Zoning & Planning - Regular Meeting

Aloha. Good morning everyone. It is Tuesday, March 12, 2026, and the time is 10:02 a.m. Will the committee on budget please come to order? Welcome to the committee members who are present in the chamber today. Committee vice chair Nishimoto, council members Kia and Tolba, council members Corduro and Chair Waters is excused at this time. Although remote oral testimony is being permitted, this is a regular in-person meeting and not a remote meeting by interactive conference technology under HRS section 92-3.7. Therefore, the meeting will continue notwithstanding loss of audiovisisual communication with remote testifiers or loss of the public broadcast in the meeting. Members of the public will be allowed to provide oral testimony on all items on the agenda in two ways. in person in the council chamber and remotely via video conference or phone. Remote and in-person oral testimony will be allowed when each agenda item is taken up. Before testifying, each person shall state their name. Each speaker may not have anyone else read their statement and is limited to a one-minute presentation on each item. As both English and Hawaiian are official languages of the state of Hawaii, pursuant to article 15, section 4 of the Hawaii state constitution and section 1-13 of the Hawaii revised statutes, members of the public may testify in either language. For oral testimonies offered in Olo Havi, additional time as may be necessary will be allowed for the testifier to provide an English translation of their testimony. All persons who have registered to testify in person will be called upon first. When your name is called, please come to the testifier podium. Persons who have not registered will be given an opportunity to testify following the registered testifiers. After in-person testimony has concluded, I will proceed

to remote testimony via video conference or phone. When I call your name, please monitor your screen and follow the prompt to unmute. For those who are joining us by telephone only, please express please press star 9 if you wish to testify and I will identify you by the last three digits of your phone number. When your number is called, please listen for the prompt to unmute and press star six. Some friendly reminders and tips. video conference from a quiet location if possible. If you're also watching the proceedings on OLO, please mute mute your television at the time you are called to testify. When the timer on screen reaches zero, please conclude your remarks promptly. 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 or silence all cell phones for the duration of this meeting. Members, as a reminder, if you have any supplementary questions for the departments that may come up during or after the meeting, please provide them to my office so we may compile them for the department or managing director's office to respond. We look forward to all of your questions. Agenda items number one numbers one and two on the posted March 17, 2026 agenda will be cancelled. Agenda item number three will remain as a contingency due to the inclement weather if the scheduled meeting is canceled tomorrow. Please indicate by lunchtime if you have additional question requests or questions of any department or office so we can invite them back to the committee tomorrow or next Tuesday. If we do not receive any requests, both the Friday and Tuesday agendas will be cancelled. I'd like to welcome to the chamber joining us, Council Member Doss Santos Tam. Agenda item number one,formational briefing, executive capital and

operating budget review. We will first proceed with testimony. Clerks, do we have any in-person testifiers for this item? Chair, there are none. Thank you. Proceeding now with remote testimony. Clerks, do we have any remote testifiers for this item? Chair, there are none.

Thank you. We will now proceed with the executive capital and operating budget review. Joining us first this morning, we have the Department of Human Resources. For your information, the presentation is available online on as departmental communication 188 2026. And this joining us this morning from the department, we have director Nola and Miyasaki as well as assistant director Karen Miller. Good morning, Director Miyasaki.

Good morning, budget chair Okimoto, members of the budget committee, and members of the council. Thank you very much for this opportunity to present the fiscical year 27 budget for the Department of Human Resources. Um this I'm Nolan Masaki, director of the Department of Human Resources. I'd like to introduce my team who are with me this morning. um from the administration assistant director Karen Miller, Gary Chan, our administrative services officer, Denise Sukuyama, I think she's online, our equal employment officer, Renee, uh Renee Cho is not here, but she's the chief of our enterprise and resource planning branch, Jennifer Woo, division chief employment and personnel services. Jerry Nichols, division chief industrial safety and workers compensation. Sarah Hiroakami, Division Chief for Labor Relations and Training, and Denise Mahara, Division Chief Classification and Pay. The Department of Human Resources is charged with managing the city's talent based on the merit principle and generally accepted methods of classification and employment. Included in that mandate is the management of the conduct, movement, and separation of public officers and employees. The department's objectives are to attract, hire, and retain the best qualified civil servants, and to provide our employees with opportunities for training and promotion so that they may have rewarding career paths within the city. The department's operating budget is comprised primarily of salaries, which make up 90% of the total budget. The remaining 10% of operation expenses are mainly projected expenses for arbitration due to collective bargaining in addition to annual cost of examinations, recruitment, retention, and training.

DHR operates 100% on general funds. Our proposed budget for fiscal year 27 is $9,544,967 reflecting a 10.18 increase from fiscal year 27 26 excuse me. In the salary line item we're requesting $8,61,993 which is an increase of 8.51% for fiscal year 26. Salary increases for fiscal year 27 are due to increases required by collective bargaining as well as reallocations and promotions um for existing staff to retain our valuable employees. In the current expense line item you can see that we're requesting $942,974 an increase of 28.26%. These adjustments are primarily for training pro programs to support career development of employees and expanded supervisor training and funding to support modernization efforts in recruitment and classification functions. The budget issues in fiscal year 27 are comprised of three items. Subscription for a new innovative software program called NEOGV attract. This program will enable us to efficiently source qualified candidates and fill city vacancies more effectively. A subscription for an AI based classification software to enable more efficient research and updates to new and existing classifications. Finally, a pay equity study to analyze and address pay equity issues across the city. And this is a one-time cost. As of February 1, 2026, DHR had seven vacancies. Six of the vacancies are in various stage of recruitment and will be filled by July 1, 2026. One vacancy will

be filled in fiscal year 2027. All of these positions have been vacant for less than one year. No vacant positions may be abolished. The current allocation for overtime is 1,389 hours at a cost of $37,000. This is an increase of 0% from the prior fiscal year. The overtime expense is in the examinations branch and is mainly used to staff largecale testing events. We do appreciate the support of council. We look forward to working closely with all of you for the remainder of this year and in fiscal year 27. Thank you.

Thank you, Director Miyasaki. We'd like to welcome to the chamber joining us, Council Member Cordderero. And first up this morning, our start, our first round of questions, we'll start with Council Member Toba. Sure. Thank you. I'll I'll pass on this, Rob. Okay. Thank you, Vice Chair Nishimoto. Okay, let me come back. Okay, Council Member Kia.

Thank you, director, and thank you for uh you and your leadership team uh meeting with me. As you probably saw from um the previous days of hearings, I've been focusing on those employees within the city system who feel that uh they were not being treated fairly or adequately represented within their respective departments with regard to temporary hazard pay. And I actually had thought that I would be hearing from u multitude of employees in various departments, but I haven't. But to have a single department have most of the complaints, which I understand is up to 44, I think it warrants uh closer attention. You know, these types of negotiations are quite complicated, right? You got to work with your ASO, the director, H uh your your division, your department, uh the managing director's office, and HGA. But to have that number of employees feeling that they were uh misclassified with regard to a full-time teleworking and hybrid teleworking uh needs to be addressed and I just want your assurances because director uh Kruky said yesterday he's trying to come to closure in seven days. I don't know if that's his own um internal deadline or something that is coming from you. I uh so I just want to find out from you what are you guys doing about it and can you provide me the insuranceances that you would do everything possible to make sure that um they uh are their concerns are adequately addressed.

Thank you council member for that comment. Um we have been working hard to research and look at all of the cases. It's a casebyase uh review and we're going to continue to re research. I mean, you know, the hazard the temporary hazard pay has been a long process, but we, you know, above all, we want to make sure that everyone is treated fairly and equitably. So, we will definitely, you know, get this resolved, working with the department to do that. Um, I I can't commit that it will be done in seven days. There are quite a few and as I mentioned, we need to review um different kinds of records with the department. So, but we will definitely get it resolved.

Okay. Thank you. And I I I didn't uh the days didn't matter to me either. I wanted to be addressed uh appropriately. Uh my follow-up question to that is after all is said and done, should an individual or several in a um division feel that they were still not adequately um identified? Uh what process mechanism do do they do they have to file a grievance? Well, it's it's a little bit more complicated that question. You know, the grievance process is really a violation of the collective bargaining agreement and because this particular um hazard pay settlement with HA's outside that agreement, um I'm not sure that we have a concrete way to address this kind of complaint, but I would like to if

but if you don't mind, I'd like to clarify a little more. So the grievance for me is not so much the parameters of the temporary hazard pay. The grievance to me would be feeling that they were not uh adequately represented up the chain of command. That would be the grievance. It would be against the city. What kind of mechanisms exist administratively for employees who feel that they were not represented adequately in their fight for uh fair, you know, treatment and temporary hazard pay.

I'd like to ask my labor chief to come up and she's an expert on labor relations, so perhaps she can give some comment that I I probably more qualified than me. Yes. Hello. Um, as director Miyasaki said, the grievance process in the CBA is specific for misinterpretation or mislication of the CBA allegations. So, if an employee wanted to file a grievance, they would need to um identify a provision in the CBA that they believe was What is a CBA? I'm sorry. The collective bargaining agreement. Oh, of the collective bargaining

between the city and the union. Yes. So that is what our um grievance process is set up for. Oh, only the CBA? Yes. Interesting. So if they felt that they were being unfairly treated by a city employee, um why would they be constrained to the collective bargaining agreement? So it would just depend on the grounds that they feel they're being unfairly treated. For example, if someone is unfreely unfairly treated because of a protected class, then they have the equal opportunity route.

Well, how about mclassification of whether you were full-time um uh full-time uh teleawworking or part-time teleworking? What what is that a violation of? So it would be up to either the union or the employee to identify what provision in the CBA if they want to file a grievance what provision it would be as far as the misclassification again it depends on what the employee is asserting. Was it intentional? Was it because of their protected class that

Yeah. But what if it was negligence on the part of the um supervising person who is responsible for uh appropriately classifying employees? what if it was their fault? So to to back up, we have been reviewing mistakes that the city makes. And so I believe we have corrected um several employees temporary hazard pay when it was shown to us that their status of of being marked as full-time teleawwork was a mistake, okay, and it was in error. And so that's what director Miyasaki was saying. We're reviewing them on a case by case and we had already told the union that we would correct errors.

Okay. I just want to make sure that there is a process uh uh beyond a department, right? Their chain of command because you guys are the are the lead for looking after how I think all um employees are treated. So, thank you for your time. I have no further questions. Thank you. Thank you, Fia. Just to um follow up, director, so would in these examples where council member Kite is mentioning, would these be more appropriate to go to ethics or do they go to you first with the the situations that she's describing?

Um if there's so generally if there's a complaint about anything uh at the department level, it would be made to the director of that department. And then in any case would ethics be involved in that or

um unless I mean I don't for this particular situation I don't think it's an ethics question but it might be just a question of you know um error or mis mistakes you know or something like that that need to be corrected. If there's no mistake um you know then then there's just a lack of agreement I guess. And so I don't know what the remedy is. It's not necessarily a grievance. Um we I'm not sure what the the remedy would be in this particular case, but you know to take take it up the chain of command of course we

because um we worked with the administration on the issuance of hazard pay you know we would work with them and you know to resolve these issues. I see. I guess yeah, I'm I think I'm kind of understanding or gathering if if an employee whether it's hazard PR or any other kind of grievance, if they feel that whoever their administration is is not a safe space, is that what who do they go to? Yes. But she uh but I got the assurances by the director uh chair that they are looking at each um each one. Okay. each one on a case- by case basis to determine there was there was a flaw and and so you are also following up uh separate from the department and that's all I need to

well we we will have to work with them closely on the follow the research but uh their extra set of eyes that's all I care about thank you director council member dos Santos Tam

thank you chair I just have one question with regard to the holly gov.com um AI platform I I know we're undertaking an annual subscription to that what are the um timelines and metrics for starting to actually get the AI platform to deliver um recommendations on changing these uh position descriptions and then actually implementing those changes. So in anticipation of trying to launch the platform in the new fiscal year, oftent times we have a a lag of the funding. Um but we have been working on this for more than a year and so um we have identified this platform and we um asked them to do a pilot launch for us. So, we've actually just started this week to have um sessions with the vendor to help um the staff get up up to speed. And we because we didn't have the funding for the current year, we are cost sharing it with one of the departments with CSD. So, they will also um be participating in a in the role that they want to do in terms of um some classifications that they want to change. So we'll be able to see a couple different perspectives in this pilot period. So that's what we have um now what we do with this kind of lapse once you know from July 1 to August one there is um sometime most of the time it's a lapse but we we'll just have to manage it with the vendor and see if they'll work with us to continue. So that's kind of where it is but we we are just getting started now. It's going to take a little bit of time, but I I don't think it's gonna I've seen the platform and my our staff is very um you know, knowledgeable in this area, so I'm sure it all makes sense to them.

Yeah. I guess my question is more towards you know can we expect by the end of the first quarter of the new fiscal year. So by uh September 30th you know 50 new position descriptions using the AI or 200 or a thousand or can the AI just do this in three months because it's so darn smart. Like I I' I'd like to get some metrics we can measure this and make sure that it's actually happening.

Okay. Absolutely. I'm happy. I don't have it right now. I have to consult with the division, you know, but there are different kinds of activities that can be done with the platform and some of them are bulk changes. So, for example, for a long time, we were having a hard time um changing the driver license requirement and because the changes were coming in one by one through the PD and some were in the class specs and somewhere just in the PD. So this platform can help us do bulk uh they can pull up all the classes that have that driver's license requirement which we have not been able to do with our current really old system. So we can go through them as a bulk and make changes more quickly. So um I don't know how many of those actions you know we might have. We've already kind of worked on the DL requirement but that's an example of some bulk actions but I will definitely get with the staff and I'll follow up with you.

Thanks. I thinkline because uh you know we're going to come up uh next year on next year's budget and at that point I'd love for you to be able to stand here and say we've done you know we've changed uh 20% of the city's positions and and updated them and and rightsized them and all of that. Absolutely. Well, I'll definitely follow up. Thank you. Thank you, Council Member Dantes Tam, Council Member Toba, Vice Chair Nishimoto. Okay, Council Member Cordderero.

Hi. Thank you very much. Um, Cherro Kimoto, um, I just have a few questions. Hi, Director Masaki. Sorry I was so sick when, um, we were trying to meet um, last week. Uh, but I do have a few follow-up questions over the past few years of what we were discussing. I do note that in your slide you did talk about um, investing in um, the subscriptions as well as uh, different softwares to and the study for pay equity. I know that maybe a few years ago we focused on working with the other counties and the state looking at the minimum qualifications and reclassifying positions, right? And um then you you made a note about like oh maybe you know if we all talk to our state rep. So I talked to my state rep and she said we're feeling the same um crunch um at at the state as well. um since then, that was maybe about two and a half years ago, um with this pay equity study and hopefully um movement to address and reclassify um positions and min minimum qualifications. Um have you seen that change uh anything for the better or progress for the better here at the city?

Well, we're making we're you know modifying or updating the classification has been is really an ongoing pro project. It's not a one-time thing. And so, um, over the past couple years, what we've been focused on is just modernizing some of the class specs so that it's easier to hire some of the positions, but a lot of the specificity of these classifications are really set up by the by the departments. So um to the extent that we want to broaden classes, we've created a couple um positions that are broad and professional level, you know, that that can be downgraded to the trainee level and that kind of thing. And we just released another one that um CNP worked on. So we have seen, I think, improvement in terms of trying to broaden and make it hard, you know, easier to qualify for some of these classics. Some of the jobs are so specific though, you know, we have we're probably the only pipe fitter employer in the state of Hawaii. So, we have pipe fitters and that kind of thing. You know, we have sanitary chemist. So some of the specs are hard to do but um I think we've made a lot of progress but I think in terms of the efficiency and our ability to compare with other other jurisdictions um not only the classification but the pay ranges and the jobs and duties this this is the software that will help us because usually it requires a lot of manual research. We still do the research. It's going to be similar research, but it's going to be um with the databases that this platform will provide, it will really speed up the process for us.

Thank you very much. Um I appreciate that information. And may I just ask when it when certain positions are then downgraded to a trainee position, is that downgrading the whole actual FTE position or just the employee that just

it downgrades the position and then it can be reallocated up. So as soon as um it's usually because someone doesn't have the it's been hard to fill at the requirement level. So if you need so many years of experience and we can't find that because it's really specialized. Some of these positions when it requires experience, you actually have to work for us to get the experience, right? So sometimes we will downgrade the position to a traininee or a level one. So it doesn't require that kind of really specific um experience and then as soon as the experience is attained and they can work at the next level proficiently, they can get reallocated up. So each position is usually graded at a certain level and that's and when it gets downgraded it can be reallocated back up to that same level.

Thank you. I just know that um through the past decade or so we've seen where some positions have been um at a certain classification for a very long time and it uh from what we hear it takes a while through DHR to then get up to that next level. So hopefully that um with this pay equity study and even just like other efforts that your department is making, it'll be able to be addressed. I do want to commend your department for really um stepping up on the recruitment um aspect. I'm always sending it to my youngest brother uh whatever you folks are posting. So thank you. Um and I I I don't know where that is implemented into your budget or do you require or request the different agencies from the city who are participating um in those uh those fairs to um just take it from their budget like how much money does it come from DHR alone?

Yeah. So we we don't have enough of a budget to cover everyone's costs. So it's a cost share. When we go to the big fairs like the ones at the Blazedell, um each department pays their own booth and it's usually around $700 per booth. And we've we used to do just one fair a year, maybe two. Now we do all four. There's one a quarter. And with this attract module that we're um we we've actually piloted um partial partial of the program that's available um we've actually been able to exponentially increase the way we reach out to people when we're having a job fair. You know we've increased the number of applications the people that respond by email. So we think that we can we've done well but we think we can do better with our between our social media and our track platform. And I think that this is becoming the norm like many uh other jurisdictions in Hawaii are using the same um attract platform.

Okay. Thank you. Um just a really quick question. Um we know that the departments have been asked to lean down. Um so for for vacation payout, they do also have to have some lee uh leeway room for that, right? Um what happens if they don't? Do they go to DHR or BFS to seek application payout? if they don't have enough, if there's a longtime um employee who retires and the vacation payout is large, um sometimes they have to wait a couple months to fill they have to use that al that dedicated salary for that vacant position and they usually have to fill it. But even at the highest levels and there's a max of so many vacation days that you can right do payouts. So usually it only takes a couple months but you know depending on the other needs of the department and that so usually if um they have to sometime that's why sometimes there might be a couple months delay but it shouldn't be a long time. I mean I'm not saying you know just a couple months. We we've had that um same issue. We've had a lot of longtime employees retire and it does take something out of your budget. If you're really can't pay it, you know, I guess you can discuss with budget, but we we usually the departments because the position itself has an allocation of salary. Um that salary goes to the vacation payout.

Yeah. I just if it's not already if they don't know how sometimes the departments has salary savings and they can just pay it right out. Thank you. And I just heard it more this fiscal year presentations um compared to the other years. So must mean a lot of people retiring. Yeah.

Longtime employees too. And then um so my very very last question, would you please explain what progressional reallocation um I know that you dedicated um a total of is it $4,822 for um progressional reallocation, which I think is a goal for your department to help with employee retention morale. So what is that like and why is it that specific number? So, it's um a progressional reallocation is when there's a series of positions and um an employee might be hired at a lower level, but the position just just as I mentioned, sometimes the position is downgraded. So they come in at a lower level and they uh as soon as they meet the minimum qualifications and have the requisite experience and the knowledge and ability to do the next level up, they can get moved up until the level that the job is set. So that's how most of the HR HRS jobs our HR positions are established. They're we call them progressional and so you don't have to go in for a reclassification of the job. it's automatic. As soon as they meet the um requirements of the next level of the job, they can get moved up, but it requires um salary increase. So, we we usually budget for that because we know which of our staff um might be eligible in the coming year for the for the reallocation up.

But 4,822 I feel like that I don't know what that would even cover though. Is that like software? I'm sorry. $4,822 sounds like a minimal amount to to invest in that type of uh I don't know if it's a software, if it's a added money for position or contract. What is that? The $4,822 for that.

Is that the one? It might be. You know, there's one um reallocation. Actually, it's not a progressional reallocation. I think it's a re there there's one position in the administration, a longtime employee that we are we requested to reallocate um the position itself and that that that's for that's one line item for a salary. It says a total of $4,822 funding to support progressional reallocation critical for maintaining employee morale and retention. I'm super supportive of that. There's another yeah the other there are additional

reallocations um in the line item for salary increases. So if you look at the um line items or if you look at the salary increase the percent change yeah I know it just says a total of the 674,367 includes additional progressional additional reallocations. Okay, but this one line item is only in the administration and it's separate from the others because it's a different kind of reallocation. That's really interesting. Sorry. It's not It's actually not progressional. It's actually um uh we're a rec kind of a I think it's a Is it a a rec?

That's misleading because it's in your budget highlights over here in the budget book, director.

It's called a non-progressional reallocation. And because that position has reached the level of what it was normally set at, but because the pos um duties and um responsibilities have become higher level and more complex um there is a request to adjust the um the salary level to match the the duties that have you know evolved from that position. So that that position is separate from the progressional reallocations that are in that salary line item, the 8.51%. So that that's where we have most of the reallocations for the other staff. Okay. Thank you. Sorry for the confusion.

No, it's all good. I mean, because I know that you mentioned that like within the budget highlights, it just sounds like only a total of 4,000 in the budget highlights. We can go over it together later, but yeah, thank you very Kimoto.

Thank you, Council Member Cordderero. Good morning. Um, director, I I just had a couple of maybe it was just one question. One of your number one key initiative was to modernize recruitment and hiring in the budget book. And you did say in here that hiring initiatives include ongoing focus on efficiency in the city's hiring process, making the process more user friendly by updating classifications and position descriptions, improving citywide use of technology such innovations such as NEOGV features, and you have that in here as your top um budget issue with this renewing or this annual subscription. and the neo gov recruitment platform that is being um implemented hopefully after this fiscal year. I wanted to know how much quicker do you anticipate do you estimate that this hiring process will be similar to how we've asked DPP with their new um technology. What's the process to make it faster? We know over the years we've historically lost um possible employees because they're sitting in some kind of queue waiting to have their applications processed and we know time is money. So all the efforts that you've been doing, I know that you've done job fairs is good. I'm just like council member Cordera. I tell everybody come work for the city. But with this new technology, how much faster can we see the process um be?

Thank you, council member. The technology that we're asking for is actually um a recruitment platform to attract more candidates and it where where the efficiency is going to be is it will enable us to target like um millions of um job seekers on government USA and it will u allow us to to um kind of target c potential candidates by filter. So in January alone we filled um four positions that were on continuous that were open for almost you know for between 6 months and a year. So that's the kind of efficiency I mean you know normally we go to job fairs and we do we we are not able to do these mass um targeted emails to people and so we think that basically it generates volume and potentially more um qualified candidates that match the particular job. In terms of the efficiency, you know, our efficiency has been, you know, it's well below 50% of where we started in fiscal year 22 and it continues to stay at that level. So I I don't the attract module is really to help us fill jobs. Uh when I say more efficiently, it you know, for us to do everything manually, we couldn't do it. and and and this is a more um a way to to sift through and target candidates um in a way that's kind of automated and it will be soon be AI driven, you know, matching candidates to jobs.

Okay. Thank you for explaining that. So when you get this influx of now more possible candidates, you said that the goal if if we're getting more, I just want to make sure that we're not then having a backload of processing of the applications so we can get the the positions filled. Again, historically that's what we've been hearing that we've lost candidates. They can't wait five to six months to get a job. So they are taken elsewhere with this technology. So we can get recruits more.

We don't take five to six months to turn lists over. We take three weeks. Three weeks. Less than three weeks. Yeah. It's it's I mean, you know, departments, first of all, they have to open requisitions to fill jobs. So, if they don't have open requisitions on NEOGV, they're not going to fill a position. And that's where it starts. And so, they have to get that in. It has to go through a budget. Budget has also reduced their time frame by less than 50%. So the two departments in terms of fiscal review and approval and you know DHR um turnaround approval posting the job qualifying the candidates you know the two together might be um you know about a month maybe five weeks they're usually two there I'm sorry maybe six weeks but it by the between the time that someone applies for a job and the department gets the list that's usually three weeks but between the application and the the the receipt of the list. So the candidate is actually only waiting three weeks. It's the you know how long it takes the department to do the interviews and make a selection. That's up to each department.

Okay. And and do the suitability, the background check, that's all the department and get them in the job, get them into the orientation and you know do that efficiently and quickly. It it varies by department. Okay. Thank thank you for explaining that and clarifying. I just wanted to make sure. It's good to hear that the process has been um be has become more efficient. I'd love to get it shorter, but so far they're doing they're right on track.

Okay, thank you members. Any second round questions for the director and the DHR department? Okay, seeing no further questions. Thank you so much for you and your this morning. Moving on to our next department and one that needs no explanation or extra excitement to introduce. We have the department of enterprise services and they have jurisdiction over the auditoriums, golf courses, zoo and concessions. Members, for your information, this presentation is available online as departmental communication 189206. Joining us today we have director Dita Hollyfield and deputy director join Don. Thank you so much for being here and their team. And I'll gladly turn the time over now to our director. Ready? Yes, director Holly, the stage is yours. Aloha, Koko. Good morning, budget chair Okimoto and council members. I'm Dita Hollyfield, dees director. I'm excited to be joined today by Deputy Director Jocelyn Don, administrative services officer Denise Peterson, division heads Elizabeth Ishihara, acting event and services administrator Kala Aana, maintenance and operations superintendent, Ninoa O'Sullivan, assistant golf administrator, and Jackie Peeler, acting

Honolulu Zoo and our newest member of our team hired from Boston. She's an animal and a AA specialist. So, we're excited to introduce you. And then we also have our concessions manager, also known as king of revenue, Christopher Ching. Team Dees oversees the city's auditoriums, the Neil S. Blaze del Center, the Tom Moffet, Wy Shell, the six municipal golf courses, the Alawawaii, Tenmalena, Py, Eva Villages, Weslock, and Kahuku, the Honolulu Zoo, and the city concessions, which includes the FnB, driving ranges, ticketing services, transportation services, surfboard lockers, and surfing lessons, just to name a few. We have the privilege of managing city facilities and services to the public that support thousands of small businesses, support the cultural and arts, attracts large acts that would otherwise never come to Hawaii, provide affordable access to recreational activities with special rates for capuna and free play for our kei and opio. We facilitate experiences and provide spaces where the people of Honolulu make lifelong memories. Slide one. The dees operating budget is funded almost entirely by three dedicated special funds. The golf fund, the Honolulu Zoo fund, and the special events fund. Our golf course division budget is focused on maintaining golf operations, ensuring safety and playability at all of our courses 7 days a week, 364 days a year. The Honolulu Zoo budget focuses on maintaining our facilities and ensuring

animal welfare standards. All of which help us meet the Association of Zoo and Aquariums, also known as AA, accreditation standards, animal health, welfare, facility maintenance, and of course, guest experience. I'll be heading to Atlanta next week for the AA midyear looking forward for the review and hopefully be granted the additional four years of accreditation. The auditorium budget is focused on ensuring we can continue to operate safely and offer affordable event space during all the wide range and different types of events throughout the year. As discussed, we are requesting a little over two million more than we were appropriated in FY26, most of which can be attributed to collective bargaining increases. The salaries increases are 1,439 and 176,500 for the three additional permanent contract positions. We're requesting funding to hire three staff on contract to support the Honolulu Zoo, the concessions team, and golf. Our golf division currently only has one administrative staff that supports all six courses and 137 positions. Our clerical staff need additional help, time sheets, procurement, letter drafting, etc. The number of longerterm contracts and value of our concessions have been growing. We're so proud. We have currently only have two staff that help with the contract management. We also have been granted a delegation of authority from BFS to handle our own um our own solicitations. The additional

staff will help ensure we can properly oversee and manage the existing needs and potentially grow the program and of course our revenues. We are also requesting one additional zookeeper to assist with animal welfare and safety in the mammal division. The large ticket current expense items in our budget is almost all related to the urgent needs as discussed individually when I went out to meet with everybody at the Blazeell Center. We have discussed in more detail when we get to the C uh CIP section. We discovered in early and mid 25 major repairs are needed to the Blazedell Arena and to the roof. According to our requests, nearly 350,000 for drapes and new carpet for the concert hall, which are decades old, and it shows. We originally intended to replace the carpet and drapes with renovations to the front of the house at the concert hall, which was supposed to have started a few months ago. However, we had to pivot and instead use those funds, CIP funds, to start repairs for the sewer line running underneath the arena. and of course the arena roof. 465,000 is immediate roof repairs to the arena to address public safety. We have a few areas along the sidewalk fronting the exhale that need spalling work. Our building services team have been working diligently on taking care of various repairs at the campus from the roof of our concourse and the AC all three venues and fire alarm issues on the campus for safety. About a third of our above ceiling request is for equipment that has become aging. 820,000 to be exact. The aging inventory of our fairway

mowers, trim mowers, rotary mowers, and a small tractor, a super hauler for the zoo, and a single lift for that supports the blaze deloo and our golf courses. Slide two. This basically just summarizes our above ceiling requests for you and most of which I have touched on the last slide. Slide three. This will address the vacancies for FY27. I do want to brag on the recruiting efforts that we have done in this area. Year one that I started, we had 52 vacancies. Last year we cut it to 41 and this year we are very pleased to announce that we only need 32 um positions filled. And I want to thank Denise Peterson, our ASO for being a fantastic partner to achieve those said goals. As of March 3, DEES had 32 vacancies. We are actively working on filling vacancies and intend to fill. 21 of the 32 still needed. Of the 32, nine are in auditoriums, 12 in golf, 10 in zoo, and we look forward to making sure that we are doing our due diligence and making sure we're going to be filling those. Slide four. This slide reflects DEES's overtime requests broken down by division. Before I run through, I just want to remind everyone how incredibly complex it is when it comes to overtime in our division because of we are open so many days of the year. And then of course our uh auditoriums is seasonal all of our

venues. So some years we can have you know 40 rentals and some years we can just have 10. So we try the best that we can to manage by hourly calculations and operational management needs cover all of our divisions. Facilities as I said earlier unique open for business seven days a week all the days of the year including major holidays. Golf courses 3654 days a year which includes New Year's and Christmas. And then auditoriums seven days a week and rentals often include major holidays. and then the Honolulu Zoo which is 364. Our business model is holidays, evenings, and weekends. And even the Honolulu Zoo when it is not open for customers, we are caring for over 900 animals every single day. Our holiday overtime request is based on 14 holidays in FY27 and our non-h holiday hours are calculated the best that we can do on our prior year uses. Slide five. Revenue estimates. The revenues are based on projections made in late 2025. We anticipate a auditorium's revenue to decrease due to the closure of the arena partially through FY27. We're hoping for closure to start in February as announced individually as we met with each one of you, but we will be working closely with DDC and Mark's team on the timing. Even if the start date gets pushed back, we will likely need to be conservative about booking all of those large venues and promoters events that they want to bring. The reduction in revenue is based on our best guess.

We're trying to work through some of those numbers. Now, the zoo revenues are projected to be a little flat given the zoo's reliance on the tourism market. The latest your hero report notes that tourism although has stabilized is not yet expanding. While the Japanese recovery has reserved our rivals for the other international markets have actually weakened. We are hopeful that our new ticketing concessionire and our cont ticketing concession includes marketing social media plans which will help us mitigate any impacts that otherwise might be reduced in expected tourism and tourists. I do want to thank council member Kiaina for noticing our uptick in our social media because we are trying the best that we can to mitigate any of the projected losses. We will still be looking for other revenue streams and other ways to fill in the gaps. We are hoping for a slight increase in golf revenue which is partially attributed to the revenue from the Alawawaii driving range. Our golf revenues are significantly less reliant on tourism spending which is only 2%. And we are looking at signs of a turnaround after months on the job of losses. We're cautiously optimistic about consumer spending in spite of the slow recovery we are all aware. Slide six. Our capital improvement budget. The lion share of our CIP request across all divisions is to address desperately needed renovations resulting for deferred maintenance. I think as I started two years and 10 months ago, I was really surprised at how many things

just like many of the new directors under um Blangiard's um reign is just how much deferred maintenance had been kicked down um the can. So, we are addressing as much as we can head on. For auditoriums, we estimate we're going to be needing an additional 10 million to address the urgent repairs to the Blazeell Arena sewer and roof as discussed prior this week individually. However, we learned in July 25 that we should start those repairs sooner than later. We with support from DDC, we've pivoted away from starting the phase three from the concert hall and we're going to be forward facing with trying to do drapes and carpet fill in the pukas for the um concert hall and allow allocating those funds to the design work for the area sewer and roof construction for the sewer. This leaves an estimated remaining need for the arena as said earlier for the 10 million for golf. We are also requesting an approximately 5 million. Most of the allocated to the upgrades to the aged irrigation system specifically at the Alawawaii, our flagship course. The system is 40 years old and continually having issues with pipes breaking weekly. We have to turn off the irrigation pumps and requires additional leaks in trying to address our electrical and irrigation communication lines. We also want to get a start on the design work for the Ev villages irrigation system which means construction would be in a couple years in the future but we need to know now more as we complete the Alawawaii project for the poly. A portion of these funds will go to

design work for the air conditioning and the utility improvements for the upstairs banquet hall and meeting rooms. We'd like to start design work for the poly maintenance and we require additional funding in 2028. For the zoo, our CIP request is approximately 8 million which primarily includes funds to complete projects that we've already started. That is one thing that MD emphasis especially with our team is to try to cross the finish line with what we have started. We have a new bird aviary, renovations to the old chip exhibit, the barn. We're going to host either a gorilla, an ape, or a chimp. The final funding needed to finish the multiecies holding area at the veterinarian clinic will go out to bid as well as new funding to design and replace the zoo's non-portable water system. We're just about finished with the upgrades to the zoo's portable water system. So, starting the design on the non-potable system is timely. The system supports almost all the animal exhibits in the savannah area which is giel, elephant, hippo, etc. And the aging system currently requires our staff to go outside the zoo across the street to manually adjust the pressure valves. We are anticipating possibly starting the design work on a new exhibit for a biton or a similar animal, but we shared with council member dos Santos Tam this week. We're not going to wait and we're going to look for the exhibit to acquire a bit start a process where maybe we could merge the species together, the berong and a sun bear. So we are super excited about that. And lastly, the

projects underway. We are grateful for our partnership with DDC, which oversees all our capital improvement projects. Some of the highlights quickly include a new surfboard locker at Cohillo Beach. They are gorgeous. You are going to be shocked and you're going to love it. The design phase is just wrapping up and we look forward to the construction bid to go out this summer. The parking lot improvements for the Poly Golf Course is nearing completion. We will add 90 more stalls to the existing parking. So, come on and play at the PY. The Cheetah Bunker Rebuild is out to bid. The Hippo Trailers viewing area renovations underway and the pedestrian vehicular bridge project at the Alawawaii Golf Course is also underway. Lastly, a request for a 4x4 extended cab for the golf division. Dees delivering exceptional service. Ex. So proud of my team. Thank you director Hollyfield. So much excitement. How do we how do we follow data? Right. Thank you for being here. Um like to welcome to the chamber chair waters members. We're going to start off this line of questioning with committee vice chair Nishimoto and go in proceed in that order.

Thank you. No questions. Chair, I met with the director last week and she answered all our questions through a follow-up email. Thank you, Vice Chair Mahalo. Chair Waters, do you want me to come back to you? Yeah, thank you. Um, lot going on in my district, but this is a question dealing with the uh Blaze Del Arena. How much would a brand new arena cost? I know you want 10 million for a roof. How much would a brand new one cost? Just curious. Well, I know that a lot of studies were done prior. Elizabeth, do you have a a number?

So, the estimate is about 1.5 billion. We did talk about it in our meeting um the other day. So, when the study was done, that was approximately eight years ago, we think, and they had it at 750 million. But we estimated even at that time we might have made 750 million. So 750 million and that was um like eight years ago and as we calculated and they felt like Conor

sorry. So we did have a a project that was for 750 million. We thought that would include the entire campus but even those projections were kind of low at that time. Uh but just looking at new arenas that are built in other places, uh the the estimation is between 1 and 1.5 billion just to get an arena um off the ground these days. So what do we use the arena for? I know we have concerts, large concerts, maybe two.

Director, if you could have sorry, anyone from your team who comes up, if they could just state their name for the record. I forgot to make that statement before. So, I I'll go ahead and address that question. I think one of the things we feel the most proud about is the challenge was why do we not use the arena more often? And I promise you, I would give you we've like five times more. One of the things um council member Tupola had challenges with was to do more uh creating more sports opportunities and internally. And so we have done that and also f fostering the next generation of attendees and really um doing a lot more sporting events for of course our younger our younger high school teams and and like bare knuckle um you know fighting and some different sports that we've never done before. I was privileged to um enter a meeting yesterday with um council member Cado. We talked about an esports opportunity. So, we're really challenging ourselves to really repurpose the standard operating arena. We also have done a really ne unique footprint. So like for the exhibition hall. So we have expanded many many of the exhaul events where you actually walk across and made and use the arena as also a footprint and expanded their opportunities for their different trade shows. We get trucks in there and all kinds of different things. So you know we're looking for different ways that is just not a concert music venue. you know, we also we've really expanded the the the comedy ra realm and and different things like that.

I did get a little bit of push back from your team last year when I wanted to put a basketball court in there. You know, the the kids, high school kids don't really have a place to have their tournaments. Um volleyball, same thing. So, I'm happy to hear that you're now open to that. to having replacing the basketball court is that

so our basketball court was completely unusable and so we had to go through the city's way of you know getting rid of something like that and so we can announce to you that we have got rid of the old basketball court and so you know we're open we we want business and so any of the ideas that you guys have you know I've always always been open to all your vision. Just curious, what did you do with the old basketball court? We sent it to re reuse Hawaii. Oh, awesome. Awesome. That's perfect. I don't know what they could reuse it for, but

No, people buy it and they make tables out of it. You can make all kinds of good stuff. It's good wood. Um, okay. No sense put a basketball court until you put a roof, though, right? because otherwise the basketball court's going to end up the exact same place that

But I do want you to know and I want the council to feel completely, you know, confident that we're not going to just sit around. We're going to look for more revenue streams. We have Chris Ching, the king of revenue concessionire. We're opening a brand new um uh restaurant in the other villages here in the next 30 60 days. And we're going to be searching for other ways that will fill in the pukas from the loss of revenue from the arena side. We're going to run for the fences to book even more than we have, which I'm extraordinarily proud of the marketing team. And we have been calling and looking for business versus just sitting around.

No, good idea. Even at the the the golf courses, Beno Pali Golf Course, right? I mean, just throwing that out there. Why not? So, we're already in discussions and I will go with you on that pitch. I promise if you can get me there. But, we're looking at doing the golf um course actual holes as sponsorship opportunities. We're already diving in big time into the Honolulu Zoo in terms of sponsorships. Um Deputy Don is a a huge um assist in that area and we've also talked to interested parties in the arena and also the concert hall. I will say when we reopen the arena in 20 months, you and I kind of had a giggle about it. I'm looking forward to having a new improved product to go and try to grab some big naming right money so that we can really present for the company that decides to partner with us our best foot forward.

All right. Thank you so much. Thank you, Chair. Thank you, Chair. Thank you, Chair Waters, Council Member Cordderero. Thank you, budget chair Okimoto. Director Haloffield, thank you very much. I'm very excited. We were so excited to meet Lulu the Honu and um just for all your team's efforts to really push uh all the things that Dees does forward. Um first off, I know that when you presented to us the marketing for each individual um golf course, I know that of course that took off and I was looking if you are if you're utilizing those marketing to also raise revenue like make swag, merch, that kind of stuff. instead of just giving out the the kind pins.

Thank you so much because we were just talking about this before we walked in. So yeah, you're reading our minds. First of all, we I I believe that marketing cannot stay stagnant. There are years that that certain verticals and certain, you know, priorities will work and then there's not. One of the things I feel super excited that we did, we pivoted this year. Of course, we're staying with some traditional uh radio, but for golf specifically, we have our own golf show now, and it is with Guy Hogy on Hawaii News Now, and it's sort of like his version of Cheap Eats, but now it's affordable golf. And so, Guy Hogi comes out, we're going to each one of the golf courses. They walk through the pros and cons, whether it's a hard course or a fun course and easy course. It's just a great way to get our message out. Hawaii News Now is a juggernaut when it comes to the number of people on the eyeballs. We've got replays and all that. So, we're hitting about half a million people per episode. And so, that's great. And then we've upped our game in the social media with our PIO. He has just been a game changer for the zoo. We have meet the team Thursdays and he goes through and he talks about the individual animals and what the the keepers do. So, it's really special. And then of course you may or may not have seen some of our team members right here on social media. Just trying to tell everybody in the community it's a great place to work. That's one of our recruiting tools. And then of course we stay very very hyperfocused on assisting with the um individual promoters and trying to steer them the correct way to be the most successful because they're not from this market. Did that answer your question?

Yes, absolutely. Thank you very much. And that is exciting. I love the social media. I always share it. I know. Thank you. And yes, it makes it more relatable and just it's very wholesome, too. Okay. So, um uh Okay, so that's really great to hear about expanding um from just the advertisements, especially for golf. Um I do want to ask about the uh zoo and the aa. Um are are there any further funding that's needed to uh keep up with accredit accreditation um that's highlighted in your budget?

Thank you for the timeliness of this question as well. Um I will be leaving as noted earlier to Atlanta. I am extremely proud of the entire team what we had to do unexpectedly last year when we got a one year. We weren't ready financially. I don't know if we are ready for the leadership, but we have worked every single day. I personally I'm going down three to four days a week just to make sure that we support our new acting director Jackie Verer who is an AA expert and she has just been invaluable to really tell us what and what we need to do. Um, I just read a report she submitted to AA and I can I I if I don't know how we cannot get accredited with all the work that she put in. It was very detailed and I believe that we have crossed the finish line for all of the um questions that came our way. We only had really three major concerns and one of the major concerns we actually fixed it before the accredititation team left. So, I'm feeling great about it and looking forward to coming home with the prize.

Awesome. Thank you very much. I'm also I'm very excited about the zoo and I am um Miss Wheeler. I am your target demographic uh from ages female ages 30 to 36 and in between was it Pearl City to I think Al Moana area. Yeah. Is that correct? That is. And so which leads me, are you still investing in um programming for your geo tagging and targeting? Is that the word?

Yeah, thank you for asking. So we, you know, we're doing we're trying to give added value first of all in the Honolulu Zoo. We talked about the the Kiki train that's starting. We're going to be enhancing there is um the Honolulu Zoo Society is doing a gala on the 18th of April where they'll be raising money for a playground. And so we're very excited about these are some of the exciting things that we're going to be doing to attract the younger Kei to come. And of course, we are also just switching our demographic. We have summer camps. We have we have kei camps for um um for spring break and and we're really looking at the educational piece. We have a snail barn that we've started and just you know some really great things. So keis, we know just like golf, you grab the kikis at a young age, that's the people that will be bringing their kiki and their kiki.

Thank you. And I'm a huge fan of the YouTube as well as watching the not the fan cams, I'm sorry, but the animal cams and also the tours that you have there. Um so but for the uh you mentioned that you have a new bird aviary but when there's construction on um the exhibit uh is the new bird aviary temporary so that you can construct the current bird exhibit.

Another great question. The aviary is just going to be spectacular. It's going to be interactive. So you're going to actually go inside and we'll have mesh all around and you're going to be a part of the bird experience. So, it's going to be spectacular. The I mean, we will not be closing our bird exhibits at that point. Um, I do think we need some modernization in that area. I I'm definitely going to come freely and say I think some of the exhibits that we have, especially in the bird area, and I think um acting director will agree with me and that we do need some work, but we don't have it all dialed in. But what we do know is that we will not be closing the bird exhibit. I mean, this is this is um Jocelyn Don's dream. She's all excited about the birds exhibit. She has naming uh change that she wants with the King Calakawa aviary bird exhibit. She is in love with our new hawk. She's going to specifically oversee some of the collection. So, it's going to be great.

Awesome. That's so great to hear. Um and so, so that's why I really wanted to ask because I know it's a very popular thing. I was hoping that you wouldn't close it down and that construction doesn't last too long because we saw before in past zoo uh zoo and slash gdc projects that it lasted for like many years before. Um I do have a question about uh your your revenue. I know that we were talking about certain um fees for for different suites and halls uh at the Blazedale but also in other areas. Are you looking to up any fees? And it's not a bad thing. It's really cheap already. So,

it is very expensive. I think one of the things that, you know, I was hired as a pro forprofit thinker. So, I'm always looking for ways to increase revenue, but we also want to be mindful of all of the economy, what other departments are doing. So, when we decide to raise fees at any point, I think we are looking at maybe some um non-resident um elevation and and fees in the zoo area. We want to be mindful of where the economy is and we are here to serve our community. So, it will be well thought out and we will be also sequencing alongside other departments um fee raises and things as well. But yes, I always want to raise fees.

Thank you very much. I'm with you. Um, so I also just want to say thank you for looking forward and making things efficient for your staff. Hearing that your staff has to go across the street to fix the water pressure. What? Okay. Anyway, thanks for taking care of that. I appreciate it. And thank you, Cheroke. Thank you, Council Member Cordera, Florida Leader Kia.

Thank you. Good to see you, director, and good to see your leadership team. you know, if they go across the street to fix the water, then maybe they can go to the Elks Club as well and and relax a little bit. Um, uh, director, thank you for identifying, uh, all of the items in your budget. Um, you you know, you already know how I feel. I think that uh with regard to your kulana and the challenges that you faced when you came on board, you've done a great job in utilizing the resources that that you have at hand. I just have two comments. I appreciate the 400,000 for Poly Golf Course. Um I I did want to say I don't know if I would be okay with uh on sponsorships to be for it to be called Bango Py. I I do uh care about Hawaiian names and when you do seek sponsorships, I think you should be careful in uh in how right because uh you can do it without changing it. And when it comes to the the Hawaiian verbiage, I just would be a little concerned. I have a problem with the Wy Kell. I'm not going to stop calling it the Wy Kell, you know, or the Honolulu International Airport. So, I just wanted to make that comment.

Thank you. Um, I know you're very innovative uh with regard to looking for resources and you and I talked about the climate resiliency fund. So, I hope that you saw the list which I thought was um really good compared to last year taking into account the concerns of some of the council members and hopefully you will look at that as an avenue next year. But another um fund that I wanted to flag for you and it was raised uh during the um DPR budget hearing and that has to do with ordinance 21-33 uh which sets aside 8.35% of the transit accommodations tax uh for and I'll and I'll say what it's supposed to be for be used to mitigate the impacts of visitors on public facilities and natural resources. including right the restoration operations and maintenance of beaches and parks. Now why this can be construed to only be for the department of parks and recreation that is not the case here. Public facilities could be almost anything and you stated that the uh zoo of course is highly dependent on tourism. So, as far as I'm concerned, any capital improvement project at the Sue um can be utilized. Uh this funding stream could be utilized. So, I just want to make sure that look, you look at it as a funding stream. Uh $ 8.9 million has been set aside. I was not happy that supposedly all of it is for roofs in our parks. While I know it's needed, the intent of this was to supplement, not suppant based funding. So that's it. Just want to tell you to keep up the good work.

Thank you. And um you know we I feel like all of us have to be partners in these leans in these lean times to just look at ways how we could use all of the sources of funding uh not just with general funds but also with um the funding streams that we have that that actually um includes uh the kana under your jurisdiction. And and that's all I wanted to say. Thank you. I really appreciate the fact that you sent me towards Dr. Fox. We had a couple extraordinary great conversations and all of your toutelage and help is needed.

Thank you, Florida. And we' like to welcome joining us in the chamber, Council Vice Chair Tupola, Council Member Dos Santos Tam, Council Member Toba.

Thank you, chair. Hi, director. Awesome energy. It's good to have that, Miss Chamber. So, thank you. at its highest at its fullest potential the Blaze Arena and I want to kind of go back to what uh concert chair was talking about. You know what is how much can the Blaze make at its highest potential? I mean concerts year round because we all know we saw you here a report that talked about the way we're gonna get the economy pumping back up is if it's not through tourism it's through events and you know I'm very blessed that I get to go travel and I know that a lot of the acts won't come to Hawaii because the arena holds maybe 6,000. No one's going to do five days of shows. I would like to correct that number if that's okay with you. It is um it's a ceiling of 80 um 800 and that's if you do it in the round, but you can safely do an 8,100 and about the same number at the wiki shell as well. So it's a couple more thousand a lot of times a couple more thousand tickets are the promoter and the axe actual you know profit margin. So just wanted to let you know it's more than that.

Yeah. Okay. So at its fullest potential like you know a year that the blaze was like pumping. Yeah.

So I have some revenues from the arena from the last four years. I do um say most of those years had still compromised some closures. Um FY23 617,000. Now this is just the revenue venue rental. This isn't not all the extra things that we make through parking, through shared revenue, sometimes in merchandising. There'll be some ticketing revenue. There'll also be some parking revenue, things like that. And um then in FY um 24 was about half a million when I started. The next year, we got it up to almost 750,000. And then we're only, you know, we still have months to go. in FY26 we're about 400,000 right now.

So that gives you some numbers but again that's just specifically for the arena rentals. Correct. Yep. Only only because you know the report and again you know I'm afraid that when the stadium comes and they have an outside venue and they have a a new arena and if we're not, you know, uh I feel like Hawaii is a place where people want to come. They want to come and see amazing shows. But if we cannot hold the facility to bring in these amazing acts to bring in tourism so that the people that work in these places can get good jobs, it's challenging. It is challenging,

you know. So

I echo um your thought process on that because that's why I want to make sure that we move as quickly as we can on the um on the arena and the roof issues because we're looking at what I've been told just recently. I was sharing with chair um Waters is that 2031 maybe for the um the esta the stadium you know we've got a lot of business we picked up we aggressively pursued a lot of the convention center business loss and convert it to using our facilities and then um of course we've got the wy ki shell but and even though the numbers are the same in terms of um capacity it's not apples to apples 3,000 seated. The rest is outdoor on the lawn and it's an outdoor venue. So, we want to work quickly as as fast as we can to get back online the arena and up and running.

Yeah, I know. I want to see a successful um and again along with sponsorships. I mean, you know, we we talked about sponsorships in in parks this week as well with the bus, you know, and I think the arena and any of our facilities and any of our services might have an opportunity. So, whatever we can do to help fix that, please, you know, uh let's let's try to see if we can help you guys. It is top of mind for dees. Awesome. Thank you.

Thank you, Council Member Toba. Good morning, um Director Hollywood. I'm just gonna ask a couple of questions and then turn some time over to Vice Chair Tupola if she has any followup and then for a quick second round if necessary. First of all, I'm just glad I got the memo from the department to wear red today. Thank you very much. You guys are very sharp. I'm glad I was able to join the cool club. Um, thank you again for being mindful. I loved hearing you repeatedly say that your your your motivation, your passion is to generate revenue. You're looking you're constantly looking for ways. I know. I think it was my first year in this seat. We had the zoo coming off, you know, competition where we were able to get on the mark for that. Um, and since then, I've just seen you take efforts to improve everything that is under your jurisdiction.

Thank you.

Um, so thank you for that. First of all, I'm going to tell Council Member Corddero that Shak now I feel like I'm outside of the zoo to um target demographic, but that's okay. I know you don't discriminate. I will still bring my children who are now no longer babies to the zoo. We're still hoping for a capy bar or maybe even the pandas at some point. Anyway, I did want to ask a couple of questions tied to the blazal closing. You did mention the 20 months being closed and I think you had some numbers. Council member Toba asked part of what I was going to ask the the numbers that um the revenue that was generated in prior fiscal years. What do you anticipate? I guess up until now you have about 400,000 in the POS in the next almost two years. How much revenue are you anticipating we not um receiving by the blaze club being closed?

Again, it's it's difficult because every year has been since I've been here so dramatically different. I do I will say this and I could let um Elizabeth answer if she would like or even Joselyn, but I believe that you know when we found out we actually found out in a um a parking lot summary in last summer right before Jocelyn started that there could be some very serious issues ahead in terms of that. And so we pivoted as quickly as we could but we were being very careful and cautious. Um, and it wasn't really until then we went, you know, the correct hierarchy. We went and met with B BFS, DDC went with us, then we spoke with MD, and then we went to see the mayor. And so we've we've tried to go in the correct order to try to get it as consolidated and accurate as possible. it would be too difficult to know. But what we did really find out in the fall of last year, we started to slow down and be the best stewards that we could in terms of booking acts that we maybe thought weren't even going to happen. And one of the things that we're doing, we're going to be using the concert hall twice as much. So, you know, so like Broadway and ASO and some of that, they're still going to be able to use their concerts. There's a lot of concerts as um council member Toba acknowledged that four or 5,000 people those people can do two concert hall um shows at 2100 each that would be easier you know and more palatable. Will we miss out on some of the large concerts? It is it's a definite yes, but we're hoping that we can continue to recruit and find other ways for revenue, as I said, to cover those losses, but to also stay in touch and aggressively pursue all live nations, the local market, and all those big promoters and keep them in the fold so that we're not we're ready

to go when it's time to open.

Thank you. I I do appreciate that. We know that because your department specifically is set up for concessions that what you do is so essential you guys can generate revenue. So, thank you for continuing to try and find ways during the closure of when the roof is being fixed of the Blaze. And my last question and this may be um a small question. I you mentioned the three new positions that you are adding on this year and you you explain them. I other I was just curious why they're listed under contract positions and under not under permanent FTE. I at face value I think well that actually I guess saves the city money because they're under contract. But is there a reason for that specifically and I believe it was a zookeeper one office assistant for golf administration and then the assistant for concessions contracts. And

this is a BFS call. Oh, this is a BFS call. Okay.

And if you want to get if and if you can just say your name, deputy or whoever is answering the question.

Uh Joselyn Don, deputy director. Um, you know, of course, we want uh to eventually convert these positions to permanent positions. Um, I think for concessions, um, in particular, uh, it's a growing program. So, it's about sort of learning what we actually need, um, for the long term. Um, the zookeeper position, we have other similar zookeeper positions. So, hopefully next year when we are in front of you again, we'll be able to convert that into um, a permanent position. And as it relates to the golf team, for some reason we've always only had one administrative staff assigned to 137 team, 137 staff team, but because again it's a new idea to expand um uh this group, I think the idea is to see how it goes. Is this what we really need? Do we need something a little different? And so next year hopefully we come back to you with these three positions uh with a permanent position request. Thank you very much, Deputy Director. Um, Director Hfield, do the do we have people in these positions or prospects or are these this do you have people that are filling these positions currently? No,

we do not. But as we stated earlier, we're always recruiting. Always recruiting. Thank you so much. I think that might have been the last of my questions. If I have anything else, I will come back to you. Um, by Tupola, thank you, director. Hey, Aloha director. Thank you for being here, Alo staff. Thank you guys for supporting her and all your cute videos that you make together. It looks like a very fun place to work. Thank you for acknowledging.

That's what we want. We want people to be excited to work for the city and county of Honolulu. So, bring that energy. Um, I did have only a few questions. You know, there is no worry in my mind about specific things you're doing with entertainment because I know you're trying to drive as much sales as you can, as much of the uncornered market to come to us as you can. Yes.

So, when is the actual closure of the Blaze starting and like because there's current shows that are happening like how is that phase out going to happen? Thank you. We're looking currently DDC is acknowledging a end of February of next year and then we have been as I said stated earlier great stewards of really looking the calendars who's going to come and be proactive to reach out to our partners and just trying to help them find you know better dates maybe come now and then you know and put us on your stop in two years that kind of a thing. So, we're very on top of the calendar, I promise.

Yeah. No, it's great. You have a lot of time to plan and prepare for that date. That's good to know that it's not happening until next year. Um, secondarily, I don't know if you already mentioned this, like the partnership that you kind of built with DPR, I think, like the buses that they have going to Hanama Bay and how we can kind of like draw that crowd to the zoo. Did you already share that today?

I didn't share that, but we did talk about the king of revenue, Christopher Ching. And so one of the things that um we came up as um partners is that when Chris is doing, you know, concessions for other departments and helping, he always thinks of dees as well. And so our transportation partners right now when you buy a ticket to Hanama Bay, you also get a ticket to the Honolulu Zoo. Ingenious.

Ingenious. Christopher Ching. And so we are excited because if we're going in a normal year, which we will right around the corner from, that would bring at least a half a million dollars extra to the Honolulu Zoo's bottom line. See, you see what I'm saying here, guys? I'm demonstrating that DA is always thinking towards economic stimulation and coordination between the other departments in the city because that's what we need. That's what Chair Water wants. Like, we need to be able to build that revenue. So, I thank you for being mindful in that way. And a good thing that happened through the year that was kind of bothering you before was the BFS easier negotiation for the concessions. And I think that I just wanted to applaud BFS on that because there's not one person that doesn't complain about them and procurement. So you guys were able to work out something easy and fast. Yes. So we have a delegation of authority as stated earlier. But I do want to thank actually it started with MD and mayor and then Andy Kuano and Carrie Castle. They have just been fantastic. And then Chris put together, he has an app that's just for him and Andy and they have speak secretly to each other, which we're not sure what's really going on, but we're excited because we get the job done.

Hey, as long as things are happening, it's exciting. If there's less obstacles in your way, that's better for all of us. Amen to that. Thank you.

So, you know, I want to iterate that because, you know, part of the Office of Economic Revitalization is to do all this coordination and gener genu uh revenue generation and you really are doing that. So, I think that it's something that we have to be mindful of. We had a a baby conversation about it yesterday with DTS. How can we raise funds at all the rail stations? So, it has to be something that we're all mindful of and gosh, we wish you had a twin, a triplet, all the things. But, I do applaud you on being a leader in that area cuz it's definitely what we've needed in the city is like we can't just keep taxing and raising fees. We got to get creative. we got to get like innovative and there's a million ways to do it because we own properties, we have venues, we have golf courses. So, thank you very much for what you're doing and for the way that you're leading your department. I I've seen a huge difference since you've been on board. Thank you.

Thank you. Thank you, Vice Chair Tupola. Members, any second round questions for the director? Yes, Chair Waters. Thank you so much. It just occurred to me, you know, when we're talking about revenue generation, um, wedding photography is a big deal. And of course, my colleague from Wim Manalo can tell you that that was a problem with all these photographers utilizing our public parks and actually kicking out local people like, "Hey, you in my shot?" Anyway, we ended up passing legislation banning them. And guess what? They're moving to other districts as a result. But here's my idea. Okay,

the pavilions in Wy Ki, we're basically giving these these the use of these pavilions away for free because we want to activate the space, right? Because prior to what we're doing now, they were they were being used by a lot of unsavory folks. But anyway, why don't we open up a wedding photography or allow a concession for wedding photography in the pavilion in Wy Ki? Because right now you cannot take pictures. You can the you can't take wedding pictures in Wy Ki. It's banned. But if we open up one of these pavilions and have people rent them out by the hour or two, I bet you you could generate a heck of a lot of money. Right? You got Diamond Head in the background, iconic Wiki Beach, canoe rides right there. You have this photo that you can take home with you. I think that would be a great opportunity and you could actually make a lot of money from these pavilions. First of all, that's a great idea and very unique in spirit for sure that all of the pavilions are underneath um dees and Christing has done a great job managing them and they are all um under contract on some level. So, we definitely I think that's great. One of the things that runs alongside your idea, not as much as the wedding, but we were looking at some cultural opportunities um there where we could do like in the old days basket weaving and ukulele lessons and you know lay making and storytelling even song. So I think that's very unique and I do think wedding business is booming and so um I I will take that into consideration. I look forward to us further talking about your idea and thank you.

Thank you, Chair Waters, members. Any further follow-up questions for the director and her team? Okay, I want to thank you again. I think maybe some of us know, but I'm not sure if the public knows, but when there's a storm, you know, we we always think about DFM and ENV going out there. But I I will tell you, DA and her team, they have to worry about the zoo animals and the golf courses and things that we normally wouldn't even consider. So, I know that you guys are out there whenever we have natural disasters. um storms coming out. I just want to thank you and your team for not just being mindful of how we can generate income, which is a obviously a priority for the council, but just taking care of the facilities that you're responsible for. Thank you so much. We look forward to reporting back in two weeks with a Thank you so much. Excited.

Thank you. Okay, members, we will be moving on to the next department, the department of design and construction. And just for announcements after the department of design and construction, we will be taking a break for lunch at that time. So just for any of the the following um departments for their information and for your information also the presentation for DDC is available online as departmental communication 190206. Joining us today I do not see director Haku Millis. I do see Deputy Director Mark Yonamin and your team. I'm guessing Hako has two reasons to be busy right now. I know two new or three reasons, two new reasons, but we like to welcome you and your team, deputy director,

uh Markin, uh deputy director, Department of Design and Construction. Uh, thank you, budget committee chair Okimoto, Vice Chair Nishimoto, Council Chair Waters, and budget committee members. Um, thank you for for this opportunity to present the FY27 DDC budget. Um, as I had mentioned, u, Director Milis is on family leave right now. Timing timing didn't go too well to around around our presentation, but I'm sure he's, uh, listening right now. Um, I'd like to take some moment to just introduce the team here. Um, I have my ASO, uh, Natalie Kchek, Civil Division Chief, uh, Tim Trang, Assistant Chief Howard Kosa. Uh, from our land division, um, our chief Aaron Sakamoto is on vacation. So here to represent them is uh David Ishikawa from survey uh David Lee from acquisitions and Chris Converse from appraisals. also have a mechanical electrical division chief Alan Lee, facilities division Dean Shimamura and Dennis Kodama. And also from our pro, uh, program coordination branch, uh, Sandra Kunoka. Okay. So on page one, uh, this is our changes between FY 26 and 27. So the bottom line as you can see it's not much right.3 increase percent. Uh we are a full-time uh employee we have 201 in 26. We're asking for four more in 27 which be a 2% increase. Our salaries have

increased just 2.4%. and our current expenses and equipment have gone down uh 1.1% and 55.2% respectively. in our 27 operating budget issues. Uh under administration, we have $1 million and that's for the downtown business improvement district uh for planning and design services under project and construction management. 348,000. That's for a mechanical electrical division uh mechanical engineer 3 position in facilities. They're requesting a vehicle for 51,000. In our civil division, uh we are requesting one full-time civil engineer, five, and one senior construction inspector. And that's to support our bridge uh program that we're trying to uh elevate because of all the bridges that need uh repair or replacement. Also they are requesting one vehicle as well for 51,000. Just to kind of recap, you know, this the importance of our bridge program. Uh right now, so you know, our civil division, there's 400 bridges. And out of those 200 is under federal requirement uh to be inspected every other year. And there's 200 that are uh city bridges that we also inspect maybe uh once every five years. But without increasing our manpower and our capacity, you know, we're finding that uh we're actually falling behind. You know, with our

existing staffing, you know, we only could take care of maybe two to three bridges at a time per year, and the the list just gets longer and longer. So by increasing our staffing, our support, um we'll be able to, you know, address those uh deficiencies and repairs um annually and then try and weed down or, you know, decrease that list. And here's our uh vacancies. So right now we have 42 positions vacant as of uh February 1st. uh less positions filled from February 1st to date is four, but we did lose uh two people. Uh one retired and one left the city. Uh so right as of today, we have uh 40 vacancies and out of those 49, we're looking to promote I mean uh to hire to fill 29 and we've actually uh filled seven uh with seven internal uh promotions. So that's actually a little bit less than that. And this is our overtime, our department overtime, uh, $265,000 non-h holiday and $5,000 holiday. And if you look at it by activity, um, there's some in administration, but most of it is in project and construction management. And so that goes back to um our bridge program. So actually right now we have some engineers out in the field uh monitoring uh the bridges and as you know bad weather happens um they're out there uh making sure that the bridge remains open or if there's need to close it uh then they will uh make that call as well. So

a lot of times you know it does require you know weekend work uh overnight as well. So that's that's why the the overtime is needed. And we also have um our inspector from our mechanical electrical division as well. Uh he works closely with HART when they require uh street light work. Uh so he'll go out u as hard requests and his overtime though is covered by the contractor. You know as far as revenues um DDC we do not collect uh any revenues at all. Uh federal funding. Uh so DDC we get a little over $2 million and that is in support of the bridge uh requirement inspection requirement by the feds. So they gave us $2 million uh to do the inspections and then the city has a million dollar uh matching as well. And we're also working uh with uh Erica and Anukica from MD's office on you know being more proactive and you know trying to find federal funding. Um they've been a you know a really big help in you know kind of guiding us through that process and you know giving us a heads up of you know the opportunities out there. I think without them um you know we were kind of struggling uh with that but uh they've really been a big help to us. and just by activity. So that overtime is within our project and construction management and that's it. And I'll I'll we'll go into some of the capital improvement projects under FY27.

Uh if you look at that list um you know there there's a lot on there that we're looking at for the year. It's about $269 million. But I just wanted to highlight a few projects. Um, so if you refer to the executive program and budget, your big uh binder. Uh, so on page 17, there's that civic center parking structure reconstruction on here. It's it's under um page number two, but that's like the second one down. So that 11 million 11.6 6 million. That's to um complete the waterproofing project as well as uh rebuild the early age education center. So, you know, once the waterproofing is done, we'll go into the next phase and uh rebuild rebuild the school. Uh next page, it's on 73. On here, it says uh 21 though, but that's the Pearl City Fire Station uh relocation. I know there was some question about the status of that. So, you know, we our um acquisition team uh you know, we we're working with DPP. Uh so, we submitted that subdivision, you know, for the subdivision approval. Uh right now, DPP has some questions working with the church on a a permitting issue, but that should be cleared up uh pretty quickly and that subdivision can uh go through.

That's great to hear. And I think director, deputy director Tasher did email. I I have not been able to actually read it on the responder, but thank you so much for hearing that and following up.

Okay. Uh we also have the YPO ambulance unit facility. Um that money is um for the expansion of that YPO facility and we're looking at bidding out uh end of March, so in a couple weeks. Uh we also have at the bottom of the page a telecommunications facilities upgrade. That's to replace the mole tower for DIT. On the next page, we have Salt Lake Boulevard widening on page 147. Uh that 40 million is for the last phase of uh Salt Lake widening. So we're we're going to go out to bid uh by the end of this year. U below that two down is the villages of Capo infrastructure improvements. Uh we need to work with our sister agencies uh DFM, DTS uh as well as um DPP on trying to come up with a a plan going forward on you know phasing the improvements needed in villages of Capo. On the next page uh we have uh Kahi Lagoon Beach Park that's on 426 of the book up here. It's on page, it says 63. Uh that's to demolish the one remaining conversation and then reconstruction of the other two. So we'll have two new ones and that's going out to bid uh early actually next year. Uh Onola Beach Park Comfort Station, that's to build a new one and that's going out in first quarter of next year. Uh just below that couple down on up there it says 71, but that's the Sandy Beach Park uh waterline project, but that also ties into the

botanical garden. So, the first phase we're going to um it's going to go out to bid I think towards the end of this summer and there's subsequent phases to uh run that water line uh from that uh near that golf court where the batonical garden is kind of cross country down to uh the beach park and below that uh as uh director Hollifffield has mentioned uh the Blazil Center uh re-roofing Uh we're looking at going out to bid uh probably by mid December of this year and that's uh 10.75 million and that's all I have. I take any questions and I do have like I said my staff here to answer any questions as well.

Thank you Deputy Director Yan and just a um quick reminder if one of your staff does come up to answer to respond to a question if they could just state their name for the record. Thank you. We'll start off this line of questions with Chair Waters. Oh, thank you. Um, you know, I asked DFM about roads and he said that DDC also does road repavement. How do you determine what DDC does and what DFM does?

Yes. So, DFM, they have an existing uh I'll call it like a Idiq with existing contractor. So basically they're just doing the quick mill and fill type of projects. Uh they completed uh King Street and I think upcoming they're going to come back on Baritania. But as far as the projects that our civil division uh focuses on, it's it's more involved. We also work with DTS on complete streets to see if we have to incorporate any elements that uh we feel is necessary uh for other modes of tra um travel. Um, so we work with DTS as well, but we do um look at, you know, maybe a little a little uh more robust type of uh rework. Maybe we have to go down further than just the two inches, right? We'll go down into the subbase and everything and kind of redo the whole uh pavement structure.

Okay. So, in your slide deck, you have highways, streets, and roadways. So is this what we can expect for the next year whatever is on this list and nothing more. Uh we we have to go through that evaluation process. Um we you know we do work with DFM. That's kind of the el eligibility list and we do look at you know if there's any conflicts maybe with border water supply other projects that might be in an area and then we kind of pick and choose you know streets and package it up into then one one project.

Okay. And then as it relates to my district real quick, you said that phase one is the water line for the botanical garden, but a subsequent phase, perhaps phase two, you're going to actually bring a water line down to the beach park. Yes, that's correct. We're going to replace that line. Yeah. And when you say that it that goes down to the bathroom, correct? Okay. Can we extend it down to at the very end of the beach park is the spot called Chambers. We want to put a shower there. We do that. We'll work with DPR on that.

I don't know if they like the idea, but I like the idea. So, I'll work with you on getting the additional funding because another shower there I think would the community would be very very happy. And by the way, everybody goes to Sandy Beach from all over the island. It's the best body surfing spot on the island. So, it's not like we're just taking care of my district, but we're taking care of the whole island. Okay. Thank you. Appreciate you.

Thank you, Chair Waters, Council Member Cordderero. Thank you, Chair Okimoto, and yes, Deputy Director Yonam. I used to take the bus to go Sandy's after school. So, truth. Okay. So, um questions um relating to, uh you know, I get it. Client agency, you're listening to them. Even the um the funding for a lot of the funding, right, for where you go out for procurement and bidding with vendors and everything that's all uh relying on your client agencies too, right? Um, I just was wondering how can we have more of a seamless and not like all over the place planning like you know demolition and then we got to go out for bid for construction um thereafter. Why can't we have like a one cohesive plan to do it? For example, you mentioned Kihei Lagoon but also like the rock wall that still you know do not enter or like danger or caution um in a by a uh public library, right? There's like and I'm sure in many different districts where you know we do one thing and then you got to wait long time because uh you or the client agency has to go out for bid um for the next step. Yeah. Why can't we make it one cohesive plan?

Uh council member that is a really good question. Um I guess for the example of KU Lagoon um you know that conversation was uh set on fire right there was arson issues. So out of safety we you know went ahead and just did the demolition but you know in the in the budget you know we are trying to do more of the traditional of you know doing the demolition as well as then you know the the rebuild. Uh but like that wall that you know also in IA um you know that was kind of an emergency thing you know we um you know we weren't aware of of that situation and so that's why it's kind of out of out of sequence where we have to you know kind of condemn it put up some barricades or anything and then you know have to have a follow-up project that seems you know not as uh immediate. I understand. But um like for example, because Parks is a huge client agent of your is that am I using the right term for that? Client agent of agency of yours. Um maybe if it's a good practice to be like, okay, what's the greater plan for a Kia Lagoon like as a park in general? Uh because there's different requirements like if it's attached to a building or and you know there's different ways where you need different money, right? or who said this color of of money, right? Like some parts can be used for with CIP, some definitely needs to be operating. So if we at least know the scope of a at least a bigger project, it would be really good to just like plan for that. And I know that you're not the one making that decision. It's your client agency, but maybe you can help hold the fire and be like, "Hey, okay, so what's a grander what's a grander plan here? we're going to be in at this area in whether it be Moili in Hawaii Kai or wherever it is um at Sandy Beach and let's just like fix a lot more

things than just like fixing this puka over here.

Yes, that's a good point as well. Um, you know, I know Dr. Athelen had mentioned that, you know, they do have a consultant on board to kind of help them do asset management and, you know, we think that that's totally I mean, a right way to go so that like you're saying, right, we're not just being reactive, right? We have better planning and, you know, maybe do a couple of projects at that location instead of just doing one, you know, shutting it down for a year and then, you know, two years later we come back again with another project, right? So if they understand you know all their assets you know try and combine it so that you know we do multiple projects at that location and you know then it's less inconvenience to uh the the residents out there.

Yeah, totally. Thank you. Um next I do have a question about the federal requirement and also federal uh I guess funding to then maintain bridges. I I definitely know about that, but I also know that DFM also helps take care of the bridges in the same uh vein of questioning that chair waters had regarding um re uh road rehabilitation, right? And so what then determines the uh who is working on a bridge um in in that manner? Is DFM more reactive while DDC does like the the the planned uh rehabilitation for bridges? And um is it just your department that gets the 2 million and then issues the 1 million u match or does it also come from DFM? I believe that funding comes I mean it's for DDC's uh inspection um purposes but we do work closely with DFM as you know if we identify a deficiency in a bridge that you know we feel that DFM with their crew can address you know they'll go ahead and um do that repair but if it is you know something more substantial then you know we do have to do a CIP uh project yet.

Thank you. Um next I know that uh you know the procurement working group is something that you know BFS was leading and then you as a major player you and your department as a major player um in that working group was um discussing and working on things. Um, so I was just wondering, um, is it how how can your client agencies be more proactive to help save your your department time and money because I know that you got to go through the process, get in line at DPP for the permits. So, um, yeah, I mean, I just want to know if if if you're working on those processes with the different agencies or your client agencies.

Uh, yes. So through that procurement uh improvement process you know that BFS is leading uh they do have um a consultant on board to assist and you know Paula Youngling from BS BFS has been you know wonderful in you know spearheading that u but you know when we meet with our client agencies you know annually to kind of go over the the upcoming um list of projects that they're looking at I mean we really ask that they um do a good job of planning right I mean come with a clear uh scope of their project and um then you know kind of stick to that right you know we once we kind of get into you know budgeting and you know into the design part you know we it's hard when now new requests come in or you know added things right so we're kind of trying to work with them to make it clear that scopes are you know clearly defined right there's no additional items that they want, you know, down the road.

Thank you. Um, and thank you for that, uh, uh, response. I just really want to thank you and your team. Um, I want to thank, um, everyone who's worked with all the other, uh, client agencies. Allan Allen looked up when he when I when I said that. So, thank you to all of them and I like seriously huge thank you for letting um, Chief Sakamoto come to my committee all the time. answers really great great questions especially when it comes to the new subdivisions especially what's happening in uh council member Tup or council vice chair Tupola's district very enlightening with the infrastructure there and thank you so much because it uh for Salt Lake Boulevard widening project I'm not one to support widening um of lanes or or roads really but like it it was such a choke point and it waited almost 55 years to be completed and you guys are getting it done so thank you so so much Um and also for working hard with your client agencies. I know that you guys are are the doers and um you know having to uh I guess work with the different agencies and their processes and even personalities. I know that's something that uh maybe as engineers might be hard to do but but I just want to thank you for your patience and all your hard work. Thank you. Thank you Tokimoto. Thank you council member Cord Cordderero. Vice Chair Tupola.

Aloha. Thank you for being here. Um, I had a quick question about the federal grant. So, what exactly did you guys get the grant for? Is that an annual grant? Yes, it's annual. Okay. And is this the amount annually? Yes. And then are there other grants that you guys are applying for or how did we end up with this one? So that's for our bridge uh inspection program, but we do um get some other you know funding sometime federal funding through DTS once in you know for certain projects but this 2 million is for specifically for the bridge inspection and nobody else had this in their budget. So DTS didn't have this listed down because it goes to you guys

and I guess is there somebody in your department that kind of hones in on particular grants that we could qualify for? I I didn't even know you guys got a federal grant. I mean, you said it's every year. What I meant is like we're always, you know, hoping that departments are out actively looking for it. Do you guys have a grant uh writer? Um, no. I mean, you know, as I admitted, I mean, we're not very good at doing that, looking around and finding grants. So, I mean, we're relying now on uh Erica and Anukica from uh MD's office to kind of help us, you know, turn over those stones and find the hidden money, right?

Yes. Yes. revenue generation. It's the theme of the week. So, I do think that it would be great because it's something that probably you guys don't have the time to do, but I mean, if we qualify, we're we're definitely in support of that. Um, similar to Council Member Cordderero's comments, I I've always found it just very difficult to follow how you guys are working. I know you guys do a lot, right? you you're working for a lot of different agencies as clients, but trying to track things down and where it stuck and who said it stuck. DDC said it stuck. No, DFM said it stuck. No, no, no. It wasn't DFM. It was DPP that said it was stuck. I lose my mind sometimes because I have to go and tell the community these very sad stories about where we don't know things are. So, with that being said, in the realm of they're your client, right? I if they give you direction on it, is there the possibility we also add direction or basically that's it? Like if that department gives you the direction, then that's the go-ahhead.

Yeah. So, we rely on our client agencies to do um the outreach, you know, talk to, you know, the the council members of that district um if they have to do any public outreach to help scope the project. But, you know, because like you had said, right, I mean, we do have a lot of projects to work on. So, you know, once the project is initiated, you know, being the engineers, right, we just want to go, right? We don't want to really have to do a lot of other um planning parts of it.

Yeah, maybe I can work with sharewaters on that. I I feel the same way where sometimes I convey to the client agency and then when I hear what you guys are working on, I'm like, not that. We did not talk about that and it's not what the community wanted. It's what we had a town hall about, but we're going a different direction. So somehow it's not it's not all the time. I would say this is like 5% of projects. It's not even a lot. But on 5% of projects, sometimes I feel they go go ary and you guys are just basically taking direction from the department even though there might be better feedback from the community that could guide us on what to do. With that being said, the villages of Capo, it's been in various different departments presentations. Obviously, um, director Aay brought it up as well, and I know each of you guys is putting 10 million in there, and that's the amount that we will get over a span of years. And so I know at this time we haven't acquired the land yet, but I have no doubt that there's not there's a how do I say there's not huge amounts of uh repairs that need need to be done, but I am guessing that this money is going to have to go towards all of the maintenance that we've never done. We've never done the tree maintenance. We've never done the street maintenance. In fact, we've never hauled abandoned cars in that whole area for decades. So, I think if anything, I don't I see you guys put it in as like, oh, we got to get in there and go and repair, but you know, HHFDC has put in quite a bit of money to make those streets the right size to make sure the curbs are good. And they've been addressing concerns. So, I am hoping that this number can get more realistic because I know it's not going to be 10 million. And even if we do spend some million in the beginning, we're going to have to like just determine how much million kind of carries over from year to year in each department because it won't just be in one department. But thank you for listing it. I know that this is all still new and I'm hoping that we can get

it signed soon so that we can have the full acquisition. That's all I have. Thank you for all your good work. Thank you. Thank you, Vice Chair. Floor leader Kia.

Thank you. Uh thank you, Deputy Director. You know, I'm just looking your bubble report. It's a lot of projects and a lot of clients. So, I'm not going to go into a detail which I normally do for the project because there's a lot. Um, you know, so I'm always looking at ways to improve um the situation and you know, I did want to follow up and council member Tupola's um some of her concerns because it's very confusing. So, just some advice. I feel sometimes that while you guys are go go go and then the client sometimes may not realize what's going on on the ground. Um I think you need to have uh um I don't know where in the process you're going to have uh better on the ground intelligence. you could contact a council member, but I feel like we've gone down the track um and and um have lost money because of poor planning. And the Cinnamon's parking lot in Kyua is a perfect example. I'm not going to say anything because we put out the press release. I took it uh upon myself to notify not just the businesses but all residents affected by that area. Right. And if anybody had asked me, I would have said it's bad because we have an affordable housing project that is due to be completed um in June and uh and the situation is chaotic and it's not about people going to the restaurants um and the businesses. We have a medical building there and we have medical buildings along and people have no parking. So, all I'm just saying is there seems to be a part uh a problem with the planning. Uh, I also think, you know, I I appreciate your and the director's time, but perhaps there needs to be a single

staffer who's able to have a better grapple on all of our projects in our district so we could work with them and not just rely on your public information officer because I do know that you've had challenges, but it's our job to have, I feel like, oversight because you guys are all busy as well as the client. So, that's all I would say. And um my last uh comment with regard to the federal funding, I'm glad you're working with the MD's team. I want to make clear that securing federal funding is not through just uh discretionary grants or competing for it or the earmark process. It's also about knowing what authorizing bills are going through Congress so that you could be eligible for it. FEMA act, for example, I'm working with HFD, uh the EMS because the shifting from uh reimburseable to outright um um just formula grants, phenomenal if it were to get passed. Okay. Having uh so we uh the city council passed money for a DC lobbyist as well. So I just in asking when you guys are working with them the overall strategy of the city administration should be working with you guys giving you a guys guidance knowing what kind of bills are out there if you have you know all of us are members of the national association of counties they they watch you can even go to nl.org to find out what the priorities that could impact you. So, in fighting for funding, it should also be looking at authorizing bills at the federal level that could increase the the flow of funding coming down for you. So, that's all I wanted to say. Thank you guys for all your good work. You guys have a I I we say it for everybody about a difficult job, but it's all relevant to your kana, but this bubble page of mine, it's uh two and a quarter pages for all of the projects. That's a lot of work. And uh so we do appreciate

what you guys do. I feel that our job is to help you make the the the process smoother. Thank you, council member. Thank you. Thank you, Fia. Council member Dos Santos Tam. Thank you, Council Member Tolba. Vice Chair Nishimoto. No questions. Okay. Chair Waters. Thank

um you know I'm looking at ENV's CIP requests in in these booklets and there's a lot of money in here. Refuge facility improvements at various locations. Solid waste to energy facility H power conversion technologies. Solid waste to energy facility H power expansion. Solid waste to energy facilities, exterior improvements to the third boiler, solid waste to energy facilities, H power improvements again, but I don't see any of this stuff in your slide deck. Does that mean that ENV does this on their own and DDC does not work on these projects?

You are correct, chair. uh DDC does not get involved with ENV's uh CIP projects. Why why is that? I mean you get involved in just about every other department

just because I mean as you mentioned right how how large their program is the the big dollars you know before we DDC did have uh the engineers um in DDC but there was a reorg and ENV took all the engineers from DDC the wastewater engineers went over to ENV so that they could you know totally manage their own program you know because of the consent decree as well making sure that you know everything was progressing on schedule and so they they have total control. So that's wastewater but what about solid waste? They they do their own solid waste correct cip as well.

I mean why g landfill expansion is in here? You you don't help them at all? Not at all. Wow. Did you know that Walo Gulch landfill expansion is in here? I mean, there's a lot. There's a lot. Okay, real quick. Wiki Surf uh surf boy racks. You said on Tuesday you're going to tell us an update. Correct. So, uh middle of I think I said July, we're going to go out to bed and then we can we can share the um once we finalize the design, we'll come by and show you what uh we're proposing.

Yeah, please do. Okay. Thank you. Thank you, chair. Thank you, Chair Waters. I just want to follow up. I think I heard a theme throughout some of the questions, which is something that I can relate to and I've shared with you this over the past few years, and that is, you know, with you guys working with your client agencies, the other departments, and I've asked this to you in our meetings in my office in the past, but what are some more efficient ways that we can um maintain keep track of the processes that go through the the projects? you did mention one thing I heard is having the departments or your client agencies define the scope of the projects clearly before they come to you and again because time is money um I'm trying to figure out if there's suggestions that you have I know that one thing I did hear that I can concur with in my colleagues is not just with your department but with other departments we've shared this and when there's something specific within our respective districts to communicate with because many times the projects um what you guys might see it as something that's really profound or pos positive is not really what our communities are feeling and I know that you guys again are the you go in in the end and you guys are the engineers and you get things done but I've been trying to find ways to make that process more efficient my police fire station I'm sorry my my Pearl City fire station is one example where four years ago I didn't think that I would be sitting here and still be wondering what are we doing again with this project and to be bouncing between departments. So, how can we help you guys in your department so that we can get to the finish line sooner?

Yes, I I will definitely get together with Director Milis when he gets back. But, you know, from what I'm hearing, uh, the feedback, maybe we definitely have to do a better job of, you know, getting face to face uh, with all the council members and going over the projects instead of, you know, having or us relying on the client agency to inform you. I mean, we'll you'll hear hear it directly from us. Yeah.

Okay. That's great to hear. We know that you are also very busy. uh floor leader K and I p pulled up the bubble sheet if and if there's areas where we can help again there's a lot of back and forth between the departments so if there's ways that you guys see that we could support advocate for so that the departments are not just jumping back and forth because I know again we understand that your job is to to have the things built so I appreciate you being willing to meet with us um and if there's suggestions on how we can advocate for other ways to be efficient in our with our CP projects we gladly hear them.

Yeah, we do have um you know bi-weekly u meetings with you know our divisions but you know I mean Haku and I we we get confused sometimes and you know what's the latest and you know things are moving so fast too. So I mean we're constantly you know getting updates and new updates new dates on when we're going to bid you know delays on the project and you know there's a whole bunch of things going on. So, you know, to rely I think yeah, like you're mentioning you with the client agency to provide those updates. I mean, their information is probably old too, right? So, I mean, I think if we had, you know, more frequent u meetings in person and then we can kind of make sure that uh you're updated so that you could inform uh your constituents.

That would be wonderful. And we'll just put a plug in again for the other departments. We we work with circumments more than others, but just to communicate with us as well. I I will say that the the people from the the employees from the parks department that work with my district and you have worked with them as well, they've been really good about communicating with us and so and and getting our our input um because it's something specific in the district. That's really helpful. So, I'm just going to put put a plug out there to the other departments and the client agencies that work with us because we want to get it right and and help you guys along the way as well. Thank you. Any second round questions, members? No second round questions. Okay. I did want to thank you and your department. We know that director Milis would be here. Want to congratulate him and Ash and the two new additions to the family. We we hope that everyone's well and that he's enjoying this time. I I will say he did plan it at the right time. I think maybe Ash knew or he just didn't want to be here in front of us. But either way, we're happy for the family. Okay. Thank you so much to you and your team.

Thank you. Thank you very much. Okay. Members, I did mention that after the department of um design and construction, we'll be taking a quick break. I know Chair Waters has a has an announcement and then I will then state our time for our lunch break. Yeah. Thank you so much. Our friends from Chigasaki, Japan are in town. I hope they're able to brave the storm and make it, but they're going to be in my office at 12:30. If anybody would like to say hello, I believe Mayor Sato is going to be there as well as the chair of the Chikasaki Council, uh, Kishi and the newly elected vice chair of the council as well as some other dignitaries. Um, if anybody like to come down, everybody's welcome to say hello.

Thank you so much, chair. Okay, so no, keeping that in mind, we have been taking 45 minute lunch breaks, but maybe we'll do this one as to for an hour. So, we will reconvene at 1:15. Are you guys at 1:20? 1:15 is okay. 1:15 p.m. Is that okay? Okay. Thank you. There being no further business at this time, we will recess for lunch.