HomeMy WebLinkAbout06/28/2023 Council minutes COUNCIL MEETING
JUNE 28, 2023
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, June 28, 2023, at 8:36 a.m., after which the following
Members answered the call of the roll:
Honorable Addison Bulosan
Honorable Bernard P. Carvalho, Jr.
Honorable Felicia Cowden
Honorable Bill DeCosta
Honorable Ross Kagawa
Honorable KipuKai Kuali`i
Honorable Mel Rapozo
APPROVAL OF AGENDA.
Councilmember Carvalho moved for approval of the agenda, as circulated,
seconded by Councilmember Cowden.
Council Chair Rapozo: Is there any discussion or public testimony?
Seeing none.
There being no one present to provide testimony, the meeting proceeded as
follows:
The motion for approval of the agenda, as circulated, was then put, and
unanimously carried.
Council Chair Rapozo: Motion carried. Next item, please.
MINUTES of the following meetings of the Council:
May 10, 2023 Council Meeting
June 14, 2023 Council Meeting
Councilmember Kuali`i moved to approve the Minutes, as circulated, seconded
by Councilmember Cowden.
Council Chair Rapozo: Is there any discussion or public testimony on
the Minutes? Seeing none.
There being no one present to provide testimony, the meeting proceeded as
follows:
COUNCIL MEETING 2 JUNE 28, 2023
The motion to approve the Minutes, as circulated, was then put, and
unanimously carried.
Council Chair Rapozo: Motion carried. Next item, please
INTERVIEWS:
KAUAI HISTORIC PRESERVATION REVIEW COMMISSION:
• Kathleen Kikuchi-Samonte — Term ending 12/31/2024
Council Chair Rapozo: Ellen Ching. This is a Council nominee here,
so if you could please do the introduction.
ELLEN CHING, Boards & Commissions Administrator: On behalf of Chair
Rapozo, I am happy to introduce Kathleen Keala`oli Kikuchi-Samonte. While
Kathleen was born on Oahu, she was raised on Kaua`i and attended Elsie H. Wilcox
Elementary School and Kaua`i High School. Kathleen continued her education at the
University of Hawai`i (UH) at Manoa, earning a bachelor's degree in Art History and
a master's degree in Pacific and Asian Art History, specifically Hawaiian Art.
Upon graduation, Kathleen spent the next four (4) years living on Maui and
working on Kaho`olawe. With people from all the islands, Kathleen was a member of
the team that flew to the island four (4) days every week to record new sites, artifacts,
monitor archeology teams and digs, and draft maps. This work formed the basis of
the initial restoration of Kaho`olawe following the formation of the Kaho`olawe Island
Reserve Commission. While still working on Kaho`olawe, when Kathleen and her
sister complained to their parents about never going anywhere, she was sent on an
archeological dig to Huahine, Tahiti. Now, you are probably thinking, "Who does
that?" Maybe not so unusual, if your dad is the beloved Kaua`i archeologist Pila
Kikuchi, who was famous for his work on the Makauwahi sinkhole at Mand'ulepu,
and the Nu'alolo Kai on the Napali Coast, which established the inhabitation of the
area to at least 1389 and was recognized at the authority on Hawaiian fishponds.
Huahine was no ordinary dig. This was lead by the renowned Dr. Sinoto of
Bishop Museum. At Huahine, Dr. Sinoto discovered a 1,000-year-old voyaging canoe,
the first such object ever found that provided the evidence of the Polynesian migration
of the Pacific and of their monumental sailing accomplishments in human history.
There has always been a lot of mystery surrounding Kaho`olawe and somehow amidst
the heat and dust, Kathleen met her future husband, Jeremy, a team member from
Moloka`i.
During the next few years, they moved to Kaua`i, relocated to Moloka`i, and
finally resettled back on Kauai. They are the proud parents of two (2) daughters:
19-year-old Kyrie, and sweet sixteen Zoe. During this time, Kathleen was about to
reenter UH for a master's in Social Work when she was offered a position at
Lili`uokalani Trust as the Youth Development Specialist, a position she has held for
the past fourteen (14) years.
COUNCIL MEETING 3 JUNE 28, 2023
In her free time, Kathleen enjoys crafting, puzzles, reading, and Korean
dramas (K-dramas). Favorite all-time food, vanilla ice cream. With all her
extraordinary experience and knowledge, Kathleen is an ideal candidate for the
Historic Preservation Review Commission.
Council Chair Rapozo: Thank you, Ellen. Thank you for being here
today, Kathleen, and offering your time and your service. Do you have any words for
us before we open it up for questions?
KATHLEEN KIKUCHI-SAMONTE: It has always been brainwashed into us
to volunteer and to give back, and my dad spent so many years on these mysterious
committees that he did not really tell us about, but as I grow older, I know that it is
my time to volunteer and to give back and I would love to be on this committee. This
is something I would like to do; I want to do.
Council Chair Rapozo: Thank you. Are there any questions?
Councilmember Cowden.
Councilmember Cowden: I am thrilled. Recently, when we were
working on what is called the Coco Palms property, I learned a lot more about the
role of the Historic Preservation Commission, that it is State and even before
statehood. Are you aware of that?
Ms. Kikuchi-Samonte: Yes.
Councilmember Cowden: I had no idea how important this Commission
is and how Kaua`i is the "head of the pack" in having this. Thank you for having that
understanding. I did not even have that understanding with anyone else we have
appointed yet. I also wanted to say, while I was doing the Coco Palms thing, I went
to the library here at Kaua`i Community College (KCC) and had the opportunity to
look through some of your father's work and was reading through dusty things with
gloves on. That gave me extra respect for that background. I love that you work with
our kids. What has been the most exciting thing that you have done that is in this
direction? I cannot imagine that you have not done pieces of this with these kids, and
going out, studying elements, and learning about our history here.
Ms. Kikuchi-Samonte: Yes. We do social and emotional learning, but
we find that even in Charter schools that are emersion, they lack a lot of history and
a lot of cultural learning. We try to bring them to the museum, which they have never
been to, we try to bring them Makahiki games, which was held on May Day at
St. Theresa Catholic School and it was the first time they have ever had Makahiki
games, some of the kids have never made a plumeria lei before, so we like to expose
them as much as possible on why Kaua`i is so special. We bring them all over the
place.
Councilmember Cowden: That is great. I am starting to look at the
histories of some of these projects. They have gone to the Historic Preservation
Commission instead of the Planning Commission, and I am not sure why, but you do
not typically get many members of the public at the Historic Preservation
COUNCIL MEETING 4 JUNE 28, 2023
Commission. You are getting that the important role that you have, when things that
might obliterate our long-standing history are there. I am thrilled. Thank you so
much. Whoever picked her, hooray on that one.
Council Chair Rapozo: Are there any other questions?
Councilmember Kagawa.
Councilmember Kagawa: I want to thank you for serving. When I was
younger, all I cared about was sports, but Kaho`olawe intrigued me, so I am glad you
were a part of that. I always questioned how we could let the military ruin that
island, but thanks to people like you, we will hopefully see the safe return of
Kaho`olawe one day. Mahalo and thank you for serving.
Ms. Kikuchi-Samonte: Thank you.
Council Chair Rapozo: Are there any other questions?
Councilmember Kuali`i.
Councilmember Kuali`i: I, too, want to say mahalo nui loa. Thank you
for stepping up. I think it is really exciting to see the fit and to know that it is your
passion, and it is in your blood. It was very interesting to hear Ellen read about
Kaho`olawe. Was that actually a job for you? Did you work the State?
Ms. Kikuchi-Samonte: No.
Councilmember Kuali`i: Who did you work for?
Ms. Kikuchi-Samonte: I found out that Hal Hammott, of Cultural
Surveys Hawai`i, beat out everyone in the State to have this contract with the Federal
government to be the company that got the okay to clear out all the bombs and
whatnot. He was the subcontractor, and he was one of my dad's best friends, and
that was the only time my dad ever helped me and pulled strings. The only time. He
was one of those people who would not even let us sit in on classes or talks that he
would give. He just did not want us to. I do not know why. I was able to work there
for four (4) years and it really opened up my experiences and everything, and I met
my husband there, so it was like the future.
Councilmember Kuali`i: When was that? That was in the beginning,
then, before...
Ms. Kikuchi-Samonte: What did I say? 1998 or 1999. It was a long
hiring process. We had to do a lot of Hazardous Materials (HAZMAT) and Hazardous
Waste Operations and Emergency Response (HAZWOPER) training.
Councilmember Kuali`i: It was fine that your dad helped you, because
you were probably just a kid, maybe college...
Ms. Kikuchi-Samonte: I had just graduated with my master's, and I
wanted to do something exciting, and I really wanted to work there.
COUNCIL MEETING 5 JUNE 28, 2023
Councilmember Kuali`i: I know there are only three (3) lines on the
resume of the application that you provided to us, but a fourth line should have
included that as well. I think that is the most important thing for this position that
you are taking here.
Ms. Kikuchi-Samonte: Okay.
Councilmember Kuali`i: Thank you so much.
Ms. Kikuchi-Samonte: You are welcome.
Council Chair Rapozo: Councilmember DeCosta.
Councilmember DeCosta: I just want to say that your resume is very
impressive. In front of every scene, there is a behind scene. I want to recognize that
I have been friends with you, your family, and Jeremy. Jeremy is my personal friend,
so I want to give a shoutout to Jeremy, I am proud of you and for taking care of this
lady and your family. I want to ask you—did you get a chance to work with Dave
Boynton out on Kaho`olawe, because he was out there quite a bit?
Ms. Kikuchi-Samonte: I did. Dave Boynton, yes.
Councilmember DeCosta: He was my mentor when I worked up in
Koke`e, and when Councilmember Kagawa and I were in high school, he was teaching
science at Waimea High School, so it is great to know that you have some legacy with
other legends on the island. Thank you for being you.
Ms. Kikuchi-Samonte: Thank you.
Council Chair Rapozo: Councilmember Carvalho.
Councilmember Carvalho: I appreciate you, your `ohana, and your
passion. That is a big one for me.
Ms. Kikuchi-Samonte: Passion.
Councilmember Carvalho: The way you delivered your message. I know
that you are connected in so many ways and this is perfect for you to be present at
this particular time, so mahalo for stepping up and I look forward for more
opportunities. Aloha.
Ms. Kikuchi-Samonte: Yes. Thank you.
Council Chair Rapozo: Councilmember Kuali`i.
Councilmember Kuali`i: Just one more quick thing. I also see that you
work for Lili`uokalani Trust, with the youth there. How old are the youth that you
work with?
COUNCIL MEETING 6 JUNE 28, 2023
Ms. Kikuchi-Samonte: How old? Right now, we are focusing on
middle school, so sixth, seventh, and eighth graders. I know you worked there years
ago.
Councilmember Kuali`i: Yes, for a little while awhile back, and with
the youth as well, which I loved.
Ms. Kikuchi-Samonte: Yes. During the summer, we are taking a
break. There are only two (2) of us working. We are actually hiring for any Youth
Development Specialist who wants to work with kids. We are at Kanuikapono Public
Charter School out in Anahola, with the sixth, seventh, and eighth grade students,
and we are going to start the high school. It is a small high school, so it is not so bad.
We are also in Kekaha at St. Theresa Catholic School, with sixth, seventh, and eighth
grade. A lot of people ask us why we are at a private school, but it is a school that
takes Kamehameha Scholars and Pauahi Keiki Scholars, so they have a high number
of native Hawaiians and they have no culture there, so we are trying to bring a lot of
cultural learning there. They have as many issues as public-school kids do, they just
hide it better, so we are out there trying to get kids to think about being pono, doing
the right thing, and a lot of cultural things, too.
Councilmember Kuali`i: I remember there were times that we were
taking kids on field trips and whatnot, and we would go to the beach. I would be in
the water with them and be like, "This is work?"
Ms. Kikuchi-Samonte: Yes, it is awesome.
Councilmember Kuali`i: I was having such a good time with them. I
hope, too, that you can then share some of the work you do with the Commission with
the young Hawaiian youth, as well, because I think it is important that they learn
about this part of their culture.
Ms. Kikuchi-Samonte: Our unit on Kaua`i have taken a different
approach to working with middle schoolers. The first thing that we teach them,
besides Queen's learning, is why we are there, why our trust is there, why we are
specifically dealing with the most vulnerable children, Hawaiian as well as everyone
else, is that we are trying to teach them about whole wellbeing and what they are in
control of, so things like how in touch are you with your cultural heritage, your na'au,
your spiritual connections, your body, your emotional, mental, and physical
wellbeing, your family, and all the different parts that make up the whole, but what
are you in control of. We have them try to think about, we know you are a kid, we
know that there are things that happen in your family and in your community that
you have no control over, but what are you able to control, that can help you be a little
bit more well, and how can you contribute back to your family, as well as your
community. That is one part. We also do leadership. We have started many lessons:
how to be a leader in your class, of yourself, in your family, and your community, and
to try to give back, using the Queen as a role model in everything that we do.
Councilmember Kuali`i: Thank you so much. Mahalo.
COUNCIL MEETING 7 JUNE 28, 2023
Council Chair Rapozo: Are there any other questions? If not, thank
you very much. As a disclosure, while I nominated you, I did not find you. Ellen and
the Boards and Commissions staff send over a list, and we select which individual we
believe fits best, and obviously you were selected. I really appreciated your statement
in your application, and I will read it. "I would love to actually do something with my
education." I thought that was cute, but next couple sentences are the most
important. "I am passionate about the preservation of history and sharing knowledge
with others, but I am also a realist and know the importance of changing with the
times, with respect to what came before us." I think that is the reality of the world
we live in today and I congratulate you for being bold enough to say it, because I think
we are challenged at times, that people will just say, "No," and I think, to be real, we
have to accept the fact that we are changing, but I love the emphasis on the respect
to what came before us. I think that is critical and that sealed the deal for me,
because now I know your heart and I love that you are a realist, so thank you for
agreeing to serve.
Ms. Kikuchi-Samonte: Thank you.
Council Chair Rapozo: That was it. Thank you. This goes to the full
Council at the next Council Meeting, where we will vote, but I do not think you have
anything to worry about.
Ms. Kikuchi-Samonte: Thank you so much.
Council Chair Rapozo: You are welcome. Thank you. Next.
FIRE COMMISSION:
• Gary Pacheco — Term ending 12/31/2025
Council Chair Rapozo: Should we all rise for the Mayor of Kilauea?
Ms. Ching: Ellen Ching, Boards & Commissions
Administrator. I am honored to introduce Gary Pacheco. Gary was born and raised
on Kaua`i. He attended St. Catherine's and graduated from Kapa'a High School.
From high school, he immediately took on two (2)jobs, one at the North Shore
Service Station and as a school bus driver covering Kapa'a to Ha`ena. From there,
Gary moved on to work at the Hanalei Plantation Hotel and at the Kilauea Sugar
Company as an electrician's apprentice.
Little did he know that this decision would change his life. At the hotel, he
became friends with the hula dancers and their friends, one of them, in particular,
was Haunani Lum. Gary and Haunani got engaged and the rest is history.
In August 1970, Gary and Haunani were both working at the hotel and on
September 1st, the workers went on strike. That same year, in December, Gary
started working at Hawaiian Tel in the office as a Service Order Clerk. It was his
responsibility to schedule the jobs and prepare the work orders for nineteen (19) staff
COUNCIL MEETING 8 JUNE 28, 2023
in the field. Six (6) years later, he was promoted to working in residential and
commercial installation and maintenance covering the entire island. This was the
start of a 35-year career.
Subsequently, Gary assumed the District Manager position in charge of the
North Shore, from Lihu`e to Ha`ena. Additionally, on weekends, his scope of
responsibility expanded from Koke`e to Ha`ena, the whole island. When he retired at
the age of fifty-five (55), Gary likes to say he had a supervisor for eight (8) hours and
now has a supervisor twenty-four seven (24/7).
During this time, Haunani had garnered an Accounting degree, a real estate
and broker's license. When the Princeville Hotel was damaged by Hurricane Iniki,
Haunani went back to school at UH Hilo's College of Tropical Agriculture.
Haunani retired and immediately put all her skills to use, buying five (5) acres
in Kilauea and started a farm. Together, they built a barn and a green house, growing
fruits, tropical flowers, and orchids, which they sell at the Saturday market.
When he is not working on the farm, what does he do with his free time? He
volunteers with a capital V. Gary was a Charter member of the North Shore Lions
Club and its current Treasurer, he is President of the Kilauea Point Natural History
Association or Friends of Kaua`i Wildlife Refuges, Treasurer of Kaulana Kilauea,
known for its Christmas in the Park, Treasurer of Kilauea Neighborhood Association,
and an active member and "fix-it" guy at St. Sylvester Mission Church.
Gary and Haunani have traveled extensively all over the United States (U.S.),
Europe and Asia with their two (2) sons, Stacy and Chad. As farmers, they tend to
stay closer to home.
As a lifelong resident of Kilauea, some of us know him as Mr. Pacheco, the
Chair, or Gary, but most of us know him as the Mayor of Kilauea, as Chair Rapozo
said. With his vast knowledge of the island and particularly of the North Shore, I am
so pleased that Gary is willing to share his knowledge, experience, and history of the
island with the Fire Commission.
Council Chair Rapozo: Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Thank you for being
here.
GARY PACHECO: You are welcome, Mr. Chair.
Council Chair Rapozo: On your application, under length of
residency in Hawai`i, you have seven (7) years.
Councilmember Cowden: Yes. It is missing a zero (0), maybe?
Council Chair Rapozo: You are born and raised here, right?
Mr. Pacheco: Right.
COUNCIL MEETING 9 JUNE 28, 2023
Council Chair Rapozo: Okay. I am not going to ask you how long. I
just know it is more than seven (7) years. Is there anything you want to address to
the Council before I open it up to questions? Your resume is quite intensive.
Mr. Pacheco: When I asked, I consulted my son, Chad, and
he said, "Dad, you have your agenda that you have been trying for so long in getting
a fire station in Kilauea, and now is the time to step in and see what you can do for
the betterment of the community and the island," so I am here to help.
Council Chair Rapozo: Thank you. Are there any questions or
comments for Mr. Pacheco.
Councilmember Cowden: I have comments. I have known Gary since I
was in my early twenties. You were out there helping everyone all the time. I think
in your time of doing phone installs and system installs, you certainly did that for our
businesses and whatnot, you have been in just about every business and building it
seems, certainly on the whole Northside, but possibly around the island. I think what
is so good with that is you have an integral understanding of the layout of the island,
and then the electrical layout, which is connected with fire problems. You have a
connection with everyone. It is said. I know you from the Lions Club, from Kilauea
Neighborhood Association (KNA), from Kilauea point, and we are neighbors. Your
kids are wonderful. You are stepping in on a position that your son just finished very
well, so I have no doubt that you would be able to do this. How do you find the time
for everything? I guess that is my question, because you are as busy as I am.
Mr. Pacheco: My wife asks me the same question. I say,
when anyone needs me, if I can help them, I make time for them, because from what
I know, I can share and make things better. That is what I look forward to—helping
people, and like I said, Kilauea and the island.
Councilmember Cowden: He is our "go-to" guy when you have a
problem. I was even remembering, you put my phones in my house a long time ago
too, when he was not working.
Council Chair Rapozo: Was it the crank phone?
Councilmember Cowden: Yes.
Council Chair Rapozo: Councilmember DeCosta.
Councilmember DeCosta: Hello there, Mr. Pacheco. Maybe I should call
you "Uncle Gary." I do not know if you know this, but the DeCosta's married the
Pacheco's on the Westside. There was an elderly lady, God bless her, she has passed,
but we would all call her"Grandma Pacheco" in Kekaha, and she made the best sweet
bread, and we used to deliver to the North Shore when I was a little boy. Do you
know that Grandma Pacheco on the Kekaha side?
Mr. Pacheco: I have heard of her.
COUNCIL MEETING 10 JUNE 28, 2023
Councilmember DeCosta: I feel like bowing right now to you, because I
heard of you from Grandma Pacheco when we were growing up. Do you know what
she told me? There was another person on the opposite side of the island, who is just
as good-looking as you, a little bit older, Billy boy, and that was you, Mr. Gary
Pacheco, so I am honored to possibly be your family member. I would like to say...
Council Chair Rapozo: Now you have to recuse.
Councilmember DeCosta: Well, I will not vote. I know you folks will vote
for him either way. I need to tell you that your 24/7 comment on Haunani...that is
your wife?
Mr. Pacheco: Yes.
Councilmember DeCosta: I guess Haunani is a Hawaiian name, so she
is Hawaiian?
Mr. Pacheco: She is part Hawaiian, part Chinese.
Councilmember DeCosta: My wife is part Hawaiian, part Chinese, and
part Portuguese, and her name is Kaimana, which in Hawaiian means, "diamond."
She has me on the watch 30/7, so even when I am watching some television (TV) or
sleeping, she is still watching me, so I can feel your supervisory for 24/7. I wanted to
ask you, since you brought up the fire station for Kilauea, and you seem to be
passionate about fire safety. I am passionate about fire mitigation, and unlike
Kilauea and where I live in `Oma`o, which is green, wet areas, we have some very dry
areas on the island that are unmanaged: Anahola, Waimea, and Kekaha. I would
like to work with you on how we can manage the tall grass and get some fire
mitigation, like they have across the United States. They are using livestock now to
control the tall grass, so you may see a proposal of mine or see me come and talk to
you folks one day. Thank you, Mr. Pacheco, for serving.
Mr. Pacheco: I am looking forward to hearing from you, if I
am selected as a Commissioner.
Council Chair Rapozo: Councilmember Carvalho.
Councilmember Carvalho: Mr. Mayor Pacheco from Kilauea, what can I
say? We go back a long way, our ohana from before, but you have always been at the
forefront in the community, every step of the way, from the keiki to kapuna. I
received numerous calls from you, too, some scolding's now and then, but it is all good,
but my point is that you come across and you make the right decisions based upon
true facts and whatnot. I know that for a fact and with this particular position, I
think you would serve well and provide awesome mana o to the table. I look forward
to you continuing your efforts, you are all over the place, but at the same time, you
know what is happening and you coordinate every step of the way, so I want to
appreciate you, your wife, and your `ohana, and just keep going, and I look forward
to talking story again.
COUNCIL MEETING 11 JUNE 28, 2023
Mr. Pacheco: Thank you.
Council Chair Rapozo: Councilmember Kagawa.
Councilmember Kagawa: Yes. Thank you, Mr. Pacheco. You check off
all the boxes for me of what we would want in a Fire Commissioner, and I think your
local experience is the most important thing for me that you are going to bring. Be
you and I know you are going to do a great job.
Mr. Pacheco: Thank you.
Council Chair Rapozo: Is there anyone else? Councilmember Kuali`i.
Councilmember Kuali`i: Aloha, Uncle Gary. Mahalo nui boa for your
willingness to step up and serve again on one (1) of our commissions. I loved hearing
you talk about Aunty Haunani, how you met at the hotel, and then you folks work
even until today, right, on the flower farm and all of that, which I have been to. You
are my uncle, not by blood, but because Aunty Marilyn, your sister, is my godsister,
and I have the fondest memories of being in Hanalei Bay with the Pacheco family
from Kilauea as a little boy. You have always been there. I love that we all think of
you as the Mayor of Kilauea and it is absolutely the most perfect fit that you should
step forward on any Commission, because you represent Kilauea and the entire island
so well, both you and Aunty Haunani. My only question is, you have been on the
Liquor Commission, so when was that? When were you on the Liquor Commission?
Was that recently, or a while ago?
Ms. Ching: His term ended two (2) years ago.
Councilmember Kuali`i: It was just recently. Thank you for that
service as well. Mahalo.
Council Chair Rapozo: Are there any other questions? If not, sir,
thank you very much for agreeing to serve. I will say that my brother was the
Director of Liquor Control, while you served on the Commission, and one thing he
said about you is that your dedication and commitment was awesome.
Mr. Pacheco: Thank you.
Council Chair Rapozo: He speaks very highly of you, as all people do,
so I have no doubt that you will serve well on this Commission, and I look forward to
working with you in the future.
Mr. Pacheco: Thank you for your time. I appreciate it.
Council Chair Rapozo: We have to be here, you did not, so thank you
for your time.
Mr. Pacheco: When I was asked to come, I felt honored that
I could come, sit down, and see you face-to-face, instead of just on the TV.
COUNCIL MEETING 12 JUNE 28, 2023
Council Chair Rapozo: One of the things, and I know for the people
in the audience and watching at home, is that this is our only opportunity as a Council
to have the dialogue, like we are having today, so there are no limits, because it is an
interview, but this is the only time we, as a body, will be able to chat with you, but as
Councilmember DeCosta and Councilmember Carvalho mentioned, we are here in
the event that any Commissioner who wants to chat with us individually, because of
the Sunshine Law, we are here for you all.
Mr. Pacheco: Thank you.
Council Chair Rapozo: You are welcome.
Mr. Pacheco: Have a great day.
Council Chair Rapozo: You too.
COST COMMISSION CONTROL:
• Stacy M.K. Waikoloa — Term ending 12/31/2025
Ms. Ching: Ellen Ching, Boards & Commissions
Administrator. Lastly, I am pleased to introduce Stacy Waikoloa. Stacy was born
and raised in Manoa and attended Kamehameha School.
She continued her education at the UH Manoa and earned her bachelor's and
a double major in Sociology and Speech, and a Master's in Social Work.
While in college, she started her banking career with American Savings on
O`ahu. Stacy married a Kaua`i local, Ipo Haumea, so when she was offered a position
as the Branch Manager of the American Savings Bank at Kukui Grove, moving to
Kaua`i was an easy transition.
Recently, in 2021, Stacy was named the Vice President of Kaua`i Market
Manager at the Bank of Hawaii. Her scope of responsibility covers Kaua`i, Moloka`i
and Lana`i, which includes six (6) branches: Lihu`e, Hanapepe, Kapa`a, Princeville,
Kaunakakai, and Lana`i.
Together, Stacy and Ipo are the proud parents of two (2) active little girls,
Damie and Ella, ages seven and two. Her free time with the family is spent outdoors
gardening, growing vegetables and flowers, like tomatoes and roses.
Another family favorite is traveling to any neighbor island. Of course, O`ahu
is always a treat to visit with the grandma, grandpa, and the `ohana.
Their favorite family trip so far has been to the happiest place on earth,
Disneyland. Stacy is a veteran traveler, and her personal favorite trip was to France
and Germany with seven (7) of her best friends.
COUNCIL MEETING 13 JUNE 28, 2023
A dream trip would be to Dubai to learn about the culture and see all the
modernization of the cityscape. If time permits, Stacy always looks forward to a day
trip as a mini-Kamehameha School reunion with her girlfriends. Favorite foods,poke
and poi.
As a busy young mother, Stacy still manages to volunteer as the Board's
secretary for the Boys & Girls Club of Kaua`i and with Leadership Kaua`i.
With an impressive 25-year career in banking, I am so grateful that Stacy is
willing to lend her knowledge and perspective as a wife and mother of a young family
to the Cost Control Commission.
Council Chair Rapozo: Thank you, Stacy. Thank you for being here.
STACY WAIKOLOA: Aloha.
Council Chair Rapozo: Would you like to say anything before I open
it up for questions?
Ms. Waikoloa: I guess I will make it as short as my
application. I will just say, I am very honored to be here in front of you all, and it is
still a mystery how I got here, but I am intrigued already, so good morning.
Council Chair Rapozo: Thank you. Are there any questions or
comments for Ms. Waikoloa? Councilmember DeCosta.
Councilmember DeCosta: Yes. I would like to go first. Wow.
Kamehameha School graduate, Disneyland is your favorite place, married a
public-school boy. This is exactly my wife. She is a Kamehameha graduate, married
a public-school boy, and her favorite place is Disneyland. The tomatoes and roses got
me, though, because it is my favorite vegetable or fruit, I am not sure what they
consider tomatoes, but roses...does he pick a rose for you every once in a while from
that garden?
Ms. Waikoloa: No.
Councilmember DeCosta: That is one point off of that box. Regardless,
it is very impressive; I am impressed. There is one question I want to ask you. There
is a lot of talk...the Cost Control applies to our salaries or something like that, right?
There was a big talk on O`ahu and a big discussion with the Council and their
salaries...
Council Chair Rapozo: That was the Salary Commission.
Councilmember DeCosta: Then I really do not have anything for you on
the Cost Control, but I am impressed with your resume.
Ms. Waikoloa: Thank you.
COUNCIL MEETING 14 JUNE 28, 2023
Council Chair Rapozo: Are there any other questions?
Councilmember Kagawa.
Councilmember Kagawa: Thank you. Having done Kaua`i
Interscholastic Federation (KIF) football for twenty-five (25) years, your husband's
name was one of the ones that I remembered for being the quarterback of Kapa'a
High School, and he was a really good one. Right, Council Chair Rapozo? Do you
remember Ipo?
Council Chair Rapozo: Yes, I remember you saying that all too often
when they played against Kaua`i High School.
Councilmember Kagawa: We only have three (3) teams here, so know
the kids well. He was just a great football player. I want to thank Ellen for, again,
adding to the Cost Control Commission. We had some vacancies, and she has an
all-star team, so you folks are going to do a great job and you can fulfill a lot of the
things that Ellen thinks you may want to look into. Thank you for your service, you
are going to have a great team, and I appreciate that, even with a young family, you
are willing to step up and volunteer your time.
Council Chair Rapozo: Councilmember Cowden.
Councilmember Cowden: I am sure the Chair will share with you the
importance and the responsibility with Cost Control. You will share that right?
Council Chair Rapozo: I might.
Councilmember Cowden: Okay, then I will make a stab at it. You folks
have a powerful responsibility and capacity when you go in and are looking at how
our government runs. If you see something, if you want, you can put something on
our agenda that would be a bill here, where we would be looking directly at the
challenges, so you folks have a lot of capacity and power, and we are here to back you
folks up. Ellen, again, a really excellent person, because when I look at all these years
in the banking industry, and especially going from island to island, you get the
opportunity to see how each different community does things, I am sure, somewhat
uniquely. I am sure your bank has a general policy that they follow, but you are going
to see variances, nuances, and what works best. I think that is what it takes to,
sometimes, look at something like Cost Control, because you will want to be
evaluating how else could this happen and when you are doing market management,
that is going to be a great application towards looking at our complicated budget, by
the way, and how we do things. It is different than anything else I have seen, in
terms of how a budget runs, but you would be able to look at what we spend, and I
am excited to have you. Hooray. Thank you.
Ms. Waikoloa: Thank you for the input, and you are correct.
Looking at different environments and seeing how they run definitely changes how
you view things, especially duplication of work. It just makes you think—how can we
work more efficiently?
COUNCIL MEETING 15 JUNE 28, 2023
Councilmember Cowden: Can you tell us a little bit? Are the islands
very different? Are the different regions of the islands very different? Do you see...
Ms. Waikoloa: Even branch-to-branch, it is very different. I
will tell you, it is surprising, I am an accidental banker, I never intended to stay here.
I cannot quite write on my resume that I am really using my degree, but yes, I can. I
can say I did. I never got a business degree, but the work that I am in definitely is
driven by understanding people, so branch-to-branch, person-to-person, it is
absolutely different. I am learning all the time.
Councilmember Cowden: Wonderful. Working with divisions and
departments, being able to sit through and think, what works for them, and not
putting a template over everything, and thinking it has to be the same. I am excited
to have you.
Ms. Waikoloa: Thank you.
Council Chair Rapozo: Are there any other questions? Go ahead.
Councilmember Kuali`i: I do not really have a question, but I do want
to say, mahalo nui boa for your willingness to step up and serve in this way and thank
you also for your work with the Boys & Girls Club. I think it is really important for
our youth. I am really looking forward to what you and the Commission, that is
starting to get filled, which does really important work, so I am really looking forward
to what you folks produce, and then how you can help us each year, when we come
upon the budget, which is our biggest job. I really like that you said, "curious to learn"
in your application here, and even today before us, you said you were intrigued
already. I can tell that you are ready to jump in there, learn everything you can, and
do good work, so thank you so much.
Council Chair Rapozo: Are there any other questions?
Councilmember Carvalho: I, know you and your ohana, so thank you for
stepping up with your wealth of knowledge. You fit perfectly into this role, and I
know you are going to bring a lot to the table, not only just the financial side, but the
mance() side, and the family side of it, too, so that is a big part of it, overall, I think,
so thank you.
Ms. Waikoloa: Mahalo.
Council Chair Rapozo: Are there any other questions? If not, I will
say, thank you, and yes, we all know your husband well.
Ms. Waikoloa: I do not think I am related to anyone here,
though.
Council Chair Rapozo: I will expand a little bit on what
Councilmember Cowden said, and former Mayor Carvalho, you can close your ears
on this one.
COUNCIL MEETING 16 JUNE 28, 2023
Councilmember Carvalho: Okay. Go ahead.
Council Chair Rapozo: As far back as when I got elected with Mayor
Baptiste, this is one Commission that the Administration typically do not fill. Your
function is so critical to this County, that Commission's function is so critical to this
body, but we do not take advantage of it for whatever reason. Again, administrations
do not like to fill it, because at times you are going to be questioning programs, you
are going to be questioning departments and projects, and you said it, you said,
"duplication of work." I think that is exactly where you start in any organization,
understanding, though, that you come the private sector, so there is going to be a
learning curve. You are going to be blown away when you understand the difference,
and some of it is that we do things differently than a business. For example, at a
bank, you might have an automated teller machine (ATM) in a location that you
thought was going to get a lot of foot traffic, and it does not, so you remove the ATM.
It is not worth having the machine there, it is not worth the cost. In government,
talking about the Fire Department, you may have a fire station with very low use.
You cannot say, "No, let us get rid of the fire station." In government, we provide
services that we have to provide regardless of the bottom line, but the way we provide
those services and at what expense, so the Cost Control Commission, you folks have
the latitude, and that is what the mayors do not like. You folks have the latitude
to...I am just being real, and I am hoping that as you folks come in...even Ellen is
looking at me like, "Chair Rapozo, do not tell them too much." I am just kidding. You
folks have the latitude to look into whatever project you folks choose to look at. It
may even come as a request from the Council, "Hey, we are asking that you folks take
a look at this program, this department, or this activity," and you have the latitude
and the authority to get all the documents you need. You folks sit down, take a look,
do the deep dive, and you determine if there is duplication of work, if we are spending
too much money on a specific piece of equipment, or if there is a contract that you
believe is too expensive. Your findings are transmitted to the Administration for
review, only review, and your recommendations, whether it is to get rid of a program,
or reduce the...whatever is it, once it gets through the Administration for review only,
no edits, then it comes here in the form of a bill, and then this body treats it as every
other bill—first reading, public hearing, Committee Meeting, public involvement, and
then we will make the determination of whether or not that bill passes. If the process
is followed, as the Charter requires, the budget process here will look a lot different,
because we do not have that flexibility and latitude as the Cost Control Commission
does. We cannot interfere with the administrative functions of government, that is
the law, but the Cost Control Commission can. Now your head is really spinning.
Ms. Waikoloa: Yes.
Council Chair Rapozo: I tell every Commission appointee that comes
up the same thing, you need to focus on what the Charter requires you to do and make
sure it is done, and start small, but the process is there, it is in the Charter, and if
you have any questions, you can let us or Ellen know. Ellen is quite familiar with the
process. Thank you for serving. I hope you do not go out and say, "Ellen, I am not
doing that," but I think your bank and business expertise will help tremendously, so
thank you very much.
COUNCIL MEETING 17 JUNE 28, 2023
Ms. Waikoloa: Mahalo.
Councilmember DeCosta: I have one small comment. May I? I noticed
that you nodded your head and grinned a little bit, but I do not think we need to tell
you how to do anything, because being married to a Kamehameha girl, she does not
listen to me, so I know you know what you are doing. I know you folks were educated
to be powerful industrialists and educated women, so I am so impressed to watch you
work some magic on this Commission. Thank you.
Council Chair Rapozo: Thank you, and thanks to Ellen, you will be
joining a very solid team. Is there anyone in the audience wishing to testify? Please
forgive me. I am sorry.
(Councilmember Kuali i was noted as not present.)
Councilmember Cowden: Alice wants to testify.
Council Chair Rapozo: On the interviews? Did you have a comment
on the interviews? I will tell you when. She is going come up and to testify on the
Consent Calendar. Next item, please.
CONSENT CALENDAR:
C 2023-148 Communication (05/18/2023) from the Mayor, transmitting for
Council consideration and confirmation, Mayoral appointee Howard Leslie to the
Police Commission —Term ending 12/31/2025.
C 2023-149 Communication (05/18/2023) from the Mayor, transmitting for
Council consideration and confirmation, Mayoral appointee Graham Odenheimer to
the Board of Review — Term ending 12/31/2025.
C 2023-150 Communication (06/05/2023) from the Director of Finance,
transmitting for Council information, the following reports:
a. County of Kaua`i Bond Summary of General Long-Term Debt:
Rollforward for Fiscal Year 2023;
b. County of Kauai Bond Supplemental Summary of General
Long-Term Debt Amount Outstanding as of June 30, 2023; and
c. Excluded County of Kaua`i Bond Supplemental Summary of
Long-Term Debt Amount Outstanding as of June 30, 2023: CFD
No. 2008-1 (Kukui`ula Development Project) Special Tax Bonds,
Series 2019, and Series 2022.
C 2023-151 Communication (06/09/2023) from Councilmember Bulosan,
transmitting for Council consideration, a Resolution Recognizing August 8, 2023 As
Kaua`i Honeycreepers Celebration Day.
COUNCIL MEETING 18 JUNE 28, 2023
Councilmember Carvalho moved to receive C 2023-148, C 2023-149,
C 2023-150, and C 2023-151 for the record, seconded by Councilmember
Cowden.
Council Chair Rapozo: Is there anyone in the audience wishing to testify?
There being no objections, the rules were suspended to take public testimony.
ALICE PARKER: Alice Parker, for the record. I wish they had
closed captioning up here, too. I have several things. One (1), an issue for the Public
Safety & Human Services Committee. Is that okay?
Council Chair Rapozo: Sure.
Ms. Parker: I found my quill and inkwell. Okay. Access
to the grass front lawn of the Historic County Building is not available to anyone
using a walker or otherwise needing access via ramp or slanted curb, thereby
precluding us seniors or kupuna, and others with impaired mobility attending any
public events, such as the Kauai Pride Parade & Festival in June, and the King's
Parade & Ho`olaule`a, also in June. I wrestled with my walker in June, clumsily
putting one (1) wheel up or down, attempting to get up on the grass and later
attempting the reverse to Eiwa Street to catch the bus. It was very awkward and
nearly caused me to fall to the ground. A solution is to make one (1) area accessible
for wheels and for people using crutches and canes. Mahalo.
Number two (2), public bus. He is gone. Councilmember Kuali`i, I am calling
you. For your consideration, rather than have a paratransit bus run out from Lihu`e
to Hanapepe, Waimea, etcetera, to pick up two (2) of us seniors from Obon Festivals
at 8:00 p.m., it would be more cost efficient to have us return as we went, via Bus
Route 200 and Route 100 Kekaha local buses, and in Lihu`e, transfer to the Route 70
shuttle, which, since 2022, no longer stops at Lihu`e Gardens Elderly after 5:00 p.m.,
but this would be okay for this one (1) trip.
(Councilmember Kuali`i was noted as present.)
It would be cost-effective. Since this diversion would occur very rarely, the
seniors, Alice and her neighbor, could call from the distant site, clarify time of arrival
at Eiwa Street, Kukui Grove stop is too dangerous to wait there at night, and notify
the driver then to include the Lihu`e Gardens stop for the two (2) elderly residents.
This way, we kapuna could enjoy some of the dances at Obon. Mahalo for your
consideration, and it would cost the transit and the bus transportation less money.
Do I have time for something else?
Council Chair Rapozo: You have about thirty (30) seconds. You can
hand that to us. If you could provide us the papers, we will address it.
Ms. Parker: I lost my train of thought. Can I come back
later?
COUNCIL MEETING 19 JUNE 28, 2023
Council Chair Rapozo: I think there is only you. How many more do
you have?
Ms. Parker: Real estate tax. I know there are credits
against the real estate tax. My neighbor and friend at Lihu`e Gardens got a credit for
being over sixty-five (65) years of age and being a veteran with the U.S. Air Force.
Now, he did not need it. He had plenty of money, so we do not need those credits to
go to the multi-millionaires. Maybe that is already accounted for in the taxes, but we
need all the money we can get. Thank you.
Council Chair Rapozo: Thank you so much. Staff, if we could get a
copy of her written testimony.
There being no further testimony, the meeting was called back to order, and
proceeded as follows:
Council Chair Rapozo: There is a motion and a second. Is there any
further discussion on the Consent Calendar? If not.
The motion to receive C 2023-148, C 2023-149, C 2023-150, and C 2023-151 for
the record was then put, and unanimously carried.
Council Chair Rapozo: Next item, please. I see the Police Officers in
here, and their items should not be long. If there is no objection, I would ask that we
take the Kaua`i Police Department (KPD) requests first, so that they can get back on
the road. Madam Clerk, if we could go to item C 2023-153, followed by C 2023-155
and C 2023-158. You can come up. If there is going to be any discussion and we need
more discussion, then we will just refer it to the Committee next week, but these are
recurring items.
There being no objections, C 2023-153 was taken out of order
COMMUNICATIONS:
C 2023-153 Communication (06/06/2023) from the Chief of Police, requesting
Council approval of the indemnification provision included in the continued lease
agreement for Kiipu-Maluhia Firing Range, for continued training of members of the
Kaua`i Police Department.
Councilmember Kagawa moved to approve C 2023-153, seconded by
Councilmember Cowden.
Council Chair Rapozo: Chief, this is a recurring indemnification that
we do how often? Annually?
There being no objections, the rules were suspended.
ELLIOTT "KALANI" KE, Assistant Chief: For the record, Elliott Kalani Ke,
Assistant Chief of the Kaua`i Police Department. My understanding about this is
COUNCIL MEETING 20 JUNE 28, 2023
when we, the County, entered into this lease agreement twenty-plus (20+) years ago,
there was an indemnification that came with that, but there was an ownership
change, and now that we have an agreement with the new landowner to extend the
lease, we want to make sure that indemnification is carried over to the new
landowner.
Council Chair Rapozo: It went from Grove Farm to Cumberland and
Western Resources, LLC?
Mr. Ke: Yes, sir.
Council Chair Rapozo: That is the only change?
Mr. Ke: Yes, sir.
Council Chair Rapozo: Are there any questions for Assistant Chief
Ke? If not, thank you very much.
Mr. Ke: Thank you.
Council Chair Rapozo: You may as well stay right there, unless there
is someone in the audience wishing to testify. Mr. Hart.
BRUCE HART: For the record, Bruce Hart. I think it is
month-to-month, now, and so I looked at the attachments and it is month-to-month.
I want to say, this is one of the support parts of KPD and their training, and I do not
know if the Council has any ideas to help KPD, but having read the attachments, it
appears that the new owner could end the lease with very short notice, and so I think
that the County or the Mayor should look for another place. It may go on, it may be
fine, but if they do end the lease, we are going to have to find a place for our officers
to train. Thank you.
Council Chair Rapozo: Thank you. Is there anyone else wishing to
testify? Seeing none.
There being no further testimony, the meeting was called back to order, and
proceeded as follows:
Council Chair Rapozo: Is there any further discussion on
C 2023-153? Go ahead.
Councilmember Kagawa: It has been brought up to me many times from
the general public that we need a public range. It is great that the police have a place
to practice, but if you do not give the public a place to practice as well, they will
practice wherever they want, which becomes dangerous. No one wants it in their
backyard, but with the amount of people we have with guns, we need the public to
have a place to practice and test their guns. That is just my feeling. I hope we move
in that direction.
COUNCIL MEETING 21 JUNE 28, 2023
Council Chair Rapozo: That is something that the County would
have to...that is really not on this agenda item. This is specific to the private property
range. Is there any other discussion? Seeing none.
The motion to approve C 2023-153 was then put, and unanimously carried.
Council Chair Rapozo: Next item, please.
There being no objections, C 2023-155 was taken out of order.
C 2023-155 Communication (06/16/2023) from Elliott K. Ke, Assistant Chief
of Police, Patrol Services Bureau, requesting Council approval to receive and expend
funding from the Enhanced 911 (E-911) Board, in the amount of $1,192,689.00, for
annual recurring and non-recurring expenditures to operate 911 services as part of
the Kaua`i Police Department's Public Safety Answering Point (PSAP) and the
Alternate Dispatch Center (ADC), and for travel expenses for designees to attend
Board meetings on O`ahu as well as Board-approved trainings available out-of-state.
Councilmember Kuali`i moved to approve C 2023-155, seconded by
Councilmember Cowden.
Council Chair Rapozo: Go ahead, Mr. Ke.
There being no objections, the rules were suspended.
Mr. Ke: Thank you, Chair. Just a little background on
the funding that we are asking for your consideration and approval comes from the
State. It is part of a surcharge that is applied to all telephone service connections,
except the ones that are exempt. It goes into one of the State's special funds, and
those funds can only be used for really specific 911 emergency-related purposes, and
we, KPD and the County, are very fortunate to be able to utilize these funds because
it helps us pay for, like mentioned, some training. Our dispatchers receive training
out-of-state that they cannot receive in-state. We also utilize the funding to pay for
our computer-aided dispatching service and maintenance fees, our digital recording
services, our phonelines for the dispatch centers, the alternate and the main, so this
is a huge chunk for us, it is great for us, and we are very fortunate to receive these
moneys from the State each year, so I appreciate your consideration.
Council Chair Rapozo: These are the funds that come in your
cellphone bill, right, that little percentage that they take out for the fund?
Mr. Ke: Yes, it is cellphone and hardline.
Council Chair Rapozo: We still have those nowadays?
Mr. Ke: It is sixty-six cents ($0.66) per connection,
every month.
COUNCIL MEETING 22 JUNE 28, 2023
Council Chair Rapozo: Right, and then we get a chunk of it. Again,
this is recurring.
Mr. Ke: Yes, sir.
Council Chair Rapozo: I am prepared to vote, but the only thing I
would ask is if we could receive a report on the funding for the last year or the last
couple of years to see where the funds go.
Mr. Ke: Okay.
Council Chair Rapozo: The way it is written here, travel was the
highlight, but I know it is one million, one hundred thousand dollars ($1,100,000).
Mr. Ke: The travel is actually the smallest part.
Council Chair Rapozo: Right.
Mr. Ke: We can have a report prepared and explain
where those moneys go.
Council Chair Rapozo: I would appreciate that. Thank you. Are
there any other questions? Go ahead.
Councilmember Cowden: If it has nothing to do with this money, we do
not have to go in any depth at all, but when I look at what is out there for dispatch, I
know there is a constant upgrade of capacity in terms of the equipment. Does any of
this go towards buying new equipment?
Mr. Ke: That is a great question, Councilmember.
Some of the funding from the Hawai`i State Board is going towards research and
reviewing what the best practice technologies are nationally, and we are trying to
bring some of that to the State. For example, Text-to-911 is a Next Generation 911
technology, so with things like this, we are trying to figure out what the rest of the
nation is doing, and we are bringing that back home to the State. I also wanted to
mention, Hawai`i as a State, because we are so close and work so well together, we
are actually very advanced when it comes to technology and these types of things in
comparison to many other states. For instance, many other states do not have the
Text-to-911, but we have had it for years. That is just one example of how we are in
many ways ahead of other states.
Councilmember Cowden: One of the things I am anticipating is the
video 911, where they see it, and I just want to make sure our dispatchers are
somewhat prepared ahead of that happening, because I am sure they have nerves of
steel, but when we make that shift, I want to make sure that they are clued in ahead
of time or part of that. Have we moved to that yet?
Mr. Ke: No, we have not.
COUNCIL MEETING 23 JUNE 28, 2023
Councilmember Cowden: Okay.
Council Chair Rapozo: Councilmember DeCosta.
Councilmember DeCosta: Hello, Assistant Chief Kalani Ke. You
mentioned the technology part of this one-million-dollar budget in the training. How
about the social and emotional training? As dispatchers, do they receive that support
also?
Mr. Ke: They do. KPD has different services that we
offer our employees, including things like the Employee Assistance Program (EAP).
Internally, we also have peer support and a chaplain service, so we have opportunities
for emotional support.
Councilmember DeCosta: Does it come out of the one million
dollars ($1,000,000)?
Mr. Ke: No, it does not.
Councilmember DeCosta: The one million dollars ($1,000,000) does not
fit that social and emotional training, only the technical training?
Mr. Ke: I know that some of trainings provided on the
mainland that they are able to attend does cover aspects of that, but this budget does
not directly pay for those types of services.
Councilmember DeCosta: Could we use this to pay for those services, or
is it targeted toward a specific order or agenda item?
Mr. Ke: These are really specific to certain types of
911-related services.
Councilmember DeCosta: Thank you for that.
Council Chair Rapozo: Are there any other questions?
Councilmember Kagawa.
Councilmember Kagawa: What is the total amount of Kaua`i's portion
of the sixty-six cents ($0.66) per month bill?
Mr. Ke: I do not know how it is separated.
Councilmember Kagawa: No. If you added up all the Kaua`i cellphones
and landline phone users, how much is the Ciunty's share?
Mr. Ke: I do not know exactly.
Councilmember Kagawa: You do not know? Can you find that out?
COUNCIL MEETING 24 JUNE 28, 2023
Mr. Ke: I could.
Councilmember Kagawa: I want to know if we are receiving our share
and how we are using our share. If the State is going to mandate it and is hiding the
phone bills that are for 911 services, then I want to know how much Kaua`i's portion
is, and how our island benefits.
Mr. Ke: What you are asking is, "What surcharges are
received from Kaua`i residents and where is that applied in the overall budget?"
Councilmember Kagawa: Yes. Is this the total amount that you folks
receive from that sixty-six ($0.66) per month?
Mr. Ke: This is the total amount that we require to
maintain our services for the next fiscal year.
Councilmember Kagawa: Okay.
Council Chair Rapozo: Chief, we will send it over in writing, so you
do not need to write it on your paper over there, just so we make sure we get it right.
Councilmember Kagawa: It is a simple question, "How much is Kaua`i's
portion?" If Kaua`i is getting two million dollars ($2,000,000) and they are giving us
one million dollars ($1,000,000), I want to know where the other one million
dollars ($1,000,000) is. Is it going to O`ahu?
Council Chair Rapozo: I do not know.
Councilmember Kagawa: It is a good question, right?
Council Chair Rapozo: Are there any other questions for the
Assistant Chief? If not, thank you very much. Is there anyone in the audience
wishing to testify? Seeing none.
There being no one present to provide testimony, the meeting proceeded as
follows:
Council Chair Rapozo: Is there any final discussion?
Councilmember Kuali`i: The only thing I have to say is, yes, it is good
to see the numbers, but sometimes the numbers work against us as well. If it is a
Statewide pool of money, and everyone is paying in, obviously O`ahu has a lot more
people paying in. Hopefully when you look at the numbers, it will be that if you are
talking about what Kauai pays in, then maybe we are getting more than what we
actually pay in. That is how it was with the Transient Accommodations Tax (TAT).
Council Chair Rapozo: Right, but the fund is set up specifically for
the E-911, so we are going to ask for what we need to maintain the system. This is
not like the TAT, where you can use it for anything. This is specific to a State fund,
COUNCIL MEETING 25 JUNE 28, 2023
or Federal fund that flows through the State that says, "This is what you will pay as
a phone user, and that money will go back to the County, so they can keep their 911
systems in shape."
Mr. Ke: That is correct.
Council Chair Rapozo: You are asking for what you need?
Mr. Ke: That is correct.
Councilmember Kualii: And you get it.
Council Chair Rapozo: We will send the questions across. Thank
you.
There being no objections, the meeting was called back to order, and proceeded
as follows:
The motion to approve C 2023-155 was then put, and unanimously carried.
Council Chair Rapozo: We have a legal document. I am not sure if
we need KPD here. It is a right-of-entry agreement for the Hawaii Health Systems
Corporation (HHSC) plan. If you could read the item.
There being no objections, C 2023-158 was taken out of order.
LEGAL DOCUMENT:
C 2023-158 Communication (06/14/2023) from the Chief of Police, requesting
Council approval of a Right-of-Entry Agreement for inspecting, surveying, and overall
determining the feasibility of a future police substation, by and between the County
of Kauai and Hawaii Health Systems Corporation, situated at Tax Map Key (TMK)
No. (4) 6-0-141:130, Samuel Mahelona Memorial Hospital, 4800 Kawaihau Road,
Kapa`a.
• Right-of-Entry Agreement
Councilmember Kualii moved to approve C 2023-158, seconded by
Councilmember Cowden.
Council Chair Rapozo: Again, this is just the right-of-entry
agreement that is required to get, I would assume, the consultants on the property.
There being no objections, the rules were suspended.
Mr. Ke: Elliott Ke, for the record. Yes, you are correct,
Chair. My understanding is this right-of-entry will allow the consultants, that we
have been working with, the ability to enter the property and do an assessment of the
COUNCIL MEETING 26 JUNE 28, 2023
location. What happened was there was an initial siting for a Kaua`i Police
Department substation that was at a different location on the same property, but the
Hawai`i Health Systems made some changes to their site plan, and now the
substation has been moved from the initial siting based on their study. That location
is closer to where the old maintenance shop was, behind the elementary school, in
that general area. This will allow our consultants to get on property, do their
evaluations, and determine if the Environmental Assessment (EA), which was
previously done, needs to be modified and how. That is what this is for.
Council Chair Rapozo: Are there any questions on the right-of-entry
agreement? I do not want to get into the specifics of the plan, because we already had
the update from HHSC here. Are there any questions on the agreement? Alright. Is
there anyone in the audience wishing to testify? Seeing none.
There being no one present to provide testimony, the meeting was called back
to order, and proceeded as follows:
Council Chair Rapozo: Is there any further discussion on the legal
document? Seeing none.
The motion to approve C 2023-158 was then put, and unanimously carried.
Council Chair Rapozo: Thank you, Chief. I apologize, Finance, but I
just wanted to get them out. We can return to the agenda.
C 2023-152 Communication (05/15/2023) from Councilmember Cowden,
requesting the presence of the Director of Finance, to provide a briefing on the
County's Geographic Information System (GIS), Land Information Management
Systems (LIMS), and Really Cool Maps System.
Councilmember Kuali`i moved to receive C 2023-152 for the record, seconded
by Councilmember Kagawa.
Council Chair Rapozo: Councilmember Cowden, did you want to
share a few words about the request?
Councilmember Cowden: Yes, I did, and I also want to really
acknowledge Councilmember Bulosan, who called them to make a presentation to
him and I. I was very impressed with what our Information Technology (IT) Division
did. I will let them hear it in just a moment.
Council Chair Rapozo: Do you need some time to set up?
There being no objections, the rules were suspended.
REIKO MATSUYAMA, Director of Finance: No, we will just use Garrett's
computer.
COUNCIL MEETING 27 JUNE 28, 2023
Councilmember Cowden: Thank you, to the two (2) Mr. Johnsons. I was
expressing to my colleagues how impressed I was with what you showed to
Councilmember Bulosan and I, at his request, and what I felt as I watched it, was
this is a really tremendous step forward for the efficiency for us, as a Council, to be
able to use the software that they have done, that this is really great for all the
different employees, I was really excited about it. I also was hoping that we could see
it before we could go to our National Association of Counties (NACo) Conference,
because when we are there, we see a lot of different offerings, so I felt that as we
understand the strides forward that have been needed...this was a big thing when I
first got elected, the steps forward you were working on, and even as we had the flood
on the engineering side, I am hoping that a lot of what was lost was on the cloud,
somehow. Our IT Division has moved us forward in a lot of ways, I am just really
thrilled with it, I felt like we all ought to know and appreciate the movement forward,
I think it will help me to be more effective in my job, and I think it will be easier for
the public, if we can get them to know, so that is part of why I wanted this up here.
As we get more of us to know, and more of them to know, then, hopefully, it will be
less work for the County and less work for the people, so thank you. Did you want to
add anything?
Councilmember Bulosan: You got it all.
Councilmember Cowden: Alright.
Council Chair Rapozo: Thank you, again, for being here and I
appreciate you folks allowing KPD to go first. You can introduce yourselves and take
it away.
GARRETT A. JOHNSON, Senior GIS Analyst: Hi, my name is Garrett
Johnson. I am part of the IT Division, and I will be starting the presentation with
just a brief overview, then pass it off to my colleague, Mike. Thank you, Council
Chair, Councilmembers, and everyone for letting us speak to you. We are excited to
show you this briefing to give you an idea of what we have been doing lately,
especially recently with GIS. To start, it will be a brief history of GIS, which is
Geographic Information System at the County, then highlight some recent projects
from the IT Division, the Real Property Assessment Division, the Planning
Department, public safety, and the Department of Public Works, present a quick
LIMS overview, which stands for Land Information Management Systems, then I will
give a quick demonstration (demo). We are over Wi-Fi, so, hopefully, it will go well,
but we are going to give a quick demonstration of our Kaua`i GIS data hub, and then
Mike will take over for the LIMS demonstration.
First, in about 2006, we had very little GIS at the County. We had a Hurricane
Iniki grant that was funding some software, about three (3) copies, and from that
time, our users, as you can see, have really gone up. We are now over four
hundred (400) users, who are using GIS, ArcGIS Online, ElementsXS, which is part
of the LIMS project, which we will show you, and Pictometry Online...you can see
when the pandemic hit and we got our LIMS platform, we really jumped up with more
users from just over two hundred (200) to now, where we are about four hundred (400)
total users.
COUNCIL MEETING 28 JUNE 28, 2023
Councilmember Cowden: Are those users within the County?
Mr. Johnson: These are all County users, yes. GIS staffing.
In around 2006, as I just mentioned, we just had three (3) people, who were primarily
for GIS, then almost immediately, that dropped down to one (1) person for a number
of years, and then we were lucky enough to get Anneka Imkamp at the Real Property
Assessment Division, who is amazing, and then Alan came on board at the Emergency
Management Agency, he is now at the Planning Department, and Garrett Gee, and
now Mike in the last year, so we have really been lucky to get some great staff. Even
beyond this, we have excellent users. There are a number of firefighters, who are
super tech-savvy, that took the technology and ran with it. We have a lot of really
great people, and I feel lucky to work with everyone.
Just a quick overview, we have about five (5) full-time GIS staff now, and just
as compared to Hawai`i Island, who have about nine (9), and Maui County, who have
about fourteen (14). I think that is a little lower at the moment, because they had
some people who quit, but that is where they were at recently. It is about double to
triple what we currently have. I am going to show you this after the brief
presentation. This is Kaua`i Open Data Hub. This is off Kauai.gov. This is where
the County of Kaua`i puts all our data and maps, it is publicly accessible. The State
of Hawai`i GIS and Office of Planning created the first one of these in the State, and
I think we were the second. Anneka, at the Real Property Assessment Division,
spearheaded this project, has done a really great job, and I think you will see that
when I demonstrate it. As far as the Open Data Hub, it also meets the financial 2006
Digital Accountability and Transparency Act, where we are sharing more data with
the public. It also makes it a lot easier. Before we had this data hub, I would
constantly get emails from people looking for data. Now that we are pushing this
data to the public, they can obtain it themselves and a lot of studies have shown that
if you put the data in the hands of the citizens, it generates innovation and curiosity,
and makes people feel closer to their government. That is a big part of that data hub,
which I will show you.
One of our biggest GIS-related projects was of course the April 15, 2018
massive flooding, that we had around the island. We worked in the Emergency
Operations Center (EOC), we practically lived there for a few weeks, on this project.
I think there is a larger one that has been sent to you, but this map is an overview of
the things we did, as far as having a dashboard in the EOC, showing damage, where
different units were, and where roads were closed. We made an
application (app)...over on the right, you see a little white thing, that is a phone app
for the public to enter their damage and take pictures of their flooding, and all this
generated information back to the EOC, which helped us receive federal funds from
Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) for disaster funds. This was where
we put everything into motion with our GIS for the first time. This has sort of been
emulated by the State of Hawai`i Emergency Management Agency. They have talked
to us about we have done here and are basing some of the things they are doing on
what we did during the 2018 flood, so that is nice.
Also, we are working with the Kaua`i Emergency Management Agency. We
created the newest tsunami evacuation zones in a couple decades, which includes the
COUNCIL MEETING 29 JUNE 28, 2023
new greater Aleutian tsunami (GAT). I am not a tsunami scientist, but I believe it is
over a nine point zero (9.0) in the Aleutian Islands and Alaska. That is the biggest
worry, from my understanding. We created all these maps, they are on the website,
they are on the Kaua`i Emergency Management Agency's website, they are also in
the phone book. We also did dam breaks after Ka Loko, we worked with Department
of Land and Natural Resources (DNLR) and other emergency management agencies
to get evacuation zones for every dam on the island. You will see the one on the right,
by the airport, that one is actually emptied, but when it was full, it would have run
at least some water over the entire airport, so it very good that one is not active.
Touching on what the Assistant Chief of Police said earlier, my feeling is that
the County dispatchers are amazing. It is a very hard job. We worked closely with
the GIS mapping for 911, and I did not realize what a hard job that was. A dispatcher
has at least six (6) monitors in front of them, multiple systems, multiple computers,
they are doing the mapping, and most of the calls are wireless Phase 1 and Phase 2
calls, which automatically triangulate from cell towers for a position. I cannot say
enough about the dispatchers and public safety, and what a hard job that really is.
The Fire Department is an amazing user of the GIS and has been from the
start. This middle part here, that is blue, though it is not easy to see, this is actually
a fire hydrant mapping product that the Fire Department spearheaded, where they
are using their mobile data terminals (MDT), shown in the bottom right, in their fire
vehicles and they are inspecting all the hydrants on the island. Each district fire
stations would inspect their section, and they gamified it at one point with former
Fire Chief Westerman, where it was like, "This station is not inspecting as much as
that one," and once they did that, they inspected a few thousand of the hydrants and
that project continues on, so there are some excellent people in the Fire Department,
who are using the technology.
This is from the Planning Department. This is new, exciting technology. I
always say, "A picture is worth a thousand (1,000) words," or, "A map is worth a
thousand (1,000) words," but I think once you put things into three-dimensional (3D)
imaging, which is what the Planning Department is doing now...and this is from Alan
at Planning, and I am not really doing it justice. He sent me a number of things, but
I consolidated it to this, but being able the Civic Center area here in different 3D, in
this new Esri Urban product, where it is very planning-focused, where you can plan,
for instance, "What it would look like if we put a building in this area or moved
something here?" It is a very neat technology. It is very cutting-edge, so I want to
give a shoutout to the Planning Department.
Real Property Assessment, another great division. This is from Anneka and
Terry Phillips, at the Real Property Assessment Division. They made this app over
here, that works on a phone, where they can go into the field, and for Agriculture
Dedication land, they can get the map from the owner the property, they will
geo-reference that into GIS, so they can reference that, then they go into the field to
see check if that is actually what they are seeing on the ground. It is a really exciting
thing that they recently started doing.
COUNCIL MEETING 30 JUNE 28, 2023
Another great thing from the Real Property Assessment Division. It is rather
easy to just show one (1) house, or one (1) property, but what gets really confusing in
databases and whatnot is when you have multiple floor levels and multiple units, so
Anneka at the Real Property Assessment Division came up with a great fix of this
paradox, where she took ten-meter circles...you can see it on the right there, all those
mostly blue circles...and she used those to show the units in individual condominium
(condo) areas, and then also color-coded them for residential, vacation rentals, and
different things. This is a great solution that I had never seen done anywhere else,
and they came up.
This is EagleView Imagery. On the left, you see the new Safeway area with
Petco...this is Petco right here. You can see the floor where they are about to cut it
out. This imagery is from 2014, and then here is Petco in 2020. This imagery is in
911, and you can see the power. For example, you get a 911 call, and immediately
the dispatcher can zoom into something that is more three-dimensional, because the
airplane flies over and takes a 45-degree angled image. This is an amazing thing.
Since October 2008 to last year, we have this imagery and it is amazing for public
safety, as well as the rest of the County for helping increase addressing and increase
situational awareness, where an employee could be at their desk, but could use this
pictometry imagery, and it is almost like they are in the field. It is not quite as good,
but it is close.
I will quickly show you how it is captured. It is captured by an airplane, that
flies about one thousand five hundred (1,500) feet with a special camera underneath,
and as it flies over, it catches north, south, east, west and straight down, and that is
what makes up the pictometry imagery capture. It is incredible technology.
This is a neat project we do at the Department of Public Works, Open Space
Commission. We just got word that everyone in the County of Kaua`i gets a ten
percent (10%) discount on their flood insurance. This project was defined as open
space land on the County of Kaua`i, with the Engineering group, and it is a formula
FEMA has, so depending on how much land you have versus how many people you
have and how much area, and the formula came out that we can start as a class 8,
which is ten percent (10%) off everyone's flood insurance. In the future, we can
possibly receive a better discount than that. We hoped to capture the giant twelve
thousand (12,000) acre parcel on the Westside, but since the State does not have
written that there cannot be buildings on it, we were not allowed to use that and had
to pull that out of the project, but perhaps in the future, there could be larger lands,
where the deed can specifically meet these requirements. This is a great project, and
I think I provided a better image of this digitally, if you want to look at the map and
dig in.
This is touching on the LIMS system. This is a legacy addressing map on the
left. This is a very small part of a six-foot mylar map, that I think actually started
from the 1960s. The way they used to do it is the new address came, they would draw
in pen on this map, and fifty-five (55) of these six-foot maps would be kept, and now
we moved all that addressing data into ElementsXS, which is the LIMS system.
(Councilmember Bulosan was noted as not present.)
COUNCIL MEETING 31 JUNE 28, 2023
Mr. Johnson: You can see that all those houses have a little
green "A" on top, so that means they all have an address. We try to put it in the
center of the roof. Now, a user with very few tools at the Engineering Division or the
Department of Public Works can add addresses from this tool. They go right into the
database, and everyone sees it immediately. It is not just updating the data, like in
a silo, but it is updating the data, where the whole County is seeing the same
information as soon as it is updated, so it is very important and a move to the future
that we have done.
This is a quick LIMS overview, before I do my demonstration, and then pass it
onto Mike. LIMS, in generic terms, is Land Information Management System. The
main objectives: consolidate, centralize, and share information between departments
and the public, and have external public submission of applications. Mike will
highlight the additional dwelling unit (ADU) application that the Planning
Department now has on the Connect online thing, where a public member can go
online, instead of going in and filling out a paper form. We are trying to move a lot
of those legacy paper things into the system. A couple of recently examples; work
orders and maintenance history for all the Kaua`i buses and Kaua`i Fire Department
vehicles, stations, and self-contained breathing apparatus (SCBA)...they are trying
to track all of these things in there...as I just mentioned, the Planning Department's
ADU permits, Public Works tasks performed on addressing roads and bridges are all
on the system. Mike will touch on more things forthcoming in his presentation.
That is my very brief introduction. Now, I would like to jump over and show
you the Kaua`i GIS database quickly, as well as a couple of the public facing maps. I
have them all loaded up here, so hopefully this will be quick for you.
On the new County of Kaua`i website, which Mandi and the IT team just
launched, under "Residents," if you scroll down, you find "Really Cool Maps." Once
you click"Really Cool Maps" under"Residents," then you come to the GIS information
page on the website. Here is the data hub that I am about to show you, it also has
the State of Hawai`i's data hub underneath, that people can go to, and it is
highlighting the County of Kaua`i road resurfacing and bridge status map, that
Garrett Gee, at the Department of Public Works, spearheaded and it is an excellent
thing that just launched. I will show you that briefly. When you click this data hub,
you are directed here, this is right off of the County of Kaua`i website. The County of
Kaua`i open data hub, explore the data from different ways, you can search, here is
this map, that I am about to go ever in a second, you have the Kauai shelter status
page, so if we do have to open emergency shelters, they will show as green on here
and will show as red, if they end up being full, we have the 2023 property tax
classifications from Real Property Assessment Division, the Planning Department's
sea-level rise constraint district viewer, which they just launched, recycling
information, refuse collection, the Department of Parks and Recreation's County
facilities, Kaua`i mile markers...this is a simple map, but I know the Public
Information Office uses this in order to find things, especially accidents on the
highways without an address. Then down here we have things hosted, that are not
from the County of Kaua`i, but we think the residents would like. For example, the
State flood viewer, the live bus view, which is the Kaua`i Bus, but it is hosted with a
third party, power outages from the Kaua`i Island Utility Cooperative (KIUC),
COUNCIL MEETING 32 JUNE 28, 2023
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) tsunami warnings, and
it goes all the way down to fiscal transparency. This is the Kaua`i GIS data hub, right
off of Kauai.gov.
I am going to the first map that I highlighted. This is the County of Kaua`i
road resurfacing and bridge status map. Like I said, Garrett Gee, at the Department
of Public Works, spearheaded this. This is a great map, because it shows the public
where roads resurfacing has already been completed, where it is in progress, what is
pending, what is scheduled within three (3) weeks, and the user can actually click on
here and see how much any particular project costs, it will give you more details. This
is the same with bridges. The user can click on a bridge and receive information or if
there are any notes about the bridge, such as if a fire truck is too big to go over them,
and things like that.
(Councilmember Bulosan was noted as present.)
Mr. Johnson: This is updated on a regular basis now by the
Department of Public Works. We have heard a lot of good feedback from this. We
showed this to the Mayor recently, and so far, I have only heard good things about
this project and it is really nice to have someone in the Department of Public Works
doing GIS now.
This is the refuse pick up map. It is a simple map, but this was approximately
thirty-six (36) portable document format (PDF) maps, and from those thirty-six (36)
PDF maps, I created a GIS layer that shows the days of pick up.
(Councilmember Kagawa was noted as not present.)
Mr. Johnson: Each one of these colors is a different day for
rubbish can pick up, and the user can search on the map, they can click on the map
and see the day, and they can see it graphically, so it is a simple thing, but it hopefully
makes people's lives easier at times.
Here is the 2023 property tax classification map, that the Real Property
Assessment Division has launched. In zooming in on a property, I will show you
something neat. On anything that has the parcel layer on GIS, if you click and get a
pop-up, if you come over here to this link to the property information, it is hyperlinked
out to the Real Property Assessment system, so you can get the actual detailed report
on properties right from the map. We have this, not just on this map for real property,
but any map that has a parcel, so that is super helpful to the public and internally.
Here is the County of Kaua`i map that shows all the different...
Councilmember Kuali`i: Facilities.
Mr. Johnson: Yes, it shows everything the County owns or
operates, and the user can go over here on the side to the facilities map key, and they
can look to either see the facilities or they can click the ones they want on and off,
and they can search and zoom. I just wanted to highlight a couple of the maps on
COUNCIL MEETING 33 JUNE 28, 2023
there. That is the end on my demonstration. I am going to pass it off to Mike. If
there any questions in the interim, I am happy to take those.
Councilmember Bulosan: I have a quick question.
Mr. Johnson: Yes.
Councilmember Bulosan: You had five (5) as GIS people who work, but
you mentioned that there were multiple people in our County who are trained in it.
Mr. Johnson: Yes, there are a lot of people who are using
the software. There is actually Mike, myself, and Anneka—Mike and myself in the
IT Division, and Anneka in the Real Property Assessment Division—whose job is
focused on GIS. Then there are others, such as Alan from the Planning Department,
who does a ton of great GIS work and is very focused on it, but it is not necessarily
his main focus, Leanora and Miles in the Planning Department, and Garrett Gee,
who was in the Emergency Management Agency, transferred to the Office of
Economic Development, and is now in the Department of Public Works. He is very
focused on GIS also, but it, perhaps, is not entirely what he is doing. Then we have,
for example, the Fire Department, where a number of these firefighters, especially
the younger ones who I think have grown up with technology so much than maybe
the older generation, that they are quick to pick things up...and I feel like I learn
things from my coworkers on a weekly basis, because they are pushing the
technology, and sometimes it is things I have never seen, and I just love to work with
this group, where there are so many great people that are moving ahead.
Councilmember Bulosan: That is awesome. Do we have a training
program or a way for employees, such as myself, interested in learning, to sit down
and figure out how to use it all?
Mr. Johnson: Yes. That is a great question. Luckily, we
have an enterprise license with Esri, which is the biggest GIS company in the world,
and as part of that license, we can give you an ArcGIS online account, and from that
account, you have unlimited online trainings, which are very good. They start from
the very basics to more advanced things, and I think I have taken over two
hundred (200) of those courses. We have many users who have taken a lot of those
courses. It is a really great way to start. Occasionally, we also have trainings with
Pictometry, when they come and they train 911. We also could slot in time for the
Council to come in for a training with that, and I will make sure we do that the next
time they are on the island.
Councilmember Bulosan: Awesome. My other follow-up to that—is
there any training particular to what you folks already have set up? For instance, I
want to look up GIS on all the fire hydrants and I am not tech-savvy.
Mr. Johnson: It used to be like the kitchen sink...you take a
map, you throw everything that you have into this one (1) map, and it was a mess.
That was the way people used to do it. Now, as you saw, the maps are focused. For
example, this one map just looks for refuse pick up areas, and maybe it can check
COUNCIL MEETING 34 JUNE 28, 2023
parcels or addresses, but we try to make it as simple as possible for all of these, but I
know what you mean. We are happy to give trainings on any specific part or the other
divisions, such as the Real Property Assessment Division and the Planning
Department, if there is something that they have launched....yes, that is no problem.
I think you will see, once...I think all the links were sent over to everyone at Council,
that I just showed, so once you click on those, you start clicking, it is intuitive, but if
you have any questions, we are happy to help out. I can make a screenshot...and
maybe I will do this after the meeting, that is probably a good idea...I will make
screenshot basic directions for each of those maps that I linked, showing the different
parts, for instance, "Click this icon, it is the layers," and, "Click this to search." I can
do that, and I will send that.
Councilmember Bulosan: Thank you.
Mr. Johnson: Thank you very much.
Council Chair Rapozo: At the Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV),
there is a screen showing tutorials that are very short and very simple. Is that
something we could incorporate, so when the public or anyone gets into that main
page, there is a block, where you can actually watch a short 45-second or one-minute
tutorial on the different options or what you folks are offering long-term?
Mr. Johnson: Yes. I have not done video, myself, but I am
happy to have us do that. That is a good idea. We will write that down.
Council Chair Rapozo: I am not sure who did the DMV one, but I
think it is good, and it is short.
Mr. Johnson: Yes, I saw the DMV one before. Even just
letting people know, "Here it is on Kauai.gov," because since we have launched it
there, I keep encountering people who are just finding out that this information is
there, so that is a great idea, and we will follow up on that.
(Councilmember Carvalho was noted as not present.)
Council Chair Rapozo: Let us make it as user-friendly as possible.
Councilmember Cowden.
Councilmember Cowden: I want to follow-up on what he is saying. I
sure want to have training and we have some training funds for Council now, so if we
can train anyone on our team that wants to learn or train any one of us, because I
think it would streamline layers of work, right now, if I get a call from someone who
is upset, then I need to ask staff to ask someone to ask someone to ask someone, and
I will get an answer in two (2) weeks, but what I hope to see is I will be able to look
right away and I can also train that person out in the community, so I think it will
help all these layers, because I think...have you folks thought about doing outreach
to the Chamber of Commerce, the community associations, Ho`ike? I think what you
folks have done is just rockstar, and that I think it will help the whole County be
more efficient, as we are struggling to have people...and I am going to also say, kids
COUNCIL MEETING 35 JUNE 28, 2023
raised on SimCity, simulation city...I think this will inspire the next generation of
County team applicants. I know when I taught middle school, all these kids were
really great on SimCity, and they understood infrastructure and everything else, so
if working for the County looks like the game that they played all the time and they
loved, I think we are going to get more applicants. It is just a thought.
Councilmember Kuali`i: Can we go, too, or is it just specific to them?
Council Chair Rapozo: I just heard him say he offered the training to
anyone on the Council. Are there any other questions on the presentation? Go ahead.
Councilmember DeCosta: I have a couple of questions actually. This is
great. You mentioned the Fire Department. With the lack of the reservoirs and the
closing of the reservoirs, we are going to need other areas to gather water, when the
helicopter needs to put out fires across Kaua`i, it would be great if we can put in a
GIS map of areas where the helicopter can get water. With the reservoirs closing
down, we have many streams and rivers that have large pools within the stream...if
our landowners can work with us, the County, to let us know, "Hey, we do not have a
reservoir in the halfway bridge area, but we do have a big pool in that river that goes
down to Huleia, and this is an area where you folks can obtain water, if you are
fighting a fire in the `Oma`o or Lawa`i area. That is very pertinent to what I heard. I
also heard that the State...someone said that the State did not want to participate.
Did I hear that correctly? Was it the flood?
Mr. Johnson: I am sorry. Yes. It was misunderstood. That
large parcel on the Westside that is twelve thousand (12,000) acres...it is Parcel 1...it
is not that the State did not want to participate, they just do not have it written into
the deed of that land, that no structures can be built, and if it does not have it
specifically, then it does not meet this very...FEMA has this PDF that is about nine
hundred sixty (960) pages on what qualifies...
Councilmember DeCosta: What I want to tell you is that I am not
concerned about the number of the structures, but I am concerned about the twelve
thousand (12,000) acres, and we have many fires out in that area. I think the
firebreak roads that our fire trucks can get to and use would be perfect for this, so in
case we are fighting a fire out there, the Fire Department knows, "Hey, there is a
road on this certain ridge, it shows up on the GIS map, let us get there. We can cut
it off." I think that is very pertinent.
(Councilmember Kagawa was noted as present.)
Councilmember DeCosta: The last thing I wanted to ask you folks, is
this strictly for eight zero eight (808) residents of Hawai`i, or do you need to be a
County employee? What is the security on this program? Can any Jack or Mary get
on and use it, because this is a small concern of mine. Hotels have security, but you
marked out Transient Vacation Rentals (TVR) on this, you marked out Residential.
People can go on and look where the TVRs are located, right? If I am thinking that I
want to go and do something to a tourist, or you are going to"open up a can of worms,"
because people can say, "Okay, tourists are staying over here in Lawa`i, there is
COUNCIL MEETING 36 JUNE 28, 2023
one (1) TVR, I am going to check it out." Sometimes, too much information is not good
information, so what is the security we have on this program that does not allow any
John or Mary to get on and use it?
(Councilmember Carvalho was noted as present.)
Mr. Johnson: For what I showed, public facing, anyone in
the world can access that data. We do have internal data, that is just inside the
County or inside a group in the County, but for the things I showed...for TVR, for
instance, every TVR on the island has a little sign in front that says the TVR number,
so...
Councilmember DeCosta: But you need to drive around in your car to
look for that number. Now, this person can search TVRs on the website and know
exactly where our tourists, who are not secured or have security, are. This is just
"food for thought." Our public beaches, our public trails, and our unmarked trails, I
just hope we do not expose all of those on this website, also, because then you are
letting the tourists find all these little nooks and crannies that our local families enjoy
and are not on the radar. I do not want to see it exploit the island, that they are all
over the place, mauka and makai. I am not being a "Debbie Downer," but I am giving
you folks constructive information to make this a better scenario.
Mr. Johnson: Thank you for that.
Council Chair Rapozo: For all these features, do you have the ability
to turn a switch on and off for public or internal?
Mr. Johnson: Yes.
Council Chair Rapozo: I tend to agree with some of what he said
regarding some of the assets. Go ahead.
Councilmember Kuali`i: You had a slide that was showing the
EagleView imagery and showed a picture of how Petco was under construction. The
value for some people would be able to see not just what it looks like right now, but
what it looked like five (5) years ago, and ten (10) years ago. Are there point-in-time
pictures that people can also look at, and if so, who is taking them, when are you
storing them, and how do you access that?
Mr. Johnson: There is a dropdown on that slide, on the
bottom left, where the user, when they are looking at the pictometry imagery...or
EagleView imagery is the new name of the company now...they can click and go all
the way back to October 2008, and they can choose dates from every capture. Because
it was specifically for 911, through the E-911 board, the police and E-911 board had
them do flights, so approximately every two (2) years from 2008, they have flown over
the island and captured that imagery. It is not exactly two (2) years, because there
was a year or two (2) where there were pilots that they had to fire...there has been
some drama, but they have capture imagery approximately every two (2) years. That
is one of the best things about it. Even the Office of the County Attorney has access
COUNCIL MEETING 37 JUNE 28, 2023
to it, and they can actually click on something...I remember once, I am not going to
say what, to be specific, but there was somewhere where someone tripped, fell, got
hurt, and they wanted to look on the imagery to see if they could figure out if it was
there on that date, and I think it was just good enough that they were able to zoom
in and decide if it was or was not there. I am not sure how that worked out. It is
really powerful, because it is not only a pretty picture, but because it is taken at this
angle, and they know the exact location of the airplane, you can measure the heights,
the distances, and the areas on that image. For instance, I think during the flood of
2018, they were landing helicopters on the North Shore and they wanted to know how
tall these telephone poles were, because before they landed, I was talking to the Army,
and they wanted to have some type of situational awareness before they went in
there, so I went in, I measured the different things, and showed them on the map,
"This is how tall these telephones poles are, this is how tall this tree is, and this is
how much area you have to land," so during emergency situations, it is also super
helpful. Another thing that company provides is, if we got hit by a hurricane, like
Hurricane Iniki, they have a program, where they would fly the island afterwards
for free. If we have a big disaster, they will fly it afterwards to help us assess damage
versus before the disaster and after the disaster, and that has been used quite a bit
in the mainland.
Councilmember Kuali`i: Then, you have a map that shows these
hydrants, right, but it is all these blue dots and they overlap on each other, so I know
you can click on it to get details on each, but could you, in the whole one (1) picture
that you first look at, put the totals, or is there a way, if you encircle a certain area,
that it tells you the total in that area?
Mr. Johnson: It is not on that map, but that is an option.
You can do that, where you have either totals of where you are looking on the screen,
you can circle an area and find totals, or it could be a fire district. Also, if you zoom
in on that...that is actually a live map...if you zoom in, then you will get to see the
individual hydrants. That is not public facing. The Department of Water does not
want any of their water information public. That is an internal Fire Department
application, so when I and Sean Smith, who was a Firefighter, originally received
some of that data from the Department of Water, we needed to sign a number of
non-disclosure agreements (NDA) just to obtain that data and say it would be
internal. That would be a question for the Department of Water, if that was ever
going to be public.
Council Chair Rapozo: I think that argument would go to exactly
what Councilmember DeCosta is saying...because of the security of our...and it is not
just visitors, the majority are visitors, but some local people rent TVRs, too, for
vacations and staycations. I think that is a very good example of how we can limit
what the public gets to see. Really, there is no need for anyone to know where the
TVRs are, in my opinion, in the public. I do not. Unless you have something in mind
to do to a TVR or...I am not sure, but I am glad we have that capability of shutting it
off. I would definitely consult with KPD, the Office of the County Attorney or whoever
else, and find out if that is really necessary.
COUNCIL MEETING 38 JUNE 28, 2023
Councilmember Kuali`i: You did list, or you told us in the end, a couple
of cool things, like the roads and bridges, so is there a map of all the reservoirs on the
island, and can we tell if they have water in them or not, and if, when they used to
have water in them and now they do not?
Mr. Johnson: Externally, we do not have that published. I
think the State of Hawai`i GIS and the Planning Department's website does have all
the reservoirs for Kaua`i and the rest of the State. That is something we could do,
but there are only a few of them that actually have reservoir gauges. I believe Ka
Loko does, I believe Waipa does, I believe there are only a couple that have a NOAA
gauge that shows the height, so on those, of course, we could show the gauges, if that
is publicly accessible, and I know in the Emergency Operations Center, when we have
had flooding, we had that up on the screen, because we are worried about either the
gauge at Hanalei River, or one of the reservoirs or something that does have gauges,
but that could be possible. This is what we currently have public. We could have
much more public, but we are trying to do whatever we have data for that we think
is most needed by the public. It is a triage situation, where we only have so much
people power, and whatnot, but if you looked at this data hub that I showed you,
which was spearheaded by Anneka, a year ago to now, there is a lot more there than
there was a year ago. We are just continuing to try and get more information.
Councilmember Kuali`i: Of course, if the State has something, we can
go there as well. Thank you.
Council Chair Rapozo: Councilmember Bulosan.
Councilmember Bulosan: I think one of the biggest, powerful things
about this is that there are so many people within our organization working on it,
and a lot of it is already public data that most people get, and it is very empowering
for the younger generation to think that the County is not just a bunch of old people
looking at PDFs. This is one big part of why I ran. It was to make government look
cool, and you folks made it so cool. This is the coolest thing ever, and so one big
opportunity is self-reporting. Have you folks looked at abandoned vehicles and public
use things, because we get that every day...emails about three (3) cars on Anahola
Road for the last thirty (30) days, and asking why we are not doing anything, or we
have a bunch of people in this place...those types of things. I think the biggest
opportunity, and where we could have a better relationship with our community is
that the reality that we cannot do all the work regarding any County service most of
the time, and we need help from the community. I think this is one big opportunity
for community engagement. Have you folks looked into the opportunity for
self-reporting; someone clicking on the map, "boom" we have a car at Anini Beach
that is on fire...well, that would be a fast response, but this has been there three (3)
days, and can we integrate it into the map?
Mr. Johnson: In the 2018 slide I showed of the flood, I
showed that little application that looks like a phone, the same application that lets
the public say, "This is where we have damage to our property," and take pictures,
could be used for anything for the public to report, and ElementsXS, which Mike will
show next, does have the ability for the public to report things like that. We have a
COUNCIL MEETING 39 JUNE 28, 2023
number of ways that could be possible in the future, so thank you for that, because I
know what you mean. I once created a test one that captured graffiti, as sad as that
is, we do not want graffiti, but where you could take a picture of the graffiti, it would
give the latitude and longitude, and help someone view it. I just did that as a test
example, but that is something that is possible. Going back, really quickly, we have
done community outreach, Leanora from the Planning Department and myself have
gone to King Kaumuali`i (King K) Elementary School, we have taught fourth graders
about GIS and GPS, we had them run around doing a scavenger hunt with their GPS
units in the past. It has been a few years since we did this, but...and we recently met
with a University of Hawai`i (UH) student, who is doing her time here at Kauai
Community College (KCC), and she is trying to get the GIS lab opened at KCC for
herself and for other users, and we are trying to help, all of us here at the County
that do GIS, if they need any help. We just got them hooked up with Esri, who
provides free software licenses for any schools in the State. We are trying, as we can,
to get out and do outreach to the community. These fourth graders were so
tech-savvy, I could not believe how good they were. They really were something. It
is great to get out into the community that way, when possible.
Council Chair Rapozo: I have a question regarding the flights over
the island that are done. Is it Esri that does that, or do we pay for that?
Mr. Johnson: That is EagleView, which used to be called
pictometry. That is paid, almost 100% by the State E-911 board, because it is, first
and foremost, for 911 and public safety. I have been told that for other uses, it is
supposed to trickle down and help the Public Safety's data, help their addressing,
etcetera, so that is how we have used it also, but first and foremost, it is for 911,
because it is paid for by the E-911 board, and it has been paid in the last ten (10)
years, almost 100%. One time, three (3) years ago, the Planning Department and
Real Property Assessment Division paid a little extra money, so they would capture
a higher resolution of imagery, which is perhaps more than they need for 911, but
other than that, the E-911 board has paid for it.
Council Chair Rapozo: I saw some hands go up on this side.
Councilmember Kagawa.
Councilmember Kagawa: Yes.
Council Chair Rapozo: We need to take a caption break at 10:30.
Councilmember Kagawa: How much is in that E-911 fund for Kaua`i?
Mr. Johnson: I do not know what the...I have never been to
an E-911 board meeting. I read the minutes.
Councilmember Kagawa: The Assistant Chief did not know how much
is available for Kaua`i.
Mr. Johnson: I read the minutes, and I do know that...
COUNCIL MEETING 40 JUNE 28, 2023
Councilmember Kagawa: That is why I do not think it is okay for us to
just apply for something that we think we need. We should apply for the maximum.
We have a lot of needs for E-911, right?
Mr. Johnson: Yes.
Councilmember Kagawa: There you go.
Mr. Johnson: My understanding of it is you go to the board,
and you are Kaua`i, say how much you would like, and they either approve it, cut it
down, or not, but I have never been at the meetings.
Councilmember Kagawa: That is why I think we should know how
much is available, first. That is how you know how much to ask for. If I am the
Assistant Chief of Police and I am in charge of that, I will know how much is available
for Kaua`i. My answer should not be, "I do not know."
Council Chair Rapozo: Are there any other questions, before we take
a caption break? Alright. With that, we will take a ten-minute caption break and we
come back for the LIMS presentation. Thank you.
There being no objections, the meeting recessed at 10:29 a.m.
The meeting reconvened at 10:42 a.m., and proceeded as follows:
Council Chair Rapozo: We can move forward with the LIMS
presentation.
There being no objections, the rules were suspended.
MICHAEL H. WEEKS-JOHNSON, Geographic Information System
Analyst V: Hello, everyone. Aloha. My name is Michael
Weeks-Johnson, or just Mike Johnson. I am not related to Garrett Johnson, that is
just a happy coincidence. I am part of the County IT Division, and I have been tasked
with administrating the LIMS program. I am going to do a brief overview of,
basically, the public facing side of this program.
The LIMS name is an acronym, as we discussed. It stands for Land
Information Management System, so think of"land" as geography, maps, and all the
parcels, zones, etcetera, that goes into that, "information," so all of the property, the
data, the documents, history, together in a management system database that brings
everything together, and a "system" of hardware and software. We have two (2)
principal softwares. The main one is called the ElementsXS, which we have
referenced before. That is, basically, what everything is built off of. The other is
ArcGIS, which is our mapping software, a top platform software that integrates with
all sorts of different things, worldwide.
ElementsXS is, basically, intended to make the County of Kaua`i work more
streamlined and efficient, and that should translate to better service for the public.
COUNCIL MEETING 41 JUNE 28, 2023
It is an asset management and civic engagement type of software. There are two (2)
sides, as we discussed earlier. There is a public facing side, between the public and
our County employees, and then there is an all-internal side, which is just for us, and
that is a centralized platform for all the different departments of the County to, for
example, manage all their things, such as requests, inventory items, workflows, all
their day-to-day operations, etcetera. We currently have almost all of our
departments using ElementsXS at some level. Certain departments have migrated
all of their information and are heavily using it, such as the Planning Department,
the Transportation Department, which is using it to track all of their Kaua`i Bus
information, that also has a rating system built into it, to find out how the grading of
each and its use is, so a lot of departments are using it. The Fire Prevention Bureau
is using it for all their different forms as well.
The public facing experience is what I am going to discuss from LIMS. It is
custom-built by us, here in the County, directly with our County department heads.
Everything is individually custom built for what they need exactly, using this 2023
technology. It is very flexible, and able to interact very well with the County of Kaua`i
and our citizens. We call this public portal "Connect."
This is a screenshot of the log in screen for Connect, which can be found at
connect.kauai.gov. That link is available all over the Kauai.gov website. Wherever
you may need to use it, it pops up and redirects you here. First-time users will be
asked to create a log-in. This is to collect some basic information for that user, so
that every time they come back, they can track all their previous applications,
monitor everything that they have done, and see what has come back. Also, all of
this basic information...once you create a user account, when you go to fill in
applications, it automatically draws that information into the forms, so you do not
need to keep writing down your information for each form. It automatically pulls that
in and makes things very user-friendly, which is awesome. What is Connect? It is
an online, public facing portal for the County for the citizens. It is entirely web-based,
and it is one hundred percent (100%) mobile-friendly, so imagine anywhere, where
you have internet access, and a mobile device, anything from a smartphone, tablet,
or computer, you can access Connect and do your business with the County, no more
running around, looking for phone numbers, and whatnot. You can go right here and
get everything you need. It lets us easily interact with our citizens and help them
through these application processes and requests. It also helps us manage all of these
inbound requests and allows citizens to manage their own requests through this
portal. Everything is in one place and is easy to use.
It is also a real-time integrated system with Esri's ArcGIS, that software I
mentioned that does all the mapping, so everything that we talk about here is
real-time integrated with our data from our internal workings, our public facing and
the mapping systems on this platform, which is amazing. We can also process online
payments using Connect. This will provide better status updates in real-time for our
constituents. It also allows us to have very quick deployments to citizens for helping
customized processes, permitting land management systems, and much more. This
is a single, centralized, unified application for everyone to go to, to interact with the
County. We do not have to run around and look for departments, and things like
that. This guides you directly to the people in the department, for those applications,
COUNCIL MEETING 42 JUNE 28, 2023
permits, forms, that need to know and know what to do, right here through this
portal, which is very exciting.
Council Chair Rapozo: I have a question. During the design process,
whenever you folks discussed the capabilities of this program, was the Council
involved at all, to maybe include some of the Council constituent processes in here?
Mr. Weeks-Johnson: We can. I touch on that a little bit later in the
presentation. Right now, we work directly with all the department heads.
Council Chair Rapozo: Yes, and we have one department head, right
here. Were we not a part of it? That is the question.
Mr. Weeks-Johnson: It depends on what department, like I said...
Council Chair Rapozo: The Office of the County Clerk.
Mr. Weeks-Johnson: That is what I am getting to later, that we are
offering.
Council Chair Rapozo: Okay.
Mr. Weeks-Johnson: We would like to work with you folks. This is
the portal, once you sign in. It is barebones, by design, because when you pull this
up on your phone, or wherever you are, and doing your business, it shifts its form and
fits better in a vertical device. This is what it looks like. You have two (2) boxes at
the top, which are your open items, things you filled out, submitted, and are waiting
for the County to assess and get back to you on, and completed items, everything you
have done, you can go there and print out your permits, see all the details, approvals,
denials, what you need to do or communicate with the County that way.
Let us jump right into some forms. Following along here is probably easier
than looking at your papers. Here is the ADU form, additional dwelling unit. We
will just jump into it and breeze through some of what it looks like. This is a clearance
form. First off, we just have an introductory page, then we start collecting data. Here
is your applicant information, which is pulled directly out of your user account log-in,
so you do not need to enter that. You also will want to enter a Tax Map Key (TMK)
number or parcel number. If you do not know your parcel number, there is a link
directly here, that gets you help with finding that. Once you enter that, it brings up
all the information from the database for that parcel number applying to that
application and has it right there for you. You can then go ahead and continue
entering data for that form. We can upload all documents directly through the portal
as well, so everything you need for that—you can upload your plot plan, drag and
drop it, and there you go. We collect the signature for this application, and you are
done. It is as easy as that from your phone, if you want, or wherever. You can get
that ADU clearance form done that easily.
We will go into another department in Real Property and check out one more
form: a property use survey. We have another disclaimer, we have a TMK, which
COUNCIL MEETING 43 JUNE 28, 2023
brings up all your information for your property, you pick out who you are, and you
fill out your survey. What the public facing system is really good at, is collecting more
data. Again, collecting more signatures...
Councilmember Cowden: I have a quick question. You are talking
about the property use survey, is that for real property tax? For example, if someone
is saying, "Commercial Home Use," they would put it in right there?
Mr. Weeks-Johnson: Right, and it is used in other places, like this
exactly...this claim for home exemption form, similar thing, you have some
qualifications that you check off, you grab your TMK number, it pulls all the
information for your property, and your personal information, you enter more data,
that was all custom-made for this form, and then we have this survey pop up here, as
well, for use in this situation.
Council Chair Rapozo: The survey is not an application. What is the
user benefit for the survey?
REIKO MATSUYAMA, Director of Finance: It is basically...because our tax
system is based on use, so it is basically to tell us how you use the property. What
we do is every quarter, we send out use surveys to any properties that have changed
hands, en masse, so for any transactions that happened, we send out use surveys to
every single parcel. We do that quarterly and try to get them back. Basically, it will
reset, so it is trying to get people to file home exemptions, if they are, now, going to
live on the property.
Council Chair Rapozo: I just want to make sure the public knows
that by filling out this survey, it does not change their status...it is not like the forms
that we require to...
Ms. Matsuyama: It is not an application, correct.
Council Chair Rapozo: I can see people doing this thinking, "Okay, I
did it."
Ms. Matsuyama: It is on the initial disclaimer page.
Council Chair Rapozo: Okay.
Mr. Weeks-Johnson: Yes, the introductory page for that covers it.
Council Chair Rapozo: Thank you.
Councilmember Cowden: Why would they want to answer it here, if it
does not have an impact on...
Ms. Matsuyama: Most people will fill it out if they are no longer
vacation renting their property. They will definitely fill it out, because they want the
use to come off of it.
COUNCIL MEETING 44 JUNE 28, 2023
Councilmember Cowden: I am unclear. Is it like filling out a form and
turning it in?
Ms. Matsuyama: Yes, but it is not an application for any kind
of program or exemption. It is just telling us how you are currently using the
property.
Councilmember Cowden: Will it change their tax?
Ms. Matsuyama: It could, if they are going from a Vacation
Rental to the home exemption. It will be sufficient to get out of Vacation Rental, but
would go into Residential Investor or Residential. It would not get them to a
Homestead.
Councilmember Cowden: It does effectively communicate their change
of status?
Ms. Matsuyama: Yes.
Councilmember Cowden: He is saying something different than what
you are saying, I think.
Council Chair Rapozo: I just do not want people to think...let us say,
if they go in and say they went from TVR to Residential, that by filling out this survey,
will you folks pick it up, and redo the taxes?
Ms. Matsuyama: Yes, we will put them in different tax
classifications, based on the use survey, but it will not get them...the main one is the
home exemption, so if they are living on the property, we are not going to give it to
them just because they filled out the use survey and said they are living on it.
Council Chair Rapozo: Really, only in the TVR to Residential or
Residential Investor, but you folks would pick up and make the change with just the
survey?
Ms. Matsuyama: Yes. All these forms are offered in paper, if
you come to the office, as well. It is just another way of applying.
Mr. Weeks-Johnson: I will continue. One of the big things about
this public facing portal is it improves our communication with the public. It is a
better way to communicate and there is a chat function inside the portal, that we
communicate back and forth with them on, right to the people that they need to talk
to. You can share files, you can record the conversations, you always have that
history there for future use and refencing.
Just to show a bit of communication and how that works, here is the pavilions
permits. If you go into the pavilions permits, we see that we made a form. If we want
to ask a question, all we do is click on the discussion board. Internally, our people
see that discussion...this is what we see, and we comment helping them out with
COUNCIL MEETING 45 JUNE 28, 2023
what they need right here. They receive a response back, and once we figured out
what is needed, then we can approve their pavilion, and that automatically sends out
their permit. They will receive an email, and they can access that right here in the
portal. They go into there and they check it out here, they click on the attachments
that they received back. We have a map of that pavilion, where they need to go, and
then they have their permit here, they can print out or use on their phone, it has the
access code for the gate, and things like that.
A big thing we have is the possibility of online payments, so...
Council Chair Rapozo: Hang on. For the permit, whether it is for a
park or pavilion, how difficult would it be to have a calendar imbedded in that
program, so when I go on to apply, I know immediately if it is available or not? From
personal experience, I will tell you that it does not work, because I need to do my
thing, send it in, and wait for three (3), four (4), or five (5) days to get a response that
says it is okay or not. How difficult would it be...if I click Monday at 6 o'clock for the
Lydgate pavilion, to get an immediate response saying, "Sorry, it is not available"?
Mr. Weeks-Johnson: I would love to look into that more for you and
get back to you on that. We would need to talk to the Department of Parks and
Recreation, see what we can do, and try to initiate something like that.
Council Chair Rapozo: What I do now is I need to submit multiple
requests for different dates and times, which is not convenient at all.
Mr. Weeks-Johnson: Absolutely.
Council Chair Rapozo: There are calendar programs that once
something is blocked out, it will tell you that it is not available. It is not working
right now. It is not convenient for the public.
Mr. Weeks-Johnson: Absolutely. We can get back to you on that.
Council Chair Rapozo: Thank you.
Mr. Weeks-Johnson: The final step that brings all of this in full
circle is an online payment system, where they can get everything covered right
through this portal, which we have the ability to do. We are working on getting that
going now. As mentioned earlier, reporting is a new function we just started using
with Connect. The Department of Parks and Recreation has been distributing signs
that have quick response (QR) codes on them for certain things, such as to report
predators, for example, mongoose sightings, or downed sea birds. People see these
things happen, they go to these signs, scan the QR code, go straight to the Connect
portal, fill out the form, click on a map indicating exactly where they saw it, and it
goes right to the people that need to see the report. This can be done with abandoned
vehicles, or anything else that you can think of. This is a small list we just started,
and it can expand to as far as we want it to go. Everything you see here is completely
customizable, all the workflows behind it are built by us, and have an unlimited
ability.
COUNCIL MEETING 46 JUNE 28, 2023
Internally...I will speak a little bit about the other side of this...we can do a
lot. The goal is to streamline and centralize our systems. A big thing we can do with
ElementsXS is customize dashboards displaying each employee and their pending
tasks and duties for the day. We do that for a lot of people now, and we will continue
to build on that as we add more departments. This could also be designed for the
Councilmembers to include a daily dashboard to track and address items and agendas
with all your departments, or you, specifically. We can meet individually with you
folks in the future to discuss more and set up customized dashboards for you.
Council Chair Rapozo: Right after I took office, I met with the County
Clerk to discuss getting something like this for the employees. In fact, this is one of
the programs that I was looking at. I did not realize we had it in the County.
However, regarding constituent issues, I see a lot of things here, like reporting a down
bird, but do we have anything set up to report a pothole? Do we have anything set
up to report any type of County issue that needs to be fixed?
Mr. Weeks-Johnson: I can check with the Roads Division. They
heavily use this, and I am almost one hundred percent (100%) sure that this is on
there, and I do not want to say for sure about anything that they have.
Council Chair Rapozo: I am asking about the capability.
Mr. Weeks-Johnson: Yes, absolutely.
Council Chair Rapozo: I really do not care about what they say. We
are spending a lot of money for this system.
Mr. Weeks-Johnson: Absolutely.
Council Chair Rapozo: Your opening slide says, "Manage inbound
requests and incidents from citizens," not just downed birds and the things we can
punt. One of the problems we have here is...and I am sure they have it across the
street, too. I do not know...but we receive a vast amount of complaints from the
constituents, and honestly speaking, a lot of it is because they cannot get a response
from the Administration. The process right now is we receive the complaint, we
process an email, send it to the Administration, the Administration deals with it and
takes action, they send a response back to us, which typically takes two (2) to
three (3) weeks, and then we send a response to the constituent. Now, I am looking
at a program right here, where a constituent can report a pothole from their phone.
I cannot imagine why the Roads Division would not want that.
Mr. Weeks-Johnson: I am sure they do.
Council Chair Rapozo: For me, it does not matter.
Mr. Weeks-Johnson: There are things we are building out
day-by-day. Absolutely.
COUNCIL MEETING 47 JUNE 28, 2023
Council Chair Rapozo: I would much rather have the ability for the
constituents to report an issue they are involved in, than a downed bird or a
mongoose. I am serious.
Mr. Weeks-Johnson: Understood.
Council Chair Rapozo: This does not solely involve the Roads
Division; this involves everything else. When you talk about a damaged bridge or an
abandoned vehicle,just "boom, boom," punch in whatever...I do not know if this thing
figures out coordinates or determines exactly where you are located when taking the
picture, I am sure it can, but what I would like is for us to have the ability to use this
system, so that we do not need to deal with the delays and events that occur when we
receive a complaint from a constituent. I would much rather allow the constituent to
report a pothole and have it documented, so that when we receive a claim from the
constituent saying, "Hey, I called to report it," we have a record. When we receive
multiple complaints, I assume there is some type of database that allows us to track
the numbers of potholes or whatever the situation may be. I do not know what the
process will be going forward. That is why I asked you if the Council was involved in
the development, because I think that is where it would have made sense in
determining what the Council would like to see in this rollout, but better late than
never. We can definitely have one of our staff members sit in and let you know what
we need, but I honestly would love to be able to post a QR code for issues the public
wants to report to the County on my Facebook page, because that works and if the
Administration does not want to deal with it, then I want the ability to have it sent
to me or to this Council. It does not need to go to the Roads Division, we will deal
with that part, but a QR code that sends constituent complaints to this office, so that
we can, at least, track and forward issues to where they need to go, is my ask. You
do not need the approval of the Department of Parks and Recreation, the Roads
Division, or anyone else,just put the button and direct it to the Council's or my email.
I have no problem. We need to make it convenient and efficient for our constituents.
Councilmember Cowden.
Councilmember Cowden: Del is not here, but Reiko, you might
remember. I believe there way a point when we were asked what we would like. I
remember conveying a bunch of things on my wish list, one of which was a dashboard.
I cannot wait to get that, because I think having a dashboard will help me to function
better. Am I remembering correctly? When it was first presented and we were
talking to your group...I do not think you were in the room, and I do not think you
were hired yet, but the potential was being expressed to us. We were going to pay for
it, we were saying, "Hooray," and we were somewhat being asked, right?
Ms. Matsuyama: Yes. You are correct. We have done some
outreach, but not a whole lot. It is all dependent on resources. He had Chad Lowe,
from ElementsXS. We still have him. Chad was probably the one that was being the
liaison between the system and the departments, and he still is. Thankfully, we hired
Mike, who is learning the system, "getting his hands fully dirty" in the system, so
that he can replace Chad as Chad phases out. That being said, we are still building
it out. It is still in its infancy stages on what it can do, so that is something
that...although we have Chad, Mike is only one person, and, as Garrett said, having
COUNCIL MEETING 48 JUNE 28, 2023
the people, who are focused on the GIS, embedded into the departments is going to
help us.
Councilmember Cowden: This happened during a time when the Chair
was not in office, so I am just putting it out there that I know I asked for a lot of
things, and I am sure you did not do it because I asked for it, but I am happy that a
lot of what I felt was important is making it in. I know that when I asked you folks
to make a presentation, someone commented, "Well, we are not really finished yet,"
but I am saying that I want us to know, so just like what is coming out if this, that
we can have that meeting as you are continuing to develop, because this is such an
important tool. I think that when you do not have enough people in your group, or
maybe there are more people that end up in your group, because it will help a lot of
the processes, it will make us more efficient, so you have a "high five" from me.
Ms. Matsuyama: Thank you.
Council Chair Rapozo: Councilmember Carvalho.
Councilmember Carvalho: I have a quick question or comment. Being
familiar with the GIS program from starting after the disaster situation and evolving
until today, but when you pick up the phone or you get online, the biggest question
for me is the response time.
Councilmember Cowden: Yes.
Councilmember Carvalho: If we have a pothole or whatever, how long
before we respond? That is a big piece that the Administration needs to look at, and
not be responding back in three (3), or five (5), or ten (10) days. I am just asking.
How does that fit into this whole discussion, the response time on each of these items?
It is great, but how is that working?
Ms. Matsuyama: When Mike touched upon this earlier, he did
not really show you the background, but every employee, myself included, as a
dashboard, so I can see open tasks that I am responsible for, and it directly routes to
different people, you can assign...it cuts down on steps, like needing to walk a paper
or sending an email to someone else, but it is still on the person to go through their
tasks and look through their inbox to see what is assigned. It should cut down on the
steps required to complete the task, but essentially, there needs to be someone
accountable on the backend, but this should help with keeping people accountable,
because it is tracked and you know how long it is sitting with them, so you are able
to say, "This is with Reiko right now, she is not doing it, so I am going to nudge her."
There are definitely ways to keep people accountable with this system.
Council Chair Rapozo: One of the reasons why I am asking for that
capability here is because we need to respond to the constituent. It is not the staff at
the Department of Parks and Recreation, but us, and it is hard when we do not have
the access to track where it is in this whole program and that is why I really want it
here, so we can track where that constituent concern is today, so we can respond,
because one of the bigger concerns from the public—they are not getting a response.
COUNCIL MEETING 49 JUNE 28, 2023
With my neighborhood center requests, it takes four (4) or five (5) days to receive a
response. It is quick to apply, I love the system except for that calendar issue, but it
does not work, because by the time I receive a response saying it is not available, I
just gave up three (3), four (4), or five (5) days. Now, I just "shotgun" my request to
all the different dates, because I do not want to lose out on an opportunity of someone
booking a date while I am waiting for a response from the County.
Ms. Matsuyama: We can work on that.
Council Chair Rapozo: Thank you. Go ahead, Councilmember
Kagawa.
Councilmember Kagawa: Will it have the capability of requesting to be
notified of things on your phone, such as a flashflood warning?
Ms. Matsuyama: Is this for County employees?
Councilmember Kagawa: I will give you an example. On Mother's Day,
the landfill was closed suddenly due to equipment malfunction and numerous key
personnel calling in sick. People, including Garden Isle Disposal, were driving down
to the landfill, only to find out that the landfill was closed. Will it have an emergency
notification that shows up on phones?
Ms. Matsuyama: You can correct me if I am wrong, but I think
that might come under the new website, because you can subscribe to information
releases, and you can subscribe to certain ones, such as sporting events or whatnot.
You can subscribe to individual things.
Councilmember Kagawa: Okay. That is great. If anything, these are
all enhancements to how we use digital devices to improve things, so I appreciate
everything that your folks are doing, and I would appreciate even more if we can get
those types of things, because it is hard to forgive when we come up with functions
that the people do not know about beforehand, and they drive all the way down to
Kekaha landfill, only to find out it is closed. Thank you.
Councilmember Cowden: I have a short question.
Council Chair Rapozo: Go ahead.
Councilmember Cowden: I noticed that the website changed about a
week or so ago, maybe it has been a little more than a week ago. Is that your team?
Ms. Matsuyama: It is the IT Division. It is not these
individuals, specifically, but the IT Division, yes.
Councilmember Cowden: Okay. I am still relearning that one, but I
appreciate that. I think it is easier to look at, it is less dense and is better for the
phone, so thank you for that. Then Granicus, which is what we mainly use for the
COUNCIL MEETING 50 JUNE 28, 2023
Council. I am really happy with Granicus. Granicus flows into what you use, too,
right? The Esri? It layers in, right, when people are looking, they click on "Council?"
Ms. Matsuyama: Yes. There are links to it. Granicus is the
website host, so we are also using Granicus. They are the vendor.
Councilmember Cowden: Okay. I thought they were our software...
Ms. Matsuyama: Yes. They handle the streaming side, too. If
you folks look through the website and see things that need improvement, just let us
know. Jenelle and Randall have been awesome in giving us suggestions.
Council Chair Rapozo: The only thing is, with the Council Meeting
agendas or Committee Meeting agendas, you click, go to another page, and you need
to click again, versus a one-click action to access the agenda, but that is a minor issue.
Ms. Matsuyama: Okay.
Council Chair Rapozo: It is pretty. I like the layout, it is much nicer
now, than it was before, so I appreciate that.
Mr. Johnson: I will pass that on to the team. One thing that
is different in the new website is that it is in the cloud, meaning it is on servers that
are not housed here on the County of Kaua`i. This way, in case we do have a disaster,
then nothing will be lost.
Council Chair Rapozo: It is not a big issue, it is just one that...fo
ahead, Councilmember Bulosan.
Councilmember Bulosan: Is there more to present? Are you presenting
anything more on ElementsXS or was that the completion?
Mr. Weeks-Johnson: We are done.
Councilmember Bulosan: Okay. Overall, it looks fantastic. My
question, from the last time we spoke, and it was being shared by other
Councilmembers, but the main thing is, how are we protected. Any time we get into
the digital world, with all the things that are happening out there, that was my last
thing I was wanting to ask—what is our security like with our information and how
do we protect ourselves, and more importantly, protect our community?
Mr. Johnson: Del and Kelly from the IT Division are not
here, but they would probably be the best people to direct that question to. If you
have any specific questions, feel free to ask them, but my knowledge of it is we are
using the best security available. We also have things on virtual servers, which are
redundant virtual servers, so if...it is not like you used to have an old server, that
would be on a rack, and if that fails, you might lose everything.
(Councilmember Kagawa was noted as not present.)
COUNCIL MEETING 51 JUNE 28, 2023
Mr. Johnson: Now, it is this huge room and all these virtual
servers are on single solid-state drives (SSD), so it can fall over, and you can roll back,
so we are much safer with our data than we were, and like we mentioned, we also
have things in the cloud, which is not housed here on Kaua`i, so if we do have a
disaster that knocked things out, then we still have our data to help with FEMA.
Even parts of Connect are in the cloud. If you do have any specific security questions,
please send them over to Del and Kelly. I do not want to misinform anyone on it.
Councilmember Bulosan: I have a quick follow-up. That is awesome.
Cyber-attacks and artificial intelligence (AI) have taken off right now. With the
image generators and ChatGPT, my biggest concern is getting mimicked or
duplicated and ghosted. Those are the pieces that I am looking forward to in making
sure we are protected.
Councilmember DeCosta: This Connect system, is it just for our local
residents, or will this be available for non-residents?
Ms. Matsuyama: Anyone can use it.
(Councilmember Kagawa was noted as present.)
Councilmember DeCosta: I am thinking out loud. My wife and I are
meeting Council Chair Rapozo and his wife, and Councilmember Kuali`i and his
husband, and we will go to Po`ipu Beach, but there are two hundred (200) red dots at
Po`ipu Beach, and it looks really crowded, because now we are mandating that
tourists need to log in on what beach they are going to, and there will be a number
showing it is overcrowded. That number will say Po`ipu Beach is closed to
non-residents, because there are over two hundred (200) people at Po`ipu Beach. Is
it possible for this program to help our local residents enjoy County beaches, because
the County beaches are overcrowded? I want to know if this program can help our
tourists get on the application, mandate it that when they come, they need to access
the application and log in the days they want to visit the beaches, and the residents
can view it. "I want to take my wife on a picnic at Lydgate gate, but we cannot go to
Lydgate, look how many green dots there are." Is that possible?
Council Chair Rapozo: That is probably a question for the County
Attorney.
Councilmember DeCosta: Lucky for me, the County Attorney is sitting
right there. I am just asking. Can the program run this?
Ms. Matsuyama: I do not think it was designed for that.
Councilmember DeCosta: Not designed...Is it possible? You said you
have an application, the public can log in, it can GPS coordinates...Is it possible for
people to log in and input their coordinates of where they are going to go?
COUNCIL MEETING 52 JUNE 28, 2023
Mr. Weeks-Johnson: This is an asset management system with
GPS-based maps, so all of these things you are saying are right up that alley, so we
definitely look into that.
Councilmember DeCosta: I will look into that with our attorney, too.
Thank you for that.
Council Chair Rapozo: You would need the coordinates to plot them.
Councilmember Cowden: That is surveillance technology.
Councilmember DeCosta: Similar to your calendar, Chair, they would
have a map of Po`ipu Beach.
Council Chair Rapozo: I love the idea.
Councilmember DeCosta: You select the beach and click on the
spot...even the spot where you want to go, you could click on a beach towel.
Council Chair Rapozo: We could assign them a spot. That is your
spot.
Councilmember DeCosta: This Council is heading in that direction.
Council Chair Rapozo: Are there any other questions? Go ahead.
Councilmember Cowden: This is just because you right in front of me.
When we had the problem with the flooding, we had a lot of equipment that was lost,
including computers, because they were water damaged, was that information on the
cloud?
Ms. Matsuyama: This current incident?
Councilmember Cowden: Yes, from last week.
Ms. Matsuyama: Thankfully, not a lot of equipment was
damaged. It was over the plans room, so a lot of paper was damaged, but it was an
old plans room, so all our IT-related things are undamaged, they just relocated to
different rooms.
Councilmember Cowden: Your IT things are good? Okay. I heard that
was ruined. What happened with the paper history is a bit scary.
Ms. Matsuyama: Thankfully, approximately half of it was
already scanned in.
Council Chair Rapozo: We will be asking for an update on the flood.
We are straying off of the LIMS item. I actually am interested in getting an update
the Administration when they are ready to put it together.
COUNCIL MEETING 53 JUNE 28, 2023
Councilmember Cowden: When we are talking about protection, I am
thinking where we store our information on the cloud in case anything happens.
Council Chair Rapozo: Councilmember Kuali`i.
Councilmember Kuali`i: When you were talking about cyber security,
you sounded confident that you have the latest technology and that everything is all
good. Cyber security is a big thing for NACo, across the country, and trying to help
counties with that. I believe they have a program, where they will do an assessment
for you. Were you folks aware of that? Have you taken advantage of that, by any
chance?
Mr. Johnson: I am aware of the program. I do not
necessarily know if the County of Kaua`i has done it. I believe they have, but I have
not been involved with that. I do know of the program, and I do know of the pitfalls
of what happens if you do have a security issue. I have in-laws in Baltimore, and I
think for a year, the city of Baltimore was held hostage with all their data. My
relatives were telling me that they could not do anything for about a year. It is always
a worry. I know Del and Kelly are the spearheads of protecting us from all of that,
and I also know when disasters happen, I have heard we get hit more, because we are
in the news. In 2018, when the flood happened, I heard there were a lot of attacks at
the County of Kaua`i during that time. Even companies as large as Sony has been
taken over, so if they come after you, you can do everything, but it is a very difficult
thing, and that is not my area of expertise. Please follow-up with Del and Kelly.
Councilmember Kuali`i: Yes, we will follow-up.
Mr. Johnson: I am sorry I do not know more.
Councilmember Kuali`i: Thank you.
Ms. Matsuyama: On a hopeful note, we are making an offer to
someone to specifically focus on cyber security, so there will be a County employee.
Councilmember Kuali`i: Perfect.
Ms. Matsuyama: Let us hope he accepts.
Councilmember Kuali`i: Thank you, Chair.
Council Chair Rapozo: Before, the cyber-attacks were a sign of weak
security, but now when you have all of these defense operations and major banks,
who spend millions of dollars, and the breaches happen, so it is no longer
embarrassing to get hit, because the hackers are just that good, right?
Ms. Matsuyama: Yes.
Council Chair Rapozo: Are there any other questions for the IT
Division?
COUNCIL MEETING 54 JUNE 28, 2023
Councilmember Cowden: If he has a question, I just have a...
Councilmember DeCosta: I want to reiterate my point.
Council Chair Rapozo: We will stick to questions, so we can release
them to take public testimony. If there are no questions, thank you very much. Is
there anyone in the audience wishing to testify?
MICHAEL CURTIS: I am Mike Curtis, a realtor, softball player,
and a member of the State of Hawai`i Elections Commission. Information here also
includes precinct and district, that you can look at to see if your house is on it. As a
realtor, we have the TMK number, that is a layer available from the State of Hawai`i
for every parcel in the State of Hawai`i, and as a softball player, I have applied for
permits, as you have. They do not have calendars, like on the reservation
management systems, and if you asking four (4) or five (5) days for a response for a
pothole, you are going to be lucky, because you do not have anyone on the back of the
house answering these calls. When you put an application or a response in here...like
Amazon gives you a "We received your order" response. You do not get a response
from any of these things, and you need to call asking, "Did you get my application? I
want to play Friday morning, at 9 o'clock at Isenberg Park." "Oh, we did not see that."
Then, my application and my reservation are invalid, because no one has seen it. In
the Department of Water, you have thirty (30) people, out of one hundred
twenty (120), unstaffed. With this other program, you need someone in the back of
the house answering these questions. One (1) out of six (6) employees is on vacation
or leave, because as soon as you sign on, you get two (2) months of vacation or time
off. Two (2) months a year is one-sixth (14), so for five (5) staff, you have to hire
six (6) people, because at any time, one (1) out of six (6) is going to be off. Your
information management system in the County, I do not know how many
departments you have, and for years, each has maintained their own information
management system that do not talk to each other. This Esri program enables that
communication between departments regardless of your information. Esri will pick
it up and can map it. The Civil Air Patrol has digital online streaming damage
assessment. You folks pay for that and you get your video, but Civil Air Patrol has a
couple of Cessna planes that do that, and have volunteers manning that, to where if
you need any damage assessment after incidents. You talk about security worry...
Council Chair Rapozo: Hang on for a bit. Is there anyone else
wishing to testify? Go on.
Mr. Curtis: I have got security and privacy. This is like
an iceberg. You are showing, maybe, the top ten percent (10%) to the public, but the
other ninety percent (90%) is blocked by privacy issues, privacy concerns, and legal
concerns, so you have a lot of information in the County that is not being shared with
the public. The Department of Health has a layer at the State-level for every sewage
treatment system for every parcel on Kaua`i. It will identify the cesspool, it will
identify other Department of Health approved items, so that analysis is available,
but again I need to emphasize that with, for example, the Department of Parks and
Recreation, it is a black hole: you put information in, I never hear anything about it,
and the next thing I hear is there a conflict of park use. I say, "Well, I put my
COUNCIL MEETING 55 JUNE 28, 2023
application in six (6) months ago," but no one caught it, no one responded, you do not
an automatic response from any of these things. For information, I would ask that
response be either text or email, and when you sign up, you select if you prefer your
communication by text or email, and you receive a response saying, "Yes, we have
received your application. It is pending. Thank you." You are setting yourself up
for...you got the information there, but you do not have the staff to solve the problem.
You got thirty (30) members at the Department of Water. You got a water leak? They
will take care of the water leak, because it is critical, but for this other information
management, you need to have back office to support it or else it is an exercise in
futility. Thank you.
Council Chair Rapozo: Thank you. Is there anyone else wishing to
testify? Ms. Parker.
Ms. Parker: Alice Parker, for the record. This talk about
the Department of Parks and Recreation reminds me...I belong to a group called the
National Active and Retired Federal Employees (NARFE), and I am Vice President.
I wanted to set up our meeting in Nawiliwili Park, there is a beach place there,
because it was right the pandemic, it was handy, and it was outdoors, so we went to
the Department of Parks and Recreation. You could only make an application online,
and they wanted me to sit at a computer and request an appointment for the meeting.
I was a month ahead, at the time. I took President Patricia Parcel with me, because
she could do computer work, so she did it, but there has to be a way...if Pat had not
been with me, there has to be a way someone could do it for me. I could give them
the data, and they could do it online, so please, there are a lot of us people...not a lot
of us, we are getting fewer and fewer, who cannot do online processes, because you do
not want me killing their computers by touching them.
Council Chair Rapozo: Thank you. Is there anyone else wishing to
testify?
SHERRI CUMMINGS: Sherri Cummings. I am just asking for
consideration. In August, I go before the Hawaiian Homes Commission, and I bring
this up, because you are talking about the Department of Parks and Recreation.
Hopefully, on this software, if nonprofits, who contribute to these types of services for
parks and different uses, because there is going to be a project coming onboard...I
just talked to Pat Porter, and it is funny that I am here and we were talking about
this, regarding the opportunity for different types of sporting activities that we are
going to be talking about in August, so if we can be a part of this process, so that when
we come out with these types of parks and different types of opportunities with
gymnasiums and things of that nature, that can actually be a part of that, where we
can be listed as an alternative to County parks. Thank you.
Council Chair Rapozo: Thank you. Is there anyone else wishing to
testify? Seeing none.
There being no further testimony, the meeting was called back to order, and
proceeded as follows:
COUNCIL MEETING 56 JUNE 28, 2023
Council Chair Rapozo: Is there any further discussion?
Councilmember DeCosta.
Councilmember DeCosta: It was a great presentation. You folks know
what you are planning to do. This is not a concern, but I am curious as to why, as the
Chair brought up, our County Clerk and this division was not asked to participate
from the beginning, because it seems like the Department of Public Works, the
Department of Finance, public safety, those are all departments, but we are a
department, too. In the future, please kill my curiosity. Number two (2), I am very
worried about the location of TVRs. This is a huge problem, not only for the visitor
industry to be overcrowded, but for local people to feel like they have no place to live,
no rental units. This is an outcry. TVRs are getting a lot of exposure, and I do not
think we should make this available to the people out there, who can target TVRs.
Do you folks know what it is going to be? It will not just be someone stealing from a
TVR. Local hunters will park their trucks loaded with their dogs in front of a TVR
unit, their dogs will bark all day, and those people will say, "I am never going to rent
that TVR again. It is hell for eight (8) hours." That truck is legally parked outside,
because he is not going hunting yet, and the dogs are barking. We could kill the TVR
industry with local hunters with dogs in the dog box barking, so I am thinking we
need to take that off that as soon as possible (ASAP). The last thing I wanted to talk
about was I really us to use this GPS tracking for the water sources on the island that
we can use for fire mitigation, because the reservoirs are closing. This is a key,
intricate part for the Fire Department that we can use. The last one was regarding
our beach parks. I think we should integrate this. Like Chair said, when he wanted
to obtain a permit for the parks, I think it would be great for local residents, if people
could click on a particular beach park and say, "Oh, it looks like Lydgate Park is
overcrowded in the month of August, so we might want to go to Salt Pond." People
plan their day...we have people living in Kekaha that want to go to Lydgate Beach.
That is a far drive. They want to go to Ha`ena, Anini, and another County beach
park, but they do not want to drive out there only to find that it is overcrowded. With
this program, I think we can integrate that. Thank you.
Council Chair Rapozo: Is there anyone else? Councilmember
Kagawa.
Councilmember Kagawa: Yes. I just want to reiterate what you brought
up, Chair. I think we should take down the ability to report downed sea birds. We
talk about redundancy and duplication of services. Save Our Shearwaters has an
office in Hanapepe with about twelve (12) employees. A lot of staff are monitoring
birds through a federally funded program via grants. They should be the ones that
people contact. The even have a commercial on Spectrum that runs all the time with
a nice jingle. Even with the cats. We know who has been feeding the cats for years,
and we do not do anything about it, so why even have a site where they can report it,
unless we have a plan to deal with it. Right now, our track record is poor, islandwide,
with the Kaua`i Humane Society and the other organizations. It is a growing problem,
and nothing is being done, so we should not act as through we handle feral cats.
Thank you, Chair.
COUNCIL MEETING 57 JUNE 28, 2023
Council Chair Rapozo: Is there anyone else? Councilmember
Cowden.
Councilmember Cowden: I want to do this last.
Council Chair Rapozo: Okay. Is there anyone else? Councilmember
Bulosan.
Councilmember Bulosan: I want to thank Councilmember Cowden for
bringing this on the agenda and I want to thank the staff and team for all the hard
work over the past years that you have committed to. I know the process was much
harder than what we saw. As you presented it, it looked simple and easy, and we
have a lot of suggestions and ideas to make it better, so I thank you for spending all
that time. My thing is increasing responsibility and accountability is a big part, as a
function of a service here, as a County, and the second part was increasing efficiency
and effectiveness. I am sure that is everything that we strive for here, as public
service people, and just seeing all the capabilities that we have and all the work that
you folks are doing, is giving me hope that will also, as Councilmember Cowden said,
inspire a group or generation that looks at the world way different and functions
differently, and to be super honest, most likely not watching this, because it is on a
platform that they do not use, but at least there is hope that there is some avenue in
which they can participate in their community and not feel isolated, because we just
cannot communicate with them, and that is a big part of the reason why many of
them do not come back, or leave and wish to come back, but do not find a way to come
back. I think that is a big group, who are on TikTok or YouTube, who are tagging
things inappropriately, because they do not have an avenue to express themselves or
a way to interact with us, so I am super excited for that. Lastly, I think one of the
biggest things about this is that it just makes us do our jobs better, and I am really
excited to do that. I feel that during my first eight (8) months, I am doing all the
work, I am the hamster on the wheel, but half the time, I feel like I am just running
around, as Council Chair said, sending a bunch of emails and waiting for things to go
back two (2) weeks later. It does not feel good to be accountable to the community
and not be able to be accountable, because the communication style is not there yet,
and I am excited for that, so thank you folks for all the hard work. I did want to share
one more thing. The community did share some testimony about notifications. The
Department of Parks and Recreation is in my wheelhouse, and I actually had this
conversation with them the other day, about all the issues you folks brought up. It
has already been sent, so they are looking why is takes so long to receive a response
when you submit information. I learned that they have one (1) or two (2) staff looking
at seventy (70) permits a day. As our constituents shared, it is hard to be one person
looking at seventy (70) permits and be expected to respond, so we need to make sure
we staff that properly. The second thing, the centralized information is key to
allowing more collaboration. No longer being in silos is a communication that we
share within all of us, so this will enable us to be connected and to better serve our
community.
Council Chair Rapozo: Councilmember Kuali`i.
COUNCIL MEETING 58 JUNE 28, 2023
Councilmember Kuali`i: Yes. I, too, want to say mahalo nui loa to
everyone in the IT Division, the Department of Finance, and in the Administration
that is helping with this. I am of the belief that more access and more information is
always a good thing, as well as more access to more information. I would hope that
for any public information we put out there, we have already looked at any kind of
liability or legal issues. Having said that, unlike some of the others, I think more
information is better. I think it engages and empowers our citizens, and it gives them
the tools to help themselves, and to not stand in line and wait, especially if you put
the calendar on there, so they can see it is already booked. Some of it is simple and
practical. By them helping themselves, they are helping us, and we can help others.
It is obvious. One of the testifiers said something about staffing support, and not
doing an exercise in futility by having all this ability, but not having the support back
house to back it up. We are the Council, so come to us and let us know what you need.
In the long run, we will save money, right? If people are helping themselves, instead
of utilizing our staff to help them, we will save money in the long run, so it is worth
it to invest in the system and also in the staff to support the system. You have my
full support. Thank you, Chair.
Council Chair Rapozo: Councilmember Carvalho.
Councilmember Carvalho: In wrapping up, I know all of us have said it,
but for me, this LIMS program technology is at its best moving forward, but the big
thing for me is the response time. How can we respond in a timely manner?
Technology is at the forefront, but we still have to get to the people. That is the bigger
part. I know it is not easy, but it has to be part of this process. Thank you.
Council Chair Rapozo: I will go and then I will let you conclude.
Councilmember Cowden: Alright.
Council Chair Rapozo: First of all, Mr. Curtis, I can only speak on the
park reservation. For that one, as soon as you hit"send,"you get an email back saying
that it has been received and it tells you to check back on the website for status
updates. That is regarding parks. I do not know how it is when reporting a predator
or a bird. I never even knew that existed. I want to say that the whole idea of going
automated or digital, and I am going to use the park reservations as an example, is
number one (1), as Ms. Parker said, you cannot go in-person and make a request,
everything needs to be done online. Why? I do not know, because you have someone
at the window. It is simple: you look at the date, you pull the thing for whatever you
want to reserve, you look, and if it is open, it is open, you have them sign the terms
of agreement, and it is done. I do not understand, in a system like this, where if I go
online and I want to reserve Wailua Houselots Pavilion, I read through all the terms
of agreement, I put my date and time, when I hit"send" and it is open on the calendar,
why is it not just booked. Why do we need a human to do what the computer can do?
That is what gets me when we talk about manpower shortage. That is what we were
told when we spent on the money to buy this system. I have been on the Council
when the Administration come up and say we are going to spend two million
dollars ($2,000,000) or three million dollars ($3,000,000) and it is going to make us
more efficient, but it does not make us more efficient. Listen, it is not you, folks.
COUNCIL MEETING 59 JUNE 28, 2023
When I was in high school, I had at 1974 Datsun B210 and I saved up enough money
to paint it. I remember driving to school with my new paint job and everyone thought,
"Wow," but the engine was the same, so it was still a piece of junk. It just looked
good. Kudos to you folks, because this is where we should be, but we are not making
it more efficient, because now we are just taking an email or message to a human,
who needs to do everything, and manually let the person know whether or not they
have it, so we are not being more efficient. Absolutely not. What are the
requirements to rent a pavilion? Do you need a driver's license? Do you need
insurance? You do not need that to rent a pavilion. You just need to make a request,
and if it is open, you should get it, because it is a public place, so I do not understand
why it is taking the time it is taking and why we have...if one person is looking at
seventy (70) permits, then why have this system? On the system, just put, "email
parks@kauai.gov to ask." Why would we go through the whole thing, only to have a
human go through each one and think, "Do we want to let this person use it or not,"
but the proof of notification is critical. The reason why I suggested that this all comes
to the Council—the complaints, the potholes, the guardrails...I do not even care if it
is a State issue. I get irritated with people telling me, "Oh, that is the State's
problem." It is not the State's problem. If it involves our County residents, it is a
County issue, so I do not care if it is a State guardrail or whatnot. Right now, and
this is what bothers me, if someone drives into a pothole and damages their rim, the
County policy is if we did not have knowledge, we are not going to pay. If we were
not notified that the pothole was there, we are not going to pay. So, what happens?
If someone bangs a pothole, even though they live on the road and they may have
called three (3) or four (4) times to let the Roads Division know, saying, "Hey, there
is a big pothole." I just received an email this morning from a constituent that we
notified about a pothole up Homesteads, a big pothole, and it is still there, but now
there is proof, because I have an email of her reporting it to the County, which we
sent to the Roads Division. As of yesterday, they still have not fixed it. The burden
of proof should be on the County. In other words, if I puncture a tire, because of a
pothole, it should not be me proving that the County did not know. No. That is your
road, that is your pothole, you caused me the damage, so you are going to pay me.
That is how it should, but it is not. With this system, if we let an individual take his
or her phone, take a picture of the pothole, hit "send," and now I have it. The Roads
Division does not even need to be a part of this. I do not care, because my issue is
that we need to take care of our citizens and our residents, and if we caused that tire
to puncture, then we should pay. Now, we can go to your system, and check the
history, "Hey, this was reported three (3) months ago or two (2) months ago, and now
we have all these claims." In other words, the first person, who hit the pothole, will
be compensated. Right now, for the most part, they are not. That is why I am
suggesting sending the reports here. I will keep track of it myself, I will not put that
onto the staff. I will create my own spreadsheet. As Mr. Curtis said, and I think
Councilmember Bulosan talked about the ability to report abandoned vehicles, if you
do not have the back office or the support crew to take care of it...every day I pass an
abandoned vehicle in the Wailua Houselots. I was there when the two (2) police
officers posted it as abandoned, but the car is still there, so it does not matter who
says it is there, if we are not doing it. We are failing. You folks all know, you have
been around long enough. How hard is it to call a towing company and say, "tow this
car"? We hired an Abandoned Vehicle Coordinator, we paid someone specifically to
handle that, so why is it does it take so long to have an abandoned vehicle removed?
COUNCIL MEETING 60 JUNE 28, 2023
Why? Someone answer that question. Why? Do we not have a contract? Why are
we wasting our time posting the car, if we are not going to pick it up? It is wasting
the time of our police officers to go out there, make a report, post on the window, if
we are not going to tow it. We have tires without tires and engines, which are derelict
and should automatically be towed, that are not towed. These wonderful people can
put the technology out there...I know you are dying to speak Councilmember Cowden.
You will have your time, you will have your chance...but if we do not have the muscle
behind the technology, what is the use? We have a nice, shiny Datsun B210, with
brand new paint, it is flawless, but it still has a broken engine. Okay, Councilmember
Cowden, go ahead.
Councilmember Cowden: Let us just say you were talking, maybe, to
Reiko, because she has a lot more going on with implementation, we are about policy.
What our programmers were hearing is us reacting to our policy, because what you
folks provided is like a mirror to us of what is out there and what is possible, so I am
just trying to separate out, for a moment, that the policy is not these folks' fault...
Council Chair Rapozo: I think I said that they did a great job.
Councilmember Cowden: I am just trying to say it again. I asked them
here, even when they said these things are right on the cutting-edge, so maybe it was
too early, because we do not have the backend. I was just so excited about what you
folks have done, so here we are at the end of June 2023, and I think we are at a
transformative moment for the functioning of our County, because even by having
this, it helps us get involved with them to help them know what we want, and as it
gets out there and people are using it...I am thankful for the four hundred (400) users
within the County. I want to be one of them, I want to be number four hundred
one (401), I want to be an active user on it. I know I need a little bit of training, but
I am seeing this as that transparency that Council needs to be able to assist the
Administration in getting them what they need, and all these complaints are valid,
but today I want to say, "Thank you so much and 'high five,' you folks have done a
great job," so Councilmember Bulosan and I, and the rest of the Council are
presenting a certificate for each of you, and you are named. This is a certificate of
recognition. It might not be a big deal to you, but we rarely do this for individuals in
the County. We have Garrett Johnson, Michael Weeks-Johnson, Chad Lowe, he is
our contractor, Anneka Imkamp, Garrett Gee, Alan Clinton, Leanora
Kaiaokamalie...I struggle a bit with her last name, from the Planning
Department...we are recognizing this step forward that you folks made and by
making it and having it like a "coming out day," maybe...at least it is a "coming out"
for us...I am hoping that we can help you do your best job, you can help us, and we
will all become a little better, so, "Good job" is what I am saying. We have certificates
for all of you, although not everyone is here. I wanted to give them out, Chair, and
perhaps we can take a picture, but do we need to receive this for the record, and then
we can do that?
Council Chair Rapozo: Yes, then we will take a short recess. Is there
any other discussion? Go ahead.
Councilmember DeCosta: I know I signed it, but...
COUNCIL MEETING 61 JUNE 28, 2023
Councilmember Cowden: Would you like me to read it?
Councilmember DeCosta: Can you explain...
Councilmember Cowden: I will read it. Will that help?
Councilmember DeCosta: Hang on.
Councilmember Cowden: Okay.
Councilmember DeCosta: I want you to read it, but I want you to
explain, in layman's terms...these are County employees, they are paid to do a job...
Councilmember Cowden: That is correct.
Councilmember DeCosta: Correct? We have County employees in every
other department, who are paid to do work, and they do an excellent job, but they did
not receive recognition. I want to know if we are recognizing them based on moving
the forefront of this technology, that we saw today, that this is at the cutting edge,
and we are recognizing them.
Councilmember Cowden: We are recognizing that.
Councilmember DeCosta: Perfect. That is all I need to know.
Councilmember Cowden: We do recognize others. We recognize our
dispatchers regularly, we recognize our Buildings Division regularly...
Councilmember DeCosta: I am just saying that I did not give the
Building Division a certificate, I did not give the dispatchers a certificate...
Councilmember Cowden: We do.
Councilmember DeCosta: Read it for me. I would like to hear it, please.
Councilmember Cowden: Okay. The Council of the County of Kaua`i
hereby presents this certificate to the implementation of the land information
management system and the geographic information systems technology for the
County of Kaua`i. The LIMS management software, combined with GIS technology,
the geographic information system, has proven to be a significant advancement for
the County of Kaua`i, bringing numerous benefits to its residents. The adoption of
LIMS has greatly facilitated asset management, streamlined workflows, and
enhanced collaboration between departments. The integration of asset data within a
centralized system has improved the County's ability to have a comprehensive view
of resources, enabling decision-making and resource allocation. The GIS component
has further amplified the efficiency of the land information management system by
allowing geographic visualization of data, providing for better spatial analysis and
informed planning. By leveraging LIMS and GIS, the County has achieved greater
accuracy, improved data accessibility, and optimized asset utilization, ultimately
COUNCIL MEETING 62 JUNE 28, 2023
benefiting residents through enhanced service delivery and resource optimization. It
is important to note that this implementation is an ongoing endeavor, with
continuous improvements and advancements expected in the future, promising even
greater advantages for the County and its residents. We put the following individuals
and their significant roles in implementing the County's LIMS and GIS technology.
I just mentioned everyone, but that is the IT Division, Novotx, LLC, Real Property,
Public Works, Planning...we have two (2)people from the Planning Department. The
Kaua`i County Council recognizes and commends the talented individuals named and
the many others that contributed to the implementation of the County's LIMS and
GIS technology and looks forward to the exciting improvements that lie ahead. I
know that we have some recent retirements, so for them also, I want to acknowledge
the quality information that they have put in place, and all those people who have
the data and the State. It is a connection of things. Everyone has done well, but you
folks are the ones in there doing the programming for this, and I just wanted to say,
"Thank you," to you.
The motion to receive C 2023-152 for the record was then put, and unanimously
carried.
Council Chair Rapozo: Thank you. With that, we will take a very
short, two-minute recess to take a photograph, and then we will resume.
There being no objections, the meeting recessed at 11:55 a.m.
The meeting reconvened at 11:58 a.m., and proceeded as follows:
(Councilmember Carvalho was noted as not present.)
Council Chair Rapozo: Clerk, next item, please.
C 2023-154 Communication (06/08/2023) from the Deputy Director of
Planning, requesting Council approval to receive and expend Federal/State funds for
the Hawai`i Coastal Zone Management (CZM) Program in an amount up to
$373,942.00, and to indemnify the State of Hawai`i in accordance with the State of
Hawai`i General Conditions (AG-008 103D) for administering the program. This
reoccurring pass-through grant will be utilized to continue the implementation of the
CZM Program on Kaua`i commencing July 1, 2023 to June 30, 2024 and will be
expended on salaries/wages, travel, equipment, and supplies for the CZM Program,
specifically for the implementation and enforcement of the Special Management Area
Rules and Regulations of the County of Kaua`i and Shoreline Setback provisions of
Chapter 8, Kaua`i County Code 1987, as amended.
Councilmember Kagawa moved to approve C 2023-154, seconded by
Councilmember Kuali`i.
Council Chair Rapozo: Does anyone have any questions for this
request?
Councilmember Cowden: Yes.
COUNCIL MEETING 63 JUNE 28, 2023
Council Chair Rapozo: Okay.
There being no objections, the rules were suspended.
Councilmember Cowden: Thank you so much. I know this is
reoccurring and something that is ongoing, but I just want to give you the opportunity
to share anything you want with us, about how it is moving, if you need anything
from us. How it is going?
JODI A. HIGUCHI SAYEGUSA, Deputy Planning Director: Yes, this...
Council Chair Rapozo: Please state your name.
Ms. Higuchi Sayegusa I am sorry. Jodi Higuchi Sayegusa, Deputy
Planning Director.
Council Chair Rapozo: Thank you.
Ms. Higuchi Sayegusa: This is just a reoccurring grant we have
received since the '70s or so, that funds positions, salaries, our ability to travel and
receive training and equipment supportive of the Coastal Zone Management (CZM)
program. The program involves the special management area (SMA) regulations and
enforcement, including the Shoreline Setback Ordinance and things related to coastal
issues. Yes, it has been integral, it has been a very successful program, of course, and
we hope to continue it.
(Councilmember Carvalho was noted as present.)
Councilmember Cowden: Thank you.
Councilmember DeCosta: I have a question. Thank you. I worked with
you closely on a couple of projects, so I want to tell you, "Thank you." You deserved
your recognition. Were you on that certificate? Were you on the GIS certificate? You
were not? Because you have helped me locate mauka and makai GIS spots with
access, so maybe I need to make a special certificate for you. I want to ask you this—
with the coastal erosion and the shoreline setback, we may lose access from different
areas to the coastline. What are we doing for our constituents who want to get to
beaches that have erosion at their access? Are we looking at another route through
a private landowners' property, because that particular access has been eroded by a
shoreline setback? Are we proactive or are we reactive right now in that category I
am describing.
Ms. Higuchi Sayegusa: I think we are...especially with the various,
ongoing, long-range plans, for instance the Climate Adaptation Plan, which is looking
holistically at the types of actions, planning efforts, and mitigation we can do to
prevent some of these from further erosion and losing of public facilities, such as the
beaches and access, so there are other projects going on. In addition, the Open Space
Commission has always been an open forum to receive public requests for acquisition
of certain open space lands, coastal lands, including mauka lands, of course, but
COUNCIL MEETING 64 JUNE 28, 2023
access now has been another mission that we are focusing more on with the Open
Space Commission, being that we can now use the fund for coastal improvements for
access to beaches.
Councilmember DeCosta: I want to "pick your brain." What about
coastal accesses that were open for decades, maybe even a century, and now, all of a
sudden, it is closed? The private landowner just closed it. What can we do, with that
funding you have, to either encourage or possibly maintain the access...perhaps that
is why they closed it—they needed to maintain the access themselves. We have a lot
of pressing issues from the Kaua`i residents, who want to access areas that they
accessed in the plantation days, but they cannot access presently. We are limited, we
cannot jump in our recreational vehicle (RV) and drive across the State to visit a
national park. We are stuck on our little Kaua`i. How can we help our community
members access those areas that they went to when they were children, but is now
blocked off or where access has been denied?
Ms. Higuchi Sayegusa: Right. Under the CZM program, there are
other things we can do to ensure access, as well. As we look at certain permit
proposals that come through and are regulated under the SMA, we can also fashion
conditions towards ensuring access within various permits that come up.
Council Chair DeCosta: Thank you for that.
Council Chair Rapozo: I see the positions where you have the permit,
the planner, the enforcement officer...are these people already on staff?
Ms. Higuchi Sayegusa: Yes.
Council Chair Rapozo: This is an awesome source of funding, but is
this the program that we would be using to secure accesses that we may have lost
over the years? Is that covered by the Coastal Zone Management funding?
Ms. Higuchi Sayegusa: Again, looking at what we could do under the
SMA, for instance, and our regulation of the SMA area, there is a staff member that,
of course, implements and reviews proposals, and suggests conditions in SMA
permits, but again, for acquiring accesses and things of that nature, I think there are
other ways to get there.
Council Chair Rapozo: I am more interested in the accesses that were
required. It is not acquiring, because we should already have it, but for whatever
reason the owners decided that it was okay to block to access and we never did
anything to keep it opened. Would this Enforcement Officer be the person that would
go out and inform the County, "Hey, access 'A' is no longer accessible, and the owner
is supposed to maintain that access." Is this the program that would do that?
Ms. Higuchi Sayegusa: It could, yes. When we went out and did the
inventory and the update of the inventory of coastal accesses, for instance, that
involved the SMA Planner and the Open Space Planner, at the time, to scour previous
approvals, included SMA permits.
COUNCIL MEETING 65 JUNE 28, 2023
Council Chair Rapozo: Councilmember DeCosta and I requested the
updated list, we just received it, and it is massive.
Ms. Higuchi Sayegusa: Yes.
Council Chair Rapozo: There are a ton of coastal accesses...and I
guess the mauka access report will be coming later, but the plan of this Council is to
move forward to secure the accesses that we lost. I am not sure if this is going to be
sufficient, because I understand that they are busy, but the idea is that, hopefully,
for the remainder of this term...and if it requires more funding, we will provide the
funding, but the objective of this Council, for this term, is to secure, or actually regain,
accesses that we are legally entitled to, that may have been lost, because of the
transfer of ownership and so forth...we want to get our accesses back. That list, which
I just shared with Councilmember DeCosta yesterday, is massive.
Ms. Higuchi Sayegusa: Yes.
Council Chair Rapozo: It is going to take some time, but it is
something I am hoping this Office, the CZM inspector, and whoever else, can help us
with all of that.
Ms. Higuchi Sayegusa: I got it.
Council Chair Rapozo: Thank you. Councilmember DeCosta.
Councilmember DeCosta: I want to follow-up with you, Chair, and if I
am off topic, please stop me. I have thick skin, Chair. What puzzles me is we had
access to quite a bit of areas, and we lost it, and I am on the verge of mentioning
two (2)large landowners, but I am going to bite my tongue, but one is on the Southside
and one is on the Northside. We make wheelchair ramps, and Ms. Alice Parker came
and said, "Look, we need access to the County Building. I need access." She is there
with her walker. We had accesses that were in place to drive our vehicles to County
beaches. Every beach is a County or a State beach, correct, or do we have what they
call, "a private beach"? Is there a private beach? I would like to know, because there
are private areas on Kaua`i, that we cannot access. Is it fair or unfair to ask a kupuna,
who used to throw fishing nets in his thirties, forties, and fifties, and now, when
walking the coastline of Kilauea, to walk over two (2) miles with his fishing net, to
put a school of moi or mullet in his backpack, and traverse back through that sand
and coastal access? How is that possible? How is it possible?
Council Chair Rapozo: That is a great question. We will have that
discussion, but today is about the funding for the positions.
Councilmember DeCosta: Okay. Thank you, Chair.
Council Chair Rapozo: My question was specific to determining if
these are the positions that would help us with that, but I know it involves some legal
issues, as well, so it is not something that we can just do, like removing gates.
COUNCIL MEETING 66 JUNE 28, 2023
Ms. Higuchi Sayegusa: Right.
Council Chair Rapozo: I am aware of that. We will have that
discussion and an agenda item regarding the beach access and mauka access.
Ms. Higuchi Sayegusa: Okay.
Council Chair Rapozo: Are there any other questions? Thank you. Is
there anyone in the audience wishing to testify?
Ms. Cummings: Sherri Cummings, for the record. While we
are on the subject of access, I would like to talk about the things that should not be
accessed. When you talk about whatever they are doing for everyone to have access,
I am referencing that supposed access they are trying to do and was passed, regarding
the preliminary design for the Kalapaki area to Ahukini, because that should not be
given public access. For them, if you look at this right now, only those from that
coastal area know how to access it, and that place was never meant to be accessed by
people walking through that place over there. I just speak to that, that was never an
accessible area, but you folks want to use that funding to create this ala hele. You
folks needs to be careful when talking about an ala hele. Ala hele is not all those
areas, when you try to make it ala hele makalae, because that was not part of a trail;
that was our gathering area, so I ask that you folks do not use that place, that wahi,
and to be part of that connectivity. In Hanama`ulu...l mentioned that to you...I know
that this is not it, but when you are talking accessibility, I will fight you folks "tooth
and nail,"because I will make that be something like Miloli`i, because that is a fishing
village, and trust me, you will have more families than just myself to talk about all
the places over there, which has far more bones than you folks could ever imagine, so
that should not even be considered.
Council Chair Rapozo: Thank you, Sherri. Yes, that is with the
Planning Commission. Are there any other members of the public wishing to testify?
If not, I will call the meeting back to order.
There being no further testimony, the meeting was called back to order, and
proceeded as follows:
Council Chair Rapozo: Is there any further discussion? Seeing none.
I want to reiterate that we will be having a separate item to discuss, and for
edification, the legal access that the County had through zoning permits, SMA
permits, that over the years have been, basically, taken away from the County, that
is what the update will be about. It will not be about new accesses.
The motion to approve C 2023-154 was then put, and unanimously carried.
Council Chair Rapozo: Motion carried. Next item, please.
C 2023-156 Communication (06/16/2023) from the Deputy Director of
Planning, requesting Council approval to accept a donation from Ulupono Initiative
in the amount of$25,000.00, to be used to support the local match for the Safe Streets
COUNCIL MEETING 67 JUNE 28, 2023
and Roads for All (SS4A) Planning Grant Program for the development of a Safety
Action Plan.
Councilmember Kuali`i moved to approve C 2023-156, seconded by
Councilmember Carvalho.
Council Chair Rapozo: Are there any question?
Councilmember Cowden: Yes.
Council Chair Rapozo: Okay.
Councilmember Cowden: Can we combine C 2023-156 and C 2023-157,
in terms of the questions?
Council Chair Rapozo: No, we need to keep them separate.
Councilmember Kuali`i: Just hold your questions until C 2023-157.
Councilmember Cowden: I will hold my questions until C 2023-157.
Council Chair Rapozo: Okay. Is there anyone in the audience
wishing to testify on C 2023-156? This is the twenty-five thousand dollar ($25,000)
donation for the grant.
There being no one present to provide testimony, the meeting proceeded as
follows:
Council Chair Rapozo: Is there any final discussion? Seeing none.
The motion to approve C 2023-156 was then put, and unanimously carried.
Council Chair Rapozo: Motion carried. Next item, please.
C 2023-157 Communication (06/16/2023) from the Deputy Director of
Planning, requesting Council approval to apply for, receive, and expend United States
Department of Transportation (USDOT) Safe Streets and Roads for All (SS4A)
Program funds in the amount of $250,000.00, to be used for the development of a
Safety Action Plan.
Councilmember Kuali`i moved to approve C 2023-157, seconded by
Councilmember Cowden.
Council Chair Rapozo: Planning, if you could come up.
There being no objections, the rules were suspended.
Council Chair Rapozo: Welcome back, Jodi. You can go ahead and
introduce yourself here.
COUNCIL MEETING 68 JUNE 28, 2023
MARIE L. WILLIAMS, Planning Program Manager: Good morning,
Council Chair Rapozo and Members of the Council. Marie Williams, Planning
Department. We are requesting approval to apply for a Federal grant, under the Safe
Streets and Roads for All program. This is a discretionary grant program to the tune
of five billion dollars ($5,000,000,000). It is a very unique program that is geared to
local governments, just like ours. State Departments of Transportation (DOT) are
not able to apply for this, and this is meant to put funding in the hands of local
governments to implement roadway projects and other such strategies to make travel
safer on our roads, but specifically, we are requesting money to develop a
Comprehensive Safety Action Plan. The reason being is that to be eligible for
implementation funding, most of the five billion dollars ($5,000,000,000) pot requires
you to first have what they call a"Comprehensive Safety Action Plan." It is our intent
to create this plan as soon as possible, so we can be ready, prepared, and eligible to
apply for the implementation funding. Are there any questions about the program?
Council Chair Rapozo: Councilmember Cowden.
Councilmember Cowden: Do we need to hire a contractor to help us with
this? Is this where we look to figure out where most of our accidents are, where we
have an uneven radius of curvature, and those types of things? Does this identify
where we have problematic areas?
Ms. Williams: Yes, the intent of a Safety Action Plan is to
use data analysis, reporting, and a community process with stakeholders to identify
patterns of where crashes occur, what intersections we might have issues in, and also
looks at other issues, such as the behavior of drivers, if drunk driving is an issue, so
it is a comprehensive approach to look at what are local roadway safety issues are
and coming up with strategies through a public process.
Councilmember Cowden: Does this go out to a request for
proposal (RFP), or do we know who we are likely to contract?
Ms. Williams: Yes, the intent of us seeking funding is to
have a consultant come on-board to assist us with that work in getting out the Safety
Action Plan as soon as possible, so we can be eligible for implementation funds.
Councilmember Cowden: Do you have any idea how long it typically
takes? Is it one (1) year, two (2) years? Do we have any idea how long it takes,
because we are hearing about all these competitive grants that are out there. I do
not know the difference between discretionary...I am assuming this is competitive.
Ms. Williams: Yes.
Councilmember Cowden: It seems like everything is competitive these
days.
Ms. Williams: There are some Federal funding programs
that are simply allocating funding to the States via some type of formula, but, yes,
this is a discretionary one, where we need to compete with other local jurisdictions.
COUNCIL MEETING 69 JUNE 28, 2023
Councilmember Cowden: When we go to these conferences, we learn
about all this money that is available, whether it is a safe route to school, which we
are already doing, but things such as that. Just so my expectation is accurate when
we are going to Texas, next month, is this a one-year effort, a two-year effort? How
long does it take?
Ms. Williams: The Safe Streets and Roads for All program is
a five-year program, but our hope is to complete the plan, should we be successful in
being granted the Federal grant, within a 12-month period, so we can be eligible to
apply for implementation funding.
Councilmember Cowden: Okay. Thank you.
Council Chair Rapozo: Councilmember DeCosta.
Councilmember DeCosta: Thank you. Does this funding only apply to
County roads, or can this funding be applied to State roads, as there are two (2)
different roads? The second part of that question is roads in limbo, both the County
and State do not want to take responsibility for those roads, can we include that in
your Safety Action Plan, so we can take care some of those roads in limbo, because
we have community members that live on those roads and we charge them for trash
service, so we should take care of the roads they live on? Is that going to be in your
focus plan?
Ms. Williams: The primary stated purpose of this program is
for our local road network, but at the same time, we were looking through the notice
of funding of opportunity, and they do want you to work with your State DOT on these
issues, so we would look forward to doing that. If there are safety issues on these
"roads in limbo," I think they definitely could be addressed through this action plan,
but I am not sure...there will be a process to determine what our local safety issues
are.
Councilmember DeCosta: I can tell you right now, we had two (2)
accidents on the Kalihiwai Bridge in the westbound lane, because of the Guinea grass
that is seven (7) feet tall and requires us to use weed eaters to trim them, and in
three (3) days they are back to being two (2) feet tall, because they grow one (1) inch
every second with the rain, so we need to figure that out somehow. We have the
Guinea grass issue all over the island.
Ms. Williams: Yes.
Councilmember DeCosta: Although those are State highways...Larry
Dill.
Council Chair Rapozo: Councilmember Kagawa.
Councilmember Kagawa: Is there coordination with the Department of
Public Works, as far as carrying out the Safety Action Plan goes?
COUNCIL MEETING 70 JUNE 28, 2023
Ms. Williams: Yes. The Planning Department is taking lead
on the grant application, due to our experience in writing these grants and coming
up with elements of the narrative that are required, but we will work very closely
with the Department of Public Works, the Transportation Agency, the Kaua`i Police
Department, the Enforcement Division, and other departments.
Councilmember Kagawa: I think we have the general excise tax (GET)
surcharge that we are trying to play catch-up with, right...ten (10) years' worth of
backlog of roads and bridges. One of the reasons why we are not really using all the
moneys is due to staff shortage to work on various projects that are on the list...I am
not sure if we do not have enough engineers to work, so I do not want to compromise
that effort for this effort. To me, the priorities should be on your current
infrastructure, and then you can do more "wish list" types of projects. I do not know
if that is included in your administrative meetings.
Ms. Williams: Yes, it is true that the Department of Public
Works is extremely busy right now. That is another reason why we are willing to
step up, prepare the grant application, and manage the project. The intention of the
action plan is that it will have a list of strategies, potential projects that can be eligible
for funding, and this would add to our capacity to get future projects.
Councilmember Kagawa: When Councilmember DeCosta mentioned
roads in limbo, I pictured roads in Kaumakani and Pakala Village, where we do trash
disposal service, and they want to give it to us, but because it is substandard, we do
not want to accept it. Does this apply to just roads that damage cars, right? It is
more about safety...because I think people drove slow on those roads, right?
Council Chair Rapozo: They need to.
Councilmember Kagawa: If you do not drive slowly, then you are going
to hit your head on the ceiling. Thank you.
Ms. Williams: Thank you.
Council Chair Rapozo: Are there any other questions?
Councilmember Cowden.
Councilmember Cowden: I am glad that you brought up working with
the DOT, because I think that is an essential area that I am anxious for. We did have
a person pass away recently, near the ABC Store and the First Hawaiian Bank, in
Kapa`a, where there are five (5) roads that come together. I cannot remember the
names of the streets in that area, but do you know what I am talking about? I
thought, "It is going to be until someone is killed that we are going to do something,"
and it happened, but I am not sure...I know things move slowly...that is both a
highway and four (4) County roads, so we definitely need to partner on restructuring
an area like that. I know in Kilauea, for example...I will not get lost on a bunch of
roads, but we have to turn left there, and we risk our lives every time. We have come
up with a roundabout plan, but it turns out that C. Brewer owned the land around
the edges, so the DOT cannot move forward, because those are corners in limbo,
COUNCIL MEETING 71 JUNE 28, 2023
where there is no owner of that land, anymore. We, supposedly, have a problem like
that. I would hope that consultant is going to find elements like that, and then...I
am forgetting the name of the road that goes behind Kealia.
Council Chair Rapozo: Maybe you can ask the question to them.
Perhaps they will know, because we need a question somewhere, so we are getting
into a discussion.
Councilmember Cowden: Okay. There will be no more discussion. Are
you going to be working with DOT?
Ms. Williams: Yes.
Councilmember Cowden: Have you already talked to Larry about it?
Ms. Williams: We have not talked to Larry Dill yet, but we
do talk to him on a regular basis about these types of projects.
Councilmember Cowden: Okay, so I am sure upcoming will be a
communication with him, because we need that.
Ms. Williams: Absolutely.
Councilmember Cowden: Thank you.
Council Chair Rapozo: Are you saying this plan is specific to County
roads, and not State highways?
Ms. Williams: It is meant to look at the safety issues on our
local road network, but at the same time, we are encouraged to work with our State
DOT on these broader issues.
Council Chair Rapozo: Okay. I want to follow-up on what
Councilmember Kagawa was saying, because we have an inventory of roads that need
to be fixed. We do, and I share his concerns about our resources being on a plan. My
bigger concern is, and I think Councilmember Kagawa mentioned the term "wish
list,"—are these consultants going to be doing all the analysis from the available data
and coming up with a plan that is generic to Kaua`i, or are we supplying them with
some projects that we want to see done, like roundabouts and pedestrian walkways,
and then create the safety plan around projects that we want to complete?
Ms. Williams: It will probably be a bit of both, as we do need
to evaluate the last decade or so worth of data relating to crashes and injuries, and
will work with stakeholders to identify our safety concerns, while, at the same time,
look at our roadway projects that are currently underway and being planned, and
possibly support those projects, while coming up with new projects and strategies, as
well.
COUNCIL MEETING 72 JUNE 28, 2023
Council Chair Rapozo: That is my concern, because this is a safety
study to obtain Federal funds. That is the whole purpose of this, as I read your
communication.
Ms. Williams: Yes.
Council Chair Rapozo: We need to do this, so we can receive more
money from the federal government, so we can do more projects. Councilmember
Kagawa and I were talking about this a week ago. We do not have resources right
now to take care of our existing projects, and I feel better if it is to make areas safer,
but not to make areas more accessible by pedestrians and bicycles, because you could
stretch that to say, "Well, it will make it safer." I want to take care of the
infrastructure issues that we have today, and I know it is going to happen, because I
have experienced this many times, where we are creating a safety plan to receive
funding, but then when the funding comes in, we are going to create more
infrastructure for our County, which cannot take care of what we already have. I do
not want to not support it, because I think we need the safety plan, but I want to
make sure the safety plan is generic in identifying all the areas that are unsafe,
without a focus or target on projects that we, as a County, the Department of Public
Works, or whoever, want to complete, so, "Go work on these areas, because we want
to put a roundabout here," or...I want a real, true study being done, and I do not know
if that is what I am hearing.
Ms. Higuchi Sayegusa: Again, this is just the first step at, really,
something that we need in order to look at other opportunities, and for the other
opportunities that could possibly fund particular projects will require us to come back
and ask whether or not we can apply for those and give you a briefing on what those
other projects may entail, but this is just a plan to unlock other opportunities, but we
are not making promises on the other opportunities yet. This is just to help us get
there, so as we are informed of the opportunities, we know that we could weed
through them, be eligible, and be more competitive for the project-based funding at a
future date.
Council Chair Rapozo: Go ahead.
Councilmember Cowden: I learned this from you, Chair, that when we
approve the ability to apply for, receive, and expend, all in one fell swoop, what often
happens...there is a question in here...we all get behind the idea, but because we
approve all three (3) of those steps, we do not have input once we receive that money,
so that is why I am asking some of these questions. I want to make sure that we have
input once we receive it. How do we have that input once we receive it, because
sometimes we no longer have that opportunity to have any input at that point.
Ms. Higuchi Sayegusa: There will be a community...
Ms. Williams: ...a public process...
Ms. Higuchi Sayegusa ...outreach process through the project.
COUNCIL MEETING 73 JUNE 28, 2023
Councilmember Cowden: Do you understand what I am saying?
Council Chair Rapozo: That is why I asked...
Councilmember Cowden: I have gotten scolded before for asking.
Council Chair Rapozo: I asked the question, because I am all too
familiar with that process, where...again, we are approving funds for a safety plan,
but I want to know what that will lead to.
Councilmember Cowden: Why can we not approve applying and
receiving, without the final piece, so that we have the ability to agree on the expense.
Council Chair Rapozo: That is the administrative function.
Councilmember Cowden: Alright.
Council Chair Rapozo: This is where, if you do not want the project,
or if you do not think, and I am not speaking generically, you can just vote "no." I am
very uncomfortable, because, like I said, I think I know where this is going, but we
need a safety plan.
Councilmember Cowden: We do.
Council Chair Rapozo: We need a safety plan. Ho`olako-Rice...I do
not know who designed that, I hope it is not one of you, but that bus stop is right at
the junction of Ho`olako Street and Rice Street. It is one of the most unsafe
intersections that I have seen on this island. That is what I hope this safety plan will
identify. Are they going to look at all of these?
Ms. Williams: Yes. It will look at our entire local County
work network, including intersections, bridges, roadways. Absolutely.
Council Chair Rapozo: My only concern is that we are looking at...not
just target where we want to do something different. This whole island needs to be
checked. That thing...I do not know who did that, but that needs to be moved. This
is just one (1) intersection that needs to be moved. It is very dangerous over there.
Are there any other questions? If not, thank you.
Ms. Williams: Thank you.
Council Chair Rapozo: Is there anyone in the audience wishing to
testify? Ms. Parker.
Ms. Parker: Alice Parker, for the record. As far as safety
is concerned, the basic thing is the tarring, the surface of the roads. The national
magazine, it may have been the American Association of Retired Persons (AARP)
stated the worst roads in the whole U.S. are here. We do not want that, that is hard
COUNCIL MEETING 74 JUNE 28, 2023
driving, it is accidents, and it totally unsafe. The rest of it, yes, we need the rest of
it, too, but we need tar. Thank you.
Council Chair Rapozo: Thank you.
Ms. Cummings: Sherri Cummings. I am just asking for
consideration. I know this is all for County roads, but County citizens are impacted
by roads that are not County roads, they are State roads. If we are talking about
safety, two (2) roads come to mind. One of them is the one you like, Chair, regarding
Wailua, that bypass. It is big and clustered. When there are accidents in that area,
we traverse that road if the Department of Hawaiian Home Lands (DHHL) says that
we can, which, I guess, they spoke to you about the last time we spoke. That is a road
for consideration. Another one is Kealia Road, which runs from Kealia to Anahola.
That is heavily used by the general public when there are safety concerns with the
coastline, and they need to use higher grounds for tidal waves and things like that.
That happened a few times. Those are the roads that you actually use. They are not
County roads. We just found out those are the roads that fall under the Department
of Land and Natural Resources (DLNR), which was never conveyed to the
Department of Hawaiian Home Lands or the County, so both were going like this
every time. Unfortunately, every time you talk about shoreline mitigation and
shoreline coastal zone management, everyone in the coastline areas going upstream
or upland. All those lands that are upland, when you talk about the Hanalei area,
where they need to go, that is not County. You need to talk about things that are not
just County roads. A lot of the roads and things like that are actually all State roads,
because State land is where we go for management of shoreline situations, when we
need to go on the high land. That is not our lands. I just wanted to say that. Thank
you.
Council Chair Rapozo: Thank you, Sherri.
Ms. Cummings: Sorry, there is one more thing. The light did
not go to red for me yet. What is the...
Council Chair Rapozo: Go ahead. It is on.
Ms. Cummings: What is the biggest prohibitor when we use
Federal funding every time?
Council Chair Rapozo: I am sorry. What was that?
Ms. Cummings: What is the biggest prohibition of Federal
funding, and why do not expedite...I do not want to say it, but people like me or
different native Hawaiians and things like that? Every time there is Federal funding,
it triggers Hawai`i Revised Statutes (HRS) Section 106, in which native Hawaiian
organizations and beneficiaries need to come to the table, especially if you are dealing
with certain areas that are very specific to us. That is one of the prohibitions, so
make sure part of the process, from the get-go, is getting the Hawaiians in the room,
because if you do not, that is why there is that delay, if you will. Thank you very
much.
COUNCIL MEETING 75 JUNE 28, 2023
Council Chair Rapozo: Thank you.
There being no further testimony, the meeting was called back to order, and
proceeded as follows:
Council Chair Rapozo: Is there any further discussion?
Councilmember Kagawa.
Councilmember Kagawa: Thank you, Chair. My thing is not with the
Planning Department, it never has been. They can do the plans. I think it has to do
more with the Department of Public Works, in that they have a big job in front of
them. It is to get back infrastructure that was severely neglected. In 2012, when I
got in, they said we had not paved a road in a while due to lack of funding, and they
needed that funding source, so finally, former Mayor Carvalho got the Council to
jump on with the half percent (0.5%) surcharge. This was the "golden egg" to fix our
infrastructure. Now, we are getting about thirty million dollars ($30,000,000) a year.
If we really follow that plan and put all of our efforts in, I really believe we would be
close to paving every road, fixing every one hundred (100) year old bridge, that has
not been touched for one hundred (100) years, and getting the infrastructure back to
a solid shape, but, to me, a lot of it is if we come up short, it is going to be because we
are redirecting employees to do others things that seem important, they believe are
important, or our consultants say are important, when the intent of the GET
surcharge was to fix our infrastructure that was failing. That is where I get a little
hesitant. We had the former building superintendent spending a lot of time on these
improvements that you see here—Eiwa, Hardy Street with the Transportation
Investment Generating Economic Recovery (TIGER) grant, and one of his other jobs
was the County infrastructure, but we recently had fire sprinklers that went off. Like
I said, if you can do the "wish list" while you are maintaining your own hale, that is
fine, but maintaining what you have has to be of utmost importance, and then you
can work on the things in the wish list. If you want to put more effort to work on the
wish list, by all means, go for it, we can always use improvements, more safety and
more bicycle paths. Now, there are electrical bicycles going around, so we do need
bicycle improvements. They are cheating by using their electric bicycles. Right? Get
a moped already. If you use an electric bicycle, it is fine. I get it. Matt uses it. To
me, the bicycle is an instrument for exercising, getting in shape, and you can get to
work or go shopping, but many kids have it, it is a popular thing. I hope you watch
that battery, because you do not want to have a fire in your house. With more of our
local kids using it, we need more safety for our bicycle users. I am all behind the
Planning Department, but the Department of Public Works needs to focus, because
our residents deserve good roads. I receive a lot of complaints about roads. I ask,
"What roads?" They say, "All the roads." That is the kind of attitude I receive from
the constituents. When I ask what roads needs to be fixed and they say, "All," it is
bad, so we need to do better. The money is in place. It is not going to help us if we
give half of it to the bus. That is not going to work. Thank you, Chair.
Council Chair Rapozo: Are there any other comments?
Councilmember Cowden.
COUNCIL MEETING 76 JUNE 28, 2023
Councilmember Cowden: I want to thank you folks at the Planning
Department for working on this. I certainly support it very much, and when you hear
my asking about this approval to "apply for, receive, and expend," that statement is
not directed to you folks at the Planning Department. It is just that very often, what
I see is, when we are applying to a grant, until you have gotten the approval to apply,
you have not gotten into the weeds, where you see what the requirements are, so I
keep bringing up these conferences that we go to, but I learn so much there and I
hear the reaction of the other counties, when they talk about prescriptive funding
from the Federal government. It states you cannot use it, unless you do what
Councilmember Kagawa is complaining about, which is making things that are not
necessarily what we are thinking when we are doing it, so we do not get to understand
all the little details that are being applied for. When we finally know, is when a
department comes back and says, "This is what we are doing," and we say, "What
about this or that," we learn at that point that we could not change from that.
Although it is another discussion with the Chair, but I am wondering how we can
work to have it be "apply for," and then we receive an update about what we are going
before we proceed to the next step, but as we have been talking about our real
property taxes...yesterday, we spent the whole day on that, and I am super thankful
for the funding that each of the departments, whether it is KPD, the Office of the
Prosecuting Attorney, or the Planning Department, where they come up with extra
funding, because we are arguing with gravity on that real property tax, when we are
trying to not squeeze our people off the island, and we need to obtain money in ways
that may be perceived as profoundly disproportional. The money you are receiving is
important, it is really important for us, when we look at these grants, to determine
how prescriptive they are. I am politely asking, when you get into the application
process, I would like to, at least, receive a report on what the requirements are, so
that I am not shocked when we are at that final stage, and it is for something
completely different than what we are expecting. I gave a couple of examples of what
I am expecting. For example, it would definitely be nice to have that road behind
Kealia, because that is a different kind of safety, but that we see what we are getting
and what we can be asking for. I just want to acknowledge on the Transportation
Agency, the grass is so high along the North Shore right now, that you cannot see the
speed signs, the upcoming turn signs for roads; much of our highway signs are
covered. Whether it is turning out at Kalihiwai Road, which is a County road, and
no one sees it on the highway, so they drive right past it...we really need a slower
speed right there. I think we had another there, as there was a fresh cross displayed.
Thank you for what you are doing, I support what you are doing, and I definitely want
to learn from you, after you complete the application, so that we understand if what
we are asking for is what we think we are getting. Thank you.
Council Chair Rapozo: Is there anyone else? We will have to break
for a caption or lunch. We only have a couple more items, so if we can wrap this up,
I will ask the captioner if she can bear with us for another five (5) minutes. After
wrapping this up, we still have an Executive Session, but I do not want to break for
lunch and have to come back to do three (3) items. Go ahead.
Councilmember Carvalho: I will make it quick. Having been involved in
the grant process, and all of that, I like what is on the table knowing that, no matter
what happens, we will still need to seek Federal funds somehow to bring home, and
COUNCIL MEETING 77 JUNE 28, 2023
the more we show that the Department of Parks and Recreation, the Department of
Public Works, and the Planning Department are working as a team, then we can
reach out that way. In my experience, we need to make sure that is at the table and
make sure that everyone is working together as a role. Whatever funding we have
now is just a part of the bigger picture. I know Council Chair Rapozo is concerned,
we all have different concerns, but at the same time, we have a great opportunity,
now, to reach out and connect. I see the Planning team there, working with the Parks
team and everyone else, in order to receive the funding that is there, but we need to
show the plan and the partnerships. That is all. Thank you.
Council Chair Rapozo: Thank you. Councilmember DeCosta.
Councilmember DeCosta: Everyone on the Council said great things—
Councilmember Kagawa, former Mayor Carvalho. A couple things hit me. We do
studies in the Department of Education (DOE) all the time. We do targeted studies,
so we can receive funding to help children with special needs. I am just a little bit
worried that, when we do our study to obtain grant money, we are not targeting
certain areas. When Councilmember Kagawa mentioned Pakala Village and
Kaumakani...I grew up in Pakala Village, I grew up in those roads, we have family
members who are living there, and we need to provide County services in there, such
as the Fire Department, the Police Department, etcetera, the potholes in the roads
are about six (6) inches deep, but it seems like, when I go to Koloa and Po`ipu, I see
new roundabouts and bicycle paths, that it is almost as though we are catering to the
Southside, TVR, commercial, hotel industry, and I am worried. I do not want this
study to be skewered, so we can target specific areas. I think we should be very fair
and equitable across the island, when we do our study. Take this as "food for
thought". In the Po`ipu area, the residents at Weliweli Tract...God bless Joe Grace,
who just died. His whole family is crying out in emails, because TVR guests are
driving up and down those roads at thirty-five (35) to forty (40) miles an hour, where
kids are playing basketball, riding little scooters, etcetera, so we want to address
those kinds of issues. We need to be very equitable and not gear this to our
Oregon-looking cities, that we want to fill with bicycle paths and other things like
that. Thank you.
Council Chair Rapozo: Is there anyone else? If not, the motion is to
approve.
The motion to approve C 2023-157 was then put, and unanimously carried.
Council Chair Rapozo: Motion carried. Next item, please.
CLAIM:
C 2023-159 Communication (06/14/2023) from the County Clerk,
transmitting a claim filed against the County of Kauai by Charter Spectrum, for
property damage, pursuant to Section 23.06, Charter of the County of Kaua`i.
COUNCIL MEETING 78 JUNE 28, 2023
Councilmember Kuali`i moved to refer C 2023-159, to the Office of the County
Attorney for disposition and/or report back to the Council, seconded by
Councilmember Cowden.
Council Chair Rapozo: Is there any discussion? Is there any public
testify? Seeing none.
There being no one present to provide testimony, the meeting proceeded as
follows:
The motion to refer C 2023-159 to the Office of the County Attorney for
disposition and/or report back to the Council was then put, and unanimously
carried.
Council Chair Rapozo: Next item, please.
COMMITTEE REPORTS:
HOUSING & INTERGOVERNMENTAL RELATIONS COMMITTEE:
A report (No. CR-HIR 2023-01) submitted by the Housing &
Intergovernmental Relations Committee, recommending that the following be
Received for the Record:
"HIR 2023-01 – Communication (06/05/2023) from Council Chair
Rapozo, requesting the presence of the Housing Director, to provide an update
on the status of the Residential Cesspool Conversion Program,"
Councilmember Kuali`i moved for approval of the report, seconded by
Councilmember Carvalho.
Council Chair Rapozo: Is there any discussion or public testimony?
Councilmember DeCosta: I have discussion.
Council Chair Rapozo: Go ahead.
Councilmember DeCosta: I want to let our planning safety coordinators
doing the grant know this is a huge one—cesspool conversion in Kekaha, creating
safe routes to school, putting in sidewalks in Kekaha, drop some infrastructure pipes
to convert Kekaha over to the Waimea area for sewer conversion. It is a no-brainer.
If we are receiving grant moneys to improve safe routes to school, put in sidewalks
and crosswalks, drop some infrastructure in the ground, so our local residents on the
Westside can get sewer service in the future. Thank you.
(Councilmember Kagawa was noted as not present.)
Council Chair Rapozo: Is there any further discussion? Seeing none.
The motion is to approve.
COUNCIL MEETING 79 JUNE 28, 2023
There being no one present to provide testimony, the meeting proceeded as
follows:
The motion for approval of the report was then put, and unanimously carried
(Pursuant to Rule No. 5(b) of the Rules of the Council of the County of Kauai,
Councilmember Kagawa was noted as silent (not present), but shall be recorded
as an affirmative for the motion).
Council Chair Rapozo: Next item, please.
COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE:
A report (No. CR-COW 2023-08) submitted by the Committee of the Whole,
recommending that the following be Received for the Record:
"COW 2023-03 — Communication (05/09/2023) from Committee Vice
Chair Kuali`i, requesting agenda time to permit a water briefing from
government entities including the Department of Land and Natural Resources
Commission on Water Resource Management (CWRM), Department of
Hawaiian Home Lands (DHHL), Kaua`i Department of Water, and Kaua`i
Board of Water Supply,"
Councilmember Kuali`i moved for approval of the report, seconded by
Councilmember Carvalho.
Council Chair Rapozo: Is there any discussion or public testimony?
Seeing none.
There being no one present to provide testimony, the meeting proceeded as
follows:
The motion for approval of the report was then put, and unanimously carried
(Pursuant to Rule No. 5(b) of the Rules of the Council of the County of Kauai,
Councilmember Kagawa was noted as silent (not present), but shall be recorded
as an affirmative for the motion).
Council Chair Rapozo: Motion carried. Next item, please.
RESOLUTIONS:
Resolution No. 2023-47 — RESOLUTION CONFIRMING MAYORAL
APPOINTMENT TO THE POLICE COMMISSION (Howard Leslie)
Councilmember Kuali`i moved for adoption of Resolution No. 2023-47,
seconded by Councilmember Cowden.
Council Chair Rapozo: Is there any discussion or public testimony?
Seeing none. Roll call.
COUNCIL MEETING 80 JUNE 28, 2023
There being no one present to provide testimony, the meeting proceeded as
follows:
The motion for adoption of Resolution No. 2023-47, was then put, and carried
by the following vote:
FOR ADOPTION: Bulosan, Carvalho, Cowden, DeCosta,
Kagawa, Kuali`i, Rapozo TOTAL— 7,
AGAINST ADOPTION: None TOTAL— 0,
EXCUSED & NOT VOTING: None TOTAL— 0,
RECUSED & NOT VOTING: None TOTAL — 0.
(Pursuant to Rule No. 5(b) of the Rules of the Council of the County of Kauai,
Councilmember Kagawa was noted as silent (not present), but shall be recorded
as an affirmative for the motion.)
JADE K. FOUNTAIN-TANIGAWA, County Clerk: Seven (7) ayes.
Council Chair Rapozo: Thank you. Next item, please.
Resolution No. 2023-48 — RESOLUTION CONFIRMING MAYORAL
APPOINTMENT TO THE BOARD OF REVIEW (Graham Odenheimer)
Councilmember Carvalho moved for adoption of Resolution No. 2023-48,
seconded by Councilmember Kuali`i.
Council Chair Rapozo: Is there any further discussion or public
testimony? Seeing none. Roll call.
There being no one present to provide testimony, the meeting proceeded as
follows:
The motion for adoption of Resolution No. 2023-48, was then put, and carried
by the following vote:
FOR ADOPTION: Bulosan, Carvalho, Cowden, DeCosta,
Kagawa, Kuali`i, Rapozo TOTAL— 7,
AGAINST ADOPTION: None TOTAL — 0,
EXCUSED & NOT VOTING: None TOTAL— 0,
RECUSED & NOT VOTING: None TOTAL— 0.
(Pursuant to Rule No. 5(b) of the Rules of the Council of the County of Kauai,
Councilmember Kagawa was noted as silent (not present), but shall be recorded
as an affirmative for the motion.)
Ms. Fountain-Tanigawa: Seven (7) ayes.
Council Chair Rapozo: Next item, please.
COUNCIL MEETING 81 JUNE 28, 2023
Resolution No. 2023-49 — RESOLUTION RECOGNIZING AUGUST 8, 2023
AS KAUAI HONEYCREEPERS CELEBRATION DAY
Councilmember Carvalho moved for adoption of Resolution No. 2023-49,
seconded by Councilmember Cowden.
Council Chair Rapozo: Is there any discussion or public testimony?
Seeing none. Roll call.
There being no one present to provide testimony, the meeting proceeded as
follows:
The motion for adoption of Resolution No. 2023-49, was then put, and carried
by the following vote:
FOR ADOPTION: Bulosan, Carvalho, Cowden, DeCosta,
Kagawa, Kuali`i, Rapozo TOTAL— 7,
AGAINST ADOPTION: None TOTAL — 0,
EXCUSED & NOT VOTING: None TOTAL — 0,
RECUSED & NOT VOTING: None TOTAL — 0.
(Pursuant to Rule No. 5(b) of the Rules of the Council of the County of Kaua`i,
Councilmember Kagawa was noted as silent (not present), but shall be recorded
as an affirmative for the motion.)
Ms. Fountain-Tanigawa: Seven (7) ayes.
Council Chair Rapozo: The last item.
EXECUTIVE SESSION:
ES-1098 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 to provide the Council with a briefing and
request for settlement authority regarding Charlene Seager's real property tax claim
and related matters. This briefing and consultation involves the consideration of the
powers, duties, privileges, immunities, and/or liabilities of the Council and the
County as they relate to this agenda item.
Councilmember Carvalho moved to convene in Executive Session for ES-1098,
seconded by Councilmember DeCosta.
Council Chair Rapozo: Is there any discussion or public testimony.
Seeing none.
There being no one present to provide testimony, the meeting proceeded as
follows:
COUNCIL MEETING 82 JUNE 28, 2023
Council Chair Rapozo: Before we take the roll call vote, I did want to
say a special mahalo to our captioner, Carol, for allowing us to go a little beyond the
caption break, so we would wrap up this meeting lunch. Thank you, Carol. With
that, the motion is to convene into Executive Session. Roll call.
The motion to convene in Executive Session for ES-1098 was then put, and
carried by the following vote:
FOR EXECUTIVE SESSION: Bulosan, Carvalho, Cowden, DeCosta,
Kagawa, Kuali`i, Rapozo TOTAL — 7,
AGAINST EXECUTIVE SESSION: None TOTAL — 0,
EXCUSED & NOT VOTING: None TOTAL— 0,
RECUSED & NOT VOTING: None TOTAL — 0.
(Pursuant to Rule No. 5(b) of the Rules of the Council of the County of Kauai,
Councilmember Kagawa was noted as silent (not present), but shall be recorded
as an affirmative for the motion.)
Council Chair Rapozo: Thank you. That ends today's agenda. Thank
you very much.
ADJOURNMENT.
There being no further business, the Council Meeting adjourned at 12:50 p.m.
Respectfully submitted,
JADE . OUNTAIN-TANIGAWA
County Clerk
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