fulfill what the community has stated the needs will be. Thank you. Mr. Lee: Specifically, the priority item number one, which was expanded weekend hours, we only achieved the portion of that first priority goal with our own self-imposed audit with our staff in charge. We are currently underway with our consultant for them to do more of an external view of our operations. Then we hope to get those results within the next couple of months and rapidly move to implementing those things within our own capacity. At that point, we will have a real clear picture of what resources, in addition,we might need in order to carry out of priority next steps out the SRTP. Councilmember Chock: Maybe five to ten percent (5-10%) of the need with the external audit we might be able to increase that to twenty (20), then I guess I am trying to get a sense overall. If you do not have it now, I understand that is what we are trying to find out. I am just wondering, it is almost like the discussion was...we are going to be able to do everything if with do this work, internal work. I want to get realistic with the costs. Mr. Lee: We might quantify it in a different way in terms of a percentage of goals that we can accomplish, but whether or not the goal even can be accomplished in its entirety with our existing reclaimed, retained revenue and resources. Right now, we have gotten an additional hour of service on the weekends and filling in the gaps with ridership overcapacity and not enough vehicles on the road. That is what we were able to accomplish with our own internal, self-imposed audit. I think that what we will see within the next two (2) months is much more clarity with how further we can go in achieving goal number one (1), which was our weekend service to mirror the regular Monday through April 12, 2019 Office of the Prosecuting Attorney, Transportation, Housing, and Liquor Control Page 9 Friday service. Then the goal for us is to make sure that whatever service we put on the street is going to be utilized properly and monitor that. Then we look forward to an opportunity to come back to this body to talk with you about what we can and have achieved and what next steps we need to take on in order to address the additional goals within the SRTP. Committee Chair Kaneshiro: I think when you guys are ready to do that, I think that would be a great agenda item. Just for us to get refreshed on it and some of the new Councilmembers to hear what the plan was, what we are going to implement. With the plan, we are going to do as much as we can without costing the County money first and you have taken steps with that, expanding bus services and being more efficient in the way you do things. Then the question is what do we do after that? Any time soon would probably be a great time to get an update where we are on it. Councilmember Chock. Councilmember Chock: Follow-up. Would you characterize our bus riders as being very informed? Meaning as we increase services, what are the mechanisms for informing so that we get the kind of ridership that we expect or have often asked for effectively? Ms. Mahikoa: For now, it is basically and historically the increases in service, expansion of service has been to address existing demands that are out there and us just trying to catch-up with the needs of the public. However, in planning out the steps for the future, part of the recommendations within the Short-Range Transit Plan are for addressing the marketing aspect of transit; to increase the user-friendliness of the system, and just basically all of the portions of what we provide the public is in full contact with we can provide more useful information to market and describe the benefits of transit, and to more effectively address the needs of the community as related to transit. What would appeal to individuals in order to make it something that individuals would choose to do, rather than just need to use, would choose to use. Committee Chair Kaneshiro: Councilmember Cowden. Councilmember Cowden: Is an example of that having Wi-Fi on there or is the Wi-Fi really more to support the bus drivers? Ms. Mahikoa: If you would not mind, go ahead and expand on that. Mr. Lee: One of the primary things that we are trying to achieve with that initiative is to provide data transmission for our team. The existing cell service that we have is at a relatively limited range. What we are asking to accomplish with it is to have booster signal putting the Wi-Fi router in the vehicles and also roof antenna to help the connectivity of the cell service to ensure better data—a side benefit to that is that we will offer the community a benefit of having Wi-Fi available on the buses. Councilmember Cowden: I am sure for some going to school or going to work, it is a good use of time to sit there and do whatever work they need to do, rather than be driving. I know there are some who are really electro-magnetic field(EMF) sensitive. Have you gotten complaints or concerns raised yet on that? I know there are people who will not go in certain buildings...I do not know if you have run into that? I think most people would be excited to know that they are effectively doing work on their computer. April 12, 2019 Office of the Prosecuting Attorney, Transportation, Housing, and Liquor Control Page 10 Ms. Mahikoa: I am not aware of any... Councilmember Cowden: EMF sensitivity. Ms. Mahikoa: Right. Councilmember Cowden: Is that in the process yet or is that in the plan? Ms. Mahikoa: That is an item we are requesting funding for. Thank you. Committee Chair Kaneshiro: While we are on Wi-Fi, I have a question. Is there going to be an annual maintenance cost in addition to this? The $200,000 is just to get it in there. Is this going to be annual costs to having Wi-Fi in the buses? Mr. Lee: The annual cost will just be the data costs. We already paid for data for our cell service for the existing deployed technology on our vehicles and it will be an expansion to that. Committee Chair Kaneshiro: Nothing significant? Mr. Lee: No capital costs involved. Committee Chair Kaneshiro: As far as Wi-Fi goes, do you see us doing advertising on the bus or doing anything to bring money in once we have Wi-Fi on the bus? Mr. Lee: We have recently received an inquiry about charging for ad space within our vehicles. I did reach out to just understand what that process would look like in order to carry it forward. Part of our concern in moving towards ad space is the administrative ongoing impact for our resolution. For us to be able to properly administer that additional function, it would be a challenge for our existing team to be able to carry that out and meet it on an ongoing basis. So the set-up on the front-end of getting an ordinance passed and having that fee-for-service accomplished on the front-end would be relatively painless for us. But the ongoing impacts for our organization to carry that out is something that we would need to take a much deeper look at. Committee Chair Kaneshiro: Councilmember Evslin. Councilmember Evslin: I have more questions on the synopsis here. You mentioned one line here, it says, "increases in bus service hours have provided working commuters access with additional employment options" and that is an important line in here because of the services that you provide. Do you have any data from the demographics of how many users are using it for commute to work or how many are tourist, et cetera? Ms. Mahikoa: I think just...we do not have exact data collected on it. Just based on our observations, it is quite a significant number of individuals who are using it for work commuting on a daily basis. Councilmember Evslin: I hear that from my own experience on the bus, seems like the large majority are probably commuting for work. One other question on the April 12, 2019 Office of the Prosecuting Attorney, Transportation, Housing, and Liquor Control Page 11 operational highlights you mentioned is the coordination with Google Maps. Could you maybe go in a little bit on that and how it works? How it is working so far? Ms. Mahikoa: We are still extremely new to this whole arena. We have been...our team has been working extensively on getting this activated and it is still very new. We do not have extensive knowledge on the details on it. Mr. Lee: I am happy to answer. Ms. Mahikoa: Okay, I just wanted to recognize our team members here, who have been instrumental in helping us to get all of these items accomplished this year. Mr. Lee: Google Transit is an application based out of Google Maps platform. If you have a web browser and use Google for that web browser as one of the potential options, it is an amenity nested within that browser. Somebody who wanted to find a particular location on the island of Kaua`i would be able to choose what options they wanted to route to get there. As one of our options in Google Transit, we use our transit data of our system to be able to find out where they currently are based on their pinpoint where they want to go, and what transit system accommodations that we have available to accomplish that trip for them. It is basically a technology app nested within Google Maps that helps people who are unfamiliar with Kaua`i or our transit system to utilize that transit system in an efficient way. Councilmember Evslin: As a frequent user of Google Transit in other places, instead of using the timetable, even for the Kaua`i Bus, which is a pretty simple timetable, it is easy to figure out: Where am I? Where am I going to go? How to walk there? How to catch the bus? I am very excited about this. Committee Chair Kaneshiro: I think that has been in the works for a while. I am glad. Yes, I think all of us have gotten spoiled to just being able to Google something and get me from "point A" to "point B" and let me know the exact route and how long it takes. It is a lot easier than looking at timetables and checking bus routes. Google has worked in other areas very well. Mr. Lee: Chair, if I could, I would just like to acknowledge the hard work of our team members, Tamara Duterte; she took the lead on working through the nuts and bolts, the legal elements of it to make sure that it is a properly functioning tool. She still manages and monitors the system functions on an ongoing basis. She has led the Agency, so I wanted to acknowledge her hard work. Committee Chair Kaneshiro: What high school did Tamara go to?Same class as me? That is what I thought. Councilmember Brun. Councilmember Brun: Will you be nominated for "40 under 40" to give another proclamation out? We can look into that. Committee Chair Kaneshiro: Going back to Wi-Fi, as far as the Wi-Fi router, is it just for customer experience? What do we get also out of it as the County? Are we able to track the buses better? What is the benefit to Wi-Fi? April 12, 2019 Office of the Prosecuting Attorney, Transportation, Housing, and Liquor Control Page 12 Ms. Mahikoa: We are able to track the buses better. We are better able to rely on the data and connectivity that will be supported through this additional investment, as well as the ability to set the platform for us to get future accessories to our existing system whereby we can have voice annunciation installed. Where it will verbally announce clearly the bus stops that are coming, which applies for Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) compliance requirements on our fleet and will allow that to happen through tech, rather than our drivers right now having to verbally announce each bus stop that they are pulling up to. The consistency and the clarity that it will lend to our compliance. Committee Chair Kaneshiro: Good. Any other questions on the narrative? We will keep going through the budget. I think we are on page 255, Operations General Fund. Any other questions?Any further questions for that? If not, we will move on to the General Fund Small Equipment Maintenance. I have a question Repair & Maintenance (R&M) Equipment went up almost $20,000. What was that for? Ms. Mahikoa: That is primarily prompted by just an increase that we have observed over the past several months in the amount of equipment coming in, and therefore, the repairs being required on the small equipment items that are coming through our Agency for repair. Committee Chair Kaneshiro: Okay. Councilmember Evslin. Councilmember Evslin: Could you walk us through a little bit how the small equipment repair works from a budgeting perspective? You guys have the shop and you pay for all repairs but parts are coming from other places, right? Ms. Mahikoa: With this, we are actually purchasing all of the parts. We have the mechanics on-staff. This R&M account, 4302, is reflective of primarily parts purchases in order for our mechanics to carry out the repairs on the small equipment for our Parks & Recreation and Public Works. Councilmember Evslin: If Parks has a weed-wacker that goes down, it goes to you for repair and comes out of your budget, out of the Parks Budget. Ms. Mahikoa: That is correct. Councilmember Evslin: If that machine were to break, then Parks is paying for the purchase of a new equipment? Ms. Mahikoa: Yes. Councilmember Evslin: It is a little funky from my understanding that you folks pay for repairs...they pay for maintenance. Ms. Mahikoa: That is correct. Committee Chair Kaneshiro: Any further questions on this?Yes, go ahead. Councilmember Evslin: What happens when the repair is potentially more than the cost of replacing? April 12, 2019 Office of the Prosecuting Attorney, Transportation, Housing, and Liquor Control Page 13 Ms. Mahikoa: We are in communication with the Parks & Recreation management team to where when our mechanic does the assessment of the repair and see if it is not going to exceed, but if it seems beyond reason to repair, we will communicate with them and then they ultimately make the decision whether or not they direct us to carry out the repair or they have the resources to replace that item. Then they will carry out the repair of it and we will slate it as item to be disposed. Councilmember Evslin: Does that work pretty well in that you are not doing repairs at more cost than the item? Ms. Mahikoa: Most of the time. Yes. Committee Chair Kaneshiro: Any other questions?If not, we will move on to the Administration Highway Fund. Any questions? The Computers and Accessories line item at the very end of the budget—have you been spending money from that? Encumbered is zero ($0). Mr. Lee: Yes, we have. We have been spending it down. It is been an asset management tool we have been implementing out in our shop. That is the largest cost that we have nested in there. Ms. Mahikoa: I believe that just occurred. That may not be reflected in here. Thank you. Committee Chair Kaneshiro: Councilmember Evslin. Councilmember Evslin: The increase in Repair & Maintenance for vehicles, why such a large increase? Ms. Mahikoa: For the increase in the Repair & Maintenance on the transit side of things, we have been experiencing increases due to the added service that we have implemented. Any time we reach additional miles on our vehicles, we are going to have quicker turnaround in the preventative maintenance checks for which the vehicles come in, as well as repairs for the wear-and-tear on the vehicles. That paired-up with the fact that we have an aging fleet that we ideally would be fully turning over within three (3), maybe four (4) years tops. We are actually taking them up to almost double that. Quite often, our odometer readings will surpass 300,000 at the point of disposal, whereas the useful life defined through the Federal Transit Administration(FTA)for vehicles of this size, is 150,000. We are doubling the use of the vehicles, and therefore, the longer we use them, the greater the repairs will be. We hope with the ability to replace them in a more timely manner, we will be able to bring that down in the future, as far as the Repair & Maintenance expenses. Thank you. Committee Chair Kaneshiro: I have a question. I noticed...I think it is the Highway Fund and GET Fund. Automobile replacement vehicles, you are replacing twelve (12) to fifteen (15) vehicles for $650,000, then in the General Fund, we had another line item, I think for lease...twelve (12) to fifteen (15) vehicles. Is that a new line item? Ms. Mahikoa: I need to apologize for the error in the description portion of it. Basically, just overall our vehicle replacement plan includes the need to replace April 12, 2019 Office of the Prosecuting Attorney, Transportation, Housing, and Liquor Control Page 14 twelve (12) to fifteen (15) vehicles overall. That comment was included next to both of the items. However... Mr. Lee: The $650,000 is our revolving costs that we had in order to help supplement the Federal grant side for replacement vehicles, with the amount that we are given, the match with our Federal Grants we anticipate being able to accomplish a capital purchase of eight (8) vehicles annually. The lease was an additional allotment offered to us in our budget by the Administration this year to help fill the gap of what our actual fleet replacement needs are.Via that process, we are working with the Federal Transit Administration's Hawai`i Department of Transportation (HDOT) to identify the lease parameters to be able to fill the rest of our Agency's fleet replacement annual needs. We anticipate being able to get about five (5) vehicles over a three (3) year lease term with that additional allocation. I believe it came out of GET. Committee Chair Kaneshiro: It is $332,000. Mr. Lee: GET. Committee Chair Kaneshiro: Out of GET So you will change the description on it? Ms. Mahikoa: Yes, we need to change that, as well as the other one within Highway. Committee Chair Kaneshiro: Okay. Councilmember Evslin. Councilmember Evslin: Light-duty support vehicles.You have not had one in the past, right? This is the first time you will have this and maybe talk through what the light-duty support vehicle. Mr. Lee: The light-duty support vehicle is for our overall Agency needs. Its platform is to provide our Agency with a vehicle to do off-site assessments for Paratransit, to do safety location assessments, and to provide on-road support for our almost 24/7, 365-day service and also helps us to be able to as administrative staff be able to get around.We are removed from the rest of the County facilities and for us to achieve coming here is not just walking across the street. We use it for that particular purpose. We only have one (1) in our entire Agency and it serves all of our shops and all of our Administrative functions. The second one is to help support us with the need for transportation to get around. Committee Chair Kaneshiro: Any other questions for Highway Administration? If not, we will move on to Highway Operations on page 285-286. We already heard about the Repair & Maintenance Vehicles items and the reason for the increase in that. If not, we will move on to the General Excise Tax Fund items on page 290. I had that question anyway and we got it answered already. Any questions for General Excise Tax Administration? The Wi-Fi, light-duty support vehicles was on. Councilmember Evslin. Councilmember Evslin: What is a photo ID camera? Mr. Lee: Photo ID camera is to help us print IDs for all of County employees, and for people that are participating in the annual bus pass. We are the only facility that has the ability to print that pass. April 12, 2019 Office of the Prosecuting Attorney, Transportation, Housing, and Liquor Control Page 15 Councilmember Evslin: The County IDs that we all have is printed by you folks? Mr. Lee: I am sorry, I kind of mixed that up. We are one of a few places that can print County IDs, but we are the only facility to print annual passes to our bus riders. Committee Chair Kaneshiro: Any other questions? If not, their final item is General Excise Tax Operations budget. I have a question regarding moving positions around. Think we had a lot of on-call and made them full-time. Could you just explain that? Ms. Mahikoa: We are requesting to have eight (8) on-call Bus Driver positions converted to full-time, that is to assist with the changes that we anticipate being implemented in the upcoming Fiscal Year. Primarily, right now, we do...when observing the number of hours that, we have twenty-five (25) on-call drivers on-staff right now and when we do a pay-period analysis on that, we see there is about nine (9) to eleven (11) full-time equivalents in hours that they work each pay period. In doing that, we see the need to integrate them into the full-time system whereby, we will be able to obtain greater reliability, and the planning out of bus drivers' schedules, the consistency in service that we will be able to provide the public as well. Mr. Lee: The safety, I think is one thing I would add. By having a consistent full-time team member, their awareness of daily operational changes and the standards that we have, and safety comes to my mind as one big thing that the community will benefit from moving to a full-time employees. Committee Chair Kaneshiro: Did you see some of the on-call drivers wanting to be full-time, but not able to because the positions were not there? On-call drivers are just drivers who do not want to be full-time and just want to do it for extra money?I think we had the same question with Parks whether we should have full-time or part-time workers. I am just interested, do you see a demand for on-call drivers wanting to be full-time? Or they are going say I do not want to be full-time and I want to stay on-call? Ms. Mahikoa: We thankfully have a full range of needs and wants with the individuals that we have on the team right now. There are some who are certainly interested in converting to full-time positions and there are others who are completely satisfied with their existing full-time positions elsewhere and would like to maintain just on-call status with us. We believe that we would certainly be able to get individuals who were interested in these, if the existing ones...I believe we probably will have eight (8) who are more than interested in converting over to full-time. Committee Chair Kaneshiro: Councilmember Cowden. Councilmember Cowden: What I am looking at...I see the little asterisk. It looks like they are already identified with nine (9) asterisks position numbers. Those would be the ones that would go full-time and seventeen(17)would remain on-call if I counted right? It is already determined and you already know they do want. Mr. Lee: We have already had discussions with our team members who are interested in full-time status with the Agency and the County. We have to April 12, 2019 Office of the Prosecuting Attorney, Transportation, Housing, and Liquor Control Page 16 • • wait until the process is complete and if it still remains within our budget, we will finalize discussions with those individuals who have pre-identified interest with full-time status. • Councilmember Cowden: We will be retaining the other seventeen (17) or sixteen (16). Thank you. Committee Chair Kaneshiro: Councilmember Chock. • Councilmember Chock: Can you folks remind me of what premium pay entails? Ms. Mahikoa: Premium pay is the expense that is incurred through various triggers that occur through the Unit 1 Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA) for our drivers and mechanics. For example, any work prior to 6:00 a.m. or after 6:00 p.m. gets a premium of $0.70 an hour. We have had split shifts, whereby individuals work so many hours and then there is a one (1) to two (2) hour gap and they finish off the rest of their eight (8) hour work day. When split shifts are involved, it is also a per hour premium that occurs. What else would trigger that? Mr. Lee: All of them are required CBA triggers for us to pay out for our members. Councilmember Chock: This is separate from overtime? Ms. Mahikoa: That is correct. Committee Chair Kaneshiro: Speaking of overtime, there is an increase in overtime. Can you explain the increase and use for that increase? Is that because of more full-time workers? I would hope with more full-time workers you would be able to reduce overtime. If you could explain. Ms. Mahikoa: That is certainly the hope. What we are reflecting here in our request is basically requesting what the actual cost has been over the past several years. We have survived through moving expenses or moving line items, funding from existing, either vacant salaried positions or other line items in order to cover the true costs of the overtime that we have had. We do have, similar to the Premiums Account, there are quite a few triggers that occur through the Unit 1 Collective Bargaining Agreement that result in pretty unavoidable overtime expenses for our operations—considering transit, we are committed to carrying out the bus schedule as it is published for the community. When a driver calls in sick we are not able to simply cancel out a run. We are needing to call individuals in and get it covered and/or our team is always more than willing to step up and cover what is needed at any point to keep service going consistently and reliably. Therefore, that often triggers additional overtime expenses that we are having to cover. Committee Chair Kaneshiro: Councilmember Cowden. Councilmember Cowden: This is just a general question. Will there be any more routes between the 2019 fiscal year and the 2020 year?More buses on the road in terms of routes that are run? Are we staying the same? When we are going up a couple million dollars, I know some of it is equipment and different aspects and just wondered if there is any more routes on that. April 12, 2019 Office of the Prosecuting Attorney, Transportation, Housing, and Liquor Control Page 17 Ms. Mahikoa: As far as implementing new routes? Additional service? Councilmember Cowden: Additional service? Ms. Mahikoa: That is all going to rely upon the results of our final few months with the run-cutting exercise that we are going through with our consultants. We are hoping by maybe mid-summer, within the next few months that we will be able to identify what additional runs we will be able to implement within existing budgetary parameters. Councilmember Cowden: Thank you. Committee Chair Kaneshiro: Councilmember Chock. Councilmember Chock: As you move down to R&M, we have some expenditures this year. What is the Baseyard TTY System Install? Mr. Lee: That is actually a typo. CCPD. It is to purchase and deploy a camera system for the safety and security of our facility and our team. Committee Chair Kaneshiro: I asked this to Highways, too, and I would just ask it to you, it is nice to have the General Excise Tax money, I think you have almost $5,000,000 of GET money. In the next ten (10) years, we are going to have to think and every year we get closer to the ten (10) years, what are we going to do to supplement that money? Are we going to try to increase our bus revenues to cover it? I think the scary thing is in ten (10) years, the money may be gone, if we are using all of this for salaries, the County budget is going to be in dire need of changes. So just be aware of it. Luckily, we are only in our first year. I would hate in our tenth year that we loaded a lot of our costs into General Excise Tax and there is nothing that we can do. I know we are investing a lot in infrastructure-type items. It is going to be beneficial throughout the years, but as we start loading it in salaries and stuff, it is going to be very difficult to reverse or move around in ten(10)years. Hopefully, we can get more GET...the GET can continue, but I am not holding my hat on anything. It is just something to think about and prepare for. Ms. Mahikoa: Thank you. I appreciate that. Committee Chair Kaneshiro: Any other questions for Transportation? If not, thank you. Councilmember Brun: I have a question regarding salaries in general. For Mike. Committee Chair Kaneshiro: In Housing? On Transportation? Councilmember Brun: It would be for all. Committee Chair Kaneshiro: Do you want to ask it now? Thank you, Celia. Ms. Mahikoa: Thank you. April 12, 2019 Office of the Prosecuting Attorney, Transportation, Housing, and Liquor Control Page 18 Committee Chair Kaneshiro: Housing, if you want to be ready, you guys are up next. MICHAEL A. DAHILIG, Managing Director: Mike Dahilig, for the record. Councilmember Brun: Mike, my question is because we budget all of this, and out of all of the department heads. This is what you budgeted and the max you can pay them or this is what they are getting paid? Mr. Dahilig: Our instructions based off the previous legal reason, what is budgeted is what has to be in per whatever valid salary resolution is out there. We do not necessarily have to pay at the max. As you would see with some of the other offices, like Attorney's Office, that when they start off an Attorney, they will not start them at that, and come in lower and we will work them up. Councilmember Brun: I guess in general, how much department heads are making the max that is here that we are budgeting for? Mr. Dahilig: That is a statistic that I think was transmitted as part of the overall response packets that came in, I guess, this past Wednesday. That information should be in there. If not, I can grab it again. I do know at least with the new department heads that we have brought on, including myself, we are not at the maximum salaries, at least with what the Mayor has purview over. Councilmember Brun: We are not...so everybody is not at max? What is the plan? So we will have extra money in the budget? Because we are not paying all our department heads the max, and we are budgeting the max?Is the plan to give back the money or is the plan to move it around and move in different places and spend it elsewhere? Mr. Dahilig: That is the accountability element that I think has been of concern with previous Councils, whether you underpay and just push things around, right? We try to not look, at least philosophically, moving moneys from salaries to kind of more boutique items like travel and those types of things. But if it is things like you see a request come from over the Police Department to use the surplus to buy equipment, those are the types of things that we will bring back to Council to say, "Is it okay to purchase these with salary money?" Councilmember Brun: I guess my concern is if we look at positions here, we have a position number...and I am not saying that...this position is 9550 for $44,000 and all of a sudden we are paying this person $80,000, because we have extra money. I guess that is my main concern with the extra moneys because we are not paying all the department heads the max, although budgeted for, that we are using the moneys for something else? Mr. Dahilig: I understand. Councilmember Brun: I am just using it... Committee Chair Kaneshiro: Historically, Police with all their vacancies, I think they have done a little better at tightening up their salaries. They have been fifty percent (50%) funding vacant Police salaries. Police is probably one of them that has a lot of vacancies and usually at the end of the year, they ask for a DNA analysis on equipment. April 12, 2019 Office of the Prosecuting Attorney, Transportation, Housing, and Liquor Control Page 19 Other than that, we get the transfers. We are able to see if moneys are moved out of salaries also. Mr. Dahilig: We take seriously that we know as part of previous provisos all our budget transfers come up this way. Whatever gets moved around between accounts can be scrutinized by Council. Justification-wise, as I have been coming into this job, it is something that I have to say, add more detail, the philosophy that just because we have money we should spend it is not what we want to preach within the Administration. That transparency and trust element that we have to make sure we are covering and explaining why we are making a transfer, versus just spending money because we had money to spend. Councilmember Brun: I guess, that is the answer that I was looking for from the new Administration, because I have seen it before. I just want to know on the floor what is your folks' intent with the new Administration, we have a new Administration. Will we continue padding salaries and people that deserve salaries not getting them? Or are we going to buckle down and give people what they deserve? That is what I am looking at. Mr. Dahilig: As we discussed previously with the other Resolution discussion, Councilmember, Mayor Kawakami is very serious about bringing up compensation matches, performance mentality, so that will be done for you, you know, performance evaluations, and making sure there is at least so you do not see somebody with a pay increase three (3) months into the job. Councilmember Brun: Thank you, Mike. Committee Chair Kaneshiro: Thank you, Mike. Next up we have Housing. Housing Agency STEVEN FRANCO, Acting Housing Director: Good morning, Councilmembers, Steve Franco, Acting Housing Director. Committee Chair Kaneshiro: Do you want to go over your synopsis quickly? Mr. Franco: Yes. Committee Chair Kaneshiro: Any highlights you want to mention before we get started? Mr. Franco: Yes. As stated in the synopsis, there have been some operational challenges over the past fiscal year. The Housing Agency had four (4) staff retire, and three (3) departures, which strained our operations, but the Housing Agency is investing in staff to provide the professional training and tools needed and we are moving forward with maximizing the skills to perform all of the different job responsibilities necessary to run the Housing Agency. Highlights from Fiscal Year 2019 include the groundbreaking of Koa`e Makana Workforce Housing, which is the Koloa Project with one hundred thirty-four (134) units and Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) Program has met all Federal program guideline timeliness requirements, which is a big accomplishment. We also have seen a significant increase in issuance of the Housing Choice Voucher Program. April 12, 2019 Office of the Prosecuting Attorney, Transportation, Housing, and Liquor Control Page 20 • Committee Chair Kaneshiro: Thank you. Any questions on the narrative? If not, we can go straight into the budget. Councilmember Brun. Councilmember Brun: Sorry, Steve, I know you just came on as Acting Director. Committee Chair Kaneshiro: Start firing away. Councilmember Brun: I guess retirees and people resigning because we hear it from other Departments...Police...and morale was a big...you said with the training, did you pinpoint why people are leaving the department? Mr. Franco: No. I do not have...other than I know some of those who did depart had other job opportunities and they took advantage of it. It was my understanding that there were no issues with morale or anything like that. Committee Chair Kaneshiro: While we are on vacancies I will ask Councilmember Kuali`i's questions to update him on it. If we could just go through the vacancies and let me know the status of them. Mr. Franco: Sure. Committee Chair Kaneshiro: We can start from the top. Position No. 9538. Mr. Franco: 9538. Committee Chair Kaneshiro: I am looking at page 247. Public Housing and Development. Mr. Franco: That position was filled actually on March 16th. • Committee Chair Kaneshiro: Next is 9536. Mr. Franco: That was filled on April 1st. Committee Chair Kaneshiro: We have another position, 9565, Senior Clerk. Mr. Franco: That is a vacated position. It is a grant-funded position through the Section 8 Program and we are still evaluating the need for that. As the grants fluctuate we take into account whether or not we need it and we are still evaluating that position. Committee Chair Kaneshiro: That is the same with 9657 also? Mr. Franco: Yes. That is correct. Committee Chair Kaneshiro: Okay. Thanks. Any questions from the members? I had a question and maybe I overlooked it in the budget. We usually have a salary for...do we have a line item for salary for Life's Choices? April 12, 2019 Office of the Prosecuting Attorney, Transportation, Housing, and Liquor Control Page 21 Mr. Franco: I believe that was...I believe we have a line item for...let me see, Position No. 9154. Committee Chair Kaneshiro: Oh, it is grant-funded. Mr. Franco: Yes. Mr. Dahilig: Councilmembers, just as a contextual discussion with some of the positions that you are seeing here, we did move two (2) positions from the Mayor's Office into the Housing Office. One (1) has already been moved and one (1) is going to be moved effective July 1st. That is to move the Life's Choices office into the Housing Office to help facilitate the Hale Kokua co-location project that the Mayor has been pushing and also to take advantage of the fact there is accounting support for grant-funded types of initiatives that can be taken care of in the Housing Agency that we do not currently have in the Mayor's Office. Committee Chair Kaneshiro: I forgot that position was grant-funded and was expecting to see an increase in the line item, but I see it now. Councilmember Brun, then Councilmember Chock. Councilmember Brun: I am not Hawaiian, so I am not going to speak Hawaiian, but the new department you just formed, and also Life's Choices, why was that put into Housing? I wondered why that was put in Housing. Mr. Dahilig: We are not creating a new department at this time. We are just asking the agencies that currently have resources that surround the continuum of care issue, which involves Drug and Alcohol Prevention, which involves Homeless Services, which involves Workforce Development, as well as things with Elderly Affairs to all be in the same place. From an organizational standpoint, the only organizational change you are seeing is just Life's Choices alone. We looked at the other three (3) agencies to see if it made sense to push that program towards one (1) of those agencies like Economic Development or with Elderly Affairs. But it did not seem appropriate, given the amount of work that is required for Federal compliance, because Life's Choices receives Federal pass-through grants from the State, and the agencies that seem more adept is Elderly or the Housing Agency. But because the Housing Agency already has a homeless program that was initiated over the past couple of Fiscal Years, and because of the continuum of care concept, that is why we said, "Okay, that makes sense to put Life's Choices for now in there, because the Administrative support that they do need in order to free-up their time." Right now, in the Mayor's Office, they are responsible for doing all of the compliance on top of providing the referrals and services as part of the drug prevention program. If we are able to peel those administrative items away, it frees up, more of their time to focus on those items especially with the opening of the Adolescent Healing and Treatment Center that we have to have them focus on. Councilmember Brun: Do you think homeless should have been in Housing? Now we are moving all of this because homeless is already in Housing. Because I thought Housing was supposed to be developing and not working with the homeless. So was homeless the right spot in the first place? So now we are just adding things on to Housing? Steve, you got your work cut out for you...giving them extra stuff when we are trying to build...I guess, my question is how much more money is this going to cost us? How much April 12, 2019 Office of the Prosecuting Attorney, Transportation, Housing, and Liquor Control Page 22 money will this whole...what you are trying to do take away from the Development Fund that we have been doing a great job with? Mr. Dahilig: Right now, it is zero ($0). We are not asking for additional moneys on this. The reason why is we do not know what the demand really is. But what we do know is having the four (4) different things that involved in the continuum of care for support not in the same place and without coordination does not give us the appropriate statistics to figure out what is the real demand here. If and when it becomes time to have that discussion, to create...and this is the function of government sometimes...used to have an Office of Community Services a while back. That got split up and so that idea of combining or dispersing things is a probable conversation that once we start seeing who is coming into Hale Kokua and what is the actual need out there that is impressed upon the County is the discussion that we have to have with the Council in terms of additional resources. Right now, we are saying co-location that is our goal. Trying to get appropriate statistics and have everything in one place. Councilmember Brun: With this whole department, you are not taking money away from Housing in general? Mr. Dahilig: No. Councilmember Brun: This whole department will be funded by another source and not coming out of Housing's Budget? Mr. Dahilig: We are transferring resources from the Mayor's Office into the Housing Agency that was previously appropriated that way. Councilmember Brun: Including money. Mr. Dahilig: Yes, including the money, to talk about having Life's Choices be essentially moved into that for administrative purposes. Councilmember Brun: Thank you. Committee Chair Kaneshiro: Any other questions? Good questions. Any other questions for Housing General Fund?I had a question, I cannot remember, last year in Other Commodities there was Section 8, $500,000. We do not have it this year, we had it last year. I cannot remember what it was for. Mr. Franco: The Section 8 Housing Assistant Payment line item that you are referencing is based on our projections at that time for Fiscal Year 2019. With the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), we do not always know what the projected fund, you know, at the time we do our budget, it kind of crosses paths with each other. Last year, for fiscal year 2019, our projections we requested funds to supplement the half-budget. As of right now, based on the projections that we are at right now and the growth that we have made over the past year, we do not anticipate needing that. But if we do, if our needs change, like I said, we do not have the final numbers from HUD as far as the budget goes. If our needs do change, we will be coming to you folks. Committee Chair Kaneshiro: Okay. Any other questions for Housing? I have a general question and I am not sure where it would come in? Probably over the Revolving April 12, 2019 Office of the Prosecuting Attorney, Transportation, Housing, and Liquor Control Page 23 Fund. Last year we allocated, I think, about $2,000,000 to Housing in the budget process. Can you just explain where that money went, or if it was used? Mr. Franco: We have been utilizing it on our upcoming projects. We do have $1,800,000 of that fund, which will be used towards the Waimea Pua Kai Project in which we will be assisting with the development of the apartments in Waimea. There are other stuff that we are utilizing for the preparation, predevelopment of Lima Ola as well. Committee Chair Kaneshiro: Got it. Any other questions? If not, we will move on page 330.Any questions on page 330?No change. If not we will move on. Page 358, remains flat. Actually, I had a question on this. Maintenance Expense and Housing Study, $75,000 each. What are those again? Mr. Franco: The Housing Study is for the Hawai`i Housing Planning Study that is done in coordination with the State. This is what we utilize to project or prepare for our consolidated plan for the next...from 2020 to 2025. The maintenance expense, I am sorry. I do not have that information. Committee Chair Kaneshiro: That is okay. We will send a follow-up question on that. Mr. Franco: Okay. Committee Chair Kaneshiro: As far as the Housing Study, we have been hearing that is supposed to come out. When is that going to come out? Mr. Franco: There is a couple of studies going on right now. The one that I am referencing right now is the Hawaiian Planning Study, which is one we do in conjunction with the State. The Residential Nexus Analysis that everybody has been talking about that we have been using as a report to assist us with updates to Ordinance No. 860. It will be finalized within the next couple of weeks. Committee Chair Kaneshiro: Okay. Mr. Franco: We will be notifying and providing that to everybody. Committee Chair Kaneshiro: Okay. That will be a good one. I think everybody has been waiting... Mr. Franco: Yes. Committee Chair Kaneshiro: ...to see that. Mr. Franco: The draft was completed. We were in the stages of reviewing and following up with the contractor to finalize everything. Committee Chair Kaneshiro: The Special Projects line item in this, $4,200,000. What is that for again? April 12, 2019 Office of the Prosecuting Attorney, Transportation, Housing, and Liquor Control Page 24 Mr. Franco: I believe that was the question that you previously asked I think that... Committee Chair Kaneshiro: That is part of the money from the prior year? Mr. Franco: Yes. Committee Chair Kaneshiro: Okay. Any further questions? Councilmember Cowden. Councilmember Cowden: Well, I just had the wrong pages in here. It kind of held me back a little bit. I just want to acknowledge both our last Director, Kanani Fu, the work that she has done, and then just recognizing that our biggest objective this year I think as a County is trying to be able to address this crisis. So I appreciate what is happening in here and I am actually looking for more funding. But most of it all comes under Capital Improvement, correct? Most of the funding for all our projects is really going to be reflected in Capital Improvements Projects? Committee Chair Kaneshiro: We do have some... Mr. Franco: We do have some projects. Committee Chair Kaneshiro: Yes. Lima Ola is a big bonded project. Mr. Franco: Correct. Councilmember Cowden: Thank you. Committee Chair Kaneshiro: We are on page 360. Kalepa. Do we have any questions for Kalepa Housing on page 360? We have Kalepa and Pa'anau Housing. Do we have any questions on the Kalepa Housing budget? If not, we will move on to Pa'anau budget. It is on page 363. Councilmember Cowden. Councilmember Cowden: Just for my general clarification, the difference between 2018 going to 2019 is really a big jump in both of these two (2) projects. 2020 is not such a big jump. Why is there such a difference in Kalepa and Pa'anau between 2018 to this year and next? Mr. Franco: We took on a bunch of repair and maintenance projects, extensively, for both projects and that was the reason for the increase. Pa'anau, we redid the roof, which was a huge undertaking. Kalepa was painting of all of the buildings in phase four (4). That is the big increase between the two (2) years. That is why we were not asking for too much because the need was not there for repair and maintenance, but we have undertaken some pretty extensive projects the last couple of years. Councilmember Cowden: Thank you. Committee Chair Kaneshiro: Any further questions for Housing? If not, thank you. Mr. Franco: Thank you. April 12, 2019 Office of the Prosecuting Attorney, Transportation, Housing, and Liquor Control Page 25 Committee Chair Kaneshiro: That was not too bad. Yes? Mr. Franco: No. Thank you. Committee Chair Kaneshiro: Next up we have Liquor. Department of Liquor Control GERALD RAPOZO, Director of Liquor Control: Good morning Councilmembers. Gerald Rapozo, the Department of Liquor Control. Committee Chair Kaneshiro: Do we have any questions for Liquor? I did not have any. Their budget is flat. Mr. Rapozo: There is one (1) on page 301. The ID Card Equipment. That was part of last year's Fiscal Budget. It is currently...we are in the process of purchasing that now. That will be removed, that $10,000. Committee Chair Kaneshiro: The final page 301. Okay. You folks will take that out? Mr. Rapozo: Yes, we will take that out. Committee Chair Kaneshiro: Councilmember Cowden. Councilmember Cowden: I appreciate your budget is largely flat. I see in your operational challenges, educating the public and teens on the danger of alcohol products. I know I did ask this of you when we were in our private session, and with the challenges of teens drinking right around the outside of bars, and you said that is more of a Police issue than a Liquor Commission...I mean a Liquor Control issue. But when our people go to the locations, if they see people drinking out and around in the evenings, do they call the Police? Mr. Rapozo: Our investigators will...it depends. It is about safety. If investigators see a group of people who look underage, depending on safety, usually they will call the officers for backup, definitely. If they are working in teams, they will approach the group. But usually, we will call for Police backup prior to. Councilmember Cowden: I just wonder if there is not a way to sort of...and I am asking is this part of Liquor Control...but it would seem it would be, community partnership with these organizations? I regularly pick up hitchhikers and picking up drunk teenagers outside of a bar is not too uncommon for me. I wanted to do that and call the bar manager and talked to them about it. I am not sure whose responsibility it is to keep that from happening or why it happens just outside of the bars. Maybe they are listening to the music? I do not know. Mr. Rapozo: It could be, but I will recommend if you do come across a case like that, to notify us so we can follow-up with the bar. Councilmember Cowden: Usually, they are pretty responsible saying we cannot control who is hanging outside. It is the mecca of where that problem is and we do not want to be encouraging that challenge, you know? They seem to come together. Thank you. April 12, 2019 Office of the Prosecuting Attorney, Transportation, Housing, and Liquor Control Page 26 Committee Chair Kaneshiro: Any other questions for Liquor? If not, thank you. Mr. Rapozo: Thank you. ti Committee Chair Kaneshiro: Easy budget. With that, as we progressed very efficiently, and given our last day is only County Council budget and Auditor budget, I am going to say we call-off any budget call-backs. If we do have any burning questions, as Councilmembers let us E-mail it over to the Administration. As far as budget call-back days, we can get rid of them. Get them off the list. Those would be April 16th, 18tH 22nd 23rd 25th and 26th will all be canceled. I think before we end, I would be remiss not to mention that yesterday was "Scott Sato Day" by the Mayor. Scott recently was nominated and won "40 under 40", which is a Statewide search, one of 40 in the State this year to be recognized as "40 under 40". We are happy to have Scott here and with us. He is a great asset and is he trying to hide. Councilmember Chock. Councilmember Chock: Thanks. Congratulations, Scott. Committee Chair Kaneshiro: The camera can catch him. Councilmember Chock: We will be sure to continue the celebration into the new week and new month. Mr. Chair, process question, because I know we are actually kind of transitioning a lot of our budget questions and responses. We are getting the responses back. For me at least, I know it gives me time to go through them all. Do we have a deadline in terms of these questions, additional questions that we have? Do we have a target date? I was not sure administratively, just before decision-making? Committee Chair Kaneshiro: Ideally, the earlier the better, depending on when we get the answers. It is hard to get it ready for decision-making without the answers. We still have to come in and make decisions whether or not you got the answer to the question. I believe the earlier the better for the Administration on that. Councilmember Chock: Thank you. Committee Chair Kaneshiro: At this time, I would like to recess the Departmental Budget Reviews, we will reconvene at 9:00 a.m. on Monday April 15, Tax Day, where we will hear from Office of the County Auditor and Office of the County Clerk. There being no objections, the meeting recessed at 10:26 a.m.