On January 13, 2026, the Honolulu City Council Committee on Budget, chaired by Councilmember Okimoto, convened to discuss and vote on eight agenda items including resolutions for fund transfers, fare increases, and bills on transparency and budget execution. The meeting featured testimony from department directors, public speakers, and councilmembers, with several items passing after amendments and debate.
Aloha and good morning, everyone. It is Tuesday, January thirteen, twenty twenty-six, and the time is nine fifteen AM with will the committee on budget please come to order. We have committee vice chair Nishimoto, Councilmember Kia Inna, and we like to also welcome Council Member Dosantos Tam. Although remote oral testimony is being permitted, this is a regular in-person meeting and not a remote meeting by interactive conference technology. Under HRS section 92 3.7. Therefore, the meeting will continue notwithstanding loss of audio visual communication with remote testifiers or loss of the public broadcast of the meeting. Members of the public will be allowed to provide oral testimony on all items on the agenda in two ways in person in the council chamber and remotely via video conference or phone. Remote and in-person oral testimony will be allowed when each agenda item is taken up. Before testifying, each person shall state their name. Each speaker may not have anyone else read their statement and is limited to a one-minute presentation on each item. As both English and Hawaiian are official languages of the state of Hawaii, pursuant to Article 15, Section 4 of the Hawaii State Constitution and Section 1 13 of the Hawai'i revised statutes. Members of the public may testify in either language. For oral testimonies offered in Ola Hawai'i, additional time as may be necessary will be allowed for the testifier to provide an English translation of their testimony. All persons who have registered to testify in person will be called upon first. 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. After in-person testimony has concluded, I will proceed to remote testimony via video conference or phone. When I call your name, please monitor your screen and follow the prompt to unmute. For those who are joining us by telephone only, please press star nine if you wish to testify, and I will identify you by the last three digits of your phone number. When your number is called, please listen for the prompt to unmute and press star six. Some friendly reminders and tips. Video conference from a quiet location if possible. If you're also watching the proceedings on OLELO, please mute your television at the time you are called to testify. When the timer on the screen reaches zero, please conclude your remarks promptly. Written testimonies, including the testifiers' address, email address, and phone number will be available to the public as described on the posted agenda. And as a courtesy, please turn off or silence all cell phones for the duration of this meeting. Moving to agenda item number one for action, resolution 25-237. This resolution authorizes a transfer not to exceed 321, 321,684 in general fund monies from the provision for federally funded program contingencies activity, current expenses CE, character of expenditure, COE, to the Department of Emergency Management, DEM, Emergency Management Coordination Activity Salary COE to provide DEM with the resources required to fill and sustain planner positions, ensuring that DEM can effectively manage and implement federally supported programs. I have here that with us we have Dr. Randall A. Collins, the CEM director from the Department of Emergency Management. I see that that's not the case. Thank you so much for being here, Deputy Director. If you could just say your name for the record. Good morning, committee chair and committee members. My name is Jennifer Walter. I'm the deputy director at the Department of Emergency Management. The purpose of this resolution is to ensure that we have access to funding. We rely on a grant that we receive every year to fund several positions at the Department of Emergency Management. And the federal government has given us indication that this grant on the period of performance isn't changing. So usually when one grant year ends, um, the same grant begins again, and we can continue funding those positions with the same grant. They are adjusting the dates of the grant so that the next year's funding that would normally give us the money to fund these positions is ending at the same time as the current year. So this allows us to continue funding those positions with the fund that um BFS is set up for this purpose. Thank you, Deputy Director. Members, do we have any questions for Deputy Director? Okay. Okay, seeing none. We'll now proceed with in-person oral testimony in the council chamber. Clerks, do we have any in-person testifiers for this item? Chair, there are none.