HomeMy WebLinkAbout06_15_2022 Public hearing minutes on BILL 2863, BILL 2864, BILL 2865, BILL 2866, BILL 2867PUBLIC HEARING
JUNE 15, 2022
A public hearing of the Council of the County of Kaua`i was called to order by
Arryl Kaneshiro, Chair, Committee of the Whole, June 15, 2022, at 8:36 a.m., at the
Council Chambers, 4396 Rice Street, Suite 201, Historic County Building, Lihu`e, and
the presence of the following was noted:
Honorable Bernard P. Carvalho, Jr.
Honorable Mason K. Chock
Honorable Felicia Cowden
Honorable Bill DeCosta
Honorable Luke A. Evslin
Honorable KipuKai Kuali`i (via remote technology)
Honorable Arryl Kaneshiro
The Clerk read the notices of the public hearing on the following:
Bill No. 2863 — A BILL FOR AN ORDINANCE APPROVING A
COLLECTIVE BARGAINING AGREEMENT FOR BARGAINING UNIT 2
BETWEEN JULY 1, 2021 AND JUNE 30, 2025," and
Bill No. 2864 — A BILL FOR AN ORDINANCE APPROVING A
COLLECTIVE BARGAINING AGREEMENT FOR BARGAINING UNIT 3
BETWEEN JULY 1, 2021 AND JUNE 30, 2025," and
Bill No. 2865 — A BILL FOR AN ORDINANCE APPROVING A
COLLECTIVE BARGAINING AGREEMENT FOR BARGAINING UNIT 4
BETWEEN JULY 1, 2021 AND JUNE 30, 2025," and
Bill No. 2866 — A BILL FOR AN ORDINANCE APPROVING A
COLLECTIVE BARGAINING AGREEMENT FOR BARGAINING UNIT 11
BETWEEN JULY 1, 2021 AND JUNE 30, 2025," and
Bill No. 2867 — A BILL FOR AN ORDINANCE APPROVING A
COLLECTIVE BARGAINING AGREEMENT FOR BARGAINING UNIT 13
BETWEEN JULY 1, 2021 AND JUNE 30, 2025,"
which were passed on first reading and ordered to print by the Council of the County
of Kaua`i on May 18, 2022, and published in The Garden Island newspaper on
May 26, 2022.
The following communication was received for the record:
1. Hawaii Fire Fighters Association, dated June 15, 2022 (Bill No. 2866)
PUBLIC HEARING 2 JUNE 15, 2022
BILLS NOS. 2863, 2864, 2865, 2866, AND 2867
Committee Chair Kaneshiro: Is there anyone in the audience or on Zoom
wishing to testify on any of the collective bargaining bills for Units 2, 3, 4, 11, or 13?
Lonnie.
LONNIE SYKOS: For the record, Lonnie Sykos. The
ever-increasing percentage of our budget that goes to manpower has been an issue
with the County Council since the first meeting I attended when the Council was
down at Nawiliwili and this building was being renovated. What I would ask of you
is an agenda item about this issue in the future, because there is not going to have
time today to address what I am going to say, but going back to when Jay Furfaro
was Council Chair, we regularly saw graphs that demonstrated what the rate of
growth was. My concern is not about these particular contracts, because you folks
have no control over what happens in arbitration. What I am concerned about
though, is the overall escalation of costs, because we have to be planning today for
the money to pay for both the retirees and the people on payroll, and the cost of that
escalates both with pay raises and the reality of inflation, so when I was the Council
Chair Kaneshiro's age, roughly I am guessing, the prime interest rate was fourteen
percent (14%). This was the direct result of the Vietnam War, having been controlled
by wage in price controls, which the public mostly does not remember, but during the
Vietnam War, you could not raise the price of anything without the government's
permission, so we are in the same position in that we are having a big evolution in
the global economy and it is going to affect us, and it is going to affect our ability to
pay our bills. What the public needs to know is, what does the growth of expense look
like, so that we can match the growth of income—that is the reality of managing us,
so we need to know how fast these expenses are escalating, so we can match our
income. Thank you very much.
Committee Chair Kaneshiro: Thank you, Lonnie. Do you have a clarifying
question?
Councilmember DeCosta: Yes.
Mr. Sykos: Billy.
Councilmember DeCosta: I am going to try and phrase it. You just spoke
about a lot of important information about what our County is all about when we
provide services, and we have to pay for these services out of the General Fund and
the escalating costs, and we need to be sure we have the revenue to do it, because
every income taxpayer on Kaua`i deserves it. My clarifying question would be, how
important is it to have those revenues in our General Fund and having the ability for
the Administration to use those to provide these payments for our service employees
from the union like Fire, Police, et cetera?
Mr. Sykos: This is the historic tension between me, the
taxpayer who wants to pay less taxes, and the reality of the government as it grows
because the population grows for no other reason. I am not"dogging" the government
for growing, it is reality. It is no different than my personal economy if my business
PUBLIC HEARING 3 JUNE 15, 2022
BILLS NOS. 2863, 2864, 2865, 2866, AND 2867
economy, you need to forecast to the best of your ability on what is going to happen,
so you can plan for it.
Councilmember DeCosta: I like that "forecast and planning". Thank
you, Lonnie.
Mr. Sykos: Thank you.
Committee Chair Kaneshiro: Is there anyone on Zoom wishing to testify?
Seeing none.
There being no further testimony on this matter, the public hearing adjourned
at 8:44 a.m.
Respectfully submitted,
OIL
SCOTT K. SATO
Deputy County Clerk
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