HomeMy WebLinkAbout08_03_2022 Public hearing minutes on BILL 2875PUBLIC HEARING
AUGUST 3, 2022
A public hearing of the Council of the County of Kauai was called to order by
Luke A. Evslin, Chair, Finance & Economic Development Committee, on Wednesday,
August 3, 2022, at 8:37 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
Honorable Arryl Kaneshiro
The Clerk read the notice of the public hearing on the following:
Bill No. 2875 — A BILL FOR AN ORDINANCE AMENDING
CHAPTER 5A, SECTIONS 5A-6.4, 5A-8.1(g), 5A-9.1, AND 5A-11.23(a), KAUAI
COUNTY CODE 1987, AS AMENDED, RELATING TO REAL PROPERTY
TAX,"
which was passed on first reading and ordered to print by the Council of the County
of Kauai on July 6, 2022, and published in The Garden Island newspaper on
July 14, 2022.
The following communications were received for the record:
CAio Au 6+ 3,
1. Lincoln, dated duly 25, 2022
2. Kallai, Hope, dated August 2, 2022
The hearing proceeded as follows:
Committee Chair Evslin: We did receive written testimony. Is there
anyone in the audience or on Zoom wishing to testify? Lonnie. You know the drill.
Please state your name and you will have three (3) minutes. Then we will see if there
is anyone else wanting to provide testimony. If not, you can have an additional
three (3) minutes.
LONNIE SYKOS: For the general public, in the past I was a
farmer on Maui. I am an ex-President of the Maui Flower Growers Association.
When I read this Bill, which I have read four (4) or five (5) times now, I agree with
the early portion of it, in which you get rid of the onerous requirements that were
placed upon farming decades ago. Those onerous requirements are part of the reason
why you do not have the diversified agriculture industry on Kauai. As someone who
PUBLIC HEARING 2 AUGUST 3, 2022
BILL NO. 2875
is not from here or from the political culture of this island, the last part of this Bill is
going to guarantee that there will not be the development of diversified agriculture.
What you need to do is get rid of all this stuff about a new Agricultural Dedication
Program and focus first on cleaning up the mess that exists from the past. Now, the
problem with this is none of you have any experience in agriculture, except
Councilmember DeCosta. How much experience in export agriculture do any of you
have? The answer to that is probably zero (0). What this does is it creates venue to
land bank. This is not going to promote people actually farming. My question for all
of you is where did the second part of this document come from? You are going to tell
me that it was written by Council, because only Council is allowed to write the text
of these things. My question is, where did the Council get this text from? This reads
to me like it is a blueprint document printed or created by somebody's political action
group. This new Agricultural Dedication Program does not address the issues facing
agriculture, which cannot be addressed in a single silo. Every aspect of the
environment that you farm in is against you. Until you start addressing these issues
holistically, all you are doing is digging a bigger hole that your blind leaders led you
into decades ago, which is where you are today in agriculture...in a ditch.
Committee Chair Evslin: Thank you, Lonnie. Does anyone else in the
audience wish to testify? None. Is there anyone on Zoom? None. Just to briefly
answer your question, Lonnie, the Bill was written by the Department of Finance in
coordination with the Council Services Division and the Office of the County
Attorney. There were certainly no political action committees involved in writing the
Bill. We will talk more about it at Committee. If there is no further testimony, this
public hearing is now adjourned.
There being no further testimony on this matter, the public hearing adjourned
at 8:45 a.m.
Respectfully submitted,
JADE . FO UNTAI N-TANI GAWA
County Clerk
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