Remarks by Andria Tupola
47 remarks on the record, newest first · Page 2 of 2
“And then for the local match grant, are there specific ones that we already have been awarded or you guys are putting it in there in anticipation of matches that we're going to do?”
“I see. Thank you, Director. Thank you, Chair. Thank you, Council Member Topola.”
“Aloha. Thank you so much, Council Member Cordero, for the line of questioning. So with this amount, it'll probably be between 20, 48 TVs. How many are you guys planning on getting?”
“And then back in the day, you guys were running Beach Task Force on the North Shore. You guys were running a parks crew on the West Side, and you guys had these for Waikiki. Those were like the main areas where the ATVs were being used. Are those the same districts that you guys are going to renew the ATVs that we have?”
“Yeah, we definitely have in District 8. So thank you very much. Thank you, Chair.”
“Yeah, just briefly, I think with CPT, some of the, I guess, larger picture is what are the needs, right? Because in my district, now we have school resource officers. They're approaching me like we need additional things for our schools that now we're over. Can we have a golf cart? Can we have this? All of it's great. But I think what we're trying to do is cut a budget that is given and then is followed up on and is spent. So I do agree with Council Member Cordero, we've actually allocated money for this prior. Now, whether or not it was actually spent or encumbered, I do not know, but…”
“Aloha. Thank you for being here. So recently I just asked Director Morton, you know, the ability for DOT to just drop speed bumps out of the sky is amazing and we take maybe three to four years to get that done. Is this going to help in that initiative that we can maybe move faster when there is dire, I guess, safety improvements that are needed on our streets?”
“Oh, okay, so separate from what we're voting on, you guys need money to execute what we're discussing, because the master contract could be very useful for you guys. Yes, 100%. Yeah, we don't need to go through each budget process every time we know there's a danger and we need to address it right away. So I'm looking forward to that. Thank you, Chair. Thank you, Council Member Tupoula. Chair Waters.”
“Aloha. Thank you, Chair, for listing this today on the agenda. Specifically, this is creating a fund where other fees that will be charged perhaps in the future could be deposited. This fund will be specifically used for the parks within the county. We do have other special funds such as the Passy Mink. We have the Central Oahu, which there are certain parks in our county that are taken care of better because they have their own fund. that keeps the contracts going. So the idea here with this is that we would be able to create a fund that then wouldn't have to go through the general budget…”
“Yeah, thank you, Director, for bringing up Hoʻomaluhia. You know, it's one of our most popular botanical gardens. And I think in 2025, we had 729,000 visitors, which easily, even if it was only $1, could have helped us to generate some revenue to care for the botanical gardens. I think in the other bill that we'll be discussing later this afternoon, it'll give you the ability to do that. But aside from the ones you brought up, which we have... Hanauma Bay, it has its own fund. But I'm speaking about Ho'omaluhi and all the five botanical gardens. So what do you foresee as far as the actual…”
“Yeah, thank you. I have been able to support your ideas based on a lot of the data that you're collecting. So thank you for that. Secondarily, you know, Chair Waters has repetitively brought up the need for us to generate revenue in other forms. And I know that when we budget, it's so hard for us to put the needs of the parks over, say, sewers or lights or streams or other maintenance that really those are life or death things that we really need. So I'm glad to hear that the fund will have something, but that it won't be, you know, flush in the 70 or hundreds of millions of dollars, but…”
Not quoted here: it may name a member of the public. Hear it at the meeting.
“Yeah, because I think right after the resolution of intent, the CFD report is the next step. And so, yes, they might be advising, but in general, as you stated with the possible retainer, the person proposing the CFD, the developer, they would front the cost for that just to make it worth it on the city side, making sure that there's a partnership there. Is that correct?”
“Yeah, and I think that goes along with the question that you had about cost and what staff we would have to be, I guess... funding in order for this to happen. So after the CFD report, then there's the ordinance for the bond, and then there's the issuance of the bond, and then the ability to collect the special tax. I think those are the last three steps, correct? And I think those are just all different steps that we take in the legislative body to make sure that it happens, correct?”
“Yeah, so I wanted to make that clear as well. So on the back end, after the CFD report is completed, the only other cost you could fold into the bond issuance, you could do an administrative fee for the actual disbursement of the bond, right? Because you'd be collecting the tax, you'd be paying it to the district, and then the district would have to be paying off the bond that it purchased, correct?”
“Yeah. Yeah. So I think in that sense, that little process I described that also doesn't require city staff, correct?”
“No, we appreciate it. And I think that's why budget chair was asking what staff would be needed. But I would say that in the law and when I read it, it says that the district, so the district that is formed, that is the entity that goes and sells the bond and actually has to pay the bond back, not us.”
“I'm almost positive that it's actually issued by the district because when we collect the taxes, the district itself has a trustee and it's set up to protect us from any of that. So we can get into that later.”
“Yes, so the trust is then given to the district, the district pays back the bond.”
“Okay, so the way I read the law doesn't state that, but we can get back to legalese at a separate time. Last question. There is a section that you have that states that there is going to be a committee or rules that are generated, but my question is because the law, chapter 27, doesn't designate that we're supposed to promulgate rules, but we can. So whenever there is an, and a responsibility given to a department, they can make admin rules of how they administer it. But specifically, it doesn't state that BFS is over this or that they have to make admin rules or have a committee to approve…”
“No, thank you so much. I don't want to put you into a spot that it's too much legalese. Thank you, Chair.”
“No additional questions. Thank you, Director, just for discussion. I appreciate your question, your line of questioning, because I do think that the complexity of us being the landowner is why the onerous of all of the different documentation would be different than a private landowner who then would have to hire, complete all of that without any of our wherewith, because that report would then be run through the city as far as the CFD report. Secondarily, I think because we're still in kind of the beginning mode of this, it would behoove us for the very first resolution of intent that comes…”