Council Meeting - Regular Meeting

All right, aloha and good afternoon, everyone. It is 2.30 p.m. on a Tuesday, May 19th, and I call the Committee of Public Safety and Economy meeting to order. I'd like to welcome Committee Vice Chair Keaina and Council Member Okimoto. Committee Member Tupola is excused from today's meeting. All right, pursuant to section 92-3.7, Hawaii Revised Statutes, this meeting will be conducted as a remote meeting by Interactive Conference Technology with the following procedures in effect for the meeting. Members of the public will be allowed to provide oral testimony on all items on the agenda in person and in the council chamber and remotely when each agenda item is taken up as both English and Hawaiian are official languages of the state of Hawaii pursuant to Article 15, Section 4 of the Hawaii State Constitution and the Section 1-13 of the Hawaii Revised Statutes, members of the public may testify in either language. For all testimony offered in Olelo, Hawaii, additional time may be necessary, will be allowed for the testifier to provide and English translation of their testimony. Before testifying, each person shall state their name. Each speaker may not have anyone else read their statement and is limited to a one-minute presentation on each item. All persons who have registered to testify in person will be called upon first. When the timer goes off, please conclude your remarks properly. Persons who have not registered will be given an opportunity to testify following a registered testifier. Once in-person testimony has concluded, I will proceed to remote testimony. All persons who have registered to testify remotely by video conference or telephone will then be called upon. When your name is called, please monitor your screen and activate your audio feed when prompt. For persons who are testifying by telephone only, I will identify you by the last three digits of your phone number. When your number is called, please listen for the prompt and unmute and press star six. When I call for anyone else standing by remotely, please utilize the Zoom raise hand button to indicate your desire to speak. For those joining us by telephone only, please press star nine to indicate your desire to speak. So friendly reminders and tips. Video conference from a quiet location impossible. If you are also watching the proceedings on Olelo, please mute your television when called to testify. When the time on the screen reaches zero, please conclude your remarks promptly. HRS section 92-3.7 requires all votes at remote meetings to be conducted by roll call unless unanimous. Therefore, I will first call for objections, and if there are any, I will call a roll call vote. Written testimonies, including the testifier's address, email address, and phone number will be available to the public as described on the posted agenda. As a courtesy, please turn off all cell phones in the duration of this meeting. I also want to welcome Councilmember Nishimura. All right, moving on to agenda item number one, resolution 26-89, confirms the appointment of Kalani Kaanaana to serve on the Economic Revitalization Commission of the City and County of Honolulu for a term to expire on December 31st, 2030. And we do have the appointee here, so if you want to say a few words.

Stabatin. Mahalo.

Aloha, chair and members. It's a privilege to serve the people of the great city and county of Honolulu. Anytime you're asked to share your time and talents, I think it's important that you do and step up. And so I come with that openness and humility to serve. Mahalo.

If you can, yeah, just say your first and your last name. Sure. Kalanika Ana Ana. Awesome.

Okay.

Members, any questions?

So member Kiana. Good to see you, Kalani, and I'm very excited about your opportunity to serve on this commission. As I briefly mentioned during the throes of the upcoming budget, There may be some streamlining efforts underway with regard to the Office of Economic Revitalization, where there will be an executive director, three positions for community equity liaisons, and then, of course, three positions for the Honolulu Film Office. Do you believe with regard to the functionality of the commission that there still is an important role to play with a streamlined office if that were to occur?

Yeah, thank you member. I think yes. So the short answer is the commission. I think we as a group of talented, experienced executives and nonprofit leaders and others have an opportunity even with a streamlined office to make sure we're contributing to all the ways that we can improve the quality of life for the residents of the county. I think it's going to make it harder, but I think the commission, I think to your question, can the commission still contribute? Yes.

Yes, and that would be to all of the agencies within the administration with your ongoing strategic plan, which you guys are nearing completion. Is that correct? Yes. Okay. My second question is kind of related, but it has to do with tourism. So first of all, thank you so much for putting your name forward because you clearly have a lot of experience, not only with tourism, but with regard to sustainability goals. So my first question has to do with tourism. First of all, it was because of you that I introduced the resolution that called for an O'ahu Tourism Strategic Plan. So thank you very much for that. And I know that you will continue to play a role on that. I understand that an RFP has either been given out or is in the throes of being implemented. So, similar to my first question, do you believe that a Oahu Tourism Strategic Plan would be able to be completed, given the fact that the RFP is already out?

I would say yes, given that there's a vendor there and there's staff remaining to work on it. I think I'll make my personal commitment to this council to help see it come to fruition. I spent the last 10 years at the Hawaii Tourism Authority and I believe it is important work. I think that there's a direct ROI to the county and the county coffers through the TAT. And so I think that if there are ways that we can make sure that tourism happens in a regenerative way, that's respectful to our kama'aina, but also enhances the visitor experience. And then by extension, generating the TAT that then the council can spend. Yes.

Okay. Okay. I greatly appreciate that. And the fact that we have more people and the overall impact of tourism on the island of O'ahu is important to our overall economy is critically important. And lastly, this is always something I've just been interested with regard to sustainability goals, since you work at Hawaii Green Growth. You know, I'm very aware of the Aloha Challenge, and sometimes when, whether it be a state or a nonprofit, tries to have goals, they like to tie it to the United Nations. And, you know, while laudable, one of my concerns is that when they're when they try to have these goals, it's normally for nation states, and nation states that are huge. So when it trickles down and you try to apply the same percentage standards to Hawaii, which we have limited land mass, right, and everything that we do impacts our overall quality of life and economy. How do you balance that? I mean, because why don't we set our own standards for Hawaii as opposed to just relying on the United Nations? Can you just elaborate a little more?

Sure. Thank you for the question. It's really funny. So most people don't realize that Hawaii actually led the UN. The Aloha Plus Challenge was actually established before the United Nations adopted the 17 Sustainable Development Goals. And so I think in that way, our leadership from a community level actually pioneered what was relevant and appropriate to Hawaii in our context. On the flip side of that equation, when they were almost sort of validated by the SDGs because there are so many overlapping parts of the SDGs as well as the local Aloha Plus challenge goals, it actually let us know we were going on the right path and actually opened up some resources to actually flow into Hawaii. And I think that that's a really important thing for us to consider This juncture is how can Hawaii Green Growth, through our recognition as a center of excellence for the localization of SDGs, i.e. how do you make them relevant to sub-national level governments and municipalities, etc. Drawing down those resources and funds is actually why we exist. And then I think in a really similar way, OER can play that same role of drawing down funds too, and I think has a track record of that.

Okay, but I just want to make sure the proportionality is reflective of what we can do.

Yes.

Do you guys address that so that it is localized percentages and localized objectives, not external?

Correct. And they started here.

Yes, but having said that, they created all of these percentages of achievement and I just wanna make sure that we localize it. Yes. And we create our own percentages and our own objective. That's all I'm asking for, yeah?

Short answer, yes.

Okay, so anyway, just delighted that you're coming on board, fully support your nomination.

Members, any other questions? Okay, we'll now proceed with oral testimony in the Council Chambers. Clerk, do we have anyone?

Chair, there are none. Okay, what about online? Chair, there are none.

All right, members, we are in discussion. I just wanted to say great conversation we had yesterday, and I appreciate what you shared, and I know you bring added value to the Commission. Thank you. Okay. The Chair recommends that Resolution 26-89 be reported out for adoption. Any discussion? Any objections? Any reservations? Hearing none, so ordered. All right, let's move on to Resolution 26-91, confirms the reappointment of Jasper Wong to serve on the Commission of Culture and the Arts, the City and County of Honolulu for a term to expire on June 30th, 2030. And I do believe Jasper is here. Mr. Wong, would you like to say a few words?

Yeah, sure. So I've been serving for about a year and it's been really a pleasure and an honor to serve with the other commissioners. We've been doing a lot of work throughout the community, working on different designs, supporting artists, and I look forward to continuing serving in the commission moving forward. Awesome.

Members, any questions? Okay, we now proceed to in-person oral testimony in the Council Chambers. Clerks, any? Chair, there are none. What about online? Chair, there are none. Okay, members, we are in discussion. Awesome, thank you, Mr. Wong. The Chair recommends that Resolution 26-91 be reported out for adoption. Any discussion? Any objections? Any reservations? Hearing none, so ordered. All right, moving on to agenda item number three, Resolution 26-101 confirms the reappointment of Joshua Tengen to serve on the Commission of the Culture and the Arts of the City and County of Honolulu for a term to expire June 30th, 2030. And I think Mr. Tengen is here, so would you like to say a few words?

Aloha kākou, my name is Josh Tangun, and I too have served on the Commission for the past two years. It's been a very quick past two years, and we've seen a lot of change, particularly in the Mayor's Office of Culture and the Arts. Now I'm very excited to serve under the Executive Director, Jennifer Santos, who just started just under a year ago, and I'm excited to carry the work forward and to continue supporting her vision in that role. Mahalo.

Members, any questions? All right. We'll proceed to in-person testimony in the Council Chamber. Clerks, do we have anyone? Chair, there are none. Okay. Online? There are none. All right. Members, we are in discussion. Okay. I also want to say thank you for our conversation yesterday also, and another added value as well, Jasper. Thank you guys for serving. Okay. Let's see. The chair recommends that resolution 26-101 be reported out for adoption. Any discussion? Any objections? Any reservations? Hearing none, so ordered. Okay. Moving on to our last agenda. Oh, sorry, not yet. Yes. Last agenda, resolution 26.1.16, accepting a monetary gift of $5,000 to the city from Pacific Harley-Davidson on behalf of the Castelloni e Casseria. I hope I'm saying that correctly.

I'm going to hope that I say it correctly too. Okay. Yeah.

All right. A foundation to be used by the Honolulu Ocean Safety Department to help support the Junior Lifeguard Program and various costs. And here from the administration, our Ocean Safety Director, Kurt Lager.

Hi, good afternoon, Chair, Vice Chair, committee members. Thank you for being here. Kurt Lager, the Chief of Ocean Safety. We're very happy and grateful to have this gift of $5,000 from the Pacific Harley-Davidson on behalf of Castiglione Casseria. If I could just talk about the Junior Guard program and boast about it a little bit. We're very excited for this year's program. We had all the locations, eight different locations fill up, most of them in less than an hour. And then the rest in a couple days, the rest trickled in. But this money is going to go to help buy equipment, not uniforms, but shirts for the kids and just help support the program, a very important program that we like to offer for free to the community. So we're very grateful. I'm happy to answer any questions. Awesome. Okay.

Council Member Okimoto.

Thank you, Chair. Good afternoon, Chief Lager. I was wondering how many keiki do you normally have in the program? You said it fills up quickly. How many are registered and can you take on every year?

We serve about 850 to 900 kids a year.

And how many locations? Eight locations. Eight locations.

Yeah.

Okay. Thank you, thank you for all that you're doing. Thank you, Chair.

Okay, any more questions, members? All right, you can let Mr. McGee know I will put on my Baywatch Hawaii shorts and come out.

Yeah. We hope to see all of you guys come back.

Still fit. Still fit. Yes, I promise. Do we have anybody testifying in? Chair, there are none. What about online? Chair, there are none. No. Jason Momoa is not online? Okay, all right. Okay, members, we are in discussion. Okay, the chair recommends that resolution 26-116 be reported on for adoption. Any discussion, any objections, any reservations? Hearing none, so ordered. All right, there being no further business, people, we are done.