The Committee on Government Operations and External Affairs met on May 4, 2026, from 2:00 p.m. to 4:00 p.m. in the Kona chambers, with members also participating from Hilo. The meeting addressed several resolutions amending council rules, an intergovernmental agreement, a charter amendment, and a request for executive session. No public testimony was offered. All actions were forwarded to the full council with favorable recommendations, except for the executive session request which was closed.
All right, good afternoon, everybody. Welcome to the 33rd session of the Committee on Government Operations and External Affairs. Today is May 4th, 2026. Then the time is two o'clock p.m. We are here in the Kona chambers. And with me here today, I have Council Members Kimball, Galimba, Viegas, Coneli, Kleinfelder, Inaba, and Houstis. Over in the Gilo chambers, we have Councilmember Kirkowitz. And I think Councilmember O'Nishi will be back shortly. Thank you. Do we have any public testimony this afternoon? Thank you, Committee Chair Kogioada. We do not have any testifiers for your committee. All right. We're going to go we're going to push the item 14 to the end of the committee meeting. So if we could start with resolution 518-26, please. Resolution 518-26 amends the rules of procedure and organization of the council of the county of Hawaii by repealing rule number seven and adding a rule relating to permitted interaction groups. Places adult committees with permitted interaction groups introduced by councilmember Inaba. Move to forward resolution 518-26 to council with a favorable recommendation. I have a motion by Councilmember Inaba and a second by Councilmember Galimba to move resolution 518-26 with a favorable recommendation to council. Councilmember Inaba. Thank you. And that is the correct term per HRS. And it also further clarifies that when we move to establish a permitted interaction group, that part of that motion include the scope of the investigation or assignment as well as the chairperson and members. And that's really to help clarify our records that when we look back, we're able to clearly see it. And it's been uh difficult in some review to see membership and scope when we look back in our minutes. So ask for your support. Thank you. Thank you, Councilmember. Any questions or comments? Councilmember Kimball. Yeah, just a procedural one. So I just to make sure I'm clear in the future. It's one motion to close file, identify the scope and the members, or is it like we've done in the past, one motion to close file, and then within that a motion to identify scope and members. So the process where the communication that brings the discussion that that still stands. It's just that a formal motion be made after that specifies who and what the scope is, who's serving and what the scope is. Got it. Thank you. All right. Thank you. Anyone else? Questions, comments? All right. Councilmember Kirkowitz, please go ahead. Thank you. I just I want to sit, I want to speak in support of this role clarification. Um, you know, I I believe in in the past or actually our current rules allow for the chair of a committee to select the members of a committee. I think this is a lot cleaner for um it to be conducted um in this way. I appreciate the transparency and clarification so that the record can reflect members serving and the actual scope of the permitted interaction group. Thank you, council member. Anybody else?