The Honolulu City Council Committee on Budget met on Tuesday, October 14, 2025, at 9:08 AM in the Council Chamber to consider ten agenda items, including resolutions for police union cost items, grant fund transfers, fare policy changes, and budget transparency bills. The meeting was chaired by Councilmember Okimoto, with Vice Chair Nishimoto and members Kia Aina Talbot, Council Chair Waters, and others present. Several items were passed unanimously, while bills on fare restructuring and budget reporting drew extended debate and were postponed or passed with reservations.
Aloha and good morning, everyone. It is Tuesday, October 14, 2025, and the time is nine oh eight AM. Will the committee on budget please come to order? We'd like to welcome to the chamber today committee members who are present. We have committee welcome committee vice chair Nishimoto and also committee council members Kia Aina Talbot and Council Chair Waters. Under HRS section 92-3.7. Therefore, the meeting will continue notwithstanding loss of audiovisual communication with remote testifiers or loss of the public broadcast of the of the meeting. Members of the public will be allowed to provide oral testimony on all items on the agenda in two ways. When your name is called, please come up to the testifier podium. Persons who have not registered will be given an opportunity to testify following the registered testifiers. Video conference from a quiet location if possible. Written testimonies, including the testifiers' address, email address, and phone number will be available to the public as described on the posted agenda. As a courtesy, please turn off or silence all cell phones for the duration of this meeting. Agenda item number one for action, resolution 25-284. Approving the cost items effective from July 1st, 2025 to June 30, 2029 for the bargaining unit 12, included, excluded and excluded managerial employees of the city and county of Honolulu. With us, I believe this morning we have the from the Department of Human Resources, Director Nola Miyazaki. Good morning, Nola Miyasaki, Director, Department of Human Resources. Thank you, budget chair Okimoto. Um Council Chair Waters and members of the committee, thank you for this opportunity. Um on behalf of Mayor Reckland Giardi, we're we're pleased to ask the budget committee for your favorable consideration of the cost items for the state of Hawaii organization of police officer Chopo bargaining unit 12 for the period July 1, 2025 to June 30, 2029. And I believe in the RESO, the attachment shows all the cost items. Thank you, Director. Members, do we have any questions for the director? Chair Waters. Thank you. Thank you so much for your hard work and total support. But I know what you said that the dollar amounts are in the reso, but for people watching on Alelo, would you mind just laying out what it is that we're approving? Potentially approving. Thank you. The um the the basically um the collective bargain agreement went into arbitration, and this is the arbitration award that was um awarded by the arbitrator recently. Um it awards five percent for the um across the board raises for all of the officers, including their step movements, which are every three years, there's a several percentage depending on what what level they're at. So it's kind of a longevity that um is part of the traditional um pay system, and there will be a lump sum of eighteen hundred dollars paid to each member on July 1, 2026. Um the total salary costs for bargaining unit 12 for the four years will be 221, 164, and 973 dollars. And um, I know that Director Kowano is here. We he will be here, he'll be able to answer any budget-related questions if you had those. Just a follow-up. Do you think this will help with retention of our possibly retiring police officers and keeping people here in Honolulu rather than going to other states or other cities for work? So um, Chair Waters, the the retention piece of the collective bargaining agreement. Um any additional retention pay has to be separately negotiated as a supplemental. So, for example, when we uh negotiated the recruitment bonuses for the five-year 25,000 dollar bonuses for the starting police officers, those are all um well, the recruitment bonuses are separate, but we do for anything that's retention outside of the current contract. We do have to negotiate that separately. No, I understand that, but five percent per year each year is what I'm hoping is that um officers will look at that and think, okay, I should stay. Because ultimately, after four years, that's 20 percent. It's 20 percent plus the bonus plus the step movement. So the step movements, you know, if you look at the four-year contract, it's approximately four percent. So you're we're looking at a 24% increase to salary base salary over four years for every Chopo member, and plus the eighteen hundred dollar um you know, cash bonus on well, I shouldn't say cash, but lump sum bonus on July 1, 2026. So this is substantially the same across the board increases that we gave um in the last collective bargaining contract, except for the COVID year where there were no increases to any of the um employees in the city. Okay, and then lastly, we looks like we have resolved most of the other bargaining units with the exception of bargaining unit 15 and bargaining unit 11. Firefighters and ocean safety. Is that correct?