[Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] Hey, [Music] [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] [Music] Heat. [Music] Hey, Heat. [Music] Good morning everyone. Council member Tubalo, could you please lead us in the pledge of allegiance? I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. >> Thank you. Council member Tupola, would you like to introduce your guests giving the message of aloha? >> Aloha chair and members of the community. It's my honor this morning to introduce someone who truly embodies the spirit of West Oahu. Mikala Lidstone, born in Nanakuli, raised in Kyua, Mika's foundation has always been rooted in place. As she says in her own words, the power within your place is all the history and the significant events and people that really contributed to the abundance of this place and how it has thrived over the years because our place is very much a part of who we are. When we know how special our place is, we in turn say, "Wow, we are special as well." She now lives in Capo and has dedicated her life to strengthening our communities through education, culture, and connection. In 2014, she founded Ulua Learning Center, whose mission is to empower and enrich lives through culture and place-based programs. These programs build confidence, strengthen relationships, and are grounded in Native Hawaiian values. The seeds of UA were planted years earlier when Mikala was teaching at Capo High School and leading Hulu with Halo Oulu La. Parents and community leaders encouraged her to grow those efforts and today her reach spans across Honuli and throughout West Oahu. Mikala is also a leader outside the classroom. She has guided important conversations about how we care for Capo Regional Park, reminding us that the name Capo is more than just a growing city. It's a vahipana, a sacred place, home to an original Haya that deserves our respect and stewardship. She served on the Maka Capo and Makila neighborhood board since 2021 and brings both experience and native Hawaiian perspective that greatly adds value to the work that she does. Her leadership has always been centered in the community. Ladies and gentlemen, please join me in welcoming Mikala Lidstone. Mahalo. Aloha Honolulu City Council members, staff and community. Alohanui Kako. I come before you with deep respect for the kulana you hold in guiding the future of our city. Mahalo. You know I grew up in Kyua and I moved to Capo in 2004 when I began teaching at Capo High School. You know for me moving to Capo was not easy. It was a young growing community very different from the longestablished community I come from. Like all growing communities, Capo faced challenges then and it still does today. Yet in the midst of change, I found something deeply grounding, a place that connected me to the heart of the community. That place is Puo Capo, a sacred site that carries the story and spirit of the region. In fact, it's from this hill Puo Capo that the entire city of Capo gets its name. Once I learned of its history, I became a steward of this vahana right away. Today, I continue to serve as one of its caretakers through the city's adopt a park program. Through this kulana, I've seen firsthand both the challenges and the opportunities that come with maintaining our public green spaces. The challenges are real, resources are limited, and upkeep is constant. But I've witnessed the creativity and commitment of devoted volunteers who step up every day with heart and innovative solutions. community organizations, families and individuals. People who may not have much to give yet share their time, their personal resources and their aloha to care for these places. These acts are not just acts of maintenance. They are acts of aloha. They show us the deep pelina, the deep relationship between people and place. What truly grounds me in this work is Puo Capo's deep significance. It's not just any other public green space. It's a sacred cultural historic site. In fact, Puo Capo was the very first site in Hawaii to be listed on the state historic registry as a traditional cultural property. And over the years, I've learned that many of our cultural historic sites are located on city property. most within our parks. I've also learned that this city does not have a full inventory of these special places. And I often wonder, what would it look like if we did? What would it mean for our communities, for our caretakers of place, and for future generations? Because one thing we know is that when it comes to caring for our special places, our communities step up. I greeted you today with aloha. And as we know, aloha is not just a greeting, it's an action. It's a kana. It's the love we give to one another and the love we give to the land that sustains us. You are never alone in the work that you do. The community stands ready to share this kana and to ensure that this city, this place and all our places are cared for and cherished for generations to come. Mahalo for all you do and aloha. [Applause] Thank you so much. Members, I have uh procedural announcements to make before we begin. Although remote oral testimony is being permitted, this is a regular meeting and not a remote meeting by interactive conference technology under HRS section 92-3.7. Therefore, the meeting will continue notwithstanding the loss of audiovisisual communication with remote testifiers or loss of the public broadcasting of the meeting. Members of the public will be allowed to provide oral testimony on all items on the agenda either in person in the council chamber or remotely as both English and Hawaiian are official languages of the state of Hawaii. Pursuant to article 15 section 4 of the Hawaii state constitution and section 1-13 of the Hawaii revised statutes members of the public may testify in either language for oral testimonies offered in Olo Hawaii. Additional time as may be necessary will be allowed for the testifier to provide an English translation of their testimony. both testifying. Before testifying, each person shall state their full name and the agenda item they are testifying on. Each speaker may not have anyone else speak read their test testimony and is limited to a threeminut presentation on public hearing and new business items and a one minute presentation on all other items. Registered in-person testifiers will be called first. When your name is called, please proceed to the podium and begin by stating your name and the item you'll be speaking on. When I call for anyone who has not registered to speak in person, please line up to the right of the podium and when it is your turn, proceed to the podium. Begin by stating your name and the items you'll be speaking on. All persons who have registered to testify remotely by video conference or phone will then be called. When your name is called, please monitor your screen and activate your audio feed when prompted. When I call for anyone else standing by remotely, please utilize the Zoom raise hand button to indicate your desire to speak. For those joining us by telephone only, please press star 9 to indicate your desire to speak. The following are some friendly reminders and tips. Video conference from a quiet location if possible. If you are also watching the proced, please mute your television when you are called to testify. When the timer on the screen reaches zero, please conclude your remarks promptly. For those who are joining us by telephone only, I will identify you by the last three digits of your phone number. When your number is called, press star six to unmute yourself when prompted. Written testimonies, including the testifier's address, email address, and phone number, will be available to the public as described on the posted agenda. As a courtesy, please turn off all cell phones during the duration of the meeting. The following items were not posted on the agenda for consideration. On page 17, we have a hand carried proposed FD1 amendment to resolution 25-204 CD1 relating to the transfer of funds. On page 25, we have a hand carried proposed FD1 amendment to resolution 25-224 relating to the reappoint of Cynthia L. McMillan to serve on the rate commission of the city and county of Honolulu. Copies are available at the city clerk's office downstairs in room 203. Members, if there are no objections, we will be taking resolution 25-244 on page 25 and resolution 25-218 on page 26 after report of the permitted interaction group established by resolution 25-56 CD1 on page 4. Those are two appointment uh resolutions. I'd like to call the meeting to order. Mr. Clerk, please call the role. >> Council member Cordderero. Council member Dosantos Tam >> here. >> Council member Kina >> here. >> Council member Nishimoto >> present. >> Council member Okimoto >> present. >> Council member Toba >> here. >> Council member Tupola >> AO. >> Council member Wire >> here. Chair Waters >> here. >> Mr. Chair, nine members are present. >> Thank you. Floor later Kia. Any guests introduction? >> Thank you, chair. I'd like to welcome the following members of the cabinet and other guests. Kevin Oay, director designate of the department of housing and land management. Loy Yon Naka, executive secretary for the neighborhood board commission. Don Takuchi Auna, director of the department of planning and permitting. Kaholani Pu, deputy director of the uh Department of Parks and Recreation. Mahilani Cipher, commissioner for the Oahu Historic Preservation Commission. Cynthia McMillan, commissioner for the Honolulu uh rate commission. Uh Lori Kahikina, CEO for HART, nominees for other various boards and commissions, and of course uh community members and stakeholders. Thank you. >> Thank you, Vice Chair Tupo. A motion to approve the minutes. I move that the minutes of the 12th session be approved. >> Vice uh second. >> Thank you. It's been moved and seconded. >> Mr. Clerk, do we have any testifiers? Um >> Mr. Chair, we have none. >> Thank you. Any discussion? Seeing none, any objections or reservations? Noting no objections or reservations. The minutes have been approved. Moving to page four, order of the day. The first item on the agenda today is the report of the permitted interaction group established by resolution 25-56 CD1 vice chair Tupola >> pursuant to Hawaii revised statute section 92-2.5B1 and resolution 25-56 CD1 adopted by the council on March 19 2025 council members Cordderero dos Santos Tam and Nishimoto were authorized to investigate matters related to the potential use of tax increment financing for the city and county of Honolulu. The permitted interaction group report designated a council communication 221 is presented today. However, pursuant to HRS section 92-2.5B1, the council may not act on the permitted interaction group report until the next scheduled council meeting. The Office of Council Services has advised us that pursuant to an inter interpretation from OIP, this section of the HRS requires that deliberation, including any discussion and decision-making by the council on the permitted interaction groups findings and recommendations take place only at the next duly posted council meeting on October 1st, 2025. >> Thank you, Mr. Clerk. Do we have any testifiers? >> Mr. Chair, we have none. >> Thank you. to Council Communication 221 has been presented to the council. Thank you. Members, now go to page 25. Page 25, resolution 25-224. Council member Cordiero. >> Thank you, Chair. I move that committee report 285 and resolution 25-224 be adopted. This relates to the reappointment of Cynthia El McMillan to serve on the rate commission on the of the city and county of Honolulu. Second. >> It's been moved and seconded. Thank you for the explanation. Is there a motion to amend? Council member Cordderero. I further move that resolution 25-224 be amended to the hand carried FD1 identified as OCS2025-0699 slash2/2025 at 107 p.m. >> second. >> Second. >> Thank you so much. It's been moved and seconded. Thank you, Council Member Cordero, for the explanation. Is Miss McMillan here? Oh, there she is. Aloha. Welcome. Thank you for being here. Would you like to say a few words? >> Thank you, Chair Waters. I appreciate the opportunity to serve if if uh reappointed. It's been a learning experience this past year, and I look forward to more input from residents who ride transit. I'd also like to thank Chair Cordderero and the committee for the great questions they asked and the discussion that we had during the committee session, and I look forward to continuing the work together. >> Thank you so much. Members, any questions for the nominee? Seeing none, thank you again. Appreciate you being here today. Mr. Clerk, do we have any other testifiers? >> Mr. Chair, we have none. >> Thank you, members. We're in discussion. Seeing none, any objections or reservations to the motion to amend? Not no objections or reservations. Resolution 25-224 has been amended to the handcarried FD1. Any objections or reservations to waving council rule 19G, the 48 hour rule? Noting no objections. The 48 hour rule has been waved. Any further discussion, members? Seeing none, any objections or reservations? Noting none, resolution, excuse me, CR285 and resolution 25-224 FD1 has been adopted. Members, turning to page 26 26, the next page from the committee on international and legal affairs. Council member Nishimoto. I move that committee report 287 and resolution 25-218 be adopted. >> Second. It's been moved and seconded. Council member Nishimoto for the explanation >> is relating to the reort appointment of Larry Ver to serve on the neighborhood commission of the city and county of Honolulu. >> Council member Tupola for the second. >> Second. >> Thank you. It's been moved and seconded. Council member Nishimoto. Wait, we did the explanation. Sorry. Mr. Vrain, aloha. Welcome. Would you like to say a few words? >> Good morning, Chair Waters, Vice Chair Tollo, and Council members. First of all, I want to thank you all for putting your trust and confidence in me. Uh, I uh my commitment to you and also to all of our neighborhood boards is to help lead and help continue to uh uh improve our policies with the neighborhood commission and work very closely with the neighborhood commission office, but importantly work with all our neighborhood boards to help them be cohesive and be very productive to their communities. But I want to thank you all. >> Thank you members. Any questions for Mr. Veret? Seeing none. Thank you, sir. Mr. Clerk, do we have any other testifiers? >> Mr. Chair, we have none. >> Thank you. Any discussion? Council member Okimoto. >> Thank you, Chair. I just want to thank Mr. Ver for being here. He has been such a pillar in our community, and I'm thankful for his unwavering support and his high energy. It's really unparalleled the type of um dedication and um service that he provides to not just me and my office, but also our community. So, thank you for this um putting him forward as our nominee and we look forward to continuing to serve with you. Thank you, Larry, for being here. >> Thank you. Any further discussion, members? Seeing none, any objections or reservations? Noting none, CR287 and resolution 25-218 has been adopted. Members now going back to page five. Page five. Resolution 25-206 confirming the nomination of Kev Kevin A to serve as the director of housing and land management of the city and county of Honolulu. I know that uh Mr. A is here. Welcome. Would you like to say a few words? >> Aloha and good morning, Chairwaters, Vice Chair Depoll, and our honorable council members. Uh, I just want to say that I am honored and humbled to potentially serve as the director of Department of Housing and Land Management. It's the newest department in the city. Obviously, housing is a a priority for the administration and our city and uh I I'd be just be honored to serve. Thank you very much. >> Thank you, members. Any questions for the nominee? Council member Cordderero. >> Thank you. Hi, Director Designate A. Um I am curious about your uh communication uh strategy as it um as it relates to connecting the city administration and its uh priorities with the city and c with the city councils. >> Sure. I think working with council is the highest priority for not only our department for the administration. Um, with housing being as important as it is, working closely together with council members and your staffs is is a paramount priority for us. No question about that. >> Okay. Thank you. Uh, so um just as for myself only um my experience is first off I keep finding out things uh from DHLM in the news. Um I also and I know that my district is a hot bed for whether it be development. I used to also have Eivelet and so a lot of the things that have been moving along um has been kind of siloed through the city administration and um it is frustrating uh you know um it was frustrating in my first term and I under tried to give leeway uh uh to DM back then and now DHLM currently uh and um had uh hesitation in supporting um the expansion of DHLM um uh taking on housing. And so uh with that, there are other there are other ways that I think that we can um make the communication relationship better. Uh but it spans especially with within DHLM. And so I'm hoping that you will consider uh looking um internally as well as at your administrative level to ensure that uh that is bettered. Thank you for those comments. Not only considering it, but making it a priority. I mean, obviously, we're we're a brand new department. As of May 1st, we've had a lot on our plate. Uh we're learning as we go. I'm learning as we go, and understanding the needs of each of the council members and the needs of your districts is a top priority for us. I can't state that any more clear. >> Okay. Thank you. I do know that you do have policy within Department of Housing and Land Management. Um, of course, uh, here before you as legislators, we also, um, our core val uh, core point of our job is also policym. And so, uh, when, um, the city council comes up, uh, with policies, we are often met with, uh, immediate, not just hesitation or looking to be, uh, looking for a working um, relationship on the matter, but, uh, an immediate no sometimes. And uh a lot of the time it comes before us uh you know right here in this type of a relationship you know testifying before the council. And I think that u I do want to make a point that you need to find a better way to plan um to just better that that relationship with all council members. You may have it with some of the council members but not all. So I just wanted to note that. >> I appreciate those comments council member. Thank you, Council Member Tupola. >> Thank you so much. Aloha, Director Design. Thank you for being here. I would uh echo some of the same comments from my colleague. I do think my main concern is we've given you some time knowing that the department is new, kind of wanting to see how you were going to lay some groundwork and as well how you were going to communicate to us what the new plan or direction would be. So coming into the committee, which is where we'll discuss more about your nomination, what are the main three things you're going to present to the committee so that we can understand the direction of DHLM? >> Thanks very much for that, uh, Vice Chair Tupola. The three things, if I had to say three, we'd want to talk about the platform that we recently established under the mayor's authority on May 1st to basically put together a new platform to pursue housing development. We'd love to have an opportunity to follow up on all the great work that we've doing over the last year consistent with our strategic plan and would love to talk to you about what we need to do going forward and how can we can address the housing crisis on Aahu. Those three things are a top priority for us. >> Sorry. The three things were the platform >> platform where we're where we're at currently with that our strategic plan where we are in terms of the plan and what we're going to be looking at going forward. And the strategic plan you're referring to is the one that came out right when you came in. >> That's correct. In January of this year. >> And that plan uh which I've read extensively doesn't necessarily give us like the exact steps within the next three years that we'll be accomplishing. So I hope it'll be a little bit more pointed. I mean the the plan that was given to us was definitely done by a third party and it's 78 pages and it has a lot of you know background information. We really just want to know like within the one, you know, budget fiscal cycle, what are we doing next budget fiscal cycle, the city moves in waves of um, you know, an annual budget. So, we want to make sure that we can make small steps of progress every year. >> I appreciate that, Council Member. And just to clarify, the strategic elements of that plan were put together by me and my staff. So, we did that together. There was data uh that was provided by a third party source, but the strategic elements of that plan were put together by the department. Yeah, I I agree or appreciate you bringing up that clarification. My main concern is that as I read through the plan, there are po portions of the plan in my district that I had never been talked to about. And so I think that that's where the missing links are. If we're going to suggest that there's housing in particular council members district that should be a collaborative plan with us and with the community and not something that we read in a strategic plan that we never gave any input for. So, I'm hoping there can be a little bit more leeway in us allowing to work with you guys on a housing plan as opposed to reading something that I've asked multiple times for us to take off certain projects and add in ones the community wants. So, looking forward to those amendments. >> Thank you very much for those comments, council. >> Thank you, chair. >> Thank you. Any further questions of the nominee? Council member Okimoto. >> Thank you, chair. Aloha. Good morning, director designate. I I I will echo some of the sentiments that have been um shared already and I think some of the questions not I know it was prior to you some of the questions that we had um coming into I'm so sorry coming into our hearings as soon as I got into this position was what kind of plan do you have and I still feel like I hear you saying that it you're new but at what point are you not new because I feel like that's been something that we haven't been provided as a council um and I will say That's just I want to preface it with that. But moving forward, you presented the council with a plan earlier this year and it's been talked about and had that has a three-year housing plan projection. This included land within my district. And that's something that I I think I share the same sentiments. It seems like there's things that are happening in our districts that we know nothing about. And I have asked you in in our meetings to and I also encourage you to reach out to the council members. It sounds like that still hasn't been happening. But that land in our district in my district was never intended to be used for housing. So, if confirmed, will the council be presented with a 10 to 20 year blueprint or plan that outlines how the administration will dramatically accelerate housing supply while also lowering the cost of building affordable housing? >> Yeah, I don't. So, I guess a couple of things. First of all, I accept full responsibility that I'm not new any longer. This has been a baptism by fire, and I accept full responsibility for where we've been, where we're come, and where we're going. As I've mentioned to uh council member Tupola, council member Cordiero, uh working and communicating and collaborating with council members and their staffs is a top priority for us as we've gotten of more fully um staffed. Uh we now have more capacity to do that. I have capacity to do that. We've just hired our director of housing policy. He'll be reaching and has been reaching out to council members. uh we asked to provide uh the housing committee with an update on our activities from January through July. Uh we haven't been in afford an opportunity to do that yet and we certainly look forward to doing that and I'm happy to work with you and and discuss with you uh housing plans for your area and your district. Um haven't gotten to the 20-year plan yet. Got a lot of on our plate for the for for this year and next. Um but certainly look forward to doing that as well. >> Thank you. I I do look forward to that. I think a lot of my questions were along the same lines of what is the strategy, what is the vision, what what is because I feel like we've been presented different things and over the past three years I I don't feel like we've been presented with a concrete plan that that has inspired us or given us the confidence that I feel like we need. >> Well, we'd really love to share with what we've done over the last six months. It's just been nothing short of extraordinary. The staff has been incredible. Everybody is working extremely hard and and we'd be delighted to share out what we're what we're working on. >> Okay. is is part of the plan and is this is the administration's current plan um to identify city-owned properties? >> Yeah. Well, we've already done that as part of the strategic plan that we presented in January. We identified 10 sites potentially that could accommodate anywhere from 2,000 to 3,000 units of housing. We worked with the governor's office to allow the city for the first time to issue requests for qualifications seeking development partners for those land sites. Uh we've issued I think we're we're on our ninth um of actually seventh of the RFQS. We intend to deliver all 10 before the end of the year as promised. And that pipeline will create um those developments will create a pipeline of uh 2500 to 3,000 units of new housing and that's just unprecedented for the city. So we really look forward to sharing that out with you. Thank >> Okay. Thank you. And I believe in our and it's been a while since we had our 101 meeting, but in that meeting we did talk about the financial aspect. How does the administration plan to fund? Are these funds that we plan to secure through federal funding? Which sources are you using to leverage these projects? >> Sure, be happy to share that with you. So, as you know, the city recently took back its private activity bond program. And this year alone, we've issued $140 million of private activity bonds, which are paired with low-inccome housing tax credits, and they're paired with uh rental housing revolving fund that's supplied by and administered by the Hawaii Housing Finance and Development Corporation. The low-inccome housing tax credit was originated in 1986. Since its origination as part of the Tax Reform Act, almost 4 million units of housing have been produced with that low-income housing tax credit. However, on Hawaii, it's a very limited resource. It's our most powerful uh resource, but it's very limited. So, the city is currently working on developing additional ways just to structure uh uh financing packages to support the development of affordable housing. In fact, we recently retained the Center for um public enterprise who will be working with us to develop some of those models. Uh we had our first kickoff meeting with them last Monday. Um and we hope to have a model that we can deliver by the end of uh by the end of this year. >> Okay. Thank you. Thank you, Chair. >> Thank you, Council Member Corduro, followed by Council Member Kia Aa. >> Thank you. Hi, Director Designate. Um what is your communication style? because um you know I've approached you to ask about um you know you speaking with a group of residents in my district and I have to uh find that out from the residents themselves as well as pulling out all this information and meeting with you and um which is in Makalapa and then another area is you know for the RFQS you mentioned that you have nine already um and one would be Delight Bakery uh property in Khali and while it's I'm glad to hear about it. Of course, I found out majority of the information or majorly a majority of the information from um Hawaii News Now and most disappointedly is the combative style that you spoke to our council chair and other members of the council in committee last week or a few weeks ago. So, uh director designate, what is your communication style? >> Direct Housing is an incredibly important subject subject. It's a top priority for our administration. We're in crisis. And so when I speak about housing, I speak directly. I'm passionate about housing. I have a son who's 23 years old. If my son went out and looked for a place to live today once he graduates from uh at the end of the year, he would not be able to find a place to live where that he could afford. We have that problem across our island. We have thousands of people leaving our island every single month because they can't afford to live here. So, our intervention has to be swift and immediate. So, I'm very direct in the way that I address this problem. >> Okay. Thank you. But I would appreciate if you directly communicate with our council member. >> We certainly have, you know, and I think with respect to the delayed bakery site, we reached out, we sent you a letter that we were going to announce this. So it was part of our strategic plan that we announced in January and that we updated folks on in in April of this year. We've asked for another opportunity to provide an update on where we've been, what we've done, and haven't had that chance yet. We certainly look forward to that. Um, with respect to Macalapa, we've had a conversation about that subject in your in your office. I've met with those folks six times trying to help them. They reached out to the mayor's office seeking assistance and I've gone out there on my time during the evening to meet with those folks to try to find a way to help them. It's as simple as that. I don't have a concrete way of doing that yet. There are 122 members of that that group. They're cooperative. um they need to make a decision themselves on on what they want to do. I've presented them with some options and once they have an option that they that they they may elect to work with the city, but happy to share that with you, but there's there's nothing concrete to discuss yet. >> I understand. I just would appreciate learning about this not from residents or Hawaii News Now. Thank you. >> Thanks so much, Council Member Keno. Thank you. Good to see you. You know, I I I'm also direct So, I appreciate directness, but I do need to let you know just the chatter that seems to be going around that the only thing I would recommend just moving forward is that um you know it it also requires diplomacy and finesse and I just uh highly recommend that you talk to someone to help you as you navigate that because uh direct directness uh on its own is not enough especially in a uh premier job like this I'd like to focus on 2011H projects and a question regarding that because while it falls in the department of planning and permitting with regard to kana uh because you have been elevated I think uh we we need I need um more attention from you on the oversight and the reason I'm saying this is we do have a project today which I will be talking about I'm hoping this project moves forward uh but at the same time I am still upset. I had sent you um several months ago when the legislature uh had passed a bill and the governor signed into law on July 3rd Act 294 which basically constrains us for 21H projects uh forcing us to an up and down vote and most recent most recently we actually uh threatened a veto because uh not all of the elements were there. So I would like to know if number one you are going to uh give greater attention to certain projects that overlap with DPP and the reason being uh the mayor was opposed to this measure as was uh chair waters and myself and u many of the counties and we are going to be seeking a repeal of the measure next year uh because we don't believe or I don't believe that the um legisl ative housing chairs should be speaking for the counties. Uh so my question to you is you are you going to be there with us? Uh we believe that if we are unable to get a full repeal that they should exempt um uh the measure, they should exempt Oahu from this measure because we have found out that those who wanted to take away u county authorities were targeting the county of Maui and they felt that a lot of ch projects were not moving forward. So question is, are you going to give some attention to it? And second, are you going to be working with us and the director of planning and permitting to seek a repeal of this measure if not a an exemption for Wahoo at the next legislative session? >> Thank you very much for that question, Council Member Gosh. I have so many thoughts about all of that. First and foremost, it I would like just to your comments about communication and and directness and style uh are very much resonate with me and I appreciate that. Uh coming from the private sector for nearly 40 years, this is my first foray into a government type uh function. Um and obviously the communication style is very different. I'm a brand new director. I'm getting used to that. I'm getting uh exposed to it more. I'm working with council members a little bit more directly. In fact, just made a a presentation to Chair Waters last week. Um, and I hope to continue that. It's been um a difficult process, as you can imagine, establishing a new platform for housing that we haven't had in nearly 30 years and an entire generation. It's been a lot to absorb, consume, plan, and and roll out over the last year. And and hopefully we're going to try to get better at that over time. Um, I'm certainly committed to doing that. There's no question about that. Secondly, with this respect to the 2011H program, we couldn't agree with you more. The leadership, our department, myself, uh, we we we're all opposed to Act 38. There's there's no question for that. There's no reason for a double layer of approval process, particularly with the folks over at the HHFDC having full control on here in this city. It's home rule. That's our view. I've expressed that to both housing chairs on the on the state on the Senate and the House side. I had a long conversation with Stanley Chang, the Senatorial Housing Committee, conveying that exact sentiment. So, we would be with you 100%. I'd also like to add, council member, that we are working directly with DPP. We just had a conversation last week about how we can integrate more functions now that we have a a full platform. But again, it's only been a couple of months, so trying to get all of this stuff together and moving in the same direction all at the same time is a it's a herculean task for sure. >> Great. Greatly appreciate it. Uh and again when we uh when we consider a 2011H project today I'm going to comment a little bit about how HHFDC uh may not be understanding that when you deal with a there's a difference between a freestanding 2011H project and a and a project that is part of a master plan project where a unilateral agreement had already required affordable housing as its component. So when you use the 21H project, it's normally for freestanding projects because otherwise you're double dipping. >> You're you're Okay. So I I uh I just want to flag it for you and um hopefully you or your staff will be watching the consideration of 21H project later. Thank you. >> Thank you, Council Member. >> Council member Okimoto. >> Thank you, Chair. Director Tes, I have just follow follow-up question based on something I heard you just you've been talking about the plan and you coming in and having to fill in this role from a different private sector having to adjust. We know that prior to you there was the director prior to you and there we had they had contracted there was money expended from the city and there was a plan. So are we using part of that plan? It sounds like you're trying to have start everything from scratch right now. Are we using that plan or are we abandoning that and starting fresh? Um, I'm trying to get a grasp of where we are in this plan that I think a lot of us have been asking for for some time now. >> And and gosh, we we really love an opportunity to come back and and present where we're at. You know, it's now September. You know, we're nine months into our program and we'd love to have an opportunity to share that with you. When we talk about the strategic plan that we presented in January, there are half a dozen very key components about that. One was aligning development along the rail. TOD is where we have the most potent transit oriented development is where we have the most potential for density and the most potential to reduce household expenses for families if we can build housing along the rail line. The first segment is open. The second segment will be open by October 15th 16th. The third third segment will be open by uh uh 2031. We've been working in the city on on neighborhood to transit oriented development plans for the last 15 years. I think we have nine of those. They have been uh fully vetted by the communities. They have been approved by city council and now is our opportunity to activate those those plans. It also gives us an opportunity to align utilities to support housing and housing development. It also provides us with an opportunity to keep the country country and focus our development along the rail corridor. So, that's one of the key items. The second is putting the platform back together, which we've achieved. Thank you very much to the council and your approval in May for that. Uh we were fully funded by virtue of being able to complete a combined budget for the department of housing land management um and the new and the new department uh which was which was just terrific. So we were fully funded for the first time July 1st. um that platform, you know, now our biggest goal is really filling the seats in that platform and bringing the good folks in and the team, putting the team together uh that we're going to need to help us execute. The third piece was looking at city lands and and that's the piece that we we talked about. Maybe I came out of the gate too quickly on that. I've learned from that and and we'll certainly consider that in the future. But we identified 10 parcels of city-owned land, almost over 20 acres where we could accommodate 2500 to 3,000 units of housing. If we had issued requests for proposals for those for that land, it would have taken us a year to get those u offers out the door, the solicitations out the door, uh we'll have completed that that process, all 10 of them before the end of this year. We're very excited about that because that will be create a pipeline for us. The fourth thing that we wanted to take a look at was or the fifth thing we want to take a look at is how do we finance that? As we just discussed, we need alternative ways to finance that. It does us no good as the city to provide land to development partners and they turn around and turn and go wait in line at the HHFDC um to receive very limited and very precious low-income housing tax credits. So, we've got to find alternative ways to finance. And then the, you know, the last thing that we really are focused on is um is our existing policies and just understanding do they work? Can we make them better? Are there different things that we want to do? And so we've developed a relationship with U-H University of Hawaii's economic research organization to help us with that. One of the first projects that came out the door was the subsidized housing explorer. And that for the first time gave us an opportunity to understand what is the landscape for affordable housing in Hawaii. How many projects are there? What types of subsidies do they use? When do those subsidies roll off? And when do those project become at risk? Whose districts are they in so that council members can understand what the resources are for affordable housing in their district? And then how can we make that platform better as we go forward? We're currently working with uh hero on another policy top down policy review and we hope to share something out before the end of the year. Thank you. >> Okay, that that was a long answer to it. I think I thought I my first I know I have a couple of follow-ups but >> sure. >> So I think what I wanted just to clarify the the platform and the plan that you're using is it is it based on anything that we had contracted for in the previous plan that was supposed to be presented to us. Is that something that you're using or are you just starting a fresh? >> Yeah. So the the there was um in the in the plan that we're using it was supplemented by >> supplemented by >> really great demographic and analytical data um that we used to support you know. Okay. >> The strategies that we're engaging in >> I wanted to go back to a statement you made earlier about RFQS. Um can you expound on the financing? What happens to the city projects when 2011H funding runs out? >> Yeah. So there's a there's a difference between RFQ and and financing. an RFQ. We worked with the governor's office last October um through the emergency proclamation to allow the city to issue requests for qualifications versus a request for proposal. And the primary differences between the two is when you when you ask for a request for a proposal, you're asking for a very specific response to a very specific program. So if it's a development program, for instance, you would be defining that for the developer. Whereas we prefer to reach out to the developer and say, "We have this great piece of city land. Who's best qualified to develop this? You work with us developer because you're the expert to develop the program." But the beauty of uh and the benefit to the city of working with RFQS is we're able to issue those much faster. In fact, we engaged in a pilot program with the purchasing department under the budget and fiscal services department to allow um the department of housing and land management to craft those RFQS and then we hand them back to purchasing and they simply post them on the state's hands website. And so that's been really critical for us because it's been able it's allowed us to be able to get those those properties into the marketplace and into the hands of developers faster once we have them out. Now, we've got to work on crafting uh uh development contracts and ground leases with those development partners and then trying to find alternative ways to finance those developments. >> Okay. So, being that there is limited amount of funding for 2011H projects, do you feel that the 10 RFQS is too many? What happens if the funding >> Yeah. So, so um a good majority of 2011H projects will seek low-income housing tax credits and and private activity bonds and that's just a finite resource. Um, across the state of Hawaii, we uh receive approximately $360 million worth of private activity bonds annually. Most of that, if not all of it, historically has gone towards the development of housing. The city and county of Honolulu receives approximately 37.5% of that allocation, which equates to about $140 million. So, with $140 million of private activity bonds and low-income housing tax credits, we can uh build approximately or deliver approximately 400 to 440 units of affordable housing every year. In fact, the West Lock transaction that we closed in March and the uh Kohillo Park Terrace transaction that we will close just coming up in September for the Hawaii Public Housing Authority. The total is about 440 units of housing. >> Okay. Thank you. >> It's not enough. >> So, follow up just on your last statement that you made, what in dealing with this affordable housing um projects that the the administration plans to create, what would you say the split of single family um units? Are you is the administration looking more for rental or for for own um for fe simple or lease? I'm sorry, rent or um fe simple. Are we looking at when you say we're trying to build affordable units, are we looking at we try to really what's the priority of the administration? >> Great question. And and because we use ground laces, the majority of those uh we wouldn't sell the land so to speak for single family homes. So the majority of those developments would be rental. >> Okay. Thank you. Thank you, chair. >> Thank you, members. Uh appreciate the lively discussion. We'll have more time in committee to further this discussion. So thank you. Um, I do recognize you got a lot on your plate and that you are new to the Department of Land Management as the director, but I think you know from the discussion today that you have an important job and uh we need you to do your best. You got three years, a little over three years. We are under a lot of pressure to deliver affordable units and we approve them every day and we're going to approve another one today probably. But uh once we approve it, it still takes years to get them built. So we want to see if we can get them built as soon as possible. But appreciate you being here today. Thank you, Mr. Clerk. Do we have any other testifiers? >> Um Mr. Chair, we have one person registered in the chamber and one person standing by remotely. >> Okay, let's start with chamber. Aloha. Welcome. Is that Perry Aerosmith? Uh aloha. Uh good morning, chair, vice chair, members of the council. Um just testifying in a personal capacity today. I uh work professionally as a director of policy at Housing Havi's future. Uh we were very surprised many many months ago when director designate Aay reached out to us and sought our input on the mayor's strategic housing plan. It's not every day that a director designate of a department seeks input from nonprofits like ours. And we know that we're not alone. We know he talked story with a lot of folks and was genuinely committed to listening to us. And it was not a one-off meeting. He gave out his phone number. He welcomed our input. We email him back and forth. We talk story with him frequently. And we find that variant of his leadership very promising. We don't want to well we we want to recognize that the strategic housing plan it's not the end it is the beginning it is the prologue and at Housing Hawaii's future we're going to continue to follow up with the mayor's team to see what they're doing to actually address our chronic housing shortage it's not a problem that's going to be addressed overnight but we're very hopeful that over the next three years director designate a is going to do a great job building out a foundation for the city and county of Honolulu's future. So we humbly ask that you advance his nomination. Thank you very much. Aloha. >> Thank you. Mr. Clerk, you said we have a remote testifier. >> Yes, sir. We have two uh Kylie Swan and Donald Sakamoto. >> Okay, please proceed. Good morning, chair, vice chair, commanders. I'd like to nominate the Don the housing housing director because he's very good on on this project and I really liked his speech. His speech is very fantastic and I hope you can um help us in a in a city county pona housing director like managing our tree because our trees getting long by our houses and tree cutting etc. And um good good job in your speech and keep it up and I hope you can see him in the future in our next uh meeting. Thank you so much. Let me testify. >> Thank you. Next we have Don Sakamoto. Hello Mr. Sakamoto. Please proceed. >> You're on mute, Mr. Sakamoto. >> Yes. Uh good morning council chair waters uh vice chair Tabola and council members name is Don Sako longtime uh resident of Koi as a disabled blind uh person as also advocate for the disabled I I emphasize that we need more housing for the disabled accessibility for those who are double empathy and whatnot. I tried to bring the mayor's committee back for disabilities with Mayor Balani in 2022 so we can give direction to his administration and his directors of what is acquired for our needs as the disabled people. We just signed the ADA law. Thank you for doing that on your part for 35 years, but we need to do more emphasis for ADA. I would like to work with the director and the administration in uh giving more input for the disabled what we need in our housing because there's not enough housing for us. We need accessible units for us to live in a independently and it's a self uh I would say in in a way that we are have our dignity as disabled people. We we deserve that right. Thank you. >> Thank you Mr. Clerk. Do we have any other testifiers? Piku Chu Billionaire, please come forward. >> Alo Kako, thank you for coming out today. I know it's a tough task. Looks like you come from DC. I was almost going to miss the bus here uh cuz I was running late and so I want to support with reservations because I graduated from Trump University, Richad University, New Reach, and additional college degrees. So, I understand real estate and math, and I want to offer a solution to all of you because we filmed and documented everything on Facebook Live. we're still live streaming that what Peter Savio, a developer, told us in front of all the Republicans during this recent listening tour. He said that rental housing is evil because they're taking the value away from the people, meaning equity, cash flow, appreciation, depreciation, credit, the tax deductions that you're not going to get. If we just do rent, someone else, you're going to get the equity, you're going to get the cash flow, depreciation, appreciation, all those real estate benefits. And that's why we want to invest in real estate. And so what they could do for DHHL is to modernize the leases. Currently they are archaic. It's not like a bishop estate trust. It's not like a typical land. It's not like we're developing in Arizona or in Scottsdale or in New York because I did real estate development before working in Scottsdale and Phoenix. And it's a lot of work if they were sitting county all these nonprofits. So I'd like to encourage uh Kevin to work with the city council, talk to them. And I do not approve of the rail because that's why I'm being late because of the bus. It's stuck on traffic. You know, people in the capuna in Wai can't even go down to the store because they can't roll down the ramp or use their walker. And I'm seeing the same issues in Khalihi, which is number two in crime. So, I'd like you to address these issues working with the city council, state reps, and the community and nonprofits. Thank you very much. >> Thank you. Is there anybody else who'd like to testify? Aloha. Welcome. Please proceed. First of all, I'd like to know if you have Konahiki rights. Do you know about Konahiki? Actually, >> Konahiki's land management under the Kingdom of Hawaii. Next, do you folks have Aloyio title? Not one of you folks mention about alio title. Allodio title means private property forever by King Kame the third. Lastly, you folks have no right to even be building in Hawaii. Aloha. >> Thank you, sir. Is there anybody else who would like to testify? Aloha. Please come forward. Aloha. I want to tell you something about like the constitutional commandment of third and you know our queen Lilio Kalani was she was trying to push this. She had some kind of document or whatever in her hand and I think one was maybe like constitution and maybe like annexation or I could be wrong maybe I don't know maybe health safety security identity that's how I looking at it now identity identity theft of the and our queen cuz I look at her picture picture tell tell a thousand words or more and just like she lost her dignity but she still was proud in a humble way and the spirit that she just you know wrote one song and was in her heart and that's our that's our spirits It's how we live. And you guys know that word Allah. Yeah. We live them. We sleep them. We do everything with them because it's a law. Code. I forget the number. We all should follow that, right? teach our kids our you know just the like the what the ten commandments or the the right thing to do. I mean I shouldn't leave that now because I wasn't doing that. So identity theft is just like rape and our law is like our spirit like kaka our creator that's what I follow and I'm not going to step on nobody toes wherever country or whatever I get Chinese Portuguese you know to me I get everything what I need and how much you need to be contain in life and I look at the Hawaiian culture all the traditions it's not for sale for show off no way I work queen surf before in the late 50s and the 60s I was call >> thank you Calvin >> yeah I like tell my history but I don't respect you cuz I got a law I hope you doesn't talk to us guys. We and we doing free. We at Aloha. We are public. You guys are supposed to be serving us. And the main one is the kakam. And that the actual structure of justice and everything. It's us guys before the nobles and our queen or king or whoever more. Appreciate it. >> Okay. Thank you. Okay. Members, we're in discussion. Seeing none. Okay. Resolution 25-206 has been referred to committee. Oh, I'm sorry. Council member Cordderero. >> Thank you. Um, you know, I'm I'm quite torn on how how I'll vote. I know that uh a lot of mentioning regarding um go uh discussing this in committee. So um I know we'll go for a vote, but um when it comes to committee or if it comes back uh I I would be voting no. Thank you. >> Thank you. Any further discussion members? Say none. Okay. Resolution 25-206 is referred to committee. Thank you. Turning to the bottom, page five, resolution 25-237, confirming the appointment of Katherine Stevens to serve on the Wahoo Historic Preservation Commission of the City and County of Honolulu. Do we have Katherine Stevens here? >> Mr. Chair, she is available by video conference. >> Okay, please proceed. Would you like to say a few words? Mahalo chair, vice chair, and council members. Um, thank you for considering my appointment to the Oahu Historic Preservation Commission. I've served not only my entire professional career in historic preservation, but also spent much of my personal time through participating in related organizations and boards, including the Hawaii Historic Places Review Board. I do look forward to the opportunity to support the city and county and the preservation efforts, as well as continuing to help educate and assist the community through those efforts. and I'm available for any questions you might have. >> Thank you, members. Any questions for the nominee? Seeing none, thank you. Mr. Clerk, do we have any testifiers? >> Mr. Chair, that concludes the testifiers. >> Thank you. Members, we're discussion seeing none. Any objections or reservations? Actually, pardon me. Seeing no discussion, resolution 25-237 has been referred to committee. Turning to page six, resolution 25-238, confirming the reappoint of Mahelani Cipher to serve on the Oahu Historic Preservation Commission of City County of Honolulu. I note that Miss Cipher is present. Aloha. Welcome. And would you like to say a few words? >> Alohako. >> Hello. Um I want to thank all of you for your support in bringing this commission forward in the last two years. Commission is working really hard to satisfy our commitment to the council and the mayor to help resolve issues that involve historic preservation for the city and county. That is what I hope to do as a member of the commission is to continue urging resolution of issues, resolution of problems so that we're not an obstacle. We want to teach the community that um historic sites are an asset, not an obstacle. So we need to help land owners and developers know early in their planning that these sites improve the value of the property and not reject not uh reduce the value. So that's basically what I hope to do and I I hope all of you will join me in continuing to support historic preservation on Oahu. Mahalo. >> Thank you members. Any questions for the nominee? Council member Tupola. >> Aloha. Thank you for being here and for your service. Um in the committee I'm going to bring up some thoughts about what um Mikala talked about today. Not only Pu Capo but this past weekend I actually helped to restore the areas around Mongi which is all city property. Lots of uh kufuna lots of archaeological sites and no funding, no help, no maintenance, you know, nothing really on the city side to preserve this really historic site. So I just want to see how we might be able to partner more on that. But more conversation and committee. >> Yeah. >> Well, you will be happy to know that our our we have staff little bit of staff now and they are actually working on the city inventory. They've developed a preliminary list that we we hope to uh put all of that together in aformational material so that we can train city workers on the sites that they manage that are historic that are important as Vajipana or Vajikapu. So we teach them what they're maintaining. Maybe they'll take better care. >> Yeah. Mahalo. Thank you, chair. >> Thank you. Any further questions for the nominee? Say none. Thank you. >> Thank you. Mahalo, >> Mr. Clerk, do we have any testifiers? >> Um, Mr. Chair, we have none. >> Thank you. Any discussion, members? Council member Kia Aa. >> Uh, thank you, chair. I'm just uh very uh grateful that uh Mahilani Cipher has agreed to be reappointed to this commission. as a reminder for those council members who are newer to the council. Uh but for her testimony, when I first arrived here at my first zoning meeting in um 20 uh 2021, um she submitted testimony opposing the proposal by the Department of Planning and Permitting to repeal the underlying authority for this measure. And it was because of that testimony that we're here today because it led to a collective review by both the administration uh the city council as well as uh those in the community who care deeply about historic preservation. And we realized that we just needed to modify the underlying statute to give it new life. And just very pleased for her to be here. I think uh we're uh the city council is very lucky that she's agreeing to serve again. Thank you. >> Thank you. Any further discussion, members? Seeing none, resolution 25-238 has been referred to the committee on planning and zoning. Moving to the bottom of page six, resolution 25-241, confirming the appointment of Charles Mitsui to serve on the board of parks and recreation of the city and county of Honolulu. Is Mr. Mitsui here. Aloha. Welcome. Would you like to say a few words? >> Actually, could you push the button? The >> It was already on. Okay. Good morning, uh, council members. Thank you for the nomination. Um, I'm hoping I can bring the experience I've had working with skate park development over the last 29 years to kind of the broader scale of what the parks department's doing. And hopefully we can find a way to have some more uh facilities and places for the teens to kind of come out and use the parks. I think that's an important part of the parks department that's missing right now. So I'm hopeful that my nomination can help push those along. Thank you. >> Thank you members. Any questions for the nominee? Council member Kia. >> Hey. Aloha, Chuck. I'm actually very very excited uh for your nomination and I wanted to thank you for agreeing to serve on the board. Uh your contributions in my community have been uh very meaningful and of course you you know it's your contributions to our Kyua Kolu and Kaneoh skate parks. In the current operating budget uh that was enacted into law, um I was able to secure $100,000 for a pump track at Wim Manalo District Park. And just given your background, it's a little complicated sometimes um uh for the Department of Parks and Recreation to pull off something like this because um this is only partial of the funding. A lot will have to come from other sources. But I'm hoping that given your background, you might be able to uh provide guidance to DPR on how to finesse this and work with the community because there's a lot of people in the community that have been working long time. And I would hate for um it to come to pass that because of the mechanism set up in DPR that they're not even going to get out of the box because they don't know how and the system doesn't allow for innovative processes for uh the city to join together with the private industry. You have any comments on that? Yeah, I think that's why Laura asked me to come serve on this board in particular because I kind of an out of the box thinker and I've worked with different parts of the city and county to develop parks in different ways. So I've done it where it was all funded through the city and county. I've done public private partnerships. I've done ones that were almost exclusively on the private side of funding. So I'm hopeful that I can develop a pathway for these parks to get built. And that's the real thing that I'm after is to form a committee for action sports in particular. So that'd be biking, inline skating, quad skating, skateboarding, and the facilities that they want to use and find a way to develop those. So there's certain processes that the parks go through and how you have to interact with the community in order to get through this, then get through the divine design phase, get through the approval of the design, get through the funding, and then the construction. So my hope is that through the development of the Wahiwa district park, they're building a skate park there. We're I'd say about 30% away through that process. I'm hoping I can use that as a model to put forth towards other members of the community to find this pathway to getting their projects done. In particular with Wimmonalo, I've been working with that group for several years. It's been a struggle and I think the pathway is very unclear. So I'm hoping to form this action sports committee so those members of the community can come in and we can help guide them on the steps and process to go through to get that accomplished. >> Okay. Looking forward to it. And in Manalo we have the land um they've delineated where uh I I I I looked at this um as seed money and um I'm looking forward to you being on board so you can help us find the pathway. >> No problem. And I've actually design I put $14,000 into the design of that pump track already. So through my organization, we're already committed. >> Okay. Mahalo. Mahalo. >> Thank you. Any further questions, members? Seeing none. Thank you, sir. >> Mr. Clerk, do we have any testifiers? Natalie Wasa, welcome. >> Thank you. Uh Natalie Wasa, for the record. Gosh, what this gentleman just said is a breath of fresh air for me. I just wanted to um give a comment and a request because he mentioned skateboard parks in particular. So, in Hawaii Kai, there were three brothers uh over a decade ago who advocated heavily for a skateboard park out there and it came to fruition. We have that out there. What I wanted to request is that when you put these parks into place, as I understand it, there's a um special coating that is put on the concrete and that's to kind of help the skateboarders and unfortunately the park in Hawaii Kai was um graffitied and most of that special coating is gone. So, I think it's really important that when you um put these parks into place that the public is educated because, you know, if if the skateboarders know that they're not supposed to do that, they will be monitoring other people so that it doesn't get glossed over with paint and then damage. So, just those comments and thank you so much. >> Thank you. Is there anybody else who' like to testify on the nomination of Charles Mitsui? Seeing none, any discussion, members? Say none. Resolution 24-241 has been referred to the committee on housing, homelessness, and parks. Moving to the top of page seven, vice chair Tupola. >> I move that the first reading items listed on pages 7 through 10 of the agenda pass first reading. >> Council member Kia second. >> It's been moved and seconded. Vice Chair Tupola for the explanation. >> Bill 56 relating to special management areas. Bill 57 relating to dumpsters. Bill 58 relating to real property tax exemptions. Bill 59 relating to sewer service charges. Bill 60 relating to the Honolulu Authority for Rapid Transportation. Bill 61 relating to real property taxation. Bill 62 relating to amendments to bed and breakfast home and transient vacation unit standards and requirements initially made under ordinance 24-14 but inadvertently omitted under 20 under ordinance 25-2. >> Thank you for the explanation. Mr. Mr. Clerk, do we have any Well, I understand we do have a number of registered testifiers. I'm going to take it in order of bills introduced. So, starting with bill 56, I believe we have Raquel AU registered to testify. Please proceed. >> Aloha. Good morning. Thank you. Can you hear me? >> Yes, please proceed. >> Thank you so much. Uh, chair, vice chair, council members, mahalo for this opportunity. Raquel Au. I am vice chair of the Northshore neighborhood board but testifying as an individual pic to the wuamoku on the northshore where we have a significant amount of space that lies in the SMA. I'm just going to give a couple points to start this conversation out. Um the SMA applications what we have found significantly happening and consistently on the Northshore. um they are submitted with minimal value criteria to avoid an SMA major and there's no one there to test uh to verify those values. So it allows them to skip the time and expense in addressing the environmental, cultural and shoreline etc. Kana further resulting in portioning and phasing their applications, breaking up the projects so that each job falls under the $500,000 threshold. Um, and considering materials alone in construction now, um, very few builds are less than $500,000. I suspect there will be considerable opposition to this effort. Um, but I feel very very strongly that the kana and integrity of our spaces and our process are at risk. If a project is submitted complete, accurate, and responses to DPP's inquiries are made timely with the continued improvements that director Apuna has placed with her team, um there should be a very reasonable assumption of a fair and timely process. So, I'm I suspect that most builders will not also want um neighborhood boards or community associations to reign in because we are very skeptical of plans that affect our space and we are the ones that are ma to that space. So, I appreciate the time and I look forward to a stronger conversation as this process goes forward. Mahalo. >> Thank you, Mr. Clerk. Do we have any other testifiers on bill 56? >> Mr. Chair, that concludes the testifiers for that bill. Thank you. Bill 57 relating to dumpsters. I believe Shelby billionaire has registered to testify. Hello, Mako Pikachu. Shelby Billionaire back for all of you. Thank you again. I actually testified on 10 bills today. So, I'm glad we're speeding through the process so I can kind of speed this up for you guys. So, Bill 57, I'm in support for people watching online or TV or in Facebook land. A lot of people from W night don't really come out to this cuz it's far, you know, it's tiring. We just had our Wii neighborhood board meeting last night. Thank you, Andrew Tupola, for bringing it up to talking about this. Now, talking about dumpsters, I read over the bill. Thank you for introducing it. At first, it seems like it's a bad bill, but it's actually going to do some good work. Uh, but the problem I initially remembered was when uh council member Tola brought up, we complain about trash. I know Chair Waters, you're on the news recently and that you get called from your constituents when they don't come pick up your trash. But I remember the garbage trunks, there was something wrong with the contract during Corona virus and we couldn't get them back in. So we had to swap contracts with West Oahu Aggregate and we're having some other issues. So hopefully we can address that and I support passing this bill. And with the time left over, I'm also supporting Bill 58, Bill 59, Bill 61, Bill 62. Thank you. >> Thank you. Is there anybody else who'd like to testify on bill 57? >> Thank you. Moving on to bill 58 relating to real property tax exemptions. Bill 58 Shelby billionaire since I'm back again for bill 58. I'm in support and I ran I ran all these bills through AI. Just let you know AI means love. I in Japanese, not artificial intelligence. You can call it Aloha Intelligence because I want to uh flip the script using Grock. I do use AI. I do use Elon Musk. The only bills that break the AI is your god dang budget bills. The state and your county bills break my AI and it doesn't work. So, I do support these bills uh because it does do things for lower income property tax for low-income rental housing. But I want to repeat what I said with Kevin. I know the ladies on the council grow them and drilled them real hard talking about real estate cuz you're going to take away the cash flow, equity, appreciation, depreciation from brand new homeowners. If I had a brand new kid and I tell them, "Oh, save money to buy a house." They're never going to get the 20% down debt to income ratio of 40% for a million dollar home. I' I'd send them to Tennessee where they could buy a 200,000 building for something else. So, I support this bill. Thank you very much. >> Thank you. Bill 59. Anybody like to testify on bill 59 rel to sewer fee service charges? Natalie was >> Thank you, chair, council members. Natalie was for the record. I support this. Um mainly what this bill does is it takes out some requirements for industrial users with high suspended solids in their waste water. And um typically that would sound like it's not a good thing, but as I understand it, this um provision is not used. These users have permits that the city regulates, and so this really isn't needed. The other part of this is that Bill 60 took out all of that um wording for those users. So this makes the ordinances uh consistent. It makes it simpler and it makes takes out unneeded things, which I I support most of the time. So thank you very much. Thank you. Anybody else on bill 59? Seeing none, moving on to bill 60 relating to the Honolulu authority for rapid transportation. I believe Mark Anthony Clemente has registered to testify. Mr. Clerk, is Mr. Clemente available? >> Mr. Tifer is not logged on. >> Okay. Thank you. Is there anybody else who'd like to testify on bill 60? Please proceed. >> Uh Mako, this is one of the bills I'm opposing because when you run this by the AI, it says no. They lied to me and the rest of the public said it's going to cost 10 billion, but it's been 12 billion. It's going to go to $22 billion. Who the heck builds a rail system going to uh doesn't even go to Wy Ki, doesn't go to Alam Moana. If you got to pee and use the bathroom, if you got kids or your capuna, you can't go nowhere. you get stuck. So, I oppose this bill and regardless of how I feel, I know it'll pass, but I still oppose this bill in the name of the Kingdom of Hawaiian Islands, Kunio Kova Paya, and the American side for Union Party and everyone else from the future. I think it's dumb. Thank you very much. >> Thank you. Is there anybody else who'd like to testify on Bill 60? Um, let's go with Konahiki first and then >> Can you say your name for the record, please? The rail transit was illegal from the beginning. It had too much lies. The rail transit going to be obsolete obsolete when when it finish. So how can you folks keep feeding billions of dollars to this this crappy rail? You know, I came before you folks many times. Where is the forensic audit? How much money was spent? How much money came in from the federal government? You know, we needed one investigation, one federal investigation. But somebody will end it quickly. They should continue to investigate everything in Hawaii. Mahalo. >> Thank you. Next we have Andrew Pereira followed by Konahiki number two. >> Chair, vice chair, members of the council. Um Andrew Pereira, director of public affairs for Pacific Resource Partnership. Uh won't belabor the point with repeating my written testimony, but as the council is fully aware, the half percent sir charge that funds the construction of rail is scheduled to sunset December 31st, 2030. Uh my great fear is that as we approach that sunset date, if you don't give Hart the purpose to continue planning and doing preliminary engineering for future spurs of rail that we could see a massive brain drain from the agency as we approach that sunset date. Uh so passing a common sense uh measure such as bill 60 will allow the future planning to take place. And uh as we approach that sunset date uh another great fear is that we could see the dissolution of HART and to reconstitute HART after that uh that date would be a tremendous waste of taxpayer dollars. And so uh PRP urges the council and its wisdom to move this measure forward. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> Aloha. Welcome again. block Kelvin Jul Konohiki. You know, I was thinking before when I came here and they started the rail planning and whatever and uh and had friends in the bus they was driving and I was thinking out of the blues I said why don't they have more express bus and more commuters like shorter route going up and down and because I was I got familiar with Los Angeles. I used to always take the bus. I seen the park and rides structures like that. So, you know, I was lost before, but I got little akamay and uh my schedule was not more Hawaiian. But but anyway, I oppose this illegal taxial title or free. We give them to people who do what is more important for our people. The bottom line what you folks doing is for us and what we standing here today is not because of us. It's because I guess the spirits and what we look what we look for because I never looked this way before coming back. Hello. >> Thank you. Is there anybody else who' like to testify on bill 60? Bill 60. Seeing none, moving on to bill 61 relating to real property taxation. >> Sorry, Mr. Chair, we had three persons online with their hands raised for the last >> for bill 60. Okay, please proceed. >> Is that Jacob >> Wick? Yes, Jacob. appreciate the opportunity to provide testimony and strong support of bill 60. Um, two points I want to make. The first one is prior preparation prevents poor performance. One of the challenges that our skyline projects face is um challenges in terms of just basic planning and I encourage the council to use this measure as a forward-looking measure to reduce costs event to reduce costs for any future extensions particularly we do have to get skyline to elabana center to the UH there's plenty of opportunity to expand it uh in West Aahu as well provide even broader benefits and I say this as a daily regular commuter using transit uh the bus and skyline to get from east to uh west. So there are particular benefits from doing this from making sure we've got proper planning and I strongly urge the council to support this bill for our legislative process. Thank you. >> Thank you. Who do we have next, Mr. Clerk? >> We have Donald Sakamoto F. >> Don Sakamoto, please proceed. >> Good morning, Chair Waters. Uh, vice chair at Tabola Risk Council members, Donald Sakamo. Uh, I kind of oppose this uh bill because, uh, you know, heart uh, they don't think about the people with disabilities. They're building this rail on Dillingham and the uh the construction is affecting the accessibility for persons with dis on sidewalks for everybody. And now that they're going on limits for five to six years, I have outreached to the ADA coordinator for city as well as just spoke to somebody from heart about my concerns about the accessibility. It's it's ridiculous. We passed the ADA law for 35 years yourself, the council, the mayor, and the governor, and we still having blocks of um for our disabled to get around. Uh the too much money has been spent uh not enough for the core services. Our roads are terrible, not enough housing, uh our paratransit is disarray. Uh we need more to uh be accountable. So, uh by failing to prepare, you're preparing to fail. do the right thing and compared to um not pass this bill because uh it's unjust. There's too much money being spent. It's it's it's it's costing me as well as other people uh to move away. I'm probably have to move away because it's too expensive to live here with this outrageous rail and uh sucking all the money. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> Next we have I Mr. Clerk, >> we have Kylie Swan uh standing by remotely. >> Please proceed. >> Good morning, chair, vice chair, and committee members. My name is Kylie Swan. I am I heavy user for the skyline. So if you if possible, if you can add more more accessible bathrooms people can use to ride the skylines like people need to go use facilities. They don't have to go outside to use facility where a lot of homeless people keep on destroying the restrooms for us for the public to use. So if you can allow people to use the bathroom so that people can do their bids if they really really have to go. So they allow me to testify. I hope this hope you can looking at this portfable facilities people can access to. Thank you so much. Let me to testify. >> Thank you Mr. Clerk. Do we have any other testifiers on bill 60? >> U Mr. Chair, that concludes the testifiers. >> Thank you. Moving to Bill 61. Bill 61. Is there anybody in the audience who'd like to testify? Shelby Billionaire. >> Pikachu. Shelby Billionaire. Keep it short and sweet. I stand in support. Mahalo. >> Thank you, Mr. Clerk. Do we have any other testifiers? Bill 61. >> Mr. Mr. Chair, that concludes the testifiers. >> Thank you. Moving on to Bill 62. Bill 62. I believe we have a number of registered testifiers starting with Shelby Pikachu Billionaire. >> Thank you very much. This is a support measure Pikachu Shelby billionaire because we have a lot of this stuff on the neighbor islands. I know they use it when you come and visit in Mokai. There's that one little bakery shop you can come stop by. at Big Island. There's some other spots. So, I'd like to support this bill, but I also want to make the council members aware that some of these places are used for human trafficking, organ harvesting, and drug smuggling, especially start going to Kona and Hiloide. We have the corrupt Justin Davis, who I reported to the US Marshalss and other people as well. The Epstein files were just released, but it's all covered up. You guys can see the victim testimonies out there. So, I encourage you while you guys are proving those bills, you're also aware of what's going on nationally, how the people feel, and that you support the people. um who love you. Thank you. >> Thank you. Next we have Tara Gregory. >> Aloha. >> Aloha. Welcome. >> Hello Mako. Thank you Tolia Gregory resident of Kalama Valley. I support this bill. Uh but with further discussion and amendments. Um thank you vice chair and mahalo chair and the council members for the time to speak today. This is a nuanced issue. Uh for myself, uh my parents are who are Kanaka. My dad is a Navy veteran. Uh my mom, they both grow up in Palolo. So I've returned home now and I'm trying to get them back in and price them back into their home. Um I'm a former middle school teacher and a fitness entrepreneur. So I have a background with child development and neuroscience and I spend my days working with Capuna mostly and they've been speaking to me a lot about also their everyday struggles to hang on to their property. That's why I just want to introduce Act 17. Um before 2022, homeowners had protections, but now after this act, the authority has shifted to the city and council, and it has inadvertently empowered corporations. Maybe not on purpose or intentional, but it's creating this false fight between the 15 unit operator against the one-unit homeowner. Uh the truth is they're not the same. So the family renting out a garage to survive cannot be treated like an investor with 15 properties. If the mayor says the problem is with big operators, then we need to enforce and tax them. But what's happening is capuna and families with one unit are being now squeezed out. Um I need to ask for immediate relief for owner occupied homes because those are the people carrying the heaviest burden. Uh the testimonies that I've read make it clear that most locals who rely on STR income earn it from stays that are 10 days or less, not 30 days or more. So that's what exactly 62 puts at risk. Um, so we've already seen this danger on Maui with Bill Nine. Um, it was sold as a victory, but it does gauge um, it gouges its own people while opening the door for outside interests. So, we can't repeat this mistake here. So, just in conclusion, um, Bill 62 does need more conversation, I believe, and deeper research. Uh, this is about protecting the small homeowners, holding large operators accountable, and ensuring Hawaiians and locals aren't set up to lose while corporations gain. So, I'm really here just to testify. I am in support of this, but I want to make sure that we protect the small homeowner, provide relief for the owner occupied, but we do hold the big operators accountable. Um, mahalo for the time to speak. I yield. >> Thank you. Next, we have Edward Jones, followed by Janette Fukuawa. Is Edward Jones here? Aloha. Welcome. Aloha, Chair Waters, um, Vice Chair, um, Topola, and Council members. I am Ed Jones. I'm speaking for Coastro today. Um, Chair, I appreciate our conversations. um uh prior to the introduction of this bill. I am disappointed um that you don't have anything concrete that um protects um landlords and tenants um in a way that the previous testifier just testified. um um to protect um from the tenants standpoint um to protect our outer island residents um they need to rent an affordable room um for just a night um you know in a ha setting um to access medical care or our state government. We acknowledge the need to have um STR restrictions um for the protection um of residents from foreign real estate speculators. Um do I have three minutes for first reading? >> Uh one minute, but I'll permit you to go along. >> Mahalo, chair. Um uh governmental restrictions must be narrowly tailored to resolve um an issue. Um, our current policy is among the most restrictive in the country. In other words, they have gone too far. Um, Mayor Blangardi describes this as probably overreach. Um, at the June um 26th zoning discussion, um, a council member interrupted an elderly testifier to lecture her about the law. That testifier is also a lawyer who knows that current STR provisions violate the takings clause of both the US Constitution and the Hawaii Constitution. Um, please constructively act today, pass this first reading. Um a lot of work has been gone into the um registration uh modifications but also in coastro testimony there's exact language that you can take put in this a as you as you send it to committee um please be brave and do that and solve this once and for all. We have been waiting many years um for this to happen. Um mahalo. >> Thank you Mr. Jones. Is there any questions? >> Any questions for Mr. Jones? Seeing none. Thank you, sir. Next, we have Janette Fukuzawa. Aloha and welcome. >> Aloha. Aloha to Chair Walters, vice chair and council members. Um, the two previous speakers have said a lot of what I want to communicate. Um, renting room short-term is nothing new. people, particularly women, um, have been doing this for thousands of years to supplement their income. Um, as a Hawaii property owner, I don't understand why these regulations are needed with if I rent rooms short-term to people while I live in the same house. Amendments to this bill are needed to allow Kamina, particularly Capuna, to rent their property short-term to make ends meet. We're not speculative absentee property owners. Please include amendment that gives us choices that allow us to earn income. This position is consistent with the mayor and the governor's position. The governor says we should support local families to do shortterm rentals if they are doing them legally and we want to do them legally. I've been doing this for 30 years. Um starting with uh Japanese students and moving on to people who came to give medical support during co who are need a place to stay while they're looking for a house to move here. so many people. Um, these local families live on the premises and are able to supervise tenants. Please include amendments that support Capuna to rent for any amount of time. Mahalo. >> Thank you, Mr. Clerk. Do we have any other testifiers on bill 62? Please proceed. First of all, the oath of office. You folks know about this. Governor Green had lied on the oath of office. He mentioned he's going to protect and support the Constitution of the United States and Hawaii. He never do a thing. Governor Green never did look at Queen Lilio Colani statue in her left hand have the constitution. Now how come you folks are are doing everything legally in Hawaii? It's not everything in Hawaii you folks are doing is illegal. You guys got to follow the rule of law and the constitution. Uh, thank you. >> Thank you. Okay, members, we are in discussion. Oh, I'm sorry. Go ahead, Calvin. >> Um, we going discussion, so I just second that. Amen. >> Thank you, sir. Members, we're in discussion on all items on pages 7, 8, 9, and 10. Council member Cordderero, >> at the appropriate time, could I ask that we go back to Bill 61? There's one community member that wants to give testimony. I apologize. >> No, no, no problem. Let's do that now before we go into discussion. Bill 61. Who is that community member? >> Hi, please proceed. I'm sorry, I was looking at the opposite side of the room. >> Sorry, Mr. Chair and council members. I heard 61, but I was waiting for the 25 after it. Anyway, thank you for your willingness to address the plight of Central Kakahaku. My name is Frank Young. I own KNY Chevron Auto Service and Wayne's Auto Electric. I just need to address a couple issues on this even though it's early in the process, but the tax assessment division sent out a letter to Kakaku owners and businesses that they're going to lose the exemption and that they were going to reject all of the the claims that were turned in. And that alarmed because a lot of people don't know how to read the technical letter that Charice Tanabi wrote. So a lot of people didn't reapply for the certification. And just for a little history, back in 2017, Mayor Caldwell tried to repeal this law before it was even put into into into the process. And at that time I went before the real property tax commission and at that point they overwhelmingly supported central Kakahaku because they also believed at that time that the property tax was way too high for that particular area with no infrastructure improvements. Central Kakahaku. We're not opposed to paying property tax. Even at 50% with the 50% exemption, we're still going to pay over $2,000 per thousand square feet a year for property tax. And with the rail construction coming down the road, everybody knows what it looks like when once it's the construction starts. And I I'm going to submit the letter from Charice Tanabi as to how she worded the the what she had to say. And I had I'm a college graduate. I had to read it three or four times to figure out what she was trying to tell us because all the other people that read the thing just didn't reapply for the certification. They said, "Oh, we got rejected and we can't get it anymore. So that that's a sad thing. So I'm submitting her emails and you guys read the emails and you decide if it was technically too complicated for the average layman to understand and uh again thank you for your consideration and for bringing this on the agenda. Thank you. >> Thank you. Okay. Anybody else like to testify on first reading items? First reading items. Seeing none, members, we are in discussion. >> Council member Cordderero. >> Thank you, chair. Um, I just wanted to speak on bill 60 2025 uh as it relates to the real Honolulu authority for rapid transportation. Um, and it current in its current form uh it looks at um adhering to the locally preferred alternative. as so when we are discussing this um it's not going to be jutting out to all the other all the other parts of the island or all across the creation but a lot of the discussions that we've heard um I'm sure throughout our term terms as well as just as residents of Oahu is that we want to be able we don't want to see just rail go nowhere and so um having this bill will allow for the planning and assessments uh to uh make rail connect to places where people need to go and should go. Uh and additionally um we want to ensure that um you know one of the testifiers saying says that we need to plan um and plan planning is what we are authorizing with this bill. Mahalo. >> Thank you. Any further discussion members? Seeing none >> I'm sorry council member Tupo. Um yeah, I just wanted to uh speak briefly on Bill 56. Um I do think that I hear the concerns of the community as far as making sure that there's community input, neighborhood board hearings. However, the SMA miners are plentiful, meaning that it's a lot of projects under a certain quantity and and for coastal areas, especially in my area, almost every project along the main highway is an SMA project because of its location, its proximity. So, I'm I'm concerned one with the overwhelming amount uh that it'll cost families to do presentations or even hire people for small minor projects. Um I think there might be better ways for us to just have neighborly input as opposed to making SMA minors at the same level as SMA majors. Um, and then for bill uh 60, appreciate the introducers thoughts on this and in committee I want to make more conversation especially in my community where the rail ends in the middle of the sky instead of maybe at the mall. So I think there could be some potential there that it could go somewhere. And then lastly for Bill 62, you know, I appreciate your introduction of this. I feel like yourself and I have been tacking very closely alongside making sure that legal TV and STR owners are able to comply with the DPP amendments. I read the testimony from Ora Costa. I think there's small tweaks that um I will maybe propose to your office, but I do think that it's basically correcting things that were left out and we want to just continue to make sure that there's clarity in the law, but we're not reopening large conversations about this. So, I appreciate the testifiers, but we're actually at the fine-tuning part of this whole process that we've been working on for many years. Um, and those are my comments. Thank you, chair. >> Thank you. Perhaps on bill 60, we can add on Makana Ali to the end of the rail and capo or a separate bill. Council member Kia Aya. >> Uh, chair, can I uh call the department of planning and permitting up relating to bill 56? >> Yes, please proceed. and uh Director Takichuna, can you uh tell me if your department is has developed or is in the process of developing a position on this bill? Uh we do have a position on this bill. Um uh we we don't think it's a good idea. Um a lot of which um is consistent with what council member Tupola mentioned for minor SMAs. Uh currently the the minor uh SMA process includes 10 days for us to receive a completed application and then 45 days for processing. So to add another 60 days for neighborhood board review would substantially I mean more than double the the the timeline. um and and and essentially a minor SMA is, you know, for smaller valued and impactful projects. So, we don't think that it is necessary for these projects to go to the neighborhood boards. Um and I mean, we have other issues with it, but that's the the core of what our concerns are. What is the minimum um project under a minor SMA? Could it be 10,000 or less? >> Um, I don't recall the exact value. >> Do you have any staffers here who could answer that question? >> Uh, no, not >> okay. So, the question before me, of course, is because I do have concerns over this. The question is whether we um even with those concerns, move it to the zoning committee or stop it here. um as the uh one of the co-sponsors of a measure to require neighborhood board um consideration for major SMA projects. I I do have concerns about this because right now not just the neighborhood boards but even the zoning committee is um we have a lot of SMA projects and I know that you have proposed that uh we delegate um authority away from the city council to your department for single family homes. That is still your position. Correct. >> Yes. >> Yes. and and that's something we still will be considering. But uh so just with that, thank you for your answer. So uh with that, I maybe I could ask the uh sponsor of the measure um just even given my concerns, would you prefer that it go to committee just to have a dialogue or >> Yes, council member wire. >> Um thank you, chair. Yeah, I'm open to discussion. I mean just to kind of give the underlying thought process for the measure. I know it's only first reading but since it's come up um you know we contraed it with resolution dealing with conditional use permits and also have the reso relating to environmental assessments and review processes and I think really our goal is to just simplify and avoid litigation and simplify the process for DPP. um you know unlike SMA majors, conditional use permit majors where you'd have to DPP you'd have to do a public hearing and you know you also do the neighborhood board notification um I think this stems from conversation we had with the department last year about trying to get them to put all of the applications online for like cups variances because really what we see is um as was mentioned by Northre neighborhood board chair for my community I think on the SMA major side, less than three maybe have been actually opposed by a board. Um, most of our SMA majors that come through are supported. Many don't even do a hearing at the neighborhood board because it's not requested. Um, but really what I'm trying to get at and was hoping to get at was a notice trigger that gives the community input to allow DPP staff to have the most informed information when they're making our decisions because I think they're making them in good faith based on the information they have. Um, but oftent times the community has more I mean they know what's going on and so they don't cause trouble for folks doing legally compliant projects. But I think their frustration is seeing, you know, maybe a detention basin that's really a swimming pool or seeing, you know, stuff that's um the threshold is triggered or or changed or or made to seem less than it is, so it doesn't meet the SMA requirement. And so really what we were shooting for since the the bill doesn't even require approval by the board um was just an early trigger point where stakeholders have notice so then they can be providing information directly to DPP um as they make their analysis and their assessment and have the full-fledged you know information. So I'm open to discussion on it but that was the ultimate goal with the measure. >> Um council member I appreciate that explanation. Uh, you know, my my concern is that the um I about the private land owner who is simply trying to get a minor SMA and uh a lot of these are long-term Kamayina families who don't have the luxury and the wherewithal to how to navigate and we may potentially be impeding that. Having said that, uh I am aware of this and your other measure. I will just be voting with reservations. chair on this measure. Uh I do believe it should go there and have a more robust discussion, but I'm not likely going to be supporting either this measure or the other measure because I believe it's going to be burdensome on the individual homeowners. There are alternative ways to um to go after uh bad actors. Uh but I don't believe that this is the is this is the vehicle. So again, just reservations. >> No, I appreciate that. Uh members, it is now almost noon. We're still on page seven. We got a lot of people waiting to testify. I don't want to curtail anybody from speaking their mind, but again, we're on page seven. So, Council Member Wire, >> I'll just note reservations um since it's first reading for bill 58. >> 58 and >> just 58. >> 58. Okay. Thank you. Members, any other reservations or >> reservations about 56. >> Thank you. Okay. This is not a remote meeting, so we don't have to take a roll call. Um, first reading items on page seven through 10 of the agenda have passed first reading. Thank you, members. We're now on page 11. Page 11 from the Committee on Budget. Council Member Okimoto. I move that committee report 260 be adopted and bill 34 2024 CD1 as amended pass second reading. >> Second. It's been moved and seconded. Council member Nishimoto, excuse me, Okimoto for the explanation >> relating to real property taxation. >> Thank you. I do see we have a number of registered testifiers starting with Don Sakamoto followed by Linda How and Susan Young. Don Sakamoto, please proceed. Yes, Chair Waters, uh, Vice Chair Tabola and other council members, Donald Sakamoto again. Yes, I fully support this bill, especially my council member, Esther Cayena. It's time that we have this bill passed because it's very unfortunate our people. So, I fully support this. Thank you. Aloha. >> Thank you. Next, we have Linda How. Thank you, Council Chair, Vice Chair. Uh, I appreciate the opportunity to testify. I support the intent of this bill, but I oppose this draft for two important reasons. The first one is the $1.3 million threshold for tier 2 is too low. The second reason is that you're making the same mistake that the council made in 2016. There is no adjustment mechanism for inflation. Let me give you an example. My single family home in Coconut Grove over a decade since this law this ordinance was put in place with residential a my assessment increased from 741,000 to a high of 1.3 million. In 2022, the year my assessment was increased a shocking 31%. My assessment exceeded $1 million and my property taxes more than doubled to $6,500 a year. This is not how you create affordable housing for long-term local residents. In the past four years since crossing the million-doll threshold, I and my tenants have paid an additional $250 per month in property taxes because there was a failure to include an adjustment mechanism for inflation. Please don't make that same mistake again. Thank you. >> Thank you. Any questions for the testifier? Seeing none, thank you, ma'am. Next we have Suzy. Aloha and welcome. >> Aloha, Chair Waters, Vice Chair Tupula, and Council Members. Suzanne Young, CEO for the Honolulu Board of Realtors. We are in support of Bill 34. Uh we agree that the thresholds uh need adjustments. Since the bill was first implemented in 2014, uh property values have increased and we need the adjustments. Um and like the previous testifier, we do agree that there needs to be some mechanism for regular review. >> Thank you. Any questions for the board of realtors? Seeing none, thank you so much for being here today. Is there anybody else who'd like to testify? Natalie Wasau. Thank you, chair, council members. Natalie was for the record. Just some comments. Um, first of all, I oppose the res classification. You folks have heard me say that many times. It creates a divide between those who can afford to own a home and live in it versus landlords who provide housing for renters. This bill, however, is a step in the right direction as it increases the threshold from 1 million to 1.3 million. I would ask though though that you change the effective date from July 1st, 2027 to July 1st, 2026. I think there's enough time for the administration to implement that. And this bill also creates three tiers uh for taxation, which complicates our uh tax structure, but I understand why you're doing that. I ask that if you haven't already done so, you ask the administration how many homes are in each group um in each tier because that's important to know. Um and then you know this bill does nothing with respect to the tax rates. So we don't know whether the tier one is still going to be at $4 or whether it's going to be at something else. I would ask that when you go ahead and do the budgeting that you put that first tier back at the regular regular residential rate of 3.5 assuming that the res the regular residential rate stays at 3.5. you have created and I'm not pointing out any individuals here but past councils have created this policy whereby there is such a great divide between those who can afford to own a home and live in it and those who have to rent and you see it I've heard comments made here about rent being either the highest or among the highest in the nation and these policies are one of the reasons why that is a act. So I ask that you take a look at this very closely. The other thing is kind of minor. It the bill also changes who to that and it just kind of irks me because people are not that. So thank you for allowing the testimony. I look forward to the discussion in committee. >> Thank you. Any questions for Miss Waso? Seeing none. Thank you. Any other testifiers? Mr. Clerk. Mr. >> Chair, that concludes the testifiers. >> Thank you. Members, we're in discussion. Council member Kia Ana. >> Um thank you chair. Um colleagues, I urge your um support of this measure. Uh should it pass today, it would have to go back to committee uh one more time and all of the concerns that have been raised and recommendations could be more fully discussed. I do know that when we discussed the homeowners exemption, we wanted a automatic trigger to adjust for inflation and we did not get support for this. So, um, how I crafted this was a strategic to get the support of the Department of Budget and Fiscal Services. And so, so that you know what you're voting for, we currently have a two-tier system for RES A, 1 million and below, 1 million above. For transitification units, we have two tiers, one uh 800 and below and 800 and above. This creates a three tier system primarily for RES A homeowners, many including uh one of my constituents who testified, where their home values uh for their residential A has gone above a million and their tax at $11.40 as opposed to $4. Is this perfect? No, it's not. I would like to raise it higher, but the bottom line is I need the support of the Department of Budget and Fiscal Services. So um the tiers are up to 1.3 million. The two uh second tier for res is 13 uh 1.3 million to 3.5. Tier three is 3.5 to and above. And for the transit vacation units because many of them are apartments. They're different uh than single family homes. The tier one is up to 900,000. Tier 2 is 900,000 to 2 million and tier three is 2 million and above. Again, I believe that this is a good first step and uh there will be another round of hearings and I believe that this is going to address a lot of concerns. I know for my district where a lot of home values have skyrocketed past a million dollars. Thank you. >> Thank you, Council Member Tupola. >> Yeah, in support. In 2014, RES was created. It was intended to target high-v valueue homes, non-ownero occupied, and because the median price of homes is now over a million dollars on our island. Unfortunately, many generational homes, very modest homes are now swept into the res category. I do also appreciate the introducers intent with the TVs because not every legal TV is a luxury home. Many of them are small condos on the Northshore in Kolina. And so, I think it's fair. We want owners to legally operate and register in the resort areas. So, we've been talking about this for some years in the council. I think as Missy was said, this is a step in the right direction. So, in support. Thank you, Chair. >> Thank you, Council Member Dos Santos Town. >> Thank you, Chair. in committee, I I asked um the budget and fiscal services folks um how the numbers, the original numbers of $1 million uh where that was the threshold for the tiers and now where the $1.3 million threshold for the tiers came from. I hope that in committee we can really dive into exactly what that means. How many properties um when we set this up fell above that 1 million threshold and how many now are above 1.3 million. I hear um really a desire to have some kind of mechanism that tracks uh the the increased value over time, but if we don't identify the percentile of um where 1.3 million falls, we're never going to be able in the future to come back and say, well, this is kind of where the threshold is now. We're just going to be um taking it based on the average. um but not recognizing that for these very high tiers their valuations may actually be changing uh in a different way than the overall average. And I want to make sure that if we are going to be making important decisions about the city's um budgetary needs as well as our tax policy that we have as much data as possible with regard to the transient vacation tiers. I I understand why there's a desire to um change it to three tiers and frankly I agree that it should be changed to three tiers, but I do want to also be mindful of of the fact that these transient vacation units should be, in my opinion, should be long-term housing for local folks. And if we're going to give them a tax break, um, as we're proposing to do here by raising the tier, um, I think we should have a much more robust conversation about how we get these units back into the pool so local people can live in them, not transient vacation tourists. >> Thank you. Any further discussion? Seeing none, any objections or reservations? Noting no objections or reservations. CR260 has been adopted and bill 34 2024 CD1 has passed second reading. Moving to the bottom of page 11. Council member Okimoto. >> Thank you chair. I move that committee report 261 be adopted and bill 62 20224 CD1 as amended pass second reading. >> Second. It's been moved and seconded. Council member Okimoto for the explanation >> relating to motor vehicle registration. >> Thank you. Mr. Clerk, do we have any testifiers? M >> Mr. Chair, we have one person reser to testify. Um, Mr. Shelby Billionaire, >> please proceed. >> My Kako Pikachu Shelby billionaire back. I'm in support of this bill. We ran it through and it does make sense, but I do want to address these issues because we're from Hawaii. A lot of people come through the military. They don't pay state income tax from Florida. Their registration is $25 a car. I'd rather move to Florida with my license because it's cheaper to live there. Tennessee is cheaper. So hopefully you guys can address these issues because if it's cheaper to live in Tennessee, Florida, the younger generation is going to move out and that's what I'm worried about. The brain drain. Thank you very much. >> Thank you, Mr. Clerk. Do we have any other testifiers? Bill 62. >> Mr. Chair, that concludes the testifier. >> Thank you. Members, we're in discussion. Council member Tupola. >> Thank you so much. I want to thank the department for continuously working with my office. The department cited 4,000 46,326 veterans aged 65 and older. However, the figure they stated was a statewide figure, not the island of Oahu. The most recent recent census estimates show that we're around 29,000 veterans aged 65 and older, and that does not include just veterans who drive, which could be less than the 29,000. So, I do believe that the fiscal impact is less than what was stated by the department. I'm guesstimating around 580,000 a year. and in reality might be less than that. I think it's important as well that we remember that when we say the word veteran, it doesn't mean non-resident. Many veterans, in fact, the the resident I had in my district who testified about this bill in Hawaiian is a Native Hawaiian that's a veteran that served. And these are not just any seniors. These are people who have given their lives and some people who have worn the uniform, been injured. And so I want to thank my co-sponsor, Council Member Toba, and especially for his efforts making us a Purple Heart city. I think that this is in line with the efforts that we have done thus far. Mahalo. >> Thank you. Any further discussion? Seeing none, any objections or reservations? Noting no objections or reservations, CR1, excuse me, CR261 has been adopted and bill 62204 CD1 has passed second reading. Moving to the top of page 12. Council member Okimoto. Chair, I move the committee report 265 be adopted and bill 54 CD1 as amended pass second reading. >> Second. It's been moved and seconded. Council member Okimoto for the explanation >> relating to public transit. >> Thank you, Mr. Clerk. Do we have any testifiers? >> Yes, Mr. Chair. We have both in person and remote testifiers. >> No testifiers. >> We have both remote and in person. Let's start with in person. I believe we have Don, excuse me, Shelby billionaire. Please proceed. >> Chi who once again I feel so popular get to be on TV again to tell you how I really feel. But you guys are going to vote anyway. So I'm no to this. So when you actually look at the bill, you click on the button. This little handout does not help you. You have to click it and you're actually going to see the prices go up. Currently it's $3 to catch the bus here, $3 back. That's $6 for me to come to testify you, get my one minute of fame. But now you're going to charge 50 cents up. You're going to start raping and robing from the people. Some people are trying to pull out quarters just to come here and you're going to get less testifiers from Y and I. More people would be on Zoom. And you know, time's running out. We actually have to head to the Honolulu Police Commissioner. So I was going to leave you guys with this. I want to support resolution 25-208 for transferring of funds. Uh and also want to support the resolution 25-22 for the HPD as well. And I'm gonna oppose this bill, but I'm I'm sure you guys will vote the way you want. And I also want to support bill 51 because we have to roll. So, thank you very much. I want to close out with this. For some reason, the police commissioners are wary of Andrew Tapola. I can tell it, I can see it cuz when it says on this resolution about the funds because I'm going to go and film them again today after this meeting. And uh your name is brought up. And uh I do want to support what you guys are writing on 25-22 to go through the vetting process. Me and Mr. Robert Centennial was there the whole time, the last month, the last two weeks. I know exactly how much budget they got. I know how much offers they have. So, I look forward to seeing you all guys next month. Choo. Aloha. >> Thank you. Next, we have Brian Mick. Hi, good afternoon, Chairwaters, and council members. My name is Brian Mick. I'm here on behalf of the Disability Communication Access Board and our executive director, Kirby Shaw. Um, we are in opposition to this bill as currently drafted. Um, I would like to say that we are happy that there are no proposed changes to the lowinccome fair for handy van riders. Um, that was something we advocated a lot several years ago and was meant to be a tool for any future increases to the rate as this bill does currently propose. Um, we do have two concerns though, um, that was mentioned in our testimony, so I'll just briefly cover them. Um, one is that, and this apparently was a oversight in the original drafting of the bill, but the, um, the table is collapsed into one reduced fair and, um, but for some reason in the definition of who's eligible for this reduced fair, um, uh, the people with Medicare card holders was omitted. So, we would like to see that added back in, which I believe um the the department had indicated they also supported. Um we're also concerned with the changes to the um current policy of waving the fair for a personal care attendant who is um accompanying a person with a disability and providing that service. Um federal law does require the waiver on uh paratransit but not on the bus as indicated. Um, but I have not seen any sort of numbers or guesstimates as to how big a problem it was as far as people um, claiming to be a PCA when they weren't. Um, but I think that the financial harm that could result to people who um, require the services of the the PCAs is great. So, we'd like to see that continued um, to be waved. Thank you. >> Thank you, Mr. Mick. Any questions for Ryan Mick? Seeing none. Thank you, sir. Next we have Kahili Swan followed by Donald Sakamoto. >> Good morning chair, vice chair and committee members. I oppose bill 54 because I'm a person with disability who has a personal care attendant who rides for free with me on the bus, the rail or and the hand every weekend. Bill 54 changes that and will have PC pay for the ride. If he say pays cash, you have to pay 325 instead of $3. Therefore, I oppose bill 54. Please contact me if you have any questions. Thank you for allowing me to testify. >> Thank you. Next, we have Don Sakamoto. Uh good afternoon, Chair Waters, Vice Chair Tabola, and the rest of Council Member Donald Sakuro, longtime uh advocate for paratransit hand bus and Portuguese skyline. Uh I oppose this bill as as stated by Brian Mick, the same sentiment for the personal care attendant to be paid is uh we need to have people to help uh the disabled as well as the Medicare. But the thing is I testified on uh August 19 at the budget committee regarding the 25 cent sir charge you know um a lot of people can't put too much money on their holo card they need the money to buy uh certain types of food or whatever and then director John deputy director said well we can use credit card debit card you know that credit card there's a charge at certain establishments that you have to pay uh because the establishment won't pay for that and you know somebody gets hacked like I got hacked on my credit card uh I had to wait like a couple weeks a week to get a new card and um it' be a burden for us to use credit card and right now we don't even have a a wallet system where you can use your your smartphone to have your credit card to tap it like I did in uh Washington DC and the silver line a few years ago when I was there in DC. So I oppose that uh if they're not going to change the um writing of the PCA and the other things that Brian Mick and I brought up then uh I really oppose this bill. Thank you for allowing me to speak. >> Thank you, Mr. Sakamoto. Mr. Clerk, do I have any other testifiers? >> Mr. Chair, that concludes the testifiers. >> Thank you, members. We're in discussion. Council member Cordderero. >> Thank you, chair. Um I understand that we are at second reading. Um I do have to note that um I did want to go to the committee on budget with possible amendments. uh me and my team or my team has been trying to draw out what how I would like to see the structure uh look like because I do feel that the increases um have been a concern that has been brought up to uh my attention by my constituents uh since those discussions at the rate commission. Um it is too high. We you know whether you are a homeowner or you rent um if you take the bus these will definitely just impact you overall. And so um they've been bringing up concerns relating to the youth, the increase in youth as well as to the annual pass. Um I will just vote with reservations for now because um uh I know that I don't have anything prepared uh regarding amendments. Uh but um if it comes down to it, I I would be voting no. Um if I uh at the end if there's uh great increases to the uh fair structure um I do have um concerns as it relates to the uh personal attendance but as well as the um how's how the fairs would then impact the adult fees. Uh we do see that um you know a lot of the students at schools are utilizing the buses um but with not personal attendance but adults and it's affecting the teachers and faculty at department of education as well and I've been hearing we've been hearing that um over the course of uh four five years now and so I think that it will further hinder uh people utilizing the bus for um not just uh school activities but just in general Um and uh with that I just wanted to note my reservations although I do want to go no I think that we should just continue the discussion in committee. Thank you. >> Thank you council member Tupo. >> Thank you so much. Uh in support I do remember you know back in 2021 we discussed like raising the rates and we thought it was a bad time. and we were coming out of COVID. So, we decided to table this whole discussion. And I think the main um reason was of course so that we could support while people come out of the pandemic, but also, you know, director Morton was concerned that we need to make the system sustainable, meaning that we can't continuously run it to the point where we're subsidizing so much. And I do want to congratulate him and commend him for trying to find as much federal funds, putting together a awesome vision zero plan so that we could even garner more federal funds to help our public transportation system. So I do think that the rate commission's trying to find the middle ground has been reasonable. I think if there are minor tweaks, that's good. I I love what uh Mr. Sakamoto said as well. If we could just load our cards on our phones like how we do for Apple Pay and whatever, I think it'd be great. I continuously have difficulty with holo cards and helping our homeless. So, I appreciate DTS's um improvements. Uh I do think that we want to make sure that the bus is sustainable and that we're able to continue to fund it. Thank you. >> Thank you, Council Member Dos Santos. Now, >> thank you, Chair. I'll be voting no on this measure. Um, and as somebody that rides the bus, uh, and Skyline, um, at least the bus almost each and every day, um, you know, I have a chance to to look around and and look at the folks who are on that bus with me. And for our youth, for our seniors, for those with disabilities for whom this bill would raise their bus fairs, um, I don't think I can get on the bus and sit there and say, "Well, I'm I'm here to raise your fairs." And so, I wanted to address a few things. Um, first of all, uh, for anyone watching at home, if you go to holocard.net, you can actually use that system to, uh, add money, uh, from your bank account or credit card or debit card to your Holo Card. Um, it's a little clunky, but it works. Uh, you can also do it at any 7-Eleven times, um, ABC store, any other locations. With regard to this notion that the that that we constantly have to be raising fairs to make the system sustainable, the bus and our entire public transit system relies heavily, as does every other system in the country, on fairly large subsidies. And what we're proposing here is literally a drop in the bucket. I think the calculation comes out to about 1.5% of what that subsidy would be. That's in the big scheme of things a a drop in the bucket. But who it's it affects is again our youth, our seniors, and those with disabilities for whom their fairs go up by 25 cents each time they use it for everybody who uses a monthly card or gets their fair cap. That's $10 a month. That's $120 a year that they're going to have to pay more. Um, further on this agenda, I think we have some measure that's going to reduce everybody's property tax rates by $70 a year. But at the same time, we're here to raise everybody's bus fairs who uses the bus to get around by $120 a year. And for a family of two riders, it's $240 a year and and add-on kids. And so I have some pretty strong concerns about this. Now, I'll pivot to one other point in this bill. When it comes to the low-inccome fair program that the city set up, um we set aside $1.5 million a year for the low-income fair program, how much of that has actually been utilized by lowincome fair folks. How many people have applied? As of July 2025, we've had 1,097 people apply for this program. That is very, very small compared to the number of people that are eligible. I think we need to go out and engage with the public and make sure that they know that they're eligible, that they can utilize this, and that we as a counselor are looking out for them. If you look at the math on the low-inccome fair program, of the people that have applied right now, only about 38% of that program is utilized. we can be doing a whole lot better for our lowincome population, 30% AMI and below, who rely on the bus to get to their jobs, to doctor's appointments, to take their kids to school. I think we can do a whole lot better. And I think that during the um next committee hearing, I I would implore DTS as well as um you know, everybody here uh to to get our heads together and figure out what we can really do to make the bus more accessible to folks. Thank you. >> Thank you. Any further discussion? Council member Talba. >> Thank you, Chair. I will be voting no also uh with lots of concerns from uh constituents as well. I echo concerns from council member uh Los Santos staff. Thank you. >> Thank you. Any further discussion? Council member Wire. Um thank you chair and you know I share a lot of the concerns um mentioned today just about the increase um particularly you know understanding there's a lot of city services that we provide to the community that are you know paid for through real property tax you know our parks I think are a great example um but in terms of public transportation I mean if you can't get to your doctor um you can't get to you know meaningful medical care access to food um you could die so I do think like access to public transportation is very important. I do understand we may have to charge nominal prices. Um but you know I think my main concern is just the limitation to extremely low incomes. Um that's like 30% amii. And so I think if we're going to have a reduced fair program, uh we have to contemplate who's actually probably most likely relying on public transportation going to a job or maybe the needs in their daily life. And so I think it'd be more appropriate to be, you know, maybe around 60 at least, but I would think even upwards of 80% or higher. But I'm just wanted to note that. Mahalo. >> Okay. Thank you. Any further discussion members? Say none. Any noting the objections of council member dos Santos Tam Tolba? Reservations from Cordiero and myself. Any other reservations? Council member Wire. Reservations. Objection. No vote for council member wire. Thank you. CR265 has been adopted in bill 54 CD1 has passed. Second reading. Moving to the bottom of page 12 from the committee on housing, homelessness, and parks. Council member Tupola. >> I move the committee report 270 be adopted and bill 20 pass second reading. >> Second. >> It's been moved and seconded. Council member Tupola for the explanation >> relating to funds. >> Thank you. I believe we have Suzanne Young from the Realtors here to testify in person on Bill 20. >> Aloha everyone. I'm Suzanne Young, CEO for the Honolulu Board of Realtors. Um, Hawaii has one of the lowest available down payment assistant programs, which just doesn't make sense when our housing costs are so high. So barriers to housing not only are inventory or wages, but it's that down payment assistance. We've been out in the community and when you talk to people who are prospective home owners, their rent is equal to or more than what a mortgage would be, but they can't even step into the conversation because they lack any savings. So we totally support this bill. We're willing to work with the administration to make it work. We need to create as many opportunities to help renters and people who live with their parents be able to become homeowners on their own. So, >> thank you. >> Thank you. >> Members, any questions for the board of realtors? Sand. Thank you so much, Mr. Clerk. Do we have any other testifiers? Natalie Wasa. Thank you, Chair Natalie Wasa. For the record, um just comments as somebody who would potentially qualify for this, I very much support the intent. However, as we saw with the um business grants for um businesses that were impacted by rail, you know, that was put into place and it was I mean, it was made law, but businesses couldn't apply. The administration didn't do their end of it. And as it turned out, those grants were really kind of manini when you look at the grand scheme of the cost of those um businesses and the impact on rail. So my concern with this is that this would end up being the same type of thing. It does require annual appropriations and I assume that would come from the operating budget. Um and there are already a lot of demands on the operating budget as you all know. Um, so I think this may not be worth the administrative burden, but you know, I ask you to consider that our policies that we have like the residential A for for instance, um, impact potential buyers because what happens is if there's a residential A property, which now could be a million dollars, right? they are paying the higher rates and those potential buyers have to make sure that they have enough money to cover the pr-rated tax for the rest of the fiscal year, which is already several thousand dollar higher than they would have to pay if they had the homeowners exemption. And then if the timing isn't quite right so that they can't apply for the homeowner's exemption by that September 30th date or September 1st, whichever it is, they have to pay that residential rate for another full year. And this is one of the things that makes it very difficult for new owners to purchase a home. Even if the property is not in residential a, there's still that disparity out there with respect to the homeowner's exemption of 140,000. you're looking at putting it higher now that increases the tax. So, you know, these other policies are impacting the ability for people to purchase homes. One thing I do ask you folks to look at and because I I don't understand exactly how this would be implemented here, but is it possible to get some kind of a renter to buy program in place? And um you may recall that Vicki Kayatano ran on that platform. Um, I don't know that might be something that is at the state level, but I think that that would be something that would be very worthwhile to at least have a full discussion on. So, those are my comments. Thank you very much. >> Thank you. Is there anybody else who'd like to testify on Bill 20? Seeing none, we're in discussion. Council member Tupola. >> Thank you so much. Um, this measure establishes first-time home buyer loan assistant revolving fund, which would provide loans to help with down payment or closing costs, two biggest hurdles for families trying to purchase their first home. The testifier uh the first testifier hit it the nail on the head by saying that many people can actually pay the same amount in rent as they could as a mortgage, but do not have 20, 30, $40,000 to put down as a down payment. Since Bill 20 was first introduced, HHFDC has adopted its own payment assistance program which will be implemented in November. To ensure the city's program is not duplicative, we will be making amendments through a CD so that Bill 20 functions as a gap filler, serving families who may not qualify under the state's stricter rules, but still need help securing a home. The structure of this bill remains sustainable. The fund will be seated by general fund, but repayments of principal and interest will recycle back into the program, building a lasting pull of resources for future home buyers and not an annual appropriation. At its heart, this measure is about keeping local families here in Hawaii. And for those reasons, I introduced it and I'll keep working on it. Thank you, chair. >> Any further discussion, members? Say none. Any objections or reservations? Council member >> reservations. Chair. >> Okay. Any other objections or reservations? Noting that reservations of council member Okimoto CR270 has been adopted in bill 20 pass second reading. Moving to the top of page 13. Council member Tupola. >> I move that committee report 271 be adopted in bill 39 pass second reading. >> Second. It's been moved and seconded. Council member Tupola for the explanation >> relating to affordable rental housing. >> Thank you Mr. Clerk. Do we have any testifiers? >> Mr. Mr. Chair, we have none. >> Okay, members, we're in discussion. See none, any objections or reservations? Noting no objections or reservations, CR271 has been adopted. Bill 39 has passed second reading. Moving to the bottom of of page 13 from the committee on infrastructure, transportation, and technology. Council member Cordderero. >> I move that committee report CR282 be adopted and bill 52 pass second reading. >> Second. It's been moved and seconded. Council member Cordderero for the explanation. >> This relates to the maintenance of streams and other bodies of water. >> Thank you, Mr. Clerk. Do we have any testifiers? >> I believe Miss Iwasa wanting to testify. No. Okay. No. Stand corrected. >> Thank you. Members, we're in discussion. Seeing none, any objections or reservations? Noting none. CR 282 has been adopted. Bill 52 has passed second reading. Members, it's now 12:30. Shall we push on or take a break? >> I think we should push on. >> Yeah. >> Thank you. Okay, members. Top of page 14 from the committee on zoning and planning. Council member Kia Aa. >> I move that committee report 295 be adopted and bill 51 CD1 is amended pass second reading. >> Second. >> It's been moved and seconded. Council member Kia for the explanation. This bill relates to improvement of districts. >> Thank you, Mr. Clerk. We have a number of registered testifiers starting with Sandra Paul. Aloha, welcome. Followed by Eve Quac. Um, my name is Sandra Paul and I'm the executive director of the Downtown Art Center. Our nonprofit has been in the neighborhood for 24 years. Um, actively working to revitalize downtown Chinatown. Um the downtown art center is actually five years old this year and we are uh really we are in support of the downtown I mean the bill. Yeah. Anyway, it's a really good thing. It will give us the opportunity to actually um continue our work in the downtown uh area where we started the arts district and we continue to do that. This gives us the opportunity as a community from Nana Avenue to Richard Street to be able to do the same thing, making our neighborhood um more viable, presentable, and attractive for new businesses and pedestrians wanting to come to our neighborhood because it's so walkable and um fun. Thank you. >> Thank you. Next, we have Eve Quac. followed by Trevor Arbarzua Abarzua. >> Mr. Chair, both are not logged on. >> Okay. Is Andrew Pereira available? Followed by Tony Wong Camp or we could go with you. Please proceed. >> Hello city council members. Mahalo for your tireless uh commitments to uh a tremendous work for uh doing keep our communities uh clean and safe. Your leadership is really helping shaping a brighter future for all of us. As a property owners of Chinatown and a part of a city council district 6, I wholeheart uh support bill 51 and the establishment of downtown Honolulu Business Improvement District B the proposed enhancement for safety, cleanliness and the mentality of not just necessary they are urgent. meaningful steps towards to a healthy and prosperity of our share community. But let me be clear, downtown and Chinatown are not simply neighbors. They are inseparable two parts of the same living heartbeat. The Chinatown, the Chinese idiom says, "If the lifts are gone, the teeth will be cold." Capture this reality perfectly. When downtown thrives, Chinatown breathe easier. When downtown suffers, Chinatown share the same pain. Chinatown continue to wrestle with the serious challenges, especially homelessness. Too often when improvement are made in t downtown the homeless populations is displaced into into Chinatown overwhelming our streets and our small businesses. This cycle left unchecked inevitably reversed and created new burdens to downtown as well. It's time it's time to break the cycle. Now this is why I urge you to not um to not only pass the bill 51 but also move the vision of encourage to expand the B to include Chinatown ideally within next year. Chinatown involved with younger forthinking investors, tenants, entrepreneurs like myself and who are committed to revitalizations. I see daily how downtown and Chinatown depends on each other through uh commerce, culture, restaurants, bars and the vibrant lives. This is a brother and sister relationship bound together by shared destiny. By including Chinatown, we can uh achieve a far greater result using one stone kill two birds. Guys, ensure that both downtown and Chinatown rise together as one unified community. Thank you. Aloha Push. >> Thank you. Next, we have Andrew Pereira followed by Chulan Schubert Quac. Thank you, chair, vice chair, members of the council. Andrew Pereira, director of public affairs for Pacific Resource Partnership. PRP stands in strong support of Bill 51. Uh PRP has been a tenant of the Alaka corporate tower since 2011, and since that time, we've seen the es and flows of the condition of downtown Honolulu. I think right now, with the help of the Blangiardi administration and the Caldwell administration preceding that, uh we're really on an upswing right now. However, this business improvement district, I think, will allow us to capitalize even more on the momentum that's been made. Um, we've seen tremendous investment just next door to Alakea Corporate Tower, we have the new AC Hotel and it's really cool to see tourists like walking around downtown and going into into Chinatown. And then we have uh the investment made by Avalon Group and Christine Camp. And so I think it's wise for us to approve this business improvement district to see that those investments don't go to waste and that we capitalize on future investments. So again, PRP stands in strong support of bill 51 and we urge the council and your wisdom to move it forward. Thank you very much. >> Thank you. Next we have Trulan Schubert Quac followed by Kevin Crummy. >> Good afternoon chair uh council members. Thank you so much for listening to Bill 51. Uh we support the intent of Bill 51. What is good for downtown is good for Honolulu and all of us. But I'm worried about couple things. One of them was we did not get enough notice. So those one who sent in supporting testimony are mostly downtown people or have interest in downtown. But very few in Chinatown except a few people like me a are more into understanding the bill and I'm on a neighborhood board so we know more about it. So when we talk to our neighbors and and and uh they don't know about this bill because it hasn't been publicized enough. So there's lack of public hearing is one objection. Second objection is the rush. So that Chinatown's problems which are interlin with downtown are not considered. We're not separate. Westside means twins. So we want to support downtown to prosper. But downtown needs to support Chinatown because we are separated by nine streets from river to Richard name to Bitenia. Splitting us in two doesn't make sense because more uh property owners joining because who doesn't want cleaner street, healthier uh market, prosperity and less homeless that we, you know, us living on our street that we can help together. So we want the same things. So don't split us into you know favorite child step job. We want this together. So give us some time. We want to give you some time to establish downtown but include us in phase two because we have property owners who want to join and a larger B downtown Chinatown including in district 6 will give us a pool of bigger money and tax dollars at USS that can do both good and both are historic districts. We have tourists going to downtown capital district coming to Chinatown and AES Monica marketplace and the beef up security that he paid for is improving Chinatown so much. We've been working very hard in Chinatown. We are establishing the Chinatown security team, working with police to train us and and our councilman is uh aware of that and we cleaning our sidewalk supplementing uh what the police are doing for us just like B is trying to do but we don't have the big bucks right now and there was not enough time to organize to include us. So we understand we understand the urgency and help it but you have to remember not to exclude us so that we will be you know having more problems with the migration from downtown to Chinatown or we are already ill equipped to keep to to help that. So we would ask that in the interim that the money coming from be on the $ 1.9 million portion of it should help Chinatown with security and clean up. That is good for tourists on both sides. Good for our bus riders, good for everybody. Downtown eats in Chinatown. Chinatown buys mortgages, credit cards, and insurance in downtown. So we are together. Thank you very much. >> Thank you. Next we have Kevin Crummy followed by Lance Royo. Good morning everyone. My name is Kevin Crommy. I'm the chief investment officer at Douglas Emtt and I'm here to respectfully express our opinion, our opposition to Bill 51, which seeks to expand the Fort Street Mall business improvement district. While we have a shared goal of creating a cleaner and safer downtown, we do not believe expanding the Fort Street Mall bid is the most effective approach. When the Fort Street Mall bid was created in 2002, its purpose was to combat severe issues like drug use, drug sales, loitering, assault, petty crime, sanitation, and weirdly, the open contempt for authority. Despite its current budget of $535,000, the issues it was created to solve are still highly visible to anyone walking down the mall. It would be irresponsible to expand this model when it is not proven to be effective in its current district. We do at Douglas Emma believe that a big a bid strength is providing enhanced services like trash removal, graffiti cleanup, and power washing. However, meaningful reductions in homelessness and crime require expertise and authorities of government-ledd services and the police department. A bid simply cannot solve these monumental social issues alone. In fact, any effort by bid security to remove unhoused individuals from downtown will only shift the problem to Chinatown, as the previous owner has uh as the previous speaker expressed, unless this city provides additional resources to get people into shelter. We are concerned that this expansion is being fasttracked to meet an October 1st real property tax assessment deadline. A truly successful program will take the time needed to build consensus and ensure that all voices are heard, which will lead to a stronger and more sustainable bid effort. We respectfully request that you send Bill 51 back to committee for further discussion to ensure that all voices are heard and we can truly build a successful program together. Mahalo. >> Thank you. Next, we have Lance Royo followed by Kendrick Chang. >> Mr. Chair Lance Royer is not logged on. >> Is Kendrick Chang available? >> Good afternoon, Council Chair Waters. Council members Kendrick Chang testify in my personal capacity regarding Bill 51. I stand in my written testimony support. Just wanted to add a few brief points. Um I understand, you know, there is a concern that the cost of this is going to impact our tenants. The fact of the matter is um downtown is struggling. Our retails tenants are struggling and you know speaking with a family connection for five generations to an area which right now arguably for mall my family's probably the smallest um land owner in the district. Um, we stand in support because we want to see downtown revitalized so that our tenants have an opportunity to bring back business and bring back commerce to our community. The other comment I just wanted to raise briefly is I understand some of the suggestions about expanding this downtown district to include Chinatown and I believe that appropriate discussion should be done after this bill passes. the structure of the Chinatown land owners in the community. We need to have conversations within the Chinatown community separately. So I know there has been a few comments that's been raised to add Chinatown in this current juncture, but I believe that conversation should continue afterwards. So therefore, the bill in its current state should pass as is. Thank you. >> Thank you, Mr. Chang. Next, we have Nicholas Ali followed by Angela Melody Young. Hi, good afternoon everyone. My name is Nicholas Ali and I'll be testifying in favor of Bill 51. I'm actually working from home today listening to this in the background, but um I actually live in the city. I have an office job in the city and it's just a short walk to me uh for me to the office. Um, but the reason that I didn't go in today is because it is just so rough and so dirty outside and it feels unsafe for me on on my walks soon and from the office and when I step out for lunch and there's a lot of us that feel uncomfortable downtown uh outside of the office for these reasons. Creating the business improvement district would be a big win for a lot of people who go to work every day coming in from all of your districts, not just the ones like me who live here. I really believe it's a choice for things to be the way that it is and I really hope that we make the right choice on this. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> Next we have Angela Melody Young followed by Edmund Dasci. >> Aloha. Angela Melody Young testifying on behalf of CARES and um so I got to attend um the hearing at the um ball court um at the old Walmart and it's very interesting as a process um to get to know the community and then the various businesses that make up uh the downtown district um from um like real estate companies to um fashion companies and artists, musicians. Um I think revitalizing um the downtown district and then creating the special um district zone is very important um to sustaining um the businesses. So, I agree with some of the other testifiers about Chinatown that it should be included. um because of a lot of the contributions from Chinatown. Um, and u, as an Asian-American, I think a a lot of our work um, for example, in commerce um, and uh, the business marketplace and um, also the culture and the arts um, within the Chinese people, thousands of years of history of dynasties that um Chinese Chamber of Commerce really contributes to the community. Um and Chinatown takes up large parcels of the community um near downtown. And so, you know, we were all at the community event with the Nazis Queens um and also um a few of the House of Representatives and the senator um and the council member um with the Hawaiian Electric Partnership with the county uh the mayor's office, the administration team um cleaning up with Clean Water Heroes and uh the Honolulu Police Department. So the Chinese community um played uh like a significant role in organizing and so I think what the proposed amendment should be then and also Tyler was there when I asked the guy from Chinese Chamber of Commerce. The guy from Chinese Chamber of Commerce was like yeah we should include Chinatown. So the proposed amendment would then say parcels of land to be included in the implementation of this ordinance for the special improvement district zone can be added to the list by due process of confirmation by the board members for flexibility that when you decide to include Chinatown that it can be included right without having to go through another series of board me. Thank you. >> Thank you. Next we have Eti Ascoli followed by Mark Anthony Clemente. >> Hello, Councilman. Council members, um I'm in support of this B. Um not because we necessarily want it, but we need it. It's been uh a struggle downtown. My family owns a bu a building on the corner of Alakay and Merchant Street. It's a historic building that we um restored over the past nine years and we've seen um difficulties not only with businesses because we have residents on the second floor and in the middle of the night where there's banging on the doors and such. So security is really important for us. Um, and in in terms of security, I feel as though we really should be looking at making the sit and lie bill there 24/7. Um, if we want people to act to to not only work downtown, but to live downtown, uh, that's important. Part of the sanitation problem is because we don't have security uh, 247. I think another problem with downtown um which maybe the city can work with the B on to help incentivize some of the property owners, the larger property owners that have parking structures is we have no affordable parking downtown. Um I believe there's only one city subsidized parking uh in this which is being called the B downtown uh which is Ali Place. Um, other than that, you know, not many people are going to come during the day spending six to eight dollars an hour. Uh, the B is is not the end of the solution. It's the beginning of a solution. I think there's an urgency that we do get it done quickly because, you know, quite frankly, businesses are hanging on. Um, every time you hear a business close or every time you hear some type of incident that kind of gets blown out of proportion for the district, uh, it it there's less people coming downtown. As you heard by that testifier, he's he, uh, working from home. Uh, that's one less customer going to the restaurant that's in our building. So, I I think as far as adding Chinatown, I totally agree with that. Uh but I think it at this point uh if it delays executing this B as soon as we possible add it as we as we uh when we can and also when we get more experience. Um a B is not a new concept for us. Uh Wiki has had it. They have some success and I think uh we're not going into uncharted territory here. So, I am in support of this. Moving it along as quick as we can. Thank you. >> Thank you. Next, we have Mark Anthony Clemente. >> Uh, present. Okay. Thank you. Members, that's all I have. Or, Mr. Clerk, that's all I have for registered testifiers. Is there anybody else who'd like to testify on this matter? Please come forward. >> Aloha, council members. Councilman Dos Santo Tam, my name is Ed Kuripsky. I am the executive director of the Fort Street Mall Small Business Improvement District. And I think one thing we're losing sight of here is downtown is an experiencing a transition to more residential. So, as we're going more residential, we're going to have more people in at different times of the day. And this is why we need more security at different times of the day, more sanitation different times of the day. and probably the business improvement district is probably the best best v um mechanism to achieve a safer cleaner environment. Thank you. >> Thank you. Please come forward. >> Hello council members. Robbie Kelly here both personally and on behalf of Avalon Development. uh here to express our strong support for this bill and we urge you to pass it uh quickly. You know, I I grew up here in Honolulu. This has been my home and it always will be my home. I have worked my entire life working in downtown Honolulu. Well, my entire adult life, professional life. And you know, I'm really optimistic for our future right now. There's so much good things happening in downtown. We have HPU relocating, the rail coming downtown, AC Marriott hotel o opening. There's just there's there's a lot of good things and coming, but it's being overshadowed by these, you know, minor I shouldn't say minor, but it's being overshadowed by these issues of crime and cleanliness, which are very solvable, fixable issues. And we believe that this downtown business improvement district, while it may not be the total solution, is an important piece of that, both to well to provide the security, the power washing, but perhaps more importantly also to provide a community organization to advocate on behalf of the downtown community, to advocate for more police services, to organize community events, and you know to to be that glue that really helps bind us all together and you know bring us into a new era of prosperity for the downtown district. So thank you for your consideration of this bill. I and I hope you uh hope you pass it today. Thank you. >> Thank you. My name is McKinley and I'm a recent grad working downtown. Downtown faces real challenges and years of public awareness and scattered initiatives haven't delivered the improvements we need. I strongly support Bill 51. A B is about shared responsibility and strategic investment. It brings stakeholders together to fund essential services like cleaning and security that often fall through the cracks when left solely to government agencies. Services that generate broad benefits that help everyone, not just property owners. Expanding the four street B brings more resources and operational efficiency. While no one said the current bid was perfect, lessons from it and the wiki bid can guide this larger district. Expansion doesn't replace or dilute the original bid. It enhances it by integrating services across the district and enabling more consistent visible improvements. It is not a cure all for all the district's challenges. Nor is it meant to directly solve systemic social issues like homelessness or crime or replace government services. But it is a practical, proven, collaborative framework that can deliver visible, meaningful improvements. Let's stop admiring the problems and take a step toward solving them. Thank you. >> Thank you. Is there anybody else who'd like to testify? >> Mr. Chair, we have Tony Wong Cam standing by remotely. >> Okay, please proceed. >> Good afternoon, council members. My name is Tony Wong Cam. I'm here to testify in an official capacity as a small business owner here on Fort Street Mall. We run the Eong Fruit Tea, a bubble tea shop on Fort Street Mall. And I'm here to support the passing of the bill 51 and the business improvement district. Just to share some insight, we opened our doors in 2022 and um like I said in my written testimony, a lot of people questioned our decision and it's been a wonderful experience working with our landlords. um council member dos Santos Tam Ed of the forest stream mall district to really improve the area and we've seen an increase in footp traffic but I believe that more needs to be done to help the overall downtown community you know talking to my fellow business owners here in downtown and for mall the security helps and the cleanliness and other things will help bring much needed foot traffic to help these small mom and pop businesses that yeah they may not know what's going on and but I think that in my conversations, they are supportive of anything that helps improve their overall business, whether it's their your favorite coffee shop here. We have great coffee shops, we have great restaurants, and um I really applaud the efforts of the initial team that put together the business improvement district. And while I do believe that it should be expanded, I think much needs to be done to um or we need to work quickly to really improve the downtown area before it becomes too late and we have more small businesses struggling. Okay. Thank you so much, Mr. Clerk. Do we have any other testifiers, Mr. Chair? That concludes the testifiers. >> Okay. We're in discussion. Members, Council Member Dos Santos now. >> Well, thank you, Chair, and and thank you everyone for listening to the voluminous testimony on this issue. As we know, downtown is at a crossroads. We have uh after the pandemic a lot of workers working from home remotely and and fewer folks coming downtown to support the businesses, the retail and all the other activities that make our downtown really special. The downtown bid is um I want to commend the folks that have been working on this for almost a year now. And this is really a proposal that's that's one piece among many different pieces that we as the council have been working on. I want to thank um all of you for working on things like um the islandwide parades bill which gives more opportunity for events in downtown u making sidewalk dining permanent um working on facilitating office to residential conversions. All of these pieces coming together um are going to help to revitalize this area. And it really is one of our economic drivers for the island. And so I think that um as this moves forward, we're going to keep working on issues. For the Chinatown folks here, I want to say once this is through, we can start the conversation of, you know, how we we do something like this in Chinatown and make sure that um the the issues Chinatown faces uh is is something that the private businesses as well as the residents and government can work together um on a continued basis to solve. I think a bid in Chinatown um would be a great idea, but we need to get this done first and um I look forward to working on it over the next several weeks uh as it moves through uh the process. So, thank you. >> Thank you. Any further discussion? Council member Kia. >> Uh thank you. Thank you, Chair. I I wanted to make a comment because the testifier for Douglas Emmett uh came with um you know some um strong verbiage of opposition and you know as someone who strongly supports this measure and looking at his arguments it actually strengthened my support of the measure moving forward. So I just wanted to say a couple of things. First of all, it is not irresponsible uh for uh this uh district to expand upon the current B. I think it's actually going to help them because you see the diversity of business groups and community groups galvanizing. Second Chinatown edition, U Chulan, you know, I asked the managing director when it first came up. So, of course, uh we're not going to forget you, but I do agree that we need to move this measure forward and consider white uh uh Chinatown after. And lastly, with regard to the process, this process is not being fast-tracked. No one is pressuring me as the zoning chair to move this forward. In fact, I would have moved it forward in July, but for the fact that we didn't make the requisite time frame to schedule it for a public meeting before the full council. So, we're not moving this back to committee because the fact is the legislative process allows us, should it move forward today, to move to another round of hearings. So, I highly suggest that if Douglas EMTT doesn't feel that they're part of the process, then maybe follow the zoning hearings because this has been going on for several months. So lastly, I just want to announce for those who are interested if if it goes through to the committee, it will be on Tuesday, September 23rd at 1 p.m. And the reason for that is I'm moving it from Thursday. Why? So we can have the requisite time to file a committee report to agendaize it for an October 1st hearing. So thank you, chair. I just wanted to make that clear because this is not a we're just not we're not being pressured by anybody's time frame. We're doing it because it is the right thing to do. Thank you. >> Thank you. Any further discussion members? Seeing none, this calls for a roll call. Mr. Clerk, please call the role. >> Council member Cordero. >> I. >> Council member Dos Santos Tam. >> Yes. >> Council member Kina. >> Hi. >> Council member Nishimoto. Hi. >> Council member Okimoto. >> I. Council member Telba. >> Hi. >> Council member Tupola. >> I. >> Council member Wire. >> Hi. >> Chair Waters. >> I. >> Mr. Chair, there are nine eyes. >> Thank you. CR 295 has been adopted and bill 51 CD1 has passed second reading. Moving to the bottom of page 14 from the committee on government efficiency and customer services. Council member dos Santos Tam. >> Thank you, chair. I move that committee report 300 be adopted in bill 5 CD1 pass second reading as amended. >> Second. >> It's been moved and seconded. Council member Des Santos Tam for the explanation. >> This relates to animal recovery. >> Thank you, Mr. Clerk. Do we have any testifiers? >> Yes, Mr. Chair, we have Miss Iwasa. >> Please proceed. >> Thank you, Natalie Wasa. For the record, just some comments and I apologize. I haven't seen the committee hearing on this, but um I wanted to put out there, you know, we have this huge problem with chickens and first of all, I want to make sure that this would be covering that, but also, you know, we have animal sanctuaries um typically nonprofit organizations and I think they're in um council member Wire's district um that you know can help with this situation. So, I asked the city to do that. The other thing is um you know anytime we implement a new or mandate a new program it costs money. So one of the things I feel is important when you go back into committee is to get the estimated cost of this program. Those are my comments. Thank you. >> Thank you Mr. Clerk. Do we have any other testifiers? >> Mr. Chair, that concludes the testifiers. >> Thank you. Members are in discussion. Council member Tupola. >> Thank you so much. Um, I just want to thank committee chair for listing this, hearing it, and helping me to move this along. This is actually a very old part of the law. We've always had poundmaster written into the revised ordinances of Honolulu, but it was previously um outdated prices and amounts. So, this is actually updating it to give the um customer services division the autonomy to set administrative rules. And it is only for farm animals, cles, goats, sheep. So, not the animals that are part of the Humane Society contract, which would be cats, dogs, chickens. Um, I do think that for my district, it's uh very much appreciated. In 2021 and 2015, we had cattle running across the road, and unfortunately, we didn't have a pound master. So, the animals were shot and that's a lot of money. That's a lot of people's um investment. So, we'd rather there be a pound master, especially in rural areas where we just need to make sure that they have a place to go, somebody that can return it. So again appreciate the committee. Thank you chair. >> Thank you. Any further discussion members? Say none. Roll call. Mr. Clerk. >> Council member Cordderero. >> I. >> Council member Dosanto Stan. >> Hi. >> Council member Kina. >> Hi. >> Council member Nishimoto. >> Hi. >> Council member Okimoto. >> I. >> Council member Talba. >> Hi. >> Council member Tupola. >> Hi. >> Council member Wire. >> Hi. >> Chair Waters. >> Hi. >> Mr. Chair. There are nine eyes. >> Thank you. CR 300 has been adopted and bill 5 CD1 has passed second reading. Moving to the top of page 15, third reading items from the committee on budget, council member Okimoto. >> Thank you, chair. I move that committee report 262 be adopted and bill 41 CD1 as amended pass third reading. >> Second. >> It's been moved and seconded. Council member Okimoto for the explanation >> relating to permit fees. >> Thank you, Mr. Clerk. Do we have any testifiers? >> Mr. Chair, we have none. >> Thank you. Any discussion, members? Seeing none, roll call. Mr. Clerk. >> Council member Cordderero. >> I. Council member Dos Santos Tam. >> Hi. >> Council member Kia. >> Hi. >> Council member Nishimoto. >> Council member Okimoto. >> Hi. >> Council member Toba. >> Hi. >> Council member Tupola. >> Hi. >> Council member Wire. >> Hi. >> Chair Waters. >> I. >> Mr. Chair. There are nine eyes. >> Thank you. CR 262 has been adopted. Bill 41 CD1 has passed third reading. Council member Okimoto. >> I move that committee report 263 be adopted and bill 49 pass third reading. >> Second. move that second. Council member Okimoto for the explanation >> relating to real property taxation. >> Thank you, Mr. Clerk. Do we have any testifiers? >> Yes, we have one registered testifier, Miss Wasa. >> Thank you. Please proceed. >> Thank you, Natalie Wasa. For the record, I continue to oppose this. Um I don't know how many of you folks know that um anybody who's in retirement age, which would be typically anybody who's over 65 and this bill would apply to, they don't pay income taxes on their social security income. they don't pay um at the state level and they don't pay income taxes on their pensions. So these this body of people is already getting a um nice tax break in that manner. Um and then you know again you're creating this disparity between the homeowners who live in their homes and those who are renting them out to um people like me and my family. So I oppose this. Um those are my comments. Thank you. Thank you. Are there any other testifiers, Mr. Clerk? >> Mr. Chair, we have none. >> Pardon? >> We have none. >> Okay. Thank you. Members are in discussion. Seeing none, roll call, miss. Oh, I'm sorry. Council member Talbot, >> what are your reservations? Uh, like I mentioned in the budget committee, I support uh providing tax relief to residents, but I echo the concerns of BFS that this will result uh in a revenue loss of 5.6 million dollars to the city. Additionally, we did not uh take the recommendation from B uh BFS to do the pig to discuss the impacts of the bill and the next bill for Kuna. They will see $70 to the annual savings. But again, I hope we have identified where we plan to fill the gap for the $5.6 million in revenue loss to the city. >> Thank you. Any further discussion? Seeing none, roll call, Mr. Clerk. >> Council member Cordiero. Council member Dos Santos Tam. >> Hi. >> Council member Kina. >> Hi. >> Council member Nishimoto. >> Council member Okimoto. >> I. >> Council member Toba. >> Council member Tupola. >> Council member Wire. >> Reservations. >> Chair Waters. >> I. >> Mr. Chair. There are nine eyes. >> Thank you. CR263 has been adopted and bill 49 has passed third reading. Moving to the top of page 16. Council member Okimoto. >> Chair. I move that committee report 264 be adopted and bill 50 pass third reading. >> Second. >> It's been moved and seconded. Council member Okimoto for the explanation >> relating to real property taxation. >> Thank you, Mr. Clerk. Do I have any testifiers? >> Uh, yes. We have Miss Wasa in the chamber. >> Okay, please proceed. >> Thank you, Natalie Wasa. For the record, I also oppose this bill. I know I sound like a broken record, but you know, you keep putting these policies in that create it um a divide between those who have and those who have not. And as pointed out by council member Tolba, this does cost money and the and it's born in a large part on the residential aid taxpayers. I I don't know what else to to tell you other than, you know, you have other mechanisms to help reduce taxes in this county and that would be reducing or removing actually a lot of the exemptions that cost us millions and millions of dollars every single year. So, um I just suppose this I I can't think of anything else right now to say to to change your minds. I know you're you're set to vote, but um please think about those exemptions and what you can do to remove them. Thank you. >> Thank you, Mr. Clerk. Do we have any other testifiers? >> Mr. Chair, we have none. >> Thank you, members. We're in discussion. Council member Tolba. >> Again, read reservations. Uh you know, I want us to find creative ways to help local residents, but not at the expense of uh city services. The $5 million revenue loss is concerning added to the 5.6 from Bill 49. And again, I was hoping that we could have the pig um to have a good discussion about the impacts of the bill and how we can plan to make up the revenue loss to the city. Thanks. >> Thank you. Any further discussion? Council member dos Santos Tam followed by Council Member Wire. >> Thank you, Chair. Um you know, I'll be voting yes on this, but I do want to echo the comments of Council Member Tolba. And I also want to say, you know, I I do understand the importance of providing some relief to families. This comes out to $70 a year. It's $5.83 a month. I think we need to get real about what what an overall reform to a property tax system would look like beyond $5.83 a month. As I mentioned earlier um on the bus fair bill, while we're doing this and providing people $583 a month if they own a property on this island, and there's a lot of people who own multiple properties on this island, um we're about to saddle our most vulnerable populations with $10 a month per rider, per person um just to get to their jobs. And and I think that that's again not fair. And I think we really need to look at the lens of how we approach giving people relief because that conversation is just as important as doing it in the first place. >> Thank you, Council Member Wy. >> Um, thank you, Chair. I'll also be voting with reservations, not because I disagree with trying to provide relief because I do think everyone is approaching it with the best intentions and of course support providing any relief that's possible. We did have CDs on this measure and the prior measure similar to the discussion we had at the last permitted interaction group where larger uh deduction would have been revenue neutral uh in terms of impact on the city if we adjusted the rates and I think the reason we introduced those larger exemptions was because I think it's reflective of how much um property values have increased particularly during COVID right we saw that dramatic increase over the one year um and then as I've shared before I think That's why uh in large part I've focused more of our effort on trying to push up that low-inccome tax credit which is of course capping folks in property tax at a particular percentage. Right? And so it gets us a little bit closer to truth in taxation without being it across the board focusing on folks that really may have financial limitations or be in need particularly those that are in maybe high value homes because they're generational homes and maybe have lower incomes. And so just wanted to share that but do appreciate the robust conver robust conversation and the focus of everyone on trying to provide relief for our families. Thank you. >> Thank you. Any further discussion? Seeing none, roll call, Mr. Clerk. >> Council member Coddero. >> Council member Doz. >> Hi. >> Council member Kina. >> Hi. >> Council member Nishimoto. >> Hi. >> Council member Okimoto. >> I. >> Council member Talba. >> Reservation. >> Council member Tupola. >> I. Council member Wy >> reservations. >> Chair Waters. >> I >> Mr. Chair, there eight eyes, one member is absent. >> Thank you. CR264 has been adopted and bill 50 has passed third reading. Moving to the bottom of page 16 from the committee on zoning and planning, council member Kia Aa. >> I move that committee report 294 be adopted. A bill 33 CD2 is amended. Pass third reading. >> Second. >> So moved and seconded. Council member Kia Aa for the explanation. Uh this uh bill relates to administrative um enforcement as it uh amends the administrative enforcement provisions for violation of the standards and requirements of the land use ordinance. >> Thank you Mr. Clerk. Do we have any testifiers? >> Uh Mr. Chair, we have none. >> Thank you. Members, we're in discussion. Seeing none, roll call. Mr. Clerk. >> Council member Cordero. >> Council member Dosanto Tam. >> Hi. >> Council member Kiaina. >> Hi. Council member Nishimoto. Hi. >> Council member Okimoto. >> Hi. >> Council member Toba. >> Hi. >> Council member Tuola. >> I. >> Council member Wire. >> I. >> Chair Waters. >> I. >> Mr. Chair. There are nine eyes. >> Thank you. CR 294 has been adopted. Bill 33 CD2 has passed third reading. Members, we're on page 17. Perhaps this is a good time for a break. >> Yes. >> Okay. Let's take a 45m minute break. So, we come back at a 40m minute break. So, we'll come back at 2 o'clock. 2 o'clock. Okay, we're in recess. [Music]