The Hawaii County Council Committee met on April 21, 2026, at 9:04 AM, chaired by Councilmember Kany Kleinfelder, with 8 members present (Councilmember Inaba excused). The meeting covered ad hoc committee recommendations on the PONK program, nominations to boards and commissions, and an invasive species grant resolution.
Today is April 21st. It is 9 04 AM. I'm calling this meeting to order. Here in the CONA chambers, we have Councilmembers Hustis, Oneshi, Galimba, Viegas, and myself. And in Gilo joining us today, we have Council members. Kurt Oitz, Councilmember Kalgiwada, Councilmembers Kimball. That gives us uh eight members today. Uh Mr. Inaba is excused for our meetings. Uh Mr. Clerk, is there any public testimony? I've been informed that there is no testimony for your committee vice chair Conley Lee Kleinfelder. Thank you very much. Let's go to our first order of business. Communication three four zero request information of an ad hoc committee to review the public access open space and not your resources preservation commission process from Councilmember Michelle Galimba dated June 3, 2025. This matter is postponed June 17, 2025. And then motion there's a motion on the floor by Councilmember Glombus, seconded by Councilmember Houstis to close file and communication three four zero, and we have communication three four zero point one from Councilmember Michelle M. Galimba dated March 31, 2026, transmitting the public access open space not your resources preserved commission process ad hoc committee recommendations. Okay, so we have a motion on the floor already. Councilmember Gilemmo, do you want to start us off this morning? Thank you, Chair. Um as stated the ad hoc committee was formed to r review the existing preservation acquisition program, um just the acquisition portion and to um look at processes and procedures, um the applicable sections of the county charter code and punk rules of practice. The committee also consulted with stakeholders, including um community members, staff, um, and the punk commission. Um the committee has a final uh report of recommendations, and we did not uh review or evaluate any specific um projects or acquisitions. So this was about um process and the current state of the um punk program and we have a number of um common themes that we found and recommended actions, which um I can go over. I I'm not too sure. Should I the do I uh clerk is that enough of a um overall should I go into it any deeper or or not? I think that's at your discretion. I'm not hearing anything too interesting so far. That's not a criticism. That means you're doing well. Thank you. Right. Um well, I just make I'll make a few comments. Um of the common themes that we found or um ideas or were that there has been a lot of uh administrative changes and staff turnover during the past few years. However, we are in a really good place right now. We have um the program is fully staffed and probably staffed better than it ever has been. So I think good things are um forthcoming. Um we also wanted to thank the commissioners for their dedication. Um they've really work hard at um making this program work. And it is a it is uh really one of the best things about Hawaii County that we have such a um strong punk program. Um so the idea here is that um the we're presenting this final report and um we can talk about process um but if we'd like to have deeper conversations we would need to postpone um this until the next meeting to have conversations on content. However, um I would like to ask my fellow uh committee members, ad hoc committee members, if they would like to add any comments at this time. Thank you very much, Councilmember. Councilmember Houston. Thank you, Chair. And I just want to thank Councilmember Galimbo and Councilmember Kimball uh for participating in this process and kind of the overall review of the acquisition portion of Punk and kind of going through those recommendations, but uh really appreciate the time and energy that we put into it and kind of considering some ideas and opportunities uh going forward on that. So yeah, mahalo. Thank you. Councilmember Kimball.