The Communications, Reports, and Council Oversight Committee (CRCOC) of the Hawaiʻi County Council met on August 4, 2026, at 2:31 p.m. at the West Hawaiʻi Civic Center in Kailua-Kona. The committee addressed three communications: an affordable housing agreement for a subdivision in Puna, a status update on virtual access for county boards and commissions, and a presentation on early childhood systems funded by the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA). No public testimony was offered.
Welcome to the twenty-third session of the communication reports and council oversight committee. Um we are here in the West Hawaii Civic Center in Kailua Kona. It is two thirty-one PM on August 4th, twenty twenty six. Present here in Chimbers are council members, Kagiwada, Houstis, Kirkowitz, Inaba, Connelly Kleinfelder, Vegas, Kimball, and I believe Councilmember Onishi will be joining us shortly. I'm the chair of this committee, Michelle Galimba. Um, do we have any statements from the public on agenda items? Thank you, Committee Chair Galimba. We do not have any testifiers. Um, so would you like me to proceed with communication nine seven seven or some other order of affairs? Um, let's just go down the line. Very good. Communication nine seven seven provides the affordable housing agreement for one subdivision located at Tax Map Key two four zero zero three zero three five from Housing Administrator Cowellani M. Costa, dated July seventh, two thousand twenty-six, transmitting the above report pursuant to section eleven nineteen A of the Hawaii County Code. Motion to close file on communication nine seven seven. It's been moved by Councilmember Rinaba, seconded by Councilmember Connie Lee Kleinfilter to close file on communication nine seven seven. Do you have any questions? Councilmember Inapa. Oh, yes, thank you. For the excess credit that was purchased. Oh, who was that purchased from? The XX credit has not been purchased. Yeah, this is an agreement, which is outlines the intention of the developer to do option one or option two. Option one is to purchase an excess credit. Option two is to build a rental housing unit. The completion of the trend. Okay so when that transaction is completed, we'll report it on our quarterly report, uh, which is coming up. So maybe for the corporation council, this this is the first housing affordable housing agreement that I believe has been transmitted since, or has there been another? That's incorrect. We've termed transmitted quite a few. Sorry, you've transmitted quite a few. Okay, so this might be the first that we are actually discussing here at council, which um I've asked that we do from now on, just so it's uh agendized and we have the opportunity. But corporation council just as a matter of, you know, in light of the issues the county experience for the affordable housing credits. I'm wondering how we can tighten things up because right now the agreement offers two methods for satisfaction of the affordable housing requirement, either the acquisition of the one access credit or the construction and rental of the one unit. Has it been the county's practice in the past to execute agreements when we still are unsure of their actual method of satisfaction and it's just providing options in an agreement, and then at what point would the council or the public be informed of which option was selected and how an affordable housing agreement was actually or requirement, sorry, was actually satisfied. Well, I I should say that I believe um the credits are reported to this body, and I think that's a recent um development. Um, but uh whether um the developer would choose the alternative, you know. I don't know the mechanism by which you all would have notice of that. Ms. Bailey, do you have an answer to that? Um in the agreement, we always provide two options because by the time uh developer uh gets around to actually finding a credit to purchase, it's been verified and authenticated by our office, and that it can be used in this case. Um there's a bit of time passing. So there may be no credits available when that um is um transaction is completed. HELOSID has very few credits available right now. So it depends on who gets in line first for whatever credits are available, and those are currently with Armstrong, which are formerly DHL credits that are can be used island wide. So I guess that's my concern is I still feel like there's a gray area here because what public record is available unless your office is contacted that allows us to know if and how an affordable housing requirement was actually satisfied right now. We have the agreement which shows us the two options, but then when do we know because we have the reporting requirement for the excess credit transfers, which is done separately on a quarterly basis, I believe, but how are we to know? Because that I mean I feel like that's what kind of put us in the hole the last time is things were happening outside of the public purview, which is why we tried to provide these agreements here, which is why I have these questions now. Is like when how yeah, how do we know when and how they were satisfied? Satisfied. So there's a release of an agreement that's executed between the county and the developer when it has been satisfied.