HomeMy WebLinkAbout04/01/2022 Fire Dept, Emergency Management Agency, Police Dept, Office of the Prosecuting Attorney Kauai Fire Department
Honorable Bernard P. Carvalho, Jr.
Honorable Mason K. Chock (present at 9:05 a.m.)
Honorable Felicia Cowden
Honorable Luke A. Evslin
Honorable Bill DeCosta
Honorable KipuKai Kuali`i
Honorable Arryl Kaneshiro
The Committee reconvened on April 1, 2022 at 9:00 a.m., and proceeded as follows:
Committee Chair Kaneshiro: Good morning, I would like to call to order the
Committee of the Whole and the Fiscal Year (FY) 2022-2023 Departmental Budget Reviews.
Let the record reflect that we have a quorum. On the schedule today, April 1, 2022, we will
be hearing from the Kaua`i Fire Department(KFD), Kaua`i Emergency Management Agency
(KEMA), the Kaua`i Police Department (KPD), and the Office of the Prosecuting Attorney.
As we do each morning, we will take public testimony. Clerk, do we have anyone registered
to speak today?
There being no objections, the rules were suspended to take public testimony.
There being no one present to provide testimony, the meeting was called back to order,
and proceeded as follows:
Committee Chair Kaneshiro: We have no registered speakers, and we received
no written testimony for today. For today's review, we will be taking the Fire Department in
the order of Administration, Operations, Prevention, Training, and then Ocean Safety. We
will allow them to do their presentation and then if we have specific questions to those
divisions, we will ask those questions in those particular divisions. We can ask questions on
the presentation and get the questions out of the way; that is fine also. If it is addressed in
the presentation, that is good, too. With that, Chief Goble.
STEVEN R. GOBLE, Fire Chief(via remote technology): Good morning, Chair
Kaneshiro and Members of the Council. Thank you for the opportunity to present our
FY 2023 budget proposal on behalf of the Fire Department. What you have before you, I am
sure you have noticed in your review that this is a very conservative budget. In mind with a
request from County Administration to remain flat year over year for FY 2022. We certainly
have needs and priorities, but we did our very best to address those priorities within our
existing resources. The budget shows a 3.2% increase year over year. However about 90% of
that is due to anticipated increases in salary and benefit costs. There are no new positions
proposed as part of those and so these are increases with the existing head count. The
remaining 10% or about $150,000 or so are to address high priority operational needs that
we have within the Department. With that, we spent a lot of time combing through this and
identifying what our most significant needs were and made every effort to try and address
those within the constraints of our resources. We prioritized deferred vehicle replacement. It
has been a couple years since we had the opportunity to address this issue and it is starting
to catch up with us. We are starting to experience some issues that are up to an unacceptable
level, so we want to make sure we correct that. There is a proposal for an additional fire
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engine, a replacement for our existing Engine 6. There is a replacement for our Battalion
Chief response vehicle and one of our fleet service vehicles as well. We feel that is an
important consideration that we addressed in this budget. We also addressed in obsolescence
in our technology. We got some onboard computer systems on our frontline vehicles and out
in our lifeguard towers that have become challenging for us. They do not support existing
platforms. On the engines, the mobile computers do not support Windows 10 so there are
security issues, et cetera. We wanted to make sure we got those things up to speed.
(Councilmember Chock was noted as present.)
Very important tools for us for communication for exchanging information for
receiving call data, all those types of things. We also addressed equipment replacement that
has been deferred over the years. One of the things I would like to point out to you is the ask
for the self-containing breathing apparatus fill station. Our current piece of equipment is
more than twenty (20) years old and we have been putting Band-Aids on it to keep it up and
running. However, the manufacture has let us know that this has already far exceeded its
life expectancy. Hawai`i Island used a similar model to this and they had catastrophic failures
of their equipment. Due to the good care that we have given this one, we nursed it as long as
much as we can, but we need to have it replaced as part of our efforts this year. We have also
addressed some deferred facility repair and maintenance issues. The past couple of years, we
have not. We dollar-funded those accounts. But our experience is certainly not that it is not
costing us any money, we had to move money around and reprioritize things to cover that.
We partially funded that on the front-end this time to address things like...we had one of our
fire station's emergency generators go out this year that we had to have replaced. The
propane line at the KOloa Fire Station failed and we had to have that repair work done and
so those types of things continue to plague us. Like I mentioned, it is partially addressed in
this budget proposal.
We continue to seek alternative ways of addressing our issues as well. We continue to
pursue grant opportunities to help us meet our needs. Currently, we have grant requests out
there for a replacement brush truck and fire engines for the Kalaheo Fire Station and then
some much needed health and safety program related items through the Assistance to
Firefighters Grants. We are open to those things, we have tremendous partners across the
island and within our community, both community members that are interested in
supporting us and then organizations like Kaua`i Lifeguard Association (KLA), and Friends
of Kaua`i Fire Service, all are avenues to address some of our pressing needs as well. We
remain flexible and seek out those alternative methods as well. This budget goes a long way
to addressing our high priority needs. It does not address all of them, however, we still have
things out there that we want to make sure that we continue to look for solutions. For
example, we have identified the need to replace the fire engine, Engine 6. Budgeted money
for that, we programmed in about a modest 5% increase in the cost of that. We just recently
got back a proposal from the distributer that reflects a 20% increase. Those are the kinds of
things, the types of holes that we will have to work to patch as we go forward and address
our needs.
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We continue to defer equipment replacement. The ask for the fire engine does not
include the equipment that comes with it. Our choice there was to push that out to next year,
but of course the risk becomes that we end up with a fire engine with no equipment to put on
it and so it is a timing issue, but at least it did not meet the high priority that some of the
other items did. Things like replacing our expensive equipment, our self-contained breathing
apparatus (SCBA), for example those are about $5,000 a piece. We have about fifty-five (55)
of them with a defined life expectancy and so trying to start into an incremental replacement
program for that is another item that we deferred at this point are looking for solutions for.
This does not address any expansion of our core services. This is status quo. This is about
making sure we focus on core service delivery and meeting the current response expectations
that we have in place. I do want to point out a couple items in the worksheet before we get
to the question-and-answer period. On your page 149 in the Operations Account, 8901 and
8906 Accounts, you will note that there is a SCVA Fill Station in 8901 and SCVA
Sub-Containing Breathing Apparatus Fill Station in 8906. That is a double entry. I will say
that my request would be that we reallocate that money within the Fire Department budget.
I think I pointed out a couple of absolute needs that we do have. We will put it to very good
use and do ask that funding remain in the Fire Department budget. Beyond that, on your
page 130 in the Administration salaries line, the 0101, just to note that Position No. 630 for
the Assistant Fire Chief was short funded for a 9-month period as opposed to a 12-month
period. We have had some ongoing conversations with the Administration and internally
about some potential realignment within our Department, amongst our key staff that
ultimately did not come to fruition. That is a casualty of that. As we look forward, we would
request that position be fully funded for the 12-month period. We would be interested in
moving forward immediately with the recruitment process to fill that Assistant Chief
position. I would like to just put that on the radar and make that request from you all. With
that, that is a quick overview of the Fire Department proposal, and I am happy to take any
questions.
Committee Chair Kaneshiro: Chief, thank you for that. Along with the
Supplemental Budget, you folks can probably make some of those changes with the $85,000
and fully funding the Assistant Fire Chief. Thank you for your write up. The write up speaks
for itself. $36,000,000 budget increased$1,000,000 from last year. 90%of that is salaries and
benefits and about 10% of that is operations. It is a pretty flat budget. I know it is always
difficult to keep a flat budget, but I am glad we are showing restraint and showing that we
are taking each item individually and really looking at what the needs are of the County, and
also trying to balance where the money is coming from. Thank you for that. Are there any
questions from the Members on the write up? Councilmember Evslin.
Councilmember Evslin: Thank you for the presentation. Did you say the
reason for salaries going down this year?I am sorry if you mentioned it in your presentation,
I might have missed it.
Chief Goble: The salaries and benefits overall went up, but the
salary number itself went down one hundred and some odd thousand dollars, which was due
to the short funding of the Assistant Chief position and also the Fire Inspector II in the Fire
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Prevention accounts. We do also have three (3) Firefighter Trainee vacancies that were 9-
month funded as well. That is where the salary savings is reflected.
Councilmember Evslin: I know from the write up and what you just said
and hearing from others that the aging equipment is a deep concern here. You mentioned in
the write up that deferring your vehicle replacement over the last two (2) years has proven
to be costly by an increase of out-of-service status for older apparatus. Can you talk a little
bit about what that means when an apparatus goes out of service? How do you ensure
something is on the line so that there is no gap there and also what do you mean by costly?
Is it financially costly or costly in the response time and your ability to do your job?
Chief Goble: I will give you an example. Our brush truck fleet
is something we came back to you last year with the budget request to replace one of our
brush trucks. I got a grant request in for a brush truck, currently, that will help us to get up
to speed and then we had another one that was due to us from a grant process as well. But
in the interim, we currently have four (4) of our brush trucks that are down. We have three
(3) reserves and all three (3) are in service at this point. The fourth spot is out at Waimea,
and they are currently without a brush truck. They can still respond using the crew assigned
to the engine and we have provided them with one of our staff vehicles to help them with
their quick response type of responses out there, the ones that do not need the full fire engine.
That is sort of the impact of it. There have been occasions over the last two (2) or three (3)
months where we had fire apparatuses breakdown on the road. The moving engine that we
came back to you for replacement on last year was enroute to a call up to Waimea and so we
had to send supplemental piece of equipment to go replace it.Again, there are service delivery
impacts from that and there are costs associated with that. The older the vehicle is, the more
service it requires, the more cost that we must invest in to keep those things running. There
is both the fiscal impact and a service impact and so we are playing a little bit catch-up but
working hard to identify ways to get that done.
Councilmember Evslin: Regarding the brush trucks specifically, you
mentioned a couple of current grant applications to get those replaced.In order to get Waimea
up to speed with a brush truck, is it just waiting for one of those grants to come through or is
thereossibilit
p y that when you repair something else, you will be able to get them one of your
back-up trucks?
Chief Goble: Yes, we still have three (3) vehicles elucles in for repair
waiting for parts. Some of our issue now is supply chain driven as well and availability of
service. We have two (2) of them that are sitting at Kuhio Ford right now waiting on parts
and then the one that our mechanics will repair, but again it is a part problem.
Councilmember Evslin: Regarding the fact that you put off replacing other
vehicles for two (2) and now it sounds like you folks have a plan to begin replacing in grant
requests and budget, are you comfortable with that pace of replacement or are we going to be
left in two (2) or three (3) years with the need to buy multiple trucks, because they are
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shutting down? Is there some sort of a balloon payment coming up or are you okay with this
sort of approach?
Chief Goble: Yes, I think on the brush truck side of things, I
think the balloon has come due. We did seek that augmentation last year to get the one
replaced. We do have one on the way from a grant opportunity, which is probably due here
in about sixty (60) days, and then the other one is subjected to grant approval through
Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) being the Truck 5 replacement. All of those
things coming to fruition will kind of catch us up on the brush truck side of things. On the
fire engine side of things, again, we have a grant application in through the ATF grants to
replace Engine 5. We have this request in front of you to replace Engine 6 and then anticipate
over the next two (2) years to also ask for a replacement engine in each of the upcoming two
(2) years.
Councilmember Evslin: Thank you. The $100,000 for replacing Fire
Engine 6, I might have missed it in your presentation, but is that before the cost...you
mentioned that it is 20% higher than you folks had thought. Is that taken into account or is
this your estimate?
Chief Goble: That was our estimate and so having the numbers
return from our distributor, again that is part of that double funding source that we would
like to probably redirect. We would like to probably add $20,000 to that $100,000 to cover
the unanticipated cost increase.
Councilmember Evslin: Replace all-terrain vehicle (ATV) for Ocean
Safety. I know KLA has always been heroic in fundraising for ATV replacement and in the
past, we have seen so many coming through for donation. This is the first time I remember
in the last three (3) years of us actually budgeting for an ATV for Ocean Safety. KLA has
done amazing work, but does it represent a slow down in KLA's activities due to COVID-
19 and not having fundraising opportunities? Because I have not seen one come through
from them for donation for a while.
Chief Goble: We have had replacement ATVs on the budget, I
believe we purchased two (2)last year as well. Due to the environment and the extensive use,
their life expectancy is short. We have programed either ATVs, jet skis into our ongoing
budget request year over year and sometimes we get hit with both. Those have been part of
our requests. KLA certainly does supplement our needs on the Ocean Safety side. We are
focused on things like tower replacements and things like that as potential avenues to direct
KLA into.
Councilmember Evslin: I do not mean that in any way, certainly not as
knock to KLA, they do an amazing job and I think we almost have come to possibly rely on
them too much on their generosity. I was just wondering mainly the impacts on their
fundraising, if it had slowed down in some capacity, but huge shout-out to KLA for all the
work they do and thank you.
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Committee Chair Kaneshiro: Councilmember DeCosta.
Councilmember DeCosta: Chief, I want you to explain to me the difference
between the responsibilities of a Battalion Fire Chief versus the responsibilities of an
Assistant Fire Chief.
(Councilmember Chock was noted as not present.)
Chief Goble: It is just different layers in the organization, a
part of the hierarchy. The Battalion Chief is the operational direct support for the line crews
and so we have three (3) of those platoons that operate on our 24-hour schedule, and we have
a Battalion Chief that oversees each one of those. They are responsible for forty-four (44)
positions each on the line, again, responsible for the daily operational activities oversight for
the fire stations, the work that they do. The Fire Assistant Chief is the supervisor for the
three (3) Battalion Chiefs, and has organizational responsibility over all three (3)operational
divisions.More administrative than the Battalion Chiefs, supporting them with their budgets
and organizing the operational teams, direction, vision, and coordination with training and
prevention and doing those types of things.
Councilmember DeCosta: I would like to also add with all those
responsibilities, how does the Deputy Chief and your position fit in with the managerial role
of the Department? I am just looking at this and seeing if we can streamline, are we
top-heavy, are we not top-heavy, I just want to understand the process.
Chief Goble: I will share with you that my proposal initially
was to increase our administrative support executive staff, but through conversations with
Administration and the Department of Human Resources (HR), we have pulled that request
back. The Deputy Chief is primarily responsible for the support-side of the house, Fire
Prevention Bureau, Fire Training Bureau, and currently as oversight for the Ocean Safety
Bureau, with that hierarchical level of oversight for the support bureaus. The Fire Chief is
just the figure man, he is the person who gets to talk to you folks all the time. I say that in
jest. There are many responsibilities in directing, planning, driving the overall vision, and
coordination in interdepartmental and coordination across the Country with other fire
departments, with our community partners, and again within the County organization as
well. The Fire Chief, my direct reports are the Assistant Chief and the Deputy Fire Chief.
The Assistant Chief branch is over the operational piece. The Deputy Fire Chief is over the
support-side of the house.
Councilmember DeCosta: I appreciate this very detailed description. I just
want to make sure that we are not sitting with a top-heavy administration. This goes across
all of our departments for the County. We owe that to our constituents that we know that
sometimes we need to work harder or absorb a little more responsibility. That is my message.
Thank you for streamlining your budget.
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Chief Goble: Thank you.
Committee Chair Kaneshiro: Councilmember Cowden.
Councilmember Cowden: Good questions have been asked. I am going to
touch upon a few pieces that are a part of what you discussed. For me, personally, with the
double-budgeting on that SCBA-element, I am fine with helping to fully-fund the Assistant
Chief position and add to the brush truck. When I look through all of the budget elements, I
notice that some particularly, the Fire Operations, rank-for-rank and the regular overtime
dropped substantially both this year and last year. That had been a problem a few years ago.
In other areas, it has increased. Can you speak to that a little bit? How does that
rank-for-rank and regular overtime is anticipated for early in the budget and why do we see
a drop in the main Fire Operations and an increase in the other areas?
(Councilmember Chock was noted as present.)
Chief Goble: I will do my best to cover that. Several years ago,
prior to my arrival, there was a significant amount of attention to the excess pension problem
and the billing from Employees Retirement System (ERS). Part of the solution to that was a
reallocation of the overtime moneys to account for that and to put a line together that would
help to account for those expenses that are coming, but we do not know exactly what they
are, because of the complexity of the formula and the delays in billing. That money was
pulled from these accounts and reallocated to the retiree contribution line item. I will share
with you that these accounts are significantly underfunded. Again, rank-for-rank is
contractually obligated and if that were to be fully utilized by every member within the
Department, we would be looking at $900,000 to $1,000,000 worth of costs there. However,
our usage rate is slightly less than that. Still, we go into this budget year and last budget
year knowing that we essentially have an $800,000 hole that we have to fill somehow,
someway. Again, some of that is reallocated to retirement contributions, so based on that,
some of that money can flow out to cover those costs. It is certainly a challenge for us. We
continue to pay for the sins of our fathers, so to speak with the re-do of the whole retirement
system process. Back in 2012, the big change occurred and the change in contribution rate
was not fully funded. They had to come up with a way to make up for the lack of funding.
That has driven all of these challenges with the budgets.
Councilmember Cowden: Thank you for the effort. We are pretty much
figuring out our third quarter and there has not been any money bills requested so far this
year. It seems like you are managing to pull it from unexpended funds somewhere else. I
appreciate the effort. I appreciate all the work that gets done by the Fire Department.
Chief Goble: Thank you.
Committee Chair Kaneshiro: Council Vice Chair Chock, followed by
Councilmember Carvalho, Councilmember DeCosta, and Councilmember Evslin.
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Councilmember Kuali`i: Can I ask that we stay in order and that maybe
people refer to the pages if they do jump out of order? You were asking for questions
specifically on this report.
Committee Chair Kaneshiro: I think her overall question was an issue that has
been happening over the years. I think hers was an overall question as well.
Councilmember Kuali`i: It is going to come up again.
Committee Chair Kaneshiro: I think even rank-for-rank was as well. I think
Council Vice Chair Chock.
Councilmember Chock: I can defer if it is a rank-for-rank question.
Committee Chair Kaneshiro: You can ask it now. Every single division has it.
Councilmember Chock: I know that in the last few years we have tried to
tighten up rank-for-rank management. I am curious, have we looked at the other counties
and their fire departments to see how they manage rank-for-rank? Have we been able to
glean any information from them on how to more effectively structure it? I know we are all
bound by the same Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA). I am guessing that everyone
handles it and manages it a little differently.
Chief Goble: They do. There are nuances to it. Overall, the
CBA is the guiding document, of course. It kind of defines the level. It essentially defines
the two hundred forty-four (244) or two hundred eighty-eight (288) hours a year we are
obligated to offer in a rank-for-rank way to our people. That number is defined for us. Again,
that is based on offers. People have to have the ability or by contract, they have the ability
to accrue up to those two hundred eighty-eight (288) hours in rank-for-rank overtime. Our
folks do not use 100% of that. We trend at about 80-85% usage on the rank-for-rank. We
have put some additional constraints in ours that the other counties do not. They tend to
have larger pools of employees to draw from and have more flexibility in who gets assigned
where than we do just because of our small size. We have put some additional constraints in
there about defining the timeframe. Rather than having two hundred eighty-eight (288)
hours that you can use in a 2-month period, we have essentially divided that in half. Over
a 6-month period, they can accrue one hundred forty-four (144) hours and then that stops.
That helps to avoid the month-to-month spiking that drove the issue in the past. I think
where we really put the controls in place is in the non-rank-for-rank-side of the house. Those
more discretionary overtime that we have control of. This includes the training, committee
work, cadres, operational teams, et cetera, that extra work that we get done from out in the
fire stations is where we have put the most control in place.
Councilmember Chock: I appreciate that. I think taxing the system more
fairly in a way that we can spread it out so that it does not duplicate or multiply on us has
been the challenge. Thank you for a good eye on that.
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Chief Goble: Thank you.
Committee Chair Kaneshiro: Councilmember Carvalho.
Councilmember Carvalho: Just looking at the report that you submitted
under the Operational Highlights, specifically community risk reduction. I just want you to
give a brief update. I think it is a totally collaborative effort with what I am reading here. Is
there any update on the Wildland Fire Management Initiative and things that can happen
from there? There has been a collaborative effort out in Anahola. That really worked well
from what I saw and heard about. Is there anything there based upon your report?
Chief Goble: Yes. There is nothing but good news there. I
appreciate you recognizing that work that is being done out there. We had what we would
consider our most significant problem was in the Anahola area, due to the deterioration of
the area. It had become a dumping ground for abandoned vehicles, trash, and there was a
significant houseless population that had taken up residence out in the brush out there. It
really was a broad community-wide effort that really just focused on cleaning the area up
and taking some pride...the community has a tremendous amount of pride in that area going
in. Having an avenue for folks to contribute and help has proven to be very successful. We
started with coordinating with the State and some local resources to address the houseless
issue out there. We made contact with some of the encampments to provide resources and
alternatives to living in the situation that they were in. We started there then went in with
help from the Department of Hawaiian Home Lands (DHHL), Department of Land and
Natural Resources (DLNR), Department of Public Works, Fire Department, private partners,
et cetera. We went out there and just started to clean things out. The first goal was to cut
some firebreaks into the brush, so that we could at least contain fires in defined areas.
Beyond that, we partnered with a number of nonprofits and community groups to do the
cleanup. We got donated dumpsters, heavy equipment, people, refreshments, et cetera, for
folks to go out and pick up trash. We defined a mechanism to remove the abandoned vehicles
and get them over to the recycler. All of this was done with little or no funds expended on
behalf of the County. There has been a nonprofit established to be a part of that and to lead
the charge and funnel all the resources through a central point, and to stay on top of the
problem. In fact, Prince Kiihio Day weekend, there was another large, organized effort to go
out there and clean up trash and Garden Isle Disposal donated a couple of dumpsters. We
filled one with metal and filled the other with trash. We cleaned things up again. It is an
ongoing problem, because not everyone has the message yet. Folks continue to go in there
and dump their vehicles or break through the gates out there to make access and create a
little bit of a problem. This focused effort and persistence by the community out there has
really proven to yield some good, positive results. We targeted Anahola first because it was
our biggest problem from a response standpoint. We can see that this model is something
that we can duplicate and replicate in other areas of the island as well. I think the latest
effort is around controlled grazing these areas as well. One of the techniques for managing
fuel is to have cows eat it. That is another resource that we are exploring or another avenue
that we are exploring to help us with managing the fuels out there.
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Councilmember Carvalho: I just wanted to bring that up because it is in your
report, and it can happen in other parts of our island. What a great example there. Mahalo
for all the work that you do on different levels.
Committee Chair Kaneshiro: Councilmember Kuali`i with a follow-up.
Councilmember Kuali`i: I am very excited about all that has been
happening there. I live in the neighborhood, in the homestead, and I am a part of the
Homestead Association that has been participating and volunteering. Good things are
happening. My only question has to do with trying to tie this back to the budget. I see on
page 156, CRR, Community Risk Reduction, Wildfire Fuel Management, $4,000. It is such a
small amount of money. Is a part of that used towards this? When I think about the big
work thatou are doingand thepilot is
y in Anahola, but you will go to other places around
the island. It also seems like the work that the Department of Parks and Recreation folks do
with communitygroups and volunteer efforts, where g p they put in just a little bit of money and
the community puts in the time and sweat to do big things. I think this is a great start, but
it seems like even if it was that entire $4,000, that is not very much money. Do you think
that is enough? Could you put a little bit more there?
Chief Goble: It is. This was the specific request from our folks
that are heading up this effort. This equipment is actually Fire Department-specific. It
includes equipment for backburning. That is another technique that we use to manage the
fuels. These are torches and equipment related to activity like that that we do not necessarily
want the community to have in their hands, but certainly another tool that we can use to
help fight the problem. To your point, it is proven. We have proven out in Anahola that a
very small investment, mostly of our time, has really yielded huge rewards out there. The
community has really risen to the challenge.
Councilmember Kuali`i: Thank you.
Committee Chair Kaneshiro: Councilmember Cowden with a follow-up.
Councilmember Cowden: Is this primarily happening under Jeremie
Makepa? He seems like even as a citizen, he has just been doing extraordinary work. I know
where I work with the houseless community, he has been such a compassionate team member
in helping them have a better understanding of things even when they live in bush areas.
Chief Goble: Captain Makepa is a very humble man, and so I
am sure that he will be somewhat embarrassed, but yes. Absolutely. He has taken on the
challenge not just wearing his Fire Department hat but wearing his community member
hat...that advocacy that he has shown away from work to address this problem is certainly
admirable and something that he should be very proud of personally. The community, island,
and our Department is very proud of him as well.
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Councilmember Cowden: Okay, thank you. I am just hearing all of this and
I wanted his name in there. As far as I can see, he has picked up this new position with
gusto. I appreciate him and everyone helping him.
Chief Goble: Thank you.
Committee Chair Kaneshiro: Councilmember DeCosta.
Councilmember DeCosta: I am going to follow-up in three (3) areas. One was
the wildfire that Councilmember Carvalho and you mentioned about grazing and cattle in
the Anahola area, because of the tall guinea grass. I believe we have the same problem on
the West side. I believe that a big thank you goes out to Jeremie Makepa. I believe that you
went out there to the West side with the Agribusiness Development Corporation (ADC) and
spoke to them about keeping their grasses down to a minimum. Have you made much
progress with that fire hazard out in Waimea to Kekaha along Koke`e Road?
Chief Goble: I know those contacts have been made out there.
I know there has been progress. There is a broader, statewide coalition that is working on
this problem as well. They are called the Hawai`i Wildfire Management Organization. They
provide resources to assist with this as well. It is specifically in educating the communities,
large property owners, and stakeholders. It is such a big, broad effort. Every ask that we
have made of the community, they have answered the call. Things are progressing
remarkably well. We definitely all of the partnerships that we have out there.
Councilmember DeCosta: The equipment that you have out in Anahola...I
know our Fire Department does not have equipment like dozers or graders. Does that have
something to do with a joint project and partnership with DLNR?
Chief Goble: Yes, DLNR was one of the partners that provided
the equipment there. Our own County Department of Public Works has provided equipment.
There have also been private companies that have provided equipment, personnel, and other
efforts to help.
Councilmember DeCosta: Thank you. We are giving shout-outs to the Fire
Department. We have to thank everyone who contributed. Since we are dropping names
here, Kalani Abreu was one of your intricate firemen who brought this to the forefront for
years about the hazards of the oil, diesel, and gasoline vehicles that were in that brush area
for decades. My second point of interest here, how long has our Deputy and our Assistant
Chief been allocated to the Fire Department? Are these relatively new positions that we
acquired? How new are those two (2) positions that were added to the administrative part of
our Fire Department? If you do not have the answer, you can get it to me later.
Chief Goble: Yes, I will probably have to get back to you on
that. I know that the Deputy Chief position has been in place for several years.
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Councilmember DeCosta: Chief, what is several years?
Chief Goble: It is one that suffered during the COVID-19
economic downturn, that was one of the dollar-funded positions that we had. The Assistant
Chief position is a fairly new position. There have been three (3) of them over the years. I
believe it has been at least five (5) or six (6) years old. I think the Deputy Chief position was
a little bit longer than that. I will get you the hard numbers on that.
Councilmember DeCosta: I am just trying to figure things out. You
mentioned something that resonated with me. You said, "Sins of our Fathers". That means,
in my Layman's term, is people that came before you. I am wondering how was the
Department run without a Deputy and without an Assistant. I want to make sure that now
that you have added help, are you okay, or are you still looking for more help?
Chief Goble: Well, Councilmember, it has run so much better
since I got here. I am just kidding. The complexity of running the Department, it is
staggering to me. There are new problems every day. There is a whole lot of"would it not
be nice, ifs," out there that we do not have the ability to address. I know it sounds like a pun,
but we are constantly putting fires out. We find ourselves being highly reactive to things
that come our way and certainly some of the intention over the years has been to try to shift
that to a more proactive stance. That is a focus of myself and the team that we have in place
now. With that comes additional need for time, effort, and all of those kinds of things that
make it difficult, in an environment where we are constantly just fixing things that are
broken. It is part of our vision going forward to create a more proactive approach to
everything that we do. An example of that is that through this budget process, we looked at
our vehicle fleet and we realized that we have a lot of broken equipment. We
asked ourselves,
"Why do we have so many broken things?" Those are predictable in a way. We know that a
fire engine is not going to last forever. I think in the past, we have become very reliant on
grant opportunities and things like that to help us to sustain our operations. Going forward,
we have created a vehicle replacement schedule. We have considered things like the age of
the vehicle, number of miles and hours that have accumulated on it, the overall condition,
maintenance costs associated with each of those pieces of equipment, and created a formula
to better project our vehicle replacement needs going forward. Things like that...if all we are
doing is focusing on operations and putting on emergency response, those are things that get
missed and deferred over time. With the right kind of support resources in place, we can
become more proactive and address those issues before they become problems.
Councilmember DeCosta: In closing, I would like to ask you...that proactive
approach, does that cost us more money to maintain versus the fix-as-we-need approach?
Chief Goble: Just to go back to the earlier question from
Councilmember Evslin, is the cost money or is the cost in our ability to provide the service?
In most of these things, it is a combination of both things. We have to draw that fine line
about making sure that we maintain our fiscally responsible approach, but at the same time
making sure that we do not have a fire engine die on the side of the road in route to a fire.
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That is the balance that we have to put in place. There may be an incremental financial
impact, but I think that is more than made up for by reliability in our service delivery.
Councilmember DeCosta: Did we ever have a vehicle that died on the way to
a fire in the last ten (10) years?
Chief Goble: I can point to Brush Truck 6. That is one that we
came back to you for a budget augmentation to replace. That was enroute to a fire call or a
rescue call up in Koke`e. That is the kind of thing that we are trying to avoid.
Councilmember DeCosta: Okay, thank you.
Committee Chair Kaneshiro: Are there any other general questions on the
write-up from the Members? If not, we will move into the budget. We will start with
Administration. Are there any questions? Councilmember Kuali`i.
Councilmember Kuali`i: You told us about Position No. 630, Assistant Fire
Chief, which is showing in our budget as 9-month funded, but you are saying now that you
need it fully funded. What is showing in the budget is $97,376. On the Vacancy Report, it
shows the salary range of$86,748 to $151,752. If you are going to fully fund it now, at what
level will you fully fund? Is it at the entry-level of$86,748 or at some point between there
and the top level of$151,752?
Chief Goble: It would be at a point in between. Typically, this
position is promotable from our Battalion Chief ranks. We can kind of project what that cost
would be. In just doing the quick math on the $97,376 divided by nine (9) months and taking
that number and multiplying that out by twelve(12)months, it looks like it is about$129,834.
(Councilmember Carvalho was noted as not present.)
Councilmember Kuali`i: If you are not promoting from within and you are
going to recruitment, you could hire anyone, right? It could be someone from the outside or
relocated from the continent. Why would you not start it at the starting level?
Chief Goble: This one is an interesting position in that as it is
currently defined, it requires time with the Kaua`i Fire Department.
Councilmember Kuali`i: Okay.
Chief Goble: It is strictly a promotable position. I think that is
good, right? Organizationally, that is the best thing anyway. Having that experience within
the Department certainly brings value to the role, especially on the operational oversight
side. Credibility, understanding of the system, et cetera, are key to the success in that role.
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Councilmember Kuali`i: Stating the obvious then, you want to push the
level higher than the beginning level for that position, because you could be hiring someone
from within, but they would not even express interest if it was not higher than the rate that
they would already be getting, yes?
Chief Goble: Correct. This is a challenge for us within our
administrative roles as a whole, right? I know you have heard about salary inversion issues
across-the-board for employees that are coming in. One of the challenges in filling this
position is that they are limited monetary motivation to do it. To put it quite bluntly, the
ability to earn in the Battalion Chief rank is considerably higher than in the Assistant Chief
rank. Again, operational assignment, 24-hour on-off-on-off-on shift, and the ability to rank-
for-rank overtime, holiday pay, working holidays, et cetera, are impactful in the ability for
employees to earn and is one of the challenges. Again, when I talk to our employees about
their concerns about promoting to a position like that, not a single one has said it is about
the money. They talk about with our Battalion Chiefs in particular, the most tenured
Battalion Chief that we have is less than eighteen (18) months in that role. They still feel
like they are learning how to do that job and want to be good at that before moving to the
next job. The schedule change is another considerable obstacle to filling the position. This
is a 40-hour role. Folks that would promote into this have spent the last twenty (20) years
on a firefighter's schedule, so their lives are built around that. There are a number of
challenges to it. Ever the optimist, I believe that departmental need, loyalty to the cause,
and motivation to be a part of good, positive change will rule the day.
(Councilmember Carvalho was noted as present.)
Councilmember Kuali`i: My final question on this is, when will you start
the recruitment and are you confident you can get the person fully hired and ready to start
by July Pt? Today is April 1st.
Chief Goble: Again, ever the optimist, yes. There are no
obstacles from the timeline. The challenge would be who is interested, and would we get the
candidate pool that we need.
Councilmember Kuali`i: So, you are starting recruitment right away?
Chief Goble: We can based on this conversation, yes.
Councilmember Kuali`i: Okay, thank you. I was going to say, your original
point about you want it fully funded, but you are waiting on this to begin that you should
begin recruitment. Ultimately, it is more between you and the Mayor, because he is going to
come back with us on the next budget, then we will support it. Thank you.
Chief Goble: Understood, thank you.
Council Chair Kaneshiro: Councilmember DeCosta.
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Councilmember DeCosta: I have a follow-up. Chief, you made something
very aware to me, you mentioned something about the Battalion Chief's insight to Kaua`i and
Kaua`i's unique needs, especially with the terrain and the geographic area that we live in
this tropical rain forest, how will you tie in the importance of culture? We are a unique
melting pot of different people, would you think culture should be embedded when you hire
Supervisor, or Administrator managerial position?
Chief Goble: It is hugely important. As someone who comes
from outside the organization to inside the organization, it is something that has to be there,
the mindset has to be at least similar to start with, but the nuances...you point out that
Kaua`i is its own culture, as an island and as a community, then within that we have the
culture of the Kaua`i Fire Department so having been a part of different fire department
cultures there are differences, and if you are embedded in the culture coming in, you have a
head start, you have a leg up to be affective in these kinds of roles, for sure.
Councilmember DeCosta: Thank you for understanding the importance of
that, too, Chief. Thank you.
Council Chair Kaneshiro: Are there any other questions for the
Administration Budget? If not, we will move on to the Operation Budget page 141. Are there
any questions for Operations? If not, we can move on to Fire Prevention. Councilmember
Cowden.
Councilmember Cowden: Thank you, Chief, for all that you have done. I
realized from our group conversations that this fire flow capacity is going to come mostly from
the Department of Water, but it is a concern. It is a concern also in a different discussion
here, we saw that our Building Division, the insurance group gave us the second lowest
ranking, and I would imagine having fire flow issues could be an example of what would get
us there. Where in here do we have any effort in looking at where we have those standpipes
or how can we work to recognize where we have problematic areas? I know the Department
of Water is supposed to be doing it, too. What is going on with that?
Chief Goble: That is part of our overall Fire Prevention effort
and tied in very closely with our operational efforts as well. We have had quite a bit of
dialogue with the Department of Water on this issue. They have gone out to retain a
consultant to help create the mapping and establish with the current fire flow is, and where
the needs for improvement are—we are a part of that as well. We do have a working
committee made up primarily of our operational folks that drive our technology issues. We
have a really talented bunch of folks that are well in tune with Geographical Information
Systems (GIS) mapping and have created some field maps for our crews to utilize. While
enroute to a call, while preplanning a district that has some limited information, it is
essentially a crowd source information that either we have identified and plugged in, or that
it has come to us from one source or another that we have embedded in an overall mapping
tool that our crews can use. So, that has become available to them now, again, as we have
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spoken to the community group and others, for us, the key is awareness, where are these
places? Where can we expect to in the short term have these problems, and that will help us
to support the response on the backend. The long-term fixes are infrastructure related. I
know the Department of Water was working hard to address all of those kinds of things.
They have been great partners for us. I have to say that Joe Tate has been very open with
their information and information sharing, that has improved our awareness of where we
need to have our concerns where are problems are at. So, there is no specific call out in the
budget for that, but that is part of our overall prevention effort.
Councilmember Cowden: Okay, thank you. As I have said before, I would
love to get the E-mails of the reports on this. As Committee Chair for Public Safety&Human
Services, it is great to know that we have this mapping consultant underway, and I would
love to be able to have that information. It can happen at a different time. Thank you.
Chief Goble: Thank you.
Council Chair Kaneshiro: Councilmember Kuali`i.
Councilmember Kuali`i: On page 151, the positions, you talk about
Position No. 626 Fire Prevention Inspector II that is 9-month funded, that position has been
vacant for a very long time—five (5) years, and it was dollar-funded last year, is this a hard
to fill position and is the position you can promote from within?
Chief Goble: Yes, and yes. It was dollar-funded last year, so we
elected to leave it vacant. As we roll into this coming year, it has already been pointed out
that Captain Makepa with our Prevention Bureau is implementing a number of changes in
the way that we do business; the efforts in Anahola are a part of that, the coordination with
the Department of Water on the fire flow issues is another indication of that, another
challenge that we have is around our plan review, our business inspections, and all sorts of
other things that have been largely, again, this is back to the reactive versus proactive stance
that we have had. Many of our inspections were complaint-driven or a result of tenant
improvements or those kinds of things that have driven the action on behalf of the Fire
Department. We would like to be much more proactive in the way that we deal with Fire
Code compliance on the frontend, so we look at this position as something that will help us
to get there. We are currently working through Fire Code amendment package that is going
to get us more engaged in these processes, specifically on the residential plan review side of
things, change our fee structure a little bit to help support this overall effort, but this overall
effort is not just going to take money, it is going to take time and effort on behalf of the
inspectors, as well. We definitely look forward to having this position filled. It has
historically been difficult for us to fill. With the Department, it is one off. This is considered
a Lieutenant or equivalent to a Lieutenant position for us. It is the only one like it in the
Department, so there is limited path for promotion. It is disconnected from the rest of the
departments, so there are a number of challenges with the structure, but we want to make
the position more appealing, we just have not landed on the right formula to make that
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successful, so we are fine with it being short funded while we try to sort out how can we best
utilize this position to move the needle forward on our prevention efforts.
Councilmember Kuali`i: Of course you are working with HR to look at all
your options and to maybe redescribing the position or what have you, right?
Chief Goble: Yes, of course. We did have a proposal on the table
to restructure this and this was part of that restructure, but as we reflect and review, we see
a need in this area, ultimately, how we define that role is something that we are working on.
Councilmember Kuali`i: Thank you.
Council Chair Kaneshiro: Councilmember DeCosta.
Councilmember DeCosta: Chief, on the Lieutenant pay, that is not so
attractive because the upward mobility to move up the pay scale ladder, what is the final pay
scale on the Lieutenant position? What is the highest pay that Lieutenant position will go?
Chief Goble: I do not have that at my fingertips.
Councilmember DeCosta: Okay, you can get that to us later.
Chief Goble: Okay.
Councilmember DeCosta: Chief, one more question, is that position Monday
through Friday, 8-hour day?
Chief Goble: It is. That is another obstacle, is the change of
schedule. Again, these are typically promotable, this is a represented position, so it would
typically come from within our organization, and things like the schedule, the unique nature
of it, the upward mobility question, again, ability to earn becomes a challenge, because you
cannot rank-for-rank for another Lieutenant because there are not any, so things like that
are things that challenge us in these kinds of roles.
Councilmember DeCosta: I understand you, Chief. I just look at how much
a firefighter makes, and you folks all make pretty good money, so I am wondering about this
Lieutenant position and the five (5) days, off every weekend, it sounds like a schoolteacher
when they grumble about the money they earn—they actually have a really good schedule. I
just wanted to throw that out there.
Chief Goble: I will share, it is not typically money-driven. Most
of the folks that sign up to be in the Fire Department, signed up to put out fires, help aunty
when she slips and falls in her home, and those kinds of things—they are very action oriented,
so a role like this, where it is primarily Administrative, is a tough transition for them.
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Councilmember DeCosta: Thank you.
Councilmember Kuali`i: Councilmember DeCosta, on the Vacancy Report
it shows the salary range for Fire Prevention Inspector II as $78,420 on the low-end and
$111,612 on the high end.
Councilmember DeCosta: Thank you for pointing that out for me. Not being
a firefighter, Fire Captain, or Fire Chief, you already got that for me, thank you.
Councilmember Kuali`i: HR gave it.
Councilmember DeCosta: Thank you.
Council Chair Kaneshiro: Council Vice Chair Chock.
Councilmember Chock: Thank you. Chief, my understanding is that the
Prevention Bureau reviews are permitting permits. I do not see it here, as to where that
would be seeded, so I am curious. That is my first question.
Chief Goble: The permit review is all part of that inspector role.
Councilmember Chock: Okay.
Chief Goble: The Firefighter IIIs that are assigned currently to
prevention—that is part of their roles and responsibilities.
Councilmember Chock: Thank you very much.
Chief Goble: This part of the Fire Department just incidentally
is revenue generating, although, certainly no self-sustaining in any sort of way, but again,
this is part of Captain Makepa's efforts to revision this bureau. Historically, I look at revenue
generated through this division and in 2019, the revenue was about $28,000, in 2020 the
revenue was about $61,000, and since Captain Makepa has come on board that almost
doubled in 2021. A couple of things, what we learned is that our ability to collect the fees for
permits, inspections, plan review, and those kinds of things was not that great, so there was
a little bit of money still left on the table out there, so part of that$127,000 collected last year
was "make up" money from that, but going forward, we anticipate that our revenue stream
will go up some and be sustained at a level that has been higher than we have historically
seen.
Councilmember Chock: That is great news. A follow-up to that is, the
Planning Department is investing in the Land Information Management System (LIMS), is
there a crossover with the permitting review process within the Fire Department.
Chief Goble: Yes.
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Councilmember Chock: Okay.
Chief Goble: That is a great point. Again, that is an initiative
that we have put in place to address that problem that we had been keeping records in a
spreadsheet, and that was not an effective tool for us. Again, Captain Makepa went over to
figure out what is the best way is, talked to the folks at Building and they turned them on to
the LIMS system, then over in Finance, and now it is all working together. I think it is going
to be a very effective tool for us to help collect the fees going forward. They can actually I
collect the fees online, as opposed to the old system where someone literally had to come in
with a check in their hands to make a payment.
Councilmember Chock: Thank you.
Council Chair Kaneshiro: Councilmember DeCosta.
Councilmember DeCosta: I am on page 158, is that okay or did I jump too
far ahead? I can wait.
Council Chair Kaneshiro: I think you jumped too far ahead.
Councilmember DeCosta: Okay. On page 151, is that in collaboration
because that is my tie between the two (2) questions? Is that okay?
Council Chair Kaneshiro: Yes.
Councilmember DeCosta: Chief, I am looking at the regular overtime
$91,730, what do you mean when you call regular overtime? Is that in the operations part of
it, where the men are out fighting fires or is it just to cover shifts within the rotation that
someone would have called in sick, and you would need to replace them?
Chief Goble: In this bureau, it is basically two (2) categories of
regular overtime. There is the call out overtime that happens when a fire happens in the
middle of the night. This is also the group that goes out and does the fire investigation for
origin and cause, so that is one piece of the regular overtime puzzle. Then the other piece is
programmatic, related to our community risk reduction activities out there. So, this is a
small team of folks,but we have full force multipliers out in fire stations. We have firefighters
that are going out and doing the fall prevention assessments and education in folks' homes,
so that compensation to perform that service is coming out of this fund as regular overtime.
Councilmember DeCosta: Chief, my big concern would be, these employees
that do that, do you try to rotate them every year, or do they stick on this program for
three (3) years, because our county retirement system says that on the high-3 that is what
they retire with, so if only a select few people are getting this overtime, we are going to be
setting them up with a"fat" retirement.
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Chief Goble: Right, that was the problem. Actually, in a
nutshell,that was the excess pension problem,that a lot of this kind of work was unregulated,
and the same folks were scooping up all of it, driving their high-3. So, for us, we have limited
the amount that is available to folks, you cannot be on every one of these groups that goes
out and does this work, and within those smaller work groups there is also a rotation that
cannot be the same people all of the time. Yes, we have put those controls in place.
Councilmember DeCosta: Thank you.
Council Chair Kaneshiro: Are there any further questions for Fire
Prevention? Councilmember Kuali`i.
Councilmember Kuali`i: On page 156, it ties into this overtime too, because
I see the overtime item there, but on the Fall Prevention, the line item is $3,360, so I get that
you said that you go into the homes and do an assessment and education, do you also provide
small accessories to kapuna to improve their homes to prevent falls? If so, is $3,360 meeting
the demands of what our kapuna needs?
Chief Goble: It is currently. That is the request from this
group, but we have great partners with the folks over in Elderly Affairs. They have access to
a lot of grant funding and funding streams that support the majority of it, this is just a small
portion.
Councilmember Kuali`i: Thank you.
Council Chair Kaneshiro: Next up, is training. Are there any questions for
training? Councilmember DeCosta.
Councilmember DeCosta: Chief, I noticed on the regular overtime on
training it is almost four (4) times from the last discussion we had going out to the homes,
and you told me you fixed that part of the high-3, so I am wondering why is the overtime so
high in this training budget?
Chief Goble: This is another one of those areas that we defined
as discretionary. This budget is much tighter than it has been historically for the Department
because of that very issue. We have re-tooled our training processes significantly. A lot of
the training that we deliver is now happening in an on-duty status. There is a lot of specialty
training that falls outside of that where we do not have all of the team members in a single
station, so it is hard to accomplish that training to meet the standards and the compliance
requirements for maintaining training for service delivery, so this budget accounts for those
kinds of things. In the past, we put on for example, an Emergency Medical
Technician (EMT) class and everyone in the classroom would be on overtime, the instructor
would be on overtime, and that would come at a considerable cost. Now, what we have done
is we have re-tooled that, we will pay an instructor to provide the instruction in a kind of an
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overtime kind of way, but that instruction is getting taken out to the fire stations and
delivered to the folks who are currently on-duty, so that is how we have contained and
controlled these costs. This is something that we monitor constantly and pay close attention
to, again, for those same reasons, we do not want to drive those unintended consequences
beyond the overtime cost in the budget, there is the downstream impacts of the ERS
payments as well, so we do monitor this closely.
Councilmember DeCosta: Do you have time within your busy schedule at the
fire station that the men or women have time to go through a training, is there down time?
Chief Goble: Yes, and it is an important part of their duties. I
will break it down as simply as I can. They are there to do two (2) things; they are there to
respond to calls—that is their primary responsibilities, then the second part of that is they
are there to prepare themselves to respond to calls.
Councilmember DeCosta: I do not want this training to take away from their
response time or their response to a community fire or if someone needs help, so that is why
I asked that question. That is all.
Chief Goble: Correct. That is why we do have to break out some
of the training, because it is not conducive to breaking away and running the call. All of the
training that we provide in the stations is something that we can drop and respond
immediately from.
Councilmember DeCosta: Thank you.
Council Chair Kaneshiro: Councilmember Cowden.
Councilmember Cowden: As simply as you can answer this, because I do not
want to make you repeat this. I have had the benefit of being able to do some of this fire
training that we have done prior to COVID-19. It was really great. They have a whole
platoon structure on their nonday, so we get how you put people on something to hook them
up to get up to the helicopter, the active shooter training—is great. You might have
seven (7) stations, and everyone rotates around, and they learn as a group. My view on that
was, it was really good because the entire platoon got consistent instruction, are you saying
we dropped doing that because of the overtime impact?
Chief Goble: I am saying we modified that. To your point, there
are some trainings that, that group dynamic is very important, too. Then, others where it is
more individually targeted or small group targeted, so we try to walk that fine line as to what
method are we going to choose for any given type of training. EMS training for example, very
well suited for small groups. They bandage each other up and put a sling on or go through
their skills and check off things in small groups, but to your point, these large rescue
operations that often involve more than one crew at a time, are sometimes better delivered
in a group because you get that cross pollination of information sharing, everyone has a
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different skill level, everyone sees the problem from a little bit different perspective, and that
kind of exchange of information is important in those scenarios.
Councilmember Cowden: Thank you.
Council Chair Kaneshiro: Are there any other questions for training? If not,
we will move on to Water Safety? Councilmember DeCosta.
Councilmember DeCosta: Chief, I believe Water Safety is an entity in itself,
it is so unique compared to the Fire Department. I noticed your Ocean Safety Bureau (OSB)
Chief, how high up is that position on your hierarchy? Does he or she stand directly below
you, underneath the Deputy, or underneath the Assistant Fire Chief?
Chief Goble: Currently, that position is slotted directly under
the Deputy Chief and equivalent to Battalion Chief on the Fire side. This is an EM III
position, so on par with the Battalion Chiefs on the Fire side. There are sixty (60) people in
our Ocean Safety Bureau, so Chief Vierra has overall responsibility for those sixty (60) folks,
and to your point, the very specialized discipline of ocean safety.
Councilmember DeCosta: Okay, thank you for that description.
Council Chair Kaneshiro: Councilmember Kuali`i.
Councilmember Kuali`i: On page 169, in about the middle of the page for
the Kekaha area division, the vacant position 616, Ocean Safety Officer I, it has been vacant
for five (5) months, but on the status of recruitment it said, "no request to recruit." What are
plans for filling this position and is this the entry-level position for Ocean Safety, and if
it is, do you have something like they do with the Parks Department, where they have an
eligible list where it would make recruitment easier because you have a pool of candidates
identified?
Chief Goble: Yes, to all of the above. This position is actually
vacant through a chain of events, but ultimately, it is related to termination of an employee
a little over a year ago. There has been some limited upgrade of part-time folks to fill the
positions, but we intentionally left a void while that termination process has worked its way
through. We are in a little bit of a staffing crunch currently. Normally, we have an eligible
list established that is good for a period of time, forgive me, I cannot remember if it is six (6)
months or a year, that recently expired back in January. We went to recruit and for whatever
reason, we are having a challenge in this environment in recruiting for that position. During
the height of COVID-19 we had plenty of great, qualified candidates. As COVID-19 has
wound down a little bit, that pool has shrunk on us. We posted this a couple of times since
the beginning of the year, and it has not produced viable candidates to this point. We recently
met with HR, and they made the recommendation to open this up as a continuous
recruitment, so that is where we stand today. It is currently in recruitment, and we will
leave it open, and take people as they come. Part of our challenge has been getting people
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scheduled in for the physical assessment and interviews, so we are opening that up to give
people more opportunities to come on board with us.
Councilmember Kuali`i: Thank you.
Council Chair Kaneshiro: Councilmember Cowden.
Councilmember Cowden: I noticed Ke`e Beach is dollar-funded, what is the
reason for that?
Chief Goble: The reason for that is because the State has come
through and provided funding for that in the 251 side of the ledger, so it is grant funded. We
have these dollar-funded positions out here, because sometimes those folks will be assigned
to a different tower. Those position numbers, we just have to have the ability to pay them.
That is the mechanism that allows that to happen, but the positions are funded through the
State, currently.
Councilmember Cowden: Okay, thank you. Is Janine Rapozo on or is
Human Resources on? I have a question that applies to this, that could apply to anything. I
noticed that we are dollar funding workers compensation, unemployment, and Medicare
across this whole area. Can you please explain to me again, where is that money being set
aside to pay these positions?
JANINE M.Z. RAPOZO, Human Resources Manager III (via remote technology): The
dollar funding of workers compensation, unemployment, I cannot remember the last one you
stated, was a budget strategy that was used several years back during the Carvalho
Administration when funding was very tight, and there was a lot of unexpended moneys at
the end of the budget year. So, because these are unanticipated costs, we never know when
there is going to be an injury, we never know when there is going to be unemployment claims;
this was a strategy that was used in order for us to balance the budget versus having money
siting a particular department's budget, and it may never be used.
(Councilmember Chock was noted as not present.)
So, what departments need to do, is use their unexpended moneys in order to fund
those should they have those expenses, and if not, they would have to figure out a different
way. If there is no money available, then they would have to probably float a money bill.
Councilmember Cowden: Okay. Basically, there is natural padding across
any budget that is responsibly set up and this is an area where it would be absorbing that
unexpended funding. We have done it in other years and we did it last year. I just needed
that reminder, because I know that it can be significant.
Ms. Rapozo: Yes.
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Councilmember Cowden: Thank you.
Council Chair Kaneshiro: Are there any other questions from the Members?
Councilmember DeCosta.
Councilmember DeCosta: I have one on other services page 170. Chief, I am
looking at the Junior Lifeguard program and the Keiki Lifeguard program. I am glad to see
that you have those programs in place, is that $15,000 allocated enough for you to run those
programs?
Chief Goble: It is. Again, largely because we get a lot of
community support for this, and a lot of funding comes from private sources to support this
through the KLA. Again, I cannot overstate the value that organization brings to the overall
Ocean Safety program. This is money that is put to great use. We are happy to say that we
are planning a full slate of Junior Lifeguard programs this year. Last year, it was limited
with COVID-19 restrictions, then before that, we did not have one at all. The community
needs this. It is a great experience for the kids and expands overall awareness and safety in
the water for the entire island, so we are excited about it.
Councilmember DeCosta: Thank you. I am an advocate for children myself,
as a teacher, so I was in very much support of you, and asking if you needed more money for
this, that was my question. The second question, do you allocate human positions to run
this?
Chief Goble: Yes. The primary instructors for this come from
the Water Safety team. They sign up to be instructors and support the efforts, and it is
something that is absorbed in our budget.
Councilmember DeCosta: Give or take, how many positions would come and
support this on any given time? Just for my own interest.
Chief Goble: I know we strive to maintain an instructor to
student ratio, so it depends on the size of the group that we have, but we do this in segments.
I think there are five (5) locations this year. I do not know the exact number, because I do
not know how big each of the groups will be, but typically, there are five (5) or six (6)
instructors on hand to help support these groups, then there is a group of folks that volunteer
their time, too, they just show up because they love being a part of it.
(Councilmember Chock was noted as present.)
Councilmember DeCosta: That is all. Thank you. I support it all the way.
Council Chair Kaneshiro: Councilmember Evslin.
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Councilmember Evslin: In follow-up to Councilmember DeCosta's
questions on page 171, it shows no travel occurring for the Junior Lifeguard program, is that
because there are no off-island competitions this year or is that just funding constraints?
Chief Goble: There have been no coordinated effort for
expanded competition, is the short story. If that comes to fruition, we will rely on our
partners to help us get there. That typically has not been a challenge for us. Again, the
community is strongly behind this, proud parents are a part of it, so it all tends to work out
for us.
Councilmember Evslin: Thank you. It would be good to know, it would be
good to get these kids competing off-island. Thank you.
Council Chair Kaneshiro: Are there any further questions for Water Safety
or for the Chief before we move on? If not, thank you, Chief. We will move on to Emergency
Management.
Chief Goble: Thank you everyone.
Kauai Emergency Management Agency
Council Chair Kaneshiro: Next up, is Emergency Management. Elton, do
you want to give us a brief overview of your budget?
ELTON USHIO, Emergency Management Administrator (via remote technology):
Chair Kaneshiro, Vice Chair Chock, Members of the County Council, thank you for giving us
the opportunity to come before you today to present our Fiscal Year 2023 County Budget. In
getting started, I want to first thank the Mayor, the Administration, the County Council, and
all of our whole community partners, County, State, Federal, non-governmental entities, and
the people we serve for your support and contributions in helping KEMA and Kauai face
another operationally challenging year for Emergency Management. We come before you
today with what we feel is a fiscally responsible and balanced budget. I will point out that
our primary increases have to do with contractual obligations from multi-term contracts and
site leases. We do have a couple of new equipment items, primarily to support our public
safety partners, first of which is fire suppression system for the 800mhz radio system
equipment located at the Hanalei Fire Station and upgrading the access control system for
the KPD alternate dispatch center at the KFD headquarters. The current Fiscal Year has
been a challenge, but as I have said, KEMA has put this budget before you, but also, I do
want to point out to the Council that we have significant amounts in grant funding, primarily
Federal and State grant funding that we use to try to synergistically manage, maximize, and
save costs as far as efficacy and costs to county. With that, today, I am here, I have support
staff standing by, and we will be ready to field any questions you may have for us.
Council Chair Kaneshiro: Are there any questions from the Members on the
overview? Councilmember Cowden.
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Councilmember Cowden: I wonder if you could just speak for a moment on
the amount of expansion of staff that has been required through this COVID-19 time and
how can we constructively go back to a lower number? I want to acknowledge your term in
office, at least my whole term in office, I should say, you have been in an emergency. I do not
think there has ever been a break. There has been this expansion in staffing, then we are
going to be contracting, can you speak to that and how those team members move off, or how
we adapt?
Mr. Ushio: Councilmember Cowden, yes, KEMA has
expanded in staffing. Specific to COVID-19, we are currently with seventeen (17) additional
personnel primarily supporting the Emergency Operation Center (EOC), Incident
Management Operations, other operations such as, Testing at the Kaua`i War Memorial
Convention Hall and the vans, along with the logistical support. All incidents are scalable,
and we have just gone through slight scaling back with the demobilization of the National
Guard. With that, we lost several positions on the National Guard side, not funded, and not
County employees. We have ensured that the staffing level for testing operations is still
adequate. There is a commitment to continue that, but of course we will be looking at
demand, supply, and how we slowly transition back to the new normal, and at such a time
when we phase out, positions will go away, and we do not intend to have to continue the full
scope of operations as we phase out. Eventually, demobilization gets us back to normal or
what we would call the new normal.
Councilmember Cowden: We are looking at 2023 and overall, we haveg one
upin cost from 2022, you said somewhat that is on contractual obligations. If we do not have
a new disaster, I understand that is a big"if," but would we be looking at 2024 to be looking
to continue to decline towards what it was in 2019? Are we picturing a slow bell curve? Is it
going to go back down?
Mr. Ushio: Without a crystal ball it is hard for me to commit
to what that is going to look like, because a lot of things contribute to the budget process. We
work closely with the Administration, and we see what the revenue outlook is going to look
like, what our budget strategy is going to be as a county...disasters will not necessarily affect
our budget in that if it is a major disaster, we hope to leverage as much Federal Emergency
Management Agency (FEMA) assistance as possible.
Councilmember Cowden: Thank you.
Council Chair Kaneshiro: Councilmember Kuali`i.
Councilmember Kuali`i: On page 177, the vacant Position No. 2502, which
is Emergency Management Staff Specialist II. It just went vacant in January, but it says "no
requisition to recruit." When will you start recruitment? How long do you think it will take
to hire someone and are you confident they can be hired and ready to start by July 1st?
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Mr. Ushio: Councilmember Kuali`i, our intent is to hire by
July 1st for that position, because that is a key position in our operation. The fact that it is
not out for recruitment at present, it is not indicative of lack of prioritization, but in all
honesty our focus has been so much on COVID-19 and maintenance of staffing and operations
in that area has taken much of our staff time, but we do intend to fill that by July Pt.
Councilmember Kuali`i: Position No. 9403, Accountant II, I think I saw on
the Vacancy Report where it is listing it as a different position, Grant Fiscal Specialist, but
the position Accountant II was open for about seven hundred (700) days, since April of last
year, what is the status of that? Did you redescribe that position or are you recruiting for
someone to come on board by July 1st?
Mr. Ushio: Yes. Councilmember Kuali`i, we are currently
working on reclassifying that position from a Grant Fiscal Specialist to Accountant II, and
our intent is to hire as soon as feasible, so we will be reallocating, then recruiting.
Councilmember Kuali`i: Thank you.
Council Chair Kaneshiro: Councilmember DeCosta.
Councilmember DeCosta: Elton, what is the normal work hours that we
operate?
Mr. Ushio: KEMA's normal work hours are like any other
county agency, 7:45 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., but that varies with certain incidents when we are
activated, it can be any time, day or night, occasionally 24-hour operations for major
incidents, like most recently, if you say, something like the Waimea Valley rockslide, when
we were in the flash flood warning phase or when we are in labor for twenty-four (24) hours,
we might break for a little while, as time allows in the flow, or what we call the uptempo or
battle rega, but it varies, but most days are 7:45 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. are normal.
Councilmember DeCosta: I appreciate it. I am looking at your regular
overtime $20,000, it looks really low compared to everyone else's overtime budget. Would
you like to explain when that overtime is used,with a natural disaster, let us put it that way?
Mr. Ushio: That overtime can be used for Administrative
work response to emergencies like flash flood warnings or what have you. The amount is low
if we get into a major even, or many smaller events, but something that does not allow us to
leverage FEMA funding, but as a baseline that is the amount that we have in there for many
years at that amount.
Councilmember DeCosta: Thank you for that.
Council Chair Kaneshiro: Are there any further questions for Emergency
Management. Councilmember Kuali`i.
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Councilmember Kuali`i: Elton, on page 179, R&M Equipment, there are
two (2) different items, the first one, Motorolla 800mhz radio system, I am thinking the
description got cut off here, so I want the rest of it. It says, "Year ten (10) of..." how many
years?
Mr. Ushio: That is year ten of ten (10) years, is my
understanding.
Councilmember Kuali`i: Okay, so it is completing. The one below, Radio
System Software upgrade, year four of the $312,000.
Mr. Ushio: Year four on the maintenance side, I defer to our
Telecommunications Officer David, are you able to provide data on that?
Councilmember Kuali`i: If it is maintenance, it is going to be a continued
expense, so it is just a contract that ends like year ten of ten, so next year you will enter a
new contract and it will be year one (1), so it is not an expense that will go away is what I am
asking.
Mr. Ushio: No.
Councilmember Kuali`i: Thank you, no need to pass it on.
Mr. Ushio: Thank you.
Council Chair Kaneshiro: Are there any further questions for Emergency
Management? If not, it is 10:50 a.m., I am going to say, let us take our 10-minute caption
break now, and when we come back, we will take the remaining two (2), which is Police and
Prosecuting Attorney.
There being no objections, the Committee recessed at 10:49 a.m.
The meeting was called back to order at 11:01 a.m., and proceeded as follows:
Kauai Police Department
Committee Chair Kaneshiro: Welcome back. Next up, we have Police. Chief
Raybuck, if you want to give us an overview of your budget, and then we will go into
questions.
TODD G. RAYBUCK, Chief of Police (via remote technology): Chair Kaneshiro, Vice
Chair Chock, and honorable members of the Council. Good morning. Thank you for the
opportunity to present out budget for your consideration. I want to share my screen here
with you, so that I can do a quick overview of our budget before we get to questions.
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Before I get into a few slides that provide you a snapshot of this year's budget request,
I would like to recognize everyone that was instrumental in preparing this budget proposal,
which is essentially a flat budget. First and foremost, I would like to thank the Mayor, the
Managing Director, and the Mayor's Budget Team for their support and assistance in
preparing our Fiscal Year 2023 budget. In preparation for our budget, Assistant Chief Ke,
Assistant Chief Ponce, and Captain Ozaki each met with their respective bureaus to identify
their specific needs for FY 2023. Deputy Chief Olsen and Fiscal Officer Daurice Arruda held
multiple meetings with each of the bureau Assistant Chiefs to review and scrutinize each
line of their budget to ensure we remain very conservative in our budget request. I think
that you can see that by the budget proposal in before you today.
Recently, we discussed KPD's CIP Budget request for FY 2023, which was related to
the planned Kawaihau Police Substation. This photo is an architectural artist rendering of
the proposed substation just to give you a visual reference of that project and what we hope
to see come to fruition sometime in the near future.
As you can see, this year our budget, as I mentioned has remained essentially flat.
We have a 3.7% increase in our budget. This year's budget request is for $41,701,000 and
some change. That is an increase of just over $1,400,000. As you can see, 91% of our budget
goes towards our salaries and benefits, only 7% of our budget is in the operations area. Of
the increase this year, $383,687 is where we are seeing an increase in our operations, and
74% of our budget increase is due to an increase in benefits, as you can see on this slide as
well.
To give you a quick overview of our budget snapshot, this year in our bureaus, the
Chiefs Office budget increased slightly, $56,000; our Administrative & Technical Bureau
Budget (A&T) decreased by $106,000; our Investigative Services Bureau (ISB) increase by
$224,000; and then the Patrol Services Bureau budget increased by $209,000. That is the
total for our total operating budget increase, which brings it to $383,687. Of note, about
$200,000 of that $383,000 increase is for a replacement of marked patrol vehicles to address
our significantly aging fleet of vehicles due to the delay in us being able to replace vehicles
and their extended life that are currently out there on the road.
Just to give you a quick staffing snapshot before we get into the budget, on the
commission side or sworn side, we have authorized one hundred sixty-one (161) officers.
There are vacancies that you can see here. In 2017, we had sixteen (16); then we went to
twenty-one (21); 2019 when I came in, we had twenty-five (25); in 2020 we made some
headroom there at nineteen (19); and then in 2021, we were down to eighteen (18). Why I
wanted to point this out is because each year you get a Vacancy Report that shows how many
vacancies we have, but what is not clear is the hard work that goes into hiring people to stave
off our attrition that occurs naturally and every organization does, obviously, so here too. Of
note, in July of 2021, we had gotten our sworn vacancies down to 8, which is the lowest
vacancy number probably in at least a decade, if not more, in KPD. That was really because
of the hard work of our Administrative & Technical Bureau (ATB) folks, our training folks,
who have been continuously training for almost 2% years, back-to-back recruit schools, a
great response in our recruitment drives, and things like that. If you look at the 2020 line
where it says our attrition rate, we lost thirteen (13) sworn officers in 2020 due to
retirements, resignation, or separations, and we hired nineteen(19). In 2021, we had fifteen
(15) that we lost through attrition, while we hired seventeen (17). You can see that just in
the last two (2) years, our team has been able to hire thirty-six (36) sworn officers to combat
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the loss of the twenty-eight (28) through attrition. While it does not look like we have been
making significant headway, we have reduced our vacancies from 2019 into 2021 and we will
continue to work hard in that area to put more officers out into the streets.
On our non-sworn side, we currently have thirteen(13)vacancies. I know that we will
discuss this more in a few minutes. I wanted to just give you a brief update on what the
vacancies look like and the status of those vacancies compared to what I think you have in
your package. Two (2) of those non-sworn vacancies are pending current start dates, five (5)
of them currently in the background phase, and we hope and anticipate that they will clear
that background phase and be offered positions of employment, two (2) are in the interview
stages for selection, three (3) are currently out for recruitment, and 1 of the positions that we
had recruited, the individual declined the offer for that position. Out of the thirteen (13), we
have eight (8) that are projected start dates between April 7th and July 1st. With that, I will
stop sharing my screen if I can figure that out, and answer any questions that you may have.
Committee Chair Kaneshiro: Are there any questions from the Members on the
presentation that we just saw? Councilmember DeCosta.
Councilmember DeCosta: You rattled out a bunch of numbers, but what I
gather is the sworn of new thirty-six (36) officers in the last two (2) years, but we still lost
twenty-eight (28) officers in the same 2 years. Basically, it is a new induction of eight (8)
officers during a 2-year period. Is that correct?
Chief Raybuck: Well, a gain of 8 officers in that timeframe. Some
of those resignations, unfortunately, during that timeframe, Councilmember DeCosta, in the
last two (2) years, we have lost people for several different reasons; six (6) of them, believe it
or not, due to COVID in one way or another. That has had an impact. Some of them by
retirement, and some who took the job and then once they got into the field, decided that law
enforcement work was not for them. We have a positive gain of eight (8) officers in our
vacancies.
Councilmember DeCosta: Chief, do we have some kind of retention
intervention plan that we can try and use to keep these new officers that get into the field
that figure out that maybe the work is not for them? In Hawai`i and especially Kaua`i, our
culture is `ohana. Can we create some kind of support system for them, or even for the older
officers? I noticed that we have lost some really good older officers. Can we keep them
around? Is there a way that we can maybe encourage them to stay on the force a little longer?
I am pretty sure if they worked thirty plus (30+) years for KPD, they are feeling a sense of
family, so would they not want to assist you and keep KPD going forward?
Chief Raybuck: I would hope that they would want to continue to
work for us, but this is a demanding and difficult job. One of the things I think that our
attrition rate shows that unfortunately, some people who are very well intentioned and
motivated for this occupation get here and realize that it is not like what you see on television.
I think one of the things that we do well, and HR assists us with, is to be able to do our exit
interviews to determine why people are leaving. Some people just retire, and good for them.
This is a difficult job, and it is not like other jobs. One-year here in law enforcement is kind
of like "dog years" in some other professions, because the level of trauma and stress that
people go through. It is healthier long-term for some people to retire and move on, and then
for some people, it is just the end of their career and so they move on for other reasons. We
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do lose some people due to the cost of living or due to family issues. We have lost several
people who had to move to help take care of family members and some have left for financial
reasons. One of the things that we continue to discuss here at KPD is trying to ensure that
we can educate people coming in what the job entails. We have talked about looking at ways
to educate people in the testing process a little bit more about what it is, so we hopefully do
not lose as many once they come on. But it continues to be a problem nationwide.
Unfortunately, the commitment and the passion for joining and policing is significantly
declining and has been many years. As you have probably seen in the papers, Maui Police
one hundred(100)vacancies and Honolulu Police Department has three
Department has over P
hundred (300) vacancies. To be quite hone with you despite the many valiant efforts that
those departments are doing to try to curb those losses, I do not know that they will ever pull
out of that puka. It is such an insurmountable task given our limited recruitment pool that
we have here on the island and the isolation that we have. We do not have neighboring
communities where people can easily commute into the neighboring communities to be a
police officer. We are competing against communities, especially in California, that are
struggling as well who are providing significant sign-on bonuses for their officers and moving
expenses. We cannot necessarily afford to provide. We will continue to struggle in that area.
But what I am really proud of is that despite all of those challenges, our team has done
significant well, in fact, heroic in hiring and maintaining our levels of officers here at KPD.
Councilmember DeCosta: Chief, I agree that you folks have done a good job
in hiring. It is just that when you hire a new officer, he or she does not have the extensive
knowledge like our old-timers. That is why I brought up a retention plan to try and keep our
older officers on for a little bit longer. How is the overall morale of the Department compared
to other states such as California? Are the officers okay with all of the restrictions that are
put upon police officers, all of the different type of training or body cameras that they have
to use now? How are they feeling? Are they feeling less supported? Is the morale up or down
on Kaua`i in the Department?
Chief Raybuck: That is a great question. For me, I try to get out
into our police cars as often as I can. I just did a ride along a couple weeks ago on the
Westside. It gives me an opportunity to get that temperature check from officers in the field
about how things are going and what they are seeing out there. It also helps me to be more
in touch with our community that we serve. You mentioned a lot of things about morale, and
I certainly think that our officers do feel the strain, even if it is not the same challenges here.
I think we are very fortunate, specifically on our island, that we have not seen some of the
dramatic interactions between the police and the public. I think a lot of that has to do with
the caliber of police officers that we have and the community that we serve. We are not just,
as I have mentioned in the past, the majority of our police officers come from this community,
and they are connected to this community, so there is that sense of ohana. But it does weigh
on people when you see police officers that are charged for criminal acts, some of them
deservedly so and some I think out of political pressure. It does affect morale. I think the
most important thing that helps us here at KPD is that we have a community that is very
supportive of our police, and we have a County Council and the Office of the Mayor that is
very supportive of our Police Department as do our community partners. I would say that I
think morale is much higher than a lot of police departments even within our own state and
the mainland.
Councilmember DeCosta: Did we ever do any kind of survey on the morale
of the Department? Did our Commission ever do any kind of survey like that before?
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Chief Raybuck: The Police Commission did commission a survey
recently in the last couple of months, and the results were compiled by the Boards and
Commissions. We are awaiting them to have the opportunity to be able to put that data
together and present that information for us to review.
Councilmember DeCosta: Perfect. When it is all done, could we get a copy
of that later?
Chief Raybuck: I would certainly ask Boards and Commissions to
be able to provide that to you.
Councilmember DeCosta: Thank you, Chief.
Committee Chair Kaneshiro: Councilmember Cowden.
Councilmember Cowden: I just have a little bit of follow-up on his questions.
You might not be able to answer this easily, but how much of people who have left, rough
percentage, have been those with ten (10) or more years of experience. I am just wondering
what our ratio is, experienced sworn officers to brand-new ones. Of course, I support all of
our brand-new ones. It is just that we want to have that institutional memory and
experience.
Chief Raybuck: I apologize, I do not have the complete breakdown
in front of me. We did do a survey of those who left the Department to identify how many
were based upon retirement, how many were based upon resignation, and then what reasons
they left. Were they leaving because they moved back to the mainland or was it their time
to go? I do not have the actual numbers before you, but what I do recall is that it really is
very evenly spread out where we see people, a fair share, that leave because of retirement.
People do twenty-five (25) years or more in this career field, and it is just time to move
forward. It would be great to keep people thirty (30) to forty (40) years. I just hit my thirty
(30) year mark myself, and thirty (30) years is a long time to do this job and for some people,
it is just time to move. We do see an equal number of people that resign because of the fact
that it is difficult. It is a difficult job, it is difficult to live here, and they move back. I can
get you those numbers...a little bit more in tuned for you if you would like for the future.
Councilmember Cowden: Okay. Thank you. Experience matters.
Something I just want to acknowledge that might be more difficult in a rural, small
community like this, but these officers when they are going to car accidents or whatever, they
typically know these people and it has that extra layer of trauma. It is not just
the incident;
it is the relationship with people in the incident. I want to acknowledge the emotional
impacts for both our Fire, Police, and Water Safety employees when we have these
challenges. Thank you to all of the Police Department for the work that you do.
Chief Raybuck: Thank you.
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Committee Chair Kaneshiro: Are there any other questions? Council Vice Chair
Chock.
Councilmember Chock: Chief, thank you so much for the presentation. I
think what you put together is comprehensive. I do have a question about the Waimea
Substation. It is showing up as a lease, which has doubled our building lease in the budget.
I understand the lease is for five (5) years. Have we had any initial discussions on the
long-term viability of another location that would be under County's purview, or
reestablishing another location on the Westside on County property?
Chief Raybuck: Vice Chair Chock, thank you for that question.
Yes. We have started to have conversations about what the long-term strategy is for our
presence on the Westside. I think that five (5) year lease will give us that opportunity to
continue to engage and expand on those conversations. As we look forward, one of the things
we want to do, we see where the population base is. `Ele`ele continues to grow in size, you
have Waimea, and some other areas. So, looking for a more centralized location to disperse
our units out into the field, perhaps what would be great, albeit, it probably will not happen
in the next five (5) years, is I referenced Kawaihau. We have been working on this for the
last fourteen (14) years. We would like to see an opportunity for us to explore building our
own police station out in that area, but one thing to note is that County does own the building
that we are in currently, so it is a County-owned property. In one way, we are assisting to
support a County building.
Councilmember Chock: Thank you.
Committee Chair Kaneshiro: Councilmember Evslin.
Councilmember Evslin: As a follow-up, where does that lease money go if
it is County-owned?
Chief Raybuck: That is a good question. I do not know all of the
intricacies of the roadmap of how the funds flow, but that property is run and managed
through another firm. I see the Managing Director has jumped on, so I will let him kind of
explain that for us.
MICHAEL A. DAHILIG, Managing Director (via remote technology): Good
morning, Councilmembers, Mike Dahilig, Managing Director. Just to provide some context
to Councilmember Evslin. The first phase of the Kauai Technology Center is actually owned
in fee by the County, and it was built through a CDBG grant well back prior to many
administrations with the support of then the late Senator Inouye. That particular site, the
moneys that are being earmarked as a lease, I helped to negotiate with the Chief, the
discussions with KEDB who is currently managing that Phase I and Phase II of the facility,
is to essentially treat the relationship as a lease situation versus something that we would
have to work out some kind of weird common area maintenance type of scheme with a
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separate type of arrangement. We kept it as a standard agreement with KEDB like we would
with any other lessee. Like any other situation, most of it is predominantly going towards
common area maintenance and going to those types of R&M things to upkeep and keep the
facility in Phase I running and in good work.
Councilmember Evslin: Okay, thank you.
Committee Chair Kaneshiro: Are there any other questions on the write-up and
PowerPoint presentation that the Chief presented? If not, we will move into the budget
starting with the Chiefs Office. Are there any questions on the Chiefs Office?
Councilmember Kuali`i.
Councilmember Kuali`i: I know there is a total of thirty (30) vacant
positions and I have specific questions on three (3). There are eight (8) total positions where
the recruitment status said, "will recruit in May/June." When we were talking with the
Director of Human Resources and I asked her about the quickest period for recruitment that
can happen, she said a month. I would recommend that you get them started in May as
opposed to June just to make sure that they are available for July 1st, because that is what
we are budgeting for. The first position is on page 99, near the top. Position No. 310, Unit
Supervisor. It has been vacant for quite a while, six hundred fifty-two (652) days, June of
2020. If the recruitment status said, "no requisition to recruit," what is the plan for filling
this position?
Chief Raybuck: Councilmember Kuali`i, thank you for that
question. This has been a difficult position for us to fill. That vacancy came about based
upon a retirement, and so we have been working really hard and closely with HR and
appreciate all of the work that they have been doing to try to help us fill this position. Since
its vacancy, it has been filled by a sworn officer, and that is not an ideal position because we
basically "rob Peter to pay Paul" to cover this position. Some unique challenges of this are
that the position requires specific previous experience as a Records Supervisor, and we do
not have anyone internally that meets that requirement for this position. I think we
attempted to recruit for this on three (3)prior occasions or at least two (2)prior occasions and
the update on it, is now it is open for continuous recruitment. We continue to look at
opportunities, maybe to modify the job description to open it up to a broader base of potential
candidates. One of the things that we have been exploring, and through the hard work of
Daurice Arruda and Captain Ozaki, is looking at this working with HR to see if we can
develop a position within the Department that would basically be a team lead position that
would start to give someone internally the experience of records supervision so that they then
could qualify for this position and we could hire from inside, because that would be our goal.
But it has been just a difficult position to fill. We continue to work for it. It is a critical
position. This Records Supervisor oversees our evidence area and records management,
which includes the responses to attorneys, Uniform Information Practices Act (UIPA)
requests, providing the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) with our crime data records,
and everything else. It is a critical position that we need to get filled.
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Councilmember Kuali`i: Next position is Position No. 1315, Public Safety
Worker I. It has been vacant since last June. It shows status as continuous recruitment, so
what is going on? Are you going to get it filled to start by July 1st?
Chief Raybuck: These are actually newer positions that we
created. To give you the background, the Public Safety Worker position is the employees that
service our cellblock. Years ago, these positions existed; they had a very difficult time
recruiting to fill those positions, and so a decision was made internally to staff it with police
officers. The problem or the challenge and difficulty with that is with our shortage of police
officers, I would prefer to have them on the street available to respond to emergencies or in
our other areas within the organization. Our team looked at the opportunity to try once again
to see if there would be an interest in this Public Safety Worker position. We recreated those
positions, went out to recruitment, and so we have been successful. Actually, all three (3)
positions, 1947, 1310, and 1315 have been in continuous recruitment. All three (3) of those
positions are part of the ones that I mentioned in the beginning presentation that are in the
background, and we hope to hire those positions by July 1st. It has been a great opportunity
for us, not only because it frees up police officers, but it also gives us another layer of
employees that can assist us in the organization where we need it.
Councilmember Kuali`i: Then the last position is Position No. 339, Parking
Enforcement Clerk. It just opened since October of last year. It had a status of"no requisition
to recruit."
Chief Raybuck: Again, this is a new position. If you recall, thank
you to the hard work of Representative Nakamura and many community members on the
North Shore fighting the Legislature for us to be able to receive funds from parking
enforcement on the North Shore and those funds to be directed to the Police Department to
offset off enforcement costs. It allowed us to work with HR to create a position for Parking
Enforcement Clerk. That position is actually out for recruitment now. It closes April 6th, and
so I hope we have some folks that have put in for that. I would love to encourage you to help
us recruit that position, if you know anyone who is eighteen (18), nineteen (19) or twenty(20)
years old who is interested in becoming perhaps a police officer one day, but they do not meet
the twenty-one-year-old age requirement, this is a great opportunity to get in on the ground
floor and start to learn our processes, systems, and assist us with a critical need in addressing
some of the parking issues that we have throughout the island and specifically the North
Shore.
Councilmember Kuali`i: Thank you.
Committee Chair Kaneshiro: Councilmember Evslin.
Councilmember Evslin: Just a follow-up again to the Waimea Substation
Lease. It is $66,000 to KEDB for a building that the County owns, and I heard the Managing
Director say that was mostly common area maintenance. But $1.92 per square foot, which
is what that works out to per month, seems pretty expensive. Do not get me wrong, I think
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it is great KPD is in there. I know that space has been a huge issue for our substation. It
seems like getting them in a County-owned building is a good move. I am just still kind of
wondering why that ends up so expensive for a building that the County owns.
Chief Raybuck: As the Managing Director mentioned, we did look
at exploring different options. One of them was, as he stated, coming in and being responsible
more for taking on the required maintenance, upgrades, and types of things like that. What
we realized is that it would be very difficult for KPD to budget for the unknowns; if the roof
needed to be replaced, if the air conditioning needed to be redone, or if there were major
renovations, it would be very difficult for KPD to really be able to set aside that budget and
perhaps encumber the County to help us with those. The deciding factor was to occupy that
space as a tenant would. That was the decision that was made that we thought would be
most beneficial for us to have a line item budget that would not fluctuate, that we could afford
to manage.
Councilmember Evslin: Okay. Thank you.
Committee Chair Kaneshiro: Councilmember DeCosta.
Councilmember DeCosta: I want to try and absorb what Councilmember
Evslin said. Are we trying to be proactive with the budget when we are leasing this building,
so in case the air conditioning breaks or in case the roof leaks, then we have a budget item to
fix it? Is that what you are telling me?
Chief Raybuck: No. What I mean is by having a lease, that
responsibility p y goes back to the company. Managing Director Dahilig, would you like to jump
in?
Mr. Dahilig: Yes. As a recap, if we were to be responsible for a
space, there naturally would be common area maintenance fees that would include things
like air conditioning maintenance, groundskeeping, electricity costs, water costs, and those
types of things. We had two (2) options going into structuring the Waimea Substation site as
either having to bear those costs or having them managed by a lease for KEDB, which has
the remainder of the building. In the process of trying figure out whether we would create
separate arrangements with KEDB to handle the electricity, water, mowing, surface
repaving, painting, and those types of things to create pro-rata costs to have the Police
Department share as its portion of usage for the overall building, it became very problematic
versus simply doing what is the standardized cost for common area maintenance that is
asked of any other lessee in that building on a square footage basis. So that is essentially
what the fee is related to. It would largely depend on what is the normal operation of the
building, rather than trying to look at it as a for-profit type of situation. That is what the
current lease arrangement is, to largely have it encapsulate what are the common area
maintenance that you would see with any other lease should the Police Department have
gone to any type of storefront or anything in the Waimea area.
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Councilmember DeCosta: I understand. Thank you.
Committee Chair Kaneshiro: Councilmember Evslin.
Councilmember Evslin: Again, the need to pay for common area
maintenance,we are also paying for electricity,water, and sewer for that building for another
$30,000 or so. I get common area maintenance is actual maintenance and upkeep for the
building. It just seems to me that $1.92 per square foot is really high for that, again, for a
building that County owns. If that is the best we can get and KEDB manages that building,
and they are looking to maximize revenue in some capacity, I understand it. It just certainly
stands out a little bit as expensive.
Mr. Dahilig: I would just respectfully say that if I could get
something at$1.92 per square feet somewhere else as a commercial class office space, I would
obviously jump at it in a second.
Councilmember Evslin: That is not what I am saying. I recognize that is
lower than market rate for commercial space, but again, it is a County-owned building, which
we are not...
Mr. Dahilig: I guess that is why it reflects a discount rather
than having it be reflective of any type of calculated debt service cost or those are the types
of for-profit matters that are there. It does reflect the fact that we own the building and that
there are no additional debt service costs that a normal commercial office space would tack
on to what would be an addition. That is how we got it at this dollar amount.
Councilmember Evslin: Okay.
Committee Chair Kaneshiro: Councilmember Cowden.
Councilmember Cowden: I do not know if I can just make a comment.
Having had retail for so many years, it does not seem like an extraordinary number. I just
want to support the choice for a flat rate for the year, because it can have huge shifts. I
appreciate the choice for a flat cam charge. This does not sound out of range to me, so I am
supportive of this line item.
Committee Chair Kaneshiro: Are there any other questions? Councilmember
Carvalho.
Councilmember Carvalho: Chief, I just wanted to follow-up on the training
facility lease down in Nawiliwili, and just get a briefing on that if you can.
Chief Raybuck: Thank you so much. I will give you a brief
overview and then if you want additional information, Assistant Chief Ke or Captain Ozaki
can jump in and fill in the blanks. As may know or perhaps you do not, one of the extreme
difficulties that KPD has had over the years is a designated training space. We have not had
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one. Really what it has come down to providing training to our people specifically, and most
importantly or equally important at least, our new recruits. We often times utilized space
that was owned or occupied by someone else. KEMA has always been there to support us
and allow us to use their space to be able to provide those services to our Department, either
in the main EOC room or in one of the side rooms. But as was mentioned earlier, they
increased their staff by seventeen(17), and they have been running at least a five-day a week
emergency operation in there since COVID began, and so we did not have a training space.
What that forced us to do was to look around. We pushed our patrol officers out of their
briefing room and utilized that when we could. At times when that was not available, we
would use the cafeteria space that we have here at KPD, but that does not have the
audio/visual equipment that is conducive to a classroom. For a time when Kaua`i Community
College (KCC) was closed, they were kind enough to open up their facility and give us a
beautiful classroom with all of the technology we needed and support us there to provide that
training at KCC. As you know, they have a model that they have to fill those classrooms
themselves, and so that kind of went away for us. It was very obvious to us that we needed
a dedicated space. We do have a CIP project that we have been in plans for in building a
dedicated training facility here on the KPD site, our shared site with KEMA and the Office
of the Prosecuting Attorney. That has been in the works several years, and we are in the
architectural design phase of that as we speak. It is stalled at the moment, but that is
something that we hope will progress in the near future. We really needed something to fill
the gap to be able to provide the training, not only do we do the training for our officers with
the recruit classes, but throughout the year, we do training for our officers to keep them
certified in the different types of tactics that they use, and so that training space was
necessary. With the help of Wade Lord and the combined efforts of Captain Ozaki and
Assistant Chief Ke, they went out and looked all over for some commercial space that worked
for us, and fortunately, they located this spot. I think it is six thousand (6,000) square feet,
which is a large space. It gives us multi-use space to be able to both have our training officers
relocated to that location, freeing up some much-needed space here in our ATB where we
staff multiple people in a small room, and it provides us the ample floor space to be able to
provide the defensive tactics type of training that we require. We are just grateful again.
That lease is kind of a stopgap measure. Hopefully, we will see some progress move forward
in the ability to plan and build a legitimate training facility here at KPD to provide our people
the crucial space that they need for training.
Councilmember Carvalho: I just wanted to make sure the vision for the
bigger picture, which was stated before, was continuing on. Is this lease for five (5) years?
Chief Raybuck: Yes, sir.
Councilmember Carvalho: I support the funding for that, and whatever we
can do to consolidate the training opportunities for our team members. I just wanted to bring
that to attention.
Committee Chair Kaneshiro: Councilmember Evslin.
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Councilmember Evslin: Just a quick follow-up or comment. I think it is
great. The training facility sounds amazing. I am appreciating the focus on training in your
budget, especially catching up on previous years where we might have been underfunding
training. It is so critical, especially when we are still facing vacancies. When we are talking
about leases, this is coming in at under $1 a square foot. It seems like a fantastic deal for
what seems like a great space in a non-County-owned building. Again, just comparing that
to...
Chief Raybuck: I want to clarify that, and I actually do want to
acknowledge that the lessor was very generous and kind in their lease with us. You are right,
it is extremely cheap. But that space was unused space that that lessor had, and so they
really saw it as an opportunity to provide KPD and the County much needed space. It is not
perfect. It still requires quite a bit of improvement. It does not have the adequate lighting
that is needed, the electrical, or the fiberoptics. There is still quite a bit of work in there. We
are still working on appropriate finalized stages of bathroom space and things like that. It
basically was a shell of a building, which I think is why we were able to get what we got for
what we have.
Councilmember Evslin: Thank you.
Committee Chair Kaneshiro: Councilmember DeCosta
Councilmember DeCosta: Since you are talking about buildings, I am going
to ask this question. Chief, the training facility, I remember a long time ago and maybe
Captain Ozaki can help me. We used to do some Kauai Police Activities Leagues (K-PAL)
boxing and the kids had some kind of training, not flag football outside, but in the building.
Are you folks also going to accommodate our K-PAL youth for boxing with this training
facility?
Chief Raybuck: I will let Captain Ozaki...well, I think I can
answer that. That facility primarily is intended to provide KPD space for training. However,
that being said, I think can does and can accommodate the potential. The issue with the
boxing is that you have to have a boxing ring set up, so we cannot break down and put up a
boxing ring every other day. I guess, I will retract what I said just a moment ago. That space
is not going to be able to accommodate boxing.
Councilmember DeCosta: Okay.
Chief Raybuck: But it could potentially maybe accommodate a
wrestling program for KPAL, because the mats are there.
Councilmember DeCosta: Chief, where is K-PAL boxing and K-PAL
wrestling taking place right now?
Chief Raybuck: No, it is not.
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Councilmember DeCosta: It is not taking place?
Chief Raybuck: No, we do not have K-PAL activities currently
moving right now. As you know, a couple of things impacted K-PAL. First and foremost was
COVID. With COVID, we had to shut down K-PAL completely.
Councilmember DeCosta: Okay. I understand that. Can you hear me,
Chief?
Chief Raybuck: Yes, I was waiting for the siren to shut off, so you
did not get the echo.
Councilmember DeCosta: I will wait.
Committee Chair Kaneshiro: You can keep going.
Chief Raybuck: That was the first issue, that we had to shut down
K-PAL because we could not gather due to COVID-19. The second issue that has hindered
the restart of K-PAL is the fact that the K-PAL program–I have to acknowledge the
dedication, hard work, and effort by very small group of people to provide an immensely
important for our communicate—primarily Captain Ozaki, now Lieutenant Lance Okasaki,
and then several School Resources Officers (SROs) that really helped support that and some
of our police officers that volunteer to support that, and the many community members that
supported it as well. K-PAL is a private nonprofit entity, just to make sure that we identify
and distinguish the different roles. K-PAL has its own board, it has its own fundraising
capabilities, and the Police Department partners with that nonprofit to provide the
manpower, per se, and the resources to be able to provide those services to our keiki. Some
of the things is that we had promotions. Fortunately, we had promotions. As much as
Lieutenant Okasaki was a valuable member of K-PAL, I do not think that was a place for
him to give up his promotion to stay. With his promotion, that Community Relations position
became vacant. The SROs that were involved have been promoted. We have three (3) new
SROs. Captain Ozaki has taken on a lot of work himself, and so now we are in the discussion
phases of getting our current resources up to speed to be able to take on those auxiliary duties
of K-PAL to be able to reignite and get K-PAL back up and running.
Councilmember DeCosta: Chief, with all of that said, I have raised my
three (3) sons through K-PAL. I have been an intricate part way back when Officer Ozaki
was in charge of K-PAL. I want you to know that K-PAL is very important to our community.
We just got done with Fire's budget and they have the Junior Lifeguard and Keiki Lifeguard
Programs. They have slated five to six (5-6) instructors, if my colleagues want to correct me
on that. They have approximately $15,000 in their budget. Chief, I want to ask you, are you
planning to reinstate K-PAL now that we are getting back to normalcy? Do you plan to put
some staff members from the Department to help K-PAL? To me, that is an important role
in our community for our youth. I want to know where you stand on that.
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Chief Raybuck: I agree with you. That is absolutely an important
program for our youth. It is one that I intend to fully continue to move forward. Yes, I do
support K-PAL. We have had those conversations over the last several months to a year
about reigniting, restarting, and how we go about doing that. Yes, we are going to get K-PAL
restarted.
Councilmember DeCosta: Is it in your budget?
Chief Raybuck: I am sorry?
Committee Chair Kaneshiro: Councilmember DeCosta, let him speak first.
Chief Raybuck: No, K-PAL is a nonprofit, so it receives donations
through the nonprofit that then support the programs that the Police Department provides
the manpower and resources for.
Councilmember DeCosta: My question is,would you support your manpower
if you have the nonprofit available, to run it?
Chief Raybuck: Absolutely.
Councilmember DeCosta: Do you have manpower slated for that?
Chief Raybuck: Absolutely, I would support that. Our plan is
to...in year's past, K-PAL was run through the SRO Sergeant and program prior to me
arriving here. At some point, it became a Community Relations Officer. It was one (1)person,
well two (2) people, essentially. Captain Ozaki started as an Officer, continued to move
through the ranks and continued to support the program. Lieutenant Okasaki was a
Sergeant as the Community Relations Sergeant who was the primary person responsible for
lifting the full burden and organization of the K-PAL program. With those promotions and
duties that are on those people, the idea moving forward is that Sergeant in SRO and the
SROs would become responsible for assisting, coordinating, and moving the K-PAL program
forward. Our officers through our District Commanders would help provide support and have
buy-in with the officers in the field to help support the K-PAL program as well.
Councilmember DeCosta: Perfect. It sounds like you have a plan. Thank
you.
Committee Chair Kaneshiro: Are there any other questions from the Members?
Chief, when American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) was coming through, did we have plans to
fund part of the K-PAL program or something with K-PAL?
Chief Raybuck: Can you say what funding source again?
Committee Chair Kaneshiro: ARPA, the Federal moneys.
Chief Raybuck: So, I believe there is $200,000 I have been told in
ARPA funds to potentially support K-PAL. Those are not in my budget, so I do not know the
particulars of that funding and how it flows through into K-PAL.
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Committee Chair Kaneshiro: While we are on it, I know there is some K-PAL
money, like $5,000 later on in the budget. While we are on the subject, there were plans to
abandon that building by Vidinha Stadium where the boxing ring is. Is that building still
able to be used? There was another plan if CIP moneys were available to build a new building
by the Police Station. I am not sure if everyone was in full support of what was going to go
on and how much it would cost. What is the future of the building by Vidinha Stadium and
any other future plans to move or provide a facility for K-PAL and training?
Chief Raybuck: There are a couple of different responses to that
question. The first one is the Vidinha Stadium building. I do not know if any of you have
ever had the pleasure of visiting or being inside that building. It has way out lived its
lifespan. I am very grateful that the Department of Parks & Recreation provided that space
for us for as long as they have. At one time we did not think that we needed it any longer.
We gave it back to them and then things changed. Something fell through and they gave it
back to us. I would have to ask Captain Ozaki if we have turned the keys back over to the
Department of Parks & Recreation. That building should have been condemned many years
ago. It is rusted, falling apart, and it is in complete shambles. That is really not an option
for us to move forward for K-PAL's use. As far as a site here on the Department...part of our
training facility if we are fortunate enough to move that forward could potentially be used as
an open space for K-PAL. I do not think that the County itself, because K-PAL is a nonprofit,
is in a position to build a building for the nonprofit. Certainly, I believe that if we build our
training facility that had the space, that it could be used for K-PAL functions. It is no
different than inviting any other community entity, the Boy Scouts of America, et cetera, into
our County-owned properties to help support those programs. That is a potential space for
us to use for K-PAL. The other space that has been used in the past and we hope to continue
to use is the building located at the Mahelona Hospital. That site was used for boxing. I do
not know at this time if the boxing ring is still setup there. There was a little bit of a gap
where if you recall just before COVID-19, we were fortunate enough to temporarily occupy
some space at Kukui Grove. Captain Ozaki, Lieutenant Okasaki, and many volunteers went
over there and worked tirelessly to buildout walls, put up the boxing arena, and to do a lot of
work in there. Unfortunately, that space was very short-lived and had to be broken down.
As I mentioned earlier, getting K-PAL back up and running...K-PAL did not start the way
that it ended. When K-PAL ended due to COVID-19, we were providing youth sports and in
a variety of sports all over the island. Hundreds if not a thousand kids or so were involved.
When you turn the switch off, turning the switch back on, it is difficult to go from zero (0) to
one thousand (1,000) overnight. Unfortunately, we are going to find ourselves in that
rebuilding stage again and getting those programs up and running in the dedicated spaces
that we have.
Committee Chair Kaneshiro: Councilmember Carvalho.
Councilmember Carvalho: I just wanted to add this in. I am totally
supportive of K-PAL. The bigger picture was eventually, because you mentioned
Mahelona...was down at the Kapa'a Armory. That was a big location right in that whole
park area as far as K-PAL's future. I just wanted to put that on the table.
Committee Chair Kaneshiro: Councilmember DeCosta.
Councilmember DeCosta: I like your vision and I believe now that with our
new County Park Ranger in that area...that is pretty close to the Armory. We could solidify
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a great bunch of youth programs. Chief, I did not mean to come down hard on you. I just
want you to know that you are in our island, within our culture, and this is what we do. We
raise our kids through these kinds of programs. We help kids who do not have fathers like
me, Councilmember Carvalho, or Councilmember Evslin. They need these programs. They
are our future. Every kid is important to us. That is all we wanted—a commitment out of
you that you are going to make sure that we are going to get K-PAL up and running the way
it was pre-COVID. I am hoping that if Captain Ozaki is listening, he will be a part of it. That
guy is "the man" on your force. He is a good guy to have.
Chief Raybuck: Councilmember DeCosta, I agree with you
wholeheartedly. I just want to clarify...I appreciate where you are coming from, but it is no
less important to me as someone who came from the outside here to provide youth sports to
our keiki and the importance of helping children, particularly those who are fatherless, as I
was. I have very fond memories that made such an impression upon me that it led me into
the law enforcement career I am in today, where police officers at a young age helped support
me. I agree with you wholeheartedly and I do not think it is a matter of whether I was from
here or not. This is an important program, and we all agree it is one that we need to move
forward.
Committee Chair Kaneshiro: Councilmember DeCosta.
Councilmember DeCosta: Chief, I was just giving you some constructive
information. Sometimes you just have to take it for what it is worth. Thank you.
Committee Chair Kaneshiro: Are there any other questions regarding the
Chiefs Office budget? If not, we are going to move on. Next up is ATB. Are there any
questions on the ATB budget? Councilmember DeCosta.
Councilmember DeCosta: Chief, are we moving any of our workforce out of
that Division?
Chief Raybuck: Yes, well...we are currently looking at
reorganization. I will let Captain Ozaki and/or Assistant Chief Ke come in. Part of ATB's
operations is moving out of ATB into Patrol. The bulk of fleet is in Patrol, our marked fleet.
Assistant Chief Ke wanted to move that operation into Patrol to have a greater autonomy
over the majority of his fleet. SROs are also moving out of ATB into Patrol as well.
Councilmember DeCosta: How many officers are you moving out of the
Investigative Services Bureau into Patrol?
(Councilmember Carvalho was noted as not present.)
Chief Raybuck: ATB, sir, is not investigative. That is our
supportive bureau. The ATB that we are speaking about right now is not investigative. It
includes the three (3) SROs and the SRO Sergeant as the sworn positions and then the Fleet
Coordinator once we fill that position would move over from ATB into Patrol as well.
Councilmember DeCosta: Who replaces them?
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Chief Raybuck: No one replaces them. Their positions and their
jobs, everything goes with it. It does not create vacancies; it is just that they report to a
different chain of command.
Councilmember DeCosta: Okay, perfect. That is what I wanted to make
sure.
Committee Chair Kaneshiro: Are there any other questions for this Division? If
not, we will move on to ISB. Are there any questions for this Division? Councilmember
DeCosta.
Councilmember DeCosta: Are we moving anyone out of this Division, Chief?
Chief Raybuck: There are current discussions, as you know, and
as I mentioned in prior meetings, my goal is to one day implement a 4-10 schedule. For us
to implement a 4-10 schedule in Patrol, it would require us to increase the number of
Sergeants in Patrol. We are evaluating each Sergeant position or Sergeant/Detective position
to determine where those seven(7)positions come from. No decisions have been made at this
time. There is the potential that in the future if we were to implement and be successful of
implementing a 4-10 schedule that some of those resources would come from ISB.
Councilmember DeCosta: Then of course you would replace the resources
that you took with other officers, correct?
(Councilmember Carvalho was noted as present.)
Chief Raybuck: We are looking at several different options on that
if we have to move staffed personnel out of there. One option might be looking at seeing if
those types of duties from m the vacant positions can be supported by or assisted by another
classification such as a PO 9 position that would help to accommodate the loss in Detective
positions. Another thing is to look at the current work product and determine whether or not
the current allotment of personnel is there. I think the conversation with the Fire Chief
earlier today is that sometimes improving the organization requires some people to take on
additional work. Those are all things that are being reviewed so that we can make those
determinations later on to find the best way to resolve that.
Councilmember DeCosta: Are we going to do a feasibility study on whether
the numbers pan out financially for our County when we do absorb the 4-10 shift? Are we
planning to do that?
Chief Raybuck: Can you ask your question again? I am not sure I
understand it.
Councilmember DeCosta: Are we going to do a study on whether the 4-10
schedule works out financially for our County or not?
Chief Raybuck: I do not know that the 4-10 schedule changes
anything as far as the financial impact on the County. It is a reorganization of our manpower.
Our current system is a 5-9. One of the challenges that we have with that is that...well there
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are a lot of challenges. One of the most important as we talked about earlier is a lack of
built-in training time. Our officers either get training as many as five (5) times a year
five (5) days a year I should say on-duty and/or we pay overtime to provide them that extra
training. The 4-10 schedule provides a built-in overlap where we can provide a substantial
increase in our training on-duty. It does not incur any additional training overtime budget
while we increase the amount of training that we can provide. It also provides an overlap
between the shifts. Currently, our shifts basically begin and end almost the exact same time.
Because of that, our officers towards the end of the shift could take late cases. When they
take those late cases, they stay late and so we incur overtime expenses in that regard as well.
One of the things that the 4-10 schedule can provide for us is a two-hour overlap so that we
can buffer that out and those officers or resources are on the street and the officers can come
into the office and do their work. We continue to look at what the potential fiscal impacts
are. I think you are spot-on in that before we make any major organizational shifts, that we
look to see if and what financial impacts there are. We continue to look at that.
Councilmember DeCosta: Do we have any statistics that show that the 4-10
schedule in other counties has worked financially better than the 9-5 schedule? From what
I understand on your 9-5 schedule, I believe it is a one-hour overlap. It does not start and
end at the same time. I think there is a one-hour overlap, correct?
Chief Raybuck: In theory it is a one-hour overlap. That one-hour
overlap is reduced. You have twenty to thirty (20-30) minutes in briefing time during that
one-hour overlap, right? Your resources that start at 2:00 p.m., they actually do not hit the
road until roughly 2:20 p.m. or 2:30 p.m. You only have a thirty-minute window for those
resources to come in from the street. While there is a one-hour overlap on the schedule, it
does not really amount to an overlap in the field.
Councilmember DeCosta: You mentioned the 10-hour shift where you are
going to have a two-hour overlap. So that employee is going to be working twelve (12) hours
instead of ten (10) hours...no?
Chief Raybuck: No. I am sorry, I did not mean to open up a whole
rabbit trail of trying to explain how the 4-10s work during our budget meeting. We are still
in the discussion on that. It still will require me to sit down and get buy-in from the union.
We are still trying to take a look at it to see if it is feasible. With the 4-10, there is
twenty-four (24) hours in a day. You have three (3) shifts. That is thirty (30) hours that we
are staffed. It gives us an opportunity to stagger the shifts and provide a greater overlap.
For example, if you had a shift that ended at 4:00 p.m. on a ten-hour shift, if they worked
6:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m., that would be a ten-hour shift. The next watch came in and worked
from 2:00 p.m. to 10:00 p.m., then you have a two-hour overlap between 2:00 p.m. and
4:00 p.m. where your staff is doubled in that two-hour timeframe. When we talk about the
actual briefing and debriefing times cuts into that. That two-hour window provides in reality
at least an hour of overlap where you have double the number of resources that are on shift
and available.
Councilmember DeCosta: Thank you.
Committee Chair Kaneshiro: Councilmember Cowden.
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Councilmember Cowden: I just have a simple question that has to do with
the 4-10 and 5-9 schedules. I sense that there is not total unity in what people what. What
are the days off? Does it go five (5) days on and three (3) days off, or does it go five (5) days
on with two (2) days off?
Chief Raybuck: The current schedule, if you are talking about the
5-9s is a rotating schedule. It is staggered. They work five (5) days on and get three (3) days
off until the tenth week. On the tenth week, they work five (5) days on and get two (2) days
off. They lose a day off. There is additional overlap on that tenth week and that overlap is
intended to provide an opportunity for training or other types of things that need to be
covered. That schedule continues. Those days off are always changing. This week you might
have Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday off. The following week you have Monday, Tuesday, and
Wednesday off. Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday, and so on, it continues to change. Under
the 4-10 model it is a fixed shift. Theoretically, if we went to the 4-10 model you would have
seven-days-a-week coverage just as you do in the 5-8s, but one model that we are looking at,
you would have half of your shift with Thursday, Friday, and Saturday off, the others Sunday,
Monday and Tuesday off, and you would have a common day of Wednesday where everybody
came in to work. It is that common Wednesday that provides a doubling of manpower,
meaning that every police officer that is assigned that shift is working at the same time. We
do not need to put out twenty-sixty(26) officers...it would not be twenty-six (26) officers each
shift...but we would need to put that out in the street. We could increase and that ten-hour
overlap every single Wednesday provides the opportunity to provide on-duty training time,
investigative follow-up time, special projects time, community relations time, et cetera. All
of that could occur while on-duty and those would be every Wednesday.
Councilmember Cowden: Thank you. That is very clear.
Committee Chair Kaneshiro: Are there any other questions in this Division? If
not, we will move on to Patrol. Are there any questions for Patrol? I do not have any
questions.
Councilmember Cowden: I feel like they were answered in the other
Divisions.
Committee Chair Kaneshiro: Are there any final questions for Patrol? If not,
the final one is the Criminal Assets Forfeiture Fund which remained the same as the prior
year. That is on page 311. Are there any other questions for Police? If not, thank you, Chief
Raybuck.
Councilmember DeCosta: Thank you, Chief.
Councilmember Carvalho: Thank you.
Chief Raybuck: Thank you everyone. I appreciate your support.
Committee Chair Kaneshiro: Let us move on and see how far we get.
Councilmember Cowden: Do we not have to go across the street?
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Committee Chair Kaneshiro: Let us keep going. I do not know how long the
next one is going to take, but I think that we should keep moving. Next up is the Office of
the Prosecuting Attorney.
Office of the Prosecuting Attorney
Committee Chair Kaneshiro: Rebecca, are you there? Is anyone from the Office
of the Prosecuting Attorney there? We will give them another minute.
Mr. Dahilig: Council Chair Kaneshiro...there she is.
Committee Chair Kaneshiro: Rebecca, welcome. This is your first budget as the
Prosecuting Attorney. If you could give us an overview of your budget. Then we can go into
questions.
REBECCA V. LIKE, Prosecuting Attorney (via remote technology): Can do. I
appreciate this opportunity to present the Office of the Prosecuting Attorney's Fiscal
Year 2023 budget for the first time as Prosecutor. I also have our Administrative Services
Officer, Yvette Sahut, here with me to help me answer questions. I apologize for not
responding right away. She was giving me an update and I was under the impression we
were going to go after lunch, but we are ready. Our budget remains mainly flat, as you stated.
Ninety-five percent (95%) of our operating budget goes towards our salary, wages, and
benefits. There is a 6.5% increase in our operating budget amounting to approximately
$345,000, mainly attributed to regular salaries and wages. We have three (3) main requests
as addressed in our narrative, which you have before you, relating to one (1)previously grant-
funded position, Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) improvements, and training. Thank
you for having me and I am happy to answer any questions that you may have.
Committee Chair Kaneshiro: Thank you. With that, we will open it up for
questions on the report or on the budget. Councilmember Cowden.
Councilmember Cowden: Thank you. What we learned in talking to our
Office of the County Attorney is that some of our attorneys in fact are working remotely from
other states in the continent. Are all of our Prosecutors working from Kaua`i and living on
the island?
Ms. Like: Yes.
Councilmember Cowden: Okay.
Committee Chair Kaneshiro: Are there any other questions from the Members?
Councilmember Kuali`i.
Councilmember Kuali`i: On the vacant positions, E-88, Deputy
Prosecuting Attorney (50%), this position is the Transportation Safety Resource Prosecutor,
right? The status from Human Resources says, "Recruited, no applicants". The posting was
February 7th to March 7th. Can you tell me what is happening with this position? This
position was 100%-funded by the Department of Transportation (DOT) grant, so fully funded
and now we can only do 50% from the DOT grant. Basically, new funding is coming from the
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General Fund, you are proposing, to fully-fund this position. What is the status and how
critical is this position to be fully funded?
Ms. Like: Thank you for the question. We have two (2)
Deputy Prosecuting Attorney vacancies, and both are critical to our operations. As you all
are aware, it has been a little bit of a trying time, and this was in the budget narrative as
well. It has been challenging to recruit attorneys during an election cycle. We just recently
posted this position in the last couple of weeks on the Hawai`i State Bar Association (HSBA)
website and on Linkedin. We received one (1) applicant whom I am going to interview next
week. I am really hopeful that we will be able to fill these positions prior to the start of the
fiscal year. It is challenging as the court is reopening and we are proceeding to have jury
trials to be down two (2) Deputies when we only currently have fourteen (14) and two (2) are
part-time.
Councilmember Kuali`i: Okay. Those are the E-88 and E-2903 positions.
The Legal Clerk IV, Position No. 2826, I guess it just opened. It says, "no requisition to
recruit". Are you planning to recruit that one pretty quickly and get it in place before
July 1st?
Ms. Like: Yes, we are.
Councilmember Kuali`i: Same question for Position No. 2828, Senior
Clerk. It was vacant a little bit longer, since November of last year, but there is also a status
of"No requisition to recruit." Will you be recruiting and filling that one?
Ms. Like: Can you repeat that question?
Councilmember Kuali`i: Senior Clerk, Position No. 2828, it was vacant
since November of last year.
Ms. Like: Okay. Sorry, I missed the very beginning of what
you were saying. We are actively recruiting, and we have interviews scheduled for next week,
the week of April 4th. The same goes for Position No. 2823. We have interviews for that
position also scheduled for next week.
Councilmember Kuali`i: Okay, that is it for positions.
Committee Chair Kaneshiro: Are there any other questions from the Members
on the Prosecuting Attorney's budget? Thank you, Rebecca.
Ms. Like: 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 4, 2022,
where we will hear from the Department of Finance, Office of Economic Development, and
Planning Department.
There being no objections, the meeting recessed at 12:18 p.m.