[Music] foreign [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] foreign [Music] [Music] [Music] foreign [Music] foreign [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] foreign [Music] Aloha and good morning everyone council member okimoro can you please lead us in the Pledge of Allegiance Allegiance thank you so much also council member kimoro can you please introduce Our Guest for the message of Allah Aloha everyone and good morning this morning I have the privilege and pleasure of introducing to you um who is the area 70 for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints here and the area that he covers is North America West covering California Oregon Alaska British Columbia and presiding specifically over Hawaii here he was born in Western Samoa and has also lived in Utah but now lives in Kapolei with his wife ranette they are the proud parents of four children and when I asked Charlie and by the way his favorite colors are green and red that's why I wear red today and he's in green but his fun facts I asked for a fun fact about him and his favorite hobby is to play the drums and he played an abandoned high school I'm grateful to recognize and introduce elderly Italy council members uh Honolulu City uh chairman Waters pleasure to be here good morning and aloha graceful to be with you uh servant Community servants here in Honolulu as I mentioned my name is voi also known as Elder Ty Lee from The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints um we we love living here we've been here since 95 my my wife is born and raised in Hawaii a native Hawaiian and I've been sitting down this calling for about four and a half years as uh the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints um we strive to follow our Savior Jesus Christ in our worship and our services along with our involvement in the community here in Hawaii some of you know about the situation on Maui it's been a busy morning with Lahaina I spoke to our stake president there where the church is uh involved there trying to help with many of the people their loss of homes as well as our meeting houses there two chapels that we have in Lahaina so our prayers go out to uh Lahaina and the and the island of Maui this morning um I just want to share just a brief message of Aloha for us today as you meet in city council Aloha to me first and foremost means love as we know in the New Testament in the Bible teaches us that we love God with all of our heart might mind and soul and second like unto it that we love our neighbor as we love ourselves and to me this is a conjunction from the Lord Jesus Christ for us that we may find Harmony in our relationships and our endeavors to strive to become like our Savior Jesus Christ that we can be motivated by love because he loved us first and as we live together in this community and as we serve one another and find ways to show that love for one another we can always keep that in our hearts and in our minds as a way to motivate us in our service both to God and especially as we serve others in the community we have many opportunities from the church and through the church to serve here in the community we have many organizations that we partner with here in the community and we've been doing this for many many years on the last four and a half years that that I've been serving in this calling as an area 70 in Hawaii We are continuing to seek for opportunities uh to partner with charitable organizations a non-profit organizations here in Honolulu and throughout all of Hawaii so that we can serve the poor and the needy and others who are in need of assistance uh with that I I express my Aloha and appreciation Mahalo to the city council the members here the of the council that that serve uh in this in this manner that we can serve in our community and help those people here that need our our assistance and our help and I believe in my blessing may God continue to bless you and all that you do and all your endeavors to serve in our community and do what we need best for the people of of Hawaii and Honolulu County and I leave those thoughts with you in my expression of Aloha and then Jesus Christ amen thank you thank you thank you so much members a few procedural announcements but before we do that I'd like to recognize council member wire a Mahalo chair or just echoing door to the speaker um ask that we keep our sister counties um big island but in particularly Maui on our hearts and minds and in our prayers today um you know just ask for comfort for the families that are looking for their loved ones um Safety First First Responders and guidance for mayor Bisson and acting Governor Luke and um just know and I'm sure mayor and the administration but the city County of Honolulu is here to support however we can mahalo thank you procedural announcements 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 loss of audio visual communication with remote testifiers or loss of the public broadcast of the meeting members of the public will be allowed to provide oral testimony on all items on the agenda either in person or in the council chamber or remotely before testifying each person shall State their full name and the agenda agenda item they are testifying on each speaker may have may not have anyone else read their statement and is limited to a three-minute 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 through the podium and begin by stating your name and the items 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 item you're 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 a call for anyone else standing by remotely please utilize the zoom raise hand button to indicate your desire to speak for all 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 Presidio Novelo please mute your device at the time 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 6 to unmute yourself when prompted written testimonies including 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 for the duration of the meeting for your information Bill 41 relating to wind machines published in the public hearing notice of Friday July 28 2023 is not included in today's agenda and will not be considered the following item was not posted on the agenda for consideration on page 25 proposed fd1 amendment to resolution 23-182 copies are available at the city clerk's office downstairs in room 203 I'd like to call the meeting to order Mr clerk please call the roll council member Cordero here council member dos Santos Tam here councilmember Kia Aina here council member Okimoto president council members say council member talba council member to Paula council member wire here chair Waters here Mr chair nine members of prison thank you floor leader Cordero any guests today I think we have quite a bit well we I would like to welcome everyone who's joining us in the council chambers today including members of our Administration appointees neighbors and our community members thank you thank you Vice chair Kia in a motion to approve the minutes I move that the minute to the 10th and 11th sessions be approved second it's been moved and seconded Mr clerk do we have any testifiers um Mr chair there are none thank you members are in discussion seeing none any objections or reservations knowing no objections or reservations the minutes have been approved moving to the top of page four we now move to the order of the day from the committee on planning and the economy council member Kia Aina I moved that cr193 and was resolution 23 121 be adopted second it's been moved then secondly council member Kiana for the explanation this resolution confirms the nomination of Catherine a tatchner to serve as the Director of Land Management of the City and County of Honolulu thank you very much is cat patchner here Aloha thank you for joining us good morning chair Vice chair council members thank you for having me this morning I just wanted to offer a few comments before the resolution and that they're of extreme gratitude to mayor for the appointment to you for their consideration of this resolution and I'm joined today by my my staff and my family who have been incredible support so thank you to them as well remembers any questions for the nominee saying none thank you remember or excuse me any members of the public wishing to testify on this matter Mr chair we have none thank you members we're in discussion council member Kia Aina followed by council member tupola uh thank you and congratulations Miss tachner for um you know agreeing to serve in this important role as I told your predecessor Kia Aina very often is construed to mean it means pillar of the land but very often it's called Uh people interpreted to mean Steward of the land and so I feel that you are the Kia Aina for the City and County of Honolulu I've enjoyed working with you looking forward to increasing affordable housing opportunities on both city as well as non-citylands and I just wish you well in your continuing role at dlm thank you so much thank you councilmember topolo yes I'd also like to congratulate Miss tashnera thank you for stepping up and taking this role you know it's a lot to be a director of department and take on the responsibility and the headache that comes with it the lots of meetings and coordination to make it happen but I specifically wanted to thank you for your concern for the Clean Water natural land funds and really spearheading it more with more leadership in the direction of all of our districts we really did you know vote on it last year to extend the or expand the percentage for a reason and we don't want to see these funds be wasted we want them to see to see them used in our community to preserve some of these cultural sites so I just appreciate the detail that you've given to that particular program and of course all the support that you've given to my office as we have numerous land ownership uh questions in the city and you've been such a a great asset to us so I encourage you I hope that you continue on with the city so that we can build a good relationship and keep working towards um betterment of the lands that are within our stewardship in the city thank you chair thank you councilmember dos Santos town thank you um in strong support of um catastrian's nomination to this role um I just really want to commend and thank her for just being really Hands-On um in a way that's really refreshing uh a few weeks ago a cat convened some of her staff to personally meet with a constituent in Chinatown um it would Express concerns about one of the city managed facilities and just taking the time early in the morning to meet with somebody that was really really impressive to me um she's also taking me on recently on a tour of all the cities uh affordable housing portfolio in Chinatown that was really eye-opening for me as well and I've been able to see the effort that she and her team has put in to renovating those sites really activating and trying to activate those city-owned spaces to help with the revitalization of Chinatown which is a huge priority for me and so I look forward to continuing to work with her she has performed a vision for acquiring even more properties and pushing that forward and creating housing and just helping the community um in in big ways in small ways so I want to thank her for that and look forward to working with her thank you very much any further discussion members councilmember wire oh thank you chair just wanted to Echo that and Mahalo you for being willing to serve um stepping up I really such a critical time right um with the housing crisis we're experiencing and you know just the wealth of experience that you have I don't think there's anyone better for the job and so really thank you for your willingness in mahalo thank you council member tolba thank you congratulations I think uh one of the things that I just wanted to say everything everyone is saying but you know in all the conversations we've had has always been so optimistic and I love your energy and I I and I know the people of Verona are really excited you know because uh one of the things that uh Canada has really helped us understand some of the challenges but like I know in the next couple of months the people of Verona will be really happy and I just thank you so much for really investing and helping us understand and really really bringing that again that energy to do amazing things in accounting so thank you thank you members any further discussion saying none Mr clerk roll call council member Cordero aye council member dos Santos Tam aye council member Kia Aina aye councilmember okimoro I council member say aye council member talba aye council member tupola aye council member wire aye chair Waters aye Mr chair there are nine eyes thank you cr193 and resolution 23-121 has been adopted congratulations [Applause] moving to the bottom of page four from the committee on budget council member Cordero I move that committee report 199 and resolution 23-148b adopted second it's been moved in second date council member Cordero for the explanation so this resolution confirms the appointment of Gwinnett Higa to serve on the border view one for Real Property Tax appeals on this for the City and County of Honolulu hello Miss Higa thank you for joining us today would you like to say a few words there you go uh thank you for considering my nomination and if approved I look forward to being part of the process the appeals board is um important in in making sure the process is fair for both our residential property owners and our city budget requirements so I'm willing to put some time and energy into ensuring that's fair thank you thank you members any questions for the nominee questions or discussion questions oh no questions Mr clerk do we have any testifiers um Mr chair we have none okay now we're in discussion council member Cordero thank you um I would like to thank the appointee for our discussion last week and it was great to um discuss a little bit about not just appeals but um about a few of our members different concerns that have come up through the committee and um I know that as you go through this process there will be more opportunity for discussions not with just your fellow board members but and as well as the appeals that you are having but with the Department of budget and fiscal Services as well as um with us as council members so if there's anything that needs to be addressed policy wise as well that you've discussed with BFS I would love to continue that conversation as you go through your first round of being on hopefully being on the board of review number one for Real Property Tax appeals thank you thank you to members any further discussion seeing none any objections or reservations noting no objections or reservations cr199 and resolution 23-148 has been adopted congratulations and thank you for your service thank you [Applause] moving to the top of page five from the committee on Executive matters and legal Affairs council member dos Santos chair I move that committee report 204 and resolution 23-144 be adopted second it's been moved inside council member dos Santos Tam for the explanation this confirms the appointment of Patrick Smith to serve on the neighborhood Commission of the City and County of Honolulu thank you very much is Mr Smith here hello Mr Smith thank you for joining us would you like to say a few words Aloha chair Aloha Council Members thank you members any questions for the nominee saying thank you sir thank you Mr clerk do we have any testifiers Mr chair we have none thank you members we're in discussion council member dos Santos thank you chair I want to express my support for Mr Smith's nomination to this position this is actually a position that I held for several years as the ninth member of the neighborhood commission um I've also seen him as a representative of the nuwanu community somebody who's always advocated for that Community has been a really strong voice um within my district and I know that he's going to provide a lot of insight and intellect to the neighborhood commission and help to oversee all the neighborhood boards Island Wide thank you any further discussion members saying none any objections or reservations noting no objections or reservations cr204 and resolution 23-144 have been adopted congratulations Mr Smith thank you thank you very much councilmember Santos Tam chair I moved that committee report 205 and resolution 23-159 cd1 as amended be adopted second it's been moved and seconded council member dos Santos Tam for the explanation chair this confirms the nomination of Gene C Albano PE to serve as the chief engineer of the Department of facility maintenance for the City and County of Honolulu thank you very much Aloha Mr obano thank you for joining us would you like to say a few words I certainly do share by share and the rest of the consul members thank you so very much for the last four weeks in which it's been truly a whirlwind experience in understanding what the department of facility maintenance does for the city of of Honolulu I look forward to working with the council the administration and the department to see how we can continue to maintain our critical facilities in Honolulu I'd like to take this time to thank the mayor the administration and more importantly the leadership of the Department of facility maintenance specifically Deputy chair deputy director mommy zuka chief sugihar for their support and really getting me up to speed in the importance of my role I'd like to also thank former director sevcheck for her support and I hope to do the best I can in this role Mahalo I'd like to also thank my family who are here they are the backbone and the foundation of my existence and my well-being and without their support I am not who I am today mahalo thank you members any questions for Mr Albano councilmember Cordero thank you first off um I would like to thank the director of designated for meeting as much as you could with all the council members and not just the council members but their teams as well to understand uh exactly what each District's needs are that was very valuable and I know you probably allotted not just more than enough time for me but for other members as well I do want to ask because you said that you know just as your family is a backbone but everything that dfm does is also in support for the rest of the City and County of Honolulu we wouldn't be sitting here if it weren't for your department you know the the I mean just this whole structure too and so um with that in mind and with the amount of um I guess just vacancies and and needed to be filled within the department what is your first course of action um uh once you hit the ground running and I know you've already done so I have done so prior to my first day I already looked at the organizational chart and recognized that the staff the department was under staff so I met with the leadership team to strategize how would we bring additional staff prioritize the key hires in which we are looking to bring up uh the current staff and then backfill as needed uh this the department does what they have to do it's a group that's that basically says if can can and if no can they they still can't so I'm here to lend my support as best as I can to bring up the staff moving forward thank you and I know that um with such brain wide range of responsibilities for the Department I mean there's so many things that are currently sold backlogged you heard me talk about like not just things that we see all the time which is our um see and hear about which our streets are streamed maintenance but even things like our street signs things that I remember so many people have been asking for before I even was on the council that has a backlog for that dfm supports so how do you think we could address all of these backlogs backlog again is simple it's being understaffed and so as we are able to staff up I believe we will catch up in the backlog and it's just a matter of patience and being able to strategize how we bring up staff okay thank you thank you councilmember Kia Aina thank you and uh thank you for meeting with me as well Mr Albano as you know I've said that stream maintenance is a high priority for me as well as a I know all of the other members of the city council so apart from uh so in with regard to vacancies I guess for me I'd like for you to prioritize stream maintenance vacancies uh because it's not helpful uh that your shirt staffed I think it's a matter of public safety for many communities when the water is going to be overflowing and impact uh property real property and then second I would be very interested when you develop your budget to ensure that any uh weaknesses that you have with regard to equipment that you prioritize that as well and put it in your budget and if not ask us so that we could help you because there's no sense in US calling your offices uh repeatedly and you don't have the resources uh Manpower or equipment to get the job done so I just want to make sure that you prioritize stream maintenance thank you Vice chair with regards to equipment unfortunately we are still in post-pandemic mode in which the global environment still is struggling with materials so we are having to prioritize which equipment can be done abroad and procured as soon as possible we recognize that the stream cleaning and maintenance is important and I have stressed the leadership team how we can expedite those critical equipment to be brought to the island thank you thank you any further questioning of the nominee saying none we do have two registered testifiers first Ernie Lau is Ernie Lau here I'm secure the testifier is not locked down okay Erwin kowata hello Mr kawata thank you good morning thank you Council chair Vice chair council members Erwin kowata with the Board of Water Supply the Board of Water Supply supports resolution number 23-159 cd1 confirming the nomination of Gene Albano to serve as the chief engineer of the Department of facility maintenance of the City and County of Honolulu thank you for the opportunity to testify thank you very much any questions for the testifier members saying none thank you Mr clerk are there any other testifiers on this matter Mr chair we have one person by video conference uh waiting to testify okay please proceed flying on behalf of cares um although I don't know the uh nominee personally I'd like to testify and support um and um you know I actually don't know what the what an engineer does but because it has to do with dfm and dfm supports the storm Water Division and the Clean Water hero um which is a resource for the community not only for community members but also for the legislators to participate to clean up um the parks and the blocks and the streets um if there's any way to engineer like a smoother permitting process if that's what Engineers do or yeah um to um I'm sure that the people can get into the streams in the mountains because there's a lot of homeless people there so yeah I just wanted to say that thank you okay thank you very much members we're in discussion hello Senator thank you for joining us thank you chair like I said I don't know him but um I support but uliava um on the website been a mess 10 times before you got there so I'm not blaming you but we need to have that clean they have a beach the canal about a park same thing I sent you guys letters the department and Clean Water Act Right now we're getting mosquitoes we're getting stink smell the thing is not being timely only thing that you guys do that I give you guys credit for uh thank you Administration for doing this is the memorial of the pioneer uh graveyard for all our people that fall in a long time ago in a plantation that is being taken care of very well for you guys every month and I thank you guys for that I wrote a letter to you guys too the road was done wrong whoever was the engineer they probably retired by now they should have got fired there's no crown on a single Road they put a crown on the road so the water goes into the residence homes it's supposed to have been flat but The Unborn fast job because the president did the sewer maintenance had run away with the money and bankrupt and the city did the best they can but I really need you to look in that because it's very bad the water is almost ankle deep during rain and not heavy rain just light rain but again I support you going forward and looking forward and working with you thank you thank you thank you thank you for your testimony sir we will certainly look at your concerns and see how we can address it thank you very much thank you is there anybody else who'd like to testify saying on council member to Polo thanks so much uh chair in support uh Mr obano's been wonderful and um to the Senator's point we actually just had a meeting with congresswoman Jill tukur about ulehava because it is so severe I mean very severe we we have not enough equipment as mentioned by council member Kiana to do the jobs that we need to do and in a separate meeting we also had a discussion that dfm is actually doing jobs for other departments that really those departments need to kind of hold their own weight because they're using all of their equipment so there's some severe things but the comment I wanted to make is that we have former director sevcheck here and we've had quite a bit of director turnover and unfortunately I haven't seen a lot of handoffs and I don't mean that they don't call them maybe they text each other and try to help each other out but this department is critical for the city and so I just want to thank her for being here and I hope that this transition continues to be smooth because we need no Gap we need you to get in there with no Gap and just keep pushing us forward because we're so behind so thank you for still having a smile on your face yeah a couple months I want to still see the smile on your face also remember this is the 25th call from me so thank you for being willing thank you chair thank you any further discussion council member wire followed by council member Cordero um thank you chair and just wanted to see Mahalo director for your willingness to step up um you know as before leader mentioned dfm really is when we talk about core city services right there front and center and so I appreciate uh your you know technical background your experience and also your Innovative perspective um in the the time you spent going through issues and so I do have confidence that you'll be able to serve our County well and I Echo Vice chairs sentiments that I do think just across the board is a City Public Safety should kind of be our first priority and I'm sure everyone agrees with that right but we want to just make sure that you know stream maintenance in particular under dfm's jurisdiction is happening so when disaster strikes in all our communities are safe but again Mahal for your service thank you thank you council member Daryl thank you um I would like to just uh highlight but vaguely because I don't know how much you would like me to share but I think the discussions relating to the vacancies and how your experience where you will draw your experience to the city and how we can I don't want to say surpass but speed up the issues of vacancy within the department but and but working with our Department of Human Resources hopefully to do so is going to be great I would like to mention that you have a great deputy director that I know like will continue to bring you up to shore as well as along with the division Chiefs that you have so I really appreciate them and know that um I know that there's a lot of issues that that we are facing but um with your Innovation with the experience also um through all the money that's that we have to go through in the city hopefully we can come up with something that will help dfm to just be as strong we need a strong foundation for dfm and we hope that and we look forward to working with you on the council to get you that but we also need to see action for our communities too thank you thank you council member thank you council member talba thank you really quick I just wanted to say congratulations and in support I think in our private meeting uh uh I really look forward to seeing you uh move on those out of the box ideas that we talked about and I look forward to continuing what we do in uh Evan Waipahu prior to uh you coming in so I look forward to working with you uh I'm not gonna go I'm not gonna keep going on you know the challenges uh very important department uh as a as a son of a former rubbish man you know I look forward to uh seeing how we can really really step up our game and again uh the car the private conversations we had in in the office about OtterBox challenges and uh your ideas I'm looking forward to seeing how you implement that so congratulations and again in full support thank you council member thank you any further discussion members say council member Toba council member dupola aye council member wire aye chair Waters aye Mr chair there are nine eyes thank you cr205 and resolution 23-159 cd1 has been adopted congratulations Mr Ivano [Applause] members moving to the top of Page Six from the committee on Parks Enterprise services and culture and the Arts council member tolba I move that committee report 217 and resolutions 23-153 be adopted second is council member Tova for the explanation confirming the appointment of Robert Maderos to serve on the board of Parks and Recreation of the City and County of Honolulu thank you so much hello Mr Maderos thank you for being here would you like to say a few words hello Michael chair Waters council members just honored again to be appointed for for this critical role in our community and if confirmed I really look forward to working with you to understand the priorities of yourselves and your community and certainly working alongside and with the parks leadership who I have I've grown to know better and um certainly appreciate their passion and their energy and and trying to uplift the well-being of our our community so mahalo thank you members any questions for Mr Maderos saying none thank you sir Mr clerk do we have any testifiers Mr chair we have none okay members are in discussion council member Kia aino thank you chair Mr Maderos and I guess for all of the appointees for the Parks and Recreation um board I welcome all of you we need help because I know that the director the deputy director and all of the hard-working staff of the parts uh Department of Parks and Recreation uh their their roles are so important in our communities with regard to the use of our communities in all of our Beach Parks and city parks so I just ask that you guys do whatever you can to Cocoa them because we are doing our best and the other issue that I mentioned to all of you is that in preparation for the upcoming budget apart from the general DPR budget we the city council had allocated funding out of the transit accommodation tax uh to help mitigate the impacts by tourism on our natural resources and that's very much in line with the mission of Department of Parks and Recreation so I just make sure that the board and the director and her staff work with the Department of budget and fiscal services to make sure that uh that they get the majority of the allocation of that funding which is a minimally eight million dollars so just look forward to having your background and the background of all of the other nominees uh to join to join the board thank you so much thank you members any further discussion see none any objections or reservations noting no objections or reservations cr217 and resolution 23-153 has been adopted and congratulations and thank you Mr Meadows [Applause] council member tolba I moved the committee report 218 a resolution 23-155 be adopted second it's been moved and seconded councilmember Toba for the explanation confirming the appointment of Michael Robinson to serve on the board of Parks and Recreation of the City and County of Honolulu thank you hello Mr Robinson would you like to say a few words good morning chair and council members I'm very honored to be considered for this I want to thank the mayor and the administration for considering me and I look forward to working with the Council on the thank you thank you very much members any questions for the nominee saying none thank you Mr clerk do we have any members of the public who'd like to testify Mr chair we have none thank you members we're in discussion say none any objections or reservations noting no objections or reservations cr218 and resolution 23-155 has been adopted congratulations Mr Robinson and thank you members moving to the top of page seven council member Toba sorry I move that uh committee report 219 a resolution 23-156 be adopted second it's been moved and seconded councilmember tolba for the explanation affirming the appointment of Lara Houser to serve on the board of Parks and Recreation for the City and County of Honolulu thank you so much Aloha I would like to say a few words yes thank you thank you chair Vice chair committee I'm excited this is an incredible opportunity and I am so looking forward to be able to serve and Mahalo to director thielen and the mayor for having the confidence in me to serve in this role thank you so much members any questions for the nominees saying none um thank you Mr clerk do we have any testifiers Mr chair we have none thank you we're in discussion members council member chair just the comments I'm very excited about Carla's nomination she's very active in the community already dealing uh dealing with at-risk youth and um you know there's so many uh youth programs uh with the Parks and Recreation so I'm just looking forward to your participation and seeing how we could strengthen capacity uh with our youth and Parks and Recreation thank you members any further discussion saying none thank you so much any objections or reservations no objections or reservations cr219 and resolution 23-156 has been adopted congratulations and thank you for your service council member tolba I move the committee report 220 the resolution 23-157 be adopted second is for the explanation confirming the appointment of Catherine Chang to serve on the board of Parks and Recreation of the City and County of Honolulu thank you so much hello Miss Chang thank you for being here today would you like to say a few words yeah Aloha chair good morning to the council and like the other nominees very grateful for the opportunity the opportunity to serve I'd also like to shout out members of my non-profit team and they're over there who came to support I appreciate them nice members any questions for the nominee saying none thank you Mr clerk do we have any testifiers um Mr chair we have none thank you members we're in discussion voting on any objections or reservations not in no objections or reservations cr220 and resolution 23-159 has been adopted congratulations and thank you Mrs Chang members moving to the top of page eight resolution 23-177 confirming the nomination of Vida Holyfield to serve as the Director of Enterprise Services of the City and County of Honolulu Aloha welcome good to see you I'd like to say a few words yes sir thank you good morning chair councilman I'm Dita hollyfield I'm so honored to be the director of Enterprise Services designate I look forward to sharing my 30 years of experience in the entertainment industry all the way from some of the largest events over 50 000 people in attendance that I've put together in terms of attendance and promoting and also have the opportunity just to be so exhilarated to work with the leadership team that is in place at the director of Enterprise Services currently from The Young to the seasoned I'm so in excited and and energized about what can be done and I hope to bring a modernized view and an open heart for new and great ideas the last 17 years I've been in the media business and the last two I have an expert degree now in digital advertising which I think will really play well for customer service I've met with the ticketing team I've met with parking teams also through my Rodeo experience I have extensive background in animal welfare and care and I look forward to servicing the live collection at the zoo and the wonderful team that has been assembled at the zoo as well thank you for this opportunity I look forward to meeting with all of you thank you members any questions for the nominee councilmember thank you members I've followed the disclosure of interests uh statement numbered as communication cc-223 with the city clerk's office after the agenda was posted thank you very much any further discussion members council member Cordero thank you hi director designate thank you very much for being here and everything that you mentioned and I know that you've from the things that are big and small in our city but we also have uh such great projects including Blaisdell and also modernizing um other concession stands or concession vendors and so what are your goals within the first um I guess right after being uh appointed as officially our director thank you councilman cadero for that question I am excited to first of all just see the projects on the table through first I want to make sure that everything that we have in motion actually comes to actualization so that's going to be one of the big things also I'm going deep into all the best practices that are currently in place all the way from the blaised out to the concert hall as I said I've met with all the teams from the building supervisors um although and I walked all the venues and the properties so one of the things I just really look forward to increasing the revenue councils say that was the first thing he asked you to do is to look for new and creative ways because we do have some closures that will be sustained and short-term as well so I'm looking for creative ideas to bring exciting things and to be a strong leader in the customer service piece where it's not just the people of our state but also the people that are wanting to do business with us thank you councilmember Kiana thank you nice to see you Dita I'm so excited yes me too thank you councilman uh I agree uh that you know the department uh has so much opportunity with regard to generating revenue and I've been contacted by um folks who've been interested for example in the uh increased activity of the Waikiki Shell for example I'm pretty sure they're going to be contacting you thank you um and so I think that's important and with your background uh your business background and your Rodeo background I think it's going to be very very helpful uh equally important similar to Parks and Rec we have a lot of uh City uh golf courses that a lot of people utilize and there has been concern expressed by constituents and golfers about the maintenance of uh the golf courses so I just wanted to flag that for you because of course it's affordable for the everyday person to be able to go out and enjoy and I just want to make sure that apart from generating Revenue that we don't forget about the maintenance of of these resources I do know that your department has worked already on revamping the concessionaire mechanism so that uh there'd be more vendors that would be interested so I'm looking forward to that and just overall I think you're the right person for the job thank you thank you any further questions for the nominee members see none I do note that we have Kika Bukowski who's registered to testify it's Mr Bukowski here Mr chair I don't believe he's locked on Mr clerk do we have any other registered or unrethered registered testifiers yeah Mr chair we have none thank you members we're in discussion councilmember oh yeah in support I didn't have any questions for the nominee I also am excited and I just want to I was gonna say what is your first goal after you get your email address because we definitely need to start communicating with your department constantly we are hopeful that this department can be self-sustaining generate enough Revenue to take care of all your costs and more because that's what these venues can do is bringing the revenue for the city but also these venues can become like the the face of the city to be honest and so the ways that these venues operate need to be ethical need to be fair and I'm saying that because everyone has to negotiate a contract to use the shell the Blasdell and we need people to want to use our facilities we're in direct competition with the convention center and there are many people that just won't do business here because of the way that it's being done so I'm looking forward to you bringing that professionalism into this department and I'm looking forward to moving expeditiously through that as you know time is money and everything in the city fast is like three years so maybe for Dita it'll be like one and a half or one but we're excited to see what you can do and we want to encourage you and be here to support you thank you Mr chair thank you councilmember okimoro thank you chair Aloha Dita thank you so much for being here I just want to Echo um what some of my colleagues have said and I want to thank you for taking the time to visit with us I want to encourage you to stay positive I think I I want to thank you for when you when you did come to visit for bringing just a breath of fresh air and an energy that I think not just this department but a lot of the Departments here um and the city could really benefit from so I look forward to what you can do bringing your your private sector experience into the public sector and see how we can how we can merge those two and what you have experienced and the knowledge that you have I really like to see how you could like mention um generate new types of Revenue but also be able to maintain what we have so far so thank you for taking on this task I hope that we can keep you as long as possible because I think the longer you stay with us the more growth we can see thank you Mahalo chair thank you members any further discussion say none resolution 23-177 has been referred to the committee on planning and the economy thank you thank you for being here today Mahalo I'm so excited all right remember is turning to the top of page nine from the committee on budget council member Cordero I move that committee report 195 and Bill 34 relating to real property taxation uh past second reading second thank you it's been moved and seconded councilman Cordero for the explanation this bill relates to real property taxation okay I know a bunch of people have registered to testify is George Paris here are we on 34 or 39 34. 34 sorry pardon me I do not have any registered testifiers on Bill 30 Mr chair we have one registered testifier for Bill 3. badly sorry lizzywas are you available oh there she is yes I am thank you chair good morning council members Natalie Wassa for the record I pose this uh Bill what this bill does is it increases the exemption from the current 120 000 to 250. the 120 000 was just put in place uh in with Bill 40 and this bill also removes the in lieu of exemptions because it increases that exemption as well that it removes a five-year exemption period and you know you folks have talked about revamping the system looking at other exemptions you had that permitted interaction group you said there was going to be a follow-up and I thought that was going to happen in July and here we are in August and there's been no resolution to follow up on that it seems to me very disingenuous of you folks to say that you're going to be helping out renters and other people who have had huge huge increases in the real property taxes that's why I'm opposing this because you folks need to be looking at all of these bills these proposals none of which by way by the way for the long-term renters is on the agenda none of the repeals of the exemption is on the agenda or has been moving and I'm I'm just really thoroughly frustrated because you keep creating an additional divide between the renters or the landlords who provide homes for renters and the homeowner occupants and when you increase the exemptions somebody has to pay for that and it ends up being a big chunk of it the residential a owners and they provide housing for us and I think sometimes you forget that and I heard during the budget meeting that there was a comment about oh we need to find a way to get out of state owners well I would just remind you that some out-of-state owners also provide housing for those of us who can't afford a home so you need to have a system that is Equitable for all of us get rid of the exemption on the credit unions the labor unions the business leagues they cost us millions of dollars a year thank you that's that's my testimony I just asked that you established that permitted interaction group and have a complete discussion on the real property tax system thank you thank you members any questions for Missy Wassa council member wire followed by Cordero um thank you chair Mahalo Mr Wasa for her testifying today I'm just giving your background um in the financial sector I was curious and knowing your involvement in the council do you feel like the exemption homeowner exemption has kept up with the rate of increases we've seen in property values I heard that question asked in budget and you know if that's the goal no it hasn't but you the council has also added that residential a in there trying to get those awful investors and that has increased the tax on the homes that are provided for renters so with respect to that that hasn't that's not Equitable either so I understand your intent of trying to increase the exemption because the taxes have gone up but I would ask you you know keep in mind that just because there's a homeowner occupant above age 65 or whatever doesn't mean that they're low income and one of the things perhaps that you could look at is that credit you know so you have it at now I think eighty thousand three percent maybe and I I'm just throwing this out there maybe you could have a credit that's um like five percent for the next bracket of um income so that you catch the people who are kind of stuck kind of in the lower middle class so that they don't end up losing their homes too because I certainly don't want that but anyway long long answer to a sure question I appreciate the answer quick question last quick question chair Mahalo I'm just curious so given the great conversation we're having so if for example we did you know this exemption and then maybe we did an exemption on the resume for properties that are actually rented out and maybe those folks paid the same rate and then you know the the property not rented out paid a higher rate is that something you would support yes my concern there would be um how you how you would um enforce that or how you would get those particular properties in that classification okay or exemption okay appreciate that Mahalo follow chair thank you councilmember Cordero followed by council member Kia Aina thank you I'm also thank you very much for your testimony and of course about the pig as you mentioned you watched the committee on budget and I'm sure you heard many of the times that we did want to allow for um some of the bills that are in budget right now to go out for public hearing which you've provided uh your recommendations as well which I've noted um but also in relation to um this bill are you looking I mean there's different ways we can do such a pig and I don't really want to talk about it but like if we were to stick this bill in or talk about like the process in general um and and not move any other bills forward until the next end of the fiscal year um before we adopt the budget is there anything I guess would you be willing to provide that information to us I just realized I'm within the confines of this bill I can't really talk about anything outside but before before we do step into the next Pig provide that uh with me and my team as well sorry I I I'm trying to remain in my confines here of discussion okay so if I understand correctly you're asking what should be yeah in addition to what you've mentioned here as well as the five percent um for next income and other things that you mentioned um I would just like to be able to have that conversation with you certainly so what I would suggest is that one of your meetings be open to the public like you did with the pro our permitted interaction group because that lays out exactly all the bills that you're looking at and it allows the public to provide that input in a cohesive discussion thank you thank you councilmember Kia Aina you just have comments and discussion so no questions okay any other questions for the testifier saying none thank you Mr Clark do you have anybody else wishing to testify hello and welcome konohiki I came here once before about raising property taxes you know you fall asleep in there I would never raise property taxes because for one thing the city doesn't own any land and the property owners better check if they have a load your title although your title is kamehamez private property forever now you folks keep raising taxes taxes you know you focus not following the rule of law if you folks follow the rule of law you folks wouldn't be raised in Texas because you can get arrested for for your charity you generally law and stuff like that no if all standing there I will tell us hosts council members don't vote for any property taxes period even a state of Hawaii doesn't own any property they got up that they have a loyal title because only one person that did that and it's in the mahali law the 1852 Constitution you folks better check all that out before you even think of raising property taxes aloha thank you Mr councilmember wire can you take a minute and explain what this bill does appreciate that um so what this bill would do would be lower the tax payment for property owners that are living in the home that they own I mean so right now I know we just increased the exemption so 120 um the standard exemption 20 this would take that up to 250 and then take the kupuna exemption 65 and Order up to 300 000. just I think reflect the dramatic increase we've seen over the past few years in property values look to be clear if this bill passes it lowers taxes correct thank you um anybody else wishing to testify please thank you chair never come a long time so it's kind of slow on a draw when all these other guys coming up so I wanted to help out yeah so I understand there's a lot of uh you know Miss dismay I guess with raising taxes property taxes or even having anything to do with taxes um I guess that communities wouldn't be so um in disagree or separation if the taxes we pay comes up with the services that is being provided that's my perspective while my dad's perspective because you know he's retired he's 83 years old he's not a problem in paying taxes I mean we have to pay a fair share for positiveness but not certain things that is happening that a lot of people that wasn't really happy about the pay raise with the city council my dad that's something that he wouldn't had paid extra taxes for fixing our roads we pay more for our cars you know pay more for our land tax to get more services that is great but we pay more and get less than you robbing our communities of his service thank you thank you Mr clerk anybody else wishing to testify on Bill 34. Mr chair we have none thank you members are in discussion council member two Polo situation here just real quick Andy kawano director of budget and fiscal services good morning good morning chair Waters uh honorable council members Andy kawano director of budget and fiscal services quick question so if somebody's house average house half a million right 500 000 what would this bill do and how much taxes would it save roughly just so that the general public knows so let's see five hundred thousand dollars okay uh the bill would reduce the valuation by half right so it would be reduced to two hundred fifty thousand dollars so every hundred thousand dollars you pay three 350. three dollars and fifty cents 350 350 uh dollars 350 for every hundred thousand dollars of assessed valuation so so two hundred thousand would be seven hundred thousand and then 250 would be about um half of that 175 uh 675 about there so how much does it save like the person who has a home of five hundred thousand couple hundred well it's half right so the savings would be that number for that house that it's happening yeah so it'd be double six seventy two times six seventy five I see uh Mr Takara over there typing typing away if he wants to answer I can see him biting at the bit I just wanted to make it clear because you know I do also agree that we need some clarity on the direction we're moving forward so that we can also communicate this clearly to our constituents that ask us every single time what bill is this and what does it do and what about the other one because we just recently discussed the increase of the exemption from hundred to hundred twenty thousand right for 65 and under and then 140 to 160 for 65 and older right correct yep so is this tapping that same section of the law you're you're making an amendment to the same section uh covering the amount of the exemptions um what as I always say you have to make sure that we have a balanced budget as well right so um I I also recall during committee and budget we discussed uh going into a second permitted Action Group to discuss all of the bills together because a lot of these bills will have fiscal impact and uh you know we may not be in a position come fy25 to pave for all of the um not to pay but to to balance the budget when we have large reductions integral property tax so we have to look at everything together and come up with an overall plan right because we're chipping at different portions right but this one surprised me because I just saw the mayor cited into law and then I saw the bill touch the same exact part and then a little bit higher so I guess my question would be why we didn't just go for the higher one or if we are going for the higher one or staying here what is the Department's position on this bill well I think I think you have to remember for fy24 so we're in fy24 we um we adopted the one-time credit right so that that resulted in a approximate 53 million dollar reduction in real property tax so with everything else you know we we had to fund along with um you know the increase in the exemption that's what we could muster right for fy24 as we go forward we have to we're going to have to do the same thing so if we if we reduce real property taxes which is the main source of revenue for City and County of Honolulu we're going to have to look at the expenditure side and the services related to it and determine what's what's going to give otherwise we're not going to have a balanced budget and we cannot submit a budget that's not balanced did you already submit to how much this would result in a deficit uh this this bill yeah this one well I testified at committee on budget it's about it's just over 70 million dollars 70 million just just this bill by itself so it'll reduce uh real property tax revenue by by more than 70 million dollars okay thank you for um those answers thank you chair thank you any further questions council member wire um thank you chair again as we talked about Committee in committee when you say 70 million you're saying that's under the current framework so the current rates the current current yeah yeah it's based it's based on the current rates that we have in place and then a committee also said if we adjusted the rate to be Revenue neutral is that correct or it might have been administrative to car that's at that if if counsel who just said the rates it reviews and approve rates increases the tax rate for residents that has a commiserate impact yeah to the tax bill you could make it neutral but you would have to increase tax rates yeah yeah appreciate that um because we have we have the responsibility for balancing the budget I think I think we all do yeah well Administration and Council from the community perspective it's hard to go to them and tell them you know we need this much money right and so this you just have to suck it up I think from their perspective our policies and our laws need to reflect the need and the reality that our community is facing and then from that we assess you know how do we move forward because I from just the responses it seems like BFFs is assuming everything else is going to just be status quo no I I don't think so okay yeah we we um as I said uh during committee and budget we have tools that we can use we have the credit that we can adopt for one year we call it the one-time credit uh we used it for this year we can use it again if we have to um you're also doing the study we're doing this I'm talking about this study yep yep for the um empty homes tax uh and as I've testified in the past we uh you know we want to make sure that we um we have the right structure to administer it right so it's that we can roll it out in a successful manner if it makes sense uh we need the consultant to also cost it out for us to ensure that you know we can afford the administrative costs enforcement costs uh so that the tax can get can get moving forward um and and we want to make sure that if if we are going to collect more revenues that obviously the revenues from empty homes exceed you know the costs of administering the program so there's a lot of factors that come into play and that's why we need Consulting help to take a look at you know how restructured what more has to be added you know if there's laws that have to be enacted to properly roll out the tax what are the laws take a look at our administrative rules and so on and so forth so there's there's going to be a lot of work to do for that one I appreciate this intimate um so the rfp's been posted or is it the target as I mentioned was to post it at the end of the month so we're tracking it right now okay and so it seems to be on track as of right now okay yeah that's great news is it going to be out for is it a 30-day open bidder do we know typically yeah that's that's the target yeah okay yeah awesome thank you okay normal director I'm always here thank you councilmember Cordero followed by councilmember Kiana thank you um director quano as you know um my preface for all the bills um that are going to be following this bill as well is so that we can hold public hearing on these bills right because um before of course not all all members are members of the committee but not voting members but even before like as we could if when we operate as a promoted interaction group even in a public meeting not all of the council members can actually participate in the permanent interaction groups public meeting itself so which is why I really wanted to I I just want to make sure you recall that this is why I wanted the public hearing yeah okay perfect um and then my next uh question is um in relation to once we we adopted the last uh bill that raised it from 120 and 140 000 exemption I was wondering when does that take effect does it take effect in September already or next fiscal year it's going to take effect next fiscal year starting July 2024. okay thank you so um if and when I say if because like there's no actual action item um this bill Remains Not only in committee but goes into an inter permitted interaction group um this particular bill would not take effect into until possibly when the following fiscal year after that so you're talking about changes to are you talking about this bill we're talking about right this bill and any other possible changes that we that we made and to tax structures it's really going to depend on uh the timing uh and um you know for instance if we set up the permitted interaction group uh either too close to October 2nd that's the application date right or if it's if it's um if it's after October 1st which is the date that we uh we freeze the files to do the assessed valuation so if it happens after that date like let's say it's in November oh yeah the valuations will probably reflect where we are currently so yeah we may not make um an effective date July 2024 it could be July 2025 yeah so I don't know about the permanent and any any resolution or group yet but I anticipate because of such a discussion like versus a truncated discussion that we had originally versus such a discussion that we need to have it'll probably take even half a year to have this discussion yeah it's going to depend it really depends on how well we organize the group and you know what kind of decisions we make it's going to depend on where we are with regard to our budget process uh because as you know we have large collective bargaining increases that have to be factored in so it's gonna all of that's going to be discussed I presume in the permitted Action Group thank you thank you councilmember Kia Aina followed by council member wire uh thank you chair uh first of all I just wanted to Mahalo council member wire for for keeping the discussions on um uh homeowners exemptions uh on the table but I will say that I am discomforted by the fact that we're actually having this dialogue because uh uh what council member would not want to increase the homeowner's exemption uh I share the concerns echoed by others that uh this needs to be after the other two bills passed bills 3740 I felt that there was an understanding uh by the members of the permitted interaction group that we would follow up with the second one so that we could look more comprehensively at real property taxes so by moving uh real property tax measures independently um I don't feel comfortable with that it's over 70 million dollars for this bill and so on the one hand we talk about the need to improve government services and the need for more resources and equipment and Manpower and on the one hand we are moving a bill in isolation from revenue generators uh uh for for uh through real property taxes and I'm just concerned about that and so uh I will be voting uh reservations again as I did with the budget committee and I just respectfully asked that uh we reconsider moving any Real Property Tax Bill until we convene a permitted interaction group on real property taxes and through that mechanism in concert with public hearings that we look at all of the various uh elements of how to address our real property tax structure and from that we will have perhaps uh we'd have to create newly I mean new legislation as a result of that so I wanted a more comprehensive uh approach in how we move forward on real property taxes and so I feel that eating my uh expressing a reservation is going to be frowned upon as if I'm not for increasing the homeowner's exemption but to move a measure that costs 70 million dollars without explaining how we're going to generate the revenue simultaneously I'm concerned about that because it's going to impact government services council member wire model chair and I do appreciate Vice chair sentiments understanding that we do have multiple um tax bills moving through Council right now and so I do understand the sentiment of having those multiple tax bills considered in a pig and understand is BFS has discussed that just smaller Justice adjustments would make this Revenue neutral um in other words costing zero dollars to the city understanding that BFS is working as fast as they can to provide us the information we need to understand impacts on revenue and where potential sources exist particularly in looking at how we target out-of-state properties and understanding that those are all options on the table um I I think that ultimately as I mentioned before the real purpose of introducing Bill 34 was just to reflect the reality that we're facing um I'm appreciative of the council's leadership and increasing the exemption I also appreciate the community struggle and the dramatic increases that we saw on property values um appreciate bfs's willingness to look at where we can more appropriately find Revenue you know in terms of ensuring that the housing market that we're supporting is specifically meeting the needs of our local residents which are losing at one per 36 minutes so just over the course of today this council meeting you know how many is that and so appreciate all the discussion and just wanted to clarify kind of my intent and purpose because I do agree once we get them full from BFS we'll have a much better understanding of Revenue impacts and where we can make adjustments to really meet the needs of our local families and also shift the direction of our housing market so our properties aren't being sucked up by out of state investors I'm all alone thank you any further discussion council member two Polo thank you chair um yeah also I appreciate the expression of the intent it's good to hear that also have some reservations about us discussing this right after 39 and 41 were signed into law this is touching the exact same portion of the exemption which again we should all be for but really the whole structure needs to be fixed I've been a huge advocate of us trying to get the revenue neutral meaning that from year to year we don't just keep increasing our collection with the valuation rates but keep our stabilize our collection so that we can balance our budget while not having them to have to figure out different puzzle pieces and matrixes because we have so many different bills that we're trying to touch and just for reality is that if we again were to hold this in the pig and discuss this with all the others then we could look at this balance next year with the whole city budget because it really comes down to as many of the testifiers had said city services so if we have less city services which is the main concern and complaint that we get from our constituents then we're still not providing what we're supposed to be doing I'll just share a quick short story of why it's so important for us to have a city a balanced City budget and see our needs just this past Friday I had to get community members to go pick up trash at the park in maili because all of our DPR trucks were broken down not one trash truck could come out and the pile was like a mountain high and all the campers couldn't even camp in their campsite so we got community members to load up their trucks take it up to a piece of land I had to go and haul it on Saturday morning because we lacked the city services and the equipment so I just would appreciate those discussions and of course what you know Department the director has said about the the amount so once we know the amount we're going to have to go and see just like we do every year at the budget go and see okay where are we going to get a deficit maybe Dita comes in with a 30 million that she can bring in Revenue I don't know we're gonna have to piece this all together but we already know that we're lacking on the city The crucial city services that we get give so I think we need to be moderate and conservative in this path that we take forward knowing that the few small steps that we could take we took we need to take bigger steps I think and talk about the whole structure of property tax so that we can as Missy also said fairly benefit everyone and have a more robust conversation about all of the different proposals and like councilmember Canada said maybe come up with even a new one that we haven't thought of yet by being able to kind of mold through everything a little bit better so um yeah I'll also be voting with reservations thank you thank you members any further discussion councilmember chair uh voting reservations I hear the same concerns and I think in the last meeting I I shared my uh my thoughts on it and you know like council member to Paula said you know we have uh challenges in our community we see a brush fire that's happening on Maui and just on Westlock alone uh you know brushes and bushes and trees not being cut in that service it's so easy for us to like you know foresee something like that happening here so I have a lot of concerns I think you know what we continue to go go government and not really provide the services for the people in our community so I have concerns on this bill too so with reservations thank you councilmember Cordero thank you I want to thank the members for allowing the discussion to go back to committee because we do know that in um it should be worked from in the committee as well and so I want to thank the members I know that it's a hard discussion to have in a council meeting but once any any resolution to begin a pig and the Pig gets adopted a lot of us won't be able to have this discussion I might not even be a part of the pig so like I wouldn't be able to be a part of that conversation afterwards either so I really thought it was valuable to have the public hearing with the next few bills with this bill and then the next few bills so thank you thank you council member say reservations no Mr chair and strong support because I really love this type of a debate I think for all nine of us here at the council I think the foremost thing that we should consider first is to understand our city budget all revenues in the operations of the City and County of Honolulu comes from where real property tax everyone here has supported our public employee unions in the four-year contract of collective bargaining I've shared with the members of this Council how I feel about fiscal year 24 and 25 and by 25 I think a lot of our members forgot we're post Kobe we just got out of covet and two years ago we had to balance our budget with federal funds we didn't want to address increases in valuation or rates and that's how we took the approach in balancing it so when the cliff occurs in fiscal year 25 positions that we had that were federally funded match halfway with prop real property taxes it's going to be a big issue for us again to face I asked myself Mr kawano Mr kawano what has been the growth of our County budget year after year let's say when you first started two and a half years ago what has been the growth in the number of dollars per se percentage is it three percent four percent it's it's more than that because we're coming out of covid so I I started uh in 2021 the budgets were all restricted you know we were for that year I recall we had um 10 10 budget cuts uh in current expenses uh there was a hiring freeze um you know people were retiring on top of that so you know that that that actually worsened uh the vacancy situation you know in the city so the increases have been larger because the base got smaller uh and if you if you schedule out our um assess valuation for real property taxes uh from 2020 2021 fiscal 2022 it was flat it was it was flat for real property tax for um 23 and this year 24 we all know that assess valuations increase a lot because of you know as I mentioned earlier the alignment of the Stars One Way right to increase valuations low interest rates low mortgage rates pent up demand to um buy homes uh low inventory uh resulting in you know increases we we expect that in fy25 real property taxes should level off somewhat for everyone and um you know it's it's 25 is going to be a tough year very tough year from a from a budgeting standpoint it's going to be very challenging and I can sympathize Mr chair with Miss iwasa my recommendation to her in regards to renters we give these homeowners exemptions primary homeowners the exemptions and is not passed on to the renters maybe they can look at it at the state legislature based on income on their income taxes where they could make up a credit a credit for these whole not homeowners renters when they file their income tax all I'm trying to get at Mr chair is that it's very difficult for BFS to look at the income of renters and not know what they can do because it's privacy but more importantly we're giving a carte blanche increase in exemptions to homeowners that are renting their homes out and passing it on to recoup the increase in the assessment values am I correct so as the assessment goes up as a homeowner I'll just pass it on to the renter and that's what the discussion was this past two and a half years also renters a great deal of our general population our renters and how do you try to address it not at the city council at the State Legislature they have the taxing Powers they can give an exemption on the general excise tax if they want to income tax if they want to but nobody has the courage nobody has the courage to go across the street and ask these hard questions the amount of surplus that they had Mr chair wow I would ask Senator favela why can't you give the County of Honolulu a granting aid for your particular area or District a county Grant you need to all four counties and highlight what areas they want to help that's the issue that we have and I'm very frustrated at this point in my career because we have been mandating not we the state has been mandating more and more services upon the city to fulfill that obligation or is it going to end I would love to what we did two years ago in trying to get the city not the city the state to give us our fines and for teachers on the unadjudicated fines there was a report 14 million that traffic violations bureau could not collect give the city the opportunity of doing some collection I have friends that's so upset at us that the legislature passed the tinted windows nobody's enforcing that it's in the books safety checks nobody's enforcing that and that's why the general public today I feel is flaunting our laws there's no enforcement Mr chair and it starts from home if my neighbor doesn't have any that doesn't have in renewal of his license safety check license or safety check sticker and there's no fine horse citation everybody's going to avoid doing it call us pay to speed at this point because we are at a point where I see that we are in a very tough fiscal situation I am one who does not believe in increased valuation also it just hurts the local residents I am one that the members of this Council better wake up you have the power you guys want to touch your ages go touch real property tax rates that's done by the legislature that's us the council on properties real property tax rates we address that we don't address assessments and you folks all know that what I'm getting at yes we are at a point in time now hearing the discussion this morning yeah we need more and more of this and that it's all coming out of real property tax then we got to give relief relief to homeowners relief to renters I can't afford it the people of Oahu cannot afford it so in the next year for the members of this Council this four counties along with the state Administration Office of collective bargaining go back to the bargaining table and I for one will always support the PA raises and the opeb for our city and county employees because of the competition of recruitment and retention is that a priority that's my priority I haven't said much about what has happened this past year in regards to the budget and what we had adopted yeah I like to give but if I can't afford it what can I do which comes first Mr chair County Services or relief to our homeowners I don't have the answer and that's the Dilemma that we all face here today but for this particular measure let's have further discussion but maybe the chair would have to package it all and in closing this is what I have I wanted to share with you that I wish I had the opportunity as a former budget chair to have a hearing on the repeal on the repeal of all these real property tax exemptions outside of homeowners exemption I never did get to first base on it okay thank you thank you very much members we've been at it for on this bill for about 40 minutes um it's going to go back to committee at some point we're gonna have another permitted interaction group um but I like to stop debate unless anybody has some last minute things they want to say we're on page 9 of 30 pages a lot of people still waiting to testify on other measures real quick council member dos Santos them or chair I don't know if this is a time for uh the disclosures but I did follow a disclosure of interest statement numberless communication cc226 with the city clerk's office after the agenda was posted thank you very much sure yes council member to Polo uh just real quick I also filed a disclosure of interest statement with the office of the city clerk Council communication 224 thank you thank you I believe councilman roccomota and I did as well which is reflected on the calendar anybody else Mr chair council members say it's a question that I you know personally ask you then are all council members who are home owners that qualify these homeowners exemption have to disclose that I believe so okay so staff you'll be directly affected if this passes uh chair I'll be filing a statement of disclosure as well thank you okay any objections or reservations noting the reservations from council member to Pola Kia Aina tolba any other reservations reservations chair council member Okimoto okay see our 195 has been adopted and Bill 34 has passed second reading now to the bottom of page nine council member cordnero I move that committee report one I know 196 be adopted in Bill 39 cd1 as amended past second reading this relates to real property taxation second Ed thank you for the explanation perhaps we could have a better explanation later but I note that we have numerous people signed up to testify starting with t George Paris followed by Lisa Marie akau Kirk favela Natalie owassa Clyde Hayashi Mel kahele and James Monaco are you Mr Hayashi you're testifying for T George Paris okay go ahead hi good morning chair Waters Vice chair Kiana members of the council uh on behalf of managing director T George Paris Hawaii Ironworkers civilization fund uh you've all received his testimony a written testimony I just wanted to make additional comments in support of bill 39. this bill is about environmental justice um if for people that don't know pvt the property line is right next to where people live I mean there's no buffer zone at all people that living next to pvt have suffered the negative impact of the landfill for nearly 40 years um over the years we've heard of anecdotal um you know testimony about the impact the dust covering their homes they can't open their window on the side of the landfill many many people have died at a young age from cancer respiratory ailments so finally the CDC and you have this testimony please check the U.S small area life expectancy SMS project finally the CDC came up with this study determined the life expectancy in every census track in the country and what what this study showed was that the two census checks next tracks next to pvt nanakuli and Louis have the second and third lowest life expectancies in the state of Hawaii they've lost 10 years less than the state average right so this study finally confirmed what residents people in nanakuli have felt for a long time right they felt that they've seen family members friends passed away at a young age from different types of cancers respiratory ailments so we we feel that strongly that this is about environmental justice that this is a small the beginnings of compensating people that have lived next to the landfill um and we asked for the council support of this Mission thank you thank you very much is Lisa Marie a cow here Mr chair the testifier is not logged on okay Senator favela foreign thank you chair thank you council members I gave you guys my testimony I'm not going to read my testimony I'm just kind of speak from what I know and what I live so we already know what the previous speaker said about the 10 years shorten all of our lives so our mom fought for environmental justice environmental racism just remember that remember that in your head that's what it is but the landfills is in the most purest poorest communities in the state power lines all that was taken down because of leukemia respiratory eczema you name it you guys want to know go down there and talk to the people go to the Abigail nanakuli Clinic ask the people that worked there right across pvt pvt was never supposed to be a landfill that magnitude it was a recycle for construction material but there was too lazy and too cheap to come continue the recycling of the construction and wood that they were supposed to take to age power to burn certain things they could not recycle but that dump was not supposed to be 40 feet tall if you look at that it's bigger than the mountain behind them is it discredit to the community and the people especially the poorest people in the community so I just asking you guys to support this bill it makes sense not nonsense because environmental justice and environmental racism is happening on the West Side look at what we got landfills solo farms we got them all trucking companies everything you name them we got them well we need some relief for Ohana on that site so again thank you guys for letting me testify take care God bless thank you senator next we have Natalie Owasso followed by Mel kahele and James Monaco thank you chair council members Natalie Wassa for the record um after the prior testimonies I I I totally understand the concern however I oppose this bill um again you're adding exemptions which cost other taxpayers money and having this discussion without having the complete discussion is not fair to the other taxpayers it just isn't fair and so I hear again the concern that what we want to Target those out-of-state taxpayers we want to why don't uh renters get a credit from the state well not every every um every resident files a tax return for one and you know it's just again is frustrating for me to see this uh coming forth without having a full discussion this this bill also just to make it clear I when I first read it I just kind of went through it fast and I thought it was addressing both landfills but it only addresses the pvt and so I would think although I haven't done research on this I would think that the other landfill which has a whole lot of other garbage in it would also cause the same type of concerns and yet that's not in here so um just some questions I hope that you have more of a discussion in the second permitted interaction Group by the way I just wanted to mention with respect to the permitted interaction group like statement was made that you folks anybody who's not in that group couldn't participate and when you have a public hearing all of you council members are allowed to participate I'm pretty sure that's part of the sunshine Loft there's a public hearing you're all allowed to participate so I ask that you look into that because I think that is an option the last comment I wanted to make is that the preamble to this bill states that the amount of construction and demolition debris generated in the city has increased over the years due in part to the impacts of the Honolulu high capacity Transit Corridor project rail so here we have yet another indirect cost of rail that I'm sure people just don't even think about but just wanted to raise those concerns thank you so much for allowing me to testify thank you next we have Mel kahele followed by James Monaco's thank you chair Vice chair members of the council uh I lived on the West Side I've been living on a West Side for almost 50 years you know we talk about fear and being fair I don't think it's fair that the people in the leeward Coles have been stuck with landfills for over 80 years why is it stuck in the Hawaiian community put them elsewhere now we're asking for relief for the people that's living around pvt landfill they've been there 40 years again you know what's fear I believe I believe this relief for the owners of people that's currently living within a mile away from these landfill I believe it's fair for the people that always believe that wouldn't want to land through in my backyard should I have one to see how it feels getting trucks dust dirt people living 10 years less than other people that don't have a landfill next to their their homes so with that being said I strongly support Bill 39 thank you thank you Mr Monaco grandparently you know experience fear yeah I cannot have this kind of hazardous material around our children that would be fair not having them and having a hazardous material around resident residential come on gang we we've we're parents I don't care where we live as parents we should never ever have hazardous material I mean at home where do we have the Heritage material around our children of course not a round of grandchildren of course man we keep them as far away as we can and that's what we should be doing in the future I mean we made a mistake in the past because we have it right here in our in our community now you folks of course you guys better you guys gotta make decisions for please in the future of the past because you see usually all of the problems we're having people are dying into our family it's not strangers that are dying it's all families that are mine they feel decisions that you folks are making not me because I am making decisions that are keeping my family alive so please help us slap all of this wow it's bad game we cannot have our future Generations being exposed to all of this you guys sitting behind the chairs like I said before you know in the right history books you guys going to read books it's your names there's going to be in that book my name is Netbook 2 because I stay here behind the mic thank you thank you sir Mr clerk are there any other people wishing to testify Allah oh yeah let me get this thing straight again there is no annexation in Hawaii to the United States the Department of Justice stated no annexation Williamson Chang University of Manoa stated the United States have no jurisdiction in Hawaii that means we're not the 50th state now Alfred and desires he's with the United Nations people you know what he stated it's a fraudulent annexation so you people better pay attention to the rule of law and since that time how many rules that the city made from from the 1900 to the present and also the state of Hawaii legislature from 59 to now it's all bogus you folks are wrong you folks better follow the rule of law and furthermore this whole thing is all bogus mahalo thank you is there anybody else you'd like to testify on Bill 39 cd1 please proceed hello my name is um descendant you know proof konahiki I followed a constitution of kamehame III and I try to do my history of the overthrow of the queen and when I submit all what I will learn for having copy from somebody you know I might give them all to you guys so you guys can learn our history what happened these are the steps I think so maybe maybe some steps and hop skip and jump but should be all right and I want to submit or this one this one real good use a trustee is on copy so you guys can get educated and learn our history and 2017 or in 40s like I said yeah I got to give you guys this one you guys gotta learn this one okay let's just step okay but anyway the landfill the 39 bill what what you do to me is to try to stop what's coming in because it's going to take a long time when you're gonna put uh Apollo so in the meantime or whoever Island because I don't like this kind of material coming in and James in our water the land yeah I'm telling you guys as a Kone hiki the rightful speaker where you guys representing us and you guys are supposed to jump on the hookah there but you can stay on the learning the American flag we brought our flag back to the Washington Palace we're supposed to be flying him when somebody get the colors you fry your underwear you know just Wham you fly them and what you guys flying is you guys own underwear flight or rate color and thank you Mr Clark is there anybody else you'd like to testify on Bill 39 cd1 Aloha please proceed hi I'm Jolie tokusato with United Local 5. we represent a hotel Healthcare and Food Service workers and including members who live in nanakuli and we support this bill and we thank you for introducing the bill um just for people who wouldn't support this you just ask yourself if you would be willing to have pvt landfill in your backyard we think this is a start it's not enough we should do more but thank you for introducing this Bill thank you we support it thank you very much anybody else Mr Clark would like to testify please proceed Aloha chair Vice chair and the city council Angela Melody young testifying in support um so in Hawaii space is always a concern and by recycling we keep waste out of the landfill um this past year 214 000 tons of waste went to oahu's Waimanalo Gulch sanitary landfill a municipal solid Wasteland Pho and Kapolei and according to the state land use Commission because the city manages the municipal waste it will have to identify alternative landfills by the end of 2022 because the Waimanalo Gulch is set to close by 2028. um yet in 2017 a report deemed that the potential locations were not viable because the landfills can't be next to a conservation Zone School residential zone or hospital and um so now the city is looking for new locations and H power which stands for Honolulu program of waste energy recovery was built in 1990 and the waste energy plant process is over 700 000 tons of waste per year so that's all of the traditional ways of waste diversion there are also non-traditional waste diversion Solutions um from the discussions activity and initiatives from sustainable coastlines Hawaii youth Climate Coalition four oceans Surfrider the sustainability organizations in the community and some of them especially certified testifies for Public Policy relating to recycling and environment and there are going to be brand new ways to recycle and create Sustainable Solutions so as we see collaborations to create this cultural shift in the Way Recycling and waste is managed um there probably may not be more landfills in the future so before people get too worried um yeah I think there are good there's already thriving collaborations in the community for working to provide Solutions so um yeah thank you thank you very much members we're in discussion sure would I be able to ask a question to one of the testifiers absolutely um I would just like to ask Miss iwasa if she could come to the podium thank you missy Watson I appreciate you coming to testify it and I recognize that your opposition to this was based on the financial the fiscal part the you're against all um exemptions but I guess my question to you after hearing the testimonies of the others from the community on the leeward side who are faced with having the landfills in their community in their area is what what would be your um your take is if my memory is correct there have been opportunities for the east side for your community Hawaii kind to have landfills and the community has been in opposition to that so would your testimony be the same if this landfill or these landfills were in your community and that's my first question the second question is would you have a suggestion of where else we could put landfills again Hawaii Kai has rejected it um as far as today there's still not even a report of it being on the 2022 um report on the list it's not on the list in the June 2022 report given to the mayor for your another part of the the island specifically your side to be even a part of an option for a landfill another landfill um so I've been pretty consistent with respect to real property taxes and so the first question was whether I would be opposed to this if the landfill were in Hawaii Kai and my answer to that is yes because I think that you know we we have all these exemptions out there and nobody wants to touch some of these it's like they're just sacred cows and we keep adding to them and we can't keep doing that from a fiscal perspective we just can't keep doing that so yes I would I would oppose it even if it were in my backyard and I'm sorry what is your second question well my second question is if you had a suggestion of where else because I do hear and understand the sentiment of the residents on the labor side who this who who've been impacted by the landfills in the area and this would be something that would benefit them so could you have a suggestion for us of where else we could put the next landfill that we'd die really need at this time well as you probably know there have been many people over the years discussing that very issue and some of the problems as I understand it are the water tables the the closeness of schools various other issues that um impact where a landfill can be placed and so what I would do if if I had more power or decision Authority I would set priorities for our waste I mean look at what we throw away it's crazy and so we have now later in the agenda you're going to be talking about a resolution supporting a pilot project in Kapaa Kori I totally support that because for anybody who's not aware of that it would set up a pilot project to reuse the construction material I mean that absolutely makes sense to me and yet we have people who are saying oh you know when you do that be careful we don't want to jeopardize people's jobs well hello if people aren't living because they have a landfill in their their neighborhood what does it matter if they have a job I mean some of this stuff you just kind of have to take a a broad view and use a little common sense as well as trying to be fair and be aware of these impacts both both physically on the people and financially on everyone and I really do appreciate you being mindful of the the finances of the the city because that's something that is important to me as well and thank you for answering I think just I'm not from the community where this has been impacting but I think from those residents who who are it would be nice to just I think that's a part they're looking for is to not feel that they're always going to be The Dumping Ground for everything and if other people in our County would be more willing to and I'm not saying it should be you or anyone but we should come up with more solutions so that the Liberto doesn't always feel that they're just always going to be the last job I I thank you for being Mindful and I think on the east side where you are a resident of correct it would be nice if we didn't always feel that that every NIMBY is in that area because I think the rest of the county often feels that way that you guys come out and say we're never going to have any of these things in our yard but it's in your backyard and then and then we're just going to shove everything down on you and I and I'm not speaking because I'm not a resident there but from what I'm hearing that's that's how they feel and so I can I have sentiment for that I totally understand but and but it's not it it's it's across the board nobody wants that nobody and so the the answer in my opinion is reducing our our waste I mean to me it's it's a simple thing you reduce your waste you reduce reuse it you recycle it as much as you can so that as little as possible gets put into the landfill thank you thank you chair I I think I want to add a lot of the things that we have to also be mindful of is is the construction waste because we do have lots of projects that are coming through the the island at this time so some always cannot just be um reduced in that aspect but there is a bigger problem than than just one measure but I wanted to just ask you that question because I think it would be it's to show respect to the people from the community so that they understand where your opposition is coming from thank you thank you chair thank you any further discussion members chair council member tupola followed by Cordero thank you um I have a real quick question for um director cuano for the record Andy colano director of budget and physical services Aloha director I did read your communication and you answered some of the questions that were posed in the hearing and uh you know I think chair waters for introducing this on behalf of one of my community members I do have concerns because we haven't run this through the neighborhood board and there's a lot of people in Waianae that won't get this benefit so help me with this buffer zone currently right now it's suggesting one mile I think in your memo you you gave an analysis of what one mile looks like what a half mile looks like but if it was a one mile around that gave the tax benefit the way that I did the map it wouldn't hit all of nanakuli Valley because PBT is situated in Louisville and so it would hit some portions of hellelua area the area in front by uh KFC and then it would hit some of princess kahanu but when you did your calculation since you came up with a numerical number of homes did it hit all of nanakuli Valley the one mile council member to Paula your analysis is correct so we went from the outer boundaries of those operations you know outer mile so because we're using a set measurement not all of the area may be included the the issue we're trying to think through is you know this is the underlying issue of the health of impact and all of that you know we we take that seriously uh but um it's a big issue and it's it's bigger than real property taxes so the our thought process is cause and effect also you know besides just the radius what's the cause and effect between a real property tax system that funds City operations and this this problem that we're talking about because it's a it's a huge problem it's bigger than real property taxes so that that's one thing and um if we um if we pass ordinance as is the way it's currently drafted cd1 um what does that mean going forward you know in terms of other situations where you have sewer treatment plants um and other facilities like that will it will it start the domino effect of a continuation of the erosion of the tax base that that's our concern and um you know it could it just keeps snowballing because then you can have Bond credit impact and it just goes on and on and on in your reading of the bill did it in your perspective also include waimanola culture just pvt I read the preamble to mention it but I read the substance to not mention our written response included both both right yeah and and for clarity because of Acts 73 which essentially is going to downsize pvt and and hopefully you know correct things I do think that my concern was also that how how do I how do I find parity in the community though because if there's a one mile like line that goes around it and say for example PBT does close and then those people that were still have long-term effects how do we measure that but then also it'll start to only benefit koolina and honokai because it'll just be one Manalo Gulch and so I asked all the neighborhood boards because all of them asked me this past month what is this bill who introduced it and what are you guys trying to do because one they're concerned that we don't want any landfills in their community at all right so are we being compensated so it can just stay in there longer two is how do we how do I tell one person that's inside the one mile you count and the person outside the one mile you don't count it's not going to include all of nanakuli Valley and the people who talk about it the most at every single neighborhood board I kid you not we don't skip a month without talking about the landfill is the nanakly neighborhood board every month in fact they have the EnV director come every month and update us Cynthia resentis who served Decades of her life on the neighborhood board served on the landfill advisory committee and she herself hasn't even weighed in on this because no one really knew that this was coming in so I guess my concern and I appreciate you know you breaking it down is I would have to go back and figure out how is this Fair because really it's the whole West Side that's affected so it wasn't just like one mile just carried it but those people are affected heavily because of the the proximity but I think in general you know years ago when Luffy Hanuman was the mayor they came up with a community benefits package so then it was everybody gets free summer fun it was kind of a way to placate the community right okay you guys can have a couple free things because you have the landfill in your community so I think those are are my concerns and I appreciate your your responses as we consider the fiscal impact but then also really like what is the length after a landfill that there still affects because technically if that's the case we had a landfill even deeper in Waianae that they closed down right near where the convenience center is and that's why our Convenience Center is so small is because the whole area around it used to be a landfill and so nobody can build on there and there's still you know emissions coming out from that so I am heavily opposed to any landfills on the West Side definitely want no more extensions of time because we need to move forward and just for everyone's Clarity uh you know there there was a 1 000 page report that broke down exactly where we can and can't have it the administration is looking at Waipio Peninsula as a possibility but it's federal land so we're not sure where that's going but we don't want to see it continue in our community but I also want it to be fair as it's affected many people even within without the Y mile buffer so I I'm still going to wait until I hear from the neighborhood boards what everyone's thoughts are as everyone's going to be taking it up this coming month and that'll come with kind of more of a complete thought but thank you director and I'll probably send more questions to you and Cheryl I have more comments and I'll conclude at the end thank you thank you as an introducer of the bill this was meant to be mitigate the negative effects of the landfill pvt not waimanalog Ultra and I intend to do a cd2 in committee to further clarify that I take your comments to heart and perhaps we can increase the mile radius to include the entire Valley but you're also welcome to introduce CD to yourself um members having said that again this is second reading do we have any further discussion council member wire I just wanted to say I fully support the measure and appreciate chairs Leadership Model thank you any further discussion members seeing none any objections or reservations sure I'll be voting with reservations and again I'll come back with information from our neighborhood boards we're going to take it up next week the week after and the week after that so I just want to get a more thorough picture from the community and I'll share that in the committee thank you perfect thank you any other reservations members seeing none cr196 is a has been adopted in both 39 cd1 has passed second reading thank you members moving to the top of page 10. I wanted to take the two bills on page 10 and then out of order um resolution 23-182 which would rename the Waikele community park for Daryl T Young is that okay members okay so back to page 10 councilmember Cordero I move that committee report 197 be adopted and Bill 40 past second reading and that relates to the transit construction mitigation fund to establish additional requirements for the transit construction mitigation fund second it's been moved and seconded Mr clerk do we have any registered testifiers Mr chair yes we do please proceed I'm the uh video Harvest testifier is not logged on but we do have in-person testifier registered Miss uwasa okay good afternoon msiwasa please proceed thank you chair council members Natalie Wassa for the record uh this one is going to be short I oppose this um what this bill does is that it amends the fund to require the administration to develop rules I looked at the last audit of the city's financial status and as I I as it appears to me there is no money in the fund um I don't know it's perhaps there there were some small funds that were combined but there's not enough in it to make any kind of significant difference and um I'm sure you remember that you folks had passed a resolution 22 281 which asked the city to report on the status of the the fund and as of at least mid-june I think even as of today no such report has been received so I think the discussion on this is premature and I would ask that you follow up if if they haven't provided that report then you know they need to do that but as I understand it part of the problem with this is that some of these businesses that have been impacted are actually tenants they are not the owners of the properties and so trying to get grants into the appropriate hands is has been challenging so I'm just ask that you take a look at those issues thank you so much thank you any questions for the testifier seeing none is there anybody else would like to testify on Bill 40. please proceed Aloha Angela Melody young testifying in support um of the heart construction [Music] um mitigation fund and so heart has and continues to be diligent in searching for ways to address um the funding um and it continues to look for ways to reduce its internal costs including ways to improve efficiencies of internal processes and risk reduction actions have been implemented which will reduce future costs of procurement a good example of risk mitigation is the work by heart to get the utility designs completed and approved before the to utility relocation contracts and this work will save construction costs and also shorten the work schedule adding to the construction savings um in the past heart has gotten contracts without approved final designs which is a considerable risk to the contractors proposing on the construction work um so you know anything we can do to support heart is a good thing um because it supports our community thank you thank you Mr Clark anybody else wishing to testify Mr chair we have none thank you members are in discussion council member Cordero thank you discussion or questions um okay you can ask questions okay thank you um first off uh of course thank you members for allowing us to have a public hearing on this because um it would be great to have this discussion um outside of our uh our committee as well um but a lot of the things that have been brought up about uh how we can make things quantifiable for not just the those being affected that would either benefit or be impacted by the fund but also how the city would be able to implement it is something that we we should look at and talk about and um and that's where a lot of the rules and I guess implementation process would need to come from so I do have that question for um I guess director kawano because I know we talked about it a bunch in the past years but also in committee relating to first off how can we quantify like what exactly has um been how the businesses have been impacted by the construction that started at the beginning of this year or kill end of last year how we can um then utilize that quantifiable amount or structure and then allow for us to determine a certain amount that would be viable to put into a fund that was a lot that that's a hard question to answer uh it's going to take a lot of work as I mentioned during committee on budget uh we will probably have to get financial statements uh that and we're going to have a discussion whether or not the statement should be reviewed or audited by a CPA so we can rely on the numbers but we're going to have to look at multiple years before construction rolling into during the construction period we would have to you know analyze any changes to the business so it'll involve probably interviewing the owner slash operator the businesses to understand how the business or commercial operation has changed over the years um and then and then we're going to have to isolate okay what what harm has rural construction caused and we're going to have to do that for every business that applies so it's going to be a lot of work um the other part too is um we're only currently we've only been looking at businesses adjacent to Dillingham so we start a program like this is that fair is that equitable you know where where is it going to end how how far out do we go what's the radius from Dillingham Boulevard that should be looked at the other issue is what about the past what about Pro City what about Waipahu and then going forward uh what about downtown what about whatever we impact as we go to City Center so we're going to have to think it through and um uh my recommendation might be good to discuss more in Pig and in public hearing have more discussion because uh there's a lot to answer before we Implement ordinance to make this happen and then you're right um budget chair we got to figure out how does it get funded right okay thank you thank you any further discussions council members say followed by councilman yes director would it be possible that this particular program fall under our grandson Aid Commission we just create a sub account from the transit authority funding that they have and let the commission determine the qualifications of these particular businesses it's it's possible but we gotta check so the funding is from the transit account you're saying we got to make sure that it's legally you know allowable to use the funds for the purpose you know of mitigation okay so that's yeah that's going to have to be reviewed councilman thank you chair um this isn't for the directors so this is just a statement uh about this bill I want to thank uh our budget chair for working with me to introduce this we share the Dillingham Corridor we know that there's going to be substantial uh impacts from the rail Construction in that Corridor that's already happening it's gonna you know get even more uh impacted over the next few years as we head through Dillingham into downtown and into kakaako um I want to appreciate uh Ms awas's comments uh because I think the background she provided was really important you know there have been several bills over the past seven years eight years uh from Bill 42 in 2015 Bill 9 in 2018 and two other resolutions along the way uh dealing with the rail Transit construction mitigation fund monies were put into this fund and were never spent and now as Mr Wassa points out correctly there's no money in this fund but I disagree with the conclusion that she made that it's premature to pass this bill because I think that this bill is part and parcel of discussing how to deal with the construction uh impacts and to have rules in place for when we put money in and I hope that's not if we put money in but when we put money in to help deal with these businesses to help make sure that you know they can stay operational during this construction it's important that we have these rules and so I want to thank BFS and I look forward to working with BFS to come up with some rules and policies that are going to make sense that are going to be sustainable that aren't going to be a major drain on our city but you know we do need to make sure that these businesses do Thrive and succeed and get through this rail period other cities have done this uh Seattle Salt Lake Phoenix Portland they've all done loans Los Angeles Seattle I've done grants there are also tax relief programs in many of these other cities and so there's there's a blueprint here but we need to make sure that we have the rules and Bill 40 is a way to start that thank you any further discussion members saying none Mr clerk please call the roll council member Cordero aye aye council member dos Santos Tam aye council member Kiana aye councilmember kimoro aye council member say councilmember talba council member to Paula aye council member wire aye chair Waters aye Mr chair there are eight eyes one member is absent thank you cr197 has been adopted in both 40 has passed second reading council member Cordero I move that committee report 198 be adopted and Bill 42 cd1 as amended past second reading and this bill relates to real property taxation which provides property tax relief to certain homeowners second is we thank you for the explanation Mr clerk I believe we have one registered testifier and Natalie Owasso please proceed actually two Jun James thank you chair uh council members Natalie Wassa for the record I oppose this bill um first of all it handicaps future administrations and councils from being more flexible when the need arises such as when opeb increases or salaries increase and it's also um adding it would add pressure to other taxpayers because costs are going to continue to increase and so when you limit it like this you limit the um the flexibility in the budget um other concerns I have are that upon sale the property goes up to the fair market value which means that that homeowner who purchases that property would face a huge increase in the taxes which um could you know potentially bust a sale if if they become aware of what that tax would be the thought behind this bill is to keep City costs in check but you know you folks already have that power every year you talk about the budget and and almost every year it's the same you cut the administration's line items and you put in your own preferences you it's very rare that you control the cost you you have that ability you don't need to have this artificial cap in there the other idea behind this is that you're going to try to keep local families in Honolulu but keep in mind that over 40 percent of our residents are tenants and so when you put pressure on those other groups the other people who are not benefiting from this cap their taxes increase the the taxes get passed on to the tenants so um you know this is one of those other bills that well I just absolutely oppose it regardless but it should be discussed in the permitted interaction group with all the other bills that you're looking at so that the public has an opportunity to see exactly what it is that you're envisioning for this real property tax system if you are planning on revamping it as some people have said so thank you for allowing me to testify thank you very much Mr clerk is June James available hello please hi can you hear me yes okay I'm just having the toughest time this morning with the high winds and everything we get that way um so are we on um Bill 42 yes that's correct okay okay I just managed to submit testimony this morning I appreciate the efforts that the city council is doing uh trying to improve the the system but I I do want to say to you that this eight percent does not address what really happened to the skyrocketing property assessments values in 22 and 23. so if if you use uh eight percent many of the property owners have seen increases from 24 to as much as 54 last year so in fact eight percent will automatically Force Property Owners into the 23 outrageous assessment so you are actually freezing their very high assessments also this bill does not address the discrepancy and the systemic irregularities in the property property assessment systems we know that it's not easy to cross the board because Oahu has so many neighborhoods that are not cookie cutters and so you know with that similar models and living space and land area and and again that with the assessments uh last year and the year before uh there have been a lot of uh outrageous increases and also um the uh the idea or the differences and I gave you a few examples in my written testimony is that gentrification is already heating our local families and on on one street alone that I've used example on many locals family dating back Generations have been priced out and affluent uh newcomers have replaced them and also like um like what has been said you know not everybody is a property owner but a lot of our local residences residents uh enjoying long-term Housing Services by landlords who have rented to them long term and for very reasonable rates and so all those need all those need to be taken into uh into consideration and works like put market value we think it should be uh call purchase price value that is uh that is more accurate it's also in my uh written testimony and uh you know again I think that is a good start and it's good that we are discussing this but you know that there's some states who do not have property taxes for their property owners over 65 and I think we seriously also need to discuss California's proposition 13 not in this entirety but we can certainly pick and choose what is what will be good for us but the bottom line is and I think that that you are heading to us that way is that we want to help local owners residents who are tenants so that they can remain in here Hawaii and and that our Island do not become just a uh island of the most affluent and the community of um uh service people and the middle class is all erased so thank you so much for your efforts and I pledge to continue to provide more information thank you thank you Mr clerk do you have any other testifiers please proceed Aloha chair Vice chair and the city council Angela Melody young testifying on behalf of cares and strong support So taxes are sometimes levied to discourage certain kinds of bad behavior such as smoking cigarettes we call them sin taxes but the most important reason to Levy taxes is to raise revenue to pay for public services the taxes the price of service is consumed Public Services include Public Schools Hawaii is the only state to not have a property tax to support the education system now this is something hsta has been a fierce advocate for because Hawaii is the only state in all of the USA that does not have property tax to fund Public Schools so Senate Bill 2922 called for a constitution amendment to authorize the state to create a real property tax to support public education the amendment was needed because the state constitution only gives the city the counties the exclusive power to Levy property taxes Senate bill the Senate bill was enacted to propose to authorize the state to also get the power to Levy property taxes and it was on the 2018 ballot as a proposed amendment however the justices ruled that the ballot language was not clear enough and the scope of the new tax and the revenue that was to be spent was not specified so although this could have been a victory for Hawaii schools and it would have created a new source of potential funding for Hawaii Statewide school system it did not pass and it was not enacted into law so I just thought I would bring up this concern because we have a new audience here today I know some of the people have heard me talk about this um previously So yeah thank you thank you Mr clerk any further testifiers Mr chair we have none thank you members we're in discussion council member to Polo for Mr kawano please Andy kawano director of budget and fiscal services for the record thank you so much um so my quick question especially because it gives you discretion in this bill and of course you know you and I had talked about my proposal which I'm trying to keep everything Revenue neutral so that you guys still have a bottom line but that it's not fluctuating as much for the residents this is saying that if it's more than eight percent then we kind of stop the valuation increase how how would you how would you administrate this hmm first of all I don't like it but uh the administration is going to be the same the uh the the mass the underlying methodology Mass appraisal system you know in place supported by Community computer assisted Mass appraisal software is not going to change uh the what we would have to do is program the software so that year over year increases cannot increase by more than eight percent um you know I don't agree with that I I as I mentioned during committee on budget uh the the methodology methodology should be kept pure you know if we're gonna if we're gonna maintain a uh fair fair market value platform based on mass appraisal following uh Professional Standards International standards that are out there you know this this this uh platform has been in place for decades we should we should leave it as is and use the tools that we have to provide tax relief on an equitable basis when necessary now if if we want to create a different approach to assess uh parcels perhaps that's something we should discuss in permitted interaction group uh and um you know keep in mind that we got to be real careful with the transition because we don't want to be in a situation where we don't really achieve the objectives right uh we want to we we need clear objectives and uh we're going to need a process such that anything agreed upon if there's a major overhaul is going to work and um you know put us in a better place that's that's going to be difficult to do because as I read it um the part about the eight percent says that you could also tack it on to the following year meaning that if there was an increase that you could kind of spread it out so you're the way that I understand it correct me if I'm wrong is that it wouldn't increase more than eight percent every year but it could continue to increase every year at eight percent and that you could tack on values at following years that's that is the uh discretion piece that you brought up uh and I don't I don't like it uh um personally down down the road you can have situations where you have a BFS director or Administration that's not fair and um you know does not Implement that equitably across the across the island so the the more clear-cut the rules the better off for everybody that everybody gets fair treatment um the other the other parts too is that if you do a renovation of your home that takes precedence right versus um uh the the cap right if you do a renovation so I think we need to have more discussion on how that works because what if the renovation is super high you know you we I've seen it already in my short time here I've seen a home valued at um close to a million dollars with uh eight hundred thousand dollar renovation should that home be tax 80 percent more maybe but is it fair if everyone else is on a cap that is going to be capped at eight percent well and then you have the scraping build right so you have lots of homes that we have that are run down that you basically have to demo the whole thing start all over again and that would be a huge considered renovation but it is it was just kind of uh hard for me to understand all of it so thank you for the clarity um and I'm still a proponent of us trying to keep the revenue base neutral I still feel like um truth and Taxation which works in four other states is a solid concept so I am hoping for further discussion of course agree with you clear objectives uh clear outcomes would be the best thank you thank you chair remember is any further discussion council member uh director again uh you you can't calculate costs right the cost of this measure uh not right now okay yeah okay thank you so uh chair chair just similar to my what I've shared with Bill 34 I'm concerned about moving any real property tax relief like this without uh looking at the broader picture uh I understand that uh this was requested by a constituent and I am hoping that when we have a second permitted interaction group we might solicit actually based on the various elements of the the tax structure comments from the public so that uh when when we start having a dialogue uh everybody will be able to share a monopol because I don't think we'd want to be introducing uh all of the measures that uh people are requesting because uh we acknowledge the complexity of what is going on the dire need for tax relief but making sure that we balance it against uh continuing to provide government services by having a balanced budget so uh I just wanted to say that so while I am going to I support this measure moving forward I still continue to express concerns over any rpt bills thank you reservations No Reservations on this bill because the costs were not calculated the only reason I I expressed reservations with Bill 34 was because 70 million dollars is a lot of money thank you thank you members any further discussion seeing done any objections or reservations no to no objections our reservation cr198 has been adopted in Bill 42 cd1 has passed second reading members with your Indulgence can we take up resolution 23-182 which is on page 25 page 25. Vice chair Kia Aina I moved that resolution 23-182 be adopted second it's been moved and seconded vice chair Kia Aina for the explanation this resolution renames the Waikele community park for Daryl T Young thank you is there a motion to amend council member wire mahola Cherry yeah I moved the resolution 23 182 be amended to the hand Creed fd1 the proposed fd1 makes the following amendments amending the first resolve Clause by changing the name of the rename Park to Daryl te young Waikele Community Park in making miscellaneous technical not substantive amendments second it's been moved and seconded thank you so much for the explanation is there anybody who wished to testify on the measure I do believe director crocky Aloha thank you so much nice to see you uh director Anton karate Department of Community Services um our department has been greatly moved during the last month over Daryl's passing and we really appreciate and support the council in this action I think it's appropriate and I also talked to director Laura thielen and we keep the name of the community in the park prefaced by Daryl's name and so thank you very much for your consideration thank you is there anybody else I'd like to say a few words no members we're in discussion sure well I'm sorry yes chair thank you so much and uh I I I was unaware that uh this was gonna was on the agenda but I'm clearly uh moved and uh delighted uh to be supporting this measure uh Daryl meant a lot to many people uh at the services on Saturday it was reflected by the hundreds of people who was at the Kamehameha Chapel he is a dear to me for a a number of reasons uh first and foremost of course he is my class classmate we are proud 1981 graduates of the commitment schools and uh my chief of staff Jocelyn Doan was his uh predecessor the administrator for the community-based Development Division and last night I got a call from councilwoman Sue leloy from from Hilo who found out from our other classmate her husband I and leloy about his passing and she was uh devastated last night and we talked for over an hour of how Daryl touched the lives of so many people in all of the various departments that he worked for for the state and city as well as the communities that he touched and so I just wanted to um express my deepest sympathy to the young Ohana and to just let you know to Jamie and to a sons that uh you need to know that your husband and your father and your son for his parents that they uh he's left a lasting Legacy and it's evident by the fact that we are moving expeditiously in the renaming of the park for him right now and so that's all I just wanted to say how much he was loved and in the community of Waimanalo I've already talked to the community we were working on a honu program which a Honolulu police department works in concert with the city to help our homeless community and we were also in in the throes of working on a traditional housing program on 15 acres of land in Waimanalo so his legacy is going to be throughout Hawaii and I just wanted to let you know how impactful he was to me personally and for the people of Honolulu thank you so much thank you council member wire I'm a hollow chair um first just wanted to say hello to Jamie um Zach Carson I know Marge and Kevin is Daryl's family you know his wife his sons for for sharing him with with all of us um Daryl was everywhere right he was our Community Association president where here's our Precinct president you know of course my boss when he was administrator at community services and I know so many people in this building um in this state knew him like dot at dhhl so many places and so I'm sure they have you know so many stories and over 50 pieces of testimony and support um I don't need to replicate or go over you know his whole resume um to just share how important his work was so I you know I figured I would I would share you know a story from from DCS um you know as some of you know a few years ago that the council passed a single-use plastic phase out and um maybe Jamie heard about it at home um but I know Daryl was a very strong proponent of a you know gravy exemption to that um and of course other exemptions and I remember one you know one day he came into the Hall and I'm sure everyone on Community Services um our members he came up came in and he held up uh one of those bamboo spoons and he explained how am I supposed to use a tongue depressor to eat my Pokeball all right um you know like the ones you have at the doctor's office and that's actually kind of a common conversation depending on the day whether it was a straw or a bamboo you know spoon or a plate lunch that had too much gravy that was seeping through and um you know and we friendly banter over it you know I'd remind him that I was just Staffing so I didn't actually vote on the bill or I'd remind him about how it's actually good for the environment um but what that taught me um was it friendly banter makes for a good politics because our politics is in who we are it's what we do and what binds us together what defines who we are is our community and our love for our community and our ability to nudge each other and have those conversations but then still come together and share that aloha and that's what Daryl did as a boss right he he allowed everyone to you know Express themselves and dive into the issues and I think he truly embodied servant leadership and that he was never overbearing um I think Governor abercrombie's testimony said something along the lines of you always left the conversation feeling like you're the most important conversation he had that day and so he had that effect on people and just that priority prioritizing Aloha Community was you know shown through the work that he did um just in my short time with him at DCS you know no matter who it was you know from Council whether you're in the minority or the majority no matter your political position like he was there to answer the call when it was a community need and you know again just in in his time at DCS thousands of folks on Oahu were housed received Mental Health Services youth um you know at-risk youth receives culturally relevant programming and the kind of stuff that I think folks can aspire to in terms of a legacy over a lifetime almost just a day's work in Daryl's life and I'm sure that's the case at Dot and DHL and everywhere else he was um and so again one of mahalo you Jamie and Zach Carson and the whole family uh in mahalodero for all that he shared with our community in our city and our state and I can't think of a better person to have the park named after and so appreciate everyone's consideration Walo thank you councilmember Okimoto thank you chair and thank you council member wire for that really nice homage to Daryl I I guess I have the the disadvantage or The Misfortune of knowing that are the least but I have the really big blessing to have known him and I I'm sorry that I wasn't able to make it to the the funeral services I had another family engagement already planned but I know that Jamie who worked very closely with Daryl um and proud kameham school grad as well so I'll just take a little time just to let you know how Jamie how much um Daryl meant to even just me in the short time that I've been able to serve in the council whether it was answering questions that I had here and hearings taking the time to come to my office and eat with me and my staff he even came to the community once we had a meeting at a school in the district after hours and he came and I remember the time that he took it went into the evening and he even spoke with me after about how he was so willing to work with me in my office and how we could solve the wholeness issue that had been kind of flaky that is still plaguing this part of the district and I think I'll always remember him just being that the smiley happy um Gentleman Just willing to serve and work so I I know that I don't have the the experiences that many of the the other council members do but I'm really grateful that I had this time to know him and thank you again for all that you did to share him with the rest of us we will truly miss him Mahalo Mahalo chair thank you councilmember tolba thank you chair uh Ohana my prayers and my thoughts are with you uh in the three years that I've been here dad your husband uh has been an amazing friend he was uh the chief of staff for the district I represent and really helped my staff in understanding the needs of the community and like council member wire saying you know he didn't look at the majority of the minority in my time with him and at three years he just wanted to see if we can get stuff done and all those conversations was like about can we can we can and uh I think that's for me gives me a lot of hope that you know we can solve some of the problems that we have when it comes to homeless or then fixing the needs of our community so he gave me not only uh hope uh he also you know he encouraged me a lot he knew that this was new to me this whole introduction to government and you know the last phone call we had we just talked you know where I was in Waipahu and I caught him I said I think I found some place and we can help our community and Waipahu is like I meet you on Tuesday and when I heard what happened I was devastated not because uh of what maybe could have get done but the fact that you know we're gonna lose somebody with a kind of importance that hear the need and the you know the concern and really wanted to help so uh he will be missed and thank you for allowing him to you know be a part of my life in the three years and and I hope I can do justice in a district that he wants love and represented so thank you guys thank you councilmember topolo uh thank you first off my condolences to his wife and his kids thank you to council member wire for this uh resolution man it broke my heart to see your sons talk about their dad because they're so young and I just at the memorial service it was clear that he had such a huge impact but one of the things that Kahu Cordell said was that the A and Daryl's name stood for action and that the r stood for results and I'll tell you right now that there is nothing that Daryl couldn't get done nothing I first met Daryl when he worked for D.O.T harbors and that was a tough one we met at kalailoa Harbor and we had this horrific experience with the prior Harbors guy and then Daryl walks in and I was like who are you he's like oh I just took over I'm over Harvard's I was like no way this guy's way too nice he's like we're gonna get this done real fast and then when I came to the city and he was working here I was like yes yes this is the guy who gets it done we had so many homeless initiatives that Daryl was a part of for us on the west side for district one specifically he stuck out his neck numerous times and I gotta say the class of 81 popped out some winners every time I called him he would say oh call my classmate she worked for walk away oh call my other classmate she worked for halekipa oh my other classmate works over here she can help you anything I needed there I was like I got a guy yeah here's his number call him he can do it so I just loved his energy the last time I saw Daryl we actually wore the same Aloha print to work I'm gonna miss like our unplanned coordinated outfit stay but just even this picture of just him smiling like he's such a positive guy so much good energy and that's hard in this job this job is daunting the tasks that we're up against are hard but he never seemed winded he never seemed discouraged and like Auggie said it encouraged all of us like okay we can work alongside this guy so just thank you for sharing him with us he did such a wonderful job he's such a wonderful man and our prayers to your family thank you chair any further discussion members councilmember Cordero sorry thank you um I wasn't really going to say anything but after Saturday and finding out about his ties to especially Moana Lua and Saint Philomena of course I had to like find out some stories about not just his time at the at school but his time being and um a Cub Scout as well as his time that he dedicated to Saint Philomena and where that really built his faith and his faith and his Outlook and perspective on the world and um I saw that on Saturday and it was beautiful and I think what it shows is that when you have one person who provides such an impact like Daryl and the foundation that he's built but it's not just his family and his where he's come from but and the communities he's built but the communities that he I think through everyone that he's touched along with us everyone that he's worked with at all the Departments I hope that we can carry that with all of us and um I know that Daryl was always so quick to not just respond to something that we even actually asked he wanted to make sure that we had the right information he wanted to make sure that we um I have to say he corrected me a lot of times in very positive and in a very positive manner and I think that is something that we can learn from because just as everyone has mentioned like we are faced with so much and how we approach people too it shows also how much we care and I think if we can learn just some of the things that Daryl has taught us throughout the years is not just institutional knowledge that he brought but how we can provide such an impact that everyone has mentioned so thank you to his family and thank you to everyone that he's impacted and showed support for this thank you to the introducer of the solution and legislature I support this thank you thank you anybody else seeing none members any objections or reservations to the motion to amend and again the amendment is renaming the park Daryl T young Waikele Community Park yeah um there are no objections or reservations resolution 23-182 has been amended to the hand carried fd-1 any objections or reservations to waiving the council rule 19g the 48-hour notice rule noting no objections or reservations the 48 hour notice has been waived remember as any last discussion before we vote council member Wire yeah no just quickly um because I know we referenced everyone but just wanted to acknowledge everyone that's here I know we have Jamie um Daryl's wife um Zach you know his one of one of his sons Carson I think couldn't be here and then Marge Daryl's mother-in-law and then Kevin Daryl's brother amongst you know other family friends and supporters so mahalo very nice thank you any objections or reservations noting no objections or reservations resolution 23-182 fd1 has been adopted congratulations and thank you sure I'm I'm just wondering with regards yeah I know wondering with regard to time frame I was going to ask it's one o'clock now members were on page 11. out of 30 page 11 out of 30 do you want to take a quick break to get some food we've been added since 8 30 this morning um okay let's come back is is a half hour enough sure okay let's come back at 1 30. we're in brief recess um did you want to make an announcement on um councilman real key model thank you chair uh members of the council and staff we have lunch in the conference room downstairs for those of you who haven't yet eaten thank you thank you thank you we're in recess [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] foreign [Music]