Council Meeting - Regular Meeting

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Good morning everyone and welcome. Council Member Dos Santos-Tam, can you please lead us in the Pledge of Allegiance?

I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

Thank you. Councilmember Dos Santos-Tam, would you kindly introduce our guests for the message of aloha?

Thank you. Of course. We have with us this morning Dr. Adrian Dillard, who arrived in Hawaii in 1986 and has served as the Chief Executive Officer of Kula Nona Po'e Hawaii, or Kula, a community-based nonprofit serving the Native Hawaiian homestead communities of Papakolea, Kewalo, and Kalawahine for more than three decades. She earned her PhD in social welfare from the University of Hawaii at Manoa, where she studied the experiences of caregivers supporting native Hawaiian kupuna with age-related memory loss. She also holds bachelor's and master's degrees in social work from Hawaii Pacific University and is a licensed clinical social worker. She also serves as an adjunct faculty member in the Department of Native Hawaiian Health at the John A. Burns School of Medicine, and chairs the Pacific Indigenous Knowledge Opportunities, or PICO, Center for Community Engagement and Outreach, Core Community Advisory Action Committee, and serves as the board chair of Hawaiian Community Assets. She also serves in Papua Ola Lokahi's Eola Mau Workforce Development Hui, and the He'alo He'alo Advisory Committee, which supports community-led approaches to Native Hawaiian health, healing, and wellness. She is a consultant with the National Center for Engagement in Diabetes Equity Research and serves on the Resource Center for Native Aging and Disability Long-Term Services and Supports Advisory Committee at the University of North Dakota Center for Rural Health and There's a few more. She's also a member of the National Academy of Medicines Building Trust and Health Science through Community Partnership and Livid Experience Action Collective. She is somebody who is deeply involved in the community. And not only that, she's a former board member and vice chair of neighborhood board number 12 representing Paoa Valley and is rooted in Aloha for kupuna, ohana and community well-being. And we see her work. Throughout my community, and that's why I'm pleased to have dr. Adrian Dillard PhD MSW LCSW here to offer our message of aloha this morning Aloha my Kako chair and esteemed council members mahalo councilman dos Santos town for inviting me to offer this message I

We are gathered here at Honolulu Hale on the ancestral lands of the Kanaka Maoli, lands held in love, defended and struggled, and cared for through the breath of generations. Their mana, their stories, their aloha lives beneath our feet and rises around us still. I am the daughter of Charles and Helen Dillard of Chicago Heights, Illinois, shaped by their unwavering belief that who you are matters, and how you show up for others matters even more. They taught me that community is not simply where you live, it is how you live. They taught me that service is a calling, resilience a discipline, and care is a sacred act. Their lessons prepared me to listen deeply, to honor differences, and to walk with humility. Building on this foundation, I honor the Aloha spirit law established in the statutes that governs Hawaii. It reminds us that Aloha is not only a value, it is a responsibility. It calls us to show up with kindness, humility, and patience, to live intentionally, to serve with compassion, and to engage each other with respect, and to meet one another with the fullness of our humanity. Rooted in these lessons, I carry the strength of my ancestors who endured hardship while remaining committed to prayer, education, service, and community. Their voices echo in my own, reminding me that leadership is not about authority, it is about care. And here in Hawaii, the kupuna of Papakulea Kevalo and Kalawahini Hawaiian Homestead welcomed me and taught me the true meaning of aloha. As their guest, I learned that aloha is not simply extended to me, it is a responsibility I must embody. Aloha requires me to listen with intention, to share what I have been given, and to act in ways that uplift the collective well-being of our ohana, our keiki, our kupuna, and the aina. It requires me to honor the wisdom of those who welcome me and to ensure that my leadership reflects their values. For more than 30 years, the community of Papakulea has been my teacher. I learned that resilience is the daily practice of aloha. I learned aloha as the courage to see one another with the eyes of the heart, meeting each person with compassion, dignity, and grace. I learned malama is the sacred exchange of care so that no one stands alone. Pono is the discipline of balance and integrity. And kukua is the generosity that enables us to thrive together. We offer our gifts so that together we rise, together we accomplish, and together we thrive. These values are not abstract. They are the visible living of aloha for Papakolea. This aloha is seen through the care families show one another, the guidance of kupuna, the support for keiki, and their unity during times of need. These principles also guide Kulinanapoe Hawaii's work, and the Kula Ohana demonstrates them daily through teamwork. For me, aloha is reflected in the love I receive from my Hanae Kekaua Martinohana, who welcomed and embraces me as one of their own. It is aloha I feel when I'm called mama or auntie by many across Hawaii. These are the gifts that Papa Kulea has given me, lessons of love, belonging, humility, and service that have shaped my life and leadership. It is this aloha that guides me today, calling me to know hope lives, to prepare the path for the next generation, and to serve with courage and compassion while seeking social justice for all of our communities. I honor my parents, my ancestors, the kupuna who trained me, my Papakoleo Ohana, the many Hawaiian homestead leaders, partners in Ohana who see me across the state. Mikekoa Martin, and Kula Ohana, who served tirelessly as expressions of aloha. Their wisdom reminds me that the well-being of our Ohana, our keiki, and our kupuna is inseparable from the well-being of this city. And so as I continue my work, I promise that every effort, every partnership, and every accomplishment will remain rooted in aloha for our people, for the aina, and for future generations. Aloha calls us to walk gently, to serve boldly, and to lift one another up. Let us make living with aloha our continued shared mission by treating one another with kindness, acting courageously, and supporting one another. Let us live with aloha so that with one rhythm we rise together, with one purpose we build together, and with the guidance of our kupuna, our work is united so we thrive together.

Mahalo.

Thank you so much. Members, I have a few procedural announcements to make. Prior to the start of the meeting, Although remote oral testimony is being permitted, this is a regular meeting and not a remote meeting by Interactive Conference Technology under HRS 92-3.7. Therefore, the meeting will continue notwithstanding loss of audiovisual 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, in the Council Chamber, or remotely. As both English and Hawaiian are the official languages of the State of Hawaii, pursuant to Article 15, Section 4 of the Hawaii State Constitution and Section 1-13 of the Hawaii Vice Statutes, members of the public may testify in either language. For oral testimonies offered in Olelo, Hawaii, additional time as may be necessary will be allowed for the testifier to provide an English translation of their testimony. Before testifying, each person shall state their full name and the agenda item they are testifying on. Each speaker 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 to the podium and begin by stating your name and the item you will be speaking on. When I call for anyone who has not registered to testify, To speak in person, please line up to the right of the podium and when it is your turn, proceed to the podium. Begin by stating your name and the items you'll be speaking on. All persons who have registered to testify remotely by video conference or phone will then be called. When your name is called, please monitor your screen and activate your audio feed when prompted. When I call for anyone else standing by remotely, please utilize the Zoom raise hand button to indicate your desire to speak. For those joining us by telephone only, please press star nine 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 proceeding on Olelo, please mute your television when you are called to testify. When the timer on the screen reaches zero, please conclude your remarks promptly. For those who are joining us by telephone only, I will identify you by the last three digits of your phone number. When your number is called, press star six to unmute yourself when prompted. Written testimonies including the testifier's address, email address, and phone number will be available to the public as described on the posted agenda. As a courtesy, please turn off all cell phones for the duration of the meeting. I'd also like to remind the testifiers to embody the spirit of aloha and observe council rule 20B, which states that when a council member or other person properly before the council wishes to speak, the speaker shall address the chair, be recognized before proceeding, and shall confine remarks to the question under discussion, avoiding personalities or abusive language. I'd like to call the meeting to order. Mr. Clerk, call the roll.

Council Member Cordero. Council Member Dos Santos-Tam. Here. Council Member Kia'aina. Here. Council Member Nishimoto.

Present.

Council Member Okimoto.

Present.

Council Member Toba.

Here.

Council Member Tupoula.

Here.

Council Member Weyer. Here. Chair Waters. Here. Mr. Chair, nine members are present.

Thank you. Floor Leader Kia'aina, introduction of guests.

Thank you, Chair. Today we have in the chamber the Mayor's Chief of Staff, Andy Sugg, Jennifer Santos, Executive Director for the Mayor's Office of Culture and Arts, Amy Asselby, Executive Director for the Office of Economic Revitalization. We also have nominees. for the Board of Review for Real Property Tax, the Economic Revitalization Commission, Commission on Culture and Arts, the Zoning Board of Appeals, the Oahu Historic Preservation Commission, and the Planning Commission. And lastly, of course, we have community members and stakeholders interested in the various items on today's council agenda.

Thank you. Vice Chair Topola, a motion to approve the minutes.

Chair, I move that the minutes from the last meeting be approved. Second.

It's been moved and seconded. Mr. Clerk, do we have any testifiers?

Mr. Chair, we have none.

Thank you. Any discussion? Seeing none, any objections or reservations? Noting no objections or reservations, the minutes have been approved. Moving to the top of page four, Order of the day. From the Committee on Budget, Council Member Okimoto.

Thank you, Chair. I move that Committee Report 127-26 and Resolution 26-98, CD 1 as amended, be adopted.

Second. It's been moved and seconded. Council Member Okimoto for the explanation.

Confirming the reappointment of Peter Young to serve on the Board of Review 3 for the real property tax appeals of the City and County of Honolulu.

Thank you. Mr. Young could not be present today, although we had a lively discussion in committee. Mr. Clerk, do we have any testifiers?

Mr. Chair, yes, we do.

Aloha, welcome. Aloha, Pikachu Shelby Billionaire. I'm pretty sure this is the same Peter Young who's in the Office of Elections Commission which we come on every month. So I do support this because I do see his great work. Unfortunately, he can't be here today to answer any of your questions. Don't worry, he doesn't answer the questions on the Office of Elections Commission either. Thank you, have a good day. Aloha.

Thank you. Is there anybody else who'd like to testify on the appointment of Peter Young? Seeing none, any discussion members? Say none. Any objections or reservations? Noting no objections or reservations, CR 127 of 2026. Resolution 26-98CD1 has been adopted. Congratulations and thank you, Mr. Young. From the Committee on Public Safety and the Economy, Council Member Tolba.

I move that Committee Report 137-2026 and Resolution 2689 be adopted. Second. It's been moved and seconded. Council Member Tolba for the explanation. Affirming the appointment of Kalani Ka'anaana to serve on the Economic Revitalization Commission of the City and County of Honolulu.

Thank you so much. I believe Mr. Ka'anaana is present. Aloha, would you like to say a few words? Any questions for the nominee? Seeing none, thank you. Mr. Clerk, do we have any testifiers? Mr.

Chair, yes, we do.

Aloha, please proceed. Aloha, Pikachu Shelby billionaire. I'll make it short and sweet. I approve this. Thank you very much. Hope you do a great job, and I'll see you in the future so you can help the future generations next time we see you on the board. You remember this beautiful Pikachu face. Pika, pika, hearts gotta get your mom. Thanks.

Thank you. Anybody else would like to testify? Seeing none, any discussion members? Noting no discussion, any objections or reservations? Seeing none, CR 137 for 2026 and Resolution 26-89 has been adopted. Thank you, sir, appreciate your willingness to serve.

Moving to the top of page five, Council Member Tolba. I move the Committee Report 130-2026, Resolution 2691 be adopted. Second. It's been moved and seconded. Council Member Tolba for the explanation. Confirming the reappointment of Jasper Wong to serve on the Commission of Culture and the Arts, the City and County of Honolulu.

Thank you. Is Mr. Wong present? Aloha, Mr. Wong. Would you like to say a few words? No? Members, any questions for the nominee? Seeing none, thank you. Mr. Clerk, do we have any testifiers? Mr. Chair, yes we do.

Aloha, welcome again. Aloha, ni hao ma, it's me again. Thank you, I do support this because Mr. Wong obviously would be Chinese, I'm presuming, and hopefully he'll be with the culture and arts. If you didn't know, Mandarin versus Cantonese, one is Bruce Lee, one is Jet Li. So Bruce Lee is , because he speaks like really fast.

Chair, point of order. If we can confine comments to the item on the agenda. Thank you.

Thank you. Yes, while I'm supporting and also describing culture and arts and language, the difference between Mandarin and Cantonese, for people who can't speak Chinese, because I am Chinese, so I'm speaking my own language. Thank you very much for my own council member. But because the culture and arts guy I'm supporting does not want to say anything, I'm going to say it for him because I'm Chinese. Thank you. Mandarin is a flowery language and it speaks smoother. So if you're talking about culture and arts, make sure you understand Chinese before you're making comments. Thank you very much.

Thank you. Is there anybody else who'd like to testify? Seeing none, any discussion members? Seeing none, any objection or reservations? No objections or reservations. CR 138-2026 and Resolution 26-91 has been adopted. Thank you, Mr. Wong.

Moving to the bottom of page five, Council Member Tolba. Move that Committee Report 139-2026 and Resolution 26-101 be adopted.

Second.

It's been moved and seconded. Council Member Tolba for the explanation. Confirming the reappointment of Joshua Tengen to serve on the Commission of the Culture and the Arts of the City and County of Honolulu.

Thank you. Is Mr. Tengen here? Hello, Mr. Tengen, would you like to say a few words? Good, okay. Any questions for the nominee? Seeing none, do we have any testifiers? Pikachu Billionaire, please proceed.

Thank you, I want to support this because I know they have a great job in the future, so I'll make it short and sweet because I'm actually supporting all the nominees today, because if I'm the only testifier from the YNAH who catch the bus here, I want to let you know I caught the bus here, spent my own money to say thank you for you guys to come outside. I appreciate if you guys would say a few words if I had to catch the bus to come here and say something. Thank you very much, I'm still in support.

Thank you. Any other testifiers? Seeing none, any objections or reservations? Noting no objections or reservations, CR 139 and Resolution 26-101 has been adopted. Moving to page six from the Committee on Zoning and Planning, Councilmember Kiya Aina.

I move that Committee Report 146-2026 and Resolution 2690-CD1 as amended be adopted. Second.

It's been moved and seconded. Councilmember Kiya Aina for the explanation.

This resolution confirms the appointment of Micah Kim to serve on the Zoning Board of Appeals of the City and County of Honolulu.

Thank you. Is Mr. Kim here? Hello, Mr. Kim, would you like to say a few words? Wonderful, thank you. Please proceed.

Thank you, Chair and members of the Council. I just want to say that I appreciate the opportunity to serve the residents of Honolulu, and I look forward to carrying out my responsibilities of the board to the best of my ability. Thank you. Thank you.

Members, any questions for the nominee? Seeing none, thank you, sir. Mr. Clerk, do we have, or I believe we have two registered testifiers, starting with Andrew Perrero.

Mr. Chair, the testifier is not logged on.

Okay, next is Pikachu Shelby Billionaire. Thank you, Micah Kim, for coming here. I support you guys in all the work. Let's get Bugogi next time. Fighting, 777.

Thank you. Is there anybody else who'd like to, oh, Mr. Perot, would you like to testify? Yes, for Micah.

Thank you, right on time, Chair. Thank you very much. Just support Micah for his nomination to the Zoning Board of Appeals. His credentials are well documented in all the supporting testimony, but I think it's great to have young people like Micah step up into a role like this. Thank you very much, Chair.

Thank you. Is there anybody else who'd like to testify on the appointment of Micah Kim? Seeing none, members, discussion. Seeing none, any objections or reservations? Noting no objections or reservations, CR 146, 2026, and Resolution 26-90, CD1, has been adopted. Moving to the bottom of page six, Council Member Kia-Aina.

I move that Committee Report 147, 2026, and Resolution 2696, CD1, as amended, be adopted. Second.

It's been moved and seconded. Council Member Kiana for the explanation.

This resolution confirms the reappointment of Richard Davis to serve on the Oahu Historic Preservation Commission of the City and County of Honolulu.

Thank you. Unfortunately, Mr. Davis could not be present today. Mr. Clerk, do we have any testifiers? Oh, I believe we do. Sorry.

Pikachu Billionaire. Hello, Pikachu Shelby Billionaire. I've never met Mr. Davis. I've actually never met most of these people we're talking about and I'm supporting today. So I'm having faith in the system, even though they're not here, that I'm still catching the bus, still having faith that they're going to do the right job, Chair, and that you guys chose the right people for the right job. Thank you very much.

Thank you. Members, any discussion? Seeing none, any objections or reservations? Noting no objections or reservations, CR 147-2026 and Resolution 26-96, CD1 has been adopted. Moving to the top of page seven, Council Member Kia-Aina.

I move that Committee Report 148-2026 and Resolution 26-97, CD1 is amended, be adopted. Second.

It's been moved and seconded. Council Member Kiana for the explanation.

This resolution confirms the reappointment of Hilary Alomar to serve on the Planning Commission of the City and County of Honolulu.

Thank you. I believe Shelby Billionaire has registered to testify.

Aloha, it's me again. Thank you very much, Pikachu, Shelby, Billner. I just want to say thank you very much to all these people who are going to be reappointed. Obviously, they love this job. It's volunteer, and they're going to keep on doing it, reappointing, so support them and the local community wherever we're at, and help the future generations. Thank you very much. Pikachu.

Thank you. Anybody else like to testify on this matter? Seeing none. Members, any discussion? Seeing none, any objections or reservations? No, there are no objections or reservations. CR 148-2026 and Resolution 26-97, CD 1, has been adopted. Council Member Kia-Aina.

The nominee was here, so I just would like us to give her a round of applause. Oh, I'm sorry.

Yes, thank you so much.

I move that Committee Report 149-2026 and Resolution 26-100-CD1 as amended be adopted. Second. It's been moved and seconded. Council Member Kiana for the explanation. This resolution confirms the appointment of Lani Ma'alapili'o to serve on the Oahu Historic Preservation Commission of the City and County of Honolulu.

Thank you. Is Lani Ma'alapili'o here? Aloha, welcome. Would you like to say a few words? Thank you, and I apologize to Ms. Alomar. Would you like to say a few words? Okay, my apologies. Thank you. Mr. Clerk, I believe we have one registered testifier. Pikachu Shelby Billionaire. Aloha.

So I do have to apologize. I sent 24 testimonies, Chair. I thought I was doing a good job, but I missed one when the clerks checked me in today. I forgot to put in Ms. Lani's. So I'm putting it in today, this morning, and we did it correct. So I do support you all. I didn't miss you. I forgot to put it online. That's Pikachu's fault. My bad, but I caught my mistake. So I do want to support you. I didn't forget you, especially in the Oahu Historic Preservation, Ilani Palace, la la la. You guys know the rest. Mahalo nui loa.

Thank you. Would anybody else like to testify on the nomination? Seeing none, members, any discussion? Seeing none, any objections or reservations? Noting no objections or reservations, CR 149-2026 and Resolution 26-100, CD 1 has been adopted, and thank you for your service. Turning to the top of page eight, Council Member Kia'aina.

I move that Committee Report 150-2026 and Resolution 26-102-CD1 as amended be adopted. Second.

I move then seconded Council Member Kia'aina for the explanation.

This resolution confirms the reappointment of Ryan Toyomura to serve in the Zoning Board of Appeals of the City and County of Honolulu.

Thank you. I believe the nominee is not present today. Mr. Clerk, do we have any testifiers?

Mr. Chair, yes, we do.

You're not here today, but I'm introducing myself in Japanese. Thank you. Is there anybody else who'd like to testify? Seeing none, members, we are in discussion.

Saying none, any objections or reservations? Saying none, CR150-2026 and Resolution 26-102, CD1, has been adopted. Moving to the bottom of page, oh, thank you, Mr. Toyimura. Moving to the bottom of page eight from the Committee on Zoning and Planning, Council Member Kiyaino.

I move that Committee Report 152-2026 and Resolution 26-127 be adopted. Second.

It's been moved and seconded. Council Member Kiyaino for the explanation.

This adopts a revision to the public infrastructure map for the primary urban center development planner.

Thank you so much. I believe we have two registered testifiers, Pikachu Shelby Billionaire, followed by Becky Gardner.

Aloha, Pikachu Shelby Billionaire. So I did support this measure and resolution because I ran it by AI. It's not just me talking about my feelings. And I do support the future and it's moving forward. Thank you very much. Thank you.

Is Becky Gardner here? Aloha, welcome. You have to press the on button.

OK, great. Thank you, Pikachu. Good morning, chair, members of the council. We're on the first reso related to the Queen Theater, correct?

OK. I went too fast to the thing.

So my name's Becky Gardner. I am a member of the Kaimuki neighborhood board, but I'm here testifying in my individual capacity. I've been on the neighborhood board since 2017. So I just wanted to reiterate that the matter of the Queen Theater has come before us multiple times. In earlier hearings on this matter, I outlined the actions and the discussions that we've had about the Queen Theater. So I would recommend that you look back to see what exactly has been done. My testimony today is a little bit long, but it outlines the various ways that the community does support this effort and how much it will do for the quality of life in our community. And it will do great things to increase morale and to vitalize the economy. And I'm sure many of you know that Kaimuki is sort of becoming a excuse me, culinary capital of the state. So I think this movement will do quite well. I'm here for other questions, but I just want to finish by saying that our community, Kaimuki, it shows up. We have Kaimuki, Envision Kaimuki, the neighborhood board, Kaimuki Business Professional Association, Mau Mai, Keep It Kaimuki. So we have lots of organizations that will pick up the baton should we be handed it. Thank you so much.

Thank you. I believe Tim Gary would like to testify. Aloha, Tim, please proceed.

Yeah, good morning. I'm in strong support of purchasing the Queen Theater. I live in Kaimuki, active there. We need some stimulus there. It'd be a great idea. We don't have like a community area where people can come together. And I think a private public partnership would be excellent. There's a lot of people that are passionate about it. And I think it would be a great improvement to the area. Kaimuki needs a little sprucing up. I think the last building that was put up in fairly recent years was the Civil Beat building. So I strongly support that. I hope you will. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Gary.

Is there anybody else who'd like to testify on Resolution 26-127? Seeing none, thank you. Members, any discussion? Seeing none, we'll call Mr. Clerk. Oh, Mr. Chair, I'm sorry. We have a remote testifier with your hand. Oh, I'm sorry. Please proceed.

Thank you. Natalie Wassa for the record. I didn't submit written testimony and I apologize to the woman who testified from the Kaimuki neighborhood board. My concern with this is that given the state of the building, that there will be additional costs involved. Nonprofits do a wonderful job with a lot of projects in our communities. However, if this were to go forward and a nonprofit were to take a look at this and then decide, well, we really can't do it because it's going to be too much work, what would happen? Would the city be stuck with it? I just really caution you on moving forward in that manner. Thank you very much.

Thank you. Mr. Clark, do we have any other testifiers?

Mr. Chair, we have none.

Thank you. Any further discussion, members? Seeing none, roll call, Mr. Clerk.

Council Member Cordero.

Aye.

Council Member Dos Santos-Tam. Aye. Council Member Kia-Aina. Aye. Council Member Nishimura. Aye. Council Member Okamoto.

Aye.

Council Member Tauba. Aye. Council Member Tupoula.

Aye.

Council Member Weyer. Aye. Chair Waters.

Aye.

Mr. Chair, there are nine ayes.

Thank you. Resolution, excuse me, CR 152-2026 and Resolution 26-127 has been adopted. Moving to page nine, first reading items. Vice Chair Tupoula.

I move that the first reading items as set on pages nine through 10 of the agenda pass first reading.

Second. It's been moved and seconded. Vice Chair Tupoula for the explanation.

Bill 37, 2026, to amend portions of the state land use district boundary maps from agricultural district to the urban district for certain areas of land situated in Kapolei and Honuuliuli in Ewa'oahu, Hawaii. Bill 38, 2026, relating to the transit-oriented development special district. On page 10, Bill 39, 2026 relating to the rezoning of land situated at Kapolei and Honuuliuli in Oahu, Hawaii. Bill 40, 2026 relating to property taxation. Bill 41 relating to transportation.

Thank you. Let's start by taking individual testimonies with Bill 37. I believe we have two registered testifiers, Sam Kim, followed by Andrew Pereira. And then, yep, that's why I've registered. Sam Kim here, or online. Aloha, welcome.

Aloha Chair Waters, Vice Chair Topola, members of the City Council. My name is Sam Kim, the Government Relations Representative for the Hawaii Regional Council of Carpenters. Testifying in support of Bill 37, I will be standing on our written testimony. Aloha. Thank you so much.

Next, we have Andrew Pereira.

Mahalo, Chair, Vice Chair, members. Andrew Pereira, Director of Public Affairs with Pacific Resource Partnership. Stand in strong support of Bill 37. You have our written testimony. Just wanted to point out that PRP in 2013 conducted research with Calthorpe Associates, a noted research firm. And it was called the TOD Scenarios Report. And it came up with four scenarios. One scenario, we go all in on TOD along skyline, and that requires a little over seven square miles of building out. If we stay in the status quo, we would require 22 square miles to build out the homes that we currently need on Oahu, which numbers 26,000 according to the Hawaii Housing Planning Study. So just wanted to highlight that portion of my testimony. The report is attached to my testimony. I urge you to take a look. Even though the research is more than a decade old, it still holds a lot of relevance. So if we want to keep our green space green and build the homes that we need, we need to go all in on TOD along Skyline. Thank you very much.

Thank you. Is there anybody else who'd like to testify on Bill 37? Pikachu Billionaire.

Hello, Pikachu Shelby Billionaire. I did not submit testimony in advance, but I did do on Bill 30 to oppose because what I see in the deal is that you're gonna have the rail system tied into infrastructure and all the real estate taxes are gonna go up. If you're an average single person struggling to pay bills, to pay gas and pay rent, all the property taxes are gonna go up. That's better revenue for your general bonds, that's good for the state and city county for revenue. However, the people, personally, are gonna be affected by this. Yeah, it sounds great, you're gonna get equity, live close to the rail, but I don't believe in the $12 billion rail money pit. And I don't agree with what's going to happen. Now, if you're a real estate person, like I learned from Donald Trump, it sounds great for real estate development. Everything's going to be good if you're a multi-unit apartment investor. But for the individual single family person home, if it's a million dollar plus, they're not going to be able to do that stuff. Yeah, there'll be equity, but where are they going to go after? So I'm very concerned for this, but I'm pretty sure I know how you guys are going to vote, and it's all going to be yes. So I'm just going to be the lone voice to say I oppose this bill. Thank you very much. Thank you.

Is there anybody else who'd like to testify on Bill 37? Thank you, moving to Bill 38. Bill 38, I believe we have a number of registered testifiers, starting with Pikachu Shelby Billionaire.

Hello, Chair. So I did send the testimony. The council members can read it, can go into details of that. I won't bore you with the same explanation I just said. But when we're going to Bill 39, Bill 40, you're going to see it's all related to zoning. And city and county just doesn't mean Kapolei. It's going to be for all of Honolulu. So what you're going to see here, it's going to expand. And, you know, it's going to be a bigger city. You've got Rep. Diamond Garcia and Senator Mike Gabbard talking about the largest second expansion in city. But we have a landfill issue, as we know, with our area in Honolulu. And where are you going to put all this trash? Where are you going to get the water fund? We've got Amazon centers that want to build. Where are you going to get the Vi, the aquifer? And you still need infrastructure. Where are you going to get the metals, the molding? How much is it going to cost? It doesn't make any sense to me. And that's why I'm opposing this bill, because you're just setting up for the rail. And the rail, to me, is inefficient. Catch the bus. It's cheaper, faster, quicker. Because I can't catch the rail from wine out of here. I catch the bus, the sea, baby. $3, one way. $3 back. Thank you very much.

Thank you. Next we have Cody Sula, Hawaii Iron Worker Stabilization Fund. Is Mr. Sula available?

You guys hear me?

Yes, we can. Aloha, welcome. Please proceed.

Aloha, Chair, members of the committee, City Council, excuse me. Cody Sula on behalf of the Iron Worker Stabilization Fund. We submitted written testimony. Just want to highlight we're in strong support of this bill increasing the TOD areas. It's just common sense. That's the reason why we built the We're building the rail, and we're going to structure all the infrastructure around the rail station. That way it makes sense. It's not in the middle of nowhere. So it's going to increase affordable housing, make sure that we have smart planning, and also create more jobs. So in strong support. Mahalo.

Thank you. Next, we have Sam King. Kim.

My name gets confused with that one quite often. Thank you again. My name is Sam Kim with the HRCC testifying in strong support and will stand on her testimony.

Thank you. Next is Andrew Perrero.

Thank you again, Chair, Vice Chair, members, Andrew Pereira, Pacific Resource Partnership. Stand in strong support of the measure. Just wanted to point out that the groundbreaking research by the University of Hawaii Economic Research Organization showed that with the central, a 43-story tower had over 500 units. It actually opened up an additional 540 approximately units for the people moving into the new tower. So any affordable workforce housing that this council helps create, you're also opening up additional units downstream. This filtering effect is very real and we need to take a look at that research and pay close attention to it because by building more, you're opening up additional housing units downstream. So we stand in strong support of this measure. Thank you very much.

Thank you. Is there anybody else who'd like to testify for Bill 38? Seeing none, moving on to Bill 39. I believe we have Shelby Pikachu Billionaire.

Hello, Pikachu, Shelby, Benner, I'm opposing the same bills, because to me it's all related, and like, you're gonna hear from all these other people. They're developers, they're partners in the commercial development real estate project. We're talking about multi-family plus, commercial, we're not talking about residential single-family, no, we're talking about building 200, 500, 1,000 units all tied into rail. I used to live in New York City, Brooklyn, worked in Manhattan, Hamptons, and also lived in Queens. So we live right by the rail. I know exactly how they develop, and it's going to be loud, ignoring, and you're going to make money based on equity, based on the sales, cash flow, appreciation, depreciation. You're not teaching the average person what you're doing this for, what are your benefits. You're going to get a poquito, little, tiny equity, but if that's one family, one house, they sell the house, where do they go? How much the house is going to cost? $700,000, $1 million plus, you need 20% down, you know. 20%, 40% debt-to-income ratio. Who the heck has that in the bank right now? There are people trying to get gas. I don't even have a car. I have to catch the bus here. And you guys want to make this all fancy-dancy? It sounds insane to me from Wai'anae. And where are you going to put all the opala? I have many questions for you, and I'm going to oppose this bill and stand by myself and say no. Thank you very much. Thank you.

Next, we have Sam Kim, followed by Andrew Pereira.

Lowell Council members, Sam Kim, HRCC testifying in strong support of Bill 39. We'll be standing on our written testimony.

Thank you. Mr. Pereira.

Thank you, Chair, Vice Chair, members. Andrew Pereira again with Pacific Resource Partnership. Just wanted to point out that there is some concern, obviously, with agricultural lands. And we have limited supply in Oahu, of course. But vertical farming and hydroponic farming is a real thing. I looked up the stats yesterday, and it's already a billion dollar industry on the US continent. So these vertical farms, hydroponic farms, take up a lot less land, and more importantly, take up a lot less water. So that's the future. So these concerns about agricultural acreage going towards homes is a little bit overblown in light of vertical and hydroponic farming. And we need to start growing our people, keep our host culture here. There's more people of Native Hawaiian ancestry living outside of Hawaii than in Hawaii right now, and we need to change that. We need to grow our people. Thank you very much. Stand in strong support of Bill 39.

Thank you. Is there anybody else who'd like to testify on Bill 39? Mr.

Chair, we have a remote testifier with their hand raised. Please proceed.

Mr. Sakamoto, aloha, welcome. Please proceed.

Good morning, Chair Waters, Vice Chair Capola, and the rest of the council members, Donald Sakamoto, As a blind individual, disabled, as well as advocate for people with disabilities and the kupuna with transportation, my concern is affordable housing and whatnot, but we need accessible housing for those who are disabled or elderly kupuna, easy access. So make sure that when we build these infrastructure, we have apartments and houses that are acceptable for people with disabilities like myself. I appreciate my testimony. Thank you.

Thank you. Mr. Clerk, do we have any? I believe Raquel Achiu has her hand up. Please proceed.

Aloha, good morning. Can you hear me?

Yes, we can. Please proceed.

Thank you so much. Mahalo, Chair, Council Members, Raquel Achiu, Wailua Moku, North Shore. I just have a comment to share with regard to the agricultural components of any type of budget effort. you know, we're losing lands faster than we can keep up with our own industry. And we keep hearing, you know, stay local, buy local, all the things. But, you know, as a rancher, you cannot vertical farm livestock. So we have to consider that agriculture has to be a strong consideration when adjusting our ability to provide housing. You can't keep giving away the land and expect us to keep producing to make ourselves sustainable. So I just please hope that you can keep that in mind and consider those impacts.

Thank you. Mr. Clerk, do we have any other testifiers on Bill 39?

Mr. Chair, we have none.

Thank you. Moving to Bill 40, we have a number of registered testifiers starting with Pikachu Shelby Billionaire.

Aloha, Pikachu, Shelby, Miller. So I did go over this bill from the last month we had, and you actually did a good job, because the complaint about vacant agricultural land was taxed at $8.50, which is higher than residential, higher than all the other stuff, and you guys actually put a zero in the bill. You actually listened, Because what are we going to do on vacant Maui land for DHHL, Molokai, everyone has vacant property. Why is it taxed at $8.50 higher than residential? I think it doesn't make no sense. We're talking about rezoning, and you're going to take the ag land to make it for urban, rezone it so you can do X, Y, and Z. So, yes, I'm supporting this bill with amendments, but I still think if someone's laying on agricultural land, like we have the homeless house people all over, why not on the west side? You're telling me they're paying more in taxes than residents? Why? I'm confused. How is the poor, homeless, houseless, who can't even pay gas, is supposed to afford taxes higher than residents just because of the zoning? Now you're changing the issues. I'm not going to get into the hawaiiankingdom.org issues and all that other stuff, but we're talking about city and county. So why is the tax rate to me different? And I'm agreeing with it because you put a zero for the other one. Thank you very much. Thank you.

Next, we have Christine Otoza. Mr. Chair, the testifier is not logged on. Okay, Natalie Iwaso. Welcome again, please proceed.

Thank you, Chair Waters, Council Members, Natalie Iwaso for the record. I submitted written testimony, but it was late this morning or late last night. I forget what the time difference Anyways, just some comments. First of all, I appreciate the introduction of this measure. The first section states or recognizes that the timing of when a home is purchased can result in higher taxes due to the residential A versus residential regular. And the difference is a 15 percent minimum and it goes on up to 50 or 60 percent or more, depending on how high the property is assessed. I've been saying this for years. I've been bringing it up as a concern. And rather than this very narrowly crafted solution, however, I would ask again that you remove Residential A. And I know that the city counts on a huge amount of revenue from that classification. To replace that revenue, what I request that you do is take a look at the exemptions. We have exemptions for credit unions, labor unions, business leagues, all these other nonprofit organizations that are not charitable organizations. And as a start, please ask the administration to gather information for you so you can make a good decision on this. And that information can be received or gotten from the 990s. So those are my comments. Oh, one more thing. The retroactive nature of this bill is not good fiscal policy, but I look forward to additional discussion. Thank you so much.

Thank you. Mr. Clerk, do we have any additional testifiers in Bill 40?

Mr. Chair, yes, we do.

Tim Gehry, please proceed.

Yes, good morning. Tim Gehry. I agree with a lot that Natalie said, but I'm curious as to how many on the City Council actually own a house. and have to deal with the incurring cost of maintaining a house. There's so many things that are a burden to homeowners, especially the kupuna. There was a story where State Farm is dropping insurance. for a lot of the customers. This is just one thing. One thing I incurred was hurricane insurance. It went up 60% in one year. So whatever you could do at a city council to make things affordable, especially for Kupuna, who are on a fixed income, and only get a cost of living of $86 a month on our Social Security. You have to take all these things into account. Appreciate your time, thank you. Thank you.

Is there anybody else who'd like to testify on Bill 40? Seeing none, moving on to Bill 41, Pikachu Shelby Billionaire.

Aloha, Pikachu, Shelby, Berner, I'm back. This is for a transportation bill, nothing related to the taxi and the other stuff, but the zoning, so I support this. I know Darius Kila, because he mentioned my name, that he actually read the testimony, which I'm proud of, in the Waianae Neighborhood Board, because I didn't think any of my council members read any of the testimonies I sent today, because I sent 24 on Sunday, and I got a response back from any of them, so I'm glad to see that you're here, Chair, and I submitted number one extra for 25 for Lonnie in the back. Mahalo nui loa.

Thank you. Would anybody else like to testify on Bill 41? Seeing none, thank you. Members, we're in discussion. Actually, Council Member Dos Santos-Tam, your Bill 40 is a fantastic solution. Would you like to just explain that a little bit more?

Sure. So there's, as you may know, down in Kaka'ako, one of the affordable housing components of the Howard Hughes Master Plan is a building called Ulana. The residents who purchased in this affordable housing complex got their keys turned over to them in November of last year. But the deadline to register as an owner occupant and thus not be considered in the residential A category is September 30th. So these folks missed that deadline no fault of their own, simply because of the timing. And because they're in Kaka'ako, in the heart of this very nice area, they are also getting hit, some of these people are getting hit with assessments that are over a million dollars, and thus in the Residential A category, even though they are all owner occupants, regulated by HCDA. And so this is a gap that we need to fix as the council. It seems like a pretty easy fix that we can deal with. And I don't want to see any other future affordable housing buildings fall into this category. And I will make a plug for another bill, which is Bill 29, that deals with a similar issue with affordable housing in Kaka'ako. THESE TWO TOGETHER, I THINK, CAN PROVIDE SOME RELIEF TO THE RESIDENTS THEY'RE IN, WHETHER THEY ARE OWNER-OCCUPANTS IN THE CASE OF LUVANA OR RENTERS IN THE CASE OF BILL 29.

THANK YOU SO MUCH. We should expand that to all people who purchase a home at that time because they end up paying the residential A rate when they really are entitled to the homeowner's exemption. Look forward to that discussion in the budget committee. Any further discussion members on first reading items? Seeing none, any objections or reservations? Noting no objections or reservations, the first reading items on page nine through 10 of the agenda have passed first reading. Members, before we go on to Bill 11, I just want to take a quick five minute break, five minute break. We're in recess.

Thank you. you

Aloha and welcome to Council Conversations. I'm Tommy Waters, Chair of the Honolulu City Council. In this episode, I'm here to explain Bill 64 and 65 relating to appropriations and budget execution. Bill 64 and 65 are two measures that deal with something that affects all of us, how your tax dollars are used. Every year, about half a billion dollars that's been approved by the City Council for things like upgrading parks, fixing roads, or improving city services go unspent. That's money just sitting there, money that should be helping our communities. Bill 64 and 65 make sure we can see where those dollars are going and where they're not going. They add new reporting requirements so the Council can spot trends like which departments are leaving money on the table and which programs are running short and need help. By tracking this better, the Council can move funds where they're needed most, without raising taxes or fees. It's about making the most of what we already have instead of constantly asking for more. In short, Bill 64 and 65 help end the shell game and make sure your tax dollars actually go to work for you, providing stronger services and a city that runs smarter. So next time you hear about Bill 64 and 65, remember, it's about accountability, transparency, and smarter spending. Let's make sure every dollar counts. To learn more about these two bills, go to HonoluluCityCouncil.org and click on the Find Legislation button. Mahalo. It is now 1115, reconvening Honolulu City Council. We are on page 11, page 11, Bill 22. From the Committee on Budget, Council Member Okamoto.

Chair, I move that Committee Report 1202026 be adopted and Bill 222026, CD2, pass third reading.

Second.

It's been moved and seconded. Council Member Okamoto for the explanation.

Relating to the executive operating budget and program for the fiscal year July 1st, 2026 to June 30, 2027.

Thank you. Is there a motion to amend?

Chair, I move that Bill 22-2026 CD2 be amended to the FD1 as described in the posted budget floor draft summary and incorporated in the FD1 identified as OCS 2026-0369. The amendments are set forth on the amended list incorporated in the bill. Second.

It's been moved and seconded. Thank you for the explanation. I believe we have discussion on the motion to amend. Mayor Blangiardi is here. Mayor, would you like to start us off? Aloha and welcome.

Good morning, thank you. Well, you all know why I'm here. I stand in opposition to defunding OER. And I want to talk about that a little bit. And I also, I'm befuddled by this, I'll be really honest with you. We've established a real strong track record for solving problems, this administration. And every step along the way, we've embraced city council, we thank you for your efforts, your support, you've helped us get better, you've helped us bring about what I believe, and not an overstatement, is transformational change for our city. I read the audit, and I understand what it says in that audit. And for me, as a management principal, audits have always been a guideline. I've had good audits, I've had bad audits in my life. And there's no question, you have a right to challenge that audit from the standpoint of what you saw and in your oversight capacity, challenge us operationally who hold the responsibility to do something about that. And we're prepared to do that. But at the end of the day, OER has been very effective irrespective of this audit in helping us. We came in during the most darkest times that this city has ever had. Getting sworn in on January 2nd, 2021 was a really difficult moment in time. Add to that the fact that OER just got passed in the charter. We had to stand it up during COVID and at the same time take on an influx of federal monies that absolutely had to get out into the community, into the hands of people, knowing that we had technology barriers, we had language barriers. Quite honestly, the city had no capability. The prior administration had gotten $25 million of CARES Act money and in six months only achieved giving out $1 million of that to the population. So we had all of that pressure on us. I depended greatly on OER. OER went out and solicited and got the services and the help, the Council for Native Hawaiian Advancement, now the Council, Kuia Lewis is sitting behind me, Catholic Charities. In the course of a really difficult period of time, provided over $325 million to over 24,000 families, the most needy families around the island. I thought that was brilliant execution. In fact, I have a letter in my office from the U.S. Treasury saying we were the third best city in America at doing that. And I hold a lot of credit to Cuyo and his team, Catholic Charities, at helping. It was a collaboration. We needed a collaboration. Quite honestly, we didn't even have that capability. The city had never done that before. And we're really on a high from that because we knew we saved a lot of lives. In fact, that manifested when Governor Ige issued a moratorium on evictions. There was a lot of concern because of people losing their jobs, loss of income, that we would be facing what happened in so many other cities, an incredible increase in homelessness. Instead, and we even went out and hired the Mediation Center of the Pacific in anticipation of maybe having a fight for people to keep roofs over their heads. Instead, that was nominal. There was nothing there. And quite honestly, during COVID, before and after in that two-year period, thanks to the efforts of OER, if you look at the point-in-time count, it increased by one person. One person. over that two year period. I went to Washington DC with 39 other mayors. Every one of those cities had tremendous spikes during COVID. Tremendous spikes in their homelessness. Astronomical in some cases. We had only one person increase. And why? Because we were able to get money in the hands of people who really needed it. And that I credit OER at a time when we were actually giving out, when the prior administration took six months to give out $1 million, we were giving out over $1 million a day with no fraud. We got through that and we saved a lot of things. We kept homelessness in check, we kept people with roofs over their heads, and we really truly helped thousands of people and families, quite honestly. So I've always been on a high about OER and looking at all the other things that we're trying to get done with that. We have run at challenges. I've never, getting an audit for me is just, okay, we're not doing well here. We need to improve this. What are we going to do about improving it? We've taken a lot of pride in solving problems. We run at the challenges. My letter is a good articulation, but I want to point out a couple of other things from the spirit of the confidence I would think that you would have in us to run a department, to get kind of results we need to get. You know, we came into the city There were two crises that plagued this city for decades, housing and homelessness. What we found in January of 2021 was one person had been in charge of both with an administrative assistant. There was no functionality to the housing, or for that matter, homelessness. There was nothing. In fact, we had the worst homeless problem per capita in the country. That was a starting point. I look at where we are five and a half years ago, five and a half years now, having reorganized Department of Housing and Land Management, and the 70 some odd transactions we have going on in financing and development, and all the other things that we're doing to provide housing. But for that matter, you've seen the recent headlines and the point in time count. Our team was briefed this morning by Laura Thielen and said in her 35 years from Partners in Care, she's never seen it like this before, how good we're doing. These were two major problems, no capability at the city, no capacity, and we ran at that. Skyline, literally days before we came into office, the prior mayor fired the CEO, pulled the P3, announced a $3.67 billion cost overrun, an additional two-year delay. I was told by the outgoing and the incoming FTA administrators, worst project in America. FTA had not given the city any money, withheld 744 million since 2017. We walked into that at the same time we walked into everything else. Look at Skyline today, look at the future of it, and that's a difficult problem. And the list goes on. We had an audit on DPP. The audit on DPP, which had been submitted two years earlier and not acted upon, and I give the prior administration a hall pass because of COVID, when we took that over, it was broken. It was in disrepair beyond what anybody told me. They said it was the Holy Grail. We would never get that fixed. In fact, four months into our tenure, just to remind you, the feds came in and arrested six people. And the first person who went to jail was a 72-year-old grandmother. I never had to deal with corruption like that before in my prior life. Challenging. You look at what DPP is today. Are we there yet? No. Are we working on it every day? Yes. And so I go back and say, I don't understand to our partners here why all of a sudden you want to defund something. I go by what you said in the paper there, Council Chair, about I'm proud about doing more with less. The 27 budget reflects that. We submitted for the first time over 25 years, We submitted a budget under the previous year. Knowing full well what we were up against when it came to the collective bargaining agreements and the salary increases and everything else, we were determined to do that because of the macro dynamics going on out in the marketplace. We wanted to show people that we were sensitive to it. So yes, I challenge our team to do more with less, but we cannot do less with less, especially when it comes directly to helping people. This is the city's capability, which she didn't have before, to be able to do this hands-on approach, helping people. The amount of small businesses we've helped, the kind of counseling that's gone on, the needs that people have out there, the city, we have that obligation, that responsibility to be a resource for them. And to have no resource, it's not just gonna affect the 20 positions. It's gonna affect thousands of people in their lives. So I don't understand why we get a bad audit with a track record, I can go on, For the sake of brevity, I won't, but I don't understand where the lack of confidence in our ability to deal with something that's not working well to fix it. And I actually think, quite honestly, we're doing a lot of good things right now. In less than six years, we've issued over $405 million through OER to the community. In fact, I'll tell you another thing, and Kui was sitting right here, and I hope he'll agree with it, because I had a really powerful moment with him. At one point when we were trying to figure out what we were gonna do with this influx of federal monies, with the fear and the panic that was out there, Cuyo came to me and said, let the Hawaiians be part of the solution and not the problem. And I bought into that. I looked him in the eyes, bought into it, because we didn't really know what we were headed for. And today, I think one of the other things that came out of it is look at how powerful the council is. Look at the great work that they've done, did, and will continue to do. In fact, we're at the courthouse in Waialua right now, and have been for the last five weeks on the road to recovery, helping people with the complicated FEMA forms and every other form of assistance. I know that their success with our success actually gave rise, if you will, to just so many good things that we've been trying to do. So if we're failing in some places, I see it. We'll do something about it. But they just take this thing down and nothing is going to hurt a lot of people. And quite honestly, I don't mean this in a threatening way. That would be on you because this is illogical to me. So, yes, I will veto that. I'm against that. We're about solving problems. We've got 31 months left from yesterday. I know the deliverables. I said when we came into our second term that we were headed for a term of execution. So much of our first term was in planning and you can count on us to deliver and we are delivering and we will continue to deliver. Extremely proud of this team. So I'm gonna say it again. The challenge of the day here is not to run from something and go, it's a bad audit, defund it. How do we fix it? How do we make it best? And I would count on you to work with us to help us do that. So my letter spells it out. as well as I can say. I'm just here to tell you that I am confused by people who we've embraced every step of the way and whom we've given credit to it being key strategic partners for us in achieving the success and bringing transformational change at a time when this city really needed this collaboration to then take something so extreme and go the other way. I don't understand that and I won't understand it and I won't accept it. So with that, I'm done.

Thank you. Next we have Andy Kawano, Director of the Department of Budget and Fiscal Services.

Good morning, Chair Waters, Vice Chair Tupoula, Budget Chair Okimoto, Honorable Council Members, Andy Kawano, Director of Budget and Fiscal Services. Yeah, I echo what Mayor just stated. In general, all the cabinet members, staff working hard to execute, to do things better, to continue to get better. And we can see the big picture. In total, the budget has not changed materially. What got submitted by the mayor and what we have now in the FD1 as proposed in total is about the same. The numbers are really close. What has happened though, there has been some shifting around of mayor's priorities versus yours, council members. which is fine, we understand that there will be some compromise along the way. But I see some large items and we have our cabinet members behind me if you need more details with regard to some of the changes. Mayor already talked about OER. With regard to HBD, I'm a little concerned about what has been done to their budget because in the CD1, Their admin activity in salaries was reduced by nearly $2.4 million. In CD2, about $1.8 million was put back in with provisos to address recruitment and retention incentives. That's fine. And I recall vividly that SHOPO testified and said they were fine with that after CD2. But in the FD1, and Let me take a step back. I just got the floor draft. I wasn't able to go through everything line by line. I don't know if anything changed, but based on the posted FD1, the $1.8 million was taken out of HPD's budget and then the provisos were put back in. So you take the money out and then you put the provisos in. You restrict what HPD can do to pay overtime. You know, if they have accrued vacation, they have to pay out for retirement that can't be covered by the provisional account or provisional budget line, they use salary savings for that too. So I'm a little concerned about that because we, HPD contributed about $17 million of salary going into the budget. I covered that in the past. And that $17 million made up $30 million roughly that was taken out. And then with the fringe benefits combined with that, the total was $50 million. We needed $50 million to balance the budget before Mayor submitted it. So HPD was already short $17 million. Net to net, we've taken out another $2 million, and then we've put in provisos on top of that to restrict what they can do. Not good, not smart. As a team, we should fix it. DPP, they're working hard on... projects like their Bill 1, Bill 7 projects along with H&M BUILD. There was a reduction, fairly large one, of about $2,004,000 taken out in CD2 that wasn't restored in the posted FD1 as proposed. That's kind of concerning because, you know, as DPP's director has reported to you, there are a number of affordable housing projects moving and are in progress. And if they get completed, we're going to need funding in current expenses to cover incentives under Bill 1, Bill 7. You know, I know that we've lapsed in recent years, but they're picking up momentum. and as mayor stated we're going to keep working to get better and we're going to run through the finish line in two and a half years so we're pushing hard on that with regard to dfm you know great work they've done uh responding to the storm and you know working in wailua they've done really yeoman work there in terms of making things better for that community i don't understand why in pbem so public building electrical and maintenance there's a quite large reduction of 900 000 removed from their budget in cd2 from salaries and current expenses you know we have two new buildings right we have um the Blood Bank building for EMS, and we have the new building on North School Street for CSD. to, I'm sorry, DCS, to address a number of programs that helps the communities. And if we don't have enough capacity, janitorial, repair and maintenance, I don't know how we maintain those buildings and keep them in operating condition over the long haul. And you know, the city's not great at that. So to defund DFM, it's kind of disheartening that that happened. And then there are smaller takeaways from DPR for parks, BFS, and being a part of BFS, I'm concerned that there's about $370,000 not restored in CE because you've put more on us. We're gonna do more reporting. We have reporting on lapses. And I know you use that information. We do extra reporting on transfers. I don't know where that one's going. I don't see much of a reaction there. We have to stand up a open checkbook platform by the end of this calendar year. There's more asked of us. We're going to have to do some system development to make some of that stuff happen. And by taking away the funding, it's going to impact how quickly we can get it done. DHLM. There's a provisor there with regard to Bill 11 that they're concerned about. And I suggest this. If it's possible to avoid having to do the line item veto, would you consider moving this bill to the back so that we can caucus during recess, clean it up, together and get to FD1 that we're all happy with. That's all I have to say and I'm here for questions. Our cabinet members for those departments are here as well if you need more detailed responses.

Thank you, director. Members, are there any questions for the director? Council Member Tupola, and by the way, members, I'd like you all to ask your questions now rather than in the discussion. Let's save the discussion for members' arguments or comments. So if you have questions for him, let's do this now rather than later. So Council Member Tupola.

Yeah, I just wanted to say that anything in regards to HPD, I'll address if they come up and testify. And if they don't, I can say it in my comments during discussion. But I will address those things that you brought up. I do also think that in the general scope of the budget itself, you know, the... revisions that were made were not as grand. They were kind of minor here and there. And so I do feel like as far as like finding compromises that there was some on both sides. So I'm hoping that that can be seen because as we went through discussions, we incorporated things that people were saying to us, things that we thought we could find a middle ground on. So I'm just putting it out there because I do feel like on this FD that there was a lot of discussions that were already had. And those are the times to amend, those are the times to adjust the budget during CD1, CD2, and various times when we had breaks between the hearings where we could meet and discuss. I did read a lot of the communication that came over from the departments, albeit a lot of it was late, because some of the things they were suggesting were things I put in that's been in from the beginning that now they're saying, oh, this wasn't needed. Again, we're trying to move as expeditiously as possible with the timing of information that we receive and then the timing that we're given to file changes and then work with our fellow council members to make it happen. But I just wanted to make that comment. No questions for you. Just on the other items that I believe I have more knowledge and stuff that I put in the budget or things that I did, I will be addressing those. So thank you. Thank you, Director. Thank you, Chair.

Would you like to comment? No comments from me. Okay, thank you. Any further questions for Director of Budget and Fiscal Services? Council Member Tolva. Thanks, Chair.

Is it appropriate that I ask the departments right now if that's okay?

Yes, I was going to give the other departments an opportunity to speak, and then you could ask them individually. Do you have any questions for Director Kawano? No? No. Okay. I'd like to give the Director of OER the opportunity to address the council. Amy Acevedo.

Morning, Chair, Council Members. Thank you for the opportunity to address the City Council today to talk about the FY27 budget for the Office of Economic Revitalization. What I would like to share was a part of our communication with the Council with regard to the FD1 And of course, off the top, I would request that the city council please restore funding as was requested in our original FY27 submission from the mayor. Elimination of OER would impact really four critical areas of our work. That is business support, support for local agriculture, workforce development initiatives, and importantly, the city's economic planning and coordination capacity. Within those four, if I could, I'll describe just a little bit of what is underway today. But overall, since the start of OER in 2020, we have received over $408 million $891,221 in external funding in both federal and private funds that have been pushed through OER and out into the community and the economy for the purposes of economic development. Not a single penny has been used to pay for our staff. because we've taken the approach of either general funding or using CARES Act or SLFRF funding to have positions in our office. Today, we are managing $7,603,000 in economic development initiatives that are supporting our residents, our businesses, and future economic development initiatives. With regard to small business, Currently, the O'ahu Business Connector is operating and utilizing $750,000 in federal and state funds to support small businesses. The Idea2Biz small business incubator would be canceled if this funding for OER were cut, and the planned 2026 Ko'olaloa cohort would be eliminated. We are presently getting ready to give out $4 million in Kona Low Disaster Recovery Grants for businesses, and it would jeopardize that funding for storm impacted businesses. Additionally, we have recently launched a new microloan program with Feed the Hunger, a local community development financial institution, that will be able to provide up to $200,000 in grants, or excuse me, in loans for early stage entrepreneurs. Secondly, a cut to our organization would eliminate city support for local agriculture. This would end efforts to expand local markets and supply chains for O'ahu farmers and eliminate a $500,000 farmers market initiative, also reducing disaster recovery support for farmers affected by the Kona Low and weaken our agricultural sector. Thirdly, these cuts would severely damage OER's workforce development initiatives. OER currently manages the $5 million Good Jobs Oahu initiative, and that has helped nearly 6,000 residents increase household income through training in healthcare, clean energy, technology, and other economically diverse fields. These are pathways to productive employment that would be eliminated. And finally, I think this is something that the chair has brought up, which is being involved in economic planning and coordination capacity. I'm happy to see our partner here, Jimmy Tokioka, the director of the Department of Business and Economic Development. And a lot of this work we do in partnership with him and his many divisions of the Department of Business, Economic Development and Tourism. We would lose our ability to work with them to convene partners, to compete for federal and private funding, to support emerging industries, and to complete critical 2026 planning efforts. Thanks to the council, we have money to execute the first ever Oahu Tourism Strategic Plan. Additionally, the Oahu Comprehensive Economic Development Strategy will be, funds will be coming down from the U.S. Department of Economic Development Administration to support that work on this island at the end of this year into the beginning of next year. And we are just entering a new contract with UHERO to provide annual O'ahu economic forecasts. And we look forward, if the opportunity to fund our office is restored, to provide those economic forecasts annually to the city council. In summary, I want to say that OER, as the mayor mentioned, is actively implementing the changes and improvements identified in the 2026 audit. We all believe we can improve. I appreciate the audit. I appreciate the things they pointed out. And also want to acknowledge that A lot of our work was involved in getting that $405 million out the door in difficult circumstances under both the pandemic and today during the Kona low storms. We've worked closely with our Economic Revitalization Commission. Our chair is here and other members of our commission are online. They are working to develop the new strategic plan that guides OER's priorities, performance measures, and governance practices. This strategic planning effort is intended to directly align OER's work with the audit's recommendations, and it will strengthen internal accountability and improve transparency with the council and the public. Restoration of OER's funding will ensure that the city's investment in economic development deliver measurable outcomes for residents and businesses, but this plan cannot be executed with the cuts currently contemplated by the council. I remain committed, the 24 staff of OER remain committed to continuous improvement, fiscal responsibility, and a stronger partnership with the Council. Maintaining core staff capacity is essential to implementing all of the audit recommendations, leveraging outside funding, executing public-private partnerships, and delivering tangible economic benefits to the people of Oahu. I respectfully urge the Council to please consider full funding for OER as a prudent investment in the city's economic growth and long-term resilience. Thank you.

Thank you. Members, any questions for Director of OER? Seeing none, thank you so much. Is there any other cabinet member that would like to speak? TPP, Director Don Takeuchi-Upuna. Aloha, welcome.

Aloha, Chair, members of the Council. We do have very serious concerns with the cuts that are made in the FD1 for DPP. And I have written testimony that I provided, but I will just highlight one of the major cuts to the administration at DPP, $2,004,460 to current expenses. And that $2 million could either go to the Bill 7 grants or it could go to our core operations, administrative operations that affect specifically our licensing software, all of those things that we've worked so hard to bring about in order to improve our permitting systems. But so because it's not clear where we would take that money, I honestly would say that our core functions, we cannot let these cuts affect. So that would mean the Bill 7 grants would be reduced in half and that could mean potentially for pre-construction grants, 40 units that would not be able to receive those grants and potentially 80 in total when you think about the state match that we are working with. So these are critical both affordable housing as well as just basic administrative functions within DPP for our permitting operations, so I do ask that this $2 million and the others listed not be affected. Thank you.

And I'm here for any questions. Thank you. I do note that your department has lapsed $10,206,641 in fiscal year 24-25. Couldn't you use some of that savings to supplement the $2.2 million that is currently being redirected to other priorities?

So I think the 24 year that you're speaking of, there was significant lapse. In the last year, we have improved significantly. We've done a much better job using that money for all good purposes. The 10 million, half of that was 5 million, approximately 5 million in the Bill 7 grants that we weren't able to disperse. But as I have told the council previously, with the pre-construction grants that have recently that we're working to work on applications for those. We do see a lot of applicants coming in. We do believe that there will be substantially more developers that will be able to take advantage of that more so than any of the previous years. So yes, I understand the lapse in 2024. We've improved since then and we will continue to use those funds.

I guess my point today were considering one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight transfer of funds from one department, well, within each department to use these lapsed money. So I guess my point is, why couldn't you simply, if you need to, transfer funds? I don't think there's ever been a time where the council has denied the administration's request to transfer funds.

Yes, that's true. I just believe that $2 million is quite a significant chunk of money that we would not necessarily have enough funds to transfer between divisions.

Okay, thank you. Members, any follow-up questions? Seeing none, thank you so much. Is there anybody else from the administration? Chief Anik, aloha, welcome.

Good morning. Chair Waters, Vice Chair, Tupola, members of the Council, thank you for the opportunity to testify. I'm Interim Chief Vanek of the Honolulu Police Department. I'm speaking today regarding Bill 22, CD2FD1. The department respectfully requests reconsideration of the amendment that reduces HPD salary funding by approximately $1.8 million, while simultaneously adding requirements that are not accompanied by additional funding. I want to be clear about the practical impact of these changes. Reducing salary appropriations while adding new spending requirements creates a contradiction. It directs the department to accomplish more while providing fewer resources to do so. The recruitment and retention incentives reflected in the provisos are goals that we support. However, if the funding to carry out those incentives are not provided, the department must absorb those costs by diverting money from other personnel and operational needs. That does not create new capacity. It simply shifts resources from one critical need to another. The same concern applies to the community policing team proviso. Last year, a similar unfunded requirement forced the department to redirect funding from core patrol and operational priorities. Those impacts were real. Funding that could have supported patrol readiness, officer safety equipment, and other operational requirements had to be reallocated to satisfy the proviso. If these amendments remain in place, the department will have less flexibility to respond to changing operational demands, less capacity to address staffing shortages, and fewer resources available for the equipment and support that officers rely upon every single day to serve and protect our community. This is not simply a budgetary issue. It is a public safety issue. When resources are reduced and spending decisions are constrained by mandates, the department's ability to deploy personnel where they are most needed is diminished. Every dollar that is restricted reduces our ability to manage staffing, respond to emergencies, support patrol operations, and maintain readiness across the island. The department is asking for resources necessary to meet our public safety responsibilities and for the flexibility to allocate those resources where operational needs are greatest. We respectfully request that the Council restore the funding removed in CD2-FD1 and remove the provisos so that HPD can continue addressing the staffing challenges, maintain operational readiness, and provide the level of service that the people of Honolulu expect and deserve. Thank you for your consideration. And I'm available for questions. Thank you, Chief.

I do want to note that in FY 24-25, your department lapsed $32,341,841. And this budget currently has $375,000,000 $986,456 that we're doing. We reduced it by only 1.8 million. I do want to point out that you still have 460 vacant uniformed police officer positions that we are funding. It's funded, it's in your budget. I'm saying, can you use some of that vacant funding to make up for this $1.8 million reduction? And I also wanna point out, since I've been on the council, your budget was under $300 million. So that's an increase of $75 million since I've been here. That's not a question actually, it's more of a comment. Council Member Tupolo.

Thank you. Also, just a comment. Aloha Chief Vanek and aloha all the officers that are here. Thank you very much for your service. And of course, for the collaboration that you guys participated in with me for the Vacancy Task Force, which I believe is gonna be something great moving forward for the department. And I know that our conversations were about stripping the provisos, allowing you guys to have the flexibility. But I did want to also iterate that. It's not even just last year's. In 2021, the lapse, FY 2021, it was 18 million. FY 2022, it was between 25 and 30 million. FY 2023, 35 to 40 million. And FY 2024, 50 million was lapsed. Supposedly in 2025, it was around, I think Chair Waters just said, the 32 million. So at no point No point has HPD ever lapsed like 1 million, where we're really toying around with just a couple thousand. So definitely, you guys have the most flexibility, I would say, of many of the departments. And then last year, resolution 25-146, it was like the 11th hour. It was May. I remember this resolution because you guys asked to transfer $13.5 million to cover patrol salaries. And it was urgent. It was urgent because sometimes you guys don't know how much you're going to need in patrol. We never denied that. The $13.5, which was a lot to transfer, we were like, thumbs up. You guys need it. We're going to do it for you. So there's two ways we could do this. We can wait until April, May, and then do these last minute transfers. Or we can actually do transfers now if you guys feel like you already know that you need these at no point do we ever want you to feel restricted in your ability to execute what you need to do. That's my commitment. I am also going to make sure that through this whole process, I'm not going to just wait till next year March and then have a conversation with you. I think you know that. I think I conversate too much with you guys. I'm gonna make sure that every month that there is any type of need for us to address something that we are there to assist. Because there's no way that we're gonna make this whole plan to help HPD succeed and not try to fund it or help you guys. But I do believe that the flexibility of the funding that you already have is enough for us to do a lot of effective changes that will help retention of HPD. I mean, it's already moving in a positive direction. We want to escalate and expedite that movement. So just my commitment to you guys is that it will be fine. We will move through this and we'll move through it together with you and keeping a good eye on what you guys need so that there is no feeling that you are unable to expend funds that you need to do if you feel like that's what the officers need. So thank you, Interim Chief. Thank you, Chair.

Thank you. I just also want to point out, thank you, Vice Chair Tupola, a lot of the money is being used for officer retention. Officer retention. So anyway, any further questions? Council Member Weyer.

Thank you, Chair. And thank you, Chief. Just wanted to... Get a follow-up. So I mean, given what's been discussed, is it just solvable by using transfers, the concerns that you're raising, or was there any additional insight?

Thank you for that question, and if Let me answer that question and then also provide comment to some of the comments that were made. So no, I don't believe that transfers are the best way to address these issues. And while it's true that there were lapses in previous years, I can tell you that the one year that we did lapse a large amount of money, that was an anomaly of the year because that was one year where PVP PVP funding was added to our budget, which in previous years was never added. So that was definitely an anomaly. I can tell you though that this fiscal year, if there wasn't an additional 14 million that was added to our budget as a result of a resolution, we're actually over budget. I'll repeat that. If there wasn't an additional 14 million that was added to our budget in salaries, we'd actually be over budget. So yes, it may seem like a small amount of $1.8 million, but that $1.8 million, when you talk about vacant positions and what we spend them on, I could tell you exactly what we spend them on. So our cost savings each year, when you look at it, is, for example, we use $2 million for contract employees. SRO program, which, if I'm not mistaken, was touted as a huge success, we spend about $1 million on that. And that's just for the current program. We actually wanted to expand that. But if you take away $1.8 million, I mean, that's that program right there. So not only would we not maybe be able to expand it, I mean, we could maybe cut that program out, and then we wouldn't have to worry about the 1.8 million that's being cut. NPR incentives, NPR salaries, vacation lump sum, non-holiday and holiday overtime, additional overtime, even the SHOPO lump sum, those all come out of our vacation, items using salary savings or cost savings. These aren't things that are budgeted for, but yet we're required to pay for those things. So I do understand that, yes, we are expected to pay for things, but we pay for a lot of things using our cost savings, and that's the flexibility that we're talking about. But 1.8 may not seem like a lot, and we do have a lot of support, and we feel the love from City Council, but all we're asking for, and yes, we don't want to come to next April or May and ask, hey, can we have more money? Can we move more money? That's what I'm doing here now. I'm asking you, we're going to need the money because at the end, we may be asking for another $14 million because what I can tell you is, is when we submitted our budget, our collective bargaining agreement hadn't been completed yet. And it was based off of figures that was before the 5% and actually before the 10% increase. So now come July 1st, we're actually paying for the 5% that was retro to last and the 5% that's actually gonna start coming in this July, that wasn't calculated when we did this current upcoming budget. So I'm not sure what our outlook is going to be at the end of this. upcoming fiscal year, we actually may be at this podium asking, hey, you know what? We need more money. And even though it's only $1.8 million that is being taken away from us now, that 1.8 million may be added to the additional 15 or 16 million that we may be asking for in a resolution to say, hey, you know what? I don't think we're going to make it. We don't have enough in our budget for our salaries. Can you please give us more? So instead of compounding the problem, we're asking you now, please don't take the 1.8 million. Please don't restrict our monies by putting them into provisos. Remove that. Allow us to do the things that we already have a track record of doing. Let us do those things and trust us to be able to serve the public the way we've been doing up until now. Thank you, Chief, for explaining. I'll call the chair.

Any further questions of Chief Council Member Topolo?

I'll be fast. Just for clarity, the resolution I was talking about wasn't additional money, so that was a transfer of funds. So it was funds that HPD already had that was gonna go into patrol, so there was no new money infused based on that, so just clarification. Secondly, I do think that in the realm of lapsed money, we are never at zero lapsed dollars. So that means that the flexibility for you to use whatever you have in whatever category you want to use it is still gonna be at your discretion. So I do apologize that the provisos are in there without the funding. And I know we talked about that, that you guys will still do it. You don't need the provisos. Unfortunately, we're trying to trim this budget down. And I was asked, hey, is it okay if we don't necessarily have the funding, but we're suggesting that it be there because we're trying to get all of these things to fit into this beautiful piece of pie that we're trying to do for the budget. So all I can say is that I do believe that with what you guys have, you will have enough. But as we move forward, this will be a very good exercise because what we need to see is less lapse funds, right? And when I say less lapse, I don't mean like in the 20 millions. I mean all the way down so we're actually budgeting correctly. So again, my commitment is to help you guys. I hear what you're saying, but I do think we're going to make it through this. Thank you, Chair.

Thank you. Any other questions? Council Member Dos Santos-Towne.

Thank you. I just have a quick clarifying question. With regard to these transfer resolutions that have been introduced and passed in previous years, were all of those inter-fund transfers within HPD? That is from one category within HPD to another within HPD?

Good afternoon, I'm Ryan Hironaka, Major of Finance Division. Yes, that is correct. They're all between activities.

And so have we ever asked HPD to request a transfer from a different fund outside of HPD into HPD to fund necessary public safety operations?

Well, we didn't ask for it, but BFS approached us and asked us what our shortfall was gonna be because of the 5% retroactive raises this year, because none of the raises were budgeted at the start of fiscal year 26, so they gave us a number of what we projected to be our shortfall was, and we gave them the number, and using our What we were going to have available in other activities, we combined it. We don't want to ask for too much. That's why we have the other resolution today, but that was the one recent time I recall that money was infused into our salaries.

Okay, thank you.

Thank you. Any follow-up questions with HPD? I have one. So, Chief, how many vacant uniform positions do you have, uniformed police officers currently today?

We currently have about 460.

460, and then each of these positions that are currently funded, what is the starting salary of a police officer? $65,000?

No, they're currently about $84,000. $84,000. Okay, I'm just gonna, tell me with the math.

You got 460 funded vacant positions times 84, That's $38,640,000 that's funded. I know you said you're using it for other things, but in the whole scheme of things, 1.8 million out of almost 376,000. Wouldn't you also agree with me that this 376 million is the most that this department has ever received from the city council. I mean like ever.

So one thing I'd like to point out also is all of our classes are actually getting bigger. So right now we have 160 recruits in some phase of training. And all of those recruit fund, all of those recruit salaries, all come out of cost savings. Not sure if you also, just two years ago, our recruit classes were in the 20s. Our last recruit class started 40, 44, and actually the last three classes were all above the 40s and we still have another over 100 individuals in the pipeline. So what I'm asking is, yes, we do have a lot of vacant positions, but that's because we want to continue to be able to hire as many people as we can so we can reduce that number from 460 to 360 to 260 or even lower, because we do see a lot of progress and we want to continue to make that progress.

And I think you have and appreciate that, but I guess what I'm getting at is you still have $38 million to play with. And I do want to note that in Resolution 26-5 CD1, you're asking for $12 million from the provision for salary adjustments and accrued vacation pay. I'm assuming that is to cover the pay raises for HPD officers, yeah? That's correct. Okay, so that's covered. We covered the, well, once we pass this, we're covering the pay increases for uniformed officers. So anyway, I think we're beating this to death. Any other questions for the Chief? Seeing none, thank you, Chief. Is there anybody else from the administration like to testify? Chief Engineer Jean Albano, Department of Facility Maintenance. Aloha and welcome.

Chair Waters, council members, Gina Albano, director and chief engineer of Department of Facility Maintenance. I'm here to respectfully request restoration of the proposed reductions in our budget. It's candidly a reflection of the lack of confidence of our department with the further reduction being proposed. And I simply ask if the department has not been helping your constituents with respect to the needs of your communities. And with that, I will take any questions that you may have.

Okay, thank you so much, director. And we all appreciate the good work that your department does, but we're talking about $161,000, is that correct?

I'm sorry?

The reduction, further reduction from the council is $161,765.

161,000 with regards to current expenses?

Your entire budget. And I do want to point out that you've lapped $6,727,531. So the reduction is quite small in light of the amount that- Excuse me, Chair.

Excuse me, Chair. Did the floor hand walk adjust? DFM's budget, have you added dollars in the handle? Because I haven't been able to look at it. As of the posted FD1, they were short about $900,000 in current expenses, mostly in PBEM. So if you've added monies, thank you very much. We appreciate it. Yes.

I do appreciate the update. However, with regards to current expenses, I will be testifying later that electricity as well as fuel expenses have gone up. We will continue to need additional operating budgets and hope that any reduction that we have be still restored. Thank you.

Thank you, Director. Any follow-up questions, members?

Thank you.

Thank you so much.

Anybody else from the department? Mr. OJ, aloha, welcome. Aloha, Chair Waters.

Budget Chair Okamoto, honorable council members, the Department of Housing and Land Management respectfully opposes the proposed proviso directing that at least $150,000 out of current expenses shall be expended for contracts and services necessary to effect Bill 11. The purpose, the reason for that, Chair, is that Bill 11 hasn't been passed yet and we don't know what the scope of that bill is gonna be ultimately. And it's really not a great use of budget to tie up existing funds or proposed budget funds for a bill that's not been lapsed. I know it's only a small amount of money, as Vice Chair Tappola has mentioned. But I want to say this. The mayor's asked all of the departments to do more with less. And working with budget and fiscal services, the Department of Housing and Land Management was able to reduce its operating budget, the operating not salary component of its budget by 25%, which is substantial. So we really cut close to the bone to really look hard at what we actually needed to get by for next year. The $150,000 is actually important to us. Our small department, our overall operating budget non-salary is $4.3 million. $150,000 represents 3.5% of that. That's a big deal to us. We just want to make that clear. Given all of the work that we need to do around housing, every penny counts. Bill 11 is highly supported by the Department of Housing and Land Management. The intent of that bill is highly supported by us. In fact, the outcomes and the intent of that bill are a central component of the strategic plan that we presented over 18 months ago. We have been working with your office chair to collaborate on Bill 11 and an appropriate outcome for that bill. We've been working hard to do that. We don't think that we're there yet. And the challenge that we're going to have with this $150,000 is that given where we are in the process, not fully understanding the scope of work, what's going to be required, the consultants that are going to be required, being able to get an RFP out the door, get the procurement process done, score that procurement, execute a contract, these funds will lapse before we're able to do that. That would be a shame because we really could be putting those funds to good use. So thank you very much for the opportunity to comment this morning.

Thank you. Members, any questions for Director of Department of Housing and Land Management? Council Member Topolo.

For the clarification of the public, could you explain Bill 11? I know you noted it in your testimony, but for everyone's edification.

Yes, Bill 11 attempts to basically look back at all the affordable housing incentives that the city has been providing over the past many years, last decade or so. And the Department of Housing and Land Management, particularly our policy team, highly supports that effort. But the way that the bill is crafted, it's not clear that we control or even know where all the data lies to be able to perform that work. And we're currently in the process of doing that. Our housing policy director, Gavin Thornton and I have put together a work plan so that we can understand where that data lives, how we can get it, what would be required to prepare those reports and utilize that data in all of our policy making going forward around housing, which is extremely important.

Thank you, thank you, Chair. Thank you, any follow-up questions? Seeing none, oh, Council Member Dos Santos.

I do have a question, sorry, not for DHLM, but for DFM. I didn't hear the answer about where the restored funding is. I'm looking at the amendment list and I don't see that. So can we get clarity on what page the DFM restoration was? We can get that at a later point, but I just want to make sure. I seemingly heard that we were assured that DFM's funding was restored in the hand-carried version, but I don't see that here. If somebody could provide that, that would be helpful. Thank you.

Okay, thank you. I see that Keholani Pu'u from the Department of Parks and Recreation is here and on the list to speak. Aloha and welcome.

Hi, Aloha Chair Waters, Vice Chair Tupoula, and honorable members of the council. Kehau Pu'u from the Department of Parks and Recreation. I have not seen the floor draft from today, but this is in response to the FD1s that were posted. First, we'd like to mahalo all of you, those who have supported restoration of our current expense funds in our urban forestry program, recreation services, and grounds maintenance budgets. We really appreciate that restoration as these funds are critical to maintaining park operations, supporting our recreational programming, and managing the city's urban canopy for our residents. DPR does respectfully request the restoration of $51,536 in our current expense funds in administration. Now I know that seems like a money amount, but this is our smallest division that carries large kuleana. This division houses our personnel and carries out our personnel functions, safety, permits office, our planners, so they have CIP oversight, fiscal oversight. And so this department does contribute critically to the success of our department. They did have some lapses in the last couple of years due to failure to encumber funds and a contract that started later, but last year's lapse was only about 1.3% of their entire division budget. This 51K will impact their ability to provide tablets for our safety specialists so that they can conduct more efficient safety inspections across our parks. It impacts our ability to provide retention training for our current employees and to maintain current levels of security services at Kalailoa where we have over 400 acres of park parcels. The other request we want to put before you is to restore maintenance support services $140,000, also incurring expense funds. While Council has added projects that come out to about $685,000, these all come with provisos, and I do want to just speak to that very briefly. But our 140K does allow MSS to carry out the many projects, repair, paving, roofing, and the unanticipated things that come up throughout the year. And so restoring that will give us the flexibility to continue to support our parks and our gardens. Regarding a lot of the council initiated projects that were added, we do respectfully ask that some of them be removed. We are definitely aligned with some of these projects like the video monitoring. However, DPR is gonna be working with DIT to do an assessment. We learned from Sheridan Park that there's a lot that needs to go into, it's not just a matter of putting a video camera up, but there are technological needs, electrical needs, and things like that that we have to figure out. So we are going to need that time to do that assessment. But we are definitely aligned. It's something that we're considering asking for in our fiscal year 28 budget if we're ready. And then there are some other smaller things. There are a couple of things that we're able to start already in this fiscal year. Councilman Nishimoto's fencing at Makiki District Park. I will say I have a chain link fence at home that's older than 25 years. Apologies for that mistake. But that's another project. So we feel that some of these funds are not necessary and would love for that to be redistributed to our other departments. That's all I have to say. Mahalo.

Thank you so much. I do want to thank you, your director, and the hardworking men and women from the Department of Parks and Recreation, because we see the good work that you do every day. I do want to point out that your department in FY25 lapsed $10,407,831. and that your department is going to see an increase this fiscal year of $464,663, mostly for council priorities. But thank you. I know you testified that you don't think you need that or maybe not even want to do the council priorities, but that's what the budget says. Council Member Tupoula.

Thank you, Chair. Aloha, Deputy. Thank you for being here and mahalo for the letter in recommendations. We are at the 11th hour. I do believe that this budget and all of the amendments are going to be taken as is, but for those ones that I put in that you guys said you guys are going to get done with monies that are already allocated for this year, go ahead and transfer those funds. The $35,000 that was going to be used for that, put it to where you guys need it to go. Because we're at the point right now where if there are funds, say, for example, for Council Member Nishimoto, myself, that you guys are expending in this budget cycle, don't need it, you will have that money. So you will have that money in you guys' budget, and we are open to all and any type of transfers that the department needs, and of course, in support of everything that you guys do for all of our districts. Thank you, Chair.

Thank you. Any follow-up questions for the Department of Parks and Recreation? Seeing none, thank you so much. Is there anybody else from the administration like to testify? Seeing none, okay, thank you members. I'm gonna go to our list of registered testifiers starting with Troy Shimasaki, Office of the City Auditor.

Aloha and welcome. Aloha, Chair Waters and Council Members, Troy Shimasaki, Office of the City Auditor. Our office does not take a position on Bill 22 related to the Executive Operating Budget. Rather, I'm here to present a brief overview of our audit of the Office of Economic Revitalization as it relates to Bill 22.

Point of order.

State your point.

This is a testimony on the budget bill. And I'm curious the relevance of the city auditor, an appointed position, coming to give an overview of the audit when there's no recommendations in that audit regarding the budgeting for that office. Or whether, you know, point of discussion today.

Members, any feedback? Chair. Council Member Topolo.

I think because there's been heavy emphasis on OER, I believe that's why you're here. As far as being able to testify, it's up to you, but I do believe narrowly tailoring his comments to the OER in relation to this budget, right? I don't know. It's up to you, but I do think that because that's been an ongoing discussion about this, although there's many parts of Bill 22 that is a focus, I can see maybe the relevance.

No, I agree. Well, briefly... Can you explain your point of view since the mayor did bring up OER? Thank you, please proceed. Briefly though.

Yes, thank you, I'll be brief. There were two, sorry, our audit report was issued in January of 2026 and it was initiated by our office. There were two primary audit findings. The first was city management did not sufficiently separate the OER from its authorization to accomplish program goals and responsibilities until fiscal year 2025. OER instead prioritized spending on staffing capacity over economic recovery and revitalization efforts. Secondly, OER did not fully meet its responsibilities as set forth in Resolution 20-197 due to delays in program implementation. More specifically, we found that since October of 2020, OER made meaningful accomplishments in three of eight program area responsibilities identified in Resolution 20-197. We also found that OER program efforts may be duplicative of other city and state programs. The audit made five recommendations. Four of these recommendations were directed at OER. The first was to establish a long-term sustainability plan, including an assessment of current operations and costs, identify program funding resources, and provide it to the Honolulu City Council. Second recommendation was to provide at least annually a performance report aligned with the department's own KPIs to support informed decision making and accountability. Third was to evaluate program and services that are shared with other city departments and the state for cost efficiency, innovation, and to avoid duplication. And fourth was to ensure that it meets the five outstanding required responsibilities of resolution 20-197, which we deemed were not sufficiently met. And fifth, we also recommended that the Economic Revitalization Commission should establish a department-specific five-year strategic plan in accordance with Resolution 20-197. That concludes my comments. I thank you for the opportunity. The audit team and I are here. We'd be happy to answer any questions you may have relative to this audit. Thank you. Thank you very much. Members, any questions?

Council Member Weyer.

Thank you, Chair. And mahalo auditor for the overview. I'm just curious, so from your review in terms of all the assigned charter responsibilities, how many are there? There's eight, I think, right? Correct. Okay. So based on the current capacity that they have, you found that they weren't working in every single charter assigned space or doing all the work that they could be doing to support economic development? Generally, yes, that is correct. Okay. Appreciate that. And then last question. Did anybody ask you to come testify today or was that the office's own position and decision?

We were requested to be here today to answer any questions that our audit may have related to the initiative being considered regarding Bill 22.

Okay, but the actual testimony, because we're in the testimony portion, was you deciding just to testify on your own?

Correct, just to give a brief overview and be here to answer any questions that the council may have.

Okay, mahalo.

Thank you. Any follow-up questions for the auditor? Council Member Dos Santos, down.

Thank you. Just briefly, I'm looking at the recommendations presented on pages 47, 48, and 49 of the audit. Were any of the recommendations to eliminate positions within OER?

No, we do not recommend that.

Any follow-up questions for the auditor? Seeing none, thank you. Thank you. Next, we have Pikachu Shelby Billionaire.

Aloha. Thank you very much. It took this long. I hope you guys give me a longer minute because you guys always cut it real so fast. So I got to talk real fast. I oppose this bill because I ran it by AI and Donna Puna was on our Y9 neighborhood board talking about they use AI. I use multiple AIs because they get to ask you which AI you use. AI means love in Japanese. Artificial intelligence, you know, run by aliens. You can use cloud, grok, whatever the heck you want to do. But it's going to show you the budget is small. $4.8 billion. The budget after this, 1.16. 4.8 plus 1.16 billion is, say, $5.9 billion. My last name's billionaire. Not millionaire, not trillionaire. How you say it in Hawaiian? So when you're cutting your own departments, it's like the blue bloods cutting your own blue bloods. Why are you cutting your own? Department crew. Of course the mayor's here because he was in China with Kung Fu Panda negotiating with the CCP for Honolulu Zoo. But now that he's here back in town, $6 billion is a lot of money. So when you cut in your own departments, I'm offended because the AI already red flagged all of this, and I told you guys the first time, no. The second time, no. And for the third time, I'm still telling you no. So I'm glad the mayor's here, and by all the powers invested in me, I hope he vetoes this stuff. Thank you very much. Thank you.

Next we have Kima Hardy.

Mr. Chair, the testifier is not logged on.

Okay. Dale Vanderbrink.

Mr. Chair, the testifier is also not logged on. Sherry Minor.

Aloha.

Aloha. Please proceed.

Aloha, everyone, council and members of the committee. I wish I were there in person to provide the support. However, I'm heading to D.C. for Hawaii on the Hill. I did want to state our support for OER. We are in strong support. A couple of years ago, the Chamber launched the 2030 Blueprint, which is a data-driven, data-informed economic action plan. And it supports small businesses, workforce development, regenerative tourism, and economic diversification. And these efforts address labor shortages, business costs, and the need for resilience. And this is where OER comes in, because in order to make this blueprint successful, to move and advance our economy, we need a strong government partnership. one that will collaborate, one that will connect, and one that will convene. And that's the experience that we've had with OER in the past few years since it was formed. And in order to begin moving the needle for our economy, we will, again, once again, I like to stress that solid government partnership, and we couldn't think of a better department than OER to help us do that. Mahalo.

Thank you. Next, we have James Tokioka. Aloha and welcome. Director of the Department of Business and Economic Development.

Thank you, Chair Waters. Vice Chair Tupoula, Budget and Finance Chair Okimoto, thank you for this opportunity to testify in front of this esteemed board. I am here to testify in support of the Office of Economic Revitalization and The reason for that is in my position at DBED, we work with Amy and her team a lot. I can tell you just recently with Council Member Weyer on the North Shore, there was a community organization, the chamber, the North Shore Chamber. And when Amy got there, she kind of led along the meeting with this community and she showed the commitment to getting the $4 million grant that the state got through the disaster emergency fund. And as soon as it was, approved and given to DBED, we turned it over to the city. And we know that the city, with your help, can get the money to these people who are struggling desperately needing help, and I know many of you have been involved in that, but our job was to get it to you as fast as possible, and Amy assisted with that. I remember when I first got to DBED, we had a meeting because we were gonna get the SEDS report, and that's something that every single county works on, and Amy was in a meeting, and with the rest of the economic development directors throughout the state in my office. And she told me, Jimmy, let's make sure that this report is not a report that the state and the counties do that just sits on the shelf. And, you know, my office and BDSD, the business development office in DBED made sure that we did the tracking of the progress of these SED reports. And so I've appreciated everything that I've had the opportunity to work with Amy on. And I sat here to listen to all of the budget concerns. And having done this before, I know how critical the budget is to all of you. And many times, you're not going to agree on it. But I'm here just to talk about the commitment that I have seen from Amy. And I think we're in a space right now that The governor and the mayor have this synergy, and a lot of the push that both of them have is economic development. There's not a week that goes by that the governor doesn't call me about some project. And working with the mayor, I've had that same opportunity to seek his support, One of the big ones, as all of you know, was the stadium. He helped us tremendously get this stuff done. And this all ends up with economic development in the end. The convention center is another one. He helped us and Don, thank you very much, with our permits when we needed help to move the project along. So I just wanna ask for your support of the office and thank you for the opportunity to testify. I'm here to answer any questions if you have them. Thank you so much.

Members, any questions for the director? Andrea Tupolo.

Aloha. I just want to say thank you for coming. It's so nice to see you here in our chambers. And thank you for the work that you do on the state level. We appreciate it. And I've communicated with the administration as well as with the director some of the different thoughts we're having. And none of it was about the disappointment of programs or disappointment of any types of benefit that they brought to the community. We know that it's great. We're talking about whether or not it's the highest and best, most effective use of the way that we're moving now. So I'm excited to see a regrowth. You know, I don't think we ever want to see it stop. Economic growth in the city is only helpful to us, but it's how are we doing it and are we the strategy leader as opposed to another program provider? But I know you weren't here for a lot of those discussions and I think here internally on the city, I just wanted you to know we want success. We want them to succeed and we're so grateful for that partnership that you've had with them thus far. We're very grateful. Thank you, Director.

I know you are, Vice Chair, and when you said that, I've never testified here before. I know. I was doing the Nishimoto thing. I've never testified here before, but I really thought it was important.

Well, thank you for coming to see Councilmember Nishimoto again. He misses you. Thank you, Chair.

Thank you. Any follow-up questions for Director Dibed? Thank you so much. Thank you. Next we have, I saw Eliza Talbott, is she still here? There she is, aloha, welcome.

Is it on? OK. Hi, everybody. Eliza Talbott. I am the current chair of the Economic Revitalization Commission. So I get to work with Amy and her team day in and day out and see the good work that they do. Today, I'm going to speak from the heart. I did submit written testimony, which I encourage you to please read and consider. But I just wanted to say that I hope that the decision that is made today is based on facts and based on data. And I have been a former staff person, and I know how stressful and emotional this time is for the budget. And so I urge all of you to really do what you think is right for the community. OER provides a safety net for our business community on Oahu that nobody else can provide. And if we take that away, we hurt our business community. And I have worked with the business community here for over a decade. And I really see that OER is so critical. And so I really ask all of you to please genuinely consider what we're asking for today. So please consider restoring their full funding and work with us on our strategic plan because we are finished with it and we are going to need your input. So thank you.

Thank you. Any questions for the testifier? Council Member Topolo.

Yeah, I just wanted to thank you as chair. You know, Eliza, you've been stellar. I think they're very fortunate to have you on the commission and I think your input has been invaluable. I appreciate the fact that you've reached out to me directly about some of your thoughts regarding this. You know, I just wanted to make mention though that Based upon our discussions and, of course, many a letter that I've written and sent to the administration, I still feel like we haven't really gotten the response that we've asked for. One of them you specifically just brought up, that the strategic plan is almost done. And I had asked prior to this whether or not we could be a part of creating it, crafting it, and of course now you guys are asking for input. The fact of the matter is that us as the council can leverage and help so much in passing laws and funding things that you guys want. We haven't had that. In fact, the last council meeting we had, you guys mentioned Bill 10, that you guys were behind it. First time I ever heard that you guys were behind a bill, but I think that's great. That's the kind of work we want to do. We want to see how much we can leverage change of laws, change of procedures, change of admin rules to benefit businesses. We want to see the biggest and highest impact from the department. So we're creeping along there, but I have felt that of all the people that have come and testified and talked to me, that you've been a little bit more responsive in being able to hear what I'm saying. It's just, it's very, very hard. I know it's hard to take in all of the comments that are said in this room, but I haven't really felt like a lot of what we said has equaled any change that's been significant in our direction. But I thank you for constantly being an advocate for businesses and for the department. I appreciate it. Thank you, Council Member. I appreciate that. Thank you, Chair.

Thank you. Any follow-up questions, members? Seeing none, thank you so much. Is Karen Polk still here? Karen Polk?

Mr. Chair, the testifier is online. Okay, please proceed.

Aloha and welcome.

Oops, sorry. Aloha, welcome. Thank you for the welcome. Chair Waters, Vice Chair Chipola, and members of the Council members, I too am online. I'm sorry, not there in person, and I'm getting on a plane to go to Washington, D.C. as well to represent West O'ahu businesses. I just also want to, as my colleagues have mentioned, express our strong support for maintaining full funding and restoring the positions in OER. You know, West O'ahu, we're the fastest growing region in the state. We have the need for economic development support on the county level. And I'll give you one example. There was a cohort that was mentioned earlier, Idea to Biz, on the Waianae Coast, and there were 15 brand new startup businesses. And I went to the graduation, and these are, they went from ground up. Other organizations don't have that startup support that OER gives. And if we take away this funding, those staff support to push forward on that cohort would not exist. And they're members of my chamber today. So, you know, I know I back all the comments of my colleagues before me, and I just urge the Council to restore and maintain those positions so they can help our businesses grow and succeed. Mahalo.

Thank you so much. Next, we have Benji Yagong. Sorry. Please proceed.

Hello. My name is Benji. I'm one of the farmers in Waialua. Aloha, Chair Tommy Waters, Vice Chair Andrea Tupula, and members of council. Mahalo for the opportunity to provide testimony in support of appropriations for response and recovery efforts related to the Kona Low Storms, including the proposed funds for flood control studies and improvements, stormwater, and watershed monitoring. The March 2026 Kona Low Storms hit us hard, back-to-back systems that dumped insane amounts of water, of rain, with some spots getting five feet or more in no time. powerful winds and rain through Our farm crops that we had carefully planted and nurtured were blown over, snapped, and damaged beyond recovery. Leaves were shredded, stems were broken, and weeks of hard work were lost in just hours. We estimate that about 40% of our crops were destroyed during the first storm. We held onto hope since the remaining crops were still healthy and it's a peak harvest. We believe we could recover, regroup, and still make it through the season. But then the second storm came. Heavy rains fell nonstop, water covered our fields, drowning the crops that had survived the first storm. What wasn't broken was now submerged, the soil became oversaturated, roots began to rot, and entire rows of crops were wiped out. In a single event, we lost what had been our harvest for April to July, four months of income and food for our community. As a farmer of Oahu and North Shore, over two months after those back-to-back March 2026 Conolo storms, the challenges are still very real and evolving every day. The initial destruction was bad, but the long tail of recovery is where it gets especially tough for operations like mine. Farmers and farm workers are among those most severely impacted by the recent Conolo storms and flooding on Oahu. Beyond the damage to crops, seeds, equipment, and infrastructure, many farmers and agricultural workers face continuous and immediate threats to their livelihood, housing and tenancy, and resilience against future disasters. Their need for COCOA is therefore urgent and time sensitive. As the city consider how these resources will be deployed, priority should be given not to large land owners and developers, but to small farmers and agricultural workers. Hawaii-born, migrant, and immigrant workers who are already among the most economically vulnerable and marginalized members of our communities even before disasters occur. Farmers play essential role in feeding Oahu, sustaining local economies, and strengthening the island's resilience. Yet for many impacted workers and small operators, the city may be the first and sometimes only the avenue through which aid is accessible. It is therefore critical that emergency response and recovery programs are inclusive, multilingual, culturally accessible, and designed with low barriers to participation and assistance. I also urge the council to thoroughly investigate the causes and contributing factors behind the recent floods and to hold accountable those whose actions or negligence may have worsened a disaster that many community members believe could have been mitigated or prevented. Mahalo for your consideration in supporting investments that protect both our communities and people who help feed us and take care of our land and water resource. Thank you.

Thank you. Next, we have Terry George. Sorry, can you hear me? Yes, we can. Please proceed.

Chair's mic's off.

You're on mute, Mr. George.

I'm in Kalihi at the moment in a small nonprofit that's providing food to our residents and Wi-Fi goes in and out. But I do stand on my written testimony in support of OER's restoration of its budget for several reasons. I've worked very closely with them over the past five years and I've seen the way they work and build genuine partnerships in the community. I've mostly seen OER staff at key project listening and co-designing initiatives to support the economy. I've seen them at Central Pacific Bank brainstorming on how to partner to support new small businesses, particularly low-income communities or by entrepreneurs who really don't have access to other forms of capital. And I've seen them right after the Kona Lo already serving families there in Waialua at the community assistance center that was stood up. So I also am very impressed with the way they've been able to actually create a leverage of funding and bring in significant dollars as Amy Asabay described from federal sources as well as private philanthropic sources. You have an incredibly difficult job to balance this budget and figure out how you do more with less. So I don't envy the council for that role, but I do wonder how we allow, if they can really have the capacity to address everything that's addressed in the audit, if we're cutting more than half of their staff and their budget. So I would humbly urge your support in allowing them the chance to address those concerns and to continue doing the good work that they're doing for the heart of our community. They're very community-facing organization, one of the most respected parts of the city and county government that's been developed in recent years. Thank you again for the opportunity to testify. Mahalo. Thank you.

Next, we have Hunter Heavlin.

Thank you Chair Councilmembers. I'm Hunter Heavlin the advocacy director with Hawaii Farmers Union. Like to highlight Councilmember Weier's proposed FD1 included a million and a half dollars specifically for grants to producers impacted by the natural disasters. The four million mentioned for Kono Lo business grants are not accessible to producers. So this is the only funding this budget or potentially in this budget that could reach these impacted farmers, of which we have identified over 260 have reported nearly 20 million in losses. And this is just for O'ahu alone, 80% of which are uninsured because federal crop insurance is essentially unavailable and not tailored to Hawaii's farm operations. Direct grants are the only relief that reaches these producers and each dollar can help access federal recovery funding that would otherwise be inaccessible for producers who've lost their livelihood. You've heard firsthand today about some of those livelihood impacts, the impacts of recent storms, but these are not new problems. In 1954, Kona lows hit Oahu and washed away nearly a million tons of topsoil with a similar scale of economic damage. These are some of the same communities, same crops, same type of storm 70 years later. That same year, in 1954, Congress actually created a federal cost share program for local flood prevention and soil conservation. But over the decades since, while every other Hawaii county has funded soil water conservation districts with dedicated staff and other types of financial support, Honolulu County has not. Similarly, when other counties adopted agricultural liaisons, Honolulu County was late to the game. The position that's now housed within OER is the only place dedicated agricultural capacity and Honolulu still doesn't fund its soil water conservation districts. The disaster recovery grants we're asking for are part of the maybe long term costs of not having invested prior. These are critical funds that we need to see deployed. We need the Office of Economic Revitalization to deploy those and all of those funds and all of the manifold other magnificent programs that they run. One restored planter cannot do it. We need a full full department and we hope to see both the department's funding and ideally some farmer grant funding move forward in this. Happy to answer any questions and mahalo for the opportunity to testify.

Thank you. I see that Dale Vanderbrink is back. Mr. Vanderbrink, please proceed.

Thank you, Council Chair Waters. So I'll keep my testimony short because I wasn't sure if I was going to be here, but I do oppose the cuts to OER as it will greatly impact their mission. I believe, as was mentioned previously before during the auditor's testimony, that none of the recommendations from the auditor were about cutting the positions in OER. And I believe if you need to reform or otherwise help the department in their mission goals, cuts to their filled positions are not the way to do so. So I urge the council to reverse those cuts or the mayor to utilize his veto power if necessary. Mahalo.

Thank you. Next, Don Sakamoto. Mr. Sakamoto?

Mr. Chair, the testifier is not responding.

Okay. We also have a number of in-person registered testifiers. Abraham Agoto. Aloha and welcome.

Aloha, everyone. I am a member of the Filipino Farmers Association in Wailua. I was affected by Kuna Storm 1 and 2, and I am requesting the honorable board to please include us in your budget if can. Thank you.

Thank you, sir. Next, we have Francisco Garcia.

FRANCISCO GARCIA Good morning, Chair. I live in Huelva for almost 50 years, but first time I get the and our crop from the farm was wiped out, so we came down with the farmers group to amend the bill for Bill 22 to support for our group. Thank you.

Thank you, sir. Next we have Kami Yamamoto.

Aloha Chair, Vice Chair, and members of the Council. My name is Kami Yamamoto. I'm the Executive Director of Hawaii Workers Center. We submitted a written testimony, so I urge you all to read that, and expressing our support for the amendments to the budget to provide direct assistance for farmers. After hearing the discussion earlier on this agenda item, I respectfully ask that if we're talking about how every penny counts for this administration, we also consider the fact that many people's livelihoods were also severely impacted by the storms. And so we should consider how we can get support, needed support into the hands of those who are directly impacted in a timely manner that minimizes bureaucracy. We stress that this is the best way to support those who are in the process of recovery, not only just for the farm workers that are here today, but for all of those who are impacted by the storm. Mahalo.

Thank you. Next, we have Natalie Iwasa, followed by Kuhil Lewis.

Thank you, Chair, Council Members, Natalie Iwasa for the record. Um, just a point of procedure chair, um, going forward, I think it would be really helpful if you could list the times that, um, the FD1s are posted on the agenda, because then we know which one you're talking about. Um, the mayor's testimony, notwithstanding his threat to veto the entire budget over one disagreement is irresponsible. He has the ability to line item veto or parts of the bills. and the OER failed its audit. So rather than threaten to veto, I think he should have specifically stated what the OER is going to be doing. I support the cuts to OER to remove duplication, but not as much as had been originally proposed by the budget committee. The other big point I see in this budget that hasn't really been discussed this morning is the provisional accounts, the $40.5 million, the provision for operations. it would create some problems with separation of duties, in my opinion. And as you know, if a resolution comes before the council, you have the ability to change it, but the mayor does not have that same ability to veto it. So my concern with that would be that you could potentially change a resolution or the idea behind a resolution and not have the administration be able to have any recourse against that other than not implementing it. So I support the FD1 that removes the provision, most of it anyway, and restores most of the other provisional accounts. I also oppose the 4.7% increase in salaries for the top officials. and I think that the council should have had a resolution seeking public comment on that. Those are my comments. Thank you, Chair.

Thank you. Next, we have Kuhio Lewis.

Aloha, Chair Waters, council members. Kuhio Lewis, CEO for the Hawaiian Council, formerly Council for Native Hawaiian Advancement. I'm here to testify in support of the Office of Economic Recovery, and it's based primarily on... work that I've done with OER. As many of you know, six, seven years ago, The Council for Native Hawaiian Advancement was relatively unknown to the greater community. And I credit the Office of Economic Recovery for the capacity and the wherewithal that the organization has today. Office of Economic Recovery is responsible for initiatives like the Papa Makeke, the creation of that. It's responsible for the 15,000 households that we were able to support during the pandemic. And even now, we are working alongside them in Waialua at a resource center helping families recover. So while there are a lot of opportunities that exist where the Office of Economic Recovery could be supporting, the capacity and the wherewithal that that department has lies within what you see in our organization. There's a lot of potential there. There's a lot of opportunities where so organizations just like ours can be able to be self-sufficient. Today, we don't receive any funds from OER. We're almost entirely self-sufficient. But it's really the opportunity that I feel that organization has, this department has to help others where I think we should be looking at why it's important to continue supporting their work. With that, Chair, thank you for the opportunity to testify. Thank you.

Members, that's all I have for registered testifiers. Are there any folks who have not registered who'd like to testify? Please come forward and state your full name, please.

Oh, I apologize. I'm supposed to be in two places at one time, so I apologize for my dress. We're talking about a lot of zeros on there. Zeros here, zeros there, and basically, it boils down to who is deserving, who should get it, and who shouldn't. In my opinion, every budget season is a really, really aggravated time for me. Certainly, there are so many important basic responsibilities. I certainly want to give the HPD and the fire people 84%, which is what you guys are getting after giving yourself 64% four years ago. because I can't stay for long, I want to just kind of put everything together. We're talking about lots of zeros for the Honolulu Rail, the skyline, and nobody talks about that. That is a lot of zeros in there. And talking about Kona Low, we are talking also about the Honolulu Fly.

You give other people time, I deserve to be treated equitably.

The Honolulu sea level in donation zone, why are we throwing more zeros into that when we're already suffering with Kona law? And one more thing, the property tax category, you are putting residential A Local homeowners who rent to local people long term in the same category as the vacation rental people. There's a big difference between property owners who are kind enough to rent long term to our long term tenants versus vacation rental people who are renting vacation rental Vacation people are earning a lot of money and long-term people are not. Thank you so much. Yeah, just one more. The long-term residential is at $11.40. Actually, that's another resolution later on. I have to go. Have a good day and thank you. Thank you. Please. give an overarching thought to a lot of these zeros to see who is deserving and who is not. Thank you and have a good day.

Thank you. Is there anybody else who'd like to testify? Please come forward.

Good afternoon, everyone. I am from Waialua Farmers Association. We would like to, we need the support for the farmers, please. Thank you.

Thank you. Is there anybody else who'd like to testify? Angela Miller-Young, please proceed.

Aloha, Angela Melody Young, testifying as a fan to restore and maintain OER's funding. So I think from my perspective, if the office hasn't met its goals, it could be that with the establishment of the new office when the resolution was legislated in its early stages beginning after the COVID-19 pandemic, it focused on pandemic-related issues. And since then, it's been outdated. So perhaps the audit is measuring the success of the office now, referencing an outdated resolution, whereas those are no longer applicable. So I think from personally attending these events, and professionally I've been to some of these events, that the office has been very responsible for organizing as a business connector for communities and demographics with high vulnerability to economic disruption, such as for minority populations, and for the agriculture industry to address food insecurity, the filmmakers industry, the creative industries, and women businesses. So I would actually suggest legislating again a new resolution with a new action plan with clarity and proposed language going forward. And if the office is meant to have an emphasis on businesses and disaster recovery to anticipate what we have to deal with as a predictable common pattern impacting businesses during statewide disasters, I suggest adding language to broaden that strategy to target businesses in recovery in light of every disaster. Thank you. Can you wrap up, please? Thank you, because then it would provide statutory justification for the necessity of this office's operations. Thank you.

Thank you. Would anybody else like to testify? Please come forward.

Yeah, okay. Thank you. Dottie Kelly-Paddock with Hui O Hau'ula Nonprofit in Hau'ula. I just want to be sure that I support OER, and you heard Amy talk about expanding services to Ko'olaloa. That's a very important issue, and we're looking forward to that program. We have very low job training opportunities out there and jobs. And so we need some support from OER and looking forward to that in the coming year. And also I would just like to say I support in general the mayor's budget and especially the expansion of DEM. budget in order to deal with critical needs in small vulnerable communities that are rural and remote and need that support. Thank you very much.

Thank you. Would anybody else like to testify? Aloha, welcome. Please proceed.

Aloha . I firmly am against the mayor purchasing the pandas. The pandas are actually supported by the Chinese Communist Party. If you, in fact, do your due diligence, you will notice that throughout the United States, we have lost significant amounts of money. Cities have gone into debt, San Diego Zoo, National Zoo has gone into debt relating to the purchasing and supporting of the pandas, and I don't think here in Hawaii we should have anything to do with the Chinese Communist Party.

Thank you. Is there anybody else who'd like to testify on Bill 22, Bill 22? I believe we have Raquel Achiu with her hand up remotely. Aloha, welcome. Please proceed.

Aloha, mahalo, Chair. I just wanted to, gosh, I just don't, and Raquel Achiu, Wailua Moku, very appreciative for all of our farmers out there in person today. I just want to provide support to our agencies and the cuts that are being proposed are very concerning. I cannot express how critical OER was in our and is still in our recovery process. The support we've not seen from many agencies in the past as well as DPP. We keep harping on agencies to do better but we have to give them the tools and the funding they need to keep doing better. We can't expect more with less. So it is my genuine hope to please Please revisit what is being, all of these services and cuts that are being provided actually benefit the people of this space. I think it's critical that we really realize that coming off of these storms has put us in a place of reevaluating what is the priority, and it should be us and the service we receive. Thank you so much. I appreciate the time. I don't envy your position, but appreciate it.

Thank you. Is there any other testifiers before we go into discussion? Okay, thank you. Members, we're in discussion. Council Member Tolbaugh.

I just want to ask a question of the budget director real quick.

No, I'm sorry. I asked early on that people ask the questions. We're in discussion. Would you like to go with discussion? Okay. Any discussion, members? Council Member Dos Santos-Tam.

And this is on the motion to. Amend to the posted FD1. Amend to the FD1. I will reserve my comments for the final adoption.

Okay, any other discussion on the motion to amend? Seeing none, any objections or reservations to the amendment? Seeing none. Bill 22, 2026, CD2 has been amended to the posted FD1. Now we're in discussion on the posted FD1. Council Member Dos Santos-Tam.

Thank you. There has been a lot of drama on this, and I really do believe that a better pathway is possible. But here we are today with a budget that's balanced on the backs of city employees whose positions will be cut in OER. And if we start cutting positions in OER, there's nothing to stop us from cutting other live bodies in other departments as well. We have before us a budget that's balanced on cuts to HPD. a critical public safety need and maintenance to our parks. This is also a budget, as we learned from the DPP director, that doesn't provide full funding for the affordable housing program that's delivering hundreds, and by the time that this budget year is over, over 1,000 affordable housing units in apartment zones around our island. This is also a budget that's gonna hinder our ability to get state, federal, and private grants. and turn that money around for the use of the people that need it the most. And this is not a budget that's preparing us to continue improving DPP and cutting down on permitting times. What's most frustrating to me is that we are consistently told that we as a city government need to do more with less. And we act as if there's no way to get around the scarcity, but to cut funding, to cut positions, to write angry letters, But there is a way out. And that's why, in addition to this bill that we're discussing today, I would like to request that the council hear the empty homes tax before it expires in August. And I hope that we're able to do that next month, and I'm calling for the council to do that. It's been a year and a half since our last vote on this. It's languished. These offshore millionaires buying a property here and leaving it empty need to pay their fair share. We also need to be activating our city lands. And I've asked about this for the past several council meetings, not just in Chinatown. But if we're successful in activating our city-owned spaces, we could be bringing in over a million dollars of lease revenues in short order to the city. But Bill 10 has not even been referred to a committee. Bill 35 has also languished. We need to find a way that we can activate city spaces and bring in new revenue. This addiction to scarcity needs to end. We also keep talking about changes to Residential A, including forming a PIG. Well, it's probably time that we do that. These people who own $10 million properties, no one sitting in this well right now can even dream of owning a $10 million property. Let's do it. The public has real needs. But this drama around all of this, the drama around a veto, drama around a budget that leads us to this point, we're missing the mark and we're missing this very critical moment. And so respectfully, I'm gonna be voting no on the bill as presented today.

Thank you. Any further discussion? Council Member Cordero.

Thank you, Chair. I actually was going to bring up empty homes tax as well, but I do want to note that I am in support of this budget because, yes, we are making cuts, but because of those exact reasons why we haven't invested in We haven't invested in looking at our real property rates tax, the exemptions that we're so afraid to have non-charitable organizations then make their fair share in pay, then pay, and other areas such as many of the proposals for Residential A. So with that, I'm in agreement with Council Member DeSantis-Tam, but as for the different ways how we can fund other fundings, whether it be from the state or city. The city has been able to do that prior. We will be able to do that in the future, whether it be through OER after this budget or through other city agencies, whether it be DCS, MOCA, or any other agencies that seeks out federal or state funding. We will then still be able to do that work through their programs as well. And looking at our core city services, looking at any of the related man-made or nature-made natural disasters, we also have to look at the condition of our roads, our streams, and all of that. And that's what I would like our city to focus on.

Mahalo. Thank you. Any further discussion? Council Member Weyer.

Thank you, Chair. And I know a lot of discussion and work went into it. Just because there's so much on the line in terms of the work that's gone into it, I'll have to vote no as well, given that's the only mechanism to potentially consider the additional FDs that are filed, but I know we'll first have to consider the version that's been agendized. and of course you know if if things play out um my concern of course is losing uh you know a lot of great stuff that has been put into the budget through committee and through discussions and so i hope that there is an opportunity to have meaningful discussion with the mayor as he offered earlier and i think there was an offer to to do a break and discuss that, but of course, that's out of my control. I'll just note that the FD that we did have available, of course, it's purely based on, we looked at the budget, we drafted it up, put it out. It's not politicking, it's not, you know, I know everyone watches from the outside and tries to guess, like, oh, what's going on with that and not, but... So the only changes that we did from the CD2, so we refunded OER and then in there we also put funding for the grant programs that there is a need for. We included some of the other changes. including an ambulance that isn't specific to District 2. So again, it's an island-wide ad. And of course, the watershed management, one water position as well, which I know from testimony before, very small investment that would save lives potentially. As mentioned in the testimony from the Farmers Union, there's been a lack of investment by Honolulu. And that's not a critique of anyone. That's just, okay, we can do better. I think just coming back to the broader discussion, like I am disappointed because I feel like the community really expects and asks for transparency. And it's been a struggle for me to really explain to anybody exactly why the Office of Economic Revitalization is being cut. when the only reason provided in committee was the audit and then the audit does not suggest we should be cutting, but rather says we need to support additional capacity because the charter assigned responsibilities aren't all being covered. But aside from that, I think there's been a, you know, undeniable recognition from the community that there's value in the work that's being done regardless of who understands every aspect of it, right? There are people that have worked directly with OER and are testifying to the work that they've done and are testifying to the value. And that's outside of myself. um who has seen them from early morning hours to late evening hours across the district um in response to the corner low storms and i know they've been in other parts of the district as well just really appreciate people having different perspectives but feel like we've just missed the mark because the issues facing our community are big and there really is an urgency and the farmers testifying today, I didn't ask them to come and they came all the way from Waialua to talk about needs and the The grant amount we have in our draft version is a reduction in the original amount, so the 1.5 million was just the hope that we could at least put forward something to people that are really hurting. But at the end of the day, I think we will get through it, but I'll be voting no for those reasons. Hope there'll be continued discussion about how we can support and move our community forward. And mahalo, Chair.

Thank you. Any further discussion? Council Member Tolba.

Thank you, Chair. You know, we heard directly from the departments that these reductions will negatively impact operations and the delivery of core services. And I'm still not clear on why we are choosing to reduce funding for departments such as the Department of Planning and Permitting, Donaloo Police Department, the Department of Parks and Rec, Department of Facility Maintenance, the Budget and Fiscal Service Department, nor am I clear where projected savings will ultimately be redirected. Over the past five years, I've seen this administration respond to concerns raised by both the council and the community before making cuts that departments themselves have said will affect all the services. I believe we owe it to the public to have a clear understanding on why these reductions are necessary and what outcomes they intend to achieve. With respect with the Office of, with OER, I agree that more needs to be done to demonstrate the public the value and the results of the work that's being performed. I also agree that the office should be reevaluated and that structural changes may be warranted. However, it's unfortunate that we are unable to reach a compromise today. In previous budget cycles, I have not supported expanding OER, but eliminating 15 positions without first working through the underlying issues does not sit well with me. I believe the council has already sent a strong and unmistakable message that improvements are needed. I'd rather give the office an opportunity to make those improvements and then evaluate the results. If we return next year and a meaningful progress has been made, then we can have a serious conversation about the reductions. So I do not believe that action is justified today. At the end of the day, I believe that this budget still needs more work. Unfortunately, we have run out of time, and my priority is to ensure that the administration has the resources necessary to deliver on the services of our residents depend on every single day, public safety, housing, and other core government functions. I do not believe the FD1 budget accomplishes that, and for those reasons, I'll be voting no.

Thank you. You know, the council budget is forward-looking. It's fiscally responsible. It's transparent and intentional. It reduces spending to below the mayor's proposal without recycling city services. We respect the administration's work in preparing its initial budget proposal and commend the mayor for presenting a budget that slows the growth of government. But the council has a responsibility to review, question, adjust, and improve what was initially presented. Our job is not to simply act as a rubber stamp for the mayor. Honolulu is up against real growing risks, storm damage, aging infrastructure, climate disruption, an ongoing crisis of housing, transportation, and the cost of living for our residents. We need a budget that matches this moment. For years, year after year actually, hundreds of millions of dollars that the council appropriates simply went unspent and lapsed quietly with little public discussion. Rather than letting the same old pattern of hidden lapses and paper vacancies repeat itself, the council tightened the budget, reduced the amount of lapsed funding and paper vacancies, bringing the budget in line with the needs of our residents. The council budget does this by requiring the administration to plan more thoroughly assessing past trends more accurately, budgeting more intentionally, and increasing accountability on how public dollars are appropriated and spent. This is not about weakening city services. It's about ensuring critical city services can be maintained and improved for those who depend upon them. Next, I'd like to call on Council Member Nishimoto.

Thank you, Chair. So this is my 24th budget that I've been working on in my career. 22 in the legislature, 2 in the council. And I can tell you in those 24 budgets that the administration is never always happy with what's in the budget. And in the converse, the legislature or the council is never happy with everything in the budget. That's the nature of what we do. It's a compromise. But we've been talking for the past several hours about I kind of want to put this in perspective to people because it's like Director Cuomo said. He said that our budgets are about the same. So the administration's budget and this FD1 are about the same. So where does it differ? We're basically talking about adjustments we made to eight departments for a total, not per department, a total of roughly $6.4 million. And out of those eight departments, in 2024 and 2025, they've averaged almost $59 million in lapses. So we made adjustments of 6.4 million to eight departments who historically have lapsed a total of $58 million. We're not that far apart in our budgets, We're never always going to be happy. I think that's the nature of what we do. The legislature, the council is not happy. The governor, the mayor is not totally happy. But this is not far from, we're not very far apart. I've been a part of budgets where we are oceans apart. Like the director said, this is about the same. For those reasons, I'll be voting in support. Thank you.

Thank you. Council Member Tupou.

Thank you, Chair, and thank you Council Member Nishimoto for your comments in perspective. Because I also sat on the Finance Committee of the State House and I can say that a lot of what we discussed was how do we find compromise and I do think definitely the legislative body has to be a part of pushing back on the admin. Why? Because we all represent a district that has widely different needs. So I think any of the discussions, differences, disagreements that we had today was good. We have to push back on each other. We have to demand that we hear each other's voices and that somehow through those disagreements that we get better. And I do believe that by making cuts here and there that we thought would make the budget look basically the same, we were trying to be amenable to the process. First off, how do we stop the city from lapsing between 300 and 400 million every year? We have to do things different. Council Member Nishimoto brought up the types of lapses. We're in the millions. How do we go back to our communities when we told them we couldn't do certain stuff knowing that there's lapses in the millions? It's tough. We're the ones that have to face it when we talk to people. So I think that in order for us to get there, we have to do things different, which this is a different way of doing it. I want to give my flowers to OER and of course all of those who have testified in support of OER. You know, they were created during COVID and they provided a huge benefit to the community, but those funds have lapsed and now we're in a new phase of economic revitalization with the Kona low storms. And I want to thank all the farmers who came out from so far to come today. And I've heard from many, many people in the North Shore District that Council Member Weyer has been in the trenches with them. And I'm glad that all of that happened. Also glad that DPP hosted the resource fair out there. DEM was out there. So many agencies pulling hard. Earlier in the discussion, we heard that OER helped 15 small startup businesses in Waianae. We have close to 100,000 businesses on this island. We should be helping 50,000 businesses. We are the city and county of Honolulu. We could help with land, we could help with legislation, we could help with permits. It's important for us to understand that we're trying to leverage the maximum use of OER. And it's not because we don't think that they're doing good work, they're doing great work. We heard part of testimony today talking about partners in care and what they do for homelessness, but guess what? They are the coordinator. They do not provide services. They don't go out and try to do the homeless outreach because they coordinate all the homeless providers. That's what we're suggesting for OER. Not to be a program provider, but to be the policy leader, the strategic point of the sphere that gets the economy stimulated in the way that all businesses can benefit. I drafted a letter to the admin outlining exactly what I thought about this. I must have edited that letter 26 times. I wanted it to be so clear what I was saying. I don't think anyone read it. I never got any response. And to be honest, nothing that's come to us in written commentary has led me to believe that any of that was considered, which is fine. But I do want to say that I was clear in how I communicated. The strategic plan we just heard today is almost done. None of us have been part of creating that. I think the consultant for the HPD chief, he incorporated so much input as they moved through the process. That's what every department should be doing because we are the legislative branch. We could make a difference with policy, with bills, with changes of laws. We weren't incorporated. I think today's discussion would have been drastically different if all of us were approached as part of the strategic plan, as part of the new direction of OER, but we were not. Direct distribution. We received a letter on May 29th stating that because of what we're doing, that OER would not be able to give out grant funds, distribute disaster recovery funds, workforce program, economic leadership, that they wouldn't have a seat at the table Those are administrative choices. They can still do all of that. In fact, we could even distribute it more directly. Somebody stood up here and said, we should cut out all the bureaucracy. We could give that money straight to Hawaiian Council if we needed to, for them to distribute it just like they did during COVID. As the executive director stated, they had that relationship, not so much now. We could still utilize that. They stated that we might be disadvantaging farmers. Well, then let's give the money straight to the Farmers Bureau. Let's have them distribute that to the farmers. That'll cut out all the bureaucracy. We want this money to flow directly down to the people who need it most. Lastly, I just want to thank the director and their staff. They're wonderful. We have so many vacancies in the city. We want everyone to stay. We want everyone to be a part of moving this ship forward. My last two comments about this particular bill have to do with HPD and my district. First off, everything I put in for HPD came from the Vacancy Task Force. These are things that HPD agreed with me on. They said these are the ones that we need in order for us to retain officers. Today it was mentioned that we're recruiting and our recruiting classes are much bigger. That's fine. Every year we have over 100 officers retiring. We have to retain. So that's why a lot of this is based on how do we retain and how do we fund the retention. We know that we are not even close to a zero lapse in HPD. I do believe everything is gonna be fine and I commit to help them with that. Lastly, there was a few things I put in for White and I that was mentioned by DPR that they don't need. Wonderful. Transfer those funds to where you need it. We will support that. We want these departments to succeed. Thank you so much to the budget chair, to the vice budget committee chair as well. Lots of hard work went into this. So many discussions. And to yourself, Chair, as well. Your staff, for all the hard work they did on this. This is not an easy lift. And of course, there's stuff that even I don't agree on, but I'm like, you know what? Let's get to next year, see how this plays out for this year. So I thank the administration as well for their hard work in working with us, and I will be voting in support.

Thank you. Council Member Kia-Aina.

Thank you, Chair. You know, budgets at any level of government is quite difficult, and we don't get all that we want. For my role, I look at it as trying to secure projects for my district. my as chair of zoning and planning to help the Department of Planning and Permitting. And of course, it's our collective responsibility, all of us, the city administration and us, to help all of the residents of O'ahu. And it's not an easy task. And that is what we have here today. So I'm just gonna make a couple of comments. First, I would like to apologize for the Department of Planning and Permitting for being unsuccessful to restore your $2 million. But I would like to thank both Chair and Budget Chair for restoring current expenses for Corporation Council, for restoring the provisional count for judgment settlements and losses at $17.6 million, for restoring the provision and funding for disaster preparedness and response at $4 million. So thank you for that. I am going to just go over a couple of items that are dear to me. One includes increasing the capacity for DPP's O'ahu Historic Preservation Commission, which we established in 2023. They need capacity. We had two nominees that were passed that we One was a renomination and one was a nomination, right, that we passed out today. They can't do their job without capacity. I also appreciate the educational loan forgiveness program that will be established within DPP so that we could recruit 20 engineers specifically for the backlog for the Department of Planning and Permitting. And I appreciate the support on that by the Building Industry Association, as well as the Hawaii Regional Council of Carpenters. I've been working with the Castle Foundation and we will be working, who has a loan forgiveness program for engineers, as well as the University of Hawaii College of Engineers. and I feel that that should be one of our highest priorities because they are doing everything possible with regard to technology and they have funds for employees, but the fact of the matter is it is too difficult to get engineers. You're competing with the private sector I also wanted to express gratitude for additional $1.5 million for the grants and aid program, for 10 more nonprofit organizations. We all know that the budgets are tight, and this is one of the only portals for the city to be giving directly back to the community. I wanted to talk about agriculture, and Raquel Lechu, thank you so much for being on the Agriculture Development Task Force. The agricultural planner, the Department of Planning and Proving, I understand has gone out and I've talked to the DPP director to ensure that we would be able to use cost savings to be able to ensure that that planner moves forward. I fought to have the Sustainable Agriculture and Food Systems Manager out of the Office of Economic Revitalization reinserted in this FD1. Of course, we know that at the Office of Climate Change, we also have a Food Security and Sustainability Program Manager. I just want to make sure that with regard to agricultural capacity, that I feel that we are on track. Lastly, I want to talk about something that I know we all care deeply about, and that is how we are prepared for disasters. The fact of the matter is, for our city's Department of Emergency Management, they only have 16 staff. Think about it, 16 staff to serve a million people on this island. Under this budget, they're going to be nearly double with with a total of 29 staffers. And I feel that this is important for a couple of reasons. The roles are changing. It is gonna be the city, not the state or federal government, that is gonna be leading the way with regard to the disaster management, and that could be pre-disaster planning with our communities. But the other reason this is so important for us to build capacity within this department is because the federal climate has changed. And this has nothing to do with the current administration in the White House. The President's FEMA Review Council has released their final report, but there is bipartisan effort in the US Congress to change the manner of funding flowing down from the federal government directly to our communities. And we have to be prepared because we are not. And so for all of the concern expressed from the communities because of the recent Kona lows, and the fact that we need to be better prepared, I feel that one of the greatest benefits from this budget is to ensure that we are taking care of ourselves by taking care of the Department of Emergency Management. So I just want to say thank you for your leadership during this budgetary process, and I will be voting in support of this budget.

Thank you so much. Floor leader, I do also want to add that many of you asked for 10 new positions to the prosecutor's office, which is included in this FD. The mayor made cuts to the prosecutor's office. In this FD, we restored them to the prosecutor's office. Just wanted to add that. Council Member Okamoto.

Thank you, Chair, and aloha, everyone. I would first like to mahalo to my staff, as well as my colleagues and your staffs, as well as the Office of Council Services, the City Clerk's Office, and the Council Support Services Office for their hard work in preparing this budget. It was months and hours and hours into the efforts of making this happen today. As I mentioned on May 1st, the proposed budget is about delivering services. to the people of O'ahu in an economic environment where revenues are flat and costs are expected to grow exponentially. Mayor Belangiardi submitted his proposed budget to the council back in March. And the budget committee respects the work that went into that proposal, including the tough decision to cut salaries and current expenses in certain departments. However, I echo what has been stated in this chamber during prior meetings, as well as today. Council oversight is not an obstruction. It is oversight and the role Oahu residents expect this council to perform. As your budget chair, I remain focused on maintaining core city services while keeping Honolulu financially strong, which includes protecting our high bond rating. With regards to OER, this is not about eliminating economic development. We are upholding the integrity of our administrative systems. We are choosing to prioritize programs with proven outcomes and redirecting these resources toward critical needs that our residents feel every day. OER has shimmied through its legal mandates to become a secondary social service agency that is not authorized in the charter. It is time to prioritize performance over potential. A good amount of time today was used discussing an office that was created specifically to expend federal funds during COVID. Because those federal funds expire this September, the administration continues to propose using local property taxes to fully fund these positions. While the administration insists this office is vital, they frequently submit requests showing that many of these positions are currently vacant. They claim these employees are important, yet they have failed to reorganize the office into an appropriate department to convert them into permanent civil service positions. Further, the audit as we heard earlier today clearly shows that the office fails to meet five out of the eight objectives listed in the city charter. This council has repeatedly expressed concerns during hearings and throughout multiple budget cycles, yet the office continues to grow. ballooning from nine general funded positions in fiscal year 23 to the mayor's 24 positions in this fiscal year 27 operating budget, with zero FRF funded positions remaining. Despite this growth, the administration, the office, and the commission have failed to produce the strategic plan required by the charter, and they have failed to take the council's concerns seriously. As budget chair, how can we allow a team to move forward if their coach is not receptive to making changes and does not possess a strategic playbook? In anticipation of losing federal COVID and FRF funds, members of this body identified this exact problem as far back as March 2023. Yet, neither OER nor this administration would admit there was a problem, nor did they take any solutions to improve OER until this committee maintained the proposed cuts in the fiscal year 27 operating budget. It should not take an audit to finally effectuate change. Mr. Chair, we are not defunding the Office of Economic Revitalization. We are rightsizing a team to focus on the units that work. We are also providing the Commission with sufficient time to develop a playbook For a post-COVID era, we cannot continue punting this issue year after fiscal year. Audit recommendations are intended to be broad according to government accounting standards because they are subject to interpretation and action by policymakers. If this administration is truly committed to revitalizing the economy of the city and county of Honolulu, then they need to recognize that this problem stemming back to 2023 was not addressed and come back to this council with a game plan and a clear path forward that creates a professional civil service workforce, one that is fully committed to revitalizing Honolulu's economy rather than a workforce trapped in annual contracts and term limits that expire in January, 2029. Finally, the floor draft before us today does not weaken city services, but reflects the needs of our communities. It adds funds to support first responders, including dispatchers. It adds additional positions for disaster preparedness and response and right-sizes city government for a post-COVID era. I concur with you, Chair, that the Council's responsibility is not to rubber-sample budget, but to make sure the final budget reflects the real needs of residents and what government can deliver, which is transparent, accountable, and intentional. I will be voting in support. Thank you.

Thank you. Roll call, Mr. Clerk.

Council Member Cordero. Aye. Council Member Dos Santos-Tan. No. Council Member Kia Aina.

Aye.

Council Member Nishimura. Aye. Council Member Okamoto.

Aye.

Council Member Toba.

No.

Council Member Tupola.

Aye.

Council Member Weyer. Council Member Weyer. Chair Waters. Aye. Mr. Chair, there are six ayes and three nos.

Thank you. CR1202026 has been adopted in Bill 22. CD2FD1 has passed third reading. Members, I just want to make one last statement thanking the Office of Council Services, the council administrative services, budget chair and your staff, budget vice chair and your staff for all your hard work. This was not easy, but thank you. Members, it is now 1.30. Shall we take a break for lunch? Let's come back at 2.30. Okay, we're in recess, thank you.