Government Relations, Ethics, and Transparency Committee - Regular Meeting

Good afternoon, and will the government relations ethics and transparency committee meeting of 02/10/2026 please come to order. It is 01:41PM. I'm the vice chair of this committee, Nohelani U'uhajans. Vice chair Batanggan is out today, so I'll be acting chair for this meeting. Members in accordance with the Sunshine Law, please identify by name who, if anyone, is in the work, is in the room, vehicle, or workspace with you today. Minors do not need to be identified. Member Cook will be joining us around 2PM this evening, so I'll move over to member Gabe Johnson. Aloha and good afternoon.

Aloha and good afternoon, chair, council members, community members. There's no testifiers at the district office. And I'm alone on my side of the office in here ready to work. Thank you, chair.

Thank you. Council chair Alice Lee is excused for now. Council member Palton, aloha and good afternoon.

Aloha. Streaming live and direct from Maui. I have in the vehicle with me, George Vieira. He will be dropping me off at the council chamber Okay.

When we get there.

Okay. Hey, George. We also have, councilmember Rollins Fernandez. Aloha and good afternoon. At my private residence alone for maybe another hour until my children who are minors return home from school as well as my husband from work, McKenna Fernandez. And there are currently no testifiers at the Molokai District Office. Thank you. And please send our congratulations to your son. I saw Molokai High did really well. It ended, unfortunately, but they did smash. So there was that.

By two canoe lengths.

They killed it. But give him our love. Thank you. I will. Member Sanancy, aloha and good afternoon.

Aloha, chair. Happy to see so many of our community residents, that will be, reviewing today, and mahalo in advance for their willingness to serve our community. And, also, welcome to the Seabury students, for their visit today. Mahalo.

Thank you, member Senancy. Yes. Welcome, Seabury students. Councilmember Sugimura, aloha and good afternoon.

Aloha. Good afternoon. Yeah. Looking forward to a productive meeting, and thank you for the people who are here in the chambers.

Mhmm. Thank you. Thank you. From corporation counsel, we have deputy corporation counsel Thomas Colby. We also have Yukari Murakami. She serves as the, boards and commissions liaison for corporation council. As well as our great committee staff, we have Casey, Clarissa. Peter is here with us today as well on this side. And Mario? Testifiers wanting to provide testimony should sign up in the lobby, join on the online meeting via Teams link, or call into the phone number noted on today's agenda.

Written testimony is encouraged and can be submitted via the ecommit link at mauicounty.us backslash agendas as well. Under the sunshine law, the chair will receive oral testimony for agenda items at the beginning of the meeting and as the item is called up. For individuals wishing to testify via Teams, please raise your hand by clicking on the raise your hand button. If calling in, please follow the prompts via phone. Star five to raise, and lower your hand. Star six to mute and unmute. Staff will add names to the testifier list in the orders that testify sign up or raise their hands. For those on team, staff will lower your hand once your name is added. Staff will then use the name you're logged in under or call the last four digits of your phone number when it is your time to testify. Sorry.

At that time, staff will also enable your microphone and video. Please ensure your name appears in Microsoft Teams as a name you prefer to be referred to or as anonymous if you wish to, testify anonymously. If If you you are in person, please notify staff if you would like to testify anonymously. Otherwise, please state your name for the record at the beginning of your testimony. Oral testimony is limited to three minutes per item.

And if you're still testifying beyond that time, I will kindly ask you to wrap up your testimony. I know people are so excited to participate. Once you're done testifying or you do not wish to testify, you can also view the meeting on Akaoku Channel fifty three Facebook Live or mauicounty.us backslash agendas. We will do our best to take up each person in an orderly fashion, and we will now call up our first testifiers wishing to testify at the beginning of the meeting. Staff, if you please.

Chair, there is currently no one who has signed up to testify. Would you like me to do a last last call? Oh, I see someone approaching the podium.

Yep. We have an individual.

Aloha. Afternoon. I'll chase you along from Kooloka, Waikua, Ahopua. There's a lot of reading here to do on all these committees and stuff, so I wanna thank the, thank you, Luna Omalu, Nohilani, for doing all this stuff. It's it's, I don't see how you tie have time for your family doing all this county work.

And thank you for all the the the the people that are volunteer for the boards and commissions because I I go to all these meetings and stuff, and the council really needs help with all this running the government stuff, and, especially with The United States going crazy like it is. So I was reading through it, the only one I saw there was, John Thomas Tomoso. I've met him at the, going to church a few times, and he is he's pono. So, yeah, that's good that he's I look forward to see him in, working on the board of ethics. Thank you for your time.

And as usual, I save the rest of my time for the people of Hawaii.

Thank you. Any other testifiers wishing to testify at the beginning of the meeting?

No, chair. There's no one else. If somebody would like to testify in the chamber, please let staff know. Or on Microsoft Teams, please raise your hand. This is final call. Three, two, one. Chair, it appears that nobody wishes to testify

at the beginning of the meeting.

Thank you. Resolution 26 dash 18 through 26 dash 34, nominations to various boards and committees and commissions. This is item grade eleven twenty four. By resolutions 26, dash 18 through 26 dash 34, the mayor is nominating 34 individuals for various county boards, committees, commissions, for the term beginning on 04/01/2026 and expiring 03/31/2031 for five year terms and expiring 03/31/2029 for three year terms. The council's thirty day deadline to approve or disapprove the nominations is on 03/02/2026.

Copies of the board's listing has been uploaded to Granicus, and I believe they've also been delivered to you folks. My intention for today is to hear from the mayor's boards and commissions liaison for opening remarks on the mayor's nominations and any opening comments from the nominees in attendance if they so choose. Following that, I'll take public testimony again, and then we can begin our discussion. During our discussion, I will take up each resolution one by one as they are listed on the agenda, beginning with actually resolution, twenty six eighteen related to the appointment. Actually, no.

We're gonna take that out of order if you don't mind. We're gonna begin with commissions on persons with disabilities and then go back to the animal board control. We do have somebody who needs to leave in a few. Thank you. And then we'll do as we usually do and give the members an opportunity to ask questions of the nominees. Before we do that, though, I do see Chair Lee. Welcome, Chair Lee. Hi. Hello. Thank you. Let's begin. Yukari, do you have any opening comments you would like to provide?

Very briefly, thank you chair or vice chair. We have here today 30 warnings for, nominees that were the the mayor has submitted for, consideration by this board. We all have the body. We have the applications together with the proposed resolutions. I don't know if I should go each of them one by one right now or just wait till when you have the

I think we could do a brief introduction, then as we get into the nitty gritty, feel free to

go into detail. Okay. So just briefly to go with from the top animal control board, we have Mr. Rensperger and Ms. Hornack. The applications are available. Just to clarification is that Mr. Rensperger is on reappointment for a full five year term or for three years, my apologies. Board of ethics, we have Mr. Tanaka and Mr. Tomoso as applicants to the Board of Ethics. Civil Service Commission, Ms. Pajimola has been serving, but since she is up for reappointment, this is her. This will be her full five year term if she gets reappointed. For Commission on Children's Youth, we have Ms.

Kotaka and Ms. Medeiros, who has been previously appointed by this body. This is for their reappointment for a full five year term. Conservation planning committee, we have Ms. Michelle Lingold, who will be filling the sustainable science management program specific seat to this committee, and this is also a reappointment. Council on Aging, we have five individuals nominated. Ms. Park and Ms. Witjuram are reappointment to the seat for full five year terms. And we have new members new nominees, Ms. Cox, Ms. Varebola and Mr. Von Noslin. Again, their applications are available for this body's review. For Fire and Public Safety Commission, we have Mr.

Perreborough as our nominee for the mayor. Housing advisory board, this is a brand new board. Again, Mr. Curtis' appointment came up for reappointment. So this is his name is off here for reappointment. Independent nomination board is still a relatively new board. We have three reappointees, Mr. Burns, Viella and Ms. Regina Gormley. Lanai Planning Commission, we have one nominee for the one vacancy, which is Mr. Leon. Liquor Control and Educational Board, we have two nominees. One, Mr. Kaleipopu is a reappointment. Liquor Control Commission, we are only going to be dealing with Ms.

Christine Silva today. The other nominee withdrew their application. For county commissions of persons with disabilities, we have two nominees. One, Ms. Mpuflo is a reappointment to the full five year term. County Cultural Resources Commission, we have Ms. Arakawa, who is also again reappointment for full five year term. My planning commission, we have two nominees, Ms. Komai, who will be representing the Waikapu residency area and Mr. Patau, who will be West Marion residency area representative.

My representative agency sorry, Mr. Lanius has a reappointment for a full five year term. Police Commission, we have one nominee, Mr. Shakley Raffetto from Upcountry for a five year term. Public Works Commission, we have two nominees, one of which is on reappointment, Mr. Delos Reyes for reappointment to a full five year term, and we have another appoint nominee who can fill the engineer position for this commission. For our property tax reviewer, we have one person for a five year term. And salary commission, have one nominee for a five year term. Thank you, Chair.

Thank you. Before discussion of members, let's go back to testimony. Staff, do we have anybody signed up to testify?

Chair, there is nobody who has signed up to testify. Would you like me to do

a last call? Please. If anybody's in the chamber and would like to testify, please let staff know. Or on Microsoft Teams, please raise your hand. This is final call. Three, two, one. Chair, it appears that nobody wishes to testify. Thank you. Members, seeing there are no individuals wishing to testify with your, with no objection, I will close oral testimony. Thank you. As a reminder, written testimony will continue to be accepted. Members, let's go into resolution 26 dash 30, please. This is for the commission on persons with disabilities. I know, we have mister Barbosa here. If you would like to join us in the front, sir.

Aloha. Good morning. My name is Frank Barbosa.

Thank you very much. Did you wanna do any other introduction, or did you wanna have the members, ask you questions?

Well, I just it's easier just to tell you guys a little about myself and all, the reason why I was interested in this persons with disability. Mhmm. Well, all my life, I was born and disabled, what kept on going through my daily activities and going to work and going to school. And I noticed as I grew up, there was a lot of people that I meet along the way with the with the disability, talking from the seventies all the way to present. And there's a lot of a lot of people out there that is left in the blind, left left left in the dark with the safety of our community, talking about infrastructure, housing, even the transportation with the growing community we have is getting tough out there.

And if I can give recommendations and make a change to make Maui safer for the disability, for the youngsters and and the elders. Because someday, everyone when you we're gonna need a lead well out there, and I noticed that every day, my changes out there the on the Kaneo Maui on the roads, it's very dangerous. So if you have any questions for me, I'm free to answer.

Thank you very much, Mr. Barbosa. Before we ask any questions, I would like to welcome Member Cook.

Thank you, Chair. Sorry for my lateness.

Thank you. You walked in at a great time. We just started. That was mister Barbosa, and he, is with the Commission on Persons with Disabilities. And so now we're gonna have the opportunity for our members to ask questions of our nominees. So if you have any questions, members, please raise your hand. And as a reminder, I'm gonna be deferring this one and all the rest, and we will approve on the council floor in the next council meeting. So if you have any questions, it is your opportunity to ask. We'll go with member Johnson. And member Senanci, you after?

Thank you, chair. Good good morning, mister, Barbosa. I've seen you testify before in the past. I've seen you in other meetings as well, and I really appreciate your willingness to serve. And here you are. You got the mic in your hand, and we we're gonna ask you some questions. I started my, journey in this when I sat on the commissions for Americans with disabilities. I it was a great time. And one of the things is we would do is we would go out and try to find issues that we saw or we we faced, and we would call the right department. It turns out I had to call the public department of public works for this issue or the the fire department for that issue.

So I'm curious if, you know, when you get appointed, when you get on this commission, what are some of your issues, and who do you think you should reach out to right as soon as you get started? Is there anybody in particular, any group, any division within the the county that you wanna address?

Well, I know a lot of people saw me out there speaking in these saw my board meetings in, in the past eight years or It's central. And, mainly, they're they're more for I mean, you hardly see blind people walking out there. You got a lot of disabled in wheelchairs and all that, but the safety of our roads.

I mean,

Hawaii That would be a priority? Yes. That will be a priority is because just crossing the high crossing the streets is difficult. Just we don't I know we have one voice activated, but it's not just for the blind or the disabled. What about the drivers out there? The beakers on the road that sees the drivers know there's there's someone in the crosswalk. I I feel that on transportation infrastructure side, that is a big that's a big deal. You know, also Yeah. Also, you're looking at the transportation. You know, we gotta figure out something.

I mean, I myself wait out there three, four hours Yeah. Just for the the handy handy handy boss or M. O. To come out to pick us up. And I've been out there with 91 year old ladies and 87 year old bands on life support system, oxygen system waiting. And it's it's tough. I'm young. And just to watch them out there, I suffer. I'm like, hey. Wait.

You know, we gotta somebody gotta step up to the plate. Somebody gotta go out there and get a voice because I hear I belong to a to a vibe pro group that that's persons with vision loss. And I'm I'm the youngest in there, and I hear a lot of the complaints complaints come come out. Out. And I always thought, why don't you guys go out there and voice your guys' opinion?

Be be of be be vocal because more the more out there is better than just one person trying to be the leader out there. But like I said, if if everyone looks up to me to try be on be on a board and try to speak and try to make a difference to make Maui safer, why not?

Yeah. Okay. Great. Thank you for your response. Thank you, chair.

Thank you, member Johnson. Member Sanente, your question.

Thank you, chair. Mister Barbosa answered my my question. So I'm happy to support your

And And

I

you so much for your passion, your obvious passion in sitting on this commission and your willingness to to serve our community in this capacity. My question is about your attendance. You foresee any reason, or, you think you'll be able to make all the meetings?

Well, I

should. The the only downfall that I have is if the transportation is gonna be there on time. The disability boss, like I said, I can be I can make an appointment, and they can tell me, oh, I'm sorry. You don't have a you're not on the list for them. We don't have a boss for you. They have only seven drivers out there. As I speak, as of today, they're always notified. We need more services out there. I can walk from Kihei. I don't mind.

But I tell you what, I walk past the highway to South Kihei Road to catch a city bus, and I brought that to Kelly King's attention. And when when she was there on the Sao Mori board, we tried everything, and they did they did allocate money for reroute the bus service so the disability boss can can pick me up in my area. But somehow, the money was taken away, and you can ask transportation why. I heard it from them. I was just hoping that they could see the the the real downfall, what what we lack, what does it take to make it safer for?

Not just even the visitors. You know? Not just the residents. Not just the disabled. Not just the youngsters. But we got visitors. This this is our travel industry over here. Maui is a travel industry. Beautifying the island is one thing, but making it safe is another. But going back to your question, will I make it there? If I get the emails, I'll be there.

Okay. Mahalo for your response to my question and with budget come budget session coming up, we can look into that funding. Mahalo. Mahalo, chair.

Thank you, member Rollins Fernandez. Before we move on, I'm gonna welcome member Palton. She's in person now. Thank you. Thank you. Members, does anybody else have any other questions? Mister member Cook.

Thank you, mister Barboza, for your willingness. Definitely can support you. I had the opportunity with my aide, Jared, to walk with you, and it was, very enlightening. And, requesting sidewalks, requesting expanded service is something we'll continue to do. And, hopefully, you're on the board. You'll be able to assist in making that happen.

Thank you, member Cook. Members, any other questions? Thank you very much.

Yeah. I just wanted say thank you to I think his name was Jared, mister Cook's. I guess he's he works with him. Yes. A couple months ago, I walked across a sidewalk along the old Safeway. And, you know, the trees don't grow overnight. It takes years. And I headbutted a tree between right into the the walkway. I took pictures of it. Didn't know who to reach out to.

Like that gentleman said earlier, who do you who do you call? So I was the only one I knew to call was mister Cook's number because I had well, up in the county building and filed a complaint, and they got it done. And I I kinda appreciate it because I walked there a second time. I'm like, oh, man. Was it was you know? At least I'm not the only one out there, but, like I said, there's more out there. Hopefully, they can testify in meetings and all, make a difference for Maui County. Thank you so much.

Thank you so much. Members, I don't believe we have miss Linda Popolo. If aloha, Seabury. Bye. Thank you for joining us.

Miss Popalo, are you online? If not, members, she is a reappointment, so So it's a reup. Okay. I don't think she's here. So for now, thank you, mister Barbosa. Members, I did implement a three minute timeline if I'm sorry. I didn't say that earlier, but it's quite standard. If there are no objections, I'm now gonna defer this item. Members, again, we're gonna be voting on it. Oh, we're all in one item. Okay. No wonder it's highlighted. Okay. Just letting you guys know. Yes. Member Shukumar, did

you have anything you wanted to add? So, Linda Popolo is not here, but I have worked with her in community, and she's she works with the AIDS Foundation. She's a very giving person and has a big heart, always taking care of all her family members and whatever. So I totally support someone with that character to be on this board.

Thank you. Thank you for that. Member Johnson?

Yeah. I'll also add to that. I know Linda well, but I I think she's has a bit of a health issue within her family, so that might be why she's excused right now. But the point is she's she's a great worker, and she she knows the county inside of Moa. I think she'd be great. Thank you, chair.

Thank you for that. Members, any other questions? If not, we'll move on to the next item. Ready? Okay. We're gonna be moving on to animal control board. So we have before us, miss Hornack and mister Resenberger. Aloha, miss Hornak. Would you like Aloha. To aloha. Would you like to please introduce yourself, and then the members will have an opportunity to ask you questions?

Thank you. Thank you again for having me here. And I know I'm not allowed to vote, but I know Linda very well, and she's an amazing person. And and she gives everything when she she does something. So, anyways, a little testimonial for her. My name is Wendy Hornack. I've been on Maui since '99. My kids were born and raised here. Avid animal lover. I have dogs and cats, and I just recently started a nonprofit to provide affordable spay and neuter for dogs and cats.

I'm working with Maui Humane Society, the Good Cat Network, a couple other organizations to make that happen. And as I've been getting more and more involved in this area, I know that there's a lot of issues with the animal control when it comes to, like, dangerous animals and what to do on different situations. And I feel a lot of it is partially education. The community sometimes doesn't know what to do. There's maybe steps that we could have most TSAs out there to recommend like don't walking your dogs off leash, what's just in college, how it can happen, things to better security at home and just a lot of different things that we would sometimes take for common sense, but just sometimes people don't know.

So I feel like if there was more support or places where people could get more understanding and maybe ask questions and come to us with situations and maybe these could be avoidable and we could be proactive versus reactive when it comes to these types of animal issues. So being a passionate person, living on Maui for a long time now, having animals of my own and getting really involved in animal communities just, makes me want to learn more and help more wherever I can. So thank you for your time today. I appreciate it.

Thank you. Members, do you guys have any questions you would like to ask miss Hornak? Member Balton.

Thank you, miss Hornak, for your willingness to serve. You know, initially, I thought the animal control board was about all sorts of animals and then later found out it's just about dangerous dog appeals and adjudication. And, you know, so in July 1, the the name will be changed to that. But do you have any issues with that just being the only role is dangerous dog appeals and adjudications?

No. I do not. I do feel like there needs to be a lot more dog awareness, and there's not a lot of focus on that. So I'm actually, more than happy to be focusing on dogs.

And, how's your relationship with the or if you have any relationship with the Humane Society?

My relationship is very good with them. Right now, I partnered with them to help them with their next clinic for greater good, where they do the big four day mass clinic in July. They were having problems finding a location on the West Side. I was able to work with Maui School. They're gonna allow us to do it there. They're really excited to support it as well. They also need help with, like, volunteers. So I I have a lot of volunteers in my pool being a Rotarian and doing a lot of community service on this island. So I'm able to bring new faces to them. And they helped me out with my first bay and neuter clinic on providing me microchips at a really low rate.

So we're right now in talks of doing more clinics and stuff together. But as of right now, our relationship is really good.

Great. Thank you. Thank you, chair. Of course. Thank you. Sorry. My eyes are dilated. That's why. I'm not just only trying to look cool. Did

you have to go, do the testing? Yeah. Everything is super bright when you have to dilate your eyes. Members, any other questions do we have? Member Rollins Fernandez, are you gonna ask your standard three questions?

Mahalo, chair. Yes. She responded to, again, two of the three of them. Aloha, miss Vernak. Mahalo for your willingness to serve on the animal control board. The question that I didn't hear that maybe if you could respond to is your ability to attend all the meetings.

Absolutely. I will be more than happy to attend them either in person or via Teams. I apologize. Whoever was letting me in today had let me in, like, 10 times because my computer, of course, decided it didn't wanna play nice. So it was anyway so I'm on my phone. But, yes, I will make sure I can attend either way, and I plan on being at all the meetings.

Oh, perfect. Of

course. Thank you. Members, does anybody else have any questions for miss Hornak? Okay. Thank you so much, miss Hornak. I look forward to Thank you all for your you the you in a few days. Do we have mister James Rensberger? No. He's not with us right now. Okay. It is a reappointment, member, so I just wanted to let you folks know. Okay. Let's move on.

Chair?

Hi.

I just had a a quick question and and thank you for the staff for printing out the boards, commissions, and committees.

Yes.

Or maybe for miss, Yukari. On on some of the list, there's, and thank you for it color coded. There's vacancy, and then there's also that the mayor has not submitted a name in blue. Are those if Yukari can miss Marcomi can.

Expedite Yukari, did you want

to answer? Yes. And I believe Director Rats has sent a memo to all council members for some of those seats that says that the mayor did not submit a name. The council is free to nominate a person for that position. So I guess the requirements would be one name for one seat per council member for those one that says Mayor D does submit a nominee. That's council action. There's some, I think, just to be clear, there are some where it's just unilateral, like, mayor only appointments, so that goes back to mayor and IMB. But otherwise

Okay. Thank you for that clarification, chair.

Yes. Of course. Some are mayor only and some are council only, but in this, format, we do see the ones that the mayor has not provided, a name for. There's a couple committees that, well, we won't have anybody to appoint today or or rather in a few days.

Member Paul did. I just had another, clarification question. All the reappointments are folks that didn't previously serve the full term. Is that correct?

I believe so, but maybe miss Yukari That's correct.

Yes. Okay. Just double check me.

Yep. Okay. So we were on mister James, who is not here with us today. And, again, he is a reappointment. So we will move on to the board of ethics. And we have mister Tanaka. Do we have mister Tanaka here? Aloha, mister Tanaka. If you would like to introduce yourself, and then the members will have their opportunity to ask questions. Okay. Hi. My name

is Brian Tanaka. I've been on I've been here on Maui for ten years now. My wife is from Makawao, so

that's

why we're here. I'm originally from Oahu, but I have a small law practice in Wailuku where we do injury law. And just having been here ten ten years now, I just felt like this would be a good time to get involved with the community. So that's

why

I applied for this, board.

Thank you. Members, any questions? Member Palton.

Thank you, mister Tanaka, for your willingness to serve. I just was wondering. I'm I I I don't know the answer, but do you foresee that there could potentially be any conflict of interest?

You know, I don't really see that. I mean, I I do injury law, so I work with, you know, individual people on injury cases. So I can't I don't really see that being an issue. I don't have any cases or anything against the county right now. So I I don't see that.

Okay. Thanks. Yeah. I didn't know it was injury law. Thank you.

You, member Bolton. Any other questions do we have? Member Cook.

Thank you, Mr. Tanaka. You served on other boards before?

I have not. This is my first time. So would you have do you have the time where you would commit and Yeah, I believe so. I understand it's once a month. Basically, the meeting is on the second Wednesday and basically all afternoon. And I think I can make that work. I have a lot of flexibility with my practice, so I don't foresee that being an issue.

Thank you. Because that's one of the big issues and concerns that we have on the boards and commissions is quorum so that people who do serve can make the commitment and come. So, anyway, thank you for answering the questions. Thank you.

Thank you, member Cook. Any other member Rollins Fernandez?

Yes. Hi.

Mahalo, chair. Aloha, mister Chanakah. Mahalo for your willingness to contribute back to the community. Member Cook asked one of my questions, and then another question is that I usually ask all the nominees is to share your experience with the board event that you have.

Sorry. What was that? Just share my experience

established. No.

Not your screen. I don't know what that sound.

No. No.

If you could share your experience, the experience that you have at the board board of ethics, like, if you ever attended any of the meetings or watched a recording or checked out the meeting minutes.

Yeah. Yeah. I did check out the meeting minutes, and I did watch the meetings, a couple of them. From what I understand, it's a quasi judicial board. So I feel like as an attorney, that may be helpful on my know it deals with complaints and issues about conflicts and things like that. So I think that's something I could definitely learn and be able to help the board make a decision.

Are you aware of the transition or growth that the Board of Ethics is going through?

Exactly. Yeah, exactly. So I do know Lauren Akitake, who's the executive director. And I understand that her office has done a lot, and I've seen all the news articles and everything. So from what I understand, having them is going to allow the board to do more in terms of various rules and all that. So I think that's a good thing.

Awesome. And then my last question is just if you could share with us a little about how you envision contributing to the Board of Ethics?

Yeah. I think since this is my first time or would be my first time on a Board, I understand there are some really good leaders on that Board with Mr. Lilly and everyone. So think I kind of followed their lead to begin with, but think I'll be able to pick it up relatively quickly and contribute whatever I can.

Awesome. Mahalo for your willingness to serve, Ms. Dodka. Appreciate it.

You. Thank you, member Alice Fernandez. Members, any other questions before we move on to our next nominee? Singh Nan, thank you very much, mister Tanaka.

Thank you.

Thank you. We also have mister Tomoso. Are you online? And if so, can you please turn on your camera or if you are in person? Nope. Don't see anybody moving. Is he online? Do we see him?

Okay. Mister Tomoso I'm here, but it does it doesn't allow me to open my camera.

Oh, you're logged in

to device? To the icon Mhmm. It just it doesn't allow me. So I don't know. Okay.

Well, we can hear you. Hear me? We can hear you.

We can we can go with that. We can hear you. If you would like to introduce yourself, and then the members will have an opportunity to ask you questions.

Yeah. My name is John Tomoso. A lot of people call me because John is a boring name. Uh-huh. I actually served in this capacity at the time.

The nomenclature was the commission on ethics under the administration of, mayor Lingle. This was back in the early to mid-90s. And then I had to quit my term because I had to declare a conflict because I was involved in some advocacy efforts that was determined that I, first of all, determined to be conflictual, and then it it was then they said, yeah. Maybe you better resign, so I did. And I'm a retired civil servant.

I I work for the county, actually. And I retired in, oh, twenty o eight. And then I joined the nonprofit sector and I worked in nonprofits for another ten years. So I've been retired since 2020. I also just retired as priest of the Episcopal Diocese of Hawaii, just in August.

So I'm unfettered with a caseload because I'm a retired social worker, and then I'm also unfettered with a parochial load because I have no parish. So I guess right now, I do have time, although I'm pursuing a doctorate right now in theology. And the idea here is that I'm online with that. So it's a hybrid. So I right after this meeting, I have a meeting to attend to in Denver online.

So I do have time. I come to this Board with a sense of what is right and what is wrong. I also come to this board with the idea that there is a certain set of principles and values that I think has to also be elevated to our government in that our government is representative of the people. And in that regard, I government not only has to be somewhat transparent like today, like now, but also understand that there are certain morals and values that in the secular world need to be elevated, that we ourselves in our private lives also elevate. Elevate.

Of course, being a priest, morality and ethics are are are constant, with me. I I I was just at the hospital because I'm a chaplain at the hospital, and this patient at the ICU wanted to talk to me about what is right and wrong as she said she's preparing to to go to God. And I said, okay. Let let's talk about right and wrong. And it was a conversation that kind of told me that, okay, so morality and values, right and wrong, are everyday kind of realities. Thank you.

Thank you very much. Members, any questions for Mr. Tomoso? Shirley.

Hi, John. How are you doing?

Oh, aloha, Alice. Aloha, ma'am. I'm I'm fine. Boy, you're looking young. I'm looking old, actually. So

I can't see you, so I can't tell.

But you now. My hair is gone. I don't have hair.

Thank you. Oh, yeah. I have to tell my my colleagues that you're a very versatile person, versatile and talented. Remember the days where when when I do all the comedy skits? Sometimes you were Santa Claus, and sometimes you were the tutu. Remember? I mean, I know that. So you you do feel that you have time to to work on this committee on a regular basis. Right?

Yes. Yes. I do. In fact, I'm I'm on a current, board and commission of of the of the county, but that that term is I'm terming out on that. And, so this is my next gig, so to speak, in in in in serving the community at the civic governmental level.

I I I really believe, Alex, like, know, I really believe in government. You know, government is so important, and it it it helps us with a quality of life, but also helps us with a common life. And let's say that morality and values, right and wrong, those are common, those are realities coming to everyone up and down. Thank you. Well,

look forward to having you serve on the commission and thank you for your

service. You're welcome. Aloha, hui hou. Aloha.

Thank you, chair. Thank you, chair. Thank you. Members, any other questions? Singh nod. Thank you so much, mister Tomoso. Good luck on your next meeting.

Thank you. Aloha.

Aloha, chair. Yes. I just had

a question. Before we vote on these, can somebody make sure all of the applications are signed and dated? Sure. I think one was not dated, one was not signed that I saw. Okay. We will Yukari will double check it. She's been voluntold right now. Thank

you for that. Alright, members. Moving on to civil service commission. We have before us just one nominee, miss Sarah Pajimola. She is a reappointment. Is she online? No? Okay. Well, she's not online with us right now, and then she happens to come in in the next few minutes. I do believe we all know her quite well, and we know, how dedicated she is not only to this commission, but to all other aspects of our local and county government.

So we will continue to see her name, and we will move on. And we will see her in, full council. So let's move on to commission on children and youth. We have before us two people, miss Carla Ray Kutaka and miss Catherine Madares. Both of them are reappointments. So let's begin with miss Kutaka. If you would like to introduce yourself again and allow the members an opportunity to ask you questions. Thank you.

My name is Kayla Kutaka. I was born and raised on Maui. I am an educator, special education teacher, behavioral health clinician. I hold a degree in education as well as I'm endorsed by the Association for Infant and Early Childhood Mental Health. I respectfully request consideration for reappointment to this commission.

I'm deeply committed to continuing the important work that is underway, including, elevating youth voices within our commission discussions, strengthening awareness of mandated reporting responsibilities for child abuse and neglect prevention, expanding legislative knowledge amongst our commissioners, and engaging intentionally with our community to better understand what those risk understand and respond to what those emerging needs might be. Since the start of my appointment, I have maintained consistent attendance at all commission meetings, and I anticipate no issues with those bad attendance moving forward. I'm honored to serve our county as to you all, and appreciate your time and consideration. Mahalo.

Thank you so much, and thank you so much for reapplying. Members, any questions do you have for mister Kotaka? Just appointed her to this board, if you don't remember, on 11/21/2025, so not too long ago. Any questions, member Palton? You

you also gave us the presentation, I think, in members of Nancy's committee. Is that true? Mhmm. Oh, great job on that. Thank you.

That was me. Thank you so much. Appreciate it.

Mhmm. Any questions for miss Kutaka? Member, Rollins Fernandez.

Aloha, chair. Aloha, miss Kataka. Mahalo for your, willingness to continue serving on this commission. You sound like you're doing incredible work. How do we get more of you?

I very much appreciate that, and I'm I'm really looking forward to to moving the commission ahead and doing all I can do to support there. Absolutely. Mahalo. Mahalo, chair.

Thank you, member Rollins Fernandez. Thank you, miss Kotaka. I don't think we have any other questions. I don't wanna speak on behalf of everybody, but I think we'll be happy to support. Thank you. Miss Maderas, are you on with us? Is she on with us? Miss Bandarissa, if you wouldn't mind, unmuting your camera. Okay. I think you're on soon. Aloha. Aloha. If you would like to introduce yourself, and then the members will have an opportunity to ask you questions.

Yes. So I am Mumi Medeiros. I work at Maui Family Support Services. I supervise two programs, one of which is our youth services program. And within that program, I teach middle school and high school students how to remain drug free, hopefully, through adulthood. And I do that on the island of Maui and Molokai. I have been a member of the Commission on Children and Youth for three years, and this is a reappointment.

Thank you, and thank you for your willingness to serve again on this commission. Members, any questions you have for miss Medeiros? I don't see any questions. Thank you so much, miss Medeiros. I appreciate you. Thanks.

You too.

Member did somebody see me? Okay. None. Okay. Let's move on to conservation planning committee. I do believe that we had one person on, miss Michelle Gold, but I don't believe she is with us today. She is a reappointment members. We did put her on not too long ago. Let me see. 05/2323.

So she's been on there for three years. She would be if if we do reconsider her, her appointment would go until the twenty ninth. But she is not with us right now, so we will vote on her like rest the of everybody else at council meetings. Moving on. Let's go to the council of aging.

And if let me see. At the end of the agenda. This one with the council of aging. Okay. We're gonna do the council of aging last. Let me put a little bookmark there, and let's move on to the fire and public safety. Okay. Do we have mister Peribaro? How do we is that how I say his name?

Yes. Here, vice chair. Yes.

Okay. Great. Thank you. Could you please introduce yourself? And then, again, the members will have an opportunity to ask you questions.

Sure. My name is Daryl Perrabora. Would like to say, firstly, that I'm honored to be nominated by mayor Bisson and appreciate the council's time today in, considering my application. You know, I've been in Maui now going on twelve years, full time since before the pandemic. I volunteered to become a CERT, which is a community emergency response team member.

I was certified May before the fires, and my first deployment was a resiliency and recovery effort here in Lahaina. And then I became a mentor for First Tee Hawaii with the kids children, keiki, to learn and play golf and teach her about other things other than golf, actually. Just here to work hard and try to make a difference. You know, being a transplant, I understand all of the complexities now of being here for many years. And I think I can bring kind of a willingness to collaborative work with people within the committee as well as the departments that we're going to be overseeing, I guess, or working with.

That's it.

Thank you very much. Members, any questions? Member Bolton.

Thank you, chair. Thank you, Mr. Pierburl. I hope I said that okay. Oh, that's fine. Okay. For your willingness to serve, just one point. I know it's called the Fire and Public Safety Commission, but you're aware that you also have the oversight of the Maui Emergency Management Agency?

Yes. And and I understand there could be conflicts there, and I would've if I'm elected or appointed to the board, I'd have to bring that up, obviously, to the chair and all the other members. And, you know, it was kind of interesting that I did get recommended for this commission, but I'm, you know, I'm willing to step away when if there's any kind of issues. I'll just listen to, you know, whether it's ethics or whoever's decision on whether or not I can make a vote or decide on certain things for sure.

Okay. Yeah. I didn't think necessarily there would be a conflict because you're a volunteer, and it may be beneficial that you you're aware of the, how it works. But I believe that you folks, review the budgets as well before it goes to the mayor, before it comes to us, and it might be this year because the mayor is already doing his budget. But you don't have any issue with that?

No. No. I don't. I I feel that, you know, through my personal business experience over the many years that I've been, you know, self employed that, you know, I think my integrity and honesty will show through. And I'm you know, obviously, I can only say it. You know, I don't know how to prove that, but, you know, willing to definitely be pragmatic, I guess, and and listen to everything and then decide on whether or not I feel that's right or not. Just be honest.

Thank you. And and I I didn't mean to imply that there would be a conflict

of interest. No. No.

Because

Yeah. No.

There's no financial interest in being a volunteer to help your community in in my opinion. But I'm I'm not the expert, but I just wanted to clarify. I didn't I don't think that

there is. Oh, none taken. Thank you very much for your question.

Members, any other questions do we have for this nominee? Member Rollins Fernandez, thank you.

Mahalo, chair. Just just the one question, about attendance, but I think I know the answer. But, aloha, mister Pierogoro. Mahalo for your your willingness to serve on this commission and for being cert certified and all your contributions to the community, particularly Lahaina after the fire. But that that's my question, and I I particularly love your self awareness and just owning who you are and the attributes you have.

Oh, thank you very much. And, no, you know, I do own my own business, and the question came up when the INB initially interviewed me. I'm basically, how do I say, fly at a very high level so I can dictate my travel schedule. And I know this commissioner board meets on the fifteenth of every month, and I can definitely schedule anything around that for sure. I have that ability to do so.

Awesome. Mahalo for your response, and mahalo for your willingness to continue serving the community. Mahalo. Mahalo, chair. Thank you. Can you please do me a favor and pronounce your last name so I can hear it? So when I say it, I attempt to say it correctly.

Yeah. Everyone was close. It's Periboro.

Periboro. Okay. Thank you very much. Members, any other questions? Seeing none, thank you very much for your willingness to serve. I appreciate your time. Thank you. Thank you. You. Let's move on to our housing advisory board, and I do see our nominee with his camera on. So if you would like to please introduce yourself again, I know you are a reappointment. And then, again, the members will have an opportunity to ask you questions. Aloha, Mr. Curtis.

Thank you, vice chair. Bill Curtis, I was appointed this is a new board. We haven't met yet, but I took the first one year term of all the staggered terms, so this would be a reappointment after my first year. I do have the ability to attend. I have not observed any of the board meetings because there haven't been any yet.

But I look forward to, if if I'm retained, to kind of set up the the initial phases of this board. And experience would be as a general contractor in the in the county of Maui for the past many years. 1988 is when I first started doing the we did a residential construction in Kauai for a Maui company called JDH. We did homes in Pocacollo. We did the masters, more of a high end up in Lahaina.

And that was in order to stay employed on Maui, construction's a cyclical industry, and you I've had the opportunity to bounce to work with very different companies over the years. I've done a lot of health care, done a

lot of

residential, done a bit of commercial. One of my projects right now is Hale Opeikea. We're just wrapping that up, the affordable rentals. We are I work for the subcontractor that does the that. That.

And

that's where I think I might be able

to do add value to the board. And

Thank you, Mr. Cardes. Members, any questions? Member Walton.

Thank you. Thank you for your willingness to serve, so much, like, multiple times. The previous one to this board, were you on the board of ethics? Was that the one?

Yeah. I'm currently on the salary commission. That is not a very heavy load. So I don't see this additional board being I expect this one might be a little more intense. And I did do five years at the Board of Ethics, and I think I made all but three or four meetings in those five years.

Right on. Thank you so much for all the years of service, to Maui County.

When it gets moved away, gotta do something.

Thank you, member Palton. Members, any other questions? Member Collins Fernandez, followed by mister Cook. Member Cook.

Mahalo, chair. And for the disclaimer, both my babies are home. K. So mahalo, mister Credits, for anticipating all my questions and providing the responses to all of them. I get I just have one question. Oh, wait. You said you didn't meet on this yet. Wait. So I guess I I I was a little confused. Has has this, committee met yet? The housing advisory board hasn't met yet?

We have not had our first meeting. I did get a call from director Mitchell four weeks ago, and he said he would be setting up a date soon, but we don't have forum yet. So I don't think that's why they've set a meeting from what he said. Anyway, we we we no meetings yet, but we hope to have an initial one possibly before my term expires next month.

So, the reason, you've the the board has never met is because you folks haven't ever had

quorum? That well, let

me I know the answer. I spoke to mister Mitchell, and it's a policy board, and he hasn't had a policy to, convene them. I'm writing one legislation he thought would be a good reason to convene them, but it hasn't yet been introduced. So he said he was gonna convene them on the legislation that I'm writing. But until there's, like, a policy decision like that, he hasn't, that's what he said mister Mitchell said to me when I went back and forth on the legislation. Was providing that, oh, this would be a good policy for the policy board to weigh in on.

Mahalo, member Bolton. Mahalo, mister Credits. I'm happy to support your reappointment. Mahalo, chair.

Thank you, member Owens Fernandez. Sorry. I was texting my daughter. Members, any other oh, member Cook.

Thank you, chair. Thank you, mister Curtis, for willing to serve. You do have a a wealth of experience to share. Do you have any ideas on the top of your head that might be able to work with the board to solve some of our housing?

My initial thoughts were

to

we've got public have a public and a private segment to the board meetings. There's a lot of work that you do in the public sector for funding housing and all that. And I was just also wanting to open up the door to how can we help the private sector build housing as well as maybe streamline if we could get preapproved house plans for just normal people. I understand the review process that's needed for the high end and the oceanfront, and that takes time. But just to when in the past, when we did Paco Colo, I I pulled 30 building permits all at once, and they were basically three floor plans.

And it was we did that on Kauai. We did the multifamily on Lanai, right below Kauai Lodge back when Pineapple was shutting down. And I just remember a day when building basic houses, the permitting was a lot more streamlined, I guess, is the way to say it. And then even we switched over to a new permitting system. If you look at the Big Island, they're on the same system that we have.

But the permitting department provides feedback to the public as to how many permits are in the system, how many new came in that month, how many were released that month. And there's some metrics that that software may be able to provide that we could implement here to just create a little more transparency between the permitting office and the public. Those are

just a few thoughts. No.

Thank for sharing that because I see a lot of heads nodding. We're we're excited. So thank you for your serving on the board, and I'm hopeful that we can get some ideas and solutions. Thank you, sir.

Thank you, member Cook. Member Johnson.

Thank you, chair. Mister Curtis, you brought up something that is close to me because you mentioned you worked on that on the apartment complex below Logicale that's called Evioli. I lived lived there for many years, raised my daughter in those apartments. So something is wrong with this system when we could build homes and apartments like that then quicker, streamlined, and then now there's problems where it's not streamlined. And now more than ever, we need those apartments like Evioli.

We need those affordable homes like all the list that you went down. But I appreciate that. I just wanted to bring that up. Thank you. We seem to be going backwards, and I think your opinions on policy are valued on this commission. Thank you, Chuck.

That project was very similar to the Ponokawaii Apartment Buildings, and I believe it was the same designers. It was

Thank you. Perfect. Thank you. Thank you very much. Members, any other questions?

Sorry. Seeing none, thank you very much, Mr. Curtis. Thank you for your willingness to serve. Bye. Okay. Moving on. We're gonna do the independent, nomination board, and then we're gonna take a five minute recess. Okay? So we have I do see Dwight here in person. If you would like to come up to the podium and then you can introduce yourself and the members will have an opportunity to ask you questions.

Good afternoon, Chair. Good afternoon, Councilmembers. Thwy Burns, lifelong Maui resident. What else you guys, like, know about me? You I pretty much know all of you. So last year, as you all know, I retired. So it gives me more time to spend on, serving on boards and commissions. Currently serving on the INB and looking forward to continue serving on the INB. It's much different from the fire commission, I gotta say that. It's a whole different animal on the INB.

We spend myself and the our my fellow board members spend hours, especially when we gotta interview, applicants. Sometimes four hours, sometimes maybe longer. But, I just wanted to say that each and every one of the board members that I serve with our I serve with our chair, vice chair of Yalla, who you guys will be seeing in a little bit, and our former I mean, fellow board member, Gina Brownlee, they all do an incredible job, all of them across the board. And we always make sure that we have quorum so we can serve and make sure that we get these applicants move through to the next deciding agency, which is you guys. So looking forward to continue serving on the INB.

Thank you, Dwight. Thank you, mister Burns. Member Sugimura, thank you.

So good to see you.

Same here.

Yeah. You enjoying your retirement, but good you're gonna do this.

Yeah.

So I totally support you. I know that everything you do, you do an exceptional job. Mhmm. And your heart is at the right place. So thank you very much for caring, and this is a very important commission.

It is. Thank you for that comment.

Thank you.

Thank you, member Sokimura. Member Palton. Thank you, chair.

Thank you, mister Burns, for your willingness to serve. I just wanted to clarify what you said about you make the choice and then move it on to us. The the mayor does the the mayor, like, ratify your choice before it comes to us, or does it come straight from you folks to us?

Are you aware? That would be one Yukari question. Question.

Oh, okay. Okay.

Sorry. But I'm pretty sure we always would say, like, the next appointing people would be you guys.

Oh. The council. Do you

know

Yukari? Interviews and stuff like

that.

Interview and select people. Does the mayor have to, like, ratify it or something before he comes

to us? Well, it depends if it's direct consult appointments. They either go straight to this body. If not, then, yeah, it will go through the mayor, and the mayor will pick from the list to come to here for the nominee. Mhmm.

Okay. Got it. Thank you. Thank you.

You're welcome.

Members, any other questions? If not, I do have a couple, but I'll hold my questions for the members to have an opportunity first. Member Rollins Fernandez.

Mahalo, chair. Aloha, mister Burns. Mahalo for your willingness to continue serving in the INB, and, mahal for answering all my questions before I ask them.

Mahalo, chair. Oh, thank you. Thank you. Remember, go go ahead.

Thank you, mister Burns. From your experience, what's your what's your pulse of people volunteering? And, willing to volunteer, any concerns about people volunteering? Can you share anything about that?

I could.

I I actually could. Some people, their heart is in it. They do wanna serve the community, and we see that and we hear that. Some people don't mean to offend anybody, but you can kinda see the hidden agendas if you listen good enough and pay attention to the reasonings why they like why they wanna serve. So we like I said, the people I serve with on the board do a tremendous job. Everybody ask the right questions. Our chair, sometimes we know we don't even have to ask ask questions because she does it all. Jenny is incredible. But, I hope that answers your question.

No. No. You know what?

Thank you very much because it actually it, like, definitely answered it because the board is doing the job to kinda filter everybody to different positions.

They are. They are. We spend extra time actually trying to, you know, make sure that we're putting the right people in the right place on the right boards. Like, if somebody applies for this specific commissioner board and there's no opening for them, but because of the background that they share with us and what we read of their, you know, their what they bring to the table, they would be on good fit for another board. So we would ask them if they would be willing to serve on this board or commission because this one is full. Yeah. We try our best.

Thank you, member Cook. Thank you, mister Burns. You are our first nominee that we have before this commission that we get to reappoint somebody to the INB. And it was a little bit of a struggle getting that board and commission or the INB board off and running. Do you have any advice, for us or suggestions for us that we can better help you folks on that board?

Oh, that's a good question.

You don't have to necessarily answer now. I don't know, like like, point fingers, but I'd be happy to talk to you if you if you wanna answer it in private.

So for me, I just I think just about close to a year being on this board. Mhmm. But my next next two fellow board members could probably answer that better than

I could.

Yeah. I'm gonna, like Sure. Mess it up.

Sure. Thank you. I appreciate that. We do not have miss, Gormley here with us, but, I I believe we have mister Viella. That's how you say his name?

Yeah. They're more seasoned than I am.

So Okay.

They probably

I will ask that. Thank you. Thank you, Dwight. Members, any other questions we have for mister Burns?

If we ever call them. Oh, I'm sorry. It's not for mister Burns. I'm not sure if it's for your committee staff or miss Murakami. I just was wondering why the application, some of them are different information

on it. Again, I think it's the what version of the application. It was some of them may be an older version. So if that's the case, then we can try and get ahold of

the applicants and nominees and get them to do a updated. Okay. Because it's it's kind of weird. Sorry. Not not for you. But it's kinda weird that some applications have certain information, and some applications don't have that same information. And it's like, shouldn't we be, like, grading everyone by the same criteria? And and it's just I I don't I I don't think I'm OCD, but it doesn't seem right. Yeah.

So we'll look look at the applications, and miss Yoshida and

I can work on getting the updated applications. Yeah. So the the most information should be on both applications. Applications. Like, if one application has employment and then the other one doesn't have employment or it's, like, you know, it's incomplete information. You know what I'm saying? Like, if you fill out one application, you have all this information. But if you filled out a different in you have different information. So it it doesn't doesn't seem right to me.

Yeah. We'll look into that, and then we can provide data.

Thank you. Thank you. Can I ask a follow-up question to Member Palton's question? Which one is the most recent one? Like for instance, I'm looking at Mr. Burns' application and to elaborate on member Palton's, like, concern about consistency. One of the questions that we ask on one of the applications is length of residency. And for mister Burns, it's his answer was Life, which I can appreciate. And then the next one, it doesn't have that. So which one is the the newer one?

So I believe, mister Burns's one is the newer one.

Okay. Okay. Thank you.

And then on the next one, it has employment history and like that. And then his one doesn't have that one.

Correct. The the new application does not have that employment. In this one, I think it might be on the other page, the confidential page, maybe.

And then how do we see the like, are we not allowed to see

that page? No. You should get that as well, but it'll be separate. So

k. We haven't received it.

And We'll check on that, Then I'll check with I'd

like to receive it before we have to vote.

Okay. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you, member Palton. Member Collins Fernandez.

Chair and mahalo member Palton for bringing that up. I was wondering the same thing. So miss Gormley, she signed her application in 2023.

Mhmm.

So it looks like they just recycled the old application.

Mhmm.

And then mister Viella signed well, it's not signed, but it's dated 01/21/2026. And maybe that one was one of the ones that member Polton saw that wasn't signed because I don't see a signature on that one. Yeah. And then mister Burns was signed in 2025. I I haven't received the confidential form either. I don't know what we're calling that one, but all the information. So maybe when we take the recess, we can get it.

I have to ask if that's gonna be emailed at the restart recess or not. But if it's if so, then we'll get that to you.

If not, then Okay. Follow-up. Yeah. Thank you for that. Yeah. If we can get it during this next section of our meeting, we would appreciate it. But if not, before the meeting would be okay too. We have one more person, and then we're gonna do a time out. Miss, Gormley is not with us right now. So we're going to just take our last person, before our break with mister Chad Viella. If you are on, please turn on your camera. Is he on with us? No. Is he with us in person? No? Okay. He's being promoted right now.

Aloha, members.

Aloha. Aloha.

Aloha. You can you folks hear me okay?

We can hear you. We can see you.

K. Great. So so apologies. I'm we're we're still in our outage protocol in line. If my Uh-oh. Our WiFi is kind of spotty. So if I go in and out, let me know.

Okay. Thank you. Did you want to introduce yourself and then the members can have an

My name is Chad Beale. I'm currently an independent nomination board member for two years now. So it feels like although we've done a lot on the board, you know, it feels like there's a lot more to be done. And, you know, we're kind of relatively new. You know, we're kind of hitting our stride right now. So, it feels like, you know, there's more to be done. So, I reapplied.

Thank you very much. Members, any questions you have for mister Viella? I can I ask you what I asked mister Burns? How can we support you? I know that, like you said, you guys are hitting your stride, and I really appreciate that. It was a little bumpy at first. How can how can we better support you?

Just patience. You know, it's a daunting task. You know, we have, what, 43, 42 boards and commissions, several 100 people. A lot of moving parts. We're an additional layer of oversight of course.

And the process actually takes longer than pre INB I understand. You know a lot of people resign. Come fall we pick up speed. We hold meetings weekly sometimes for three, four hours. Just patience and understand that we're trying to find good people, put round pig, round sticks and round holes and try to get everybody we can because at the end we need all the help we can get and we're trying to find the brightest and the best you know to help out the county, help out the people, which I'm passionate about.

That's a lot of work, but just some patience that we try hard. We have nine members that put in a lot of time, very dedicated. That's pretty much it. I think we're doing good. Again, two years I don't think is enough. Put in a few more. I think we got a lot more to do and then see how it goes.

Thank you very much. I look forward to supporting you now and a few more times, if what you want to do. Member Senenze.

Hello, Chair. And hello, Mr. Viella for being able wanting to continue on this Board. And I can hear of some of the frustration. We live in East Maui. We have a limited pool of volunteers, and so we're constantly looking to fill. I I was just curious. Does the board go out to recruit? What's your recruitment, try and get more people to volunteer?

Yes. So part of the charter rules, recruitment is part of our duties. So there are different things that we've been discussing as a body to recruit people of course. Media, there's certain events that we've attended, the Lanai, was it the Pine Fasters, the senior fair, things of that nature, the county fair that members of the INB have attended ourselves to show support not only for INB but for the county as a whole. Those are the few things we've been doing.

But in the end, recruitment is, I think everybody can help out and put in a word that anybody knows anybody that wants to volunteer. You know, they can go online or they can contact Jody and, you know, sign up. So correct. Yes. Our we're doing that. That's part of our job and we work hard on that, I think. And yes, so hopefully we can get more people.

Mahalo for how you work this last two years. We'll try to help out as much as we can.

You're Thank welcome.

You, members. Members, any other questions for Mr. Viella? Seeing none. Thank you so much. Oh, member Rollins Fernandez, please. Oh, sorry. One more question.

Yeah. Sure.

Aloha, mister Viella. Just a quick one.

Thank How are you? Yeah.

Hi, Patty. How are you?

Good. How are you?

Good. How's the weather out there anyway? Hot right now.

It didn't rain.

Had rain this weekend. Of the new form, I just with a closer look. There's a commitment to attendance, so a model to the admin for adding that.

Yep.

I will commit to attending all regularly scheduled board meetings to the best of my abilities and that everyone's aware of two point four one point zero nine zero, which is the attendance policy in our code. I guess I only noticed that because you never have your signature on this one, but you're gonna submit a signed form. Yeah. You already said that.

Yeah. I didn't submit that. Yeah. So I'll submit that. Attendance is not a problem for me. Applied a month before the fire hit and I wasn't gonna serve but I already signed up so I just went through it. So it's been challenging. We just moved back in October. We rebuilt my house. Building our own and serving on the board was really challenging, but somebody gotta do it right and I signed up for it. Showing up for me is not a problem for me. Our job, yeah.

Mahalo for your continued commitment to serve on the INB. Mahalo, chair. Yeah. Thank you.

Thank you, member Rollins Fernandez. Members, any other questions? Seeing none, thank you very much for your willingness to serve, mister Vialla. Members

You're welcome.

Thank you. We're gonna take a ten minute break. Do you guys wanna do a ten minute break, five minute break? We have 13 more to go. K? So we'll do a ten minute break. We'll come back at 03:17. So ten minute break, 03:17. Thank you, members. It is 03:33, and will the great committee please reconvene?

I apologize for that extra long recess. Even though that is our standard practice is a soft suggestion, we were trying to figure out how we can provide you folks with the information that used to be on the application that is now low no longer in the application. It is a bunch of information that will need to be redacted. So the most efficient way for right now is if you folks want to see it, please make an appointment with, Maria Leon, committee secretary for great, and she can happily go over that with you folks. She can't necessarily send it to you because then it becomes public, and we we have some issue they have some issue with that.

There's personal information. Information. So she's going to figure it out with David and how to best provide it to us as members. But for right now, if you do have any burning concerns you would like to see, please make an appointment with Maria from now until the eighteenth, and she's happy to accommodate, your guys' viewing of that confidential information. For now, I know I said we're gonna come back into this meeting and go to Lanai planning commission, so I'm I'm sorry.

But if we can actually move a couple steps ahead to the MRA, we do have somebody here that needs to leave, so I wanted to accommodate them. I believe it's mister Lanius. If if you don't mind coming up to the front, thank you for being patient with us. Please introduce yourself and then the members will have an opportunity to ask you questions.

Aloha, chair and council. My name is Stanford Linias. I'm a permanent resident of Maui for the last, forty years. I'm semi retired, and I don't know why I didn't stay fully retired, but it doesn't pay very well. So here I am. But I do enjoy volunteering my time that I have free to give back to my community and be part of it. This is my third, board. My first board, I served with council member, Yuki in the council government. And my previous board that I served on was with the salary commission. And so hopefully, will be my third one and a few more to come, hopefully.

Thank you very much. Members, do we have any questions? Again, this is for the MRA. Member Palton.

As this is a real appointment for you, I just was wondering, like, how how, has your experience been on the board? I mean, yeah, agency.

You know, each board has its own personality, and, each one is interesting to serve on. And, I've learned a lot and, known more about how our accounting works and how it accomplishes things. And some are slow and some is quick. But the end result is that we do accomplish what we try to set out for to do on most of the commissions. Basically, we're here to support you guys and try to do the best that we can to provide information for you or try to give you a better idea of how the community is perceiving things and how they would like to see things done.

So, you know, we're just kind of a voice for them, and, you know, that's what I feel that my opportunity is for to serve the community for is to be a voice for those that can be here.

And, is it correct that it includes the historic district of Wailuku?

Yes. It that's what makes it interesting for me because, being the fifth generation Kanakamole, you know, I like to see Maui, you know, at least keep its culture and preserve what, you know, what we have that's what's left. I mean, after Lahaina, you know, that was a big loss, and hopefully, we don't don't lose any more of our our culture that we have here in Maui that makes it so much more special than some of the islands other islands. And, but every island has its own special culture and its personality, which which makes Hawaii unique in its own.

Do you have any thoughts as to, like, I guess, losing the historic district and rebuilding it? You know, I like to I like to see it the

way it is and preserve it the way that that it is. I know there's some other development that is coming around it, but I hope that it can keep in with the character of the Guayeluku community. Of course, the historical districts that we have, that we can preserve that keep it the way that it is. I know that some of the infrastructure needs to be improved, but I think the the full character of what each community and each, city has of its own, I think we we need to preserve that, keep it keep it distinct that way.

Do you have any objection? Like, I know that there's height limits in the historic district to allowing an extra, say, 10 feet for equipment and antennas and like that.

I'm not in favor of that. You know, I don't think that's part of the culture of what Hawaii has. I don't think anything goes over. Coconut trees should be higher than that.

Thank you. You know? Thank you, chair.

Of course. Members member Sokimura. Yeah.

I I just wanna say that, serving with him and seeing him work in the community, I totally support him, and he's so committed to the community. He doesn't have to, right, if he's retired. So thank you, counsel chair. Continuing.

Yeah. Thank you. I appreciate those words, member Sugimura. Members, member Rollins Fernandez.

Mahalo, chair. Mhmm. Okay. Okay. If I say it wrong, then please correct me. Mister Lanayes?

Yes.

Lanayes. Oh,

I think I'm okay. On your application, it it says briefly explain your interest in being a member of a particular board, and it says see attached. Oh, I guess this isn't a question for you. It would probably be for staff. There isn't anything attached for me to see.

I didn't understand her question.

I get

I think the question is, she wanted to see your, your answer to your first question. You wrote see attached, so that means you had probably used up more space, but we don't have that with us.

So I'm not sure. I would have to look at it, see what it is.

Thank you. You got a look at it and

see what we can find.

Yeah. I can adjust it. I'm not sure what I put attached to.

Thank you.

I'm just not as important.

Yeah. We'll get we'll get that from the staff. Thank you so much.

Okay. That's it. That they they would bring it.

Alright. Thank you.

They're gonna get it. I don't know if they'll get it right now, but they'll get it.

Okay. Well, Oliver, continuing to serve. I I think you know what you're doing already. It's a reappointment, and your attendance sounds like it's good. So you have my support. Mahalo. Alright.

Thank you, member Rollins Fernandez. Any other questions? Seeing none, we look forward to your support, well, supporting you in a few weeks when we go to full council. Thank you.

Mahalo. Aloha.

Aloha. Okay. Members, if we could go back to the Lanai planning commission. Good. I need to find my place. Okay. We have mister Leon. Is he with us online?

Okay. Hello. Good afternoon, everyone.

Hello. If you would please introduce yourself, and the members will have an opportunity to ask you questions.

Thank you. Thanks, counsel. Appreciate everyone's time and consideration. My name is David Leon. I'm a full time resident here on Lanai.

I'm raising two young boys, and I decided to apply for this position. It's my first foray into local government, which I'm very excited about and approaching with a open and novice mind and looking forward to learning and contributing in any way that I can. And some other commissioner members encouraged me to apply to this one and said that there was some help needed there. And so I was very grateful to throw my hat in. I may not know exactly what I'm getting into, to be totally honest, but I'm here for it.

I know there'll be a question about attendance. I have quite a bit of flexibility. I'm a remote worker here, so I look out my window here on Lanai and as I'm sort of sending emails more broadly in the work that I do, is in food systems and agriculture around the world, I'm always looking for ways to ground down and contribute to this place that has provided so much to me and my family in the form of community and nourishment. So that's why I'm here and very, very happy to answer any questions that you all have.

Thank you, mister Leon. Member Johnson, do you have any questions? I'll let you go first.

Thank you, chair. Good morning, mister Lee or good afternoon, mister Leon. It's good to see you. I mean, I see you on the island quite often, but, you're here in the e chambers, I guess, but it's good to have you here. I wanted to ask you kind of a deeper question because it's an important part of the role that you'd be serving. As you know, the island's owned 98% by a billionaire, Drellison now, but that could change. As we know, people live and die, and there's no real it's past this island's been passed from billionaire to billionaire for many years. For someone who's new to the well, five years have you been on the island? I mean, that's four

of you. It's new. Yeah.

So the how do you juggle that? When you feel in your heart something and maybe the company feels something else? How do you juggle that when you're, one person, been here for four years? How do you balance what you feel in your gut versus what's maybe you have a disagreement with a company, for example?

Yeah, that's a good question. I mean this place is dichotomy and these sort of two paradigms are very much at the core of this place and it's part of an everyday existence that is sort of unlike any other place I've ever been or spent time at. And I think ultimately there is a careful navigation and reconciliation as you sort of walk the line between property rights and both the will of the county and the people of the broader community and also what the land wants and sort of needs is I think part of a voice that I want to listen to as well. And I think as I understand the role of the Planning Commission that we're here to advise on some of those plans as they come down, and we're only adjudicating in a very limited sort of scope on some certain contested permits as I understand it. But I do think if as long as we are on the commission, as I understand it, is all members of the community.

And that's why it felt important that every slot that we have available is filled with a community member. And I've had like everyone on this island interactions with the company and you agree with some of them, some of the things they do, and you're grateful for some of the things they do and you just don't agree or you just can't make sense of some of the things that they do. So it's a real balance and one that I look forward to maybe getting some tips from you, Gabe, on how you've been able to navigate that as someone who's been I'm bumping up against all the

joking, David. But okay, all right, let me ask a very specific one because this came up before. There was a desal plant proposed for the Island Of Lanai. What's your take on desalination? Do you think the Island Of Lanai needs it?

I think that it's it could be conceived as a technological solution for something that perhaps has an ecological solution. I've been thinking a lot about and look at this in my broader work across the world around hydrating landscapes and the way that cultivation and land management affects hydrology of landscapes. And if I had the resources that Mr. Ellison had, I'd be thinking about doing a demonstration of proper land management as a way to bring more water onto the ground rather than a very expensive and energy dependent kind of solution like desal?

Honestly, mister Leon, I didn't think I was gonna ask you that question, but I'm glad I did. Thank you, chair. No further questions.

Thank you, member Johnson. Member Palton.

Thank you, chair. Thank you, mister Leon, for your willingness to serve. I take care you work for mister Ellison.

I do not.

Oh, okay. Where did you live before your four years in Maui County?

I lived in Oahu, and before that, I'm I'm I was born in California.

And then, I know that, most of Lanai City is not in the, Slorexa or the SMA, but our planning commissions are, like, the sole authority in the coastal zone management area. And so what what do you know about sea level rise and and like

systems, which bumps up against climate work and energy. I do that from primarily an impact perspective working with from impact investment and also from the nonprofit side of things. So I know systemically about that around specific details of how it affects the coastal region of Lanai is something that I'm interested in learning more about. But broadly, I'm pretty well versed, I would say maybe above average than typical population on on both the science and some of the mitigation factors that that are being used around the the world.

Do you know what the current foot projection is for 2100 in the Slyrexa?

I don't.

Okay. Thank you.

Thank you, member Palton. Members, any other questions for mister Leon? Seeing none. Thank you very much. I appreciate your time.

Thank you.

Thank you. Members, let's move on to liquor control adjudication board. We have, mister Kaleopu with us. Aloha. If you could Aloha. Aloha. If you could introduce yourself, and then the members will have an opportunity to ask you questions.

Yeah. Aloha, members. My name is Dustin Kaleopu. I'm originally from Lahaina, now residing in Kahului. I've had the pleasure of serving on the liquor control adjudication board for the last three years, and I'm hoping to be reappointed. Learned a lot about, you know, government and the quasi judicial process, process, and and I'm I'm looking forward to serving again, respect for law and public health and safety.

Thank you very much, members. Any questions? Sorry. I have a cough drop in my mouth. Again, he's a reappointment. So does anybody have any questions? I don't think I have any. Nope. Thank you very much for being with us. I appreciate your time. Thank you.

Thank you.

Is miss Heather or Amy Stevens with us, either online or in the audience? Do you see her? Okay. Oh, are you miss Heather Stevens? I don't okay. Yeah. I see your name. We'll call you up, when the commission, your commission is up. For right now, we're looking for miss Heather Stevens. We don't see her, so we'll skip over. Member Palton, do you know her? She said it's from Lahaina.

I do know her. She lives in the Napili area. I'll vouch for her. Thank you.

Okay. Let's move on to the liquor control. We have mister miss Silva. Sorry. I I believe the mister Stevens is the one who withdraw withdrew. Are you gonna be providing us whatever documentation we need withdraw so we don't have to formally disappoint?

Yeah. I did not. Okay.

Thank you very much. For now, we have miss Silva. Thank you very much for being with us. If you could please introduce yourself. Silva. My first name

is Christine. My parents have never called me that to those days. So nice to meet you all.

Nice to meet you.

I'm a Waiuku resident. I'm also a Navy wife. My husband is from Hualimale. He's serving for us right now and getting out. So we're coming back home, and I finally have the opportunity to get to do things like this. I've always been very passionate about my home here on Maui, and I've always wanted to be a part of it. So now I'm finally in a position where I can attend these types of meetings and pay more attention to these things. So I may not know the current issues going on right now, but I did just get back home, and, I look forward to intertwining myself with them. So any questions? Very I'm nervous.

Don't be. You're nervous.

Does anybody else member Palton?

Thank you, Cherry. Thank you, miss Silva, for your willingness to serve. I just was wondering what you know about the process for, applying for a liquor license. I think often they ask people applying if they are an attorney or they have enlisted an attorney, and that's because of the difficulty of applying. Like, you always have to use the exact same name and stuff like that. And any thoughts as to streamlining that process so you don't need to hire an attorney to apply for a liquor license?

I don't know anything about that, but I would like to learn something about that. I I think it's important for us to make any application process as simplistic as possible, you know, still get all the information that we need for sure. But, all these little money need things throughout all of the county system and the state systems that cause hurdles for others, think just stalls growth for our economy here and makes things frustrating for people to sometimes where they're just they give up. So, yeah, I'd like to learn more about that, though. Wish I had an answer. But

Thank you. Thank you, chair.

Thank you, member Halton. Members, any other questions? I do have a couple, but I'll wait for you folks. Just double checking. Okay. So you were a bartender for eleven years? Yes. You're no longer a bartender now? Correct.

I haven't bartended for about a decade now.

Okay.

I'm actually really happy to have somebody who worked in the industry to hopefully serve on this commission. I have so many friends who are bartenders, and sometimes they share with me their concerns. So I'm happy you get to hopefully represent them. It is it's a very interesting job you folks have, like, part therapist, part poorer, you know, mixologist, whatever we're gonna call you folks. New terms.

But I know for my friends, some of the concerns is you don't know if somebody maybe took some sort of pill that you didn't serve them any alcohol that's over whatever recommended amount. They may leave, and you folks are liable. Your restaurant is liable. And there are many, nuanced situations that I hope hopefully, you can bring some light to.

Yeah. I look forward to that as well. That's one of the reasons why I was interested in this and adjudication when I first applied is because I, you know, I come from a law enforcement family, and then I did get to bartend. And so I'm hoping that I get to bring in that balance. And, when I bartended, I took those star rules and our laws pretty seriously to the point where I annoyed some of our customers, but, that's because they had too much. But, yeah, I think it is important that we be able to look at both sides of this and, see it from both perspectives.

Agreed. Thank you. Member member Sananti? No. She cannot pour us a drink right now. We're on

the clock. Yeah. Yeah. No. You gotta wait till five. Following up on, member Ugu Hajan's line of questioning. What is your and and we're still working on some of these the details. What is your feelings about maybe having NARCAN in some of the public establishments?

You know, unfortunately, I think that that might be something that we do need to start looking at given the changes in our community and how usually one thing goes hand in hand with another. But I think that we'd have to look at cost efficiency as well as that, but it might be something that we should at least investigate. Okay.

Thank you for that. Thank you, chair.

Thank you. Any other questions? Remember, Rollins Fernandez isn't here, so I'll ask some of her standard questions. You have no issues with attending future meetings. Are you familiar with, the liquor commission and what they usually do?

I don't know how they run it anymore because, like I said, I just moved back home, but I recall that it used to be once a month. And if it's still that, even if it were twice a month, I could definitely still come to meetings. I have, like I said, finally, the capability of being able to do these kinds of things. So Yeah.

Welcome, mom. Thank you. Thank you. Any other questions? I see member Rawlins Fernandez has joined us again. And for ask asking my questions. Of course. Thank you for asking them. Okay. Other than that, I don't have any other questions. Thank you very much. Okay.

Thank you.

Thank you very much, miss Soba. Thank you. Okay, members. We did persons with disabilities first. So we are now on CRC, and I believe we have miss Arakawa with us online. Is her video on? Aloha. Aloha. If you could please give us a brief introduction of yourself, and then the members will have an opportunity to ask you questions.

Sure. Aloha. I am a general generational resident of Maui, a kupa of Hali'i Male, and my family is from Amakua Poco to Hana, but I currently reside in Pokucala with my tutu. I myself am an of Halona Lake for twenty plus years, with a background in nonprofit and human service work. Me being on this commission is vital that younger voices are present in the decision making and not to only to ensure general knowledge, generational knowledge, but to also ensure that the future of cultural stewardship is continuous and not so episode episodic.

We can carry our lessons from our kupuna and but also being present in the urgency of this time. I'm an adviser for a youth internship program at my work, and, we were able to put forth the Kapewa Youth Summit with the county support to elevate youth voice. And I chose to sit on this board to lead by example for those for those high schoolers. And then also also previously watching these commission meetings specific to the CRC, feeling frustrated with the lack of quorum and the continuous cancellation of meetings. Like, being on for I think I was appointed for the later half of the year.

Even then, meetings were being canceled. And at our last meeting last week, reminded of how important it is, miss Kuleana, but also to do our homework and read. And so, like, apply to all of you folks who have to read so much because it is a lot, But I'm appreciative of the great examples who are on the commission right now, and are patient with me learning the process of all the things. And so it's that, like, my goal really is to contribute and be a voice grounded in respect and action orientation, but also to be that bridge for generations that aren't represented currently, and strengthen community trust and for for people and Aina. But.

Members, any questions? Member Palton.

Thank you, chair. Thank you, miss Arcollo for your willingness to serve and be reappointed. I just was wondering, your thoughts about the I mean, I know the cultural resources commission has a heavy role to fulfill in the historic district of Lahaina's, rebuild. And, if you could share any of your thoughts about that process to date and any ways that this body could, support you folks.

Absolutely. Thank you for your question. In Lahaina, being in that historic district and the rebuild, it's in in my role in sitting in this commission, I view it as ensuring that we're hearing all of the different things that come to the commission, that is upheld to not just checking a box, on the certain things, but also keeping in mind our cultural resources and what that means in the rebuild, but, also learning from that event and how we can ensure those projects continue to be aligned with with where the community sees, this rebuild to be. But also, like, knowing that we have a to not just to not sit and, like, make decision. And I believe we're planning as a commission to go out into Lahaina, together to to come to a census of, like, this is what it is, and this is how we'll move forward.

And so I'm looking forward to that, but also ensuring that the outreach is being done, and those voices are being heard and considered when in our role.

Any thoughts about, you know, like, we talk about the Royal Complex area, and then we talk about the Commercial District and how they will, like, merge into each other. Because when I go to meetings about the Royal Complex and when I go to meetings about the Commercial District, it's, like, two different planets on, like, the same historic district. So any thoughts to that?

It's finding a balance for sure, but I believe I guess it's the the context of how I feel like the the this is a a great opportunity to give and implement what should be and was, but also recognizing that it won't be exactly, but we can come very close. But also honoring folks who have generational ties to either on the commercial side. And so it's really striking the balance between the two. But yeah.

Thank you. Thank you, chair.

Thank you, member Palton. Members, any other questions do we have for this nominee? Okay. If you cannot tell by her name, we're definitely cousins. But even if we weren't, I would completely support Anu. She is a special soul. So I'm so happy, and I feel like, as a county, we are very lucky to have her and other people like her to serve on this commission and all the others. So mahalo, Anu. Mahalo so much. Okay.

We will move on then, and we have planning commission. I do see the two gentlemen nominated, in the back wall, and we will start with mister Kamai, if you would like to head on down. Hey. Aloha. If you don't mind introducing yourself, we've seen you a couple times, but please introduce yourself. And then, again, the members will have an opportunity to ask you questions.

So aloha mai kakou. My name is Keaka Kamae. I'm a current resident of, Wai'ehu, Maui. I thank you guys for the opportunity for just speak today and giving me the time. You know, I just wanted to let you guys know that when I took interest in the planning commission, I I you know, there's a lot of thought process going through all of this. I had friends telling me, bro, there's a lot of reading. There's a lot of things that you gotta do, a lot of zoning and county codes and stuff that you gotta start getting educated with. And I took that all into consideration, and I just wanted to I I went back and forth. Should I do this? Should I not?

And I I came up with the consensus of do we serve our community, or do we just sit back and, you know, just say, well, there's somebody else's issue, somebody else's problem. Yeah. So I decided that instead of, you know, ask questions or just be inquisitive, maybe be part of the process and part of the solution if it's possible. Yeah. If granted today or whenever you guys go through this, all I can all I can say is I'm gonna be honest, and I'm gonna try my best.

Yeah. I'm gonna try and and I'm learn and grow. I don't know everything. So that's one thing I can admit that I do not know everything, but I do bring an aspect, I believe, of of balance with the industry. I've been a drywall taper for over two decades.

I've been with the district council fifty for over a year and a half now. And I I just wanted to you know, I I think if I can speak for a lot of our young Hawaiians out there, it's all kuleana to get on these boards and commissions, to learn, to grow, to serve serve our people. So this is something that I'm not asking to get on to to advance anything in careers or anything based, but just how do we give back? How do we learn? And how do we add value?

With the planning commission win, even I think the question should be diverted to mister Dwight because he's the one that told me, brother, you should try boards and commissions. And I'm like, oh, man. But it is a lot, but I'm willing to, get out of my comfort zone as of today. Standing here, I'm very nervous, you know, about the questions or whatever that I gotta, you know, go through. But I I also know that I stand here in front of you as a Kanaka first and foremost.

So I did request from my employer to, if I could have off the rest of the day to come to this. And moving forward, I I plan to attend every every meeting. And, what what it is is because we work basically twenty four hours, yeah, seven days a week, so to speak, I what we do is if if I do have if I do have the ability to serve, then the Thursdays or whatnot that I have the boards in commission, I can work on a Saturday or something to make it up. So that's why I worked it out with my, my leaders and stuff. Just wanted to let you guys know that.

But, yeah, that's pretty much me in a nutshell, working on myself, trying to help, advance our Maui Nui and, and go from there. So, again, miss Fernandez, be nice.

Wow.

Wow.

Do we have any questions, member Palatin? Go ahead.

Thank you. I think it's Tuesdays they meet, but might be wrong. When did you put in your application?

Sorry. I put in my application I think it was in January the beginning, but I didn't have the I I didn't write the date. I just wrote it in. Now I apologize for that.

Oh, no problem. And then, being that the planning commission is, like, the sole authority in the SME and the shoreline areas, I was wondering if you could share with us, like, any knowledge that you have of the coastal zone management act, the SLEREXA, the SMA, and your thoughts as to development in those areas.

So I cannot, embellish as I have a lot of knowledge. But I know it does slurax or s, the that's the sea level rate or the sea level rise exposure, area. And I believe it's a tool that's used by our planning commission or or is a tool that's used by our state to identify these areas, the impacted areas and stuff. And with the SMEs, when you put in the SME and you apply for the permitting and stuff like that, we use these tools, if I'm not mistaken, for that. And the SMEs are used to govern our our coastlines, yeah, and to make sure that the impact is basically, you know, those screw up our ecosystem, yeah, and and stuff like that.

So make sure we get access for our local people to go and and, you know, still enjoy, and make sure it's the same, yeah, if we're gonna do any type of development or whatnot. So that's kind of the gist of what I know. I cannot I don't know if I can give you any more.

Do do you know the current projection for sea level rise by the year 2100?

I don't know. I think the only thing that I do know is, currently is, like, three feet per or 3.2 feet per you know? That that's where we're at right now. So I cannot tell you more than that, I guess.

Yeah. I I think the state may have updated it to four feet, but it's not in the maps yet. But, yeah, 3.2 is the most recent before that. Thank you. Thank you, chair.

Thank you, member Palton. Does anybody else have any other questions? Member Rollins Fernandez, you have questions?

I do. Okay. They're very nice. They're very nice questions.

Very nice questions.

Thank you. Appreciate your time.

Aloha, mister. For your willingness to

serve. Okay.

I ask all the nominees three questions. Sometimes the chair gets my back and asks some of the questions for me. And I think you kind of already spoke to attendance, and you signed that you are aware of the attendance policy on the form. And then the second and third question I asked, you also kinda spoke to, so if you'd like to elaborate a little more on your experience on the planning commission the Maui planning commission specifically and how you envision contributing to the planning commission?

I'm sorry. The the question is what is my contribution to the planning commission? My only contribution or

How you envision contributing. Yeah.

Oh, how do I envision envision contributing? Contributing? Yeah. Yeah. I think, just in the industry of development and as for for being in construction, you know, over two decades of, of work, I just feel like, I can bring some type of, you know, industry look at it, outlook, and also, you know, fully be you know, I I I would like to contribute that way, you know, knowing the industry and stuff, learning more of the policies that we're gonna have to deal with, you know, and and just, again, just being willing to learn and grow and admit that I don't know everything. That's kinda you know, that's where I'm at. I don't if that makes sense in any way.

K. Mahalo. And then so for this new application, it it doesn't have the section about your employer and educational background. Okay. If you could share that with us.

So I I went up to the at my senior year, I graduated from Waianae High School. Graduated my senior year. I moved to Maui 2005, I believe.

Sea riders.

And then I'm sorry?

Sea riders? Wai'anae? What's the question? My

mascot. Oh, Sea riders. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Oh, sorry about that. Yeah. Wai'anae Sea riders. Yeah. And then as far as my employer is district council fifty. District council fifty, we represent several crafts. The painters, the floor layers, the glazers, the drywall tapers, and the shipyard workers of the shipyard workers in Oahu, I believe. Yeah.

Okay. So you're a paid lobbyist?

No. I'm not a paid lobbyist. I'm a yeah. I advocate for my members, but I'm not a paid lobbyist. Oh,

okay. So you're you're a rep for district council fifteen, and that's all the

Yep.

Drywall and painters?

Mhmm. Yep.

But but you're not paid?

No. I'm not paid. I don't go to the capital and represent them in political ways or anything, but I do advocate for my members on their behalf. Yep.

Okay. Have you, gone to get an advisory opinion from the board of ethics?

No. I haven't.

Okay. Well

I'm coming on behalf of me and not any district council fifty or anything, so that's why I took off today and whatnot. I asked to to come again. When I was asked from others to come over and and help and serve our community, that's why I took it upon myself to do

so. Yeah. Okay. Okay. Mahalo.

Thank you. Member Cook.

Thank you, Kiyaka. I'm grateful that you're willing to surf. I think that, I mean, I know you too. It's interesting. You're big scary guy. And you're very humble. You're very open. And, when you say you represent your members, I recognize you're representing the working man. And, so you're Hawaiian. You get deep roots. How do you

feel about development in general? Oh, for me, development is that's that's that's where we're at. Right? That's my that's where my people get work and whatnot. But I kanaka too. You know? So it's a delicate balance that I that challenge me every day. Right? So I also gotta look at how does development and do we be stewards of that? Do we help developers understand that, you know, the place that we live in, or do we get back do we sit back and just let everything be developed? So hence, that's why I hear you know what I mean? So I'm pro development. I'm pro good pono development, and that's kinda, you know, what I'm asking for. Yeah. Do are we obeying laws?

Are we are we considering our sea level rise? All these type of things. Yeah. So but thank you for that.

No. Thanks. That's kinda what wanna do. That's what I see and what I know, and that's why I'm glad that you had the opportunity basically to say that's, like, the balance. And thank you for being willing to serve.

Members of Nancy, go ahead.

Hello, chair, and for being able to, your willingness to serve. He did mention, you know, being Kanaka Maole. And we do have a very, you know, active Hawaiian community when it comes to preservation and protection of our cultural sites or cultural resources. And you mentioned about balancing that we live on an island with very limited space. At what point do we concrete everything and develop everything?

Or at what point do we begin to because we started to do that. We started to steward the coastlines for to keep it in fishing for the next generation. We don't want to over develop our coastlines. So how do you like if you on this committee and you come up with, say, you know, you've seen a lot of uncles all these past years go through the protection of burial sites. Some of them just get wiped out or or moved. So do And