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HomeMy WebLinkAbout11-18-2009 PH BILL 2333 PUBLIC HEARING NOVEMBER 18, 2009 A public hearing of the Council of the County of Kauai was called to order by Daryl W. Kaneshiro, Chair, Budget & Finance Committee, on Wednesday, November 18, 2009, at 1:37 p.m. at the Council Chambers, Historic County Building, 4396 Rice Street, Lihu`e, Kauai, and the presence of the following was noted: Honorable Tim Bynum Honorable Dickie Chang Honorable Jay Furfaro Honorable Daryl W. Kaneshiro Honorable Lani T. Kawahara Honorable Derek S. K. Kawakami Honorable Bill "Kaipo" Akng, Council Chair The Clerk read the notice of the public hearing on the following: BILL NO. 2333 - AN ORDINANCE AMENDING ORDINANCE NO. B-2009-691 AS AMENDED, RELATING TO THE CAPITAL BUDGET OF THE COUNTY OF KAUAI, STATE OF HAWAII, FOR THE FISCAL YEAR JULY 1, 2009 THROUGH JUNE 30, 2010, BY REVISING THE SURPLUS AND APPROPRIATIONS ESTIMATED IN THE GENERAL FUND ($150,000 - Kapa`a-Wailua Development Plan), which was passed on first reading and ordered to print by the Council of the County of Kauai on October 21, 2009, and published in The Garden Island newspaper on October 28, 2009. The hearing proceeded as follows: GLENN MICKENS: For the record, Glenn Mickens. Thank you Daryl. I apologize. I haven't gone through this special development plans that much...on the Kapa`a area, but I just have a couple of comments to make. This bill is asking for another $150,000. I tried to find out how much has been paid so far. I think, Daryl, I think you said you guesstimated...I think it was about 300,000, something to that effect. I think I even asked Ian, and I thought he said something like 500,000, but the figure's someplace in that ballpark, I guess. My ques... My concern happens to be that we're spending this huge amounts of money, hundreds of thousands of dollars, on these consultants planning and consulting for these projects, and I... We spend this money, and most of the time we don't have the funds to be able to implement what we're doing. I can still remember Steve Kyono fifteen years ago telling about how they were trying to get this...the plans for 1 coming from Hanama`ulu...I think up to Kapa`a. (Inaudible) All the community was there and picked out the most economic, best route that they could get, which everybody appreciated. He said we don't have the money to...for the planning and stuff. I said, Steve, what are we here for? So anyway, it dropped. Another ten years went by and then he...they had another meeting. The money was there for now for the planning and the other part of the plans, so Steve said, well the money's there for that, but we don't have the money to build it. I said, well what are we doing here then? So the point I think I'm trying to get at is why don't we first see that we have the funds to be able to do whatever these plans happen to be for the project? If it's building a highway, it's building a road, it's building a...whatever it happens to be, if we're going to improve the Kapa`a corridor in any way, that traffic jam or whatever it's going to be, shouldn't we be seeing that we have the funds to do it, otherwise, we're spending these hundreds of thousands of dollars for the planners and the designers of these things, but I don't see the purpose in it if we haven't got the money to go ahead with what we're paying these people to do. If you're building a house, you certainly know that you got the money to build that house before you have your architect design these plans and stuff, don't you? Or at least I would presume that. If you're designing, the house is going to cost you a couple thousand dollars for the plans, etc., etc. But you're going to make sure that at the other end of it, you're going to have the money to do it, or you're saying, what are you getting these plans...what are you paying that money for. So anyway, this is just my suggestion. I don't know how you guys feel about it, but I just feel that, you know, upfront you should be able to have the money available before you spend hundreds, maybe millions, of dollars on Okamoto and...or R.W. Beck, or whoever's doing the design and phases of these things. I don't have no problem with futurely planning certain things, building heights and stuff like that, I have no problem with anything in that. But when it comes to improving our infrastructure and stuff, then I say that I would like to see the funding be there, whether it's in a lockbox so you can't go ahead and take it for something else. Anyway, that's my testimony. Thank you. Mr. Kaneshiro: Thank you Mr. Mickens. Any questions for Glenn? If not, thank you very much, Glenn. THOMAS NOYES: Good afternoon Councilman Kaneshiro and Councilmembers. My name is Thomas Noyes. I am a member of the citizens advisory committee serving with the East Kauai Development Plan 2030, and I wanted to make myself available in case any of the councilmembers had questions from the perspective of one of the CAC members. Mr. Kaneshiro: Thank you. So you're not really giving any public testimony, except to make yourself available for any questions at this point. Is that correct? Mr. Noyes: I haven't really prepared any written statement... 2 Mr. Kaneshiro: Okay. Right, thank you. Usually what we'll do is during committee we'll have...we'll probably...would appreciate if some of the members would come up as we take this through committee, because most of the time, through committee this is where the questions would come up through public hearings that we hear today... Or through the process of the public hearing we will receive information coming to us, which would be a good time to bring up during the committee deliberation. But at this time, I'll go ahead and ask any of my members if they have any questions for you. Go ahead Mr. Furfaro. Mr. Furfaro: Thank you Mr. Kaneshiro. Thomas, I just want to share with you, you missed it during my planning reconciliation, Iwant to make sure that the CAC members heard my quote. This $150,000 is to finish the plan, not to restart the plan. I want to make very sure, because we are...our resources are very limited, as stated by the previous testimony. This additional money, and I will be giving Glenn a summary of the nine projects that are going on in planning, and though an earmarked amount, it has been brought to our attention that the additional money was needed to finish the plan, not re-create the plan. So I just want to make sure we're very clear. Mr. Noyes: Thank you, and... Mr. Kaneshiro: Any other questions? If not, thank you very much for showing up today, for offering to be here in case there were questions. Mr. Noyes: If I may just put in a comment. We've been working on this. We started in April of 2006. It's been a long process. A lot of hours have gone into providing our point of view for a very valuable reason, we feel, and so we're anxious to see it concluded and implemented. Thank you. Mr. Furfaro: And your work is really appreciated, and in 2006 I attended a few of those meetings, but I just wanted to restate, this is to finish the plan. Mr. Kaneshiro: Correct. Mr. Noyes: Thank you. Mr. Kaneshiro: Anyone else wanting to speak? Please come forward. BEV BRODY: Hi. My name is Bev Brody, and I work for the University of Hawaii as the Get Fit Kauai island coordinator. And I'm here to encourage you to please support the expenditure to complete this project. And the reason why I feel so passionate about this is because Ian Costa has promised me and several other people, in fact there was a room of about 40 people, and he promised that somehow, some way, he would implement the complete street 3 standards to all Kauai roads, and this means that every road will have accommodations for bicyclists, for walkers, for cars, for buses, every type of mode, and that's a lot. So I think... What? Mr. Furfaro: That is a big promise. If the planning director told you he can accomplish that, that's a very big promise. Ms. Brody: That's his goal, and I understand that's a huge goal, but I'd really like to support him in any way I can, and on behalf of the coalition, I would like to please request that you use this $150,000 to complete the project. And just on the note of why complete streets are so important is that there are three numbers, just quickly, that I went over with the planning commission. They are 30, 25, and 365. And 30 is the amount of exercise that everybody should get per day. What do you think the 25 is? The percentage of the amount of Americans who get that type of exercise. What do you think the 365 is? (Inaudible) One year. Ms. Brody: That would be the most logical thing, but it's actually, if you add six more zeroes onto that, there is 365,000 people who die each year because of sedentary lifestyles, and that's a lot. That's almost three or four times as many people that are going to die with the n-1, 2-1, 3-1 flu that's coming out. I'm sorry, I forgot...that flu. And they're going to great measures, which is very awesome that they're doing that to save the 40,000 that are going to die, but what about the 365,000 people that will die from sedentary lifestyles. So if we can incorporate physical activity in our daily lives, like in our sidewalks by walking, our kupuna/our children will all live longer and healthier lives. Did you know, just very quickly, is there a buzzer here...like there's a buzzer go off? Is that it? That's it. This will be really quick. Did you know that this is the first generation that may be...that we may outlive our children, that our children, because of their inactive lifestyle may not live as long as we do? The first time ever in history, and we, you, have the power to build a environment that will help curb that and change the direction that we're going. So I urge you on behalf of Get Fit Kauai to please approve this expenditure to complete the plan on the east side of Kauai. Mr. Kaneshiro: Thank you. Any questions? Thank you very much Bev. Ms. Brody: Thank you. Mr. Kaneshiro: Anyone else wanted to give testimony on Bill No. 2333? Please. SHERI KUNIOKA-VOLZ: Hi. I'm Sheri Kunioka-Volt, and I too have served on this committee for several years, and I just wanted to voice that I am also 4 in support of the extension. I think it'd be a shame if all that we have worked on just goes to waste because of lack of funds. That's all I have to say. Mr. Kaneshiro: Thank you. Any questions? Mr. Bynum: Thank you Sheri. Mr. Kaneshiro: Thank you. Anyone else? No one. If not, that public hearing is now closed on Bill No. 2333. There being no further testimony on this matter, the public hearing adjourned at 1:51 p.m. Respectfully submitted, - -- PETER A. NAKAMURA County Clerk /ao 5