The Hawaii County Finance Committee met on April 7, 2026, from 12:00 PM to 3:11 PM, chaired by Councilmember Connelly Kleinfelder. The committee considered several items, including Resolution 475-26 authorizing the lease of six county-owned residential properties to nonprofit organizations for permanent housing at $10 per year. After extensive public testimony and a closed executive session on Fair Housing Act compliance, the committee voted 7-2 to forward the resolution to the full council with a favorable recommendation. Other items, including communications closures, a fire department lease, Kilauea recovery grants, a tennis court grant, and three bills, were passed unanimously.
Aloha. Welcome to the 30-second session on the Committee on Finance. Today's meeting is being held in the Hawaii County building. And we have the corner chambers open to the public as well, as well as our outline sites. It is April 7, 2026. It is 12 o'clock PM. Calling this meeting to order. To my right, here in Gilo, we have Councilmembers Kalgiwada, Houstis Kirkowitz, Ornici. Inaba. To my left, we have Councilmembers Kimball, Galimba, and Viegas. And I'm your chair. Mr. R.S.L.I. Do we have any testimony this morning for the committee? Thank you so much, Chair. Just noting, excuse me. Just noting that we do not have any testifiers at your remote sites. We do have a number of testifiers here in Hilo as well as a few via Zoom. So what we'll do is we'll take a couple here in Hilo, then take a Zoom testifier before rotating back or rotating back to that process. Thank you very much, sir. So, Chair, our first two testifiers are here in the Hilo chamber. Grace Money Pool Larson to be followed by Joanne Toledo. Grace, whenever you're ready to begin, you can hit that button at the base of the mic at the front there. Reintroduce yourself, and you'll have three minutes. Aloha Chair, Honorable County Council, ladies and gentlemen, uh good noon. My name is Grace Manipularison, and I would like to quote Ephesians 4 32. Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other just as in Christ God forgave you. I am a very simple woman, and um I use simple terms so a lot of ordinary folks can understand this issue. We're human beings and we made mistakes. Ms. Costa and her colleagues can admit that they are in purchasing those luxury homes that don't really answer homelessness issues. We can accept her apologies if she forgot to tell us what really her intentions are. We can pretend not to understand the sweetheart uh deal of giving a $10 year list to an NGO for a million dollar house or less than a dollar per month. We can also pretend that we don't know that there is a double dipping benefits. An NGO got from the government. They got the million-dollar house, and they are funded from the county taxpayers' money. However, we cannot have any control, if anything, if we found out that she and her office violated any rules under emergency rental assistance law. If found guilty of misappropriation of the federal grant money, I don't know what sanction will be there waiting for her and her colleagues. Let me ask you, honorable county council, what was the result of the county audit for the housing community and development? That 33 million that the county funded since 2022 worth it. How much money really was used for the homeless? Is the luxury trip to Europe by some NGO staff covered by this funding also? If the taxpayers cannot get an accurate answer, maybe it's time to question them under oath. Maybe there are others that are interested to know about the truth and the other details. So help us understand in simple terms before the public will resort to question you to the court under oath. Maybe in court we can find out also how much dollars will go back to the campaign spending for some politicians. I'm just wondering. So thank you, and I hope you can give us answers before we resort to this avenue. Mahalo, and have a great day, everyone. Thank you for your testimony.