HomeMy WebLinkAbout02/24/2021 Council minutes COUNCIL MEETING
FEBRUARY 24, 2021
The Council Meeting of the Council of the County of Kauai was called to order
by Council Chair Arryl Kaneshiro at the Council Chambers, 4396 Rice Street,
Suite 201, Lihu`e, Kaua`i, on Wednesday, February 24, 2021 at 8:39 a.m., after which
the following Members answered the call of the roll:
Honorable Bernard P. Carvalho, Jr.
Honorable Mason K. Chock
Honorable Felicia Cowden
Honorable Bill DeCosta
Honorable Luke A. Evslin (via remote technology)
Honorable Arryl Kaneshiro
Excused: Honorable KipuKai Kuali`i
Council Chair Kaneshiro: Good morning. Today's meeting will be
conducted pursuant to Governor Ige's Supplementary Emergency Proclamations with
the most recent relating to the Sunshine Law being his Eighteenth Supplementary
Emergency Proclamation dated February 12, 2021. Today for our agenda, we have
no registered speakers, so we will get to go through our items as usual.
APPROVAL OF AGENDA.
Councilmember Carvalho moved for approval of the agenda, as circulated,
seconded by Councilmember Chock.
(No written testimony was received and no registered speakers requested to
testify regarding this agenda item.)
The motion for approval of the agenda, as circulated, was then put, and carried
by a vote of 6:0:1 (Councilmember Kuali i was excused).
Council Chair Kaneshiro: The motion is carried. Next item.
MINUTES of the following meeting of the Council:
February 10, 2021 Council Meeting
Councilmember Chock moved to approve the Minutes, as circulated, seconded
by Councilmember DeCosta.
Council Chair Kaneshiro: Are there any questions or is there any
discussion on this item from the Members?
COUNCIL MEETING 2 FEBRUARY 24, 2021
(No written testimony was received and no registered speakers requested to
testify regarding this agenda item.)
The motion to approve the Minutes, as circulated, was then put, and carried
by a vote of 6:0:1 (Councilmember Kuali`i was excused).
Council Chair Kaneshiro: The motion is carried. Next item.
INTERVIEW:
BOARD OF ETHICS:
• Ryan de la Pena — Term ending 12/31/2023
Council Chair Kaneshiro: With that, I shall suspend the rules. We
should have Ryan and Ellen on.
ELLEN CHING, Boards & Commissions Administrator (via remote
technology): Good morning, Chair.
Council Chair Kaneshiro: Hi, Ellen.
RYAN DE LA PENA (via remote technology): Good morning, everyone.
Council Chair Kaneshiro: Hi, Ryan.
Ms. Ching: Good morning, Chair and Councilmembers.
Do I hear an echo?
Council Chair Kaneshiro: Okay, you should be okay now.
Ms. Ching: Is that better?
Council Chair Kaneshiro: Yes.
Ms. Ching: Good morning, Ellen Ching, Administrator
for Boards & Commissions. This morning, I am happy to introduce Ryan de la Pena.
Ryan is a proud Kapa'a High School graduate. Before returning to Kaua`i he earned
his degree in Computer Engineering at the University of Notre Dame and his Master
of Business Administration (MBA) from University of Hawai`i Manoa. He and his
wife Sharon are very proud parents of two (2) very energetic sons, Luke and Noah.
Luke is a high school senior this year, a canoe paddler, a cross country runner, and a
golfer. His younger son, Noah, plays baseball and soccer. As the saying goes, "The
apple does not fall very far from the tree." When Ryan is not ferrying or chasing after
his very active sons, given his druthers he would be hiking or mountain biking. His
favorite food is pizza, not just any kind of pizza, but Chicago deep dish pizza. For
pizza connoisseurs, is there any other kind? I am really a "tech dummy." In my
simplistic mind, this is how I would characterize Ryan's profession, basically, he is a
brainiac and he supervises a whole bunch of other brainiacs like him that work on
COUNCIL MEETING 3 FEBRUARY 24, 2021
computers and data systems, and please do not ask me what that really means,
because as I said, I do not quite understand it. But at any rate, I am grateful that
Ryan is willing to lend his time and talents to the Board of Ethics. Thank you.
Council Chair Kaneshiro: Thank you. Ryan, do you have anything to
add to that introduction?
Mr. de la Pena: Good morning, everyone. No, I think Ellen
summed it up quite well.
Council Chair Kaneshiro: Do we have any questions from the Members?
Council Vice Chair Chock.
Councilmember Chock: Thank you, Chair. Thank you, Ryan for being
here and thank you for your continued willingness to serve on the Board of Ethics.
How many terms has this been for you now on the Board of Ethics?
Mr. de la Pena: Good morning, Vice Chair Chock. I was on
the Board of Ethics for two (2) terms and took a year off. Prior to that I was on the
Civil Service Commission for two (2) terms, as well.
Councilmember Chock: Right. Well, I appreciate it. Do you have any
specific interests or plans for your leadership? I know you have been Chair and have
served us well at the Board of Ethics, do you have any specific focus on the next go
around?
Mr. de la Pena: No specific plans. I have been out of the loop
for about a year, but I would just like to continue serving, volunteering, and following
the Code of Ethics, County Charter, State Constitution, and Hawai`i Revised
Statutes, as they apply to the Board.
Councilmember Chock: Thank you, again, for serving. I appreciate
this Board's very important role and look forward to it being proactive and fair, of
course. When hearing Ellen's description, it reminded me, not only when she talked
about your sons, but of our time in elementary school. Ryan was the smartest kid in
our class—in fifth and sixth grade, so it does not surprise me that he continues to be
that person, so whatever you have to offer in terms of service we really appreciate
you and you have my support. Thank you, Chair.
Council Chair Kaneshiro: Councilmember DeCosta.
Mr. de la Pena: Thank you.
Councilmember DeCosta: Is this discussion time?
Council Chair Kaneshiro: Any questions first.
Councilmember DeCosta: I will wait for discussion.
COUNCIL MEETING 4 FEBRUARY 24, 2021
Council Chair Kaneshiro: Councilmember Cowden.
Councilmember Cowden: Thank you. It is interesting what kind of
pizza you like, but what inspires you? Really being on point with what the Board of
Ethics is about...how do you see your role and understand your role in terms of really
looking where we have accurate and fair examinations of the ethics of our people? It
is more than pizza. I appreciate the humor, but I would like to hear what you have
learned and how we need to be effectively understanding how we affect careers and
how we make sure that our County is operating in an ethical way. Thank you for
your effort.
Mr. de la Pena: Thank you for your questions. I try to be fair,
unbiased, and try to follow the code of ethics as closely as possible. There are a lot of
opinions and so many parties involved with issues that face the Board, but our
responsibility is to be as fair and unbiased, and follow the code of ethics as closely as
possible.
Councilmember Cowden: Thank you.
Council Chair Kaneshiro: Any further questions from the Members? If
not, final discussion from the Members? Councilmember Carvalho.
Councilmember Carvalho: Good morning. Thank you so much for your
service. I know you and your ohana for a long time and I know when you get to the
table, you come there with a good heart and understanding of what needs to happen,
especially now with the Ethics Commission. Now that, as a dad, and hearing all of
your stories there too, but more importantly the role you play or you have on the table
of Ethics—that is important. Obviously, your background and your experience ties
that in, so mahalo for your service and thank you for jumping in and being part of
the team.
Council Chair Kaneshiro: Councilmember DeCosta.
Councilmember DeCosta: Hi Ryan, how are you? I do not know your
professional side. I am a new Councilmember, but my son grew up with your son,
playing soccer and paddling canoe in high school, and I would like to think people are
always measured by the children they put out into the community, and both of your
sons are standup gentlemen in our community. I was actually very honored that my
son friended your son about two (2) years ago during a paddling competition. If you
are any example of who your sons are in the community, I am one hundred
percent (100%) behind you. Just a little bit of advice, as far as ethics go, there are
opinions, and I know sometimes there are a slight gray area, but trust in your
judgment, because there are many who believe in you and you will make that right
decision to benefit our community, so thank you very much Ryan.
Council Chair Kaneshiro: Councilmember Evslin.
Councilmember Evslin: Thank you, Ryan, for your willingness to
serve here. With a son named Luke who likes to paddle canoe, you have my ringing
COUNCIL MEETING 5 FEBRUARY 24, 2021
endorsement here. I am just kidding. I know you will continue to do an awesome job
on the Board of Ethics. I am glad you are returning, and as Councilmember Carvalho
said, you have a good heart and as everyone else has said, you are a brainiac
overseeing brainiacs, which has two great attributes to bring to the table here. I
appreciate your willingness to serve and continue to do great work on the Board of
Ethics.
Council Chair Kaneshiro: Is there any final discussion from anyone
else? I just want to say thank you, Ryan, again, for your willingness to serve and
volunteer for the County. You have served a lot of terms on different Commissions.
Obviously, no one gets paid on those Commissions, it is volunteer time, and some of
these Commissions are tough. I know the Ethics Commission is probably pretty
tough. You will get some issues that will have you making very hard decisions and
it is not an easy Commission where you just show up to. I appreciate your time and
effort for that. Councilmember Cowden.
Councilmember Cowden: Thank you for the work that you do. Just
having to have experience, it is really important to me that we have Commissioners
that read the material and really focus on it. It is very important that when there is
material that it is read and fairly assessed. So I am hoping that is a policy. Thank
you.
Council Chair Kaneshiro: Is there anyone else? I have had to go in front
of Ethics before. I may not have agreed with all of these decisions they made, but I
know they were prepared, they read the material, they voted the way they did, and I
accepted whatever decisions came out of Ethics and respected the Commission's
decisions.
Councilmember Cowden: I have had the experience of no readings.
Council Chair Kaneshiro: With that, thank you, Ryan and Ellen. The
vote for this will come up at our next meeting.
Mr. de la Pena: Thank you, Council.
Ms. Ching: Thank you, Council.
Council Chair Kaneshiro: Next up, is the Consent Calendar.
CONSENT CALENDAR:
C 2021-40 Communication (01/28/2021) from the Director of Finance,
transmitting for Council information, the Condition of the County Treasury
Statement quarterly report as of November 12, 2020.
C 2021-41 Communication (01/29/2021) from the Hawai`i State Association
of Counties (HSAC) President, transmitting for Council consideration, HSAC's slate
of officers for the remainder of the current Fiscal Year 2021 term, pursuant to
Section 5 of the Bylaws of the Hawai`i State Association of Counties, Inc.
COUNCIL MEETING 6 FEBRUARY 24, 2021
C 2021-42 Communication (02/17/2021) from Councilmember Chock and
Councilmember Evslin, transmitting for Council consideration, a Resolution Urging
The Governor To Resume In-Person Education For Grades K-12, Interscholastic
Sports Competitions, Organized Youth Sports, And Adult Recreational Sports For The
State Of Hawai`i.
Councilmember Chock moved to receive C 2021-40, C 2021-41, and C 2021-42
for the record, seconded by Councilmember DeCosta.
Council Chair Kaneshiro: Are there any questions or is there any
discussion from the Members?
(No written testimony was received and no registered speakers requested to
testify regarding these agenda items.)
The motion to receive C 2021-40, C 2021-41, and C 2021-42 for the record was
then put, and carried by a vote of 6:0:1 (Councilmember Kuali i was excused).
Council Chair Kaneshiro: The motion is carried. Next item.
COMMUNICATIONS:
C 2021-43 Communication (02/05/2021) from Bryson Ponce, Assistant Chief
of Police, Investigative Services Bureau, requesting Council approval to accept and
expend Domestic Cannabis Eradication/Suppression Program funding, in the amount
of $25,000.00, which will be used for payment of overtime, renting vehicles and
aircraft, training, equipment, and technology for conducting drug enforcement
operations both on the island of Kaua`i and with other State, County, and Federal
law enforcement agencies in the fight against drug- and gun-related crimes.
Councilmember Carvalho moved to approve C 2021-43, seconded by
Councilmember Chock.
Council Chair Kaneshiro: Do we have any questions? I will suspend the
rules. Councilmember Cowden.
Councilmember Cowden: Thank you, Chief Raybuck for being here.
Twenty-five thousand dollars ($25,000) is a relatively small amount when we are
looking at what is being needed. I would like to hear what the money is spent for and I
have sent a list of questions, I do not know if you were able to give that consideration.
There being no objections, the rules were suspended.
TODD G. RAYBUCK, Chief of Police (via remote technology): Aloha
kakahiaka, good morning, Chair and Councilmembers. Are you receiving feedback on
your end?
Councilmember Cowden: Not too bad.
COUNCIL MEETING 7 FEBRUARY 24, 2021
Council Chair Kaneshiro: We can hear you okay.
Mr. Raybuck: Okay, I will try to talk slow, so if there is
feedback it can mitigate itself. Thank you for the opportunity to be here this morning
on behalf of Kaua`i Police Department (KPD) and the acceptance of these funds. To give
you a brief overview, the Domestic Cannabis Eradication/Suppression Program is the
only nationwide law enforcement program that exclusively targets drug trafficking
organizations that are involved in cannabis cultivation. The Kaua`i's participation in
this Program is a multi-law enforcement effort between the KPD, the Honolulu Police
Department (HPD), State Narcotics Enforcement Division, Department of Land and
Natural Resources (DLNR), and the Hawai`i National Guard counter drug programs to
target illegal marijuana grows on the island of Kaua`i. KPD's participation in this
Program has eradicated illegal grows on private and public lands, including near Mount
Wai`ale`ale. Illegal marijuana grows not only draw individuals engaged in other
criminal and drug activity, they also pose an environmental threat to our island.
Marijuana cultivation requires a significant amount of water and chemicals. Illegal
marijuana growers often divert natural streams and water sources to provide irrigation
to their crops. Marijuana grows on public lands destroy and impact natural flower and
fauna and impact natural wildlife habitats. It is common for marijuana growers to use
chemicals and herbicides that damage the environment, and often these growers on
public lands leave behind the chemical containers and rubbish to pollute and cause
further damage to the environment. This funding will be used for helicopter services,
rental vehicles, overtime training, equipment, and technology for conducting this
cannabis enforcement, and I hope that the Council will approve these funds, so that we
can continue to protect the island of Kaua`i from these illegal grow operations.
Council Chair Kaneshiro: Thank you. Councilmember Cowden.
Councilmember Cowden: Did you get my list of questions?
Mr. Raybuck: I did. Would you like me to go through these
questions individually?
Councilmember Cowden: Yes, I would.
Mr. Raybuck: I am sorry, I did not hear your response.
Councilmember Cowden: Yes, please.
Mr. Raybuck: Okay, the first question, how was the presence
of pot different than alcohol and events like suicides and other crimes? I do not have
the data in impact on suicides. I do not know if that data is actually collected. As far
as crimes, marijuana is an intoxicating substance. So much like alcohol, it does create
a significant impact on impaired driving and related crashes in our community.
Unfortunately, we have seen in most recent events the appearance of alcohol and
cannabis in drivers involved in serious and/or fatal collisions. Because it is an
intoxicating substance, it is often involved in other criminal activities or is a factor in
other criminal activities. I do not particularly know how to differentiate between
COUNCIL MEETING 8 FEBRUARY 24, 2021
alcohol and/or marijuana. Both substances have their own individual harms and
impact on crime.
The second question is, what percentage of crimes that have evidence of cannabis
use also have alcohol present? It is very common, particularly for intoxicated drivers to
have both substances involved. Again, I do not know of any specific studies that identify
what percentage of crimes have the evidence of both, as those would require either
studies that engage individuals that admit to it and/or are tested for it. I know that in
the past there have been studies that have gone into prison populations and jail
populations to interview employees, but I did not have time to research that prior to
today's meeting, so I cannot answer fully to that question.
Recreational use has been legal in Nevada since 2017, was there a spike in crime
that coincided with that policy change? That is accurate. At the time that the
marijuana became recreationally legal in Nevada, I was the Organized Crime Bureau
Commander, so I was actively engaged in the discussions and the review of the impact
of marijuana and its recreational use. Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department did
in fact see crime associated with marijuana increase. For example, drug-related
homicides involving marijuana increased significantly shortly thereafter and continues
to be a factor in the community. We also saw a spike and increase in robberies involving
individuals that participated both in legal and illegal marijuana delivery systems,
where individuals would call under the guise of ordering marijuana, and then they
would rob and/or injure the individuals who arrived to provide that. We saw a
significant increase in illegal black market activity. This illegal activity brought other
types of crime along with it. It created a challenge and still creates a challenge today,
for law enforcement to effectively address illegal and black market marijuana
operations. Once this substance was made legal, it made it very challenging for
prosecutions, as juries would be more sympathetic to not pursuing and convicting
individuals for illegal activities associated with the legal product. So it is hampered and
damaged the ability to hold people accountable for their illegal activities. That is just a
basic response to your question.
Councilmember Cowden: I really appreciate that response. You would
have an opportunity to see a before and after in your experience in Las Vegas. I am told
that cannabis or marijuana of the present is quite a lot different than it used to be.
Decades ago here, people just went up and put the crop and the plant in the ground and
went back months later and harvested it this was an industry area, decades back.
When we had Green Harvest, it was devastating, to at least the side of the island that
I lived on, because we ended up with crack, heroine, and methamphetamine, which are
much more dangerous, much more criminal element type of drugs. I mean the change
in the community was palpable. I did not see any statistics, but I appreciate hearing
what you are saying. I know that across the nation...I am telling you a little bit, but I
just...that is why I asked about the suicide and the other crimes because last year when
I was reluctant to pass this, I was told that marijuana was linked to different crimes. I
just see the trend at the Legislature and across the nation is towards decriminalization
of this drug. A lot of times the criminalization of a drug is what creates the problem. I
do not know if you have any response on that observation, but alcohol seems more
violent than pot. With pot, people usually do nothing. It is a sedative, right? It is not
something where people will go and beat their wives when they are stoned, do they?
COUNCIL MEETING 9 FEBRUARY 24, 2021
Mr. Raybuck: Thank you for the opportunity to respond to
your comments. The relationship between illegal cannabis eradication and the
assumption that removing marijuana has led people to harder drugs—I do not know is
statistically and factually accurate. Anecdotally, there may have been some sort of a
transition that was apparent that anecdotally one may conclude that; however, drug
trends often ebb and flow. Marijuana use has continued to increase despite some of our
efforts to eradicate marijuana from the black market, particularly so, now that there
has been much more discussion about acceptance and legalization in the sales of
marijuana. As far as your second point, which I apologize was, if you can refresh my
memory.
Councilmember Cowden: I think my second point was, alcohol seems to
be a stimulus that creates aggression and violence, while marijuana seems to be a
plant—it is a sedative. So just anecdotally between a completely legal product and a
product that gets criminalized, it seems like we are criminalizing the wrong one. I am
not suggesting we need to criminalize alcohol, but when you see the comparative, it is a
profound difference. When we have needles in the bathroom and the toilet paper in the
public parks behind my house, at least here on Kaua`i, there was nothing subtle about
the change, it was profound, but that was decades ago. I am admitting, I do not really
understand this industry very well, but I do know what it was like to live in a
community that eradicated marijuana and what was a very evident change that
happened within a year or two. I think I had asked if there was different statistics on
a crime, but I appreciated just being able to have the dialogue with you. I am not a
police officer. I have not had your job, doing what you do. I was a sports retailer right
in the center of all of this—that was our clientele by the way, a lot of discretionary
income and free time when that industry was here. I just saw the profound difference
that happened. I am reluctant to get excited about continuing to pursue this, especially
when I see how much legislation we have across the nation and in this State, and we
are a lagging State—to decriminalize it. Thank you.
Council Chair Kaneshiro: Councilmember Carvalho.
Mr. Raybuck: If I may.
Council Chair Kaneshiro: Go ahead Chief.
Mr. Raybuck: Chief Raybuck for the record. Just to clarify,
marijuana is not a sedative. Marijuana is an intoxicating hallucinogenic drug. As we
have seen recreational use and production and legalization of the drug, the
tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) content, which is a psychoactive, mind-altering drug, or
component of marijuana—the percentage has increased dramatically. In fact, the
current legislation before this State would allow any percentage of THC to be sold
recreationally here in Hawai`i. What that would mean is that cannabis oil, which
sometimes can produce up to ninety-eight percent (98%) pure THC, would be available
for use. The consumption of high levels of THC produces significant hallucinatory
effects. I would defer to the organization, Smart Approaches to Marijuana (SAM), you
can Google: learn about SAM; they have comprehensive information on that website. It
is a nonprofit entity that is bipartisan that provides information and research regarding
COUNCIL MEETING 10 FEBRUARY 24, 2021
the impact of marijuana on our communities and I would be happy to forward that
information to the Council for further review.
Councilmember Cowden: Thank you.
Mr. Raybuck: One of the things that is interesting about
legalization and recreation of marijuana that I have witnessed as a parent and a citizen
in Nevada when this was legalized, and that is quality of life issues that come along
with the increased use, production, and sales of marijuana. It was interesting to hear
the previous speaker speaking about his neighbors that have cut irrigation lines and
threatened to burn down crops and cause physical harm, because of the odor of coffee,
because the odor of marijuana, as anyone that has ever smelled such, is very distinctive
and pungent. One of the byproducts of legalizing marijuana in Nevada has been that it
has created significant odor issues that are often complained about in communities.
People who hold birthday parties in their backyard, while the neighbor next door is
growing and smoking marijuana and the children are being exposed to that odor and
that smoke—it is those types of issues that are often overlooked by people who are
concerned about addressing the legal status and approaching the opportunity to receive
tax moneys for that. It is a very complex discussion and I also appreciate the
opportunity to be here today just to share some of my insights and experience with the
issue.
Councilmember Cowden: Thank you.
Council Chair Kaneshiro: Questions? Councilmember Carvalho.
Councilmember Carvalho: Good morning, Chief. I just wanted to
follow-up on the use of the funding. I know you have mentioned vehicles, air craft, and
so forth, but can you explain to me the purchase of new technology, and what does it
mean?
Mr. Raybuck: I will defer that to Assistant Chief Ponce about
what technology that might be.
BRYSON PONCE, Assistant Chief of Police, Investigative Services (via remote
technology): Good morning. Bryson Ponce, Assistant Chief,
Investigative Services Bureau, Kaua`i Police Department, for the record. Although, I
cannot go into the specific technologies that we purchase for our cannabis operations,
the technology we do acquire is basically to help with spotting and allowing our people
to go into different fields if we need to put them in there, and just those things to help
us detect, because a lot of times when you are in the air, it is difficult to see you really
need to train your eye. I have talked to several people in the hemp industry to utilize
their fields for training to help our new officers to see what they are looking for, but
there is technology out there that helps us with identification to be able to see, because
we are trying to cover the entire island—every aspect of the open lands on the island.
Councilmember Carvalho: Okay, thank you.
Council Chair Kaneshiro: Council Vice Chair Chock.
COUNCIL MEETING 11 FEBRUARY 24, 2021
Councilmember Chock: Thank you, Chair. Chief, what do we expend
annually on the enforcement of marijuana? What is our budget in its entirety?
Mr. Raybuck: Chief Raybuck, for the record. Thank you,
Councilmember Chock. I do not have specific broken apart statistics on what we spend
on marijuana. Predominately, as far as focused efforts on marijuana, it would be this
twenty-five thousand dollars ($25,000). This twenty-five thousand dollars ($25,000)
will support, essentially, two (2)operations to detect and identify illegal grow operations
on public and private lands. Other than that, the priority focus of our drug enforcement
efforts are focused on drugs such as, marijuana, methamphetamine, heroine, and those
drugs that we see as predominant issues in our community, so that is where the largest
portion of our efforts are associated in our spending.
Councilmember Chock: Thank you very much.
Council Chair Kaneshiro: Councilmember DeCosta.
(Councilmember Chock was noted as not present.)
Councilmember DeCosta: Aloha, Mr. Ponce and Chief Raybuck. I just
have one question. Do you have a breakdown on the cost of flying a helicopter that you
folks use to spot those marijuana patches that are being illegally grown? I know a
helicopter is quite a bit of an expense to our Fire Department, so I was wondering,
twenty-five thousand dollars ($25,000) does seems like a small amount if you are going
to put that into the use of a helicopter. Do you have a number of times that you fly
throughout the year and use the helicopter as a way to spot the illegal growing?
(Councilmember Chock was noted as present.)
Mr. Raybuck: Chief Raybuck, for the record. Thank you,
Councilmember DeCosta for the question. I do not have the specific cost of the
helicopter services. We utilize a contract provider out of Maui to provide those
helicopter services. We rent two (2) helicopters—those are utilized over a 2-day period
throughout the year and we also obtain the assistance of the Hawai`i National Guard
and their resources. Department of Land and Natural Resources (DLNR) also provides
some resources, as well. While I cannot give you the specific dollar number for the
helicopter services, it is the predominant bulk of this twenty-five thousand
dollars ($25,000).
Councilmember DeCosta: Chief, it should be simple to get us the cost of
leasing a helicopter for two (2) days out of Maui. I am sure they have a price per hour.
Maybe next time you could have that figure. I am just trying to run numbers in my
head and see if twenty-five thousand dollars ($25,000) is an adequate amount or you
folks might need more. I do not know, but thank you.
Mr. Ponce: Councilmember DeCosta, I have the numbers
in front of me. Today, operations would run just under fourteen thousand
dollars ($14,000).
COUNCIL MEETING 12 FEBRUARY 24, 2021
Councilmember De Costa: Thank you. We do not have enough to do
two (2) interisland travels throughout our native forests to look for marijuana. This
twenty-five thousand dollars ($25,000) might only give you folks one (1) 2-day
throughout the year to do an investigation of where plants are being grown, am I
correct?
Mr. Ponce: That is correct.
Councilmember De Costa: Okay. Thank you.
Council Chair Kaneshiro: Councilmember Cowden, then Councilmember
Evslin.
Councilmember Cowden: Thank you for the information you are giving.
I am curious, because I sincerely do not know. On public lands or private lands in these
bigger places, are we still seeing many large grows? I know they used to look before
with infrared. How many large grows do we typically find in a year?
Mr. Raybuck: Chief Raybuck, for the record. Councilmember
Cowden, thank you for the question. Fortunately, we have seen a dramatic decrease in
the grow operations on our public and private lands. I would like to attribute that to
the fact that we utilize these funds and have used this operation in order to eradicate
and address these illegal operations, so that has been a deterrent for the ongoing grow
operations that we have seen in the past, so we have seen a significant decrease in those.
I participated in this operation just soon after being appointed to Police Chief and over
the course of that operation, we found a few areas that may have been problematic, but
did not identify any significant grow operations.
Councilmember Cowden: Thank you for that. One of my takeaways from
what I am hearing is that when people are given permits to grow their small amount in
their yard for medicinal use that is therapeutic for an identified medical challenge,
sounds like for the most part, that medical legalization is addressing the need, does that
sound right? Some people have blue cards or whatever it is called—they grow it in their
yards, right?
Mr. Raybuck: Chief Raybuck, for the record. Yes, the permits
provided to medical patients does allow them to obtain the marijuana that provides
them the relief that they seek through that substance. The operations that we conduct,
at times, do identify locations where marijuana is being grown on private land and it
allows us to confirm whether or not those individuals are actually permitted and/or if
they are in compliance with their permit. On occasion, there are individuals who grow
more marijuana than they are permitted and those individuals are addressed based on
that information.
Councilmember Cowden: Thank you.
Council Chair Kaneshiro: Councilmember Evslin.
COUNCIL MEETING 13 FEBRUARY 24, 2021
Councilmember Evslin: Thank you, Chief Raybuck and Assistant Chief
Ponce for being here today and answering the questions. Is any of the money used for
enforcement or investigation into small-scale possession or is it all targeted towards
larger-scale grow operations?
Mr. Raybuck: Chief Raybuck, for the record. Thank you,
again, for the question. Good morning, Councilmember Evslin. No, these funds are not
utilized for the investigation of private use. In fact, it is not KPD's priority, nor do we
focus on personal use. Our enforcement strategies and Vice operations are to identify
and dismantle drug trafficking organizations and individuals responsible for
distributing dangerous drugs to our community that cause addiction, crime,
and
problems in our society. Thank you.
Council Chair Kaneshiro: Are there any further questions from the
Councilmembers? If not, I will call this meetingback to order. Is there anyfinal
discussion from the Members? Councilmember Cowden.
There being no objections, the meeting was called back to order, and proceeded
as follows:
Councilmember Cowden: I really appreciate the Kaua`i Police
Department being here and discussing it. I am going to vote "yes" on this. In.general,
I would like to see this continue to be decriminalized, but I feel comfortable that the use
of this funding is making sure that we do not have an overgrowth or an unfair scaling.
When we have public lands, it should not be abused, so I think that there are...this does
not seem disproportionate, this is not intended to hurt people's lives and that is the
main point that I would have as a concern. There are veterans and different people that
I know this helps, at least it seems that they truly believe that it is what helps them, so
I just wanted to make sure. To go look in that helicopter, I see that yellow helicopter,
check that we are not abusing our public lands for allowing something to become large
scale—that is comfortable with me, it does not sound like it is going to something that
is small level possession, so I will be voting"yes."
Council Chair Kaneshiro: Is there anyone else? Councilmember
DeCosta.
Councilmember DeCosta: Thank you, Council Chair Kaneshiro. My
comment to this is that I support this. I think it is a very small amount. As a pig
hunter, I spend a lot of time in the forest and I do not like to incorporate or walk through
a marijuana patch. There are some things that do go down and I do not appreciate it,
so I think that allowing people to grow in their backyards, who have cards, and
everything goes through the system where they have their permits is good. I do not
think that this would make a big impact on what is happening out there in the forest,
so I appreciate it and I am going to be voting"yes" on this. Thank you.
Council Chair Kaneshiro: Councilmember Evslin.
Councilmember Evslin: Thank you, Chair Kaneshiro. I will be voting
"yes," as well. I do want to echo a little about...I have concerns, I think there has been
COUNCIL MEETING 14 FEBRUARY 24, 2021
growing evidence around the country around the impacts of criminalization for small
amounts of possession on minorities and low-income groups. I think that Chief Raybuck
and Assistant Chief Ponce, and in the past we had Justin Kollar here, have spoken
really well to that, as far as where they are targeting their enforcement efforts and this
money is clearly going towards large-scale growing operations and trafficking
organizations on the island. Also, while some of our conversation was circling around
the correlation between marijuana use and crime, there is also a clear correlation
between marijuana use in teenagers and psychosis and other types of mental health
impacts and long-term impacts on teenage brains. I think especially, because as Chief
Raybuck referenced increasing THC levels, it ends up disproportionately impacting
teenagers' brains. I am concerned also about conversations around normalizing
marijuana use. With all of that said, it has clear medicinal uses. I know a lot of people
who rely on it for medicinal purposes and for those people, that is a clear avenue that
they can go to be able to legally use marijuana for those uses. So I am in full support of
going after these types of funds and targeting larger scale drug trafficking organizations
and growing operations on the island. Thank you.
Council Chair Kaneshiro: Is there anyone else?
(No written testimony was received and no registered speakers requested to
testify regarding this agenda item.)
The motion to approve C 2021-43 was then put, and carried by a vote of 6:0:1
(Councilmember Kuali i was excused).
Council Chair Kaneshiro: The motion passes. Next item.
C 2021-44 Communication (02/08/2021) from the Director of Economic
Development, requesting Council approval to apply for, receive, and expend funds in
a total amount of $310,173.00, and to indemnify the United States Department of
Labor and the State Department of Labor & Industrial Relations, regarding the
following Kaua`i Workforce Development Board — Workforce Innovation &
Opportunities Act (WIOA) programs:
• Adult Program ($81,505.00);
• Dislocated Worker Program ($111,879.00);
• Youth Program ($85,773.00); and
• Administrative Costs ($31,016.00).
Councilmember Chock moved to approve C 2021-44, seconded by Councilmember
Carvalho.
Council Chair Kaneshiro: We did receive a memorandum from the Office
of Economic Development to defer this item.
Councilmember Cowden moved to defer C 2021-44, seconded by Councilmember
Chock, and carried by a vote of 6:0:1 (Councilmember Kuali i was excused).
COUNCIL MEETING 15 FEBRUARY 24, 2021
(No written testimony was received and no registered speakers requested to
testify regarding this agenda item.)
Council Chair Kaneshiro: The motion is carried. Next item.
C 2021-45 Communication (02/09/2021) from the Housing Director,
requesting Council approval to receive and expend Federal Emergency Rental
Assistance funds (Pub. L. No. 116-260), in the amount of $22,000,000.00, and to
establish a special account for those funds, which will be used for the payment of rent,
rental arrears, utilities and home energy costs, utilities and home energy costs
arrears, and other expenses related to housing incurred due to the COVID-19
outbreak as defined by the Secretary of the Treasury.
Councilmember Carvalho moved to approve C 2021-45, seconded by
Councilmember Cowden.
Council Chair Kaneshiro: Are there any questions from the Members? I
will suspend the rules. Councilmember Cowden.
Councilmember Cowden: Director Roversi, can you give us an overview
of when, how, and to whom, this money is going to be distributed? I am really happy to
see twenty-two million dollars ($22,000,000)—thank you so much for whatever you did
to get that—it is deeply needed.
There being no objections, the rules were suspended.
ADAM P. ROVERSI, Housing Director (via remote technology): Sure. Aloha,
Chair Kaneshiro. Adam Roversi from the Housing Agency. This twenty-two million
dollars ($22,000,000) is part of Coronavirus round two (2) assistance being
distributed by the Federal government. The State of Hawai`i received two hundred
million dollars ($200,000,000). Kaua`i has been tentatively allocated twenty-two
million dollars ($22,000,000) of that two hundred million dollars ($200,000,000). It
will come to us in an initial allocation, I believe, of ten million dollars ($10,000,000)
and subsequent distributions from the State will be dependent on how fast we can
get that money out the door to citizens on Kauai. Currently, we are preparing to
publicize a Request for Proposal (RFP), which will solicit for a third-party nonprofit
organization to administer the program similar to the way the State administered
the original round one Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act
Rental Assistance Program. The rules for this Program are slightly different though.
Broadly speaking, these funds can be used to cover rental and utility costs going back
to the beginning of the COVID-19 emergency, so all the way back to March 2020. The
funds will need to be expended by September 30, 2021, so we have a relatively short
window to get these funds into the hands of residents. There is no set limit on the
amount of rent that can be covered by these funds or the utility costs. Some of the
limits are that any individual can only receive twelve (12) months of assistance total.
There are some special caveat exemptions and certain circumstances that can allow
it to go for more than twelve (12) months. One of the other catches is, in order to
qualify, it is only for rent not for mortgages, which was not necessarily the case in all
prior programs. In order to qualify, an applicant has to be eighty percent (80%) of
COUNCIL MEETING 16 FEBRUARY 24, 2021
Area Median Income (AMI) or below and they can demonstrate that income level
either based on their 2020 tax returns or on documents available at the time they
apply. Even if they may have made more than eighty percent (80%) of AMI in the
past, as long as they are financially impacted at the time they apply, they can still
qualify. But that is going to be a barrier to some who have too much income on paper,
even if they may have rental in arrears, so it will be narrow in that sense. That is in
brief, the way the program will operate. Like I said, we are hoping to release our RFP
this afternoon upon the Council's approval and begin the process of getting the
nonprofit partner on board. We have a shortened response period, so we will be
seeking responses from nonprofit organizations on their proposals within just a
couple of weeks and hope to have a contract with a selected provider completed—we
are keeping our fingers crossed—before the end of March, so that we are prepared to
begin taking applications as soon as the end of March or early April, because, like I
said, there is a time limit to expend these funds, so the sooner we can get this rolling
the better.
Councilmember Cowden: Thank you on that. When we are getting the
RFP out, will there be more than one (1) nonprofit? I believe there was three (3) last
time and it is a lot of work, there will be many people, there will be a lot of applicants.
I am hoping that there is the capacity to spread it a little, such that servers do not go
down, or busy phone numbers, or something like that. We have seen a lot of"choke"
on the front end of almost all the assistance programs that we have had. Is there a
thought towards that, so we can "hit the ground running" and get everyone taken
care of as easily as possible.
Mr. Roversi: Sure. We have not predetermined that it will
be just a single provider nor have we predetermined that we need it to be multiple
providers. There is a little bit of tension between, yes, we want as many...we want a
multitude of methods and means of people to apply so that there are not busy phone
lines and applications not reviewed in a timely fashion, but at the same time, we are
required by the Federal government to ensure that there is no duplication of benefits
to applicants and that was a significant problem during the State's CARES Act round
one (1) relief program. They had so many service providers administering the
program that it became impossible for them to coordinate among themselves to be
sure that people were not being double paid and it has, for better or worse, for the
Hawai`i Housing and Finance Developing Corporation, which was the primary
administrator of that CARES Act program, it has turned into an accounting
nightmare for them to go back and try to catch duplications and they very likely may
be required to pay money back to the Federal government. So, yes, we want to make
this as easy as possible for people to receive the funds, but at the same time, we have
an obligation to be able to track and monitor the program, so we are going to have to
carefully select the provider and ensure that they can adequately account for the
funding and that will only become more difficult the more providers we have involved
in thero ram.
p g
Councilmember Cowden: Thank you for that important clarification
and just acknowledging for all of us—State and County—this is a learning
experience, so mahalo for that piece.
COUNCIL MEETING 17 FEBRUARY 24, 2021
Council Chair Kaneshiro: Councilmember DeCosta.
Councilmember DeCosta: Hi, Adam. Thank you for all you do. I am
excited to see this twenty-two million dollars ($22,000,000) going to our economy. I
just have a couple of questions. I am a little worried about...you said twelve (12)
months total if you go with the County's assessment of what is an affordable
2-bedroom or 1-bedroom, you are easily talking between one thousand two hundred
dollars ($1,200) to one thousand seven hundred dollars ($1,700) multiplied by
twelve (12)—you are talking close to fifteen thousand dollars ($15,000) in someone's
pocket. Now, does that go to the renter or to the homeowner who the renter did not
pay the rent to and they could not kick the renter out of their home, so now, how do
you justify who applies for that money? Second of all, I know our Kaua`i Island Utility
Cooperative (KIUC) and our Department of Water (DOW) could not shut off power or
water and there are a lot of people who are back on bills. Does the money go into the
hand of the resident or KIUC and DOW to pay that bill that they did not pay for
twelve (12) months? Some key questions that I would like to get information on.
Thank you.
Mr. Roversi: In the first instance, the program calls for
payments to be made directly to a landlord or the utility company, not to the renter
themselves to go into their bank account. There is one exception to that requirement.
During the CARES Act round one (1), they found that there were many—I do not
have exact data, but many landlords who refused to participate in the program to
receive moneys on behalf of their tenants, because they were effectively operating
illegally and not paying their General Excise Taxes. So even though there was,
essentially, free money available to tenants, the landlords refused to accept it. In
instances like that, recognizing that the most important thing at this point, is to keep
people in their homes, if there are landlords who are refusing to participate, there is
an option to provide the payment directly to the tenant, then it becomes the tenant's
obligation to use that funding to pay the rent. But the primary directive is that
payments go directly to a landlord who has to provide their tax information and they
receive a W-9 tax form summarizing the payments that they have received. If
payments are made directly to a tenant, because of a difficult landlord situation, then
the tenant themselves has to provide their tax information and will also receive a W-
9, documenting the funds that they have received.
Councilmember DeCosta: How about the utilities with KIUC and DOW?
Mr. Roversi: My understanding is that those payments will
be made directly to the utility companies on behalf of a specific tenant who qualifies
under the program.
Councilmember DeCosta: A bulk of this money actually might go to
KIUC or DOW, depending on how many outstanding bills that were not paid for
during the pandemic, correct?
Mr. Roversi: I have preliminary numbers from KIUC and
they indicated that currently they have a delinquency on the high end of
approximately one million dollars ($1,000,000)—that is just a rough number. Of the
one million dollars ($1,000,000) owed to KIUC, presumably, not all of the delinquent
COUNCIL MEETING 18 FEBRUARY 24, 2021
account holders will qualify based on their income to participate in this program, so
I cannot tell you that the entire one million dollars ($1,000,000) that KIUC has in
delinquencies will qualify for payment under this program, but I would estimate a
large part of it certainly would. Relatedly, again, this is just a preliminary estimate,
it is not a detailed number, but the DOW indicated that they have current
delinquencies of approximately seven hundred fifty thousand dollars ($750,000).
Again, a large portion of that would likely be payable under this program, but there
certainly would be some, I imagine, that would not qualify for one (1) reason or
another.
Councilmember DeCosta: Thank you, Adam. That is all.
Council Chair Kaneshiro: Councilmember Chock, Councilmember
Evslin, then Councilmember Carvalho.
Councilmember Chock: Thank you, Chair. Thank you, Adam. Today
we have a briefing on the transition of the houseless in our parks and I am curious to
know if this twenty-two million dollars ($22,000,000)—it is not very clear to me, it
certainly speaks to those in arrears, but I am wondering if any of the houseless from
the parks, who might be eligible, who have been adversely affected and put into the
parks, would be eligible to get some support to get back into a home. Do you know
the parameters of this fund as it relates to that situation?
Mr. Roversi: Yes, so these funds can be used for rental
arrears, but they can also be used for future rents and you do not necessarily have to
have a current rental delinquency to qualify for future rent payments. Here is a
hypothetical situation that could work within this program; if an individual who is
currently homeless, whether in a County beach park or not, was able to secure a
location to move into and have a rental agreement or lease agreement in hand and
could at the same time demonstrate that they have been economically impacted by
COVID-19, the funds from this account could be used to assist them in their rent
moving forward. One of the catches, when paying future rents, as opposed to back
rents, is that we can only use the funds to pay rent in 3-month increments, so if
someone came to us on April 1st, they have a new rental agreement for a home, but
they are financially impacted, we can pay three (3) months of their rent under this
program, but to continue beyond the three (3) months, they would have to regularly
update their income documents to demonstrate that they are still being financially
impacted. I believe that they have to do that every three (3) months.
Councilmember Chock: Thank you very much.
Mr. Roversi: That presents a little bit of a chicken and an
egg conundrum, in that someone who cannot afford rent will have difficulty entering
into a rental agreement or a lease agreement that would enable us to begin paying
their rent if they do not have any money, so it is a...I am not too sure about the details
of exactly how we will work that out. Again, this is a brand new program and there
are no doubt numerous situations that may arise that will require a little "head
scratching" and fine tuning of the application process and the documentation
requirements. The Federal government has imposed broad outlines of what we need
COUNCIL MEETING 19 FEBRUARY 24, 2021
to do, but not every single detail has been filled in. We get new frequently asked
question guidance from the Treasury Department every week, sort of filling in some
of the blanks, so this is an evolving program.
Councilmember Chock: Thank you. Can the funds be matched by a
nonprofit, say, Catholic Charities, to assist with the front loading of a program to get
people into a home, then this funding could kick in? Is that something that could be
done and has it been looked in to?
Mr. Roversi: To be honest, I have not specifically looked
into that, but just knowing the outlines of the program, I do not see any reason why
that would not work. The only thing to look out for would be to ensure that a tenant
was not receiving double payments for the same month from a Federal funding
source. A lot of the programs for instance, Catholic Charities and Family Life
Centers, are paid for by Federal moneys. So if, for instance, Catholic Charities paid
the May rent for a new tenant, we would just have to be sure that we were not double
paying their May rent, but nothing would stop us from assisting them in June, July,
and August.
Councilmember Chock: Thank you.
Council Chair Kaneshiro: Councilmember Evslin.
Councilmember Evslin: Thank you, Chair. Thank you Adam, for
helping explain this program—twenty-two million dollars ($22,000,000)—sounds like
it is going to be a good program. To build off of Vice Chair Chock's question, do you
think it would be possible to have a preclearance form or something that someone
could get cleared for the program that they could then bring to a prospective landlord
to show them, "If I get this rental agreement, then I can go back and get this funding."
Because I think the chicken and egg problem that you said is obviously going to be a
major hurdle for anyone to get a lease agreement.
Mr. Roversi: I would have to look into it a little more—dig
through the treasury guidance. We have a twenty plus (20+) page handbook that we
have been provided by the State that has been amended several times, so I cannot
give you a clear answer, but it is definitely something to think about. From the
Housing Agency's perspective, I would like to find ways that these funds can be
utilized to assist homeless people in becoming housed and not simply paying back
rent for people who are already in a house situation.
Councilmember Evslin: Of the twenty-two million
dollars ($22,000,000), will a portion of that go to pay administrative fees to whoever
the third-party is that administers it, or will the County be paying for that separately,
or does all the money have to go out in rent relief?
Mr. Roversi: No, the Federal law permits that up to ten
percent (10%) of the total amount of funding provided can be used for administrative
expenses.
COUNCIL MEETING 20 FEBRUARY 24, 2021
Councilmember Evslin: My last question, do you have any idea if
twenty-two million dollars ($22,000,000) is going to be adequate, more than we need,
or not enough?
Mr. Roversi: As this program was being discussed, each
County essentially made an ask to the State for what we thought our funding
requirement would be, and on the very high end, we were estimating around
twenty-one million dollars ($21,000,000) with an understanding that it was probably
a relatively high estimate. I think it would be a challenge to administer this much
funding, no matter whether it is one (1) nonprofit or many. As a comparison, during
the first round of COVID-19 rental assistance that the State was administering, I do
not have the exact number in front of me, but my recollection was that it was
something around five million six hundred thousand dollars ($5,600,000) that was
distributed on Kaua`i and that was by two (2) separate organizations with multiple
sub-organizations assisting them, that was over many months and they got to a point
of exhausting applications. Comparatively this is four (4) times as much money to
try and get out the door quickly, so if we can successfully administer this funding, it
should effectively wipe out rental delinquencies for people who are income qualified
on Kaua`i.
Councilmember Evslin: That is huge. Thank you, Adam.
Council Chair Kaneshiro: Councilmember Carvalho.
Councilmember Carvalho: Adam, thank you for all the information. Just
a quick question and wanted clarification on the timeline, because we are talking
about everything, but I want to make sure that we can meet all the goals and the
timelines within this period of time. What was the timing again?
Mr. Roversi: We are hoping to issue the RFP today, receive
proposals within two (2)weeks, have a contract with a provider entered into—keeping
our fingers crossed—before the end of March, and have them be able to begin
receiving applications. The funds that we are going to receive need to be—not
necessarily expended, but they need to be allocated to applicants by
September 30, 2021. Any funds that we have not allocated to recipients by then have
to be returned to the Federal government. So we are in a race to get as much of this
money out to the community as we can before September 30, 2021.
Councilmember Carvalho: Adam, I know a lot of work has come from the
Housing Agency with the team there and the houseless coordinator, do we have
information ready to go to with a listing of people who we can just get out there and
go or do we still need to capture everything working with the nonprofit? I am talking
about the Housing Agency's ability to get in there and begin.
Mr. Roversi: The Housing Agency itself does not have a list
of people with rental arrears, but we are going to do a full court press in partnership
with whoever our service provider or providers are to get as much public information
out as quickly as possible. The service provider will be required to have both an online
method of applying, as well as in person "boots on the ground" on Kaua`i to accept
COUNCIL MEETING 21 FEBRUARY 24, 2021
people's applications and help work with people who do not have web access or who
cannot navigate the online process—that was something that was largely lacking
during the round one (1) CARES Act assistance. That was also recognized and that
was the height of the COVID-19 emergency—there was really no in-person
assistance; there was just phone numbers to call and keep your fingers crossed that
you received a return phone call and an online process that was difficult for a lot of
people to navigate. So one (1) of our requirements will be that there will be physical
staff on Kaua`i to assist people in-person to work through this process. There will
also be a website with an electronic application process. We are at the State's urging
and requirement. We are prioritizing entities that were involved in prior rental
assistance programs, so we are looking for a partner that is not having to reinvent
the wheel and start from square one. We are looking for a partner who has experience
doing this based on prior programs and has systems in place, a web presence in place,
the ability to deal with the data collection, accounting, and so forth. We will not be
starting from scratch, entirely, aside from the fact that some of the parameters of this
assistance program and the rules that are imposed on it are different from the past
programs, so there is some differentiation that will have to be worked through and
no doubt some growing pains.
Councilmember Carvalho: The thing in addition to the technical side, I
like the "boots on the ground" part, but you need to get out there, because I think if
we can really do a great job in administering the funds, more will come within this
timeframe and as we continue to address the community at-large. Mahalo for the
work and keep going.
Mr. Roversi: Thank you.
Council Chair Kaneshiro: Councilmember Cowden.
(Councilmember Carvalho was noted as not present.)
Councilmember Cowden: This is kind of a small question, I do not know
if in the RFP that we define a little bit or if we are going to make sure to fund for
larger servers. I think many people can apply online, especially on their phone. I
think if we have apps or something that makes it easy and there is some pre-thought
that there is enough servers in place that they can use some of this money to get the
servers up, so that we do not have the server failure, like with what happened the
last time.
Mr. Roversi: To my understanding, the administrative
funding can be used for the infrastructure required to implement this program, so it
is potential that it would be used for additional website capacity or storage capacity
or whatever IT infrastructure is required to run the program.
Councilmember Cowden: Is that question on the RFP? When we are
looking at who we are going to pick, I would like to pick someone who has the capacity,
so I am just wondering if that is on the RFP? If there is attention to that. Just
suggesting. You can think about that—that we want to look at an applicant that can
actually manage the volume.
COUNCIL MEETING 22 FEBRUARY 24, 2021
Mr. Roversi: The RFP does specify that they need to have
p �'
the IT infrastructure and ability in place, but it does not go into such detail as to
demand that they have a certain level of server capacity. It is a more generalized
request and we will have the flexibility and discretion in analyzing the proposals to
make comparisons among the different providers that are interested in operating the
program.
Councilmember Cowden: Okay, thank you.
(Councilmember Carvalho was noted as present.)
Councilmember DeCosta: Hi, Adam. Councilmember DeCosta. I have
a couple key questions, possibly even some solutions, but I do not want to see our
money going to anyone just because they have an agreement from a landlord that is
a piece of paper that is not notarized. I want to be able to know that lease agreement
is binding, whether that landlord had a General Excise license that is paying taxes
to prove it and also the people that we give this money to. I am all about helping the
homeless—do not get me wrong, but a lot of our homeless choose to be homeless and
I do not want to see moneygoinginto hands that want toget a home for just three (3)
J
months, do not have a job, and returns to living at a park or some kind of homeless
area. I would really want to see the transition of this funding going to people that
have a job, that are possibly living in their car now, or possibly living at the park.
Does the first three (3) months of rent, go to them personally or does it go to the
landlord that provides the lease agreement? That is my concern, I just do not want
to see a repeat of the first round of CARES Act money means of distribution, because
we had to spend it before we lost it. I want to see more accountability for the Federal
funding.
Mr. Roversi: Understood. In the first instance, all
payments will go directly to a landlord or a utility provider, not as essentially cash
payments to an applicant. Only in special circumstances will funds go directly to an
applicant. The tracking method of this funding has largely to do with tax reporting,
so the funding going to landlords will be tracked based on social security numbers or
Employer Identification Number (EIN), and it will be documented in W-9s that are
delivered to the recipients. Any funding going to applicants will also be tracked based
on their social security numbers, and tax information will be required and provided
to them. There is always going to be a tension between trying to get as much money
out to the public as possible and the thoroughness of documentation. Some very
simple examples; some businesses have gone out of business, gone under water, so an
employee for a company that no longer exists may have a difficult time getting a letter
from their employer that they were let go on such and such date if that company does
not exist anymore. So there is an option within this program to simply allow the
applicant to submit an affidavit—a sworn affidavit attesting that they worked at so
and so business and they lost their job on such and such date. Our hope would be
that we can have firm documentation from the employer, but if that employer does
not exist anymore, our primary goal is to provide assistance to the employee who is
suffering. I would prefer to err on helping those folks, than eliminating them from
qualification based on their paperwork issues. As long as we are meeting the Federal
requirements of the program and ensuring that we are exercising our fiduciary
COUNCIL MEETING 23 FEBRUARY 24, 2021
responsibilities from an accounting perspective. So, I hear your concerns and we will
do our best to answer them as the program rolls out.
Councilmember DeCosta: Thank you.
Council Chair Kaneshiro: Councilmember Evslin.
Councilmember Evslin: Thank you, Chair. Adam, one final question
from me and I think the answer is "no," but is there any way for a family who, say,
covered all their rent, they qualify from every perspective, they are in the income
category, and they have had a significant loss of income, but they were able to cover
their rent, say, by taking out a loan or borrowing money from sketchy payroll advance
places, or selling their car, is there any way for them to get reimbursement through
this program or do they have to be in arrears?
Mr. Roversi: There is some grey language in this program
that we are really going to have to analyze a little more deeply, so arrears are not
required, necessarily, but I hear you that to some extent, it is penalizing people who
have bent over backwards to fulfill their financial obligations and providing a benefit
to people who have, even if they perhaps could have but have not paid their rent
because they know they cannot get evicted at the moment. There is some grey
language in which the funding can be utilized to help people who have economically
suffered with regard to their housing resources—it is vague language and we are
going to have to drill down on how we are going to define that in the program and the
permissible ways in which those funds can used to help the sorts of people you are
talking about. It may be more appropriate that rather than trying to repay them in
the past, but we can help them with their rental situation moving forward if they can
still demonstrate their economic losses and that they are income qualified. It may
not provide a solution that is going to go back in time to repay them, but it could
assist them in the future moving forward, so that some of the income that they do
have could be used to offset the pain that resulted in the high interest loan that they
had to take out or the loan they got from their aunt and uncle or their parents or
whoever else in the past.
Councilmember Evslin: That is good to hear.
Council Chair Kaneshiro: Councilmember Cowden.
Councilmember Cowden: Thank you so much. I am very happy with
what we are hearing. I do not need a detailed answer on it at all. Just a simple "yes"
or"no." I am happy for what this is doing for this particular group. I know that there
are many people out there who have been in abatement, like they have not been
paying their mortgage for months, will there be anything, anywhere, some other way
to help address the people who are living in a home that they own with the bank that
they are very likely to be facing foreclosures? Is there any other pot of money that
we are going to be expecting for that?
Mr. Roversi: Not that I am immediately aware of. I have
heard rumors that President Biden is obviously pushing for an additional one trillion
71,
COUNCIL MEETING 24 FEBRUARY 24, 2021
nine hundred billion dollars ($1,900,000,000,000) in additional Coronavirus relief
funding. Whether there will be programs within that pile of money to assist mortgage
holders—I have no idea. But this current collection of funds is expressly barred from
assisting people with mortgages for better or worse, so that is the choice the Federal
government has imposed on us and we do not have much choice in the matter. But
there may be additional mortgage assistance coming in future Federal programs, but
I have no information about that.
Councilmember Cowden: Thank you.
Council Chair Kaneshiro: Is there any further questions from the
Members? If not, any final discussion from the Members? I just want to say, thank
you Adam. I see this number of twenty-two million dollars ($22,000,000) and I truly
believe it is going to help a lot of people on the island. It might not help everyone that
we want to help, but if you are looking at someone that is making eighty
percent (80%) and below and renting, I think this type of money is going to be able to
help a majority of those people who are in that category. So I am very hopeful and I
just ask that as information comes out, you just let everyone know, let the
Councilmembers know, and maybe have a cheat sheet as far as the requirements go
for people to apply for the money. I am super excited for it. I know there are a lot of
people who need help right now and this would be a huge help, so thank you for this
opportunity. Councilmember Cowden.
Councilmember Cowden: Just very simply, I am very happy to be
approving this today. I have an entire list of people that I want to text and tell the
good news and I appreciate the many different ways that this was thought out, so
this will help many people who really need it, so I am delighted.
Council Chair Kaneshiro: Is there anyone else? Councilmember
Carvalho.
Councilmember Carvalho: Me, too, just the opportunity to really get the
"boots on the ground," I am thinking and really reaching out and giving people that
second chance; sometimes they are at the break of just not knowing what to do. Great
opportunity, great management, and pulling together resources and getting that out
into the community—that is the big thing here that we are discussing, so thank you
Adam and the team, and keep going.
Council Chair Kaneshiro: Councilmember Evslin.
Councilmember Evslin: Thank you, Chair. I am echoing everything
that has been said. Thank you Adam, for this. I am optimistic that this is going to
be a good program. It is going to certainly help out a lot of people, and I agree with
what you were saying, Adam, about trying to reduce the barriers and make it as
flexible as possible. I would think that it is going to be a challenge to get all
twenty-two million dollars ($22,000,000) out there in the community and I think the
more that we can get out there, not only the more that we can help, but we also help
our economy in the near-term and the long-term bounce out of this when we are fusing
COUNCIL MEETING 25 FEBRUARY 24, 2021
outside money into it. So whatever we can do to get this money out there and please
use us as a partner to help spread the word, however you need.
Mr. Roversi: Will do, thank you.
Council Chair Kaneshiro: Is there anyone else?
There being no objections, the meeting was called back to order, and proceeded
as follows:
(No written testimony was received and no registered speakers requested to
testify regarding this agenda item.)
The motion to approve C 2021-45 was then put, and carried by a vote of 6:0:1
(Councilmember Kuali i was excused).
Council Chair Kaneshiro: The motion is carried. Next item.
C 2021-46 Communication (02/10/2021) from the Executive on Aging,
requesting Council approval to receive and expend Federal funds, in the amount of
$71,330.00, and to indemnify the State Executive Office on Aging, for the provision of
home-delivered meals for the period of December 1, 2020 through September 30, 2022.
Councilmember Carvalho moved to approve C 2021-46, seconded by
Councilmember Cowden.
Council Chair Kaneshiro: Are there any questions from the Members? Is
there any final discussion on this item? Councilmember Cowden.
Councilmember Cowden: I just want to appreciate Kaua`i Economic
Opportunity for providing the food and the Agency on Elderly Affairs for continuing to
help our kupuna have food. It is a good program that is continuing and I just want to
acknowledge its success.
Council Chair Kaneshiro: Is there anyone else? Councilmember
DeCosta.
Councilmember DeCosta: Thank you for that Councilmember Cowden,
that is very nice to recognize. I want to say, not only the meals, but the conversation
piece and what they do for our kupuna when they are out there and checking on
them—it is huge. It is more than just the meals, it is actually having another set of
eyes and another set of social and emotional interaction with our kupuna, which I think
is very important and my mom is personally one (1) of those people. I know firsthand
that this is a great thing. Thank you for recognizing that, Councilmember Cowden, and
thank you for doing that for our kupuna. Thank you.
Council Chair Kaneshiro: Again, this is seventy-one thousand
dollars ($71,000) of Federal funds of home-delivered meals. Is there any further
discussion?
COUNCIL MEETING 26 FEBRUARY 24, 2021
(No written testimony was received and no registered speakers requested to
testify regarding this agenda item.)
The motion to approve C 2021-46 was then put, and carried by a vote of 6:0:1
(Councilmember Kuali i was excused).
Council Chair Kaneshiro: The motion is carried. Next item.
LEGAL DOCUMENT:
C 2021-47 Communication (02/09/2021) from the Housing Director,
recommending Council approval of Release and Indemnity provision, Use and
Occupancy Agreement No. 432 for Tax Map Key (TMK) No. (4) 2-1-001 between the
County of Kaua`i and the State of Hawai`i Department of Transportation, including the
Release and Indemnity to install necessary waterline infrastructure for the Lima Ola
project within the Kaumuali`i Highway right-of-way.
• Use and Occupancy Agreement No. 432
Councilmember Carvalho moved to approve C 2021-47, seconded by
Councilmember Cowden.
Council Chair Kaneshiro: Do we have any questions from the Members?
Councilmember Cowden.
Councilmember Cowden: Can you just give us a quick response? This is
the waterline and Lima Ola is in `Ele`ele,just a little bit and that is enough for me.
There being no objections, the rules were suspended.
Mr. Roversi: Sure. Aloha, Adam Roversi, Housing
Director. Thank you. Yes, in short, this permits the County to make the waterline
connection from the main waterline that is in the State's right-of-way along the
highway to connect into the Lima Ola subdivision. It is a relatively narrow strip of
land that allows us to install our connecting pipe within the State highway
right-of-way.
Councilmember Cowden: Thank you.
Mr. Roversi: For the Lima Ola subdivision, which as you
have mentioned, is located in Ele ele above Hanap ep e Town.
(Councilmember DeCosta was noted as not present.)
Council Chair Kaneshiro: Are there any other questions from the
Members? If not, I will call the meeting back to order. Is there any final discussion on
this item?
COUNCIL MEETING 27 FEBRUARY 24, 2021
There being no objections, the meeting was called back to order, and proceeded
as follows:
(No written testimony was received and no registered speakers requested to
testify regarding this agenda item.)
The motion to approve C 2021-47 was then put, and carried by a vote of 6*:0:1
(*Pursuant to Rule No. 5(b) of the Rules of the Council of the County of Kauai,
Councilmember DeCosta was noted as silent (not present), but shall be recorded
as an affirmative for the motion; Councilmember Kuali i was excused).
Council Chair Kaneshiro: The motion is carried. Next item.
CLAIMS:
C 2021-48 Communication (02/04/2021) from the County Clerk, transmitting
a claim filed against the County of Kaua`i by Sarah Lohrey, for damage to her vehicle,
pursuant to Section 23.06, Charter of the County of Kauai.
C 2021-49 Communication (02/05/2021) from the County Clerk, transmitting
a claim filed against the County of Kaua`i by Jaime Villatora, for injuries sustained by
her minor child, pursuant to Section 23.06, Charter of the County of Kaua`i.
Councilmember Carvalho moved to refer C 2021-48 and C 2021-49 to the Office
of the County Attorney for disposition and/or report back to the Council,
seconded by Councilmember Chock.
Council Chair Kaneshiro: Are there any questions from the Members?
Is there any discussion?
(No written testimony was received and no registered speakers requested to
testify regarding these agenda items.)
The motion to refer C 2021-48 and C 2021-49 to the Office of the County
Attorney for disposition and/or report back to the Council was then put, and
carried by a vote of 6*:0:1 (*Pursuant to Rule No. 5(b) of the Rules of the Council
of the County of Kauai, Councilmember DeCosta was noted as silent(not present),
but shall be recorded as an affirmative for the motion;Councilmember Kuali i was
excused).
Council Chair Kaneshiro: The motion is carried. Next item.
RESOLUTIONS:
Resolution No. 2021-10—RESOLUTION APPROVING THE HAWAII STATE
ASSOCIATION OF COUNTIES SLATE OF OFFICERS FOR FISCAL YEAR 2021
COUNCIL MEETING 28 FEBRUARY 24, 2021
Councilmember Cowden moved for adoption of Resolution No. 2021-10,
seconded by Councilmember Carvalho.
Council Chair Kaneshiro: Are there any questions from the Members? I
will suspend the rules. Councilmember Cowden.
Councilmember Cowden: My question is for Vice Chair Chock. I know
you have put some work into this—thank you—and thank you for what you are
committing to on behalf of our Kauai County Council. Can you please help us
understand who is on this slate and what is your vision?
(Councilmember DeCosta was noted as present.)
There being no objections, the rules were suspended.
Councilmember Chock: Sure, thank you Councilmember Cowden.
The slate is made up of myself presiding as President. Vice President would be Kelly
King from Maui County. Secretary would be Heather Kimball from Hawai`i County
and Treasurer is Tommy Waters, City & County of Honolulu. At current,
Councilmember Tommy Waters is the sitting President. This Resolution is also going
out to other Counties for approval. I believe Hawai`i County will be meeting in March,
so if and when that passes, this will move into effect, so we can anticipate this slate
being in office probably in April or so. Also, dependent on our annual meeting that
we have scheduled. I can just tell you that there are some bylaw changes that are
forthcoming, in order to look at the timing of the slate to change that. Other than
that, some projects that we want to focus on in the next year and a half that are just
going to help HSAC be more proficient in meeting their mission as an
intergovernmental entity.
Councilmember Cowden: To your knowledge, are the other islands in
agreement? Sometimes we have a little bit of tension and a little bit of a tug-of-war.
Being the HSAC President, being in Kaua`i's position is a good benefit for us in terms
of our National Association of Counties• (NACo)—it has a lot of responsibilities
associated with it. I appreciate it and it might have value for people who do not
understand the role of HSAC just to have a little bit more knowledge, because I want
to thank you and I am recognizing the importance of this.
Councilmember Chock: Thank you. One of the bylaw changes is
recommending for moving us in a direction of rotation for executive officers positions.
There are some sort of continuing issues that have occurred in the last term that
relate to some accounting that we are trying to clean up with the organization. I
would agree that is has been sort of a push and pull in vying for these seats. When
we met on this last meeting—I am not sure if the minutes are included in here, but
they can be provided for you—there was strong interest from Maui County to move
out of the Treasurer position due to the accounting issues and subsequent to that a
difficulty in trying to maneuver everyone into the right positions. I can say that
throughout our process in determining this particular slate, basically everyone was
up for the Presidency and voted upon. Of course, what this means is that all four (4)
Counties need to agree and I think by default, I was the only one who was able to get
COUNCIL MEETING 29 FEBRUARY 24, 2021
the four (4)votes from the executive board to move forward. That is one of the reasons
why I accepted graciously. I think it is as you have said, "A very important role."
Again, I will be able to provide, once I am in that position, a little bit more of what I
would like to focus on in the next year and a half.
Councilmember Cowden: Thank you Councilmember Chock, and thank
you, Councilmember Carvalho for being the alternate.
Councilmember Carvalho: Thank you.
Council Chair Kaneshiro: Are there any other questions?
Councilmember Carvalho.
Councilmember Carvalho: I am very happy that Vice Chair is the HSAC
Chair. HSAC is an important...having to wear my different hat and connecting and
keeping everyone at the table throughout the State and having presence is important,
number one; number two, the leadership part, because there are a lot of stuff that go
back and forth and I think it is a good opportunity to really clarify and understand
the process and the importance of accountability on everyone's part. So serving as
alternate, it is great to have Vice Chair Chock at the table as the President. He knows
a lot of the team players already in place and is connected to Maui, Hawai`i Island, of
course, and O`ahu, so I look forward to listening in again, and whatever we can do
collectively, because more things happen statewide that we need to stay connected on
and this is where all the information flows. Sometimes they will learn from us and
we learn from them and we move back to our individual communities, then NACo is
the next level, but statewide, I have the opportunity to be there alongside Vice Chair
Chock, so I just wanted to mention that and mahalo for that.
Council Chair Kaneshiro: Are there any other questions from the
Members? If not, I will call the meeting back to order. Is there any final discussion on
this item? Councilmember DeCosta.
There being no objections, the meeting was called back to order, and proceeded
as follows:
Councilmember DeCosta: I would like to echo what everyone said, I am
actually honored to know that Council Vice Chair Chock is in charge and it is going to
bring great networking between the Counties. He knows this better than anyone else,
going to a private school like Kamehameha, they have a lot of networking, so I know
that your leadership will bring that to the table and I know we are in great hands. Our
alternate, former Mayor Bernard Carvalho, I am very impressed to have you on that
team, so thank you.
Council Chair Kaneshiro: Councilmember Evslin.
Councilmember Evslin: I will echo what Councilmember DeCosta said,
great to have Council Vice Chair Chock as President and Councilmember Carvalho as
his alternate there. I have been learning more about what an important role HSAC
plays and how important it is for all of the Counties to collaborate at some capacity, so
COUNCIL MEETING 30 FEBRUARY 24, 2021
this is vital for us and I am confident in Vice Chair Chock's abilities as taking the helm
here at HSAC, so looking forward to what we are all going to accomplish here.
Council Chair Kaneshiro: Is there anyone else? Maybe it was not a
Y
surprise for me and I do not think it was default either, because when we originally put
the slate together, I was very confident in our Kaua`i delegation with Council Vice Chair
Chock going in and Councilmember Carvalho as our alternate, I truly believe we had
the strongest delegation going into HSAC. I am still confident with what we brought
and it is probably why Council Vice Chair Chock was able to get the votes, because they
see that Kaua`i is bringing a sense of continuity, we have Council Vice Chair Chock who
has been involved with HSAC for a while. We have Aida who has been involved with
HSAC for a long time. We bring leadership and we bring collaboration, so for me, I was
going to assume that we were going to take leadership there also. There are a lot of
new Councilmembers from the outer islands that are on HSAC and I think that it is
good for them to see the leadership that comes from Kaua`i and frames how we move
forward as HSAC, so that they see this is how it should be run and it is running
smoothly. I know in the past it has been a little up and down there and I think that
Council Vice Chair is looking into it—how do we provide a little more continuity with
HSAC knowing that members are on and off and you have new members in, it is really
difficult for new people to come in and figure out what they are doing and I know that
is going to be a big sticking point on how we move forward and trying to just provide
that framework, so HSAC can continue to move forward in a smooth manner, because
it is important for all of our Counties and the entire State. Again, I stand by it, when
we originally put Council Vice Chair Chock and Councilmember Carvalho up there, I
knew we put a good team together to get to HSAC. Councilmember Cowden.
Councilmember Cowden: I want to acknowledge how important HSAC is.
It is a formalized place where the neighbor islands really have a routine reason to be
coming together. We as neighbor islands tend to have more overlapping needs and
issues and when we have Honolulu County as part of it, it helps keep the State policy
from being quite so"O`ahu-centric" and we are so lucky to have our legislative team and
really lucky to have the Senate President be our one (1) Senator. So I look forward to
Kaua`i's needs being well represented in our united efforts, having our great group
ahead of HSAC, and a really united group of legislators from Kauai. Thank you.
Council Chair Kaneshiro: Is there anyone else? If not, roll call vote.
(No written testimony was received and no registered speakers requested to
testify regarding this agenda item.)
The motion for adoption of Resolution No. 2021-10 was then put, and carried
by the following vote:
FOR ADOPTION: Carvalho, Chock, Cowden,
DeCosta, Evslin, Kaneshiro TOTAL– 6,
AGAINST ADOPTION: None TOTAL– 0,
EXCUSED & NOT VOTING: Kuali`i TOTAL– 1,
RECUSED & NOT VOTING: None TOTAL– 0.
COUNCIL MEETING 31 FEBRUARY 24, 2021
Ms. Fountain-Tanigawa: Six (6) ayes.
Council Chair Kaneshiro: With that, let us take a 10-minute caption
break and we will come back with our final item on the agenda.
There being no objections, the meeting recessed at 10:17 a.m. for a caption
break.
The meeting reconvened at 10:28 a.m., and proceeded as follows:
Council Chair Kaneshiro: Welcome back. We are on page 3, Resolution
No. 2021-11.
Resolution No. 2021-11 — RESOLUTION URGING THE GOVERNOR TO
RESUME IN-PERSON EDUCATION FOR GRADES K-12, INTERSCHOLASTIC
SPORTS COMPETITIONS, ORGANIZED YOUTH SPORTS, AND ADULT
RECREATIONAL SPORTS FOR THE STATE OF HAWAII
Councilmember Chock moved for adoption of Resolution No. 2021-11, seconded
by Councilmember Carvalho.
Council Chair Kaneshiro: We did receive written testimony on this item
and we have no one registered to speak. Council Vice Chair Chock.
There being no objections, the rules were suspended.
Councilmember Chock: Thank you, Chair. If you do not mind, and if
it pleases the body, I will just give a briefing on the purpose of this Resolution and
how it came to be, and I will ask co-sponsoring Councilmember Evslin to talk about
the content of the Resolution. This has been an ongoing discussion, particularly for
Kaua`i as we have done fairly well with the COVID-19 response and our status, so
this discussion about education has been ongoing with how much we can open up and
so forth. Without getting into the weeds, I think all of us are well aware that
Resolutions are nonbinding, they are there to serve as a means for us to have a
discussion and share where we can support and what we would like to see. In
particular, in recent news, all of you have seen and heard discussions about the Safe
Travels Program and the direction of possibly going under a unified approach to it.
House Bill (HB) 1286 is in particular focused on that, so we felt that this discussion
was coming to a head and at the very least, what myself and Councilmember Evslin
would like to do is share with our State Legislation and our leaders around the State
that we have an interest with education as a priority, prior to opening up more fully.
I can tell you that Councilmember Evslin has been focused more on the educational
aspect and more recently, I have been involved in discussion with Councilmember
Andria Tupola with the City & County of Honolulu on her safe sports Resolution. I
have taken that aspect and combined it with the education aspect to make a request
for us to consider how we might be able to put a priority on moving forward with
education. For this, we do not go into any detail as to how or when this should
COUNCIL MEETING 32 FEBRUARY 24, 2021
happen, because that is really outside of our purview. The message focuses on the
fact that there are some guidelines out there for us to follow and because of it, we
think that Kaua`i is in a good position to be able to move forward. Also, we have met
with our leaders from the Department of Education and had a lengthy discussion
with Superintendent Zina. We went line by line through this Resolution, and he did
make some suggestions of which we have responded to and made changes to. We
have also spoken to our Regional Health Director Janet Berreman, who are both
supportive of this Resolution moving forward. With that, I will give it over to
Councilmember Evslin to talk about the details of it.
Councilmember Evslin: Thank you, Vice Chair. Just to give a quick
overview of what is in the Resolution. It is simply a statement of support for our
teachers and for the important role that they play and provide for our community and
a statement of support for resuming fulltime in-person education and outdoor sports
and extra-curricular activities on Kaua`i for elementary and secondary school
children, based on guidance from the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP), the
Centers for Disease Control (CDC), and the Hawai`i State Department of
Health (DOH), all of which are urging a return to full-time in-person education,
especially in communities with low levels of community transmission, such as Kaua`i.
The CDC's advice, updated two (2) weeks ago, goes as far as saying that in-person
schooling should be the first thing to open, as we open up our economies and the last
thing to close if we have to close our economy again. The CDC and the DOH have
both developed risk based metrics based on the level of community spread of
COVID-19. Since Kaua`i is among the safest counties in the country, due to the hard
work of our entire community, both metrics clearly say that based on our low level of
transmission here, that with appropriate safety protocols such as, universal masking,
cohorting, distancing when possible, and adequate ventilation, that full-time
in-person education should resume. The intent of this is to simply mirror that advice
to say that we as a Council support a resumption of fulltime in-person education,
extra-curricular activities, and sports. As Vice Chair Chock said, I just want to
reiterate and to be clear for anyone watching, that Resolutions of this nature are of
course nonbinding, so if it passes it is just a statement from the Council that based
on the best available evidence, we support in-person schooling, et cetera, as long as
we remain within the safe metrics developed by the CDC and the DOH. That said,
we have a small amendment.
Councilmember Evslin moved to amend Resolution No. 2021-11, as circulated,
and as shown in the Floor Amendment, which is attached hereto as
Attachment, seconded by Councilmember Chock.
Councilmember Evslin: This amendment just amends the title. As
Vice Chair Chock said, this Resolution actually grew out of similar resolutions on
O`ahu and Maui, both of which were really targeting the resumption of sports and
those specifically targeted the Governor to convene a task force to try and resume
safe sports, so as this Resolution evolved, we kept the original title even though as
we expanded it to include education. So this amendment just broadens the title to
say that we support resumption of in-person schooling and does not necessarily target
it at the Governor, because there are a lot of decision makers involved in the decision
to reopen.
COUNCIL MEETING 33 FEBRUARY 24, 2021
Council Chair Kaneshiro: Are there any questions from the Members on
the amendment? Councilmember DeCosta.
Councilmember DeCosta: Hi. Thank you, Council Vice Chair Chock and
Councilmember Evslin. Before I ask my question, for the record, I am a State
Department of Education (DOE) teacher. I went into the classroom two (2)weeks ago
to be a substitute teacher for the day when Kekaha School had eleven (11) of their
teachers receive the COVID-19 vaccine, so I had the opportunity to go into the
classroom and participate in synchronous and asynchronous learning with
twelve (12) students in the classroom and twelve (12) at home online. My biggest
question—and for the record, I want to say I support going back to school. I support
putting sports programs back into effect. It is time our children go back to school.
With that being said, a very important question I would like to ask my Vice Chair
and Councilmember Evslin, what is the plan to go back to school? If you folks
produced this Resolution, there are procedures, guidelines, and protocols that need
to be in place in order for this to work. Just speaking to our Superintendent Paul
Zina and the other entities that make the DOH or the CDC guidelines that you folks
investigated, there are numerous principals, teachers, Hawai`i State Teachers
Association (HSTA) union, United Public Workers (UPW) union, Hawai`i
Government Employees Association (HGEA) union—that if we did not talk to them
and did not have a plan in place, this Resolution in my belief, might divide our
communities even more than what it is right now. I know as government leaders our
job is to bring people together. So I am all for putting school back in place, but the
question I want to ask you folks is, what is the plan to carry out this action?
Councilmember Chock: I will take a stab at that and Councilmember
Evslin can elaborate on it. In my discussion with Superintendent Zina, not only was
there clear alignment on the timing for this Resolution to move forward, but there
was a considerable amount of discussion on the plans that he and the principals have
started to initiate. This is not something that is just happening, they have been
working on this for many months now; one (1), in adapting to the current situation,
but also what are the steps necessary to move forward. That being said, I cannot
speak to the details of a plan, nor do I think it is within our purview or oversight to
move in that direction. Specifically saying that the message from our DOE leaders
was not get caught up in the operational aspects of this with this Resolution, we can
support this broadly. It is the right direction that we all want to go, but the
operational pieces that are connected to this plan are things that Mr. Zina has been
working on and are forthcoming. What I can tell you—I do not want to speak for
him—is that there is movement already occurring to look at different aspects of
opening up. I believe that is different at every school, because every school has
different capacities and interests. It seemed to me that secondary schools would be
more difficult to open up. Again, I am just relaying—I do not want to go into any
details—that is the reason why we have kept this broad and not wanting to go into
the weeds and I would defer those details to our leaders in the DOE.
Councilmember Evslin: Thank you, Councilmember DeCosta for the
question. The Resolution does reference just abiding by the mitigation measures
outlined in specific detail by the CDC and AAP and further than that as Vice Chair
Chock said, we did not want to lay out this and that because one (1), this is not our
COUNCIL MEETING 34 FEBRUARY 24, 2021
purview and two (2), we did actually have more detail and as Vice Chair Chock said
that was removed at the request of the DOE—to leave it up to them to figure out how
to best implement this. Again, merely it is just a statement of support as soon as
reasonably possible to resume in-person education.
Council Chair Kaneshiro: Before we go too much further, I do want to
bring us back to the amendment and then we can talk about the full Resolution in
greater detail. I did not want to make you have to repeat that question and I do not
want to take us too off track of the questioning, but I would like to get the amendment
voted on and then we can talk all we want and question about the actual Resolution.
Do we have any questions on the change getting rid of the "Governor to resume" and
adding"to resume" in here, are there any questions on that? Is there any discussion?
The motion to amend Resolution No. 2021-11, as circulated, and as shown in
the Floor Amendment, which is attached hereto as Amendment was then put,
and carried by a vote of 6:0:1 (Councilmember Kuali`i was excused).
Council Chair Kaneshiro: Now back to the main motion as amended.
Councilmember DeCosta, you have the floor.
Councilmember DeCosta: I am sorry to get so detailed on this, but I am
that teacher can be an advocate. Also, Council Vice Chair Chock, you did mention
you spoke to Superintendent Zina and the principals and for clarification, I spoke to
many principals over the last couple of days and their views are a little different than
just the views of resuming to school in this fourth quarter. With that being said, the
number one (1) thing, is any time we do a plan of action, that action has to have a
plan to follow, and I do not want us to be the group that looks like we have a good
idea or good action, but we do not provide the plan, and they do not have a plan either.
I tell you folks what, HSTA will not let this happen and if you talk to HSTA you need
to get a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU), they need to get a Memorandum of
Agreement (MOA), and that will not happen. I am all for putting children back into
school. My own son is struggling. We have children out there with five (5) or four (4)
Federal guideline plans, and with Individualized Education Programs (IEP) that are
not being met. I just do not want us to be that governing body that puts this idea out
there and we have no protocols, procedures, or guidelines to support these principals
who need to make things happen. With that being said, let me tell you something
that is very unique about the fourth quarter. The fourth quarter is a benchmark and
curriculum assessment piece that transitions children into the next grade level.
Coming to school in the last fourth quarter will be like going to school at the beginning
of the year. Children have not seen each other since August. Children will be all
excited to see each other in the classroom, which I believe they need to be socially and
emotionally connected—that is a big piece of school, but most teachers spend the first
two (2) to three (3) weeks putting guidelines, rules, and regulations in the classroom.
Now, they are going to have an influx of at least half of the amount of students that
were originally home in asynchronous learning on the laptop when the other
half—twelve (12) to fifteen (15) were in class doing synchronous learning. We cannot
mandate all parents send the students to school during this time, so you are still
going to have a small group at home and a larger group in the classroom and that
teacher will deal with the task of teaching, now twenty (20) students with maybe
COUNCIL MEETING 35 FEBRUARY 24, 2021
three (3) or four (4) at home. I am not saying it cannot be done. I am not saying it
should not be done. I believe it should be done, but if we are going to make that
Resolution as a governing body, we need to get a plan, we need to get the procedures,
and the guidelines to go into that plan, and if we do not, maybe we need to go out and
support the schools at that level and see what they need—do they need funding for
shields on the desk? Do they need masks? Do they need people on the playground to
supervise the children when they are playing? Do you know elementary school
students serve lunches at the cafeteria? They serve lunches. We cannot have the
students serve lunches, so where is the staff to serve? Elsie H. Wilcox Elementary
has seven hundred plus (700+) students, do they have the room to sit at the table?
We do not even sit at the table this close, can you imagine? Councilmember Evslin,
you do not even come into the meeting and sit here with us, now we are going to send
our children back to school. I am just saying there is a plan—we do not have it. If
you talk to the principals—they do not have it. I am just saying that my piece here
is that I would like to see us bring our community together, parents who are
struggling at home not working, because they need to watch their children, I believe
they need to go back to school, but if we are going to do this I would have liked us to
maybe approach all the principals, have meetings with them, gather more data, and
let us come up with a plan that can work, not just an idea. Thank you.
Council Chair Kaneshiro: Council Vice Chair Chock.
Councilmember Chock: Thank you, Chair. I really appreciate the
comments and your experience as well, Councilmember DeCosta in DOE. I just want
to bring it back to one (1), what this Resolution, and really what a resolution stands
for in my mind is it is a statement of what we as a body can agree to. We cannot have
this discussion on the floor until we get something on the floor and that is what this
provides us, right. I think that if we take a step back from all the details that you
are discussing, which I totally agree with—we should have a plan. Then the
seven (7) of us can broadly say, we would love to advocate for our children to whatever
degree is possible, have that kind of in-person school experience, because it is
beneficial for our children in every single way. This Resolution does not say we need
to go back in the fourth quarter. It does not say the details of how it should or how it
should not occur for any school or every school, and while I agree and appreciate the
fact that we do need a plan, we are far removed as a County in making those decisions.
In fact, I would say even stepping on too far, in one direction in saying how it should
happen. However, with that being said, I think that this initiates that discussion, I
think it initiates us for us to say that we would like to see this move in this direction
and now, we have people talking about how that can occur. So I would advocate for
that to occur, post this determination if we can just agree of moving in a direction.
Thank you.
Councilmember DeCosta: You make a good point, Council Vice Chair
Chock. You are right. This did spark the discussion and I am impressed that you
two (2) folks have put this Resolution on the table and I am impressed that you value
some of the points that I have made, because the points that I made are key points
that are stumbling blocks to making this happen. Thank you.
Council Chair Kaneshiro: Councilmember Cowden.
COUNCIL MEETING 36 FEBRUARY 24, 2021
Councilmember Cowden: I also appreciate having the Resolution as the
opportunity to have an important discussion. Too often, we are not able to have these
highly needed discussions without an agenda item. I had called the HSTA, the
President was the first contact I had on this issue. They helped me to understand
how difficult it is. Councilmember DeCosta discussed the MOU and the process of
changing, I think the one (1), two (2), three (3), four (4), five (5), six(6)board members
from the HSTA for Kaua`i; I think they gave us a really good letter of why they are
not prepared for us to pass this yet, I did call Superintendent Zina's office a couple of
times—you must have talked at a different time than me, I showed them where on
the website it was and had them print it out—to be able to have the discussion, so I
was hoping that we would have heard directly from them—I had asked. I am glad
that you had that conversation with Superintendent Zina. I know as we move
forward today, I will be asking for us to finish this in another couple of weeks, because
my understanding is the soonest they are able to have any kind of discussion amongst
the staff is this Friday, meaning amongst the Principals is this Friday, but what I do
not want to have happen is most people do not understand the political nuances, so
when the Council does a unanimous approval of"let us go back to school" I am on that
page. We have zero (0) to one (1) cases average a day and have had seven (7) in the
hospital. I love to see the children being able to be in school. I get it—intuitively it
feels like, yes, let us make it happen, but I think that we need to be doing this in
concert in step with them because I know a number of parents want the schools to be
running again, both for the babysitting aspect, the childcare, and because the
children miss their friends, so those are really good important reasons. As you have
said, Councilmember DeCosta, I do not want to create conflict. If the Council
unanimously approves this, then for parents to be mad at the teachers and schools,
when this is something that they cannot do, so I am glad that we are talking about
it. I would have liked to have seen more communication, I think we had one (1) letter
from one (1) parent by this weekend, I went out and tried to get testimony and let us
let the Principals talk to each other on Friday and see what they come up with and
let us be able to give them that resounding piece, so we can walk in step with them
for whatever they do come up with, rather than to make a statement that might
embarrass and make things difficult due to challenges...I have forgotten about the
other unions than just the HSTA—that is who I called.
Councilmember DeCosta: There is HGEA and UPW.
Councilmember Cowden: Yes, when you say it, of course I realized that
is the case. Vice Chair Chock, do you have any response on that, because I so
appreciate the beautiful intention behind this Resolution?
Councilmember Chock: I would agree that I think all the points that
you are making are really important and I want to be a part of those discussions. I
just want to make it clear that this is not a mandate. A Resolution is nonbinding in
any way. It does not tell them they have to do this. It merely says where this body
is in agreement on, if we are to pass it. I guess what I am hearing is perhaps a
recommendation for a deferral, and what I would say is, can we agree if you read
through all the "whereas" and "further be resolved" that this is the direction that we
all agree on? I think the HSTA has also said that they agree with this direction, that
it be followed up with perhaps a communication where more dialogue with them can
COUNCIL MEETING 37 FEBRUARY 24, 2021
occur. No one else votes on this. This is just us as a body and I just want to make
that clear.
Councilmember Cowden: Yes. You asked a question, yes, I read it, I
think it is very well stated and when we are done with our discussion, I will be moving
to defer, because I think if we have another couple of weeks, we can work more in
step with greater conversation and in an alignment that is comfortable. We know
that it is just a recommendation and it has no authority, but I am not sure whoever
is reading the newspaper headlines understands that.
Council Chair Kaneshiro: Council Vice Chair Chock.
Councilmember Chock: My only response is, I am happy to hear from
everyone and where they stand with this, in terms of voting on it today. Again, I
agree that we can continue. If we can pass this today, I am supportive of that and I
would suggest that we create another agenda item for a communication on the actual
plans, so that we can talk about that. This does not reference a plan in any way,
shape, or form, so that is what I would be advocating for. Thank you.
Council Chair Kaneshiro: Councilmember Carvalho.
Councilmember Carvalho: Interesting and emotional—I can feel it. My
daughter is an elementary school teacher. I have four (4) grandchildren, so I mean,
coming from that perspective. I appreciate the discussion. The Resolution is on the
table. It lists our, as decision-makers, and I totally hear you, Councilmember
DeCosta, how important a plan is, but the purpose of a Resolution is just something
to talk about, it is on the table, we make a statement, we all agree. Knowing that
there are a lot of other factors involved that could take it in a different way, maybe,
but there is a need to get our children back to school—I believe that. But the timing,
we are in the fourth quarter, in football terminology, fourth quarter, you need to
buckle up and go. In this particular case, we need to be careful in whatever statement
we make as a Council, but the Resolution, I thought was more like a statement to say
this is what we are thinking about as a team or is it like you said, Councilmember
DeCosta and Councilmember Cowden, does it hold us accountable for this statement;
I am not sure, this is the first time. Anyway, I just wanted to share that part, that I
totally agree with what is being discussed, but the resolution part, I thought was just
us introducing an idea, it does not hold us to anything, it does not say, "Fourth
quarter, you need to do this." It might be throughout the whole next school year,
maybe, that is what I am hearing, so I just need clarification, but the point on the
table is very well heard for not only us, but everyone watching. Is this the time now
to do this Resolution and begin with the planning and get all the right people or
should it really start from this table or this team? That is where I am at right now,
because I totally understand, again, my daughter is a school teacher and I know. I
will not go into specifics, but I know. I just wanted to share that.
Council Chair Kaneshiro: Councilmember DeCosta.
Councilmember DeCosta: Thank you, Councilmember Carvalho. I am
going to wrap it up real quick. You know when I first ran for Council, I ran because
COUNCIL MEETING 38 FEBRUARY 24, 2021
I felt like I have the personality and the dynamics to be able to take a situation like
this, shed light on it, and even though I am not a leader among us seven (7), I am a
leader in our community and I am speaking on behalf of our community. I do one
hundred percent (100%) believe children need to go back to school. I have spoken to
retired Principals, retired Superintendents, and two (2) doctors at Wilcox
Memorial Hospital—"school needs to open," but when we do something like this...I
know we are bounded by the Sunshine Law, where Councilmember Evslin and
Councilmember Chock could not come to us and we all have a discussion, which is
sad, because maybe we should have had a discussion like that. We all could have
gone with the magnificent seven (7) with Councilmember Kuali`i, and talked to
Superintendent Paul Zina and talked with those elementary Principals, talked with
the unions and get everything in place, but we did not. I believe the message that we
send to our community is that when we vote on this Resolution, we are letting them
know that the Council has the pressure on the State to open schools and I believe
they need to open. Now, whether they will open now or fourth quarter when the
teachers planned out the school year...think about it, when you do something and
plan a vacation in Europe, you plan your vacation. These teachers had planned their
type of learning. The asynchronous, the synchronous learning. Fourth quarter, let
me tell you what happens if you folks do not know, maybe Councilmember Cowden
knows because she has been a teacher, but there is Smarter Balanced
Assessments (SBA) testing, so these students need to go into a computer room and
use the computer to test. We do not have enough computers to seat those students
6-feet apart. We are going to have to miss every computer. We do not have the
buildings. We do not have the personnel to support the non-mask wearing when they
are out on the playground. I want them to go back to school. I do not want to be the
only person that does not support the Resolution. I support it one hundred
percent (100%) and I hope the community is watching and the decision is going to be
tough today, but I do not want...I am going to speak like how Councilmember
Carvalho taught me, we need to bring people together. This is not a time to show
that the Council—look at what they are doing, look who is not doing it—I think if we
can come as a force and talk to these Principals on Friday. They have a meeting.
Maybe we need to buy time. Let them have the meeting on Friday, let them hash
things out, let them tell us what they need in the classrooms, let them tell us what
they need at the school, then from there at the next meeting we can say, we have
enough information, they have the plan, they have the procedures, they have the
guidelines, and they have the protocols, because right now, they do not have all of
that in place. If they think they are going to resume back to school like how it was a
year ago, it is going to be a little different, because in fourth quarter, they are
developing, delivering curriculum, and benchmarks to take them to the next grade
level and the teachers did not prepare for that. When you bring an influx of students,
social and emotional, the first two (2) weeks of school in the fourth quarter, it is going
to be a wash of learning in the classroom, because they are all going to be excited and
they need that excitement—I am sorry they do. I support the idea. I even support
the Resolution, honestly. I just do not know if right now is the time. If we can buy a
little more time to hear from those Principals and unions and see if we can get
something in place and if not, maybe I am in the wrong and I would like to say I am
sorry—that is just my feelings. Thank you.
Council Chair Kaneshiro: Councilmember Evslin.
COUNCIL MEETING 39 FEBRUARY 24, 2021
Councilmember Evslin: Thank you, Chair Kaneshiro. I really
appreciate the dialogue here and the insight that everyone has made into this
conversation. I want to be clear that the intention here was never to be divisive, it
was never to try and antagonize any group, it was simply to mirror the advice of
organizations such as CDC, AAP, and the DOH. There is nothingin the Resolution
g
that does not come directly from those organizations and all that it is saying is that
we support what these organizations are saying in moving forward toward full-time
in-person education. I think from the feedback that we have heard from all of us
around the table and even from HSTA, DOE, DOH, I do not think there is anyone
that disagrees with any of this. I think to echo a little bit of what Councilmember
Carvalho was trying to say, the idea is just to say, this is the direction that we are
hoping that we go in, based on the expert advice out there. Again, that was really the
intent here.
Council Chair Kaneshiro: Are there any other questions from the
Members? I will call this meeting back to order. I have heard the conversation, I am
trying to count votes. If the intent was to come with a full front all Councilmembers
in approval, I do not think we are going to get that. We do have the option to defer
and maybe some other Councilmembers will feel a little more comfortable with that.
For me, it is up to the introducers, what you folks are feeling. The way I am looking
at it, I think a deferral would probably be the best for this Resolution. It could also
end up in a 3:3 vote resulting deferral anyway; we do not have Councilmember Kuali`i
here either, so I am open to hearing...I think that is the problem with resolutions,
especially with a resolution like this. It is regarding State matters, it is not really
our kuleana, but the perception is going to be that we are telling the State what to
do. Although the Resolution does not hold any weight, I have taken blowback from a
lot of resolutions before and I think Councilmembers are in the stage where they are
hearing from both sides and they are a little nervous to be picking a side on an issue
that really is not our responsibility to be dictating. So just from what I am hearing,
it sounds like if we do a deferral, we might be able to get more Councilmembers on
board. With the deferral I do not know if there will be some amendments to the
Resolution that makes everyone more comfortable with it, but I am open to hear what
the body wishes. Council Vice Chair Chock.
Councilmember Chock: Of course I want the Resolution to pass and of
course I would like all seven (7) Members to be in support of it. There are two (2)
questions that come to mind; one (1), if we wait two (2) weeks, we have a meeting
with the Principals, would anything change in this? From my perspective, at least in
my own interest for why I have put this forward, I do not see that happening. Can
there be more clarity and buy-in for it? Perhaps. And what we would be doing is
letting them know what our process and parameters are as it relates to the
Resolution. The other thing I would say is that if there is an interest to change this
Resolution and add details into it from a perspective of a plan, then I would be
absolutely against it. I will be against it because it is not within our purview and
that is not my intent for this.
Council Chair Kaneshiro: Councilmember DeCosta.
COUNCIL MEETING 40 FEBRUARY 24, 2021
Councilmember DeCosta: Can I make a comment? Council Vice Chair
Chock, I will have to disagree with what you said on waiting until the next
meeting—it will not make much of a difference, I will tell you why. We have only
three (3) weeks left in this third quarter, before we moving into fourth quarter.
Two (2) weeks, teachers will be on Spring Break—they are not bound to work during
Spring Break, so they cannot set up the classroom and social distance, so this would
move us into fourth quarter, then this Resolution would not have any weight on
moving students back into school in fourth quarter. The school will not change their
agenda in a quarter, so they would do it now, we would force them to do it now, over
the next two (2) weeks, so they can get in-person learning in the fourth quarter, but
if we wait, then they will probably follow what State Superintendent Kishimoto
wants, which is full-time in-person learning come August. Again, I want our children
back in school, please do not confuse that, and I know Councilmember Cowden feels
the same.
Council Chair Kaneshiro: I just want to clarify that this does not require
the State to do anything. Councilmember Carvalho.
Councilmember Carvalho: I just wanted to follow-up with
Councilmember DeCosta. From my understanding and background, it does not hold
us accountable to that. It is more of a statement. However, there is an emotional
side to this happening as well, with the leadership overall. Resolutions are cool—you
put it to the table and talk about it and the best thing to me, would be everyone agree
on this, but unfortunately, not this time. I am just listening to the conversation and
maybe a deferral is on the table.
Council Chair Kaneshiro: Councilmember Cowden, then
Councilmember Evslin.
Councilmember Cowden: Vice Chair Chock, you said you know why you
did this now and I want to hear why that happened now? For people who do not
know, we do not get to talk, so this was a surprise to me last Friday—we have six (6)
days, so I did not know this. Why is it important that it happens today, rather than
in two (2) weeks? I would love to see this be unanimous support.
Councilmember Chock: Sure, let me answer. When I said that I do
not see any significant changes happening to the Resolution, I mean from the content
of this Resolution. I personally think that it makes a statement and as leaders, we
need to be able to make statements about where we stand on things. Do I believe
that this will have the kind of impact that I am hearing it will, which will forceably
make school go back into session, absolutely not—I do not think that is even feasible.
Why now? One (1) of the reasons why I chose to move forward on this—like I said
this was talked about months ago—is really what is happening at the State level and
the discussion around opening our community and when I read about the CDC's
recommendation about advocating for, this should be the first thing to be put back
into service and the last thing to be taken out. I would like our State leadership, who
are making decisions about bills to reopen, take into consideration where the priority
is for this community and that is the message that I am advocating for. Again, we
can wait two (2) weeks, we can have a discussion, will this change? My hope is not,
COUNCIL MEETING 41 FEBRUARY 24, 2021
because the kuleana of that is within the State Legislators and for the DOE to make.
My hope is that this supports, and I think that if you read every single word here, it
does support where they are already going.
Councilmember Cowden: I did read every single word—that was really
helpful for me. When I read it, my instinct was, "Yes, this sounds good. I am all in.
I wonder if the teachers are, I wonder if the schools are." So the next day I was doing
a food distribution at one of the schools and I bring it up and I did not get, "Oh, yes,
thank you that would be a great idea." I just see this "voomp" that it did not bring
joy. They were not rude about it, they were sullen. So I made some calls and the
calls were from teachers who I thought would absolutely be behind it, who were really
bitter about the closing of schools. For everyone it is complicated, but what you just
said to me resonates and that I do follow legislation, the timing is very significant, it
is like a sprint at the beginning of the legislative season, so I hear that and I
personally think that we can all write letters—this is a thought—to our House and
Senate saying, "We need to open schools." What I do not want to do is disrespect our
teachers or our faculty in the schools. That was what my takeaway was, in the calls
that I had made. I was even surprised with different parents. I had more parents
not want it than did, but it is a small sampling, right. But I really try hard to research
anything I am going to vote on, but thank you for letting me understand why this was
so instantaneous, because I missed that.
Councilmember Chock: If I could Chair. I did speak to teachers, as
well. I can tell you that there are a couple of instances and stories that...I can
understand where the confusion and conflict comes from. They have been forced into
a direction, they had to adapt to it, and change is difficult. If it is the intention of this
body to ensure that there is one hundred percent (100%) buy-in—there probably will
not be, is my point, and I can accept that. Of course I would like more buy-in and I
think that this initiates that conversation, but I think we are missing another point
here and that is, what is best for our children as well, so it is a difficult decision for
our teachers. They have had to change and again, this is not saying that...I think
that a hybrid in some respects is out, it will be good moving forward given the
situation. This is not even saying any of those things. Anyways, I think I had some
mixtures in there, but I can tell you that when I ask the question, is it better for our
children? The answer was, absolutely yes, this is what our children need more—not
all, but most of them do, so that is what I am speaking to, as well.
Council Chair Kaneshiro: Councilmember Evslin.
Councilmember Evslin: Thank you, Chair Kaneshiro. I think part of
what is resonating here, circling around is the idea that we do not have any
responsibility over telling the State what to do and that is totally true. On the other
hand, I think we do have a responsibility to advocate on behalf of our community on
certain things that are within the State's purview and that is all I believe that this
Resolution is doing—simply a piece of advocacy. I do want to reiterate a little bit the
timing component that Vice Chair Chock spoke to and that in my mind there was
three (3) or even four (4) things pushing the timeframe. Number one is certainly the
State looking at trying to take control over our local ability to enact rules that keep
COVID-19 counts low on Kauai. That is part of the reason that we can open here is,
COUNCIL MEETING 42 FEBRUARY 24, 2021
because we have had resounding success in the measures and the sacrifice that we
have taken as a community and that we are largely unique in Hawai`i. Based on the
DOH's metric, we have been the only island that has been clear in the green for in-
person education for months. I believe Hawai`i County,just as of last week, went into
the green. But we are uniquely situated for in-person education and that relates
directly to measures that we have taken as a County and I think the need for us to
retain the ability to control our direction here. The other three (3) reasons for moving
forward; one (1), is that the CDC advice became much stronger. The week before or
as we were drafting this, the new CDC advice came out and very clearly says, schools
should be the first thing to open as the economy opens and that was based on new
studies that had come out the week before, showing little community spread or no
increase in community spread in places with schools open. The other two (2) reasons
were Maui and O`ahu both passing their Safe Sports Resolutions; the initial framing
of this was just a build on those efforts, so those had all passed recently—the
component in here advocating for safe sports. The last one (1), two (2) weeks is just
two (2) weeks. If we were to defer this and maybe delay schools' openings more or
pushes it back to next year, there is potentially a cost there. So I thought it was
important to try and get our voice out for this—loud and clear—based on the evolving
guidance that is out there.
Council Chair Kaneshiro: Do you want to defer?
Councilmember Evslin: I do not want to defer. My hope is that we can
pass this today.
Council Chair Kaneshiro: Councilmember Cowden.
Councilmember Cowden: For anyone listening, CDC, Center for
Disease Control. AAP, American Association of Pediatrics. DOH, Department of
Health. I think it is really important that we communicate in a way that people
understand. You went through that so fast, Councilmember Evslin, you were saying
the CDC, you were saying the CDC is urging schools to be the first to reopen and the
last to close, because our children are so vitally important. I do want to just one (1)
more time make the statement, we have had seven(7) hospitalizations in approaching
a year. We have had one (1) unfortunate passing here and we have between zero (0)
to one (1) illnesses a week—we are doing great. Where I am in alignment is when we
have taken such an enormous hit economically. It would be great, I am happy when
I see the children playing in the park behind my house, it seems like we should be
able to be more normal. When we have a legislature that is trying to take away our
ability to take care of our own island that cannot happen right, until the end of the
school year? Is that right? The Governor can decide, right, can he? How at the end
of the gun are we? I feel threatened that we cannot make our own choices. Does
anyone have a good answer to that? Can they change it? If we open up schools and
they open it up and we have a ton of people coming, then will we have to pull back
again? How likely is that? Who knows?
Council Chair Kaneshiro: I am not really sure what your question is. As
far as opening up schools, it is the State's prerogative on how they decide that.
COUNCIL MEETING 43 FEBRUARY 24, 2021
Councilmember Cowden: How likely is it that the Governor can force us
to go back to being open like the rest of the State?
Council Chair Kaneshiro: The island or the school?
Councilmember Cowden: The island.
Council Chair Kaneshiro: I do not know how to answer that one (1).
Councilmember Evslin.
Councilmember Evslin: I believe the answer to that is the bill for the
State references June or July, but that obviously could be amended at any point as it
moves through the State Legislature. Again, the point here was to try and influence
that process and the thinking over trying to take away our local ability to keep
ourselves safe.
Council Chair Kaneshiro: Councilmember Carvalho.
Councilmember Carvalho: Vice Chair Chock.
Councilmember Chock: Yes.
Councilmember Carvalho: You said that if there is a deferral, it does not
change the content of the Resolution.
Councilmember Chock: Anything is possible. I guess, my point is, if
we go back and the intention is to defer, go back out, hear from everyone, say whether
or not they support it or not, or make changes to it—I may have some issues with
that in terms of support. The reason is, my interest is to keep it broad, not be more
specific.
Councilmember Carvalho: Yes, I think that is the whole point of this
Resolution.
Councilmember Chock: I do agree we should have a plan, by the way.
That is my only point. What happens from here is asking the question, why deferral?
What is my reason for deferring? Because we could easily, as I have said, if we agree
on the content of this, broadly speaking, we can pass this as a body and we can have
a communication that would bring the stakeholders together. We could ask
Superintendent Zina to be here and give us a briefing. Maybe they are not ready in
two (2) weeks, they might be ready in four (4) weeks, and that is fine. Do I think this
is going to push the State into compliance? I highly doubt it. I think it says, "We
support this direction." Which is the direction they are already moving. I just do not
see it as problematic, but I give it to the body to decide, if you want it could be voted
up and down. To me, this is a statement of where you are and I understand some of
the challenges where people are on it—respect it.
Council Chair Kaneshiro: Councilmember Cowden.
COUNCIL MEETING 44 FEBRUARY 24, 2021
Councilmember Cowden: I will try to be very quick. If we did a deferral
for two (2) weeks, in two (2) weeks it will not be hard for me to say "yes," because I
one hundred percent (100%) agree that the children's interests are most important.
When I watch the students at the private school—I understand there is a difference,
I have been in a couple of private schools—everything seems to be going good. I feel
if I had to vote today, I might vote "no" and I feel like it is much better when we do a
resolution when it is unanimous. When we have a unanimous resolution—that is
really where the power is. I took a lot of hard hits for the last Resolution that we did
on backing up reclosing. I support our teachers and our schools. It is really hard for
me to not allow them to use their voices beforehand, when the Principals are going to
be meeting on Friday. I rather let them make their statement first. That is my hope.
Councilmember DeCosta: I am not afraid to say sorry if I was a little bit
passionate, so Councilmember Evslin and Councilmember Chock, I am sorry. You
made a very valid point, Councilmember Chock and I caught this right now. It does
make a huge impact, actually, if we vote this Resolution now and it only came to me
now. This will put a little bit of pressure to start fourth quarter with in-person
learning and this could give the children a little bit of what they needed the whole
year long. We should give the Principals, the teachers, and the unions time to get the
plan, but we are going to cut out fourth quarter—nothing will happen until next year,
but if we vote on it now, this might put a little bit of pressure to put students back in
school for the fourth quarter experience. I told you folks, as a teacher, what is
important—social and emotional learning is just as important as curricular learning,
so do not mistake that. When students first go back to school—and I am only
speaking, because I am the expert here, and if it were something that you folks were
an expert on, I would most definitely listen. When it comes down to accounting,
Council Chair Kaneshiro will take the lead, but school teaching, I am the lead here
and I am telling you folks, students will come back to school and that social and
emotional learning will be so important. They might even savor the last part of this
school year that they do not have. Seniors will graduate without anything in their
yearbook. They may have a few pictures their last month of school or last quarter of
school. With that being said, it excites me to think that maybe we can go to the table,
get them all on the same page, and make this happen, but there is a little pressure
on teachers who have been teaching this style of curriculum in the classroom and
online—asynchronous, synchronous, and now they have to uproot their whole plan to
try and integrate something new and you might think that is how school was—it
should be easy. I will tell you, there will still be parents who will not send their
children to school—maybe it is only ten percent (10%), but it is going to be one (1) like
Councilmember Evslin on that screen at home learning, I am the teacher teaching all
of you. Despite the chaos that might happen in the fourth quarter when students
come back to school, which is important, we still need to worry about the students at
home. I am ready to make the decision if you need. I am also ready to defer if you
need. We are not going to make everyone happy. I hope our constituents can
understand we are here to articulate conversation, help each other grow in areas that
we do not have the knowledge to grow, and at the end of the day, we did it for the
betterment of our community. So I will look you in the eye and I will look at our
constituents out there and ask, what is the better decision to make today for our
community? If it is to send our children back to school in the fourth quarter, this
Resolution better hold some weight, otherwise, I do not want to deal with it, the
COUNCIL MEETING 45 FEBRUARY 24, 2021
Resolution needs to hold the weight, otherwise, there is no reason we have a
Resolution. So it will put pressure on our State to come together at the table, make
a guideline, procedures, and protocols, put our children back to school, then I will vote
on this today, right now, but if this is not going to hold no weight and they do not
need to do anything that we are saying, HSTA is going to say, "We are not going to
listen to you, because my teachers are not going to go back to work in the classroom."
They can do that and you know they are going to do that—we spoke to them, you and
I, Councilmember Cowden. With that being said, it is up to you. You tell me right
now, Councilmember Chock and Councilmember Evslin, you take the lead and I will
vote on your behalf, but if you folks think that this will do more harm than good, then
maybe we should defer. Pretty tough discussion, right now.
Council Chair Kaneshiro: Councilmember Evslin.
Councilmember Evslin: I can just briefly answer that. Thank you,
Councilmember DeCosta. I think you said that all really quickly and that gets to the
heart of what we are trying to decide today. I do certainly believe wholeheartedly,
that by passing this Resolution it can move this process along—that was the point of
doing this. If it increases the chances of in-person school happening and saying that
we support this happening. Is it going to force the issue? No, by no means, it is just
a statement of support.
Council Chair Kaneshiro: For me, I am trying to count the votes. I am
trying to figure out which way this is going. I do not really have a good reading on
which direction this is going. Again, that is the nature of the game of the Resolution.
We do not have control over the DOE and the Resolution does not hold weight as far
as an ordinance or a rule. We do have to end up taking responsibility for our vote on
it and that is the difficult part in this situation. I am hearing this is not a clean break,
not everyone is in favor of it, whether we take a stand for or against, someone is going
to get dirt on their face with this Resolution, and in the end, is this Resolution going
to be the sword that pushes this whole thing forward and creates in-person
education—you need to take the Resolution for what it is. For me, it is a difficult
Resolution to vote on, because I do not have a child in school, I am not a teacher, I am
not familiar with any of how the teaching is going, how the students are doing in
school—I have zero information on that. What is best for the children? I do not know,
so it is hard for me to vote on a resolution like this. I do relate this Resolution to
Council, in a sense that we have received a lot of information about people wanting
to testify and come back into the Council Chambers again and it would be the same
as the State telling us, "Council, you need to open up the Chambers. People are
suffering. They enjoy coming into Council. They want the one-on-one. They are not
able to get their voice out. They do not have internet elsewhere. This is the only
place they can express themselves." Again, the State does not tell us what to do. We
are kind of bounded trying to keep everyone safe here and it just ends up being a
difficult situation. We are going to get the State trying to tell us what to do. If
someone sends a Resolution, open up the Council Chambers and let people testify,
but we know here we are trying our best to keep people safe and that is kind of the
same way—we are sending a Resolution to the State saying, do this, well, they are
kind of in a bind, too. They are trying to keep people safe, trying to keep distances in
classrooms, trying to keep the teachers happy. In the end, someone will have dirt on
COUNCIL MEETING 46 FEBRUARY 24, 2021
their face either way they vote, so I think it is up to you how you want to move
forward. We could end up in a 3:3 vote with a deferral anyway. Again, I am trying
to take direction on what the introducers want. If you want to vote on it now, we can
just vote on it, then Councilmembers will take the vote. If it gets deferred, it gets
deferred. But again, what kind of message is that sending on a Resolution. If we
take the vote and it is three (3) up, three (3) down, a deferral anyway—is the
Resolution really doing what it is supposed to do. Council Vice Chair Chock.
Councilmember Chock: I think what I heard clearly from my
co-introducer is that he would like to move forward on it, so I am going to stand behind
him on that and see where it falls. If you want to make the motion to defer and see
where that lands, that is fine. Then we can vote on the Resolution as it is, but I think
we should move this along.
Council Chair Kaneshiro: Councilmember Carvalho.
Councilmember Carvalho: I think we just need to make a decision. I
think we have vetted it.
Council Chair Kaneshiro: Councilmember Cowden.
Councilmember Cowden: Did I hear the ask to check with a motion to
defer first? Because I can do that.
Councilmember Chock: It does not matter if it is official or not to me.
Councilmember Cowden moved to defer Resolution No. 2021-11 to the
March 10, 2021 Council Meeting, and failed for a lack of second.
Council Chair Kaneshiro: Did we get a second? Is there a second on the
deferral? No. With that, we will take a roll call vote on the main motion as amended.
Councilmember Chock: Chair, if I could, just a discussion. I still am
willing to vote on this and move towards what I hear is a concern and a need to bring
people together and I am happy to be a part of that, whatever form is necessary,
Councilmember DeCosta and Councilmember Cowden, if that is meeting with the
Principals or what have you. Again, I think a communication is well informed for us
to do such a communication and discussion, so I would support that moving forward.
Of course, I will be voting in favor of this.
Council Chair Kaneshiro: Councilmember DeCosta.
Councilmember DeCosta: With that being said, I want to echo what
Councilmember Chock is saying. So we vote on this, we pass this Resolution, that
means now we are going to support our Superintendent, our Principals, our schools
with dialogue, we are going to bring people to the table and let us be the leaders that
we need to be to help the schools get back to reopening. Not necessarily will they
reopen in the fourth quarter, we need to let our constituents know—who are watching
COUNCIL MEETING 47 FEBRUARY 24, 2021
today—that this may not encourage the DOE—even if they possibly can with all the
unions that they need to approach—that this will happen, but this will set forth a
motion to put it in place, whether it may be fourth quarter, Summer, or Fall. Am I
correct? Is that safe to say what we are doing? Because it totally changes if we are
just going to put a stigma on the DOE to say, "Two (2) weeks from now, let us open."
I do not think they can, they need time, these Principals, these schools need
resources—not only funding—but they need human beings, they need building space,
they need things to happen. I am willing to be the leader with all of you to bring
people to the table since we are the ones who are going to promote this Resolution
and be the advocate for the conversation piece that needs to happen with the leaders
outside of our seven (7) and make it happen, correct? Okay. Is there anyone else?
Council Chair Kaneshiro: Is there any other discussion from the
Members before we take our vote? Councilmember Evslin.
Councilmember Evslin: I just want to express appreciation again, for
the dialogue we just had here. I think we had a really good dialogue from everyone
around the table and certainly it is an emotional issue for many of us at this table
and for so many in our community. For me, a lot of my friends have really young
children and I hear almost every single day of the stresses that the parents and the
children have been facing. One friend described to me how excited her daughter was
to go to kindergarten and how crushing it was to watch her spirit wither as she
attended school as a kindergartener on a computer. Also, I have other friends who
have taken leave of absences from their jobs and I want to be really clear that nothing
in here is meant to be critical in any way of the original decision to close. I think just
like the importance of mask wearing and the relative safety of the outdoors, our
understanding of COVID-19 has continued to evolve and one of the big lessons that
we have learned and continue to learn is that children are not significant drivers of
transmission here, like they are for seasonal flu, and schools that remained open did
not see increases in community spread. Again, it is just meant to mirror that and to
be a voice for the community and really to support our teachers, the DOE, the HSTA
in saying we are ready to support them however possible in going back. Again, I
appreciate the dialogue and appreciate every effort that our teachers have made
through this entire process to adapt and evolve under incredibly challenging
circumstances.
Council Chair Kaneshiro: Is there anyone else? Roll call vote.
(Written testimony was received and no registered speakers requested to testify
regarding this agenda item.)
COUNCIL MEETING 48 FEBRUARY 24, 2021
The motion for adoption of Resolution No. 2021-11 as amended to Resolution
No. 2021-11, Draft 1 was then put, and carried by the following vote:
FOR ADOPTION: Carvalho, Chock, Cowden,
DeCosta, Evslin, Kaneshiro TOTAL— 6,
AGAINST ADOPTION: None TOTAL — 0,
EXCUSED & NOT VOTING: Kuali`i TOTAL— 1,
RECUSED & NOT VOTING: None TOTAL— 0.
Ms. Fountain-Tanigawa: Six (6) ayes.
Council Chair Kaneshiro: Can you read us into Executive Session?
EXECUTIVE SESSION:
ES-1038 Pursuant to Hawai`i Revised Statutes (HRS) Sections 92-4 and
92-5(a)(4), and Kaua`i County Charter Section 3.07(E), the Office of the County
Attorney requests an Executive Session with the Council to provide the Council with
a briefing and request for settlement authority in the matter of Trevor Wright vs.
County of Kaua`i, et al., Civil No. 19-1-0061 JRV (Fifth Circuit Court). This briefing
and consultation involves the consideration of the powers, duties, privileges,
immunities, and/or liabilities of the Council and the County as they relate to this
agenda item.
ES-1039 Pursuant to Hawai`i Revised Statutes (HRS) Sections 92-4 and
92-5(a)(4), and Kaua`i County Charter Section 3.07(E), the Office of the County
Attorney requests an Executive Session with the Council to provide the Council with
a briefing and request for settlement authority in the matter of County of Kaua`i vs.
KAPHA North Shore, LLC, Civil No. 18-1-0031 (Fifth Circuit Court). This briefing
and consultation involves the consideration of the powers, duties, privileges,
immunities, and/or liabilities of the Council and the County as they relate to this
agenda item.
ES-1044 Pursuant to Hawai`i Revised Statutes (HRS) Sections 92-4 and
92-5(a)(3), and Kaua`i County Charter Section 3.07(E), the Office of the County
Attorney requests an Executive Session with the Council to discuss the utilization of
public access, open space, natural resources preservation funds for the acquisition of
real property identified by Tax Map Key No. 3-2-001-001 (55.408 acres) and Tax Map
Key No. 3-1-001-012 (44.641 acres) for land conservation purposes. This briefing and
consultation involves consideration of the powers, duties, privileges, immunities,
and/or liabilities of the Council and the County as they relate to this agenda item.
Councilmember Chock moved to convene in Executive Session for ES-1038,
ES-1039, and ES-1044, seconded by Councilmember Carvalho.
Council Chair Kaneshiro: Vice Chair Chock.
COUNCIL MEETING 49 FEBRUARY 24, 2021
Councilmember Chock: Chair, I just wanted to reference for the
record, I will be recusing myself from ES-1044.
Council Chair Kaneshiro: Yes, we have you and Councilmember Evslin
will be recusing yourselves. We will talk about this item when we go into Executive
Session, we may not have enough people in it to even run that Executive Session, but
we will handle it when we actually go into Executive Session.
Councilmember Cowden: When are we going to do our Committee
Meetings?
Council Chair Kaneshiro: Right after this. We are just reading this in.
Councilmember Cowden: Okay.
(No written testimony was received and no registered speakers requested to
testify regarding these agenda items.)
The motion to convene into Executive Session for ES-1038, ES-1039, and
ES-1044 was then put, and carried by a vote of 6:0:1 (Councilmember Kuali i
was excused).
Council Chair Kaneshiro: Seeing no further business and hearing no
objections, this Council Meeting is now adjourned.
ADJOURNMENT.
There being no further business, the Council Meeting adjourned at 11:39 a.m.
Respectfull submitted,
JAD . FOUNTAIN-TANIGAWA
County Clerk
:iY
Attachment
(February 24, 2021)
FLOOR AMENDMENT
Resolution No. 2021-11, Resolution Urging The Governor To Resume In-Person
Education For Grades K-12, Interscholastic Sports Competitions, Organized Youth
Sports, And Adult Recreational Sports For The State Of Hawai`i
Introduced by: LUKE A. EVSLIN, Councilmember
Amend Resolution No. 2021-11 by amending the title to Resolution No. 2021-11 to
read as follows:
"RESOLUTION URGING [THE GOVERNOR TO RESUME] IN-PERSON
EDUCATION TO RESUME FOR GRADES K-12, INTERSCHOLASTIC
SPORTS COMPETITIONS, ORGANIZED YOUTH SPORTS, AND ADULT
RECREATIONAL SPORTS FOR THE STATE OF HAWAII"
(Material to be deleted is bracketed. New material to be added is underscored.)
V:\AMENDMENTS\2021\Reso 2021-11 Amendment LE_CT_ks.docx
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