The Honolulu City Council Committee on Budget met on Tuesday, March 3, 2026, at 10:01 a.m. to discuss eight agenda items, including resolutions for fund transfers, a write-off of uncollectible debts, and a bill to modernize parking rates. The meeting saw robust debate on homeless services, CDBG funding, and a $1.28 million debt write-off for a nonprofit with substantial assets.
Aloha and good morning, everyone. It is Tuesday, March 3rd, 2026, and the time is 10.01 a.m. Will the committee on budget please come to order? I'd like to welcome to the committee to the chamber committee members who are present. Committee vice chair Nishimoto, Council Members Kia Aina and Talba. Although remote testimony is 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, this meeting will continue notwithstanding loss of audio-visual communication with remote testifiers or loss of the public broadcast for 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 Olalo Hawaii, 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 with 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 to for the prompt to unmute and press star six. Video conference from a quiet location if possible. If you are also watching the proceedings on Olelo, please mute your television at the time you are called to testify. So this is really important. Chair There Nan. Thank you. Seeing no testimony members, we are in discussion. Seeing no further discussion, the chair recommends that Bill 1 2026 CD1 be reported out for passage on third reading. Any discussion, any objections, any reservations? Hearing none, so ordered. Thank you, Dr. Kobayashi. Moving on to agenda item number two, resolution 26-34. This resolution authorizes a total transfer not to exceed $3,193,009 in general fund monies from the provision for homeless activities, activity current expenses character of expenditure, consisting of 1,932, 795 to the community-based development activity salary character of expenditure. 480,759 to the community-based development activity, current expenses character of expenditure. And $780,400 to the community-based development activity equipment character of expenditure to cover salary expenses, current expenses, and equipment required to fund the expansion of the homeless outreach and navigation for unsheltered persons HONU program. And with us this morning, we have from the Department of Community Services, Director Anton Krucke. Aloha, and good morning, Director Krucke. Good morning, Chair, members of the council. Anton Kruckey, Director of the Department of Community Services. With your approval of this, what this would allow is an expansion of the HONU program. It's been a very successful tool for us in the city where we can take people on a 24 by 7 basis and take them right to HONU where it's triages them. Sometimes into treatment. And so we had four tenths and we wanted to expand to eight tenths. And so these funds will allow us to fund HONU for both the equipment and the supplies and the personnel. Thank you, Director Cruckey. Members, do we have any questions for the director? Um committee vice chair, Nishimoto, followed by Councilmember Tolba. Okay. Thank you.