16 Water Resources Committee - Regular Meeting

And of the of the Board over Mr. I call past. The we progress pleased we made we're sure in to And to

testifiers make here at the Lanai District Office. Going I'm alone on my side of the office, I'm here and ready to work. Happy Monday, everybody.

Hello for joining us. Also joining us in the chambers, we have member Tom Cook. Aloha. Good morning.

Aloha. Good morning, Chair. No testifiers in the KA office. And looking forward to the meeting. Thank you.

Mahalo for being here. Also joining us online is Council Chair Alice Lee. Aloha, Kakayaka.

Aloha, chair, and everyone. Thank I'm home alone in my, office. Nobody is here but me. I wanna thank you for scheduling this matter so expeditiously. Appreciate it. Thank you.

Yes. Mahalo, Chair, bringing it to our attention. Also joining us this morning is Member Tamara Polkin. Member Rollins Fernandez is excused for this meeting. Also joining us today is Member Yukilei Sugimura. Aloha.

Okay. I just got translation from Member Paltz about that. Makahiki.

Is that right? No, Makahiki.

I said that. Yes, we want more rain, so keep on going. Good morning, everybody. Nice seeing so many of you here and looking forward to learning more about what you're going to be presenting.

Yes. Makahiki season, our winter season brings more rain to our island.

Yes, good.

We need it. And then also joining us in the chambers is Councilmember Noheil Lanigouhajans.

Aloha. Aloha,

from the Department of Parks and Recreation, we're expecting Director Pat McCall, should he show up after his morning meetings. But joining us this morning, we have Mr. Duke Sevilla, aloha and good morning. From the Department of Fire and Public Safety, we have Ocean Safety Bureau Chief, Zach Ed Lau, aloha. Good morning. As well as Ocean Safety Operations Manager, John Kanishina. Hello, John. Mahalo for being here. For the Department of Corporation Counsel, we have Mr. Caleb Rowe.

Good morning, Chair. Good morning. Our committee staff helping us to conduct this morning's meeting is Ms. Crecelda Paranada, Ms. Clarissa McDonald, Ms. Tiare Del Castillo, Ms. Megan Moniz, Ms. Lei Denin and Ms. Jean Pokipala. Mahalo everyone.

Members, on today's agenda, we have one item. Maui County Water Safety and Drowning Prevention, Wassup one parent 14. Members without objection, I'll be designating the following as resources under rule 18A of the rules of the council because of their expertise on water safety and the challenges we face in Maui County. Online, we have Mr. Garrett Hall with the State Trauma Program Manager and Acting State EMS Chief.

Also joining us today in the chambers is Ms. Kirsten Hernstadt. Mahalo for coming this morning. And she's the Executive Director for the Hawaiian Lifeguard Association. Also joining us in the chambers, have team.

Team. We we have a a in of the very pleased And signed up to testify? Okay. I'll go ahead and read the, in accordance with the Sunshine Law, testimony can occur at the beginning of the meeting but cannot be limited to the start of the meeting. The chair will receive oral testimony for agenda items at the beginning of the meeting.

And as the item is called up on the agenda, testifiers wanting to provide video or audio testimony should sign up in the chamber, join the online meeting via the Teams link or call in to the phone number noted on today's agenda. For individuals wishing to testify via Teams, please raise your hand by clicking on the raise your hand button. And for those calling in, please follow the prompts phone, star five to raise and lower your hand and star six to mute and unmute. Staff will add names to the testifier list in the order testifiers sign up or raise their hands. And for those on team, staff will lower your hand once your name is added.

Staff will then enable your microphone and video and call the name you're logged on in or the last four digits of your phone number when it's your time to testify. Written testify is always encouraged and can be submitted via the e comment link on mauicounty.us/agendas. Oral testimony is limited to three minutes per item and will be accepted at the beginning of the meeting and prior to the committee's deliberation on each item of the agenda. If you're still testifying beyond that time, I'll kindly ask you to complete your testimony. Please ensure your name appears in Microsoft Teams as the name you prefer to be referred to or anonymous if you wish to testify anonymously.

If you're in person, please notify staff that you would like to testify anonymously. Otherwise, please state your name for the record at the beginning of your testimony. Once you're done testifying or if you do not wish to testify, you can view the meeting on Akako Channel fifty three, Facebook Live or mauicounty.us agendas. Again, mahalo for your cooperation in advance. And we'll now proceed with oral testimony. Staff?

Chair, the first testifier signed up is Mike Moran, to be followed by the Royal House of Hawaii.

Aloha Mr. Moran.

Aloha, chair, and committee members. Mike Moran, a big mahalo to to you for scheduling this, meeting on this topic, which is literally life or death for our residents and our visitors. And, mahalo to to, Charlie for for instigating the idea to get this going. I'm gonna try and approach this from even though it's all, you know, we we're concerned about everybody's welfare in life. But looking at it from the two different perspective, for the visitors, I would offer that for several years, I used to swim at, Wailea Beach, and I I would go very early in the morning, before the the visitors were coming out, before all the Chase lounges were on the beach.

And you you pretty much had the, the shoreline to yourself. And, of course, that time of day, vast majority of time, everything was pretty calm. So it was easy. And I I'm practical. I swim very, very close to the shore knowing that there is no ocean safety officers there.

But, obviously, most of the visitors do not. And when the the when the comment is made, well, the visitors should be going where there's where the ocean safety officers are. When you look at it from their perspective, they're paying a very high rate to stay at the two major resorts that are right there at Wailea Beach and to to for them to be expected to not go out to that beach and enjoy it, but to to drive several miles up to one of our Kamaoli Beaches that has lifeguards is simply impractical. So it's we have to do provide some kind of safety here. And when I used to go early like that, I I could talk to the workers at the hotels, and and I trusted what they told me.

They said, yeah. They had employees who were certified, to be, to to serve as a, ocean safety officer. They weren't that wasn't their job, but they were on there. And if somebody called and said, hey. Emergency. These guys could be right out there quickly. But, of course, that's not the same as having a safety officer looking all the time. And for the most part, if the visitors just went out directly out, it was pre they were pretty visible. But quite often, they wouldn't. They would go out to where it was deeper and then head south around the point.

Now they're not visible, and the conditions can change, and they're not only going out early in the morning. So we have to address something about that for the visitors, and I'm just addressing South Valley. I know this is an island wide. And and I'll try and quickly get to the to our residents. Honestly, I was astounded when I saw how many of of our residents here drowned. How how many of Waikiki don't have a whim? It it seems incomprehensible. But that's the stereotype. Oh, you live on an island, so I'm by the ocean. Sure.

Everybody grows up here knows how to swim. And then when you hear that's not the case, and I try to get impressions why. And one of the sad things I said, well, isn't it taught in the schools? And the feedback I got, well, most of the schools don't have pools, so they have no way to to to teach swimming at the school. And I say, oh, we have we have community pools. Yeah. But that's counties. You need to schools to stay and then the pool of your counties. So it doesn't make that bridge. I don't know how much of that is valid. I'm sure you'll let us know that this morning. So thank you very much for the opportunity to address this issue.

I'll hold, mister Moran, for your, testimony this morning. Members, any questions for mister Moran? Seeing none, thank you for joining us.

We are.

The next testifier is the Royal House of Hawaii to be followed by Johan Long.

Aloha and good morning.

Aloha. I'm speaking before you guys all today as a memorial land tenant and descendant on the Hava Hava. And, so this is for, water safety and stuff like that. Concerns, the greatest concerns are, the visitors and all of that. If you're a visitor, you shouldn't be going to any places that bring you harm or danger because you don't belong like, if you don't have anything to, like, any responsibility going there, no go.

Okay? Because if my grandma shark wants to have a snack, she'll go ahead. And if my if grandma Liz wants to just swipe you down, girl, she'll swipe you down. But, yeah, don't be going to places where you guys don't be long, number one. Then number two, the greatest concern is, how are hotels is able for put umbrellas on top of the beach, and they're still charging people.

But I can do that. I can go to the beach. Go go charge people. Go pull an umbrella up. I go I can go shit.

Might as well. Then, will there be, descendants called to all the park, the descendants of that area from the royal to educate the people how to act and be and, take care of the place when they leave and when they get there because blah blah. I don't know. And, yeah, reminder again, please don't go where you guys don't belong because, yeah, there's no connection. You know?

And then, like, yeah. You you know you know what I'm talking about, girl. Okay. But okay. Thank you, Julio.

Mahalo, royal house, for your testimony. Members, any questions for the testifier? Seeing none, Mahalo again. What's that?

The next and final testifier is Johan Laul.

Aloha, Mr. Laul.

Aloha. Johan Laul. I'm testifying on my own behalf. So first, I wanna second everything that Mike Moran said. He's 100% right.

I so when I first started living in South Maui and going to Wailea Beach and Oluwa Beach, it surprised me that there were not any lifeguards at those beaches. So I started asking people who knew about that kind of stuff why that would be. And I was told that it's because there's no county land to have a lifeguard station and all that kind of stuff. I think there's an opportunity in South And West Maui and probably all over the island to create partnerships between those resorts and a county to put lifeguards in those places. I'm sure they would all if they look at all the pros and cons, they would probably like to have their visitors be safe and also not to have to worry about the liability of having their own staff do that.

That's a thing. Thing. Taxes or fees or whatever to improve ocean that's safety. Because these stories about people drowning, a lot of them make the national news. And that I don't know how much impact it has on tourism, but it has to have some impact.

And just generally, you want as few people as possible to die. So I would I would support anything that would improve ocean safety as well as safety in general. I'm assuming you guys are gonna get a presentation. So and I see there's folks from the state. So I would ask them if they see any patterns spatially, like geographically, and between the islands, like if there's a difference between Oahu and Maui and Kauai and the big Island as far as the numbers of deaths and how much of a pattern they see with where there's lifeguard stations versus not.

And another thing I want to point out is that visitors love lifeguards. Like, if you go to Waikiki, you'll see, like, influencers in front of those lifeguard stations taking pictures. So that's another thing. Like, there's always reasons to increase the amount of staff. It also creates jobs for local people. So that's my my general thing is improve ocean safety by increasing the number of lifeguards. Mahalo.

Mahalo, mister Lal, for your testimony. Members, any questions for mister Law? Seeing none. Did you have? No? Okay. Thank you for your testimony. Staff?

Sure. The next testifier is Kai Nishiki.

Aloha, Ms. Nishiki.

Aloha, and good morning. I was actually hoping to testify, after the presentation because I think probably some of the things I would comment on in my testimony might be covered, but I didn't see a full slide set for the presentation, so I'm just not exactly sure everything that would be covered. But of course, like to advocate for ocean safety to get higher wages. This is actually for all of our first responders as well because of responsibility and also that it does support our local folks, our local workforce. And so we definitely want to encourage, like my son, I was encouraging him to be an ocean safety officer.

But when you try and compare it to what you can earn in, know, being a waiter or in the visitor industry is just not comparable. Think that if we want to encourage our young folks to work for the county and serve our community, then we need to have it be a living wage. But I know you guys don't handle setting their salaries, and I know you guys support that. But I think that that's important. Then for Ka'anapali, we have been advocating for ocean safety officers to be stationed there and to have lifeguard towers.

I know it's just been a constant discussion item, so I'm really hoping in this meeting you guys can nail down when that's going to be implemented, and hopefully that the state and the visitor industry will be taking, responsibility for funding that.

Mahalo. Mahalo, Ms. Nishiki. Members, any questions for Ms. Nishiki? We have one for you from Member Bolton.

Oh, thank you, Chair. I just was wondering if Ms. Nishiki was aware the county did fund it for the past couple of years for Puuki Kaha.

Yeah. I had heard that, but I was just hoping that the and then I had heard that the state was supposed to be reimbursing. And so just it would be great to have a concise update on that. Mahalo. Thank you.

Okay. Mahalo. Seeing no other questions, staff?

Chair, there is currently no one else who has left to testify. If somebody would like to testify in the chamber, please let staff know. Or on Microsoft Teams, please raise your hand. This is the final call. Three, two, one. Chair, it appears that no one else wishes to testify.

Mahalo, members. I will now proceed with our first and the only agenda item. Wausaupt one parent 14, Maui County Water Safety and Drowning Prevention. Members, with the holiday seasons approaching and an expected increase in visitors, wanted to hear from those on the front lines about the current efforts and challenges in drowning prevention and promoting water safety. This includes looking at areas such as staffing, signage and community outreach.

We're fortunate to have representatives from the Department of Parks and Recreation, Department of Fire and Public Safety, as well as the State Department of Health, the Maui Hotel and state art art current visitor facing safety education efforts, including visitor and media engagement for media familiarization trips and individual visits. The bureau requires participants to sign a waiver and provide them with a sensitive destinations map. Safety messaging in itineraries, all media itineraries include language regarding ocean and water safety awareness. On island visitor outreach, the bureau distributes safety brochures to visitors who stop by the office and to those who call for information. As well as other collaborative efforts, the bureau continues to share the ocean safety video created in partnership with the Department of Fire and Public Safety and Hawaii visitors and convention bureau to raise awareness among visitors.

Again, our are going that. That. To fact going going do to the winter season. Members also uploaded on Granicus number one is the recent Maui News article on today's subject matter. And with that, I'll turn the floor over to our resources for opening comments.

Beginning with State Trauma Program Manager and Acting State EMS Chief, Garrett Hall, as they have prepared a presentation. Mr. Hall, thank you for joining us this morning.

Aloha, and thank you all for having, the State Department of Health. I will be presenting, this data. Please please note that doctor Dan Galanis, our epidemiologist, who normally is the expert on this area to present, has been out ill for quite some time. So I will do my best effort. And in full transparency, I've been here in the state for about ten months.

So if I, make any mistakes or say out any names incorrectly, or I may just show you a map and ask you all to interpret that map, you'll be able to see the names. I don't wanna butcher or disrespect, any of these locations as I go through the data. With that, I'm going to share my screen, and then this presentation will be shared and made available for folks post my presentation, and I'll share with the staff. One moment as I so again, as mentioned, my name is Garrett Hall. I'm the acting EMS branch chief and the state trauma program manager for the state of Hawaii.

I've been here for ten months within the Department of Health, and I'm excited to be here with you all because there's always opportunity for improvement when it comes to drowning and water safety, especially here in Hawaii. And let me just get past my technical glitch here, and I think you all should now be able to see my slides. Yes. And hopefully you all wonderful. With that, let's jump right in.

Department of Health, and again, as I mentioned, Doctor. Dan Galanes, our epidemiologists, and also our prior drowning safety coordinator, Jesse Honor, put together these data to share, and I believe they're very similar to what you all seen in the news article from the public data request that we received here at the Department of Health. So just start off and jump right into the data, and this should be, probably no surprise to everyone, but and why we're here. Drowning is a significant cause of fatality for the state of Hawaii. And this is preliminary data through the CDC that is publicly available for ranking all of the states.

And you'll see here behind Alaska, Hawaii's number two in the nation for drowning fatalities. It is a huge area of concern for us when it comes to injury prevention and traumatic injuries across the state. So, a little more detail, the leading causes of fatality injuries in Hawaii by resident and victim type from 2020 to 2024. You can see here we have at the top our nonresident visitors versus the Hawaii visitors. So injury deaths are only identified through underlying causes of deaths and not contributing causes are not considered.

So drowning were the second leading cause of any type of death behind heart disease and accounting for fourteen percent of the two fourteen percent, two hundred of the fourteen forty two total deaths. So was the leading cause for nonresidents 60, with that being one hundred drownings or twenty one percent total versus ninety six from heart disease. So just to put that in perspective, because we don't hear we hear quite a bit about heart disease and all these other disease states, but very little about the disease of trauma and drowning in particular. So you'll see there at the top, forty nine percent for residents. It is the twenty second leading cause of mortality.

And then drug overdoses, if you see that on here, includes only unintentional drug overdose. So we see that just for the data. But five percent of Hawaii residents, they're in the ranking of where it falls from fatality injuries across our state. When we dive into this data a little more deeper and we look at drownings in Hawaii by environment, so these would be those versus total drownings versus swimming pools. So the total drownings is our bright yellow box, and then you see our swimming pool drownings in the red line and our ocean and water, saltwater drownings in the blue line here.

So, this includes twenty six deaths or six percent for drowning that we need additional information on. So just so that you're you're aware of that. But when we go through this, thirty four percent, sixteen of the forty eight total of the victims of swimming pool drowning, so when we're looking at the swimming pool drownings, the red line across the bottom, were under the age of six. So this included, twelve victims who were one to three years. Less than two percent, five of the victims of ocean drowning were under the age of six years.

Most, seventy two percent or thirty four of the forty seven victims, were residents. All twelve of the victims were under the age of six years. So when you're looking at this, there is an issue that needs to be addressed from the child drowning and child safety standpoint too. Nineteen, forty percent of the pool drownings were at single family homes and fifteen in apartment or condo settings and nine at hotels. So keeping that in mind, there are some safety measures.

I know that the ocean and water safety and the coalition plans have gone out and best recommendations for keeping pools at homes or apartments safe by having appropriate fencing. It clearly has proven to decrease these types of events in other states across the nation but has an opportunity here for us because we do not require the same national standard of fencing for child children around private pools. You can move on. When you see that fifty percent of our drownings are ocean related among nonresidents, and thirty four percent or sixteen of the victims under the age of six years old. Of thirty four percent of those two were 16, were 70 years or older.

So, we have a broad spectrum of individuals that are drowning across the state, but with the majority of those falling into that realm of non residents. I'm going to move on to the next. So, let's dive in a little deeper into specific child drowning and some data that we have in regards to child drowning. So, this includes residents and non residents when we're looking at the child drownings. And twenty two of the drownings were among children residents.

Drowning also is the leading cause among non residents in a total of 189 deaths. The autopsy records for nine of the twelve young children who drowned were in pools, and most, seventeen or sixty five percent of the twenty six deaths were on Oahu when we look into that. Seven of the pool drownings were single homes. Most, nine of or 60 of the fifteen deaths, again, I mentioned, were on Oahu, so not falling into that realm for Maui. When we go down a little further and we get into ocean drownings, let's drive into this, and then we'll have a map here coming up too that really highlights Maui County and goes into detail of where ocean drownings take place by location too.

At a high level, there were a total of sixty 67 in 2023. There was a total of 67 at the high point, and at the low point, the lowest point since 2010, there were fifty four. When we're looking at these, we did see a decrease between 2023 and 2024 for drowning too. So you can see across here, have our total, ocean Patel drowned needs by victim, resident status. We have the total, eight hundred between this time frame from 2015 to 2024 broken out by year.

Our nonresidents is in the red, and then our Hawaii residents in the blue. And when we dive deeper into this and have another look at just the five year ocean fatality rates in Hawaii by resident, and we have that victim on the left, so residents versus a county on the right. You can see here we have international, we have our U. S. Mainland, our visitors total, and then Hawaii residents for fatalities.

Clearly, we have an opportunity for educating our guests here in the islands when they come to visit about water safety. Then when we look down across county, and probably one of the reasons why you asked us to come, is we look at Maui County with the 45%, 45.1, therefore, rate. The rate for neighbor islands, 34.5 is more than double that of the Oahu rate. So when we wanna look at this and drill down into a little more detail, what are some of the obvious things that are different between the different counties. Could be things such as visitor population.

It could be the amount of visitors coming. We know for Hawaii, it was the island of Hawaii, 13%. Oahu, a visitor rate was about 8%. But then for both Kauai and Maui, it exceeds or is around that 23%. So there are some considerations that should be taken into fact when you're reviewing these data.

Doctor. As we go a little further into the data, we then break it down by ocean drownings in Hawaii by activity type and what actual activities were, taking place. And when you look in here and you see unintentional emergence are more common for resident victims than nonresidents. We have sixteen percent versus four percent as well as free diving sixteen percent versus one percent. Nonresidents more likely to have been snorkeling at forty eight percent compared to resident victims at six percent.

So, big call out with the snorkeling related incidents for non residents. Now let's look at this from a little different view, and this is where I'm just gonna ask for in advance, as I mentioned earlier, any apologies. So I'm gonna populate slowly some of the areas of concern across our state that have high numbers of drownings. And we'll focus in in the upper right hand corner for Maui County and those areas that populate too. So you'll see these populate when I have the Napili area two at seventeen.

You see Boo area first at twenty two. And then if we keep on going and pulling up, and I do not wanna even pretend to pronunciate some of these names, so I apologize. All I'm probably butchering them already. But you can see the high areas that we have highlighted of occurrences across Maui over the time frame from 2015 to 2024. We'll provide this information available to you if you'd like to drill down.

It does have specific dots for residents versus non residents. You can see those occurrences. I'm just gonna speed through the rest of the other counties so you guys can see that relevance compared to your specific county. But again, you will have this available for you, we'll drive into some more details specific to Maui in more depth here in a moment. So, as I mentioned, again, the leading causes of death among non residents, and we have heart disease as that number one, and then drowning right behind us.

That's I don't know if that's alarming to many people, but I know for me when I first started to look at it, it was. Note not showing there are some homicides, fires, and bicyclists not listed here. But drowning is the leading cause for nonresidents less than 60 years of age across our state. So, let's jump into some county specific data and trends, and then just put this in here as a reference on ocean drownings for Oahu from 2014 to 2023, just as a baseline point. But what we'll do is we'll jump directly into the actual island of Maui and look at the total ocean drownings from 2014 to 2023 and highlight those specific areas.

So, I'll pause for a moment so folks can read through each one of these, but you'll see we list out the total number of drowning victims, and then we also identify how many of those were nonresident. And so, just keep populating. This is pretty powerful data when you start to look at the specific areas and regions of the island where these drownings are taking place and the occurrence of nonresident drownings. I'm going go back and pause there for a moment just so people can look at that process, the information that's up there. There's a lot of information there, but it highlights really the details of what we see when we're evaluating and drilling down into the data of where drownings occur across the island of Maui.

And this will be my last slide and conclude my presentation, so I'll be open to any additional questions folks may have. I'll just leave this up here on the screen because this is really the heart, I believe, of the data of what we were wanting to believe that we should share with you all. At that time, I will conclude. I believe there's much better experts that are here with us joining that can speak about what are some of the injury prevention initiatives and efforts going on. You all are probably also aware that the state has published and does have, finally, due to multiple people before I've even gotten here, a water safety plan that's recognized nationally as one of the best.

It's just been rolled out last year, and we hope to continue to implement that too. We will be able to share that. I'm sure other folks will speak about that coming up too.

Okay. Great. Model, Mr. Hall, for your presentation. Members, if you can hold write down your questions to the end of all of our presenters today and then we will go to Q and A afterwards. I did have a request next to have Director McCall. I know he has to leave for another meeting. If you want to go ahead and address council committee.

Thank you, Chair. Just the fact that the Parks Department is in support of the Ocean Safety, Division of the Fire Department whenever we can be. Of course, we're responsible for the safety of our swimmers in our public pools. And I heard someone mention earlier the request for raises in salaries. I know it's not the council that does this.

But the pool lifeguards are amongst the most difficult position to recruit for. Our pool managers, Mr. Savilla here, does an incredible job in getting them in. But it is a constant state of turnover due to in mostly to the salary issue. But, we are also proud to say that we have a pretty strong record of pool safety.

Mahalo, Director. Okay, members, next and Mahalo for joining us this morning. Our next presenter, will be Executive Director, Kirsten Hernstadt. Again, ma'am, hello for flying in from Kauai to join us this morning. Go ahead.

Is it on? Oh, it is. Good. Good morning, everybody. Thank you for having me.

I'm here primarily as a resource for your future work on this topic. The Hawaiian Lifeguard Association is a statewide nonprofit. We were founded in 1991, and it was at a time when funding county funding for lifeguard programs and junior lifeguard programs was being reduced greatly. And so Ralph Go to at the time, who was the chief on Oahu, founded HLA in order to raise funds to fill those gaps, and we've gone on to continue to do that ever since. Our board of directors is made up of the chiefs, of all four counties, so we have representation of all four county water safety, departments, and a few other.

Jonathan is on it as well. So it's all the chiefs and then usually one additional lifeguard from each county and a few, community members with specialized, experience to support us. Our primary mission is to provide water safety education and drowning prevention training to lifeguards, community, and the military. So we do a lot of work producing training standards and things like that and providing free community water safety education. We focus on training the visitor industry folks, so the people who are forward facing who might be giving advice to visitors on where to go.

We like to train them, as well as community schools, and then we do get into the professional training for lifeguards and and the military. Part of the Hawaiian Lifeguard Association, one of our programs, is the Hawaii Water Safety Coalition, which was founded about three and a half years ago. And one of the major pieces of work that the coalition has done in those three years is to produce what you guys have a copy of here, which is the Hawaii Water Safety Action Plan. Hopefully, we'll get all of you a real copy of it soon. I only had four with me on Kauai, so they don't live they live on Oahu, so I only had four to bring with me today.

The plan is a response to the National Drowning Prevention Alliance. They challenged every state in the nation to create their own water safety action plan. California

was

the first to do it. Hawaii was number two. So we're very proud of this. It was published in January, and we hope that the state will recognize this as, you know, an important piece of information and and and, what's the word I'm looking for? The guide for what we need to do in the state in order to improve some of the data that, Garrett has just presented to you.

I think everybody who sees that data that Garrett just presented is shocked. You guys are a little bit more aware of it because you've been in the news. Kauai was in that position for the last few years that you guys are in now with the number one. So you're I think you're probably aware of it. But when you think about the fact that drowning is the number one cause of death for our keiki in this state, it just shouldn't be that way.

It's shocking. I mean, I'm this is my job, I talk about it all the time, and I tear up every thing every single time I say it. Number one cause of death for our visitors as well, it's just not okay. And the piece that Garrett didn't mention and is in your in your plan here is that native Hawaiians and Pacific Islanders die from drowning at a higher rate than any other ethnicity. Again, it just shouldn't be that way. We are a community of Watermen, right? And so it really shouldn't be that way. So this is a guide. The book is great. It has a lot of the data that Garrett presented to you.

It does have the island maps in it that show the hotspots. It also highlights programs that are working within the state to solve this problem. Nonprofit organizations who are teaching water safety basics in their communities as as case studies for what can be done in other communities that are working and doing really amazing work in our state. The other thing that's in here is our recommendations for what needs to happen going forward in order to solve this problem. And the recommendation list is long.

It really is long. The coalition met after the book was published in May in honor of Water Safety Day and month. And we prioritized this list into kind of four categories, and one of the major ones is legislation, of course. So I'm happy to answer more questions about that going forward. The topic of teaching swimming in schools is a big one.

We tried to tackle it last year with Department of Education, and that might be a conversation for a different meeting. I don't know. But it is obviously a goal and should happen, but I think that it's a very heavy lift to make happen quickly. And so there's lots of other things that can be happening in the meantime. I personally believe that the solution for swimming in schools is probably a state private sector nonprofit kind of partnership where there's some legislation that says that it needs to be done and that the state then then partners with organizations who are already set up to provide that curriculum to the kids.

I think that's probably the easiest and fastest way to make it happen. But, again, that's probably for another time. I think what's important as you go forward to think about is that solving this problem isn't just about teaching people to swim. It's about teaching them about risk assessment. Should they go in the water to begin with?

Being able to identify when it's safe and when it's not. The second piece to that is teaching people how to self save. So if they fall in, what should they do? If they're suddenly in a rip current, what should they do? Even if you can swim, you can get in a rip and drown. Right? So you need to teach people how to self save. Right? Teach them how to float. Teach them how to call for help.

Teach them how to tread water. So those things can be happening long before you actually are trying to teach a young person how to swim in school. And they need and those are the kind of things that the Lifeguard Association is doing. We're teaching those kind of skills to community members regularly. So we're here as a resource for you.

I would love for all of you to have this and refer to it going forward. I would also love for all of you to go to our website and put your name in, email in for the Hawaii Water Safety Coalition so that you're hearing what we're up to as we go along. We it's me who does the emailing, and so I'm not gonna send you a 100 emails a week or a month or whatever. I promise. But you will get important information about what's going on in the world of drowning prevention. So and I'm here as whatever you need resource for questions going forward.

Mahalo, Ms. Hermstadt for that opening remarks. Next members will go to Executive Director, John Pele. I'm not sure if Ms.

Of of of

Executive Director for Maui the

the Hotel and Lodging Association. And a year ago when I started this position, one of the things that did come up was ocean safety and the grounding, not only of our community members but obviously of our visitor numbers that you've seen in some of these presentations today. And as we talked about it, this is nothing new. I know this is nothing new for you guys. So as we talked about it from the hotel side and we have approached the administration, the county administration about this too in just initial talks is how do we get better as an industry.

I'm passing on the message, right? Because not only is it affecting these tragic events that happened earlier this year, particularly in South Maui, it not only affects the families of the victims, but it affects we had some of the employees actually acting as lifeguards, right? And they take it as their responsibility. That's how involved they are in the process. But it's an emotional toll for them, right? It's trauma on them. And we've got to kind of recognize that. And as an industry, we've got to recognize that. So our theory is how do we get better as an association? I don't represent all the hotels.

I don't represent short term rentals that are not part of our association. But I will say as a whole, we want to see how we can progress. We will be reaching out to Ocean Safety as an association to see what we can do better. But one thing they did Ben Shank, who was the manager general manager of the Four Seasons, was extremely passionate about this because his staff did a lot of the rescues. I have a listing of what they've done.

He's since relocated, but the commitment is still there. And from Wailea Community Association, the concept that we're talking about is how can we enter in perhaps a public private partnership because we understand there's budgetary concerns. We understand there's workforce concerns when it comes to these jobs and these positions. I think a good example I had an email yesterday, Kaanapali Operators Association. I think they're donating the lifeguard stands. They're gonna pay for it. They're gonna build them. They're going through their SMA permit, I believe, right now. And the county will staff those man those stations. Well, I'm not sure I got that's what I was told.

But there is an opportunity and there is conversations on our side as how we can enter into these kind of relationships if it eases some of the burden on the county to provide this kind of service for the community at whole and for our visitors.

So thank you. Mahalo, director Pele, did, deputy Cooper want to add some opening comments? She online.

Thank you. I am online. Thank you so much. I think John has said it well, and I will just reiterate that there's a confusion that often hits the industry. I'm a little concerned that if we do not staff or we do not put in more effort, that the industry will take more of the toll, and that can affect a lot of the economic value as well of Maui.

You.

Mahalo, Deputy Cooper. Next members will go to Ocean Safety Bureau Chief, Zach Edlau and Operations Manager, John Kanishina.

Good morning council members and everyone. Thank you for the opportunity to discuss this critical matter of ocean related drownings. Understanding the circumstances, every incident is a tragedy. These incidents sadly happen mostly outside of our established guarded beaches, which underscores the need for a multi pronged safety approach. Challenges we have, you know, is guarding the unguarded.

What we do for ocean safety, we have our jet skis that are on the 911 system. And if there is an ocean related call outside of our area, our British craft operators will get on there and then ski and make a lot of rescues. So we do have a lot of rescues outside of our unguarded beaches. Nonetheless, we definitely do need to figure out how we can minimize ocean related drownings and injuries, not just Maui, but all Hawaii. We know that the visitors here, they come for our beaches and not just for our shopping malls.

They see the beauty. They don't see the beast. Everyone sees the ocean as something beautiful. No one sees the dangers there, and it's, you know, our job to educate them and, you know, to minimize these injuries. And we cannot do that if we're not there at the beaches or if they come to us.

Strategies that we employ deep within the community to includes involvement with modern media, public outreach program such as community events. Our educational outreach programs includes visiting schools, teaching students about the safety, awareness, and hazards in and around the ocean. But still, as mentioned before, the schools that have pools to actually get in the water makes a better difference than teaching to them. You can talk to them about it, but having them in the water to practice safety and stay afloat is a huge difference in Hawaii. And it's shocking to know that we're surrounded by water, and we need more of that.

We need more ways to get the kids in the water to, you know, minimize this. It comes down to everything, like, with the pools. Yeah. We know for getting more pools open, you're also getting the lifeguards there because you cannot have pools if you don't have people to support it. Our junior lifeguard program is a big one here, not in, only in Maui, throughout Hawaii, and it's a great it's a great, great program to have.

Maui Maui this past year, we had over 300, keikis from Maui County and seems to be growing and especially the younger ones since we, introduced, our guard start program, which is targeting keikis from the ages eight to 11. It's been so many keikis that, we have to turn away because we don't have enough people to help, supervise the program, especially for span of control. But the amount of young keikis we have is tremendous. But we do have, on the other islands, a lot of nonprofits that help throughout Hawaii to educate our keikis and, you know, minimize these injuries. We

have

media, ways to, approach safety. HLA is a big one. This book that Carson talks about, it is in there. A lot that we put together are in there, so definitely take a look at it. We have, brochures that we have, like, visitor brochures such as these. It's gonna come out soon. I'll leave this with you guys. There's a lot of safety tips in there, you know, that are you'll find outside the ABC stores. But, again, it's up to the people to read and take it in. You know?

You can provide all these pamphlets, and if they read it, you know, they take it in. If not, what can we do? Collaboration with the Maui Lifeguard and HLA, like I said, is a big one and the nonprofits to help because we need more than just county. We need help. As ocean safety officers throughout Hawaii, we need help to with all the industries to help us with this issue.

You know, the path of expanded services, like we talk we're talking about Pui Kikawa. Some of the challenges we face, we know that's a target area for Maui County, especially, but permitting right now is an issue for us. The holdback right now for that is the permits. If we had the permits there, we can get, we'll we'll put the guards there. All we're waiting for is the permits.

The struggle with the permits we have is, you know, beyond me. We know that the lifeguard towers are not a permanent structure. So these we need exemptions here. So if council members, if there's ways that you can help us to get these exempted, whether it's going up to the governor to have, you know, towers exempt from being out there, that would expedite a lot. But the struggle with the permits is, a big issue for us.

And new services like we talked about for ocean safety right now, hiring is a is a struggle, not only for ocean safety, but for other agencies as well. You know, the cost of living, the pay ain't the greatest. A lot of people, you know, they rather go apply in the private sector because they need money today. They cannot wait to five years to make what they're gonna get. So you find a lot of good people that they'll pass us up just to get make the money for the cost of living.

And it's a struggle. And those that do pass, you know, we have a pretty rigorous physical agility test that, some don't make it. We don't just wanna hire any Joe Blow out there. We wanna provide you with quarterly quality lifeguards out there. So that's a struggle for us too, is getting all the vacancies filled and doing what we can.

And, some of the stats and what what is really important that I wanna share with you is drownings. When I reached to Dan Galanis, when I seen the stats for Maui County, I asked him, are these stats fatal or nonfatal? Because the definition of drowning, drowning is the process of experiencing respiratory impairment from submersion or immersion in a liquid water. It can be fatal or nonfatal. So a lot of our calls and a lot of the stats I have, when I see the numbers, at first, I'm like, woah.

This is a lot high for Maui County. So just know that, it can be fetal or nonfetal, but it's a little it shows on what, the slideshow show. So that seemed a little high for what I thought Maui County would be, but if you're from 2,000 what? 2021 to '24, it seemed a lot high. So I give you a little stats of what Maui County does, and it these numbers, it grows every year.

You can see the amount of visitors, the people using the beaches. I'll share with you 2,025 from January to now of some of the things that we go through. So we have ocean rescues. We have 403 ocean rescues from January to now. Two twenty of them came from rescue watercraft. So most likely that means the rescue watercrafts are outside our scope. So that's how much they are responding to. We also expanded our lifeguard hours. As you know now, we work ten hour days and data has shown there's a lot of rescues that happen after our previous hours of 04:45. So there is a big difference right there that we are doing.

Our beach attendance, we have almost 5,000,000 right now that attended our beaches compared to last year of three and a half million. Just a little over three and a half. We have preventive actions that our guys are up to date on. We have over 40,000 right now current preventive actions they have done. They have come into contact with about 175, public contacts. Yeah. Sorry. 175. Thank you, Kristen. We have medicals.

They're they're up about 268 medicals right now up to date. 40 of them which needed medical assistance. And drownings at our guarded beach is what I have on data for us this year. There's one at our guarded beach, and non guarded, I have 11. And, you know, to conclude, we are committed to safety both and on our off our guarded beaches. Our prevention programs are broad and effective, and our goal is strategic. Sustainable service expansion to keep our community and visitors safe. And if you guys have any questions, I'm open.

Hello, chief Ed Lao. Mr. Kanishiro, if you want to Kanishima, sorry.

It's okay, Chair. I get all the time. It's okay. Aloha, everyone. Think Chief Ed Lao kinda hit on almost every topic pretty well. I kinda just wanna mention how our guards out there are doing their preventative actions. All day, they're using our PA system to give general warnings to our beachgoers. Whether it be the winds coming up, it's not a good time to snorkel, or we got some dangerous shorebreak. Not the day for boogie boarding or body surfing. If the PA system doesn't work, they're going down to the beach, talking to the tourists or locals individually on a one on one basis.

We can do that all day, which Makes a ton of a difference. But at all of our resorts, there's no one doing that. I'm not sure what the hotel workers are doing, but our lifeguards out there, their main job is preventive. They're trying to prevent almost all the injuries. And at all the major resorts, you don't have someone there that's getting paid to do that. So they're going snorkeling when the winds are up. They're gonna go body surfing or boogie boarding even though they don't know what to do and they don't know the consequences. So if we can you know, if there could be something else done to warn our visitors, you know what? Snorkeling, the wind's up. Don't go out right now.

Or the waves are up. No boogie boards are going out.

It'd be good.

To touch on the junior lifeguard program, chief gave you a lot of stats, but we gotta turn kids away every year. And it's heartbreaking. We only can do so much. It's only during the summer. And we we barely get it done. Our instructors and our lifeguards are you know, they're they're working the beach. They're being instructors during the summer. It's a lot for them. It's a lot for them. It'd be great if it could be a year round program where we can hit the winter break, the spring break, the summer break, and just touch more of our local community with that.

Know swimming lessons on Maui County, you can barely even pay for them. Even if you got the money, can't even pay for

swim

lessons. There's hardly any resources for swimming here on Maui unless you join a swim club or whatnot. Something has to be done with that. And as far as the visitors, you know, it's so hard. I know they have safety videos at the baggage claim. They have safety videos possibly when you're en route. But I don't I don't know how good it works because when I go to it on a trip and I get to the baggage claim, I'm just so excited for my trip on what I wanna do. I'm not gonna be paying attention to a video, personally. I'm gonna be excited for my vacation. Also, right before you land, sometimes you get the Ag form here.

If we play a video then, they're not gonna watch it either, I don't think, because they barely wanna do the ag form. You're excited for your trip. I think maybe a better solution would be shortly after takeoff when your the incoming visitors are still attentive, kind of excited, possibly paying attention more. That might work out a little better. I'm just brainstorming on ways we can try and cut down drowning. All of our guys are working hard out there, and we love what we do. Yeah. It's just Maui's growing bigger every day. I'm just trying to keep ups hard sometimes. Thank you. Hello, mister Kaneshina. Next, have county pool's manager,

mister Sevilla.

Hey, good morning. Can you guys hear me? Okay, sorry. Getting a little bit deaf over here. So, anyway, for me, our pools, the last time we had a drowning, it was about maybe six years ago in Kihei. And that was pretty intense on that situation over there. And there's been other situations in the pool where older people have well, they say that they drowned, but it was because of some kind of health reason, a heart attack or something like that. But but because they found water in their lungs, yeah, and they drowned and stuff like that. So the cause of death was drowning. For us, you know, it's been a struggle to provide learn to swim lessons in our pools.

And one of the reasons why is because our lack of people wanting to be pool lifeguards, and there's not much money in that. And so what they do is they come into the pools, and then eventually, they learn stuff from us, and then they go to ocean, which is okay because then they're going to the finest guys right here. You know what I mean? They're moving into a good situation. The thing is is that learn to swim is such a survival mechanism that we truly need for our kids.

And I just gonna throw this out there. Back in 1993, this lifeguard, Rowan Hayes, for an ocean safety came to me, and I was working with Maui Youth and Family Services at that time, and we created a junior lifeguard program that is is happening right now. So back then, it already started. Right now, these gentlemen are doing a great job is that they need more help. And I see that because it's so vital.

The pools, when we had enough lifeguards, we were doing our own junior lifeguard program within our pools, and that started back with Noni Wilson a long time ago. I gotta give some of these guys some some kudos because they were out there, and they were helping. You know what I mean? They're thinking ahead. And so they were doing it.

Right now, we have partnered with Hawaii swim team to do learn to swim classes. We've partnered with Swim Club, and we wanna do more of that. It's just that we gotta make sure that we have everything in line, and that's one of the things. We've had we've been having discussions with Loki Lani Intermediate School and with other some other schools because they're close by to provide classes. The only thing is is that the time.

The time is really important and if we do have staffing at that time. And one of the things that we do understand is is that pools can get very territorial with who utilizes the pools. You know what I'm trying to say? It's like, I want my lap time. I want my water aerobics time.

And so when you start taking away these times for certain individuals, you're gonna get some pushback. The thing is is that we all gotta realize is that what's important for the future is our kids. You know? And I started looking at that, and I you know, we myself and my recreation technician, Serena Lecourt, we've been kinda, like, brainstorming on how we're gonna present more learn to swim programs. That's why we're reaching out to the schools a little bit more, and the schools are reaching back out to us.

So it has to be a group, a community issue. It's not just a one time issue. You know, in my mindset, you know, one of the things too is is that parents gotta get out there too. You know? They come to the pools, and they expect us to watch their kids. You know what I mean? In reality, we have set rules. If your kid cannot swim, you gotta be in the pool with your child. You know? And in other areas is that they wanna bring all these water wings. It's such a you know, it's not a safe thing to do. It gives them a false sense of security having water wings. You know what I mean? So we discourage that a lot of times. They say, why?

Why can't you do that when we have to tell them? Because it's it's not a great way of teaching kids how to swim. So we see that we have to step up the game a little bit more, but, again, we need staff to help us do that too. Now with community, you know, I started to think about it as we were talking. You know, we could do stuff if the county council can put funds aside and go to the surfing community and ask them, hey. You guys like to learn how to life lifeguard? You guys like to learn some lifesaving techniques? We bring them on board. Teach them for free. Why gotta be spending money?

Another thing too is is that in the past, in the pools, we stopped letting people, like like, practice holding their breath and stuff like that. You know what I mean? And I started to look at this in a different venue because we have so many divers here in the islands. Right? They fish. They dive and stuff like that. They they gotta have one place for train. Sometimes the ocean is not the best place. You gotta have some place to practice. You know, I suppose we need to change our mindset on that kind of stuff too.

And one of the things that we gotta understand is, what is shallow water blackout? A lot of people don't know what is shallow water blackout. We gotta educate why people go unconscious, and then they're drowning. You know what I mean? That kind of stuff. So a lot of education education needs needs to to be be put put out out there. There. It's It's not not only only for for our our keiki, keiki, the people that live here, but the tourists. You know? To me, you know, I I was talk talking to my lifeguards at one time, and I said, hey.

Maybe we gotta open up one snorkeling class within the pools. Maybe these people don't know how to snorkel, and we can provide, you know, classes like that. So sometimes we gotta think out of the box on how to help community and, you know, people to be safe. Because even our local residents, a lot of them, they don't know how to snorkel. You know what I mean? So we gotta look at that. But, again, the funding, the staffing, all of that comes into play. The thing is we all gotta be proactive in trying to find a solution for this. And, yes, you're right. We are surrounded by water.

How do we work that? You know? When I first came out of the military back in 7078, yeah, what I found out was that, like, maybe 90% of the people couldn't really swim. When I say swim, you gotta swim laps, man. You know what I mean? You gotta be in condition. Because when you go out in the ocean, you got to be in condition a little bit. Because when you're swimming against the current, it ain't easy. So I think a whole bunch of things that we think about, we have to incorporate conditioning, education. It's huge.

And so it's just not one part that we can fix. It's a whole big part, and all of us got to be part of it. It's not just ocean safety got to fix them just because they have towers there and towers here. Johnny is correct. How we educate those people coming from the Mainland, that's a big one. You know what I mean? So we got to reach out to them. It's not only Mai Tais and cocktails over here, then you can come and cruise, but you got to look out for your own health and safety, too. So there's a lot of things that we can all consider and make better. It's just that how do we do that, the communication. And that's all I got.

Right. Hello, Mr. Sevilla. Members, before we go into questions for our panel, we'll take testimony again. Staff, anyone else wishing to provide testimony?

Chair, the first testifier signed up is Jordan Ruidas.

Aloha, Ms. Ruidas.

Aloha. Thank you for the opportunity to provide testimony. I did not know that this was happening today, but Mama. I was alerted. And if you guys don't know, my other half is, an ocean safety lifeguard.

So this hits really close to home for me. I do do not have anything prepared, so I'm just gonna speak from the heart. Our ocean safety lifeguards are considered first responders, but I think that they should start to get paid like true first responders. When things happen on our beaches, they are usually the first ones to respond even if it means they're going on the jet ski to respond. These men love their jobs, but it's really heartbreaking when I hear them have to talk about getting a second job, maybe thinking about leaving this current job due to lack of pay.

Honestly, they don't wanna have to leave, but they're thinking about it because they don't get paid enough, and that's really sad. You know, talking about the drawings, I know you guys have been working really hard on getting a tower put at Kannapali. I know there's been some hiccups with Sheraton, but we really do need a tower there. Also, as far as junior lifeguard, my other half has done the Hana junior lifeguard, I think, three years in a row now, which he loves because he's from Hana, and he loves to give back to his community. But, man, I tell you, he goes into Hana thinking gonna have 15 people because that's what signed up.

And he shows up to the beach and get, like, 45. And but she loves it. It's great. But we definitely to put more funding into these programs because more and more kiki are coming out, especially in our rural communities where they don't get a lot of opportunity to do stuff like this. When there is stuff in those communities, they come out strong. But, yeah, I don't I don't know what else to really say. I just really, really urge you folks to put more money into these guys' budgets because they do amazing work. They not only keep the tourists safe, but they keep our local families safe. Just this last week when all of us knew we should probably not get into the water. Our men were out there saving terrorists.

I'm going into the water and. While that is their job, it weighs heavy on our hearts because we are praying that they come home to us and our families. And it's very frustrating because due to the lack of knowledge with the tourists, our people are going and putting their lives in danger for these people. So I do agree. A lot of times, it needs to be the hotels that put out more education. A lot of times, these these tourists say, oh, the concierge said it's okay to go out there when it's absolutely not okay to go out there. But also a lot of people that end up in these situations are people that are staying in short term rentals where there is a lack of educational materials. They they think, oh, I come here all the time. I come here every year. I already know.

I stay in short a term until there's nobody there to educate better. I'm not gonna take any more of you guys' time. Again, thank you for the chance to, testify and give my. I appreciate you guys always.

Members, any questions for the testifier? Seeing none, thank you for your testimony.

Chair, there is currently no one else who has signed up left to testify. If somebody would like to testify in the chamber, please let the staff know Or on Microsoft Teams, please raise your hand. This is final call. Three, two, one. Chair, it appears that no one wishes to testify.

Did Mr. Nakoa want to provide testimony?

He didn't raise his hand.

He didn't raise his hand. Okay. Members, any objections to closing public testimony on this item? Okay. Mahalo. Okay, members, let's go into our open the floor for questions and comments. We'll go ahead for three minutes and we'll start with Committee Vice Chair Johnson.

Thank you, Chair.

Committee Vice Chair, we just got word that Mr. Hall was

Board of Okay. My question Board Directors for Mr. Hall and the Department of Health was why of is Alaska so dangerous? But that was off off it doesn't make any sense to me. Like, what I figure Hawaii and Florida would be the living and drowning, where Alaska was.

That's for anyways, that's for a later conversation. But anyways, you know, the junior life program junior lifeguard program is so important, and I agree with, what Jordan said, as well as that we have to pay our folks better to do this kind of work on Lanai. Some years we have junior lifeguards, some years we don't. And I don't know if that's on funding, so if anyone would like to speak to that. I know just like what everybody said, it's when people hear that it's a junior lifeguard program, everybody runs to sign out.

There's a very big demand for it. I really like the discussion over like how where should the funding go? Should it go into more PSAs? Should it go into public private partnerships, more jet skis, boats, and choppers? I think there's so much to be discussed on this when we look at how dangerous our ocean is.

That's maybe something someone can ask too, our ocean just extremely dangerous or just people just extremely ignorant and falling into the ocean? I mean, it's really fascinating to see all the stats. It's crazy because there's so many people that I consider water people, water men, water women that use the ocean, and yet we have such a high rate. There's stuff I think there's a lane for the county. A lot of the things in the water safety plan I saw were state based, but a lot of things here that we can look at on the county side.

So maybe I just what Mr. Silvilla said about shallow water blackout and more training for our ocean water users, I would support that, and I would let's find a way to to give more classes at our public schools. That's that's what I'd like to, stick with. So my my question is is, you know, we're around the corner for budget. Is there something that the department could do, like, a big priority, a big ask right off the bat? Is it more money for junior light guards or more positions, more vehicles? I will start with that one.

Chief? Yeah. Thank

you. Just one quick one for Lanai. Yeah. We do have junior lifeguards, but it's getting the kids there to participate. This year, we tried. We only had two that signed up. So if you can do anything to help us, we would like, a lot more. Certainly. We gotta figure something out because, it did drop. The numbers weren't really high, but just to get the kids online to participate. So anything you can do for this coming year, we can start now to let them know that, during the summer, we're gonna have these programs.

And I would love that. Let's reach out. Let's let's talk. And, of

course, the answer, one of the answers to minimizing drownings is to put more lifeguards out there. But our lifeguards is not just drop a tower and put them there. You know, they deserve so much more, like, proper facilities, restrooms, a training break, an office. They need these. And, yes, money, of course, to get these positions, but it gets it's getting people to apply for them. Like, we all have talked about today. We can have we can place 20 more towers. Are we gonna have that how much people to apply for them? Because, we do have a recruit class starting this December. We had eight positions starting, but we didn't even have enough candidates to fill.

Our recruit class for this December is only four. It's finding the people to apply for these positions and it's true what Jordan said. There's a lot of our guards that are considering going elsewhere because of

the

pay. It's tough living here in Hawaii, and what can you do? They gotta support their families. And as a chief, I'd love for them to stay. But as a chief, I gotta look out for their families too. If going elsewhere so they can provide for their families, they can stay here in Hawaii and not have to leave, by all means, I'd hate to lose them, but they will have to do it. Yeah. The money is a big issue for us. And as mister Savilla said, you know, we do gain a lot of pool guards, but do just know we lose them to fire too. They leave us, and they go fire police.

So it's right down the lane, but it's retaining our guys, you giving them the best that we can of. It is a cost of living that's hitting everybody hard in Hawaii, not just ocean safety, everyone. The struggles, everything, watching all you guys council member meetings money. Everything comes on to it's it's a lot to do with living here in Hawaii. Yeah, I wish we could put a lot of towers here. You know? The hotel has done a great job, and we gotta keep in mind too that the hotel is not their workers is not strictly public safety. They're providing a service to the hotel. So, yeah, they can do a lot. Give them credit for what they do.

Some might not know and they might say it, but again, it's they don't know any better too. You know, maybe it's our job too. We need to educate the hotel members too. And one of my goals as a chief that I still want to do, it's in there and I mentioned it to the fire commission, is instead of waiting for schools to come to us to ocean safety presentations, we will go see them. I'm a just talk to mister Pele this morning to his information because I have some ideas that I wanna do too for the hotels, but it comes down to our staffing too because we don't have much. Yeah.

Oh, chief, that's that's my time. I just wanted to ask one quick question. What's the starting pay for a lifeguard?

Or is that Yeah.

Think you need more time for that?

I I think it's around 43, 45, if I'm not mistaken, salary. Don't quote me.

Yeah. Yeah. You're gonna need two jobs to to do that kind of work, but I'll I'll wait for my around have more discussion. Thank you, chief. Thank you, chair.

Thank you. Hollow vice chair. Next, we have, member Cook followed by chair Lee.

Thank you, chair. For your three minutes. I wanna thank you guys. It's very, very you're doing a great job with the presentation. It's very relevant. It really resonates with me. It's, like, the fact that permitting is a big deal for Pearl Towers. I've talked to, the director about that, and it's it's kind of, like, common sense. Why why is it so hard to put pool towers at the beach? Why does planning department require that you move the containers and all the service equipment someplace else because of, quote, SMA?

So that's one area that we're aware of. That'd be great to collaborate and work. For the junior guard program, as far as funding, is that part of your department's funding? Where does that fall in?

The funding right now, I know we got an increase which helps us a lot. And we also have a big help from the Maui Lifeguard Association and the Hawaiian Lifeguard Association. So that plays a big part. Again, in is funding has to do, but it's just the staffing. Like operations manager said, we turn away so many kids because we don't have the guards to help assist right now.

This year what we have done in the past years because there's so many. Kiki signing up. We staff to ocean safety officers do that. To And going that. That. And And

And And then we'll to

good I livable wage.

And And, so anyway, if you the path help help us, the council, the path forward of what potentially we could do. I think you've we've all advocated for that many ways and many times. So it's not you know, we'll give you the money, but we have to I I would say that. I think the council I know I am, but I think the council is willing to fund these programs to increase the wages to make, these, you know, these vital services that are for our community. We have the transient accommodation tax.

I've always thought, I mean, the the purpose of that was the tourism paying for the services. I think the hotels, everybody. So anyway, you gotta how can we create funding? Or how can we pay people in positions if the positions won't allow it?

Mr. Sevilla, did you want

Yeah. One of the things that I see for to help with more kids to be in the program is transportation. They need transportation. That's, like, key. And I remember a few years ago when where was I?

I was working with Maui Youth and Family Services at that time, and we was running the Central Youth Center. That's where we created the youth trans with MEO. And MEO used to bring kids down from upcountry to our to our center, and then they would go to all the canoe clubs because that's one was one of the things that they needed to do. So I think I believe partnership with with the transportation infrastructures that we do have over here, it can happen. You know what I mean?

It's just a matter of, like, providing the funding and the commitment and to see how how it can work. You I'm trying to say is you got to organize that. And I think it will work, you know what I mean? Because that was one of the problems that I see when you got to transport the kids around. That's why.

We the

to we question.

Question.

Answer his question about Sorry,

chief.

Go ahead. Money.

But I just wanted to clarify, via text from chief Ventura. The starting, the salary for ocean safety officer after probation is around 56,000. I just wanted to clarify that. And then I believe, Kirsten might have something to add, if that's okay.

You can so

say I'm saying.

Yeah. Go ahead.

I hope this isn't too long winded. So HLA, we developed a junior lifeguard internship program. We received a grant to develop the program, and we piloted it on Kauai. And the intent is for that program to spread statewide. We had thought we'd roll it out one department at a time, but after we did the first pilot, everybody's like, We want ours now. So it looks like that's probably to be happening soon. But we've learned a few things from that that I think can support some of what everybody's asking for. Part of it was recruitment, right? Every department statewide is having trouble with recruitment. They have openings, they want more towers, but they can't fill them.

So we thought, gosh, we have this great group of kids who are coming through the program every year. Some of them are not going to be on the college track or they're going to need college jobs. So can we train them up so that they can become lifeguards when they're 18? So we did the pilot the first year. We put in four kids. We trained them as if they were new recruits. So we put them through a forty hour work week over spring break. They got exactly the same training as a new recruit would in the department, and they far exceeded our expectations. In fact, Chief Vieira wanted to hire them at the end of the week. The other thing that we started realizing was that those kids could become pool lifeguards.

They could have a nice summer job with Department of Recreation as a pool lifeguard from, say, age 16 to 18. Oahu does it, but the rest of the islands do not. So we're working now to go county by county to try to get the hiring age changed so that those junior lifeguard interns could have summer jobs at their pools, which then would allow them to teach more swim lessons during the summer. And they would be people who would be willing to work for those wages, the pool wages, right? And they would be trained up and ready to go at 18 to go into the regular service.

We've also now realized that we can double the number of kids we serve in junior lifeguards by using those interns as ala kai in the program so that they're supporting the trainers, the professional lifeguard trainers, and they can more than double the number of kids that they're serving by using those interns. So there's some things we can do short of putting cash in pockets, right, that support the whole system. And so I think one of the things that you folks could do is work with Department of Recs and your HR departments to see if we can get the hiring age lowered. Chief Viera on Kauai is very interested in actually being able to hire some of those 16 year olds in the regular service at for, like, holiday staffing and things like that. They would never be in a tower alone, but they would be supporting on the beach as well at a younger age.

So that's something that, would be a great help. HLA funds it. We have been funding it through grant money, to be able to pay these kids. It's pretty incredible to watch them work. We were all very, very inspired. We even, at the end of the week, had them doing jet ski pickups because they were just so on it and so well trained. So it's just a small thing that you can do. Additionally, some of the training that you folks are talking about, we're already doing. So we do a beach guardian program that teaches community about how to activate nine one one, what to do if they're a first responder before a first responder gets there,

all

of those kinds of things. So those kind of training programs are available through HLA for the community, the visitor industry, and for schools, etcetera, etcetera. So we can provide support to the department for that as well.

To touch up with council member Cook. So a goal I have to for ocean safety and what how you guys can help us too because I'm looking at creating, like, an ocean safety prevention bureau, which is primary focus on education. So when you guys see the positions come in the budgets, I'd appreciate eyes. Yeah? You'll see a lot more within the five years because we're growing it, and that's my goal is to to get away from the guys that are working on the beach too. So you guys will be seeing things coming in the budget and the request for these positions is ultimately for minimizing drowning. So it's and I'm sure we can speak about that more when the time comes, but you'll be seeing it coming in the budget in the future. Of we're

made

in

Ed Lao, the yes.

Ed And And Lao, okay. So I hear a lot of concerns, but I also hear a lot of answers. And I'm wondering why they haven't been implemented. Yes. So, you have a council here that is very supportive of what you do.

But what we need will be a plan and which is prioritized as well as specific funding requests. So that's uppermost in our minds and hopefully you can provide that to us before we work on the budget. Because without having a concrete idea of what you need, it's hard for us to proceed. Because as the legislative body, we don't get to participate with the administration of your program. Like for instance, with regard to prevention, and you may want to break them up into like maybe four or five different big categories, prevention, equipment, training, etcetera, compensation.

But, prevention where people the kids could be trained by in schools with presentations from retirees. It doesn't have to be current workers. It could be retirees because you're short staffed already, as you say. So, bring them in and then with uniforms. And then, you could also have the hotel association or others help you with public information and education.

They could handle that part. And then, with regard to the DPS and civil service and so forth, this is where maybe the council can help you. We're more than willing to provide the adequate funding that is required and seems to be lacking. But we do need a plan, and it can't be like all over the place. It has to be a specific plan with specific information on what your requirements will be.

So hopefully, you and others can get together and and divvy up the responsibilities so that we will know exactly what you need. And believe me, every council member, I'm sure, will be more than help happy to support what you're doing. And then maybe at some point, can provide us a clarification of drownings and non drownings. I think that's kind of misleading. So maybe Mr. Ed Lao, you could tell us more about that. Which stat do you follow?

Chief. Okay. So for the clarification with drowning and, fatal, non fatal, that would be more for the EMS. Because when I reached out to Dan Galanis, the numbers they had, were a lot higher it seems as far as fatal drowning. So a lot of people that hear drowning, they think it's fatal. But the stats that Dan said he got from EMS for the EMS whatever they submit. For ocean safety, we do not really know the fatalities unless we see it because we don't get that kind of information because of the HIPAA law. So when we're treating a patient and they leave, that's what we know. But it comes down to whenever it goes to the ER, that's how the stats get provided, I believe. Mister Hall is not here to talk on it, but that'll be more for the state.

And then I'm I'm not sure if you were what Kirsten talked about, if you got misdirected a little bit, that is for Maui County. A lot of the things she mentioned is not what we're doing. So it's not for Maui County.

Not yet.

Not yet. So we haven't even talked about that part for Maui County. But like for my part is expanding ocean safety. Our admin staff is for in the future of creating a prevent ocean prevention bureau.

Yeah. Whoever talked about risk assessment, that's something to teach the young kids. It's very important because, you know, they need to make a decision whether to jump in that unknown water area or not. And it has nothing to do with knowing how to swim. It's more like trying to survive in a situation you're not familiar with. So I think, you know, you going to the grade schools every year and reinforcing that information with these young kids, that's gonna be probably the most important aspect of prevention. Thank you.

You're welcome. That is what we talk about, what we teach our Junior Lifeguard program kids and all the ocean safety presentations we do. That is the topic. Prevention and risk assessment.

Mahalo, Chief. Thank you. Mahalo, Chair. Next we have Member Poulton followed by Member Sugimura.

Thank you, Chair. My first questions, if they could be transmitted to mister Hall would be, if Hawaii is number two in the state, why are we for drownings, why are we not following the national standards, for pools? Also, if he's open to clarifying the data, like, Charlie said, fatal versus nonfatal as well as if there is an underlying medical condition because, you know, if somebody dies from a heart attack on land, it's not a drowning. But if they die from a heart attack in the ocean, then it's considered a drowning. So if they're open to getting more accurate data in by clarifying those statistics for ocean safety.

I was wondering if you folks keep a record of how many kids are turned away annually from which districts. So if we did have money and staffing to support that, we would know where to put it. And then for the pools, I think we had a similar Hawaii swim club learn to swim in Hilo, but we had to use, Hilo High School pool because it was treated as a fundraiser where the, swimmers could earn money for travel for, like, states or whatever off island swim meets. I don't know if that's a possibility here where if the swim teams provided the learn to swim service, they could use it as a fundraiser, and maybe there could be a number of if people can afford, to pay for the swimming. I don't know if it's, like, a concessions.

And then I guess for mister Pele, do they still have that visitor the street television channel where they can air, like, multiple videos and maybe partner with the schools? Like, I remember miss Suzuki made a video about the tubes that the rotary had put up around the island, but more than just one video because there's all kinda aspects. So those are my questions.

K. I don't know

if the staff needed me to repeat any of the transmitted ones or they got it.

She got it. Okay. Mister Seville?

So we talked to our HR about lifeguard shortages. And so we've come up with a little plan, and the plan is to do on call sixteen hour weeks. So we had to take one position, and we kinda chopped it off a little bit. And so we're gonna we we got we're gonna put down eight positions to do on call so we can get more people on staff when we're short. Now there was a thing done years ago before I came into, you know, the county parks.

And I think it was done by Allen Shishiro guys, I believe. And what they did is they they broke down how much staff needed in each pool. And right now, I am below the minimum because some of the pools are running only three staff, and those pools supposed to have at least six, seven staff. Kihei pool. You know? So we were running short. And I gotta give credit to my life guys because they're out there doing a little bit more than what they're expected to do. You know what I mean? And we're doing our best to keep the pools open, to keep the community happy. You know?

And so we're looking at every which way to help keeping the pool staff. And with the learn to swim, Hawaii's Hawaii swim club, they they do it, you know, on it's a freebie thing. Maui Swim Club. Maui Swim Club. Sorry. Maui Swim Club. The thing is and that's with Kiki Matsumoto. And, you know, they do a great job. This last July, August, they did, like, 100 kids. You know what I mean?

So they help out quite a bit. And we gotta reach out to other swim teams if they wanna do that too. You know? And, yeah, you're right. I think there are some people that wanna do it as, what you call that, as a fundraising kind of thing? Is this something that it has to go through permits to see how that can work? I've never done that before. That's why.

Swim Club, they only teach in Central?

Yeah. Only

South Side. Maybe that's why. But I think John wanted to

Oh, Mr. Kanisha. Go ahead, John.

Just to touch on my swim club, and it's just affecting the local kids, yeah. There's no visitors. But we turned away about almost 300 people. We only can take 100 because it's all cocoa and we only can do what we can do. We take 100 every summer, but this past summer, we almost turned over about 300.

Is there any plans to implement the intern program like Kauai?

That that is unsure. We haven't really talked about it much with our department, but that's something, that sounds very interesting. Very interesting. But we'll have to talk about it more as a department.

Sorry. Our plan is to support all four counties in developing an internship program.

And were there, County Of Kauai ordinances that you needed to change to allow

for young Marikau Kami was very supportive. We went to him first, and he was very supportive. And no, there was nothing that we had to do specifically to allow them. And primarily and HLA paid for it, the county didn't have to pay. Although since we've had the program, the mayor's now behind putting it permanently in the budget so that we can pay the interns.

Yes. Thanks.

Okay. Next, we have Member Sugimura followed by Member Uu Hajins.

Thank you. This is so interesting. Really, really appreciate it.

And I

am very interested in your statement about creating a bureau. What does that mean?

Well, I'm sorry. More like a division. So like right now we have our ocean safety officers guard the beach where primarily if you can have additional staffing to create a division where their focus like I said is mainly year round to education. Because what I see and as of today, prior, commissioner Pelican attested that too because I brought it up is education outside how we reach the visitors, what do we do? We know that there needs to be more because of all the drowning.

If we have a division in the ocean safety bureau, they go out, educate, work with the hotels, work with the schools, they reach out, not wait for those guys to reach out to us. Year round, that's a full time job going out educating, spreading awareness, working on focusing on social media because as ocean safety officers, it's tough to do this while you're safeguarding the beaches. And, you know, that's my vision in the in years is to expand, but we cannot just expand the bottom. Right now, we have 79 ocean safety officers and our admin staff is thin. If you grow the bottom, we've got to grow the top and we need to branch off.

It'll be similar to like how the fire department. You have your health and safety bureau, your fire prevention. We're growing at that pace and we need to expand. I talked to it that. That. That. To do we're able And And

that. Going based upon what you just explained kind of like what Shirley And was talking about earlier is primarily staffing and you would need office space? I mean it sounds like you need to establish some kind of permanent situation.

So there's an office space that we're working on right now. There's paperwork that needs to be signed, but we do have a future location of ocean safety with and a big size lot to it'll be great. Just that things need to be signed. It's at the old Hertz Rent A Car at the airport. So it's worked out with the state with but that still is above me with chief Ventura.

That is in the play for our new headquarters. And then like support from you guys, of course, when we try to expand our staffing is for these reasons. We're trying to do everything that we can to minimize it and education is by far we need to get it out there because we know that there is a lack of education from what we see in the data, right?

So we'll look forward to hearing more from Chief Ventura and yourself during budget session then.

Absolutely. We look forward to your approvals.

Mahalo, Steve. Next, we have member U'U Hajins for your three minutes.

Thank you, Terren. Thank you, everybody, for being here. I appreciate the conversation. I wanted talk a little bit about our deadliest catch, which is OP and fishing from shore. So I see this, graft here, which I do I do appreciate. And so I think for our local people, we can do our own risk assessment, and apparently, the yellow bellied OP here is worth the risk, clearly. I appreciate it, but it's it's hardcore. And so there's that. And I think member Johnson was asking about, how come Alaska is so high, but they also have a deadliest catch. Right?

They have the whole shoal. Right? The crabs. But I did wanna talk about how we can better partner with our visitor industry to to exactly what you were talking about. Officer con captain Kanishina, how can I address you? Captain? Operations. Operations manager. Operations manager. Okay. Thank you. I appreciated your comments because I feel the same. I don't watch the videos either. And it's not that I don't mean to. I just don't.

I'm trying to look for my luggage. I'm trying to figure out what I gotta do. The form is now online, but nonetheless, we're not watching or not paying attention. I think, though, the way maybe we can do that is, one, partner with John folks and the people who bring them in and kinda gotta be a little bit more gruesome about what it looks like. Like, I remember when we had to do the drinking and driving stuff in high school, they showed you the pictures of what it looked like, the car accidents. Right now, we have, like, a beautiful flight attendant talking about the risk assessment. Nobody's looking. Everybody's just looking at that pretty girl or that handsome dude. No one's listening to the stuff coming out of their mouth. You know?

And I don't blame them, but I'm just saying that's not what's happening. Could we be a little bit more realistic, and be honest about what it looks like, and can we partner with you folks, John? And if we can't get the airlines to do it, when they check into the hotels, can they give them a pamphlet like, hey. This is our winter months. We're known for surfing. Don't go out in the water. John, can we do that with you folks?

I think that thank you for the question, Hodgins. I think that is something that the industry has been kind of thinking about. And to go back to Member Palton's question about the visitor channel. Think there is a visitor channel in Spectrum 153. But again, as we speak about it, we talk about signage on the beaches, can we Yeah. Put signs

But we're going to Yeah. Need to connect with

In our experience, like you said, it's hard to get that message through just TV stations and signage because the guests gotta wanna embrace it. We understand it's a two way street. How do we get that message out to our guests? Like, Hey, guys, you guys need to reach out. Some of this can be prevented. In the last testifier, that's a big deal for us too, right? Because we gotta understand these officers are putting their lives on the line on a daily basis. I know people process that, right? We think of firefighters and policemen. Ocean safety to the And And And

limitations.

Yeah, right. I mean, I've been at hotels and people have asked me, Can we swim out here? And I've gone, Hey, do you anybody else swimming out there?

Like, no. I ask one more question? Because I know we've got only two more minutes left. I heard your comment about permitting, and I know that's difficult because they need the bathroom and the storage and the lifeguard tower. John, can we partner with the hotels to provide restrooms and storage, and then maybe we can work on the EP permitting, especially for the black sites that may be listed in here, where we can get the towers up quickly? And then can our officers use hotel bathrooms and storage in these black site areas, if if at all possible,

do do And

that. To

knowing that they have to proper facilities and not that of the general public for them to decompress and all that. But the real issue is the permitting.

Okay.

So any help you guys can do with the permitting for your own way around this, that would be a great big part of that Okay. This permit process.

And that's like the state, though, because the beach, right, it's not necessarily us? Or how can how can we help the county?

I'm sure you guys have connections. Maybe reach out to the governor's office.

I just I'm not sure. Text governor's office.

I'm not sure how all that process works

too. Okay.

But as far as getting all these exemptions, I should say, we need the exemptions to get our towers on the beach.

How much does a life tower cost? A guard tower?

Fiberglass tower is about a 120,000 maybe, you ever take. But to build one, it's a little bit cheaper. The while we're facing a Pui Kaka, I believe. But, we had to change the plans to make it, not a permanent, But it's still still a process, and any help we can get with Puu Kikawa right now Okay. Really appreciate it.

No. That's not it's it's more than just SMA. It's Oh, It's beach. Okay. Thank you so much.

Member, Hutchins. Members for a second round, I see, member Bolton. Go ahead.

I just was wondering if the permits have been applied for because when I called director Blystone, if she could expedite them, she said they hadn't received any permit application. But this was during the junior lifeguard competition and just was wondering if they've been applied for since then.

So far as I know right now, fire department, CAP coordinator, he they're in the works with hiring a company to oversee the whole project to do all that. So that's where they at.

I'm not

sure if they

yet.

But it's still in that even to hire a company to do it, it costs really expensive. Yeah,

yeah. Because I was trying to help you guys expedite it. But they said we cannot expedite a permit if we didn't receive the application yet. I think that's where it's at.

Repulsion, did you have a follow-up for director Pelli?

I think he answered my question in answering member Uuhajin's question. I mean, miss Suzuki, does some great videos with the kids, and I know she did the rescue tube one. But, like, I agree on it needs to be more graphic because people don't get it otherwise. And I know that's not really welcoming, but it's better that they return home alive than feel ungrossed out, I guess.

Vice Chair Johnson, did you have a follow-up for your second route? Thank you, Chair.

My questions were answered. I look forward to, discussing this further, Mahal.

Chair Lee, any follow-up questions for our panelists this morning?

No. Thank you. It's been a very good discussion. Look forward to the next one. Thank you.

Okay. With that members we have, Member Sugimura. Go ahead.

Just a quick one. Is that Life Tube program still going on? I remember we heard a lot about it at one point. Think Mr. Yamamoto or whoever.

The rescue tube tube.

I was just thinking about I was hoping there would be an opportunity because the Rescue Tube Foundation received a state grant in aid to add 400 rescue tubes statewide. And so we just had a meeting last week with all the chiefs. We're going to be geo tagging all of the existing locations and the new locations. And the chiefs are all coming up with a plan on where the additional net rescue tubes will be placed. So within the next year, we will have throughout the state over 400 new rescue tubes. That's fabulous. Yeah. Really good news. All right.

Thank you. Mahalo, Before we adjourn, did any of our panelists want to have any closing remarks for us? There was a good discussion, but we did wanna thank you, Mr. Seville, manager Kaneshima, chief Ed Lao, Mr. Herbstad, Mr. Herbstad for coming all the way from, Kauai. Thank you. And director Pele as well as deputy Cooper online. And mister Hall.

And one more thing. Yes. This is probably the most important. Look on page 24. Got her picture.

We have our own light guard on the county council. Yeah. Have her sign her picture. Yeah. Staff, is there anything else before we defer this item?

No, Chair. Just your recommendation.

Members, any objections to deferring this item? No. No objections. Okay. Thank you. And again, mahalo for everyone for being here, answering all of our questions, great questions. And we look forward to continue to work with all of you moving forward. Thank you. Members, with that, the Water Authority Social Services and Parks Committee meeting of Monday, November 17 is adjourned. It is 12:05.

Thank you.