HomeMy WebLinkAbout04/25/2018 Council minutes COUNCIL MEETING
APRIL 25, 2018
The Council Meeting of the Council of the County of Kaua`i was called to order
by Council Chair Mel Rapozo at the Council Chambers, 4396 Rice Street, Suite 201,
Lihu`e, Kaua`i, on Wednesday, April 25, 2018 at 9:08 a.m., after which the following
Members answered the call of the roll:
Honorable Arthur Brun
Honorable Ross Kagawa (present 9:28 a.m.)
Honorable Arryl Kaneshiro
Honorable Derek S.K. Kawakami
Honorable JoAnn A. Yukimura
Honorable Mel Rapozo
Excused: Honorable Mason K. Chock
APPROVAL OF AGENDA.
Councilmember Kaneshiro moved for approval of the agenda as circulated,
seconded by Councilmember Brun.
Council Chair Rapozo: Before we go on, we are going to take the
Emergency Money Bill upfront. Also, if there are no objections, I am going to ask
Ms. Judy Page, who wanted to testify on Bill No. 2697, but cannot stay. So if there
are no objections, we are going to take her testimony so that she can leave, and then
we will proceed with the Bill. With that, the motion is to approve.
The motion to approve the agenda as circulated was then put, and carried by
a vote of 5:0:2 (Councilmembers Chock and Kagawa were excused).
Council Chair Rapozo: Let us take up until the Consent Calendar,
then we can call Ms. Page up to testify.
MINUTES of the following meeting of the Council:
February 7, 2018 Public Hearing re: Bill No. 2682 and Bill No. 2683
February 21, 2018 Public Hearing re: Resolution No. 2018-03 and Bill No. 2686
March 14, 2018 Council Meeting
March 28, 2018 Council Meeting
April 11, 2018 Public Hearing re: Bill No. 2695, Bill No. 2697, and Bill No. 2700
Councilmember Kaneshiro moved to approve the Minutes as circulated,
seconded by Councilmember Brun.
COUNCIL MEETING 2 APRIL 25, 2018
There being no objections, the rules were suspended to take public testimony.
There being no one present to provide testimony, the meeting was called back
to order, and proceeded as follows:
The motion for approval of the Minutes as circulated was then put, and carried
by a vote of 5:0:2 (Councilmembers Chock and Kagawa were excused).
Council Chair Rapozo: Can we go to the Consent Calendar?
JADE K. FOUNTAIN-TANIGAWA, County Clerk: We are on the Consent
Calendar.
CONSENT CALENDAR:
C 2018-110 Communication (04/03/2018) from the First Deputy County
Attorney, transmitting for Council information, the Quarterly Report on Settled
Claims filed against the County of Kaua`i from January 1, 2018 through
March 31, 2018: Councilmember Kaneshiro moved to receive C 2018-110 for the
record, seconded by Councilmember Brun.
Council Chair Rapozo: Thank you. Any discussion or public
testimony?
There being no objections, the rules were suspended to take public testimony.
There being no one present to provide testimony, the meeting was called back
to order, and proceeded as follows:
The motion to receive C 2018-110 for the record was then put, and carried by
a vote of 5:0:2 (Councilmembers Chock and Kagawa were excused).
Council Chair Rapozo: Ms. Page, you may come up. Again, if there
are no objections, we will suspend the rules and take testimony from Ms. Page on
Bill No. 2697, Draft 1.
There being no objections, the rules were suspended to take public testimony.
JUDY PAGE: Thank you. I am Judy Page and I am the
President of the Hanapepe Economic Alliance and I am here to speak in support of
the revocable permit ordinance, the number of which you just said, but I do not
remember. We want to thank this Council and previous Councils for working so hard
and so long on this issue. It is very important to us and I think it is very important
to the entire island to get this right. We want to thank the staff that worked on it
and we want to say that we hope that the ordinance will help us in Hanapepe, but
everyone else to address any issues that arise from the events that are going on. We
are mostly concerned with the issues of safety for the public and for fairness in terms
of economic activity. We hope that this ordinance will help keep Hanapepe Art Night
a viable and thriving event for both visitors and local residents. Thank you.
COUNCIL MEETING 3 APRIL 25, 2018
Council Chair Rapozo: Thank you very much. With that, we will
proceed with the first item.
There being no further testimony, the meeting was called back to order, and
proceeded as follows:
Ms. Fountain-Tanigawa: Chair, we are page 2, this is C 2018-115.
There being no objections, C 2018-115 was taken out of order.
COMMUNICATIONS:
C 2018-115 Communication (04/18/2018) from Council Chair Rapozo,
transmitting for Council consideration, at the request of the County Administration,
a proposed Emergency Ordinance pursuant to Charter Sections 4.02K and 18.02, in
the amount of$5,000,000.00 from the Reserve Fund (Disaster Response), which will
be used to fund emergency expenditures resulting from the heavy rains and severe
flooding that occurred on April 14, 2018: Councilmember Kaneshiro moved to receive
C 2018-115 for the record, seconded by Councilmember Yukimura.
Council Chair Rapozo: The Bill itself is an Emergency Bill,which will
not require any further actions beyond today. We will vote today; there is no public
hearing and no second reading. That is just for the public's information. I will
suspend the rules. Mr. Rezentes.
There being no objections, the rules were suspended.
WALLACE G. REZENTES, JR., Managing Director: Good morning and
aloha. Wally Rezentes, Managing Director. I am here on behalf of Mayor Carvalho.
He wishes that he could be here today, but his absence•is for good reason, as he is
participating in the KHON telethon to raise money for the American Red Cross for
Kaua`i's flood relief efforts. I am going to give a general overview and ask Ken to
speak, as well as other team members. The Kaua`i Emergency Management Agency's
Emergency Operations Center (EOC) has received representation from almost every
county and State department, every public utility, as well as American Red Cross,
the Coast Guard, the Army National Guard, and the Federal Emergency
Management Agency (FEMA). This list does not include the countless number of
volunteer organizations, Councilmembers, and individual citizens who mobilized to
get help to the many homes and businesses in the affected areas on Kauai. Before
we continue this discussion, on behalf of Mayor Carvalho, we want to first and
foremost say thank you, County Council. This is the worst natural disaster that has
occurred on Kaua`i in the last twenty-five (25) years and the recovery and rebuild
effort is going to be incredible and is currently incredible. As we move forward, the
rebuilding process will be expensive and it will take a long time to complete. We are
requesting the Council's support to approve a five million dollar ($5,000,000)
allocation from our Reserve Fund to start our rebuilding process. We anticipate that
FEMA will cover seventy-five percent (75%)of eligible government infrastructure and
recovering costs. So far, our preliminary disaster assessments that are not yet
COUNCIL MEETING 4 APRIL 25, 2018
complete, indicate that we have sixty-six (66) homes with major damage and fifteen
(15) homes that have been deemed totally destroyed. We are also in the process of
compiling our County government facilities damage assessments, and if you would
like, Lyle could come up and speak to what we have thus far. This number, as you
can understand, is moving daily as assessment teams continue their work. On that
note, we are very grateful to have experienced off-island teams from Hawaii
Emergency Management Agency (HI-EMA) and FEMA to assist us during this
process, some of whom are here in the room and will come up at a later point in this
discussion today. We have Tom Travis, HI-EMA Administrator; Lorinda Wong Lau,
the HI-EMA Disaster Assistance Chief; Vern Miyagi, from HI-EMA; as well as Casey
DeShong, who is from the FEMA Public Affairs Office. The Mayor has been out in
the community, as you know, and he has had a recent community meeting in the
Ha`ena area. We are planning further meetings in the K5loa area on April 30th,
Keapana/Anahola on May 2nd, and in Hanalei on May 3rd. All meetings will be held
at 6:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m. We also want the public to know that we have a County
liaison in Ha'ena, the County Planning Director, Mike Dahilig, from Punahou, is the
County's point of contact in that area. He is stationed there at the Hanalei Colony
Resort and is available either at Camp Naue or at the Hanalei Colony Resort daily.
We wanted to give a big mahalo for the many, many volunteer groups. They are a
big reason that our relief efforts have been successful thus far and why our
community has been able to thrive and stand together through this process. As you
know, some of the names of nonprofits include Malama Kaua`i, American Red Cross,
YMCA Camp Naue, who have been huge, Hanalei Colony Resort, Hawaii Foodbank,
Kauai Economic Opportunity, Kaua`i Independent Foodbank, the Hanalei
community, the Wainiha community, Koloa community,Anahola community, and the
list goes on. All of our volunteers who put their hearts and souls into this effort for
the people of Kauai, thank you. I am going to have Ken answer any questions that
you have on the fiscal side, and then we will have other team members here available
for any specific questions that you may have.
Council Chair Rapozo: Thank you. I want to start off by asking first
of all the availability of funds right now. I know there was the one hundred million
dollars ($100,000,000) from the State Legislature—is that final and done?
KEN M. SHIMONISHI, Director of Finance: Ken Shimonishi, Director of
Finance. To the best of our knowledge, no, that has not yet been finalized and I think
we need to be careful and cannot assume that those funds in its entirety will be truly
for the County government of Kauai as opposed to the entire relief effort. So what
that is, we really do not have.
Council Chair Rapozo: That is where I am heading, Ken. The
misrepresentations or the misunderstandings, hopefully we can clarify all of that
today here, because people rely on Facebook more than they rely on government
sources of information. I just want to let the public know what is available and what
these funds are going to be used for. There is actually one hundred twenty-five
million dollars ($25,000,000) that is being proposed by the State. You mentioned that
FEMA was going to cover seventy-five percent (75%) of government projects. For me,
I am trying to find out what is the estimated breakdown...the majority of our damage,
like you said sixty-six (66) homes, that is not government projects or government
COUNCIL MEETING 5 APRIL 25, 2018
property. The main issues that I can see is the highway, getting that highway back
open, and that is a State highway. As far as the County goes, what do we see as
County damages and what is the estimated damage as to County property or projects
that the County will have to repair? Do we have an estimate?
Mr. Rezentes: Again, that estimate is being worked on as we
speak daily. We have some numbers that are incomplete that Lyle can speak to if
you would like, but we are still compiling and assessing as we speak.
Council Chair Rapozo: So the five million dollars ($5,000,000) that
have been requested is for what? What are these funds going to be used for?
Mr. Rezentes: Anything that is related to the flood, any cost
item that is related to the flood that we can front. As you know, FEMA funding will
come on the backend—it is reimbursable—so we need to front County funds towards
our efforts to repair, recover, et cetera. We believe it is a good start, and as needed if
we need it, we would need to come up and make further requests, but we believe that
the five million dollars ($5,000,000) for now is a comfortable number and we can
assess in the next couple of weeks if that number still stands as a good number and
report in more specificity updated information as we go.
Council Chair Rapozo: The majority of the work, like I said, is being
done by the State on the highway so that cost is being attributed to the State, right?
I would assume that they are fronting that and they will apply for FEMA
reimbursement at some point.
Mr. Rezentes: I do not want to speak too much for the State,
but they are going to go after FEMA funds, as well as Federal Highway funds. I
believe HI-EMA folks will be able to speak in more detail.
Council Chair Rapozo: I guess for me, I just want to find out and get
clear and get the public to be very clear on what the County funds are being used for;
specifically, today's agenda is the five million dollars ($5,000,000). I know we are
doing a lot of work, and let me be the first to say "thank you" at the EOC, and to the
entire team. I made a few requests over there and the response has been great and I
appreciate that. I know that comes with a cost, so I am assuming that a lot of these
bins and removals of stuff is being charged against the County's account, and then
later we are going to request reimbursement from FEMA. That is what these moneys
are for, basically to put the money in the account so that it is available to use for our
local operations. Then if they qualify for FEMA, at a later time, they will get the
reimbursement.
Mr. Rezentes: That is correct.
Council Chair Rapozo: Any questions for Wally? I do want to have
Lyle come up, but as far as for the five million dollars ($5,000,000). Councilmember
Brun.
Councilmember Brun: I was just going to ask if Lyle could come up.
COUNCIL MEETING 6 APRIL 25, 2018
Mr. Rezentes: If we could have Lyle come up at the end, I
was going to bring Elton up and kind of have him give an overview, as well as with
the HI-EMA folks.
Councilmember Kawakami: Thank you, Mr. Chair. A quick comment on
the appropriation coming from the State—from what was explained to me very
briefly, the bulk of the work is State Highways and there are two (2) areas where the
highway itself is undercut, so that is going to require (inaudible) and a tremendous
amount of work. Also, a portion of that appropriation is going to go to agricultural
infrastructure, because that portion of the island has lots of lo`i and kalo fields, so
State projects have addressed a river breach in Hanalei, that river that got blown out.
So a portion of that appropriation is for agriculture infrastructure improvements, and
then it was also to help appropriate some to County improvements as well. That was
the appropriations for the one hundred million dollars ($100,000,000) or one hundred
twenty-five million dollars ($125,000,000).
ELTON USHIO, Kauai Emergency Management Agency Administrator:
Aloha. Elton Ushio, Emergency Management Administrator. So today is day
twelve (12) of this event and the EOC operations are supporting everything that is
going out there in the field. Initially, it really started off as a flashflood activation and
that storm proved to be something truly exceptional for us there at the EOC on that
first night. The immediate focus, the very next morning, we launched life safety
missions, search and rescue County assets and Federal assets with the United States
Coast Guard, C-130 Dolphin helicopter. They also brought in a Cutter off the coast.
Unfortunately on that day Sunday, recurrence of severe weather and thunderstorms
limited our operations, but by the very next morning, we were able to bring in guard
assets, particularly Chinook helicopters and Black Hawks, swift water rescue teams,
and other resources. So it started arriving on-island or in our EOC through our
partnerships with HI-EMA and established partnerships previously with other
entities, like FEMA, et cetera. So the response grew and scaled upwards to where
actively coordinating and integrating our efforts of all levels of government, private
sector, and appropriate community-based organizations. The focus was able to be
switched from a life-safety/life-saving, to evacuation, to life-sustainment, and then
infrastructure restoration. As you know, through the partnerships, infrastructure
for power, water, phone communications, and internet have all been restored to the
affected areas, except for tiny pockets like Weke Road. Highway infrastructure and
roadways that were severely damaged remains the ongoing long-term challenge.
With that, the sustainment of the community. In that sense, we have inserted Police,
Fire, Emergency Medical Service (EMS), and Disaster Medical Assistance assets into
the community with their vehicles for support. We have been able to work with the
Department of Education (DOE) in establishing a satellite school in the area, even
with the Humane Society for veterinary services. So we are trying to take care of
their needs, but long-term sustainment will continue to be a challenge until such a
time that highway infrastructure is restored. We are also transitioning to
documentation of the losses. On the governmental end, FEMA arrived on Monday
and began the joint preliminary damage assessment process on the public assistance
side. Today, they are beginning the individual assistance assessments for residential
homes. There is more to come. We had a community outreach meeting on Sunday in
COUNCIL MEETING 7 APRIL 25, 2018
Ha'ena, and as Wally had stated, we will be doing those in other communities as well.
We are very appreciative of the efforts and the contributions from all engaged
organizations and even those that we have not been engaged with too much, like the
community-based and the spontaneous volunteers, and what have you.
Council Chair Rapozo: Any questions for Elton? Councilmember
Yukimura.
Councilmember Yukimura: Elton, first of all, we are so grateful for your
leadership and management and for the EOC and all the responders that have been
going out. It was an unprecedented event and I know you people have been working
around the clock, so thank you very much for those efforts.
Mr. Ushio: Thank you.
Councilmember Yukimura: At the same time, I want to acknowledge the
amazing community self-help that has been going on that has been very critical to
the response as well. It is always a partnership. Malama Kaua`i, the foodbanks, and
farmer Adam Asquith and his group, and the churches, and the individuals that have
been stepping forward have just been amazing and heartwarming, because it really
does show Kauai at its very best in terms of the outreach. Thank you for your overall
summary of the timetable and the things that have been happening, which has been
in the right priority in terms of first saving lives and making sure people were at least
in some safe circumstances or position. Now, as you mentioned, it is the long-term
healing and sustainment that is going on. My question is, is five million dollars
($5,000,000) from the County going to be enough or is that a question I should ask
you? I do not know who to ask that question to.
(Councilmember Kagawa was noted as present.)
Mr. Ushio: It will be best for me to defer to Finance or
others on that. Our focus has been on the incident management and while Finance
is part of that, I do not have the best expertise in that area to answer.
Councilmember Yukimura: Okay, because that is the issue before us
today, the appropriation money bill for five million dollars ($5,000,000) emergency
money, and we want to make sure that it is enough in the big picture of all the
different moneys that are coming forward. It is going to be so important. You said
that FEMA will cover seventy-five percent (75%) of the public cost. Is that certain at
this point or do we have to reach any threshold levels before that is actually triggered?
Mr. Ushio: So thresholds have to be met and that is why
the Joint Preliminary Damage Assessment (JPDA) is going on at this time. If we
meet those thresholds, and I believe we have a representative from FEMA here, as
well as HI-EMA, who specialize in this area, but if we meet those and the costs are
deemed eligible and then a declaration is done, then...
COUNCIL MEETING 8 APRIL 25, 2018
Councilmember Yukimura: But if we do not meet it, that means that we
are pretty much on our own in terms of funding our infrastructure rehabilitation and
all of that, right?
Mr. Ushio: That would be my understanding.
Councilmember Yukimura: Chair, can we get FEMA forward just so that
we are really clear what the parameters are that we are working with?
Mr. Ushio: We brought a team that is able to answer the
specific questions in that area.
Councilmember Yukimura: Could we, Chair?
Council Chair Rapozo: I am going to finish up with Elton first.
Councilmember Yukimura: Well, it seems like it is a combination of
responses that would help us understand. So if we had FEMA and the State here, we
could have that dialogue.
Council Chair Rapozo: Councilmember Kagawa.
Councilmember Kagawa: Just following on your first question,
Mr. Chair. I do not think we received a clear answer, but you are asking us for five
million dollars ($5,000,000) to spend, but on what? I am not going to approve of giving
you folks a blank check because it is to fix emergency...that tells me nothing about
the details. What I want is a breakdown and list of every single thing you plan to
spend with the five million dollars ($5,000,000), every projection you have to spend
for the five million dollars ($5,000,000). I cannot, in good conscious, approve of a five
million dollar ($5,000,000) blanket check to spend on what you deem is "emergency."
To me, that is not checks and balance. Can we have something in detail that we can
share with KHON and everybody so there is transparency that we are not going to
blow this money?
Council Chair Rapozo: Lyle is going to be coming up afterwards to
give us a better assessment of the damage at this point.
Councilmember Kagawa: So we can get that breakdown?
Councilmember Brun: That was my exact question for Lyle. We
should bring Lyle up.
Council Chair Rapozo: Listen, I do not want to jump from here to
here, to here. We have Elton from EOC. Let us deal with Elton on the EOC issues,
and then we will bring up the next party. I am not going to have people playing
musical chairs over here. Elton, you brief us on what you folks are doing, which
again, I commend the efforts, and then we will go from there. I want an organized
meeting. I do not want people to be bouncing all over, if somebody has a question for
FEMA, then they come up and they go back and then come back. No—Elton is here,
COUNCIL MEETING 9 APRIL 25, 2018
so let us deal with Elton, and then we will bring up Lyle, and then we will bring up
FEMA. That is the order.
Councilmember Kagawa: Who is going to answer my question then?
Council Chair Rapozo: Lyle.
Councilmember Kagawa: Okay. Thank you.
Council Chair Rapozo: Councilmember Yukimura.
Councilmember Yukimura: Mr. Chair, I think if we had the panel in front
of us, we could have a more cohesive discussion because someone will have part of the
answer and you cannot really do it just one-by-one. If they are all here, we can really
get the answer in a better way, is my thought.
Council Chair Rapozo: I already explained the process. Are there
any more questions for Elton? Councilmember Brun.
Councilmember Brun: Thank you, Elton. I just wanted to say thank
you for what you folks are doing. Every question I had, like the Chair said earlier,
was answered right away by you folks and the Administration. Thank you very much
for all you folks are doing.
Mr. Ushio: Thank you.
Council Chair Rapozo: Councilmember Kaneshiro.
Councilmember Kaneshiro: Elton, I know you have been getting millions
of requests, but is there a point person or a point number, because we get a lot of
volunteers calling and saying, "Who do I call to know where to send resources or to
send donations?" Do you have a number that they can call just for the public's
knowledge, as a contact person to say, "Okay, contact this number and we will
organize?" Say a community group wants to do a clean-up and they are getting food
from different islands coming in and want to know where they can put it. Is there a
contact number, one County number that people can call and get a little direction,
not to overwhelm you folks though?
Mr. Ushio: In all honesty, we will take calls on issues
such as that on our EOC's main line, 241-1800, but to be honest, we are not trying to
actively coordinate and track efforts of every single relief organization out there.
That is the function that we had hoped to establish externally. We have a coalition
known as our "Volunteer Organizations Active in Disaster (VOAD)," but we found
that those entities such as the Red Cross, Salvation Army, et cetera are all out there
and fully engaged, so it is difficult for us to manage the efforts of those and other
entities. I have asked one of our staff members today to start to compile a list of all
active community-based, non-governmental response entities. Based on that, we will
try to see if we can establish some form of better coordination, validations, so that
people know that these are bonafide entities. We will attempt to develop better
COUNCIL MEETING 10 APRIL 25, 2018
guidance there, but if they call us, we can direct them to where donations can be
received or accepted. If they are a large enough organization that they want to do
some sort of special operation with us to a delivery then we are open to discussing
with them.
Councilmember Kaneshiro: Okay, thank you. I know there has been a lot
of people stepping up and I know that you folks have been taking a lot of the calls and
people are saying, "Hey, we have all of this, what do we do with it?" I just want to
tell you thank you for all of your efforts. At the same time, you are trying to manage
that and you are also trying to manage all of the necessary emergency things.
Mr. Ushio: We are hoping to manage that externally and
just liaison with that function, if possible.
Councilmember Kaneshiro: Okay. Thank you.
Council Chair Rapozo: Does the County not have a number—not
EOC, because EOC is an Emergency Operating Center—but does the County have a
Public Information Officer (PIO) or the County that people could call so that
non-emergency personnel can send them in the right direction? Is everything
funneling through your office?
Mr. Ushio: Right now, everything is coming through the
EOC and then we are augmented with call-takers.
Council Chair Rapozo: So anybody answers the phone, right? Is
someone designated, or the person that answers the phone, do they know who to refer
that caller to?
Mr. Ushio: Yes.
Council Chair Rapozo: So is that the system you would rather have?
Mr. Ushio: For now, until we establish a mechanism to
deal with the donations.
Council Chair Rapozo: That is what I am trying to establish, that
mechanism right now. It is very simple. You send the calls to the PIO's office, that
is their job, is that something...then they are more in a more relaxed environment.
Mr. Ushio: We have the PIOs embedded in the EOC right
now.
Council Chair Rapozo: Yes, but the line does not go to the PIO.
Mr. Ushio: It goes to the main line, and then they will
direct it either to a desk or they will find the person.
COUNCIL MEETING 11 APRIL 25, 2018
Council Chair Rapozo: Okay. If you are okay with it, I am okay with
it. I am just trying to make it where the public can call one number.
Mr. Ushio: It has been working for now, in my opinion.
Council Chair Rapozo: Okay. Any other questions for Elton? If not,
thank you, Elton.
Mr. Ushio: Thank you.
Council Chair Rapozo: Hang tight, I am sure you will be back up
later.
Council Chair Rapozo: Lyle.
LYLE TABATA, Acting County Engineer: Morning Chair and Members of
the Council, Lyle Tabata, Acting County Engineer. So our crews, between
Engineering, Building, and the Department of Parks & Recreation have been out
there after the event, to do evaluations to begin the recovery process. As Elton
mentioned, the first weekend was basically to react to and respond and to ensure that
the public was kept safe. So now, we have come in, our Engineering and Building
Divisions and the Department of Parks & Recreation, to do evaluations. We have not
been alone. We have been out in the field with FEMA personnel and the United
States Army Corps of Engineers. So the work that we are doing is complimented by
our work staff and the numbers that we are generating are done concurrently. So we
are not in a void, we are working diligently. The numbers we have are just
preliminary. In reference to the roads, right now, our estimates come up and we have
a little over three million six hundred thousand dollars ($3,600,000) worth of road
repairs, of which Weke Road is the most substantially damaged. Weke Road is a
Federal Aid road. So same as Kuhio Highway, Weke Road is being compiled. We
have done some work, estimates have been generated, and we have pushed that to
Larry Dill, the Department of Transportation Administrator for Kaua`i Highways
Division, and he is combining that with what they are estimating on their side.
Because they are Federal Aid roads, they are excluded from FEMA assistance, so we
are pushing it through Ed Sniffen, the State Highways Administrator, to Federal
Highways for their disaster relief fund mechanism. That will be excluded. Right
now, I am just trying to clarify whether or not we are still in the 80/20 cost-sharing
mode where it is eighty percent (80%), Fed, and County, twenty percent (20%), or
because it is a disaster, they will fund one hundred percent (100%). That has not
been made real clear.
Council Chair Rapozo: So worst-case scenario, this is just for Weke
Road that you are talking three million six hundred thousand dollars ($3,600,000)?
Mr. Tabata: No, all of our roads. So for Weke Road alone,
we have a two million two hundred thousand dollar ($2,200,000) price tag estimate
at this time.
COUNCIL MEETING 12 APRIL 25, 2018
Council Chair Rapozo: So worst-case scenario, four hundred forty
thousand dollars ($440,000) would have to come from the County if the Feds do not
pick up the one hundred percent (100%)?
Mr. Tabata: Yes.
Council Chair Rapozo: Okay. Really, it is that Hanalei Town area as
it relates to the County. The majority of the damage is on the State highway, but as
far as Hanalei is concerned, we have Weke...
Mr. Tabata: There are other roads in the vicinity. We
presently are still trying to get to...because we are in the excluded zone, from
Lumaha`i to Ha`ena, we have a crew of contractors still trying to get to Wainiha
Powerhouse.
Council Chair Rapozo: What does "excluded zone" mean?
(Councilmember Kagawa was noted as leaving the meeting.)
Mr. Tabata: Meaning public access is not allowed and it
even restricts us from getting in. Because of the situation on Kuhio Highway, the
State Highways Division has restricted access. We have flown in a couple of times to
see and we are working with a contractor and they are just clearing and not even in
the recovery mode, we are still in the reaction mode over there. There is this other
road in Hanalei, Kumu Road, that is a private road, but it has been determined, and
I did not realize that it is part of the tsunami evacuation access roads that the
elementary school uses to get out in case of a tsunami, so we are trying to organize
and get all of the approvals from the private landowner to get in there and make
assessments also. Then I have other roads around the County, outside of this,
Kahiliholo in Kilauea is another culvert...it is an area where we brought up the CMP
pipe culverts that we have out there all over twenty (20)years old and has been failing
on us, much like Pua Nani, and our estimate for that is one million one hundred
thousand dollars ($1,100,000) right now.
Council Chair Rapozo: That has no match?
Mr. Tabata: No, this is all County moneys. We are hoping
that, as Councilmember Kawakami, talked about the State fund, that we can get part
of that State fund to cover these costs, too. If not, FEMA. When FEMA comes in, we
are still doing the assessments and it will be a reimbursement process, seventy-five
percent (75%), but that money also is dependent on certain criteria, to be eligible, and
that is the data we are still collecting. The moneys that we are expending right
now...Councilmember Kagawa just left, but I believe that a lot of the money that we
are asking these five million dollars ($5,000,000) for is to fund us. I am looking to
bring in some external professional services to assist our department, because we are
limited in size, so I need a few more bodies to come in. We are working on the
emergency procurement right now for professional services so that I can hire qualified
firms to come in and assist us. So that is where I am expecting to spend some
additional money, probably maybe five hundred thousand dollars ($500,000) over
COUNCIL MEETING 13 APRIL 25, 2018
there, just for professional services and I will probably turn specific projects over to
them to run from start to finish to supplement our staff.
Council Chair Rapozo: I know your crews have been working very
hard on clearing debris, just plain debris, and I really appreciate that. The debris is
being moved onto the County roadway, then we can actually pick it up.
Mr. Tabata: That, too, is not planned County
expenditures, so the money to pay for that extra effort would have to come from this
fund or if we can get reimbursed in the future.
Council Chair Rapozo: At some point?
Mr. Tabata: Yes.
Council Chair Rapozo: As we know from the hurricane, it is not a
simple process to get reimbursed.
Mr. Tabata: Exactly.
(Councilmember Kagawa was noted as present.)
Council Chair Rapozo: I want to kind of focus on Ha`ena and
Wainiha. There may have not been a lot of road damage and it may...I do not know,
but I would assume that your guys did an assessment on the ground.
Mr. Tabata: Yes. A majority of the work out there has
been localized to Kuhio Highway and Weke Road and now we are finding Wainiha
Powerhouse Road and this Kumu Road. So those are the four (4) major hotspots that
we are paying a lot of attention to.
Council Chair Rapozo: So along Wainiha and Ha`ena area, not so
much? Is that what you are saying?
Mr. Tabata: At this point. Once the road officially opens
and I can get more personnel in, we can do more evaluations. Starting tomorrow, and
I believe Elton can elaborate more, but we have a barge service that we are going to
be starting and I believe a helicopter from the National Guard is coming back to help
us get more bodies out there.
Council Chair Rapozo: Okay. I know there is a significant amount of
structural damage along Weke Road; is there the same amount of structural...the
media covers Hanalei, but where are we out further north?
Mr. Tabata: Further north, primarily the water damage
was facilitated by the landslides on Kuhio Highway. So beyond that, that ford
crossing at Ha'ena Beach Park, that is still part of Kuhio Highway, so the State is
going to have to go over there and make evaluations also.
COUNCIL MEETING 14 APRIL 25, 2018
Council Chair Rapozo: Are we seeing damages in the flood zone
areas?
Mr. Tabata: So a lot of our roads in the Ha`ena area, those
interior roads off'Cain Highway, are supposedly intact so far. I have not had crews
go all the way, as I said, because we are restricted from still going in all the way. But
a lot of the roads makai of the highway are dirt roads, so those fixes would still have
to be...we bring in crushed coral and material to fill-in wherever voids have been
created.
Council Chair Rapozo: So as far as you know, we did not sustain any
damages in that...
Mr. Tabata: Not major damages like Weke Road. So for
Weke Road, the amount of rainfall caused the whole town to flood. Driving along
Weke Road, you know that the lowest point along Weke Road, that would be in
elevation to the point zero is at the end near Black Pot. So it is like the whole of Weke
Road makai became a levy and the lowest point is just there at Black Pot. What
happened was the whole town that was flooded drained out through Weke Road at
Black Pot Beach, so the deep foundation is basically sand. So that washed the
underlay of the road and then the whole road, at three (3) different points, was lost.
That, in effect, is what happened. So right now, what you see is actually not from the
river; it is just because it was the low point and whole town drained through Weke
Road, we created ponds over there now, so as they dry out and the water drains off,
a greater amount of backfilling effort will have to be made on that road for us to then
build a road up on. Then the private properties on either side will have to be
backfilled, too. That is a whole different process.
Council Chair Rapozo: I guess that leads to my concern is how many
of these structurally damaged properties, whether it is in Hanalei, Ha`ena, or
Wainiha, how many of them were legal structures and how many of them were
permitted structures? They have to be in the flood zone or in the floodway, as a lot of
these properties are.
Mr. Tabata: Yes.
Council Chair Rapozo: Are we making...is someone...Planning or
whoever...obviously Planning is out there.
Mr. Tabata: We work with the FEMA flood regulatory
program and over the last twenty (20) years, we have been working in a community
to address deficiencies. They come and we do spot inspections and we identify
through our flood management program, these structures that were deficient. We
have been working...we got to the point where we had addressed all of the deficiencies
that we are aware of before this storm from the most recent inspection, which I believe
was done in mid-2008.
Council Chair Rapozo: That is not your department, right?
COUNCIL MEETING 15 APRIL 25, 2018
Mr. Tabata: The Engineering Division oversees.
Council Chair Rapozo: So you folks work directly with the...
Mr. Tabata: The State Department of Land and Natural
Resources (DLNR) has a flood management entity agency and then FEMA, so the
three (3) agencies are all tied together: DLNR, FEMA, and the County. The County
administers the FEMA flood program.
Council Chair Rapozo: Right, so that is your department.
Mr. Tabata: The flood management program, yes.
Council Chair Rapozo: I am well-aware. We have sent over
numerous requests to follow-up, but were all of these...
Mr. Tabata: The ones that we are aware of, we have not
been addressing and I believe that we had one (1) outstanding that we finally
addressed about two (2) months ago. But what has happened since the initial
inspection and now is like ten (10) years...I do not know...
Council Chair Rapozo: I know that the...I thought the Federal
government came down and redid the flood maps more recently than ten (10) years.
Mr. Tabata: It is still in process. In fact, we have
community meetings set-up for later on this year, in particular, more to discuss how
the new floodplain maps affect the areas around our two (2) levies: Hanapepe and
Waimea.
Council Chair Rapozo: As far as you know, all of the concerns that
the Federal government determined...did the Federal government do the inspection?
Mr. Tabata: For the flood insurance program, yes.
Council Chair Rapozo: Right. As far as you know, prior to the storm,
all of the properties had been addressed by the County and all of the problems were
rectified?
Mr. Tabata: That had been identified previously. If after
2008 there were more violations that we are not aware of, I cannot answer to those.
Council Chair Rapozo: Are you saying that there were violations?
Mr. Tabata: If there were violations after 2008 that we are
not aware of, I cannot speak to those.
Council Chair Rapozo: I guess the question is, are there any flood
violations that were identified that we were aware of?
COUNCIL MEETING 16 APRIL 25, 2018
Mr. Tabata: No.
Council Chair Rapozo: I am trying to figure out if, in fact, that has all
been rectified.
Mr. Tabata: They have been addressed, yes.
Council Chair Rapozo: Addressed and rectified? Address is one
thing, writing a citation, but I am talking about making sure that those concerns or
those violations were cleared.
Mr. Tabata: As far as I understand, the last one was dealt
with about two (2) months ago and closed.
Council Chair Rapozo: And they complied?
Mr. Tabata: They complied, yes.
Council Chair Rapozo: That is what I wanted to know.
Councilmember Yukimura.
Councilmember Yukimura: Lyle, given that the flood is unprecedented, I
am thinking that we would expect some changes in the flood maps for the Hanalei
area.
Mr. Tabata: I believe an evaluation will be made, but these
processes take a while.
Councilmember Yukimura: So there might be a question about whether
these homes can rebuild on Weke Road or they may be some higher requirements for
their rebuilding.
Mr. Tabata: Yes.
Councilmember Yukimura: Given a new assessment, a post-flooding of
the flood maps and the floodplains or whatever.
Mr. Tabata: The major determiner is if they are going to
build in the floodway, they have to show that they are not going to create a rise
and...it is a highly technical process.
Councilmember Yukimura: Right. It is very unusual to allow building in
the floodway, if at all.
Mr. Tabata: Yes.
Councilmember Yukimura: So if a new floodway is defined based on the
floods, then there is some question whether they would be able to rebuild.
COUNCIL MEETING 17 APRIL 25, 2018
Mr. Tabata: Yes.
Councilmember Kawakami: Mr. Chair, I would just like to ask that we
stay focused on the emergency proclamation. The issue at-hand is issuing the
emergency proclamation appropriation. All of this discussion can come up later, but
these guys at the EOC have been working 24/7 for the last twelve (12) days. We want
to get them the funding and we want to stick to questions on the appropriation. All
of this other discussion should come up later at this point. The first priority is
stabilizing...just the solid waste issue in Ha`ena and Wainiha was daunting. To feed
the people out there is daunting. So if we can stick to the questions on the
proclamation, I think that would help these guys get out there to get the job done.
Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Council Chair Rapozo: Councilmember Brun, do you have a concern
or a question?
Councilmember Brun: I just had a question. He kind of answered
mine and Councilmember Kagawa's question about what the money is going to be
used for, so I just wanted to clarify that.
Council Chair Rapozo: The reason I brought that up is because I am
concerned that some of the damages that was created was created because of illegal
structures that may have caused more damage. I agree that is a discussion, and trust
me, there will be another discussion, but I think at this point, we are trying to answer
Councilmember Kagawa's question as far as...I am beginning to think that maybe
five million dollars ($5,000,000) is not enough,just in the items that you talked about,
like Weke, Kumu, and the consulting for professional services just that alone and
that is not counting all of the other little roads and the things that Councilmember
Kawakami just talked about, like the clearing of the roads, the feeding, the overtime,
and all of these things. The real question is, is five million dollars ($5,000,000) really
enough? Councilmember Kawakami.
Councilmember Kawakami: The illegal structures is going to be vetted
when FEMA does the assessment because there is a threshold on the number of
houses that they have to assess as being damaged in their definition. So if it is illegal,
it is not going to be part of the count. That will all be vetted as well as it goes through
the process, so I think all of those things will be flushed out as part of the process.
Council Chair Rapozo: Councilmember Yukimura.
Councilmember Yukimura: So I have some questions as regards to Lyle's
testimony.
Council Chair Rapozo: Go ahead.
Councilmember Yukimura: I also had my previous question about the
threshold for qualifying for FEMA moneys, and maybe since Lyle has raised that, I
can ask that here; Lyle, what are the criteria for qualifying for FEMA moneys?
COUNCIL MEETING 18 APRIL 25, 2018
Mr. Tabata: I think that we have the experts here in that
subject.
Councilmember Yukimura: I know. Can we have them come forward,
Chair?
Council Chair Rapozo: Lyle, the questions right now are on the five
million dollars ($5,000,000). We have two (2) questions: is five million dollars
($5,000,000) enough; and number two, can you spend it within sixty-one (61) days?
Councilmember Yukimura: Chair, excuse me, I am still asking my
question.
Council Chair Rapozo: No, you are asking to bring up FEMA right
now and we are trying to still answer Councilmember Kagawa's question.
Councilmember Yukimura: Well, the question about how much we need
will depend on whether FEMA moneys...whether we can qualify for FEMA moneys
or not. So that is why it is a key threshold question that I think I would like to have
answered.
Council Chair Rapozo: Well, I am running this meeting and this is
how I am going to run the meeting. You know the number of FEMA's threshold is
irrelevant right now? That threshold, that reimbursement is not going to come in
sixty-one (61) days. This declaration expires in sixty-one (61) days. We are not going
to get FEMA money in sixty-one (61) days. We have bills to pay. What FEMA's
threshold is, at this point as it relates to this, is irrelevant. You are asking for five
million dollars ($5,000,000) and Councilmember Kagawa has said to try to give us a
better understanding...you have...you have talked about some of the major projects,
and as we know...I know personally and all of us here know that in the other
individual communities, we have expended significant County funds. So the question
is number one, is five million dollars ($5,000,000) enough; and number two, can we
expend or encumber these funds within sixty-one (61) days?
Councilmember Yukimura: I think that is a key question and I have asked
for an amendment to increase the amount from five million dollars ($5,000,000) to
ten million dollars ($10,000,000), but I think we are trying to understand what the
whole situation is. So I would like to continue asking my questions and having some
answers, if I may.
Council Chair Rapozo: Go ahead, just do not ask for FEMA to come
up. It is not going to happen. Just ask your questions of Lyle and Wally.
Councilmember Yukimura: Alright, I will. Lyle, I would like to know
what you know are the criteria for qualifying for FEMA moneys.
Mr. Tabata: I cannot answer that, as well as the FEMA
personnel here.
COUNCIL MEETING 19 APRIL 25, 2018
Councilmember Yukimura: Thank you. When you said that there is a
restriction with this...
Mr. Tabata: Only for our Federal Aid road. We have only
one (1) Federal Aid road right now.
Councilmember Yukimura: No, but we are not allowing people
beyond...there is an excluded area. What I am wondering is why does the excluded
area apply to road crews? That will attribute to our assessment of what the road
needs are in the Wainiha area. Are we saying that our road crews cannot go in there
right now?
Mr. Tabata: They cannot go in because there is no access.
Our equipment cannot get in there.
Councilmember Yukimura: But somebody can go by foot and assess,
right?
Mr. Tabata: We have sent in people as we are available.
Councilmember Yukimura: Okay. That will give us some idea of what the
road repairs are needed over there, which will contribute to our assessment of how
much money we need to recover and do the repairs, right?
Mr. Rezentes: If I could help, we are requesting five million
dollars ($5,000,000) today. We have fourteen million dollars ($14,000,000) available
in our reserve for this purpose that the Council has approved and set-aside for these
type of events.
Councilmember Yukimura: Fine.
Mr. Rezentes: If the five million dollars ($5,000,000) is
deemed inappropriate by us in a week, in seven (7) days or ten (10) days, we will have
no problem coming up here again and requesting further funds from that fourteen
million dollars ($14,000,000).
Councilmember Yukimura: You want to go through this again?
Mr. Rezentes: Five million dollars ($5,000,000) is on the
table today and we do not know exactly how much we will need, but I know that we
have a means to get an emergency appropriation in addition to that five million
dollars ($5,000,000). So we will be happy to come up next week or the week after and
get a quick approval from the County Council as needed.
Councilmember Yukimura: So what if you could get it now? Look at how
much time you are all spending right now when you need to be out there. So why not
just give you ten million dollars ($10,000,000) if that is likely to be needed?
COUNCIL MEETING 20 APRIL 25, 2018
Council Chair Rapozo: Wally, let me answer that, because they did
request fourteen million dollars ($14,000,000). The sixty-one (61) day condition was
concerning to me. Sixty-one (61) days to spend fourteen million dollars ($14,000,000)
was concerning to me on County costs, not State costs or private costs, just County
costs, fourteen million dollars ($14,000,000) in sixty-one (61) days. That is why I
asked Jade to contact your office and say, "Send it across in a smaller amount,"
because sixty-one (61) days goes by very quick and I am not sure...we never got a
response...in fact, what came back was an amended amount of five million dollars
($5,000,000). So it is not Wally folks asking for five million dollars ($5,000,000), they
asked for fourteen million dollars ($14,000,000). But my concern was the sixty-one
(61) days that this has to be used.
Mr. Rezentes: Correct.
Council Chair Rapozo: Like Councilmember Kagawa, we are the
checks and balance. If we had to fix the State highways, that is another story. Our
damages are limited to County property and you have already excluded Weke, which
is one of the major projects. That is my rationale.
MAUNA KEA TRASK, County Attorney: For the record, Mauna Kea
Trask, County Attorney. The sixty-one (61) day limit that Chair laid out for the
record is in the Charter, so the emergency ordinance cannot go any further, everyone
is bound by that. Also, the question regarding ultimate costs—we do not
know...eligible costs...it is a daily assessment. What you have to do is look at all the
FEMA regulations, which we have been looking at diligently since Monday the 16th
or whatever it was, immediately after the disaster when we mobilized. In ten (10)
days, every department is diligently trying to learn the Federal Disaster Assistance
Act, Federal procurement, and the Stafford Act. We have been looking at this FEMA
guidance every single day to try to look at it. It comes down to which eligible cost,
whether it is labor, materials, or supplies is a direct result. You are looking at
straight time versus overtime, budgeted versus unbudgeted. It is a very complex
matter. Everything comes down to essentially documentation and justification. That
emergency work is first due in the six (6) months post-disaster, then you move into
what is called "permanent work" and that is through eighteen (18) months. So
everything today, I just want to make clear for the record that we are going to provide
you the best we can. We do not want to speculate because to and until we reassess
and provide supplemental documentation, we have contacts with the Army Corps of
Engineers, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), FEMA, State officials—
everyone has been really good in working together and I want to proceed along that
line and just say...I know that you want all the answers today, but it is impossible to
give that to you. We will continue to work with you. We are happy to come back to
ask for more funds, but we just need to proceed in the way that the rules provide.
Council Chair Rapozo: For me, sixty-one (61) days is the kicker.
Councilmember Kagawa had a very valid question: what is the five million dollars
($5,000,000) for and can we spend it in sixty-one (61) days? To me, reimbursement
comes later. That is like filing an insurance claim.
Mr. Trask: Correct.
COUNCIL MEETING 21 APRIL 25, 2018
Council Chair Rapozo: You do not know if you are going to get it. If
you get it, good; if not, we still have to fund it. My concern right now is getting you
the funds that you need to continue the operations that you do every day. That is my
concern. I think the questions are very fair, and yes, we can amend it. We can put
the fourteen million dollars ($14,000,000) in there, but can you spend it in sixty-one
(61) days?
Mr. Trask: Really, what you are looking at, even though
State procurements have been set aside because of the Governor's Proclamation, we
still have to follow Federal procurement guidelines. If it is below one hundred fifty
thousand dollars ($150,000,000), we need to get three (3) bids. There are certain
things that we need to do; otherwise, we risk not getting compensated on the backend.
It is not as fast as we would like and there are still rules.
Council Chair Rapozo: That technical part, we leave that up to you
folks. I am just trying to say the Councilmember Kagawa's question was fair because
there is that deadline for this money. Obviously, if there was no deadline, we would
just give it all, but that is not the case right now. Councilmember Yukimura.
Councilmember Yukimura: The sixty (60) days is important, so the
question is, how much money do you need that you can encumber, not spend but
encumber, in sixty-one (61) days? Wally, is five million dollars ($5,000,000) what
your administration is saying you need or is it more?
Mr. Rezentes: We do not know what we are going to need
ultimately.
Councilmember Yukimura: I know you do not know.
Mr. Rezentes: We know that sixty-one (61) days...ideally, we
would not want to have had it in there. Can we overcome it? Yes. What we can do
is come back...I mean, I do not want to come back ten (10) times to reestablish the
sixty-one (61) requirement, but I think we can get a good barometer on how we spend
down in this next two (2) months and assess. If we need to come back, we know that
we can quickly come back to the County Council and request for approval. We are
just starting and we want to work well with our Council partners. The
Administration is okay initially on the five million dollars ($5,000,000). We can work
with that for now. If we need to adjust, we will come up this week, next week, or the
week after as we believe is necessary to provide us with additional funds. We are just
starting now.
Councilmember Yukimura: I know, but it is not like regular response.
There is so much need out there and we should be ready to address that need. If we
do not get reimbursed, then by Feds, we do not have to worry about the extra Federal
procurement. So that is why knowing the likelihood of getting Federal
reimbursement does govern or will influence how we are responding right now and
that is why I think it is important to have the overall context, but it is getting very
hard to get to that point in this meeting. I did not get your answer about how we are
COUNCIL MEETING 22 APRIL 25, 2018
going to get the assessment of road repair needs in Wainiha. Can we get it with
people going on foot to assess? Is that included in the five million dollar ($5,000,000)
request right now or in your estimate of trying to determine public...
Mr. Tabata: It is not included.
Councilmember Yukimura: Okay. So it could be big or small, but we do
not know what that is...
Mr. Tabata: We are working on that presently. I have a
crew going in today and tomorrow to do the assessment.
Councilmember Kagawa: He already answered that actually.
Councilmember Yukimura: Then I would like to know what your
assessment of the solid waste costs.
Mr. Tabata: The solid waste costs...
Mr. Trask: Wait, hold on—let me break that up. When
you ask about solid waste, it is not just one thing.
Councilmember Yukimura: Excuse me, is this a legal opinion?
Mr. Trask: Yes, it is a legal opinion and it is based upon
FEMA guidance.
Council Chair Rapozo: Hold on.
Councilmember Yukimura: Alright, go ahead then.
Councilmember Kagawa: Mr. Chair, she needs to calm down. This is
kind of frustrating. To act the way you are acting right now, you are pressing the
panic button and this is no time to press the panic button.
Council Chair Rapozo: Hold on, stop.
Councilmember Yukimura: I am just asking how are the solid waste costs
figured into your request for money?
Council Chair Rapozo: Mauna Kea, please respond...
Councilmember Yukimura: I am not asking...
Council Chair Rapozo: Councilmember Yukimura...
Councilmember Kagawa: You are pressing the panic button.
COUNCIL MEETING 23 APRIL 25, 2018
Councilmember Yukimura: I am not pressing a red button, it is a very
legitimate question.
Council Chair Rapozo: Recess.
There being no objections, the meeting recessed at 10:12 a.m.
The meeting reconvened at 10:20 a.m., and proceeded as follows:
Council Chair Rapozo: Let me try to bring this all back—we are here
to talk about five million dollars ($5,000,000) in emergency funds and that is what
we are going to discuss. If you have any questions about the five million dollars
($5,000,000), if that is enough, we are not going to discuss any of the other stuff. This
is an Emergency Bill and that is all we are going to discuss, whether or not the five
million dollars ($5,000,000) is enough, is it too much, whether or not you can spend
it in the allotted time as provided or is required by the Charter. That is where we are
going to go. If you cannot deal with that, Members, then I would ask that you leave.
I am not going to sit here today and debate with Members on an Emergency Bill. If
you cannot comply with that simple rule—let us focus on the five million dollars
($5,000,000)—then let us not participate. I want to get this done in the next ten (10)
minutes because I think we have covered everything and we will come back with a
briefing from you folks at some point. Right now, everybody out there is running
around, trying to fix stuff, all of the Administration, and we appreciate that. Today
is very simple. I have allowed Councilmembers to go a little outside, but apparently
I cannot contain that. So this is the deal—we are going to talk about the five million
dollars ($5,000,000) and anything outside of that, I am not going to allow. If you
cannot handle that then I am going to ask you to leave now. If you choose not to leave
and you choose to argue and debate, then I will use my authority under 3.07(D) to
remove you. It is going to be that simple, because I am not going to sit here and play
this game. We have seven (7) Members and seven (7) Members need the opportunity
to share in this discussion on the five million dollars ($5,000,000) and that is what is
going to happen. With that, any questions for Lyle? Councilmember Brun.
Councilmember Brun: Lyle, as part of the five million dollars
($5,000,000), because I know the questions were brought up...myself and
Councilmember Kagawa had the same questions...so roads is about three million six
hundred thousand dollars ($3,600,000) and then we are going to help fund workers...I
know you folks are out there...I went out to Hanalei yesterday and there were a lot
of workers out there still going. It is just to cover up the expenses for now...so five
million dollars ($5,000,000) is just for now, and Wally, you said that you folks can
come back in two (2) weeks or whatever and get more if you need it, right?
Mr. Tabata: Yes. The sixty (60) days is the key. You can
only spend so much a week, so that is reasonable. The five million dollars
($5,000,000) will get us to the next step. Then as we determine where our additional
funds can come from or will come from, if we need more, we will come back, as prices
that we create or costs that we create are refreshed and sharpened and we know more
closely what we need.
COUNCIL MEETING 24 APRIL 25, 2018
Councilmember Brun: I am satisfied with the explanation of what
you folks are going to do with the five million dollars ($5,000,000). I just do not want
us to go up to ten million dollars ($10,000,000), because I will not support that; I will
only do five million dollars ($5,000,000) today. We are using it for stuff that is not to
do with the storm. I am happy with your explanation.
Mr. Tabata: So the money that we are asking for is just
isolated to the affected areas. The rest of the island that was not affected is business
as usual.
Councilmember Brun: Okay, I am happy with that and I will be
willing to support this.
Council Chair Rapozo: Councilmember Yukimura.
Councilmember Yukimura: So the categories that are covered by the five
million dollars ($5,000,000) would be roads, solid waste, overtime, and what else?
Mr. Trask: Just to use FEMA's terminology, so for the
emergency work, this addresses immediate threat, so debris removal and further
emergency protective measures. Ha`ena is still going to rain. There are still all of
these issues regarding the environment.
Councilmember Yukimura: Excuse me, Mauna Kea, but how does FEMA
regulations affect County five million dollars ($5,000,000).
Mr. Trask: Because we want to seek as much
reimbursable costs of this that we can. We have to proceed with the hope and
assumption that we will get a declaration from the President or that we will be
eligible for public assistance moneys.
Councilmember Yukimura: Alright, but we are not just thinking about
FEMA. We are thinking about the needs that are out there in the community that
need to be addressed and this five million dollars ($5,000,000) is not restricted to
what qualifies for FEMA.
Mr. Trask: We understand that.
Councilmember Yukimura: Okay, so given that, what are the
elements...this money is the first money we get to respond. What are our needs out
there? They are really great. Solid waste is huge, so how much money are we needing
for solid waste? That is the question. How much money are we needing for roads?
Three million six hundred thousand dollars ($3,600,000), but if you do not know what
is out there in Wainiha, then three million six hundred thousand dollars ($3,600,000)
may not be the total amount. What about overtime? Have you done estimates for
overtime? What else? FEMA is not the criteria. The criteria is what are our needs
out there for public response, County response, and are we covering it adequately
with this five million dollars ($5,000,000)?
COUNCIL MEETING 25 APRIL 25, 2018
Mr. Tabata: We are just coming off of clearing and we are
setting up for debris removal. We made sure our roads are clear to traverse. Now,
we are at the point where we are setting up the debris removal. So those finite costs
that you are asking for are not available. We cannot get it as tight as you appear to
be asking for.
Councilmember Yukimura: I am not asking for tight.
Mr. Tabata: We have estimates, and yes, in the sixty (60)
days we can move forward in the way...with the funds that we are asking for.
Councilmember Yukimura: When I was working with the Kealia farmers
on Sunday, they were clearing the ditches and there were huge amounts of Albizia
debris. So they were stockpiling that on a large lot and I have a video tape of all of
those piles and I called Allison and she said, "Talk to Calvin Brown," and then they
finally said that they would send a dumpster that they had contracted with somebody
who provides those huge bins. If we already have contracts with them, we must have
some idea of what we are covering. They needed those bins yesterday. What kind of
costs are we looking at that?
Mr. Tabata: In addition to those bins...
Council Chair Rapozo: Lyle, I have heard the Administration tell us
on numerous occasions that that number is unknown.
Mr. Tabata: Yes.
Council Chair Rapozo: We can ask that question ten (10) different
ways and the answer is the same. You cannot tell us what the number is right now.
What I am hearing from you is that the five million dollars ($5,000,000) is sufficient
for the next sixty-one (61) days.
Mr. Tabata: Exactly.
Council Chair Rapozo: You cannot tell us how much is for roads. You
pinpointed a few of the projects. You cannot tell us how much for debris removal. I
totally understand that and I can accept that. The number is unknown so let us not
ask that question. Their response has been stated several times and they cannot give
us that number. Let us move on.
Councilmember Yukimura: My question was not different from
Councilmember Kagawa's question. That is what he was asking.
Council Chair Rapozo: You know what the difference is? They
answered Councilmember Kagawa's question and he has not re-asked the question.
That is the difference, Councilmember Yukimura.
Councilmember Yukimura: You have given us an estimate on roads, three
million six hundred thousand dollars ($3,600,000) and we know it is not enough. That
COUNCIL MEETING 26 APRIL 25, 2018
is a ballpark figure. We are not asking for absolute documentation and going to hold
you that if you go one penny over it that we are going to get angry. The nature of
damage assessment is estimates.
Mr. Tabata: Right now, my field operations manager is out
there estimating the size of the piles and total cubic feet of standing piles and he is
supposed to be getting back to me with an estimate of what we are looking at. They
worked through the weekend and the beginning of this week to see how and they
maneuvered a crew to then expedite removing refuse from the inaccessible area, and
they did that. We brought the material out and we got it out and that was the first
step. Because we are getting all of these work crews out there, we are evaluating how
much we are up against. For the larger material, the Albizias that you speak to, I
have asked our staff to look into working with Green Energy to have them come in
and harvest it for fuel. We have a host of different operational staff members out
there looking at different options right now.
Councilmember Yukimura: That is excellent.
Mr. Tabata: But the total cost is dependent on, as Mauna
Kea stated, we are working with the assumption that we will eventually get FEMA
funding, so the guidelines we are using are based on that.
Councilmember Yukimura: I am hearing that it is going to very difficult
to meet FEMA criteria.
Mr. Tabata: We do not know that.
Councilmember Yukimura: Even if on the solid waste issue...I have a
picture, too, working in Anahola on Saturday, there is this mountain of Albizia trees
against the bridge in Anahola. I do not know what the assessment is in terms of
safety. I think the Department of Transportation has been doing the assessments,
because they went to Kalihiwai Bridge and checked it out. That is good...but what if
Green Energy does not come and get it at all? Do we have a contingency plan where
we do the chipping or we pay a contractor to do the chipping and...
Mr. Tabata: I am going one step at a time.
Council Chair Rapozo: Lyle, I am not going to repeat myself.
Mr. Tabata: Okay, thank you.
Council Chair Rapozo: I just said that we are not going to get into the
technical...we are talking about the money. She asked a question and you said that
you do not have the figure. Councilmember Kawakami.
Councilmember Kawakami: The questions that are coming about
regarding solid waste are...the level of complexity dealing with it, when they say that
they cannot give you an estimate, maybe I can give you a tangible example of what
they are dealing with—one, you have a community that is cut off from the rest of the
COUNCIL MEETING 27 APRIL 25, 2018
world as far as accessibility. So now they have to go out and get all of this household
trash and they have to secure a sight to stage this household trash, and then they
have to look at it and figure out how many loads is going to be flown out by a
helicopter, because that is the only way, which is to fly it out. So there is one hundred
sixty (160) loads being flown in and out, each carrying eight hundred (800) pounds,
and then you need a crew to go up to all of the abandoned vacation rentals to make
sure that no household trash is left behind. So the number that you are asking for,
Councilmember Yukimura, is hard for them to give an answer because the level of
complexity with the solid waste issue at this time is just something that we have not
seen before. So you are asking a question that is hard for them to answer. In all
fairness to them, unless you are actually out there, it is hard to fathom. Thank you
for volunteering at Anahola and Kealia, but for this particular issue, it is hard for
them to put a number...
Councilmember Yukimura: Well...
Councilmember Kawakami: Can I finish, please?
Councilmember Yukimura: Sorry.
Councilmember Kawakami: The EOC is open to any Councilmember, from
what I understand, to attend 6:00 a.m. briefings so that you can get the information.
I think the level of frustration that is happening is that the EOC has a 6:00 a.m.
briefing and they are giving out the action plan for each day as it evolves. The night
crew is out there working to formulate the plan based on the data from the day before.
So I think moving forward, we could do a better job in answering our own questions
just by being active participants in the information that is being disseminated to
everybody. That is the only way I think that we can be efficient in our
decision-making and getting our answers is showing up to those meetings. That is
the one-stop shop for information. That is all I have to say, Mr. Chair. Thank you.
Council Chair Rapozo: Also, we get the E-mail every day where we
get an update of the briefing, which I appreciate. We get to read everything that was
discussed at the briefing because it is on paper. Honestly, maybe we are not all
reading it, but we should be, and I agree, because there is a lot of information that is
disseminated at the 6:00 a.m. briefing. We do get the updates every single day and
multiple updates throughout the day. Councilmember Kagawa.
Councilmember Kagawa: Lyle, I heard the verbal three million six
hundred thousand dollars ($3,600,000) for Weke, which is a Federal collector road...I
think Federal Aid road means that it is not the full three million six hundred
thousand dollars ($3,600,000), right? We are available to get Federal moneys, right?
Mr. Tabata: Yes.
Councilmember Kagawa: So of the five million dollars ($5,000,000), do
we have anything in writing that says these are what it is for?
Mr. Tabata: Yes, I have...
COUNCIL MEETING 28 APRIL 25, 2018
Councilmember Kagawa: Can we have it?
Mr. Tabata: I have fourteen (14) items listed right here,
just for roads and culverts and bridge.
Councilmember Kagawa: And a lot of those are just estimates?
Mr. Tabata: It is just estimates. As far as I have been told,
the only major County structural asset building wise is the Black Pot comfort station.
Councilmember Kagawa: For me, I am kind of uncomfortable not
having something in detail on paper. Five million dollars ($5,000,000)...I have heard
Councilmembers say, "Why do we not just give you the entire fourteen million dollars
($14,000,000)?"
Councilmember Yukimura: I did not say that.
Councilmember Kagawa: I am that free with millions. Five million
dollars ($5,000,000), for me, is a lot without any paperwork. My preference would be
that I would rather take our time, fix the job the right way, rather than rush, spend
money and say later, "You know what, we should have done this instead." For me, I
take my finger off the panic button in times like this. I pull it away from the panic
button. I go opposite...maybe I should take Aikido like Elton. I am a little
uncomfortable not having something on paper. I want something on paper that we
can at least hold you folks a little bit accountable. When the five million dollars
($5,000,000) gets done and you say, "Okay, I need five million dollars ($5,000,000)
more" so that we do not have to have Gina hounding you folks as far as, "Where did
the money go?' I think when we have something upfront, she feels more comfortable
and I feel more comfortable. For me, not having something on paper with a one-day
request like this is a little bit difficult.
Council Chair Rapozo: Can you make that available, Lyle?
Mr. Tabata: Yes.
Council Chair Rapozo: Thank you. Councilmember Yukimura.
Councilmember Yukimura: Lyle, so that paper of the categories or items
that will be covered, do they have monetary equivalence on it?
Mr. Tabata: Yes, we have cost-estimates.
Councilmember Yukimura: Okay, that is excellent. Thank you.
Mr. Tabata: We have the scope and the cost-estimates.
COUNCIL MEETING 29 APRIL 25, 2018
Councilmember Yukimura: The one hundred sixty(160) airlifts of garbage
or whatever that...I am sorry if I...whatever that Councilmember Kawakami
described, how much is that costing and who is paying for it?
Mr. Tabata: For that, I need to defer to Finance.
Councilmember Yukimura: If that is a cost for us, then the five million
dollars ($5,000,000) might be gone...I do not know.
Mr. Tabata: That is part of the whole process that we...
Councilmember Yukimura: But one hundred sixty (160)...you can already
tell me if you know the per transfer cost, you can already get some ballpark figure
about what that operation cost already. It is like money gone.
Mr. Tabata: I do not have that with me right now, but we
can get it.
Council Chair Rapozo: Thank you.
Councilmember Yukimura: Okay.
Mr. Tabata: We have a whole Finance Department there
in the EOC that is calculating daily our burn rate...
Councilmember Yukimura: Well, then you should have it.
Mr. Tabata: I believe they can get that.
Councilmember Yukimura: Okay. So there is no public cost that you
anticipate for Koloa, Kealia, and Keapana then?
Mr. Trask: No.
Mr. Tabata: I am not saying that. It is all part of this...I
have multiple projects. My list here includes projects for the whole island.
Councilmember Yukimura: Okay.
Council Chair Rapozo: Any other questions? Councilmember
Kagawa.
Councilmember Kagawa: Lyle, I know we mentioned a little bit about
that private road we were talking about that we say we use for emergency access and
stuff, but as a whole, are we setting up a priority list so that at the end of the day,
when things get fixed, we can see, "Okay, we worked off this priority list," and I am
just putting it out there that perhaps fixing the County stuff first before we go fixing
private roads may be something that on the priority list would trump the non-private
roads. I do not want us to make these decisions that perhaps somebody from
COUNCIL MEETING 30 APRIL 25, 2018
engineering feels that it is important, so they hand in the work and say, "Okay, let
us pay for it," but in hindsight, when we run out of fifteen million dollars
($15,000,000) and we say, "Why did these County things not get fixed? We were able
to fix some of this private stuff." I want to make sure that we have a priority list of
your fourteen (14) projects, which more are probably going to get added and the
priority list may change, but I think this working together with the Council would be
good as we go through the whole fourteen (14) at some point.
Mr. Tabata: Yes.
Councilmember Kagawa: Thank you.
Council Chair Rapozo: Councilmember Yukimura.
Councilmember Yukimura: So one of the really big needs out there is help
for families and farms that need money now in terms of rebuilding and so forth and
none of this money is going to be covered by this five million dollars ($5,000,000),
right?
Mr. Tabata: I defer to the Administration. My area is the
infrastructure, like the roads and bridges.
Councilmember Yukimura: Okay, if there is somebody else that can
answer that question, that would be good.
Mr. Trask: I do not know if we can answer that based
upon what you just said. We would have to see a description of the area, the damage
that resulted, the justification as to why. Like Councilmember Kagawa said, we have
to look at the big picture, identify what are the disaster areas, and what is or is not
compensable. It has to be in our mind. I am not saying that we are not spending
money on non-FEMA reimbursable; I am just saying that we have to understand
what is and what is not, where we are going to, and how we prioritize. That is the
big thing.
Councilmember Yukimura: All I am saying is that there is a need out
there. In fact, you folks have been assessing some of that need as part of trying to
qualify for Federal moneys, but that is a need, it needs to be addressed, and my
question was whether any of this five million dollars ($5,000,000) could cover it or if
the County is planning to use any County money for that thing...I do not think so. If
not, how are we going to address that as a community? I believe that if we qualify
for FEMA, there is some of that kind of personal assistance. I hope we are going to
get to that question when we ask FEMA to come and speak.
Mr. Trask: There are two (2) tracks: there are public
assistance and individual, but they are separate right now and those assessments are
proceeding on their own course.
Council Chair Rapozo: Let me just say this...my vote today is on
emergency money. It is on taxpayers' funds to go fix emergencies. I understand that
COUNCIL MEETING 31 APRIL 25, 2018
there is a need out there for all kinds of stuff. There are also all of these outside
agencies, like community foundation and Kauai Economic Opportunity that have
moneys that are going to be going out for housing. Please tell me that these funds are
going to be used for emergencies; in other words, the roads and the trash, and that
these funds are not going to go—trust me, I would love to give the farmers money,
but I do not think these emergency funds are to be used for anything other than
County emergencies. Please do not tell me that you folks are going to be assessing
and "so and so is going to get `x' amount." These funds are emergency funds. That is
why the sixty-one (61) day requirement is in the Charter. This is not to go and provide
public assistance. This is for this County to operate under conditions like this to get
the roads open, to get the facilities open: "emergency." That is why there will be no
public hearing. This is because you folks use these moneys for emergencies only, not
for casual spending. I need to know that right now before I vote.
Mr. Rezentes: It is for emergency purposes for flood-related
damages.
Council Chair Rapozo: Thank you.
Councilmember Kaneshiro: I do not want to get off-subject, but to answer
Councilmember Yukimura's question on farmers, I do not think it is the County's
prerogative to help farmers out. If farmers have a need, then they should contact the
Farm Bureau and the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA). USDA has
a lot of programs for natural disasters for farmers, but again, this is not related to
what we are talking about.
Council Chair Rapozo: Again, if you want to extend out to help
non-County entities, then I can see why the five million dollars ($5,000,000) might
not be enough. I am not even considering that right now. There are other avenues of
support and recovery and assistance in the private sector, like Zuckerberg, and all of
these other guys that are donating money for different purposes. This money is for
emergencies and I do not take this lightly. Believe me, I have seen what you folks
have done and there are all emergency. That is what this money is for. This money
is not for, "Here you go and use it for what you want." I did not get that from you...I
read the proclamation and your request memorandum and I did not even think about
that angle. I need to know and I heard you, Wally, so thank you very much and that
helps. Councilmember Kawakami.
Councilmember Kawakami: I think Councilmember Kaneshiro covered it.
Furthermore,just part of the appropriation coming from the State Legislature covers
agricultural infrastructure. It does not cover equipment or any other costs except for
State agricultural lands and farmers on State agricultural lands and agriculture
infrastructure. Thank you.
Council Chair Rapozo: Thank you. That helps. Councilmember
Yukimura.
Councilmember Yukimura: Yes, I do not think it is appropriate to use that
money for personal needs and for the kinds of needs that I see out there, but somebody
COUNCIL MEETING 32 APRIL 25, 2018
needs to cover it and maybe, Chair, we can have another agenda item for that. The
crossover is actually in the FEMA coverage, which does cover that to a certain extent
if there is a federally-declared disaster. We need to try to get that because it will help
many, many people if we can get that. I am trusting that eventually today that we
are going to hear from FEMA.
Mr. Trask: I just want to make clear...you are right...the
access to information is very important at this point, but at the same time, we want
to manage expectations and not confuse the public with what is or is not available
and how much is and is not available for that.
Councilmember Yukimura: That is right.
Mr. Trask: The County is looking to set-up as soon as
practicable. They are called "DRCs," "Disaster Recovery Centers" and there are
satellite offices that will be set-up, likely at neighborhood centers, where people will
be able to access individually representatives from State, Federal, as well as private
to see what kind of programs. The Office of the County Attorney has been working
with the Hawaii State Bar Association, for example, to bring over volunteer attorneys
from across the State to go give people pro bono insurance advice. So those are the
type of things that I just do not want to confuse the record and make people think,
"Oh, I am going to get all of this money from FEMA," where the USDA is the more
appropriate avenue and there is no duplication of Federal fund and dispersing. I
want the takeaway to be from this meeting to be clear...Chair is correct, we are
talking about five million dollars ($5,000,000) for emergency disaster-related
expenses and costs associated therewith. I do not want to conflate things and say
that we are going to do something improper, private, or what is available through the
programs.
Council Chair Rapozo: That is why I asked that question.
Councilmember Yukimura.
Councilmember Yukimura: Yes, I think in discussion of it, it is very
important to clarify that that is not going to be covered, but that there are these other
ways to be covered because that is what is needed. So you think that even though
you have no estimates or you...well, the only estimate I have heard so far is three
million six hundred thousand dollars ($3,600,000), but you do not have other
estimates that the five million dollars ($5,000,000) is the maximum amount that you
will be able to encumber in the next sixty (60) days?
Council Chair Rapozo: Again, they have answered that question
numerous times, Councilmember Yukimura.
Councilmember Yukimura: Excuse me, but can I just hear a "yes" if that
is the case? That is the maximum amount of money that you will be able to encumber
for your needs in the next sixty (60) days.
Mr. Trask: No, we cannot answer that question. If that
was the impression...
COUNCIL MEETING 33 APRIL 25, 2018
Councilmember Yukimura: Well, then I cannot determine whether...if
you cannot answer that question...you cannot say "yes" or "no?"
Council Chair Rapozo: Mauna Kea, that question is not for you.
Wally? I heard you say that this is a good start and I heard you say that this is what
we can work it and that you can come back when you need to. That is what I heard
you say several times today.
Councilmember Yukimura: So the answer is "yes?"
Mr. Rezentes: We do not even have a real solid ballpark
figure of what we are going to need. The five million dollars ($5,000,000) is a good
start for us. It is our working capital to address the repair, maintenance, and
emergency needs that are all attributable to the flood. We can come back at a later
time and provide updates to you when and if we need additional funds or if the
Council desires to have further discussion. It is moving every day. Quite frankly, I
wish our guys were back at the EOC and working. Councilmember, we will try to
give you as much information as you want to make intelligent decisions for us, but I
can tell you that the moneys are needed, it is going to be well-spent, and we want to
spend it as soon as we possibly can. I cannot guarantee you that five million dollars
($5,000,000) will be spent in sixty (60) days.
Councilmember Yukimura: Okay, I said it is maximum amount. I am
taking your answer as a "yes" or "I do not know" and therefore I am not going to
introduce this amendment to increase the amount to ten million dollars
($10,000,000).
Council Chair Rapozo: Thank you. Any other questions? I know that
we talked about the compliance with the FEMA requirement, but if a need arises that
obviously would not meet the FEMA eligibility requirement, that would not stop you
from doing the service, correct?
Mr. Trask: No.
Council Chair Rapozo: Thank you. FEMA, can you come up?
Mr. Ushio: Before bringing up our FEMA representative,
I wanted to introduce members from the Hawaii Emergency Management Agency.
First and foremost, Administrator Tom Travis; Lorinda Wong Lau; and Vern Miyagi.
Council Chair Rapozo: Thank you all for being here. We need to take
a caption break, so let us take it right now. Sorry about that. We will take a caption
break and come back.
There being no objections, the meeting recessed at 10:52 a.m.
The meeting reconvened at 11:09 a.m., and proceeded as follows:
COUNCIL MEETING 34 APRIL 25, 2018
Council Chair Rapozo: The rules are suspended. Are you folks going
to do a presentation or something?
TOM TRAVIS, HI-EMA Administrator: To the degree that you want one,
I am going to give a brief introduction and then introduce people that can answer
questions. We certainly do not want to waste the Council's time, so we will try to
limit our remarks and make sure that the mostly we respond to questions. I am going
to start with something that probably everyone knows and I am going to do it to set
the conversation. When the Mayor requested...
Councilmember Yukimura: Did you give your name?
Mr. Travis: I am Tom Travis, Administrator of HI-EMA.
Councilmember Yukimura: Thank you.
Mr. Travis: When the Mayor requested to the Governor
that the Governor make a declaration, what the Mayor was doing was telling the
Governor that Kaua`i no longer could handle the situation with its own funds and its
own resources. If the Governor goes to the President and asks the President for a
declaration, the State of Hawai`i is telling the President that the State of Hawai`i is
no longer capable of handling the casualty with its resources and its funds. The
reason that is important is because one of the things my organization does, one that
I am going to mention today...there are some other things, but one of the things it
does is call to request for assistance. When Elton needs something, a Black Hawk
helicopter, four (4) National Guardsmen to provide security around the food site, a
barge...when he need something, he writes a request for assistance and the Hawaii
Emergency Management Agency is then the organization that by Charter is supposed
to organize that request so that it comes back to Elton in a way that is useful. So by
keeping track of those requests for assistance, we are keeping track of the requests
that Kauai had to ask outside of the County that need to be funded so that accounting
is part of the process that we provide. The second thing that my organization does,
in this particular type of casualty, is we organize what is called a "Joint Preliminary
Damage Assessment." That is an assessment done by county, state, and FEMA
personnel with an additional personnel from the Small Business Administration
(SBA) and they determine what the costs of this casualty will be. As those costs
increase, they may cross the threshold and if they cross the threshold—and I am not
talking about infrastructure and the things you folks have been talking about this
morning—if they cross the threshold for public assistance for infrastructure, then the
government has a strong case to ask the President for a declaration of emergency. If
we fall short of that threshold, the Governor can always ask the President for that,
but it is likely that it might not be approved. That is one thing that the Joint
Preliminary Damage Assessment does. Finally, there is a second part of the Joint
Preliminary Damage Assessment that involves individual assistance, which is homes
destroyed, property damage, and personal things that affect the people. If the
Governor goes to the President, he will request a declaration from the President in
two (2) areas: one, public assistance; and the second, individual assessments. In
public assistance, the primary thing that will determine whether the President will
consider it or not is if we do meet the threshold, which in all indications, in this
COUNCIL MEETING 35 APRIL 25, 2018
casualty, we are going to meet. The second thing that on the individual assistance,
there are I think seven (7) traits that the casualty has to have that are the basis for
asking for a Presidential declaration for individual assistance. Of those, one of the
traits is the total number of homes destroyed. That number is high enough that it is
likely that we are not going...it is possible...we do not know yet because we are still
doing the assessment...it is possible that we will fall short of that number. That
number will be a combination of homes destroyed both on Oahu and on Kauai. If
individual assessment is granted, there are certain programs that are available. If
individual assessment is denied by the President, then those programs would not be
available; however, the Small Business Administration loans to rebuild would still be
available if we make the request to the President even though it is denied. There are
some legalities in that, but that is essentially the way it works. I am not going to go
into what all of those are, but I will summarize briefly to say that even if it were
granted, individual assistance is often less than meets the eye. It really does not
meet many of the citizens' expectations of what they need to recover. That is the
general overview that I would like to have. I am going to let Vern go through, in more
detail, how these processes work, and then Lorinda will go through when Vern is
done, assuming you are still interested. She will go through of where we are tactically
in the process and what has happened in the day-to-day "what we know now and
what we do not." I am going to go back and sit down and bring up our FEMA
colleague. I wanted to do this introduction though before I brought the FEMA
colleague up because he is going to have to answer every question if the State asks
for a declaration and if the President decided, then he can tell you what the answers
to the question is. In every case, his answers are going to be predicated on those
two (2) issues. If you do not have questions for me, I will go ahead and let Vern begin.
VERN MIYAGI, HI-EMA Volunteer: Aloha. My name is Vern Miyagi. I am
a HI-EMA volunteer for this. I got asked to participate. Years ago, I participated in
Iniki, so I started my career in `Iniki and I am going to end my career probably with
this thing, so it is good to be on Kaua`i again. Anyway, let me take you through what
the process is. I have passed out some handouts. If you take a look, it starts with
this one. This is the process and let me take you through where we are today. The
incident occurred around the 14th and 15th of April. We did all of the response
missions and life and safety missions that Elton talked about, and as we slowly
recovered from that, we started to do the County assessments. This was done by
County personnel and Red Cross also participated and it was particularly difficult
because of getting into areas, like for Wainiha and Ha'ena, we could not get in there,
so the County could not get in there. Again, we did that. The State comes in later on
and they work with the County to verify that. Then the Governor calls FEMA, like
Tom said about the Joint Preliminary Damage Assessments. That is a team of FEMA
personnel, County personnel, and State personnel and we go through each of the
identified areas, both homes for the individual assistance and capital projects and
highways, and project areas led for the public assistance. That is ongoing right now.
We expect this to be done probably by Friday and I will take you through the timeline
on expectations on that. That is where we are, we are on the fourth step in that list.
Now, once we finish, we anticipate the JPDA process done by this Friday, and then
the reports compiled by FEMA hopefully by the weekend. By May 1st, which is
Tuesday, we anticipate a Governor's request going into FEMA for both individual
assistance and public assistance. So that will go forward. As far as the timeline for
COUNCIL MEETING 36 APRIL 25, 2018
FEMA, that is reviewed by FEMA Region IX in Oakland, goes forward to the
President...goes to national, President, and then comes back. I cannot address that
part, but I know FEMA Region IX, Bob Fenton, the Administrator, has been here on
Kauai. He was here on Friday and he has confirmed to us that they will do their best
to expedite the process. So I got that personally from him. Hopefully, again, the
process, we look at...we anticipate, based on historical views, probably about
May 10th, about that timeframe to get a presidential approval. That is an estimate
on our part. The one thing that I want to emphasize is that because we do not have
a presidential declaration now, that does not stop us and does not stop the emergency
process. The public assistance grant, for example, is a reimbursement grant. We do
the charge out there to save the lives and take care of the people through Elton and
the County personnel, and then file for reimbursement after we get the declaration.
It does not stop the effort. I just want to make that clear. Any questions on the
process?
Councilmember Yukimura: I have a question and I think it actually goes
back to what Mr. Travis was talking about. So the Federal declaration is divided into
two parts: one is public assistance, and one is individual assistance. Is that correct?
Mr. Miyagi: There is really another part that the Governor
will also request for State Small Business Administration loans.
Councilmember Yukimura: Okay, so there are three (3) parts?
Mr. Miyagi: Yes.
Councilmember Yukimura: The public assistance is for public
infrastructure, response, and recovery?
Mr. Miyagi: Correct.
Councilmember Yukimura: So does it appear that we will be able to meet
that threshold?
Mr. Miyagi: In FEMA, we use the word "indicators." As
far as the public assistance, the County-level is about two hundred sixty-six
thousand (266,000) as far as the indicator. I think the County has verified that we
are well in excess of that. Statewide is another requirement, one million nine
hundred thousand (1,900,000). I think Statewide, we are well in the excess of that.
Again, we have to verify all of those project estimates and put that in.
Councilmember Yukimura: Yes.
Mr. Miyagi: Again, it is a request for presidential
declaration. I cannot say that it will be guaranteed, but it looks good for that.
Councilmember Yukimura: Okay. Then there is the individual
assistance, which is to families, farms, et cetera and there are seven (7) indicators or
COUNCIL MEETING 37 APRIL 25, 2018
traits, but that is a separate one and it sounded like...I do not know the level of
assistance, even if we qualify, but it probably is below the need we actually have.
Mr. Miyagi: Let me be blunt on this, this will not replace
your home. We have to make an understanding that this will not replace a home that
has been destroyed of major damage. If you look, there is another attachment in that
handout that covers individual assistance and that will give an indication of what is
available if we get that.
Councilmember Yukimura: Okay. Thank you. The third one is SBA
loans?
Mr. Miyagi: Yes.
Councilmember Yukimura: Low-interest SBA loans?
Mr. Miyagi: Yes.
Councilmember Yukimura: For both families and entities like farms?
Mr. Miyagi: I am not sure about farms...
LORINDA WONG LAU, Chief of HI-EMA Disaster Assistance Section: No,
the Small Business Administration loans...so what happens is the Governor will ask
for individual assistance...
Councilmember Yukimura: You might give your name...
Ms. Wong Lau: I am sorry, I am Lorinda Wong Lau. I am the
Chief of the Disaster Assistance Section for the HI-EMA. So my staff handles all of
the Federally-declared disasters. So when we request for individual assistance, we
are going to ask for all Federal assistance for individuals, including the Small
Business Administration. So that means if the President decides that we cannot get
FEMA's program for individual assistance, the SBA can immediately step in, which
is what we want to happen so that we get some kind of Federal assistance. When we
talk about individual assistance under the Stafford Act, we have to remember that
the Stafford Act does not...their goal is not to bring you back to where you were before
the disaster. "Habitable" is the word they use. Can you live in the house? So they
are going to look at what kind of insurance there is, whatever kind of programs, what
kind of assistance you are getting from the Red Cross, and then what are the unmet
needs, and that is a really key word for them, a key term. After they subtract all of
that, what is still needed? So if we do get their money, they are very specific as to
what the money is to be used for. It could be as specific as, "You get to replace your
sofa and this is the amount of money to replace it." So there will be a lot of guidelines
that will come through and as we have seen in other disasters, sometimes people did
not follow those guidelines and had to give the money back. So we want to make sure
that no one ever gets put in that kind of position. We have to be very careful in how
we use that money.
COUNCIL MEETING 38 APRIL 25, 2018
Council Chair Rapozo: I am going to interject real quick, only
because the item on the agenda is the five million dollars ($5,000,000) emergency
money and I am hoping that the Administration and their community town meetings
as they are going around and hopefully in conjunction with your agencies are
informing the public what needs to be done. I do not want to get too far off track
again. I appreciate you folks being here, but we have to really stick...I am surprised
that the Attorney did not jump up yet and tell me to get back to the agenda, but we
really have to focus on the five million dollar ($5,000,000) request.
Councilmember Yukimura: Thank you.
Council Chair Rapozo: Any other questions? If not, thank you very
much.
Councilmember Kagawa: I have one.
Council Chair Rapozo: Okay, go ahead.
Councilmember Kagawa: This one is for FEMA. I went through the
hurricane, like everybody else, in 1992, where the devastation from Hurricane Iniki
was bad on the homes on the west side, where I lived, and I remember that there
were some of us that had the insurance coverage and there were some of us that did
not that would help us to repair the roofs and what not. I remember FEMA, in many
cases, helped a lot of those families. Maybe we had enough homes damaged, so we
qualified that year, but I remember that FEMA gave grants that were really helpful
to help replace those roofs that were damaged. I am wondering now that I am hearing
that FEMA is less giving in these crises, what happened? Is that true that there is
less money that FEMA has to help with these type of disasters? I am just worried
about those that do not have substantial cash or do not have the flood insurance
coverage or what have you; has that assistance from FEMA that used to be there in
1992 disappeared?
Mr. Miyagi: Let me say one thing, Councilmember
Kagawa—for `Iniki, we did qualify for Individual Assistance (IA). That was the last
time Hawai`i qualified for an IA because the damage was so widespread. As far as
the winding down of funding, I cannot address that on the FEMA side, but we did
qualify the last time.
Councilmember Kagawa: So we qualified the last time, and then this
time if we do not, then there will not be the type of grants available?
CASEY DESHONG, FEMA: Casey DeShong, I am with the Federal
Emergency Management Agency. If there is a declared disaster, an IA is approved.
Survivors would call and they would register with FEMA and we would be able to
provide rental assistance or a minimum amount of money for home repair that
perhaps was not covered by the insurance, because we are prohibited from
duplicating benefits. After they have registered and received that assistance, they
would be immediately referred to the United States Small Business Administration
to see if they are eligible for a low-interest loan. Those low-interest loans are really
COUNCIL MEETING 39 APRIL 25, 2018
the main mechanism that survivors use to help on their recovery, because the
assistance that FEMA provides is really just a "helping hand." As Vern had
mentioned, if the Governor makes a request and say the IA program is not turned on,
that is why they would also ask for those low-interest loans from SBA, because the
SBA could then, after it is turned down, be able to provide those low-interest loans to
the survivors who have been impacted by this flooding. That really is the large
Federal arm that helps people survive or recover from a disaster. Does that answer
your question or clarify?
Councilmember Kagawa: Clear as mud. Just kidding. Again, I am just
worried about those families. We have those in Kbloa that a lot of them do not have
much money and I am just hoping that you folks can do all you can to help those.
There are the rich homes that got damaged, and I feel bad for them, but it is more
about the poor, local people that do not have the funds, so I am hoping that somehow
the Federal government can help us all and do what we can, like how we did in 1992.
I know it is asking for a lot, but I appreciate anything you folks can do. Thank you.
Council Chair Rapozo: Thank you very much. Any other questions
for our County officials? If not, is there anyone in the audience wishing to testify?
Ms. Fountain-Tanigawa: Chair, we do have a registered speaker, Matt
Bernabe.
MATT BERNABE: Matt Bernabe, for the record. It has been a
while since I have been here. It is nice to see everybody. I have been listening
throughout this meeting and I would like to say that I think it took a long time to get
to this point. I understood on the first pass very clear the County's position and I
understand that there are being conservative with the five million
dollars ($5,000,000) and had to move forward because it is an emergency. I disagree
because I think it is going to be more than five million dollars ($5,000,000) and I
understand that it is how much they are going to spend within a timeframe, so I get
that, but just the hazmat clean up at the end of Weke Road, which should have started
a week ago, because I have seen with my own eyes, vehicles sitting in the river water,
contaminating our watershed and the reefs and all of that. On just that aspect alone,
I would say that that would be at least three million dollars ($3,000,000) to five
million dollars ($5,000,000) right there. I think you should get that done within the
next twenty (20) days, as a County, because that is your road. Also, since we are in
that area, I would like to think that the future plans for Black Pot and whatever
funding that was going to go to that would be reallocated into fixing that road and
just postpone indefinitely, because the river mouth is going to do what it is doing and
it is doing what it is doing. I do agree with Councilmember Kagawa that I would like
to see how they are going to spend it on the front side. We all know that this County
runs on "past practice." If we would run on "best practice," we would have that. But
since we do not have that and it is not the time to argue or beat that dog to the ground,
what I would like to see is as the money is being spent, I would like every three (3)
days; that would be a good timeframe to have a memorandum sent to at least the
Chair, if not all of you, saying what they are spending it on and have the receipts
ready to go that if they do get pulled up, if you folks want to do an onsite "audit" and
just ask them, "Hey, what have you spent," they should be able to regurgitate that
COUNCIL MEETING 40 APRIL 25, 2018
information as soon as possible. We cannot count on them on having a system there
to have decent, accurate projections on what they are going to spend, but let us at
least create a system that keeps track as we spend it. As somebody who has been out
there and seen firsthand what really is going on, five million dollars ($5,000,000)
really seems like an underestimate to me. Ten million dollars ($10,000,000)...yes, I
know there are timeframes and all of that...I see my time running out...I would just
like to say that I support this. Let us get some waivers for the volunteers that help
in the County and State areas. As we helped with the taro farmers, we had to sign a
waiver in case we injured ourselves that we could not turn around and come back and
say, "Look, we are going to sue you folks for us helping." So I would like to see that
out there, too. This is a complicated issue. I will come back if I think of anything
later.
Council Chair Rapozo: Okay. Thank you. Anyone else?
Ms. Fountain-Tanigawa: Chair, there are no further registered
speakers.
Council Chair Rapozo: Ana, you can come up.
ANA MOHAMMAD DESMARAIS: Aloha Council. My name is Ana
Mohammad DesMarais, for the record. It is nice to see all of you. I want to give a
deep mahalo to all of you for being the brains behind the operation here and boots on
the ground, everyone in the room. The attention is palatable, so I really do appreciate
the work. I have been watching the past few weeks and I really enjoyed everything I
have seen, how all of the department heads have come very prepared and aware. I
want to extend an extra kudos to the Housing Agency and the Office of the Economic
Development for answering prayers. There truly is a "coconut wireless" network on
the island, so I really appreciate that. It is because of all of you and the
Administration that there is a reserve of funds to tap into in order to provide some
relief in this disaster and it would be wise to create a separate reserve for this purpose
apart from the County's savings during the budget. This will continue to happen.
"Record-breaking and unexpected" will become the new normal, so we should be
prepared. It will also be wise to understand what the water did and where it went
and construct accordingly for this allowance by being innovative in the reconstruction
of the infrastructure, making tunnels under the roads and having stones for the water
to seep through elevating the roads and whatever the engineer is inspired to do. It
should be noted that the community from this region came forward to speak
numerous times on the oversaturation of the space by visitors and residents and how
much of a problem it would be in an emergency. It is also wise to heath the request
of the community, asking for development to be incremental all over the island for
these reasons and more. We must acclimate accordingly as we grow and be respectful
to not ever come close to oversaturation, no matter what the intention of the
development is to be. Consider how ten million dollar ($10,000,000) homes were
moved through like shacks. As I have said on the record before, there is no bank
account wall or gate that can separate or protect you. We are all in this together on
this island. The missing link Sue Kanoho is requesting is for the visitors to view their
stay on the island as a sacred pilgrimage to pay homage to mother nature and to
commune with her, to take off their shoes and walk barefoot on the stones, rivers,
COUNCIL MEETING 41 APRIL 25, 2018
and grass to bow towards the vistas and express gratitude for the trees, to enjoy the
sand between their toes and toast to the sunset, sending praise for all humanity to
receive such joy. May these prayers ripple onward from this small island paradise,
enveloping worldwide. This way, the mana will travel home with them and reach the
entire planet someday, offering aloha to receive mana. I appreciate the efforts of the
County's noble workers going to the root of the cause and curing from there. "David
and Goliath" all day, every day, because the true power sides with the righteous
always. Thank you.
Council Chair Rapozo: Anyone else wishing to testify?
Mr. Bernabe: Matt Bernabe, for the record. Normally, I am
hard on the County, but as I was watching this morning, I thought to myself, "There
is no real perfect solution for this," but regarding the rubbish, that is a concern for
me and I know there were going off of it, and I know that this meeting was about the
five million dollars ($5,000,000) in infrastructure, which rubbish is under that
umbrella as far as I am concerned. We talk about material recovery facilities (MRFs)
all of the time and if we ever needed a MRF program right now, we need it because
that rubbish is just full of different materials, too. That is what is crazy. I have
personally helped gut out some houses and there is no time to sit there as the victim
to sort your own rubbish. I started the conversation, but nobody was really into it
because they are not like us, they do not follow these on a day-to-day, but I made
several jokes that we need them somewhere we could just drop this off and we can
hit the conveyor belt and it can just go out. So maybe, whatever makeshift program
we start for this, because I am assuming that there are some plans in it to somehow
minimize contamination with some of these toxic materials back into the earth that
maybe we can move that forward as a permanent thing. So maybe this could be the
kick-starter that gets us in the right direction. I really cannot express enough how
much we need a hazmat crew at the end of the Weke Road, they should be there now.
Everybody has seen it, it has been on the news. Even if you have not seen it with
your own eyes, you saw the vehicles in the water. But what you do not see on the
video, which I got a kick out of, is the tilapia and the aholehole swimming through
the jeep. That is what made me think...I laughed for a second, but I fish and I eat
this fish and I use tilapia sometimes as bait for papio; river mouths love them. Let
me tell you something—I even eat tilapia, so as somebody who eats that, I saw the
fish swimming through the truck, I was like "We need to clean this up." I kind of
made it light here, but it is a real thing. We are going to need more money. Thank
you.
Council Chair Rapozo: Thank you. Anyone else?
Ms. DesMarais: Aloha. Ana DesMarais, for the record.
According to what Matt was just saying, it is true; part of the five million dollars
($5,000,000) should be that the community volunteers and all of the workers of the
County and the State are provided proper gear, as in boots. In Alaska, everybody has
that just in their backyard as part of their norm, but this is a situation that everybody
should have that. Mother nature did not take any lives gratefully, expressing some
compassion there, but there are people that are getting sick with infections and
needing a lot of treatment, so if we can avoid that sort of disaster, that would be really
COUNCIL MEETING 42 APRIL 25, 2018
amazing if that could be part of the five million dollars ($5,000,000) that everyone
has the equipment that they need. You can share it in shifts with volunteers and
stuff. Thank you.
Council Chair Rapozo: Thank you. Anyone else? Seeing none, I will
call the meeting back to order. Further discussion? The motion is to approve.
Councilmember Kagawa.
There being no further registered speakers, the meeting was called back to
order, and proceeded as follows:
Councilmember Kagawa: I am going to be supporting the approval. I
want to thank members from FEMA, the State, County personnel, and even members
around this Council—all of you have been working hard helping families and doing it
"Kaua`i style" and I appreciate you folks and you folks lead by example here on this
table. We are going to need help. I think getting the Federal and State government
to step up again, as they did in 1992, is going to be critical. There was a lot of damage
done that we have not even assessed yet. The people are going for critical services
right now and a lot of that area has not been evaluated and there is going to be
damage out there. This is going to be a long road and my hope is that while we go
through this process that the main thing is that we do the jobs right and we try not
to waste money. That is when the taxpayers get frustrated is when they see
government waste. I want to make sure that as we go through this process, let us
make sure that we do not waste, we do it as best as we can, and just continue to do
the right thing and try to bring normalcy back to Kauai. It is going to take a while,
but our local residents lead everyday by example; helping each other the way we do
it on Kaua`i is unbelievable. We did it in 1982, 1992, and we are going to do it again.
The only way Kaua`i does it is everyone just helping each other out and they are not
asking for anything. Again, from FEMA, I made the request. I hope that you folks
can step up and help bring "The Garden Isle" back, because we have been through it
before. Without FEMA, we would have never recovered from `Iniki and we did and
got the help that we needed from FEMA, the State, and our County, and we have to
do it again. We have a big task in front of us. I just want to thank all of you and
make sure that we continue going forward and work together with the Council and
provide us with the documentation, so it is seamless. We are here to help, but on the
other hand, we are here to provide accountability to the taxpayers. So while it
sometimes seems like fighting, it is actually...well, we are fighting, but we are
fighting to make sure that we do things right. You can just do it where you make
some mistakes or you can do it the right way. I just want to make sure that we do it
the right way. Thank you, Chair.
Council Chair Rapozo: Councilmember Kawakami.
Councilmember Kawakami: Thank you, Mr. Chair. I am going support
this Emergency Proclamation and I want to mirror and echo a lot of things that
Councilmember Kagawa has said. We have been asking the question, "Is the
community going to be able to come together if a `Hurricane `Iniki' ever hit?" A lot of
people said, "I do not think it is going to be the same. I think we have grown and I
think it is going to be questionable," but I can tell you from what we have seen is that
COUNCIL MEETING 43 APRIL 25, 2018
the "aloha spirit" still exists and it is even stronger than before. We had people from
Kekaha who responded to help rescue people out on the north shore. What is not
really being said out there is that these community groups that have evolved and
come out, they are the ones feeding each other. Malama Kaua`i and every single
organization that is out there shuttling food back and forth by boat or whichever
means they can is just absolutely amazing as to how the community has stepped up.
I can tell you that the people that seem to be handling this the very best are the ones
that have been impacted the most. I think as elected officials, we have to be cognizant
of that. What those communities need right now is positive energy, positive thoughts,
and leadership and that we are welcomed to kohua and help and see what this is all
about, because it is amazing what is happening out there across the island from
Koloa. All the resources from government of course immediately went to the north
shore because that was a community that was cut off and that was a community
where we had to ensure that there was public safety. Those National Guard soldiers
are just amazing out there. The public safety officials that have been there are
amazing. That community is feeding all of these soldiers and it is amazing what has
evolved. It is truly an inspiration. Vern Miyagi—thank you very much for
volunteering. It is okay for us to push to panic button, just as long as we are not
pushing the missile button. He came to the EOC and livened that whole room up
immediately. I can tell you that we really appreciate you for what you did for Kaua`i
during Iniki and we truly appreciate everything that you are doing now, and
everybody in that EOC...I tell you when people out there are asking, "What are they
doing at the EOC"—do you know what they are doing? They are staying up twenty-
four (24) hours a day, seven (7) days a week and they are getting frustrated with each
other because they do not really want to be there...do you know where they want to
be? They want to be out there in the community, but we need them there because
these are the guys that are formulating the action plan. Every mission that is being
deployed the next day is because we have this big "think-tank" staying up day and
night, just trying to formulate the plan to dig these people out of mud. Thank you,
Mr. Chair.
Council Chair Rapozo: Councilmember Brun.
Councilmember Brun: Thank you. Yes, I will be supporting this.
There are a lot of people out there that are helping. When we first went out,
(inaudible) we bought three thousand dollars ($3,000) worth of food and brought it
out to Hanalei (inaudible) last week Monday out to Hanalei. I did not know that
Koloa was that bad until we found out and we want and (inaudible) donated another
forty (40) beds to the residents out in Koloa. It took a lot of people to put all of this
together. We bought a backhoe down in Keapana and help the farmers out there...I
am going to be out there tomorrow. Our Administration, our County staff—I went
out to Hanalei yesterday...I finally went down to the pier and there were workers on
the ground, assessing the damage and helping with loading the boats. The Planning
Department was down there trying to load the boats, trying to get the food in. It is
just unbelievable what this County has been doing and stepping up to the plate. For
these five million dollars ($5,000,000), I will be glad to support this and move forward,
as long as we are helping out with the emergency stuff. Our EOC, any call I ever had
got answered right away, so they are on top of it. We got the messages on E-mail and
I just want to thank you folks for all of your hard work. Elton, it looks like you did
COUNCIL MEETING 44 APRIL 25, 2018
not sleep in fourteen (14) days. Get some rest. Thank you for all that you folks do,
the Administration, our staff, and Lyle folks. Also, Mauna Kea, since ninety percent
(90%) of your work is drama, but thank you for helping out with real stuff.
Council Chair Rapozo: Thank you. Councilmember Kaneshiro.
Councilmember Kaneshiro: I will be supporting this also. I think it is a
relief that in the past we have been practicing fiscal responsibility and we do have
the flexibility. We did budget for emergency money in our reserve, which goes to show
that we need it. It makes it a much easier decision when we have put that money
aside and said "that is what this money is for." Five million dollars ($5,000,000)—we
heard very clear that it will not be their only ask, but that is what they are asking for
at this moment right now. We are here to support the Administration and the island
in any way we possibly can and releasing this money is one first small step. Again, I
want to repeat how thankful we are for the communities coming together; the County,
the State, and everyone who has come down, like the Feds, too. If you go by the EOC
building, you will see a lot of people that almost look like zombies already. It is not
only the hours that they put in, but it is also the stress level. They have people calling
in constantly, "We need this, we need that, we want that," and I am sure that they
would love to give everybody all the requests, but they cannot. They have to prioritize
the request and go through different means to get resources somewhere. I am just
thankful they are there. They are receiving the calls, trying to do the best they can
and I think the community has been happy with what they have seen also. I think
they have seen the County come out. The County was down in Koloa helping them
dump a lot of their big furniture and stuff. That would have been stuff that people in
Koloa would have had to truck...they probably could fit one (1) mattress and one (1)
couch in their truck and drive it all the way out to Hanapepe, have to come back, and
they would probably be making fifteen (15), twenty (20), or thirty (30) rounds when
the County was out there helping assist. I think it has been going good, considering.
Nobody wants a storm like this, but it happened so we deal with it. I think that as
we progress, we just have to do the best we can with what we have. The five million
dollars ($5,000,000) is a good start and I think luckily we had it in the budget and
had it reserved. We have up to fourteen million dollars ($14,000,000) reserved. So
just keep up the good work and look forward to the reports that come in so that we
can help update the community also. We get a lot of calls from the community, "We
need this. What are you folks doing here?" I can say that you folks have been very
responsive to whatever we needed also, so thank you.
Council Chair Rapozo: Anyone else? Councilmember Yukimura.
Councilmember Yukimura: As Councilmember Kawakami said, the
response has been amazing, both in terms of EOC, out in the field, on-island,
off-island, public/private. It is just amazing. When I was at Koloa, there was a whole
church that had spent a day, people going to help clean. In Kealia and Anahola, I
think hundreds showed up on Saturday and Sunday and the food trucks and the
restaurants that were donating support was just heartwarming and with individual
donations. We have an amazing community. That is the kind of community and
public outreach that we have to support in the coming days. I will count on not
hearing that we do not have any money to do the things that have to be done in the
COUNCIL MEETING 45 APRIL 25, 2018
next sixty (60) days and I am hopeful that we can have a well-organized solid waste
system that will divert as much as we can, because the landfill, as we know, has
already been filling up faster than ever. We are not going to be ready with a new
landfill. I also hope that we will be able to address the individual needs of both our
families and our farmers because...I hope that we will be able to do it in a way that
supports local businesses. I saw a report from Megan Fox and the request that we
really hire local contractors and local businesses to do the response and recovery.
Thank you.
Council Chair Rapozo: Anyone else? If not, I will just echo all the
comments from all Members. It is a lot easier going last because everything has been
said, but I do want to extend my thank-you to the Administration, EOC, all the
emergency workers, Police, Fire—these guys are out running around, especially right
after when there was really no electricity. It was just not pretty out there and for all
of the first responders that had to respond, they did a great job, and for that, I thank
everybody. For the community, I think as has been said around the table, everywhere
we have been, the community is working really, really hard. A lot of them were here
during the hurricane and a lot of them were not and they are learning quickly that
that is the Kaua`i way. We help each other. It is just very heartwarming to see that,
especially in some families that lost everything. The response to Koloa was a little
bit late because we did not know...we simply did not know until later, after-the-fact.
The need out on the north shore, because of the closures of the road, that obviously
was a priority. But these folks lost everything. The waters came through their
homes. You know how we store everything in our homes, like pictures and photo
albums—all gone. That is hard to watch, but the community has just stepped up at
all levels. I am not even going to start naming them because we are going to miss
some, but it seems like every time we need something and we call a company or call
a business or we talk to someone that knows someone, it is done and there are no
requests for money or nobody gauging the services and the fees. They are just willing
to get involved and help. At some point, we will have the opportunity to thank these
people properly. Right now, we are in recovery and repair mode and we got a lot of
things to fix. If anyone things that this is going to be done in the next few months, it
is not going to be. This is going to be a year or maybe longer because of the
devastating effects. I look at the damages and I look at the people that do not have
resources to fix their homes; just applying with FEMA and all of these things and
getting partial moneys to fix their homes is not enough. It is not like everyone has a
bank account with money available to fix their homes and I think what was said,
"habitable," getting these places "habitable" is number one so they can at least get in
and have a good night's sleep. There are just so many needs that we have to fulfil.
Then the response from the outer islands...now, we kind of have to tell them, "Slow
down." I just read on Facebook that there are a couple of containers coming in from
Maui and Honolulu. Where do we send all of these things? We do not have the ability
to store these things right now. Everyone has good intentions, but I think now we
have a lot more than we can use at this moment, so we have to find places to store it.
My point is that the outpouring of support from all over has just been tremendous.
For that, we thank everybody. Then of course, the visiting agencies, and Mr. Miyagi,
you are here on our island and we thank you, all of you, for giving up your time and
spending the time and expertise with us. The five million dollars ($5,000,000)...the
sixty-one (61) day requirement is really the kicker for me. I am a realist and I think
COUNCIL MEETING 46 APRIL 25, 2018
the public needs to know that if...I saw some pictures...Mauna Kea showed me some
pictures of Kahiliholo Road, which is about ready to cave-in. If that should happen,
obviously a phone call to Council Services for Jade to schedule an emergency meeting
for the remainder of the funds can be done. We do not need to follow the Sunshine
Law. It is not the end of the world to have a meeting with the majority of the
Councilmembers showing up and passing the additional funds. I think
Councilmember Kagawa talked about it...I was kind of nervous when he talked about
"pushing the panic button." I did not want to offend, but when Councilmember
Kawakami talked about, I figured you were okay with it, Mr. Miyagi, when he talked
about the button. I figured that, "He is okay with it." When Councilmember Kagawa
said it, I was like "Oh my God, poor choice of words," but my point is that now is a
time to really relax and that is our job here, to kickback and not panic and take these
things as they come, knowing that the mechanisms are in place in our Charter that
should something drastic happen and moneys are needed that we do not need to wait
weeks and weeks and that we can do it in one (1) day. The motion is to receive.
The motion to receive C 2018-115 for the record was then put, and carried by
a vote of 6:0:1 (Councilmember Chock was excused).
Council Chair Rapozo: Can we go to the Bill, please?
There being no objections, Proposed Draft Bill (No. 2709) was taken out of
order.
EMERGENCY BILL:
Proposed Draft Bill(No. 2709)—AN EMERGENCY ORDINANCE AMENDING
ORDINANCE NO. B-2017-821, AS AMENDED, RELATING TO THE OPERATING
BUDGET OF THE COUNTY OF KAUAI, STATE OF HAWAII, FOR THE FISCAL
YEAR JULY 1, 2017 THROUGH JUNE 30, 2018, FOR THE PURPOSE OF
FUNDING EMERGENCY EXPENDITURES TO MEET THE PUBLIC
EMERGENCY CAUSED BY HEAVY RAINS AND SEVERE FLOODING WHICH
STARTED ON APRIL 14, 2018, BY REVISING THE AMOUNTS ESTIMATED IN
THE GENERAL FUND ($5,000,000.00 — Disaster Response): Councilmember
Kawakami moved to approve Proposed Draft Bill (No. 2709) pursuant to Kaua`i
County Charter Section 4.02K, and that it be transmitted to the Mayor for his approval,
seconded by Councilmember Brun.
Council Chair Rapozo: Thank you. Anyone want to have more
discussion on this?
Councilmember Kagawa: Just real quickly, I received a text yesterday
from a math teacher at Waimea High School and he texted me and said that why do we
not take all of the trees and what have you to Green Energy and have them use it to
make electricity instead of burying it or whatever we are going to do with it. He said,
"I assume you folks are going to do it," but I said, "Well, when you say `assume,' my
coach always used to tell me that is a bad work to use," because do not assume and
make sure you check. So if the Department of Public Works and FEMA can try to see
if we can direct some of those debris to Green Energy...we can even deliver it and it
COUNCIL MEETING 47 APRIL 25, 2018
makes sense for both sides. They do not have the labor of having to cut it down, it is
already cut down. So if we can do some of that and work with Green Energy, I think
that math teacher said that it would make a lot of sense. I just want to make sure we
follow that. Thanks.
Council Chair Rapozo: Thank you. Councilmember Yukimura.
Councilmember Yukimura: I think that our Acting County Engineer said
that they are looking into that, which I think is an excellent thing. One of the things
we are learning from this disaster is the impact of Albizia on this island and there has
been expressed to me concern that in a hurricane, they would also be a very detrimental
force in the winds. So both by water or by wind, they are a big problem and they are
rapidly spreading, so learning how to deal with them in this disaster would be very
useful in terms of disaster debris. I also want to reinforce what our Budget & Finance
Committee Chair has said about the importance of a reserve. It is a theoretical exercise
when we are doing budgeting,but when a disaster hits,you really realize how important
the reserve funds are and I predict that we will need more than fourteen million five
hundred thousand dollars ($14,500,000), which is what we have set aside. I am glad
that we had the wisdom to set those moneys aside. I just also want to acknowledge
Mr. Miyagi for his role both during `Iniki and now as a volunteer for his tremendous
commitment to emergency response and public service. Thank you very much.
Council Chair Rapozo: Anyone else? Councilmember Kawakami.
Councilmember Kawakami: Thank you, Mr. Chair. To add to the list of
people that are also contributing to our Kaua`i delegation at the legislature, Senator
Kouchi, Representative Nakamura, Representative Tokioka, Representative
Morikawa, and every other representative and senator out there that is going to be
voting, if they have not voted yet on the appropriation. We say we need our fair share—
this is a good example of getting more than our fair share. Every single district across
the State of Hawaii is standing shoulder to shoulder to say, "We want to help Kaua`i."
A part of that appropriation is also going to go to County infrastructure, so that is one
way that our team has looked at ways to contribute to the County's efforts, so a big
mahalo.
Council Chair Rapozo: Thank you. Anyone else? If not, the motion is
approve. Roll call.
The motion to approve Proposed Draft Bill (No. 2709) pursuant to Kaua`i
County Charter Section 4.02K, and that it be transmitted to the Mayor for his
approval was then put, and carried by the following vote:
FOR APPROVAL: Brun, Kagawa, Kaneshiro, Kawakami,
Yukimura, Rapozo TOTAL–6,
AGAINST APPROVAL: None TOTAL–0,
EXCUSED & NOT VOTING: Chock TOTAL– 1,
RECUSED & NOT VOTING: None TOTAL– 0.
Ms. Fountain-Tanigawa: Six (6) ayes, one (1) excused.
COUNCIL MEETING 48 APRIL 25, 2018
Council Chair Rapozo: Thank you. Next item.
C 2018-111 Communication (03/29/2018) from the Director of Economic
Development, requesting Council approval to apply for, receive, and expend funds in
a total amount of $312,928.00, 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 ($104,660);
• Dislocated Worker Program ($73,015);
• Youth Program ($103,962); and
• Administrative Costs ($31,291).
Councilmember Kagawa moved to approve C 2018-111, seconded by
Councilmember Kaneshiro.
Council Chair Rapozo: Any discussion or public testimony?
There being no objections, the rules were suspended to take public testimony.
There being no one present to provide testimony, the meeting was called back
to order, and proceeded as follows:
The motion to approve C 2018-111 was then put, and carried by a vote of 6:0:1
(Councilmember Chock was excused).
Council Chair Rapozo: Next item, please.
C 2018-112 Communication (04/11/2018) from the Acting County Engineer,
transmitting for Council consideration, a Proposed Draft Bill for the adoption of the
2015 Edition of the International Energy Code based on the State Energy
Conservation Code that was adopted on March 21, 2017, which is an appropriate
progression to ensure achievable energy savings as the current Code is based on the
2009 Edition of the International Energy Conservation Code: Councilmember
Kagawa moved to receive C 2018-112 for the record, seconded by Councilmember
Brun.
Council Chair Rapozo: Any discussion or public testimony?
There being no objections, the rules were suspended to take public testimony.
There being no one present to provide testimony, the meeting was called back
to order, and proceeded as follows:
The motion to receive C 2018-112 for the record was then put, and carried by
a vote of 6:0:1 (Councilmember Chock was excused).
Council Chair Rapozo: Next item, please.
COUNCIL MEETING 49 APRIL 25, 2018
C 2018-113 Communication (04/11/2018) from the Mayor, transmitting for
Council consideration, the cost items for the Hawai`i Government Employees
Association (HGEA) Bargaining Unit 14 for the period July 1, 2017 through
June 30, 2019 based on an arbitrated award and in accordance with the procedures
contained in Chapter 89, Hawai`i Revised Statutes (HRS), pursuant to Section 89-11
of the HRS and Section 19.13B of the Kauai County Charter: Councilmember
Kagawa moved to receive C 2018-113 for the record, seconded by Councilmember
Brun.
Council Chair Rapozo: Any discussion or public testimony?
There being no objections, the rules were suspended to take public testimony.
There being no one present to provide testimony, the meeting was called back
to order, and proceeded as follows:
The motion to receive C 2018-113 for the record was then put, and carried by
a vote of 6:0:1 (Councilmember Chock was excused).
Council Chair Rapozo: Next item, please.
C 2018-114 Communication (04/17/2018) from Council Chair Rapozo,
requesting the presence of the Acting County Engineer, to discuss the current hours
at the Kekaha Landfill and refuse transfer stations: Councilmember Brun moved to
receive C 2018-114 for the record, seconded by Councilmember Yukimura.
Council Chair Rapozo: Lyle, I will suspend the rules.
There being no objections, the rules were suspended.
Mr. Tabata: Good morning, Chair and Councilmembers.
Council Chair Rapozo: Good morning, Lyle. I have been getting a lot
of questions from the public about the hours, so I wanted to get it on the floor. I think
now with this unfortunate storm, is there any plans to open the landfill and transfer
stations longer to accommodate the people that are working really around the clock
to clean up their properties?
Mr. Tabata: We have been having extended hours from
last week, immediately after the storm, and we started doing the determination and
some recovery. The Hanalei Transfer Station and the Kekaha Landfill have been
operating under extended hours, two (2) hours longer each day to accommodate.
Council Chair Rapozo: So what would the hours be now?
Mr. Tabata: The hours are 7:15 a.m. to 5:15 p.m.
Council Chair Rapozo: So those are the new extended hours?
COUNCIL MEETING 50 APRIL 25, 2018
Mr. Tabata: During this present activity.
Council Chair Rapozo: Right.
Mr. Tabata: So we have been operating two (2) hours extra
each day.
Council Chair Rapozo: Okay. Councilmember Kagawa.
Councilmember Kagawa: I know we sent a personal request and I got
your answer that it has always been this way on the holidays. So on holidays, we
pick up rubbish from residents, but then the transfer stations and the landfill is
closed to the public, so only our automated or the non-automated...we keep it open
for them to accommodate during the...
Mr. Tabata: The station is not open, they just have the key
to get in and they dispose. In some cases, if we did not haul out all of the material to
have enough room for the following day, the holiday, and we are going to be all filled,
we bring crews out to just move enough loads so that we do have space for the next
day's start.
Councilmember Kagawa: Okay, so we need a certain amount of space to
begin the next day of being open.
Mr. Tabata: Yes.
Councilmember Kagawa: We do not want it to be stuffed with trash and
then open up the next day and there is no room.
Mr. Tabata: Yes. On certain occasions, it depends on
timing and some equipment availability or unavailability that if we did not make the
proper amount of space then we have to come a few hours to be able to service the
day following a holiday.
Councilmember Kagawa: For me, I am not talking about the daily
residents' trash, but I am talking about these commercial haulers, like Garden Isle
and what have you, that they haul rubbish for all the commercial, schools, and what
have you and I guess the question is would it not be a great idea if they allowed to us
to as well, because we have storage needs and the next day after the holiday, we have
to pick up a new batch of rubbish. So if we are taking in our County worker, should
we not open for the commercial guys? I just thought that it should be considered, not
to say that I hope I change your mind now, but I hope that we would consider, because
when you hear that argument, that is true. It is inconvenient for us if we had to close
it and we had to store all of that rubbish, but the commercial guys have that same
problem. They have a whole new batch tomorrow after the holiday to pick up as well.
So when we have a holiday, they are stuck. Like a person at home, you are not really
that stuck because you only have what you have at home. But for these commercial
guys, I just thought that should we reconsider at this point? I know we have been
COUNCIL MEETING 51 APRIL 25, 2018
doing it like this for twenty (20) years, but the requests have been made from the
private sector asking if you folks can consider, so can we reconsider. Perhaps we are
staffing with one (1) person.
Mr. Tabata: That is the issue, the staffing. We are bound
by the Department of Health and they have a minimum requirement for staffing,
especially at the landfill because we are require to cover the loads daily and cap it.
There are a lot of restrictions that way.
Councilmember Kagawa: Understood. When I heard that argument, I
thought to myself that maybe the answer that, "Well, we have been doing it for
twenty (20) years," is not such a good one and at least it seems to warrant for me the
seriousness that we at least consider it a little deeper.
Mr. Tabata: Well, we can look at it and if we can have the
commercial haulers...I guess it does warrant a look and if you have that many calls
and we can evaluate it and see...it is based on volume and cost. So if the volume
expected does not allow us to at least meet some of the cost...
Councilmember Kagawa: I think what they are saying is if the County
automated trash guys are only going there until ten o'clock or so, maybe that is their
huki pau time, then just allow at least the commercial guys to go until ten o'clock; not
open the whole day, just whatever we allow for our County household trash, allow for
the large commercial haulers to bring up to that same time that we let the County
guys do it. That was their request. Like I said, I just think that it sounds serious
enough that we give it more consideration than just say, "Well, it has been like this
for twenty (20) years, so no."
Mr. Tabata: The times when we do have to open the
landfill to transfer is an exception and not the norm on a holiday.
Councilmember Kagawa: Okay. Thank you.
Council Chair Rapozo: Councilmember Kawakami.
Councilmember Kawakami: That was a good point and that point has come
up on the private sector side and I think they are seeing our County trash trucks
going and making drop-offs, so they are saying"we are stuck with this mess, too," and
it is about fifty percent (50%) of the waste stream as well. The Department of Health
standards to cover every day, does that apply to us as well?
Mr. Tabata: Yes.
Councilmember Kawakami: So we are already going to have the crews to
do the cover. Do you have an estimate about how much more staff you would have to
have on hand to handle the private sector trash coming in on holidays? Holidays are
an exception; they do not happen every single week. But during the exceptional time,
have we cost-estimated how much it would cost?
COUNCIL MEETING 52 APRIL 25, 2018
Mr. Tabata: It costs us four hundred eighty dollars ($480)
an hour.
Councilmember Kawakami: Okay. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Council Chair Rapozo: So it does not happen every holiday?
Mr. Tabata: No.
Council Chair Rapozo: How many holidays have we opened the
landfill?
Mr. Tabata: I have to get back on that. I do not have that
information.
Council Chair Rapozo: Is it half? More than half? Less than half?
You said it is more of an exception, not the rule, but is it a significant amount?
Mr. Tabata: I need to get back to you with that.
Council Chair Rapozo: Typically, when you do open on a holiday,
what is the staffing? Do you have the scaling person? The scale house has to open?
Mr. Tabata: Yes. It requires nine (9) people to staff.
Council Chair Rapozo: And that nine (9) people would be able to
accommodate the private hauler as well? I would envision this period of time where
it is not constant, right? Is there a gap between trucks?
Mr. Tabata: Yes.
Council Chair Rapozo: That could be filled? In fact, it would make it
probably worth more...we would generate more revenue if you collect the tipping fees
from the private sector. It just makes some economical sense that if we are open
anyway and we are paying four hundred eighty dollars ($480) an hour, that we would
fill the gaps with private sector trash and at least make some money, and also, handle
the overload that they have to deal with as well. That was my question. So you have
a crew in place that could accommodate the trash?
Mr..Tabata: It would just be overtime. We would have to
schedule overtime.
Council Chair Rapozo: But you are already paying that?
Mr. Tabata: When we do open, we do pay the overtime.
Council Chair Rapozo: So it would not cost extra from the days that
you are already open?
COUNCIL MEETING 53 APRIL 25, 2018
Mr. Tabata: Yes.
Council Chair Rapozo: Okay. They probably get close to one
hundred (100) tons a day, I would guess.
Mr. Tabata: Yes, they are half the total...two
hundred (200) total a day.
Council Chair Rapozo: So about one hundred (100) tons a day, times
that by the tipping fee, which we charge them—that is a significant revenue source
right there that we are giving up. Councilmember Kawakami.
Councilmember Kawakami: I think the more important question is are we
informing the private haulers on the closures or are they showing up and telling
them, "We are closed today?"
Mr. Tabata: No, they know that we are closed on holidays.
So the issue would be when we do make the decision that we have to open on a
holiday, which is usually only the day before, then we would be notifying them. So
the logistics of making sure they get the notification and we have to estimate how
long we will stay open. As soon as the refuse need is met, then we normally do the
final cover and then we send the crews home. It is a whole logistic thing of bringing
enough daily cover in from the source to sit at the landfill to be able to accommodate
meeting the regulatory needs of covering daily. We have to take a good look at it.
Council Chair Rapozo: It might not be worth it. If it is one (1) or
two (2) holidays a year, then I am not sure. But if we are doing it more often, then it
is probably something to consider. I guess it was kind of upsetting...I received a call,
too, because the landfill is closed, but they are driving past and they see the landfill
is really not closed and they are wondering why and that they have to take their trash
all the way back to Lihu`e and then tomorrow come all the way back. So if we can
accommodate...there may be an additional cost associated with that. I do not know.
That is something that you folks have to figure out.
Mr. Tabata: Thank you.
Council Chair Rapozo: Anyone else? Any questions? If not, thank
you, Lyle. Is there anybody in the audience wishing to testify? Seeing none, the
motion on the floor is to receive.
There being no one present to provide testimony, the meeting was called back
to order, and proceeded as follows:
The motion to receive C 2018-114 for the record was then put, and carried by
a vote of 6:0:1 (Councilmember Chock was excused).
Council Chair Rapozo: Next item, please.
COUNCIL MEETING 54 APRIL 25, 2018
LEGAL DOCUMENT:
C 2018-116 Communication (04/18/2018) from the County Attorney,
requesting Council approval of the following indemnification language that will be
used as a template for various legal agreements that will be executed between the
County and private landowners in order to provide emergency services to the public
including, but not limited to, alternate access and evacuation routes, emergency
staging areas, debris clearing, etc.
• April 14, 2018 Disaster Event Indemnification Language for
Legal Agreements
"Responsibility. The County shall indemnify and defend
_(landowner)_ against all claims, damages and expenses
arising out of the exercise of this agreement and be
responsible, to the extent permitted by law, for damage or
injury caused by the County's officers, employees, agents and
contractors in the scope of their employment and any other use
permitted by the County arising out of the exercise of this
Agreement, subject, however, to the availability of funds by
the County Council."
Councilmember Kaneshiro moved to approve C 2018-116, seconded by
Councilmember Kagawa.
Council Chair Rapozo: Any discussion? Councilmember Yukimura.
Councilmember Yukimura: I had a question for Mauna Kea.
Council Chair Rapozo: I will suspend the rules. Mauna Kea, there is
a question about the indemnification item.
There being no objections, the rules were suspended.
Mr. Trask: Aloha. For the record, Mauna Kea Trask,
County Attorney.
Councilmember Yukimura: Thank you, Mauna Kea. My only question is
at the very end of this indemnification language, it says "subject, however, to the
availability of funds by the County Council"—I did not know that you could limit
indemnification to the amount of money that an entity has.
Mr. Trask: Well, you can. We cannot give any money that
we do not have and that is a common clause that you incorporate when you are
dealing with legislative branch and the authority to control the purse strings. So I
do not think it is a probability, I do not think it is likely, but it is something that we
want to put in there just to acknowledge this body's legal prerogative and to be just
upfront with the private parties that we are working with just to say that it is what
COUNCIL MEETING 55 APRIL 25, 2018
it is. We are in an emergency...we do not have a lot of money to cover...there are
limits. That is the point of it.
Councilmember Yukimura: So we are telling the landowners that if there
are claims and damages arising out of or caused by County officers, employees, or
contractors in the scope of their employment, we will indemnify them, but it is
limited.
Mr. Trask: Yes, this County has to have a balanced
budget. It cannot go into debt. There are all of these restrictions, so we are just
putting it out there in the clause so that it is clear.
Councilmember Yukimura: But they are still going to sue us and no
matter whether we have the money or not, they are going to say that we owe it to
them.
Mr. Trask: That is why we want to put in the language,
subject to the availability of funds.
Councilmember Yukimura: Which the Mayor could also veto. Is it solely
just the County Council that makes the funds available?
Mr. Trask: The legislative branch controls the purse
strings, yes.
Councilmember Yukimura: But it is an appropriation bill?
Mr. Trask: No, this...
Councilmember Yukimura: This is just the fund that we approve or
disapprove?
Mr. Trask: This is an indemnity provision that we want
to have available to use in order to deal with this disaster. Sometimes we are going
to have to work with private partners, especially in the isolated areas, whether it is
access roads, easements, services, waste sites, and all that kind of stuff.
Councilmember Yukimura: Okay.
Council Chair Rapozo: Any other questions? If not, thank you
Mauna Kea.
Mr. Trask: Thank you.
Council Chair Rapozo: I will call the meeting back to order. Further
discussion?
There being no objections, the meeting was called back to order, and proceeded
as follows:
COUNCIL MEETING 56 APRIL 25, 2018
The motion to approve C 2018-116 was then put, and carried by a vote of 6:0:1
(Councilmember Chock was excused).
Council Chair Rapozo: Motion carried. Next item.
CLAIMS:
C 2018-117 Communication (03/29/2018) from the County Clerk,
transmitting a claim filed against the County of Kaua`i by Marilyn Luis, for personal
expenses, pursuant to Section 23.06, Charter of the County of Kauai.
C 2018-118 Communication (04/02/2018) from the County Clerk,
transmitting a claim filed against the County of Kauai by Mario Tolentino, for
damage to his vehicle, pursuant to Section 23.06, Charter of the County of Kauai.
Councilmember Kagawa moved to refer C 2018-117 and C 2018-118 to the
Office of the County Attorney for disposition and/or report back to the Council,
seconded by Councilmember Kaneshiro.
Council Chair Rapozo: Any discussion or public testimony?
There being no objections, the rules were suspended to take public testimony.
There being no one present to provide testimony, the meeting was called back
to order, and proceeded as follows:
The motion to refer C 2018-117 and C 2018-118 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 (Councilmember Chock was excused).
COMMITTEE REPORTS:
ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT & INTERGOVERNMENTAL RELATIONS
COMMITTEE:
A report (No. CR-EDIR 2018-01) submitted by the Economic Development &
Intergovernmental Relations Committee, recommending that the following be
Approved as Amended on second and final reading:
"Bill No. 2697 — A BILL FOR AN ORDINANCE TO AMEND
CHAPTERS 18, 20, AND 23, KAUAI COUNTY CODE 1987, AS AMENDED,
RELATING TO REVOCABLE PERMITS IN COUNTY DESIGNATED
RIGHTS-OF-WAY,"
Councilmember Brun moved for approval of the report, seconded by
Councilmember Yukimura.
COUNCIL MEETING 57 APRIL 25, 2018
Council Chair Rapozo: Any discussion? Anybody from the public
wishing to speak on this?
There being no objections, the rules were suspended to take public testimony.
There being no one present to provide testimony, the meeting was called back
to order, and proceeded as follows:
The motion for approval of the report was then put, and carried by a vote of
6:0:1 (Councilmember Chock was excused).
Council Chair Rapozo: Next item, please.
BUDGET & FINANCE COMMITTEE:
A report (No. CR-BF 2018-15) submitted by the Budget & Finance Committee,
recommending that the following be Approved on second and final reading:
"Bill No. 2700 — A BILL FOR AN ORDINANCE TO AMEND
CHAPTER 17A, KAUAI COUNTY CODE 1987, AS AMENDED, RELATING
TO COLLECTION OF BUS FARES,"
Councilmember Brun moved for approval of the report, seconded by
Councilmember Yukimura.
Council Chair Rapozo: Any discussion? Anybody from the public
wishing to speak on this?
There being no objections, the rules were suspended to take public testimony.
There being no one present to provide testimony, the meeting was called back
to order, and proceeded as follows:
The motion for approval of the report was then put, and carried by a vote of
6:0:1 (Councilmember Chock was excused).
Council Chair Rapozo: Next item, please.
PUBLIC SAFETY & TRANSPORTATION COMMITTEE:
A report (No. CR-PST 2018-01) submitted by the Public Safety &
Transportation recommending that the following be Approved as Amended on second
and final reading:
"Bill No. 2695 — A BILL FOR AN ORDINANCE AMENDING
CHAPTER 19 AND ESTABLISHING A NEW ARTICLE 26, CHAPTER 22,
KAUAI COUNTY CODE 1987, AS AMENDED, RELATING TO WHIPS AND
WEAPONS ON COUNTY PROPERTY,"
COUNCIL MEETING 58 APRIL 25, 2018
Councilmember Brun moved for approval of the report, seconded by
Councilmember Yukimura.
Council Chair Rapozo: Any discussion? Anybody from the public
wishing to speak on this?
There being no objections, the rules were suspended to take public testimony.
There being no one present to provide testimony, the meeting was called back
to order, and proceeded as follows:
The motion for approval of the report was then put, and carried by a vote of
6:0:1 (Councilmember Chock was excused).
Council Chair Rapozo: Next item, please.
BILLS FOR FIRST READING:
Proposed Draft Bill (No. 2710) — A BILL FOR AN ORDINANCE AMENDING
CHAPTER 12, ARTICLE 6, KAUAI COUNTY CODE 1987, AS AMENDED,
RELATING TO THE ENERGY CODE: Councilmember Yukimura moved for passage
of Proposed Draft Bill (No. 2710) on first reading, that it be ordered to print, that a
public hearing thereon be scheduled for May 30, 2018, and referred to the Public.
Works / Parks & Recreation Committee, seconded by Councilmember Brun.
Council Chair Rapozo: Any discussion or public testimony?
Councilmember Yukimura.
Councilmember Yukimura: Can we hear from Mr. Haigh or the County
Engineer, just so people know what this Bill is about?
Council Chair Rapozo: With that, I will suspend the rules with no
objection.
There being no objections, the rules were suspended.
Mr. Tabata: Good morning, Chair and Members of the
Council. Lyle Tabata, Acting County Engineer. I will allow Doug Haigh to express
the details of the new code update.
DOUGLAS HAIGH, Chief of Buildings: Good afternoon, Doug Haigh,
Department of Public Works. The 2015 International Energy Conservation Code was
approved by the Governor as the State Code and I believe it was signed in March last
year. By State law, if we do not adopt the code with our own amendments, we have
to follow the State Code two (2) years after approval by the Governor. Regardless, we
believe that the 2015 International Energy Conservation Code is good for the people
of Kaua`i and are pushing for your support to move forward with the new code. There
are provisions in there that actually will save homeowners money from the current
code and the key section there where it acknowledges a tropical home, which will
COUNCIL MEETING 59 APRIL 25, 2018
encourage people to build homes that are appropriate for Hawai`i and help discourage
the need for air conditioning in our homes, which is something that is very prevalent
now. It is quite an industry now on Kauai and a lot of work is going on without
proper permits, putting in air conditioning and retrofitting into homes, so our goal is
to help people get homes that are designed appropriately for Hawai`i to minimize the
need for air conditioning. Of course, there are significant changes on commercial
facilities and it is all about reducing energy use.
Councilmember Yukimura: And costs?
Mr. Haigh: And the benefit is a reduction of costs, too,
especially for Kauai with our high energy costs.
Councilmember Yukimura: Especially for Kauai what?
Mr. Haigh: Because of our high energy costs, so that you
have less of a gap between how many years it takes to recover for any additional costs
you put in until you actually realize the savings from your energy bill.
Councilmember Yukimura: Okay. Do you have a summary?
Mr. Haigh: We sent forward with the Bill a package for
Councilmembers.
Councilmember Yukimura: Is that in here?
Mr. Haigh: It has five (5) basic sections: one, the
ordinance itself; we have significant changes to the new code; we have letters of
support for the code adoption; and then we have a section of justification and analysis
of changes, which talks about...we justify each item of the new ordinance and we also
have a detailed study that was done on analysis of adopting this code for Hawaii.
Then we have the minutes of the task force meetings that we had to review and make
sure the changes were appropriate for Kauai.
Councilmember Yukimura: Okay.
Mr. Haigh: Within the task force, we did make various
changes based on the recommendations of our task force group.
Councilmember Yukimura: Okay. So there are some things that are
different than the State Code?
Mr. Haigh: That is correct.
Councilmember Yukimura: Okay. That was not attached here. Is that
something that staff has that we have not seen? Was that given to us separately? I
only have one (1) sheet.
COUNCIL MEETING 60 APRIL 25, 2018
Mr. Haigh: We do have that section available
electronically. I made a file of that whole package.
Councilmember Yukimura: Was it sent to us?
Mr. Haigh: My understanding is that it came forward
with the Bill and I made a special effort to get it done.
Councilmember Yukimura: I would like to find it and if it is not too bulky,
actually put it on the next agenda so that people from the public can have access to
it. Is it bulky?
Mr. Haigh: Yes.
Councilmember Yukimura: Okay. How do people access that
information?
Mr. Haigh: We could post in online for the Building
Division and I do not know if Council Services want to post it online.
Councilmember Yukimura: Maybe in announcing the public hearing, we
could give the electronic link so people could access it.
Mr. Haigh: It is not that large of a file.
Councilmember Yukimura: They do not even know it exists though. Can
we just include it in the public hearing notice? Just the link? It is also electronically
given to us, the public notice hearing, right? If people do not know it exists, then they
will not ask for it. If we could tell them it exists and make it available, that would be
helpful, right?
Council Chair Rapozo: Let us just post it on our website and be done
with it. I do not know how many people out there are interested in this Electric Code,
but I believe that some contractors may be.
Mr. Tabata: We will have it put on the Public Works
Building Division website.
Council Chair Rapozo: Thank you. Doug, if you can, when you get
this to Committee after the public hearing, you can kind of set it up and show us what
changes your committee recommended from the State Code.
Mr. Haigh: One additional piece of information—we did
have a training scheduled for the new code last week Wednesday.
Council Chair Rapozo: How many people?
Mr. Haigh: Well, we canceled realizing that...well, our
inspectors had to go out to help, but what we are going to do is have a webinar of that
COUNCIL MEETING 61 APRIL 25, 2018
training and I believe we are scheduling it for May 11th. It will be the Friday of that
week.
Council Chair Rapozo: Okay. If you can provide whatever
information you have that you are doing to us before the public hearing, then we can
make the announcement at the public hearing.
Mr. Haigh: Great, thank you.
Council Chair Rapozo: Thank you. Councilmember Yukimura.
Councilmember Yukimura: Yvette just said that they will post the link on
our Facebook page so that people can also go there or to Public Works' website.
Mr. Haigh: Yes. I need to go back to my office and get
that posted.
Councilmember Yukimura: Thank you.
Council Chair Rapozo: Any other questions? Seeing none, thank you.
Anyone from the public wishing to testify?
There being no objections, the rules were suspended to take public testimony.
There being no one present to provide testimony, the meeting was called back
to order, and proceeded as follows:
Council Chair Rapozo: Councilmember Yukimura.
Councilmember Yukimura: I just thought of it and you do not have to
come back up, but if you...any maybe in your supporting documents it is already in
there, but it shows how much an average homeowner could save if they are building
their home now and they follow those rules, that would be helpful...average savings
for the house. If you have that information, please post that, too. Thank you.
Council Chair Rapozo: Thank you. Roll call.
The motion for passage of Proposed Draft Bill (No. 2710) on first reading, that
it be ordered to print, that a public hearing thereon be scheduled for
May 30, 2018, and referred to the Public Works / Parks & Recreation
Committee was then put, and carried by the following vote:
FOR PASSAGE: Brun, Kagawa, Kaneshiro, Kawakami,
Yukimura, Rapozo TOTAL — 6,
AGAINST PASSAGE: None TOTAL— 0,
EXCUSED & NOT VOTING: Chock TOTAL— 1,
RECUSED & NOT VOTING: None TOTAL— 0.
Ms. Fountain-Tanigawa: Six (6) ayes, one (1) excused.
COUNCIL MEETING 62 APRIL 25, 2018
Council Chair Rapozo: Next item.
Proposed Draft Bill (No. 2711)–A BILL FOR AN ORDINANCE APPROVING A
COLLECTIVE BARGAINING AGREEMENT FOR BARGAINING UNIT 14
BETWEEN JULY 1, 2017 AND JUNE 30, 2019: Councilmember Kagawa moved for
passage of Proposed Draft Bill (No. 2711) on first reading, that it be ordered to print,
that a public hearing thereon be scheduled for May 30, 2018, and referred to the
Committee of the Whole, seconded by Councilmember Brun.
Council Chair Rapozo: Any discussion or public testimony?
There being no objections, the rules were suspended to take public testimony.
There being no one present to provide testimony, the meeting was called back
to order, and proceeded as follows:
Council Chair Rapozo: Councilmember Kagawa.
Councilmember Kagawa: Just one request for me—I know that recently
we moved the lifeguards into this unit, resulting in a significant pay increase. It was
a couple of years ago, I believe. For clarity, I want to see if we can get a spreadsheet
similar to the one that you provided last time, Janine, showing all of the bargaining
units for the County and how much they have increased over the past twenty (20)
years. So if we can get that lifeguard one as a separate column, because I think theirs
will show a significant higher increase with this new contract in comparison to their
other Hawai`i Government Employees Association (HGEA) counterparts. These guys
moved out of somewhere else and with a significant increase. I just want to show in
clarity, not saying that I am going to oppose their new increase, which has already
been collectively bargained. I think the public should see that they have had a big,
big increase recently and now they are getting another increase with what all the
other units are getting. Because of the big increase recently, one could say that this
one is a little fast for another increase, but anyway, it is what it is. Thank you.
Council Chair Rapozo: Any further discussion? Seeing none, the
motion is to approve. Roll call.
The motion for passage of Proposed Draft Bill (No. 2711) on first reading, that
it be ordered to print, that a public hearing thereon be scheduled for
May 30, 2018, and referred to the Committee of the Whole was then put, and
carried by the following vote:
FOR PASSAGE: Brun, Kagawa, Kaneshiro, Kawakami,
Yukimura, Rapozo TOTAL– 6,
AGAINST PASSAGE: None TOTAL– 0,
EXCUSED & NOT VOTING: Chock TOTAL– 1,
RECUSED & NOT VOTING: None TOTAL– 0.
Ms. Fountain-Tanigawa: Six (6) ayes, one (1) excused.
COUNCIL MEETING 63 APRIL 25, 2018
Council Chair Rapozo: This is the plan, it is 12:35 p.m. and we have
three (3) Bills for Second Reading, two (2) Executive Session items, which I am going
to ask that...one has requested a deferral and I am going to ask that we defer the
second one so that we do not have to deal with it today, as it is not important to. If
we can wrap this up, we can finish at 12:30 p.m., come back for the public hearing,
but be done for the day. That is the plan. With no objections, let us to go Bills for
Second Reading.
BILLS FOR SECOND READING:
Bill No. 2695, Draft 1 — A BILL FOR AN ORDINANCE AMENDING
CHAPTER 19 AND ESTABLISHING A NEW ARTICLE 26, CHAPTER 22, KAUAI
COUNTY CODE 1987,AS AMENDED, RELATING TO WHIPS AND WEAPONS ON
COUNTY PROPERTY: Councilmember Kaneshiro moved to approve Bill No. 2695,
Draft 1, on second and final reading, and that it be transmitted to the Mayor for his
approval, seconded by Councilmember Kawakami.
Council Chair Rapozo: Any discussion or public testimony?
There being no objections, the rules were suspended to take public testimony.
There being no one present to provide testimony, the meeting was called back
to order, and proceeded as follows:
Council Chair Rapozo: Councilmember Kagawa.
Councilmember Kagawa: I want to thank Councilmember Kawakami
and all of the rest of the Council, and public safety, like Police, and Mauna Kea for
working on this. I have heard a few saying, "Wow, you guys are going to go into this
area," but for me, if a practice of doing something has no really good outcome besides
just pure entertainment or recreation, but yet the effects are harmful to the public,
then for me, I have no problem and this is how I feel about this issue. We all have
our recreational stuff that other people may think is stupid or whatever, but there is
a time and place for everything and we are the body that sets that direction and
protects the general public as a whole, not for the few that want to practice what
other people may see as stupid. So I think for me, for this, I think the general public
should have a safe zone away from these type of items that are used for recreation.
Thank you, Chair.
Council Chair Rapozo: Thank you. Anyone else? Councilmember
Yukimura.
Councilmember Yukimura: As the person who initiated this Bill, I want
to say that it came because the use of whips on public grounds, public property, and
parks is very disturbing, both by the sound and by the potential harm. The issue was
first raised at Kalena Park where the elderly were very disturbed about it, and it
moved over here to the County Building. Through the public hearing process, we also
learned that it is an issue on the west side. So I think it is needed and I wanted to
COUNCIL MEETING 64 APRIL 25, 2018
understand the people that we would be effecting by this regulation, so I did speak to
at least two (2) of those people who use the whips, one of whom was a track star when
he was in high school and they do it like people love shooting guns or doing other
things that may disturb third parties. As the Vice Chair said, it is a matter of where
it is inappropriate to do. So this Bill tries to make those definitions for law
enforcement in terms of where that is. One of the complainants or people disturbed
by it was concerned as to whether this Bill would cover places like neighborhoods in
the valleys and west side, kind of rural sections, and I was hoping we would get some
clarification from the Prosecutor and the Police, because they do have an alternative
route of disturbance of the peace and if there is a complainant. So I am hopeful that
that this Bill will, in conjunction with the other coverage, address those needs. If it
is not, we will come back with an amendment. The people that use the whips that I
spoke to said that it is something that they just enjoy doing. They do not have any
intention of harm. When I explained to them the rationale for the Bill, I invited them
to come and speak at the public hearing, but they did not show. When I explained to
them the rationale of the Bill, they seemed to understand. So I was grateful for that.
So hopefully this law, as we pass it, will actually help to bring some peace and calm
and reassurance to people who have been disturbed by it.
Council Chair Rapozo: Thank you. Anyone else? Seeing none, the
motion is to approve. Roll call.
The motion to approve Bill No. 2695, Draft 1, on second and final reading, and
that it be transmitted to the Mayor for his approval was then put, and carried by
the following vote:
FOR APPROVAL: Brun, Kagawa, Kaneshiro, Kawakami,
Yukimura, Rapozo TOTAL— 6,
AGAINST APPROVAL: None TOTAL— 0,
EXCUSED & NOT VOTING: Chock TOTAL— 1,
RECUSED & NOT VOTING: None TOTAL— 0.
Ms. Fountain-Tanigawa: Six (6) ayes, one (1) excused.
Council Chair Rapozo: Next item.
Bill No. 2697, Draft 1 — A BILL FOR AN ORDINANCE TO AMEND
CHAPTERS 18, 20, AND 23, KAUAI COUNTY CODE 1987, AS AMENDED,
RELATING TO REVOCABLE PERMITS IN COUNTY DESIGNATED
RIGHTS-OF-WAY: Councilmember Kawakami to approve Bill No. 2695, Draft 1, on
second and final reading, and that it be transmitted to the Mayor for his approval,
seconded by Councilmember Brun.
Council Chair Rapozo: Thank you. Any discussion or public
testimony?
There being no objections, the rules were suspended to take public testimony.
COUNCIL MEETING 65 APRIL 25, 2018
There being no one present to provide testimony, the meeting was called back
to order, and proceeded as follows:
Council Chair Rapozo: Councilmember Kagawa.
Councilmember Kagawa: I want to praise Lee and Councilmember
Kawakami for working on the Bill. I have talked to several long time business owners
there, like Steven Kurokawa and the Kannas and they are all in favor of this Bill.
They think it is a good change and that it will bring more safety and more order to
those Friday night events. When there was an issue that came up earlier when I was
in charge of it, we said, "Hold off." We put more work into it, Councilmember
Kawakami took over, working with Lee, and these folks are now happy and
supportive, so I think that is true government success that we took a problem and did
not fire it because there were still some issues. Now, we have everybody on board, so
let us go forward.
Council Chair Rapozo: Thank you. Councilmember Yukimura.
Councilmember Yukimura: I do want to agree with the Vice Chair that
this is a good example of government working well and I do want to thank Lee
Steinmetz, Lyle, Jodi Sayegusa, Councilmember Kawakami, and the community, who
worked on this Bill. I think it is going to be better for everyone. Thank you.
Council Chair Rapozo: Anyone else? The motion is to approve. Roll
call.
The motion to approve Bill No. 2697, Draft 1, on second and final reading, and
that it be transmitted to the Mayor for his approval was then put, and carried by
the following vote:
FOR APPROVAL: Brun, Kagawa, Kaneshiro, Kawakami,
Yukimura, Rapozo TOTAL— 6,
AGAINST APPROVAL: None TOTAL— 0,
EXCUSED & NOT VOTING: Chock TOTAL— 1,
RECUSED & NOT VOTING: None TOTAL— 0.
Ms. Fountain-Tanigawa: Six (6) ayes, one (1) excused.
Council Chair Rapozo: Next item.
Bill No. 2700 — A BILL FOR AN ORDINANCE TO AMEND CHAPTER 17A,
KAUAI COUNTY CODE 1987, AS AMENDED, RELATING TO COLLECTION OF
BUS FARES: Councilmember Brun moved to approve Bill No. 2700 on second and
final reading, and that it be transmitted to the Mayor for his approval, seconded by
Councilmember Yukimura.
Council Chair Rapozo: Any discussion or public testimony?
There being no objections, the rules were suspended to take public testimony.
COUNCIL MEETING 66 APRIL 25, 2018
There being no one present to provide testimony, the meeting was called back
to order, and proceeded as follows:
Council Chair Rapozo: Councilmember Kagawa.
Councilmember Kagawa: Thank you, Mr. Chair. I know that Honolulu
passed an amendment recently...wait, this is bus fares, not the taxi cab. Sorry, I blew
it. Thank you.
Council Chair Rapozo: That is fine. Roll call.
The motion to approve Bill No. 2700 on second and final reading, and that it be
transmitted to the Mayor for his approval was then put, and carried by the
following vote:
FOR APPROVAL: Brun, Kagawa, Kaneshiro, Kawakami,
Yukimura, Rapozo TOTAL— 6,
AGAINST APPROVAL: None TOTAL— 0,
EXCUSED & NOT VOTING: Chock TOTAL— 1,
RECUSED & NOT VOTING: None TOTAL— 0.
Ms. Fountain-Tanigawa: Six (6) ayes, one (1) excused.
Council Chair Rapozo: So that ends the formal part of our agenda.
We have a public hearing at 1:30 p.m. and the two (2) Executive Sessions, so let us
do the two (2) Executive Session deferrals right now. Let me just say that the deferral
of ES-945 is at the request of the Administration.
Councilmember Yukimura: So did the Administration say it was okay to
defer this?
Council Chair Rapozo: It was at the request of the Administration, so
it is okay with them.
Councilmember Yukimura: I am sorry, okay.
Council Chair Rapozo: They had anticipated a judge ruling, which
did not happen, so we are accommodating their request.
EXECUTIVE SESSION:
ES-945 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
an additional briefing update and request for authority to settle the case of Klaus H.
Burmeister, et al. v. County of Kauai, CV 16-00402 LEK-KJM (United States District
Court), and related matters. This briefing and consultation involves consideration of
COUNCIL MEETING 67 APRIL 25, 2018
the powers, duties, privileges, immunities, and/or liabilities of the Council and the
County as they relate to this agenda item.
ES-949 Pursuant to Hawaii Revised Statutes (HRS) Sections 92-4 and
92-5(a)(4), and Kaua`i County Charter Section 3.07(E), on behalf of the Council, the
Office of the County Attorney requests an Executive Session with the Council to
provide the Council with a briefing, discussion, and consultation regarding the
Quarterly Report on Pending and Denied Claims. 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 Kagawa moved to defer ES-945 and ES-949, seconded by
Councilmember Brun, and carried by a vote of 6:0:1 (Councilmember Chock
was excused).
Council Chair Rapozo: We will return at 1:30 p.m. for the public
hearing. Thank you very much.
ADJOURNMENT.
There being no further business, the Council Meeting adjourned at 12:44 p.m.
Respectfully submitted,
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JA .OUNTAIN-TANIGAWA
County Clerk
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