Remarks by Matt Weyer
42 remarks on the record, newest first · Page 1 of 2
“Thank you. Council Member Weyer. Thank you, Chair. And yeah, mahalo for the presentation. It's exciting. I think this might be a public question. The 10 positions, so those are July 1 positions.”
“I only ask, good job with that. I only ask, I'm curious, what do you think made filling those positions successful? Are there certain factors you identified that we could learn from?”
“Yeah, I appreciate that. And then I was curious, In terms of the master agreements, what were the biggest ones that you think are going to be most impactful? I'm so glad you asked about that.”
“I mean, that's what I'm curious like if we've already started to see kind of this speeding up, but of course over time, I'm sure it'll improve even more.”
“But yeah, Mahalo. I'll go ahead and turn the time back over. So thank you, Chair.”
“Good morning, Chair, good morning, members. I'm Kari Okimoto, former of HPD, I'm retired, and I'm thanking you for the opportunity to serve in the Civil Service Commission.”
“Thank you. Council Member Weyer. Thank you, Chair. On Bill 59, I wanted to just model Council Member Cordero for starting the conversation and her willingness to engage in stakeholder collaboration. So I fully trust in that process because I know many in the community want to see any forward movement in this area, being mindful of of just the community impact. And I'm sure and trust Councilor Cordero to have that conversation. And just wanna note that I do think we have to be assessing all revenue opportunities to really shift the burden from those who are bearing it most right now for our…”
“No worries. I just wondered, given the testimony too, if you could walk us through exactly what peddling involves. And I bring it up because my reservations earlier in the process of the bill were from some of our fishermen or farmers that had run into issues when they were going into Chinatown and doing deliveries, and I think there was just some misunderstanding. But then when we're talking about the different types of engagement that community is doing with individuals, could you just kind of walk through what peddling exactly is again?”
“Thank you for that. So I mean, I guess I'm asking, so dropping off your fish at the market that's gonna be selling it, is that peddling? That's not peddling, right? No, no, that's not. Okay, and then even having a sign that says like, oh, I need, you know, please donate, I need. No. Yeah, that's not peddling. We're not issue sighting issues for those. Okay, mahalo, thank you, Chair.”
“I move that Committee Report 258-2026 and Resolution 26-206 be adopted. Second.”
“This is adopting the 2025 to 2030 Climate Action Plan for the city.”
“I move that Committee Report 259-2026 and Resolution 26-208 be adopted.”
“This is accepting a gift of travel related expenses of $1,301.04 from Haskell Foundation for the Resilience Office to participate in the Indigenous Peoples Climate Change Working Group.”
“Thank you, Chair. I think BFS is assigned to this item, so I wanted to ask them a question.”
“Or Deputy Director Castle, or actually I guess anybody from the administration. Is anyone from Parks? Is there any director over there? I can't see, my eyes are kind of bad.”
“Oh, Director Holyfield. I was just gonna ask our Deputy Director Doan Aloha.”
“I was just gonna follow up. We had been trying to have some conversation previously on the status and appropriateness of this particular parcel maybe being transferred over to the Department of Hawaiian Homelands Yeah, and so I'm just wondering if you could relay, if we could get maybe some explicit feedback from the departments involved. BFS, I think, is just involved because of the contract. Then, of course, DHLM may have interest and then parks may have interest. So we're just looking for maybe clarity from the admin side so when we go back over to talk with the state that there's an…”
“Thank you, Chair. And also in support, I mean, I'm just kind of looking at this and the project is in front of us because it's an IPDT project. You know, there's the required inclusionary zoning, portable units, and then there's also additional portable units because the additional height and density and maybe other parameters. More units than comparable projects, more funding than comparable projects. So this isn't a, you know, taxpayer subsidized project that we're building. And so that's why I really struggle with the opposition. Like this is a particular type of project that's coming to…”
“Thank you, Chair. As I said before, I just want to mahalo Council Member Toba for his leadership on this issue and just investment and building up a diverse workforce for our community. And just want to echo that sentiment of how exciting this is. Grateful for all the work of all of our partners. Just working towards the idea of being able to do full production here. all of the jobs we could be supporting, all of the creative opportunities for youth who we wanna be able to stay here if they want to, who we wanna be able to have a life where they can also pursue their passions, but stay home.…”
Not quoted here: it may name a member of the public. Hear it at the meeting.
“Just to clarify, that's the specific event, the Maritime Silk Road International Cultural Tourism Festival. So it's in reference to the Maritime Silk Road. So, of course, we all know the historical political implications of that. And so I wasn't trying to allude to anything, but just wanted to make sure that all of our friends that we talked to when we were over in the Philippines know that we still got their back, too. So mahalo.”
“Thank you, Chair. Aloha, Director. I appreciate the thoroughness of the report and presentation. I was just wondering if you could maybe simplify it for us. What do you see as kind of the next big steps that we need to accomplish to improve just permitting overall and then maybe lay it out from there, like additional steps?”
“I appreciate that. Because do we have current review cycle standards, like what people should expect, how many days for their review, maybe drainage, blood plane, all that different components?”
“Perfect. And then I'm just curious, as we're kind of doing this assessment, do you have any particular jurisdictions you think we should look at to see, not of course replicate necessarily, but things that have been useful or areas or locations that you think are doing things”
“Okay, I appreciate that. I was curious, because have you heard much about Fort Worth? system. I think I mentioned it before because HPR, NPR was doing an interview and wasn't even about that, but the interviewer was raving about stuff that they've been doing. And so that's, I was just curious, we're going to dive into that a little bit more, but good to know for Boston and I wasn't sure if there's like other cities or locations we're looking at but appreciate the insight.”