Remarks by Val Aquino Okimoto
83 remarks on the record, newest first · Page 3 of 4
“Members, please note that the committee approved a proposed CD2 version of the bill, OCS 2026-0422, and postponed action on the bill at its July 14, 2026 meeting. Members, we have also posted to the agenda a proposed CD2-OCS-2026-0481 submitted by myself. For your information, the amendments are listed on the agenda. Before we call up the administration, we will proceed first with in-person oral testimony in the council chamber. Clerks, do we have any in-person testifiers for this item? Chair, there are none. Thank you. Proceeding on with remote testimony, clerks, do we have any remote…”
“Thank you. Joining us in the chamber today, we have from the administration, from the Department of Parks and Recreation, Director Laura Thielen. Good morning, Director Thielen.”
“Thank you, Director Seelan. Members, questions for the director? Chair Waters.”
“I like your thinking, Chair. Thank you, Chair Waters. Council Member Topola.”
“If there's any further questions. I had a quick question, Director. You mentioned, I think Council Member Topola, I really appreciate this coming to the Council because we want to make sure that we provide you with the resources you need. So this seems, you know, good and forward thinking. But when we, if you then are able to use these revenue sources to keep up the maintenance of these parks that we'll be generating them. Do you have the staff or personnel to carry out, other than the contractors that you're going to be using, but just in general, does the department have the personnel to…”
“Okay. Well, we'll look forward to it. I would... I would encourage you to continue, I would ask you actually to continue to show us the results. Some of us, me included, I pause sometimes with general special funds because then it takes it away from, it creates a special place for it and in many cases, less oversight. But in this case, because it's the funds that will be generated from these specific parks, it goes back to that. I am in more support of that. But I would like to see that it is having results that will be beneficial versus we create the fund and yet the parks are still not…”
“Thank you. I have on my agenda from the Department of Housing and Land Management, Director Kevin Auger, but I don't see him here. Is there anybody here? We have from our Director of Budget and Fiscal Services, Director Andy Kawano. Good morning, Director Kawano.”
“Thank you, Director Kawano. Members, any questions for the director? Seeing no questions, members, we are in discussion. Seeing no further discussion, the Chair recommends that Bill 50-2026 be reported out for passage on third reading. Any further discussion, any objections or reservations? Hearing none, so ordered. Moving on to our final item on the agenda, agenda item number eight, informational briefing, community facilities district financing program presentation. Members joining us in the council chamber, we have Adam Bauer, president of Fieldman, Rollap and Associates Inc. to give a…”
“Thank you so much, Adam. I'd like to welcome to the Chamber, Council Member Weyer. Thank you for being here with us. Members, before I turn it over to questions, I just had a couple I wanted to start off with, and I'll turn it over to the members, and then if we need to do this. We'll do that, if that's okay. And then I'll go over to testimony. Thank you for walking us through the presentation. And I want to thank you also, I was there in one of your previous meetings, but just really quickly, you mentioned the many parts that go into the formation of the CFD, the establishment formation,…”
“So would we require more personnel to fulfill this? Do we have the personnel or would we have to create positions to work on this portion to have CFDs?”
“Okay. And you did mention in your presentation presentation about the possibilities or the benefits if there's lots of CFDs and we can have annual revenue set up to have infrastructure projects funded. And you did mention right now that there could be multiple. So multiple CFDs could be happening at the same time or simultaneously. How does that usually work?”
“Thank you. I'll turn it over to members for questions. And I know that we have some testifiers here, so I want to give them time. Maybe we can go through questions. And if there's further discussion, we can do that after testimony. But members' questions. Council Member Tupoula.”
“Thank you, Council Member Topola. I'd like to welcome to the Chamber, joining us, Council Member Kea Aina, Chair Waters.”
“Thank you, Chair Watters. Council Member Weyer.”
“Thank you, Council Member Weyer. Members, just to finish up this first round, we're going to have Council Member Cordero and Council Member Tova ask the first round of questions. I do want to respect our testifiers who have been here. So after this round, we'll go to testifiers, and then we'll come back if there's any follow-up questions or discussion, if the members are okay with that. Council Member Cordero.”
“Thank you, Council Member Toba. Thank you so much, Director, and thank you, Adam. If you could just remain here, because we do have testifiers, and I promised the members to have another round of questions in discussion if they still had any.”
“Okay, thank you again for those of you who are joining us in the chamber and for your patience. We will now proceed with in-person oral testimony in the council chamber. I do have a list of in-person testifiers. I will go through the list and if anybody else is here that's not on my list and you would like to testify, please feel free to come up and identify yourself. First, I have Matt Delaney.”
Not quoted here: it may name a member of the public. Hear it at the meeting.
“Thank you. I did have a quick question for one of the La Lima representatives. It came to me, and I think I'm going to ask you instead of Adam. In the event where Adam did mention that sometimes people don't want to buy into it because of the additional assessment charge. So as the developer, if units aren't sold, if we go through the process and you develop the properties and you have the projects, and then if units are not selling, what happens then? Who's responsible? Because I think in other projects with other... subsidized project, we've come back and we've been asked by other…”
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Not quoted here: it may name a member of the public. Hear it at the meeting.
Not quoted here: it may name a member of the public. Hear it at the meeting.
“Thank you, members. Any questions for the testifier? I see none. I have none others on my list of registered, but if there's someone here who would like to testify, please feel free to come forward. If you could just state your name for the record and proceed with your testimony.”
Not quoted here: it may name a member of the public. Hear it at the meeting.
“Thank you, members. Any questions for the testifier? Seeing none, thank you so much.”