Committee on Government Efficiency and Customer Services Meeting - March 6, 2026
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Committee on Government Efficiency and Customer Services Meeting - March 6, 2026
The Committee on Government Efficiency and Customer Services, chaired by Councilmember DeSantis Tam, met on Thursday, March 6, 2026, at 2:34 p.m. The meeting included consideration of two resolutions accepting travel gifts and an informational briefing on the Department of Planning and Permitting's (DPP) technology modernization efforts. Members present included Councilmembers Cordero and Yishimoto (also referred to as Councilmember Wire). The meeting adjourned at 3:37 p.m.
Consent Calendar
- Resolution 26-20: Accepting a gift of travel valued at $5,874 from the American Association of Motor Vehicle Administrators (AAMVA) for representatives from the Department of Customer Services and the Department of Information Technology to attend a site visit to the Arizona Department of Motor Vehicles in Phoenix, April 20–23, 2026. Director Kim Hashiro explained the trip would help move the city off its legacy mainframe system (COBOL-based) to a modern platform, utilizing open-source code from Arizona's MAX system. The resolution was amended to a CD1 (OCS 2026-0077) and reported out for adoption without objection.
- Resolution 26-26: Accepting a gift of travel valued at $2,900 from AAMVA for a representative from the Department of Customer Services to attend the 2026 AAMVA Leadership Academy Conference in Arlington, Virginia, April 13–17, 2026. Director Hashiro noted the importance of the DMV division chief's ongoing participation in national discussions. The resolution was amended to a CD1 (OCS 2026-0126) and reported out for adoption without objection.
Discussion Items
- Informational Briefing on DPP's Processes and Platforms: Director Don Takiuchiapuna and Applications Platform Manager Abe Toma presented an update on DPP's technology modernization, including HL Build (launched August 4, 2025), CivCheck AI, and e-plans. Key points:
- HL Build is a modern system built on Salesforce, replacing a 28-year-old legacy system (Posse). Data migration from Posse to HL Build faced challenges due to differences in structure and data labeling, resulting in missing or incorrectly labeled records. Most issues were resolved within the first month after go-live, though occasional small problems persist. Staff created a process to identify and correct data mismatches.
- Account management for HL Build saw a surge of 2,000 new account creations in the first month (August 2025), stabilizing at about 600 per month. A dedicated surge team and a new in-house support person now handle account requests, with turnaround time within one business day.
- CivCheck AI was launched on December 8, 2025, for residential one- and two-family projects. Initial data from 39 applications showed reductions: pre-screen cycles from 1.6 to 1.0, code review cycles from 2.3 to 1.4, total corrections from 23.2 to 8.8, and total time with the city from 68 days to 33 days. CivCheck will be made mandatory for residential projects and expanded to commercial permits by summer 2026.
- DPP issued 2,300 violations in 2025, with over a quarter being sidewalk violations. Liens were tripled from an average of 20 per year to over 60, with a standardized enforcement escalation ladder (violation → order → lien → DMV holds → letters to mortgage → individualized attention → injunction → foreclosure).
- Short-term rental enforcement: 1,044 RFIs and 79 notices of violation in 2025, with many repeat offenders. The public can submit investigation requests through HL Build.
- Contract structure: The prime contractor is Karasoft, with Clarity as the product vendor (software platform) and Sporidian as the implementation vendor. Sporidian continues to provide tier-three support under a managed services contract, with additional enhancements estimated at $200,000 to be included in the upcoming budget. Karasoft administers the contract, while DPP works directly with Sporidian on scope changes.
Key Outcomes
- Resolution 26-20 (CD1) and Resolution 26-26 (CD1) were both reported out for adoption by the full council, each with unanimous consent.
- DPP's update was received; no formal action was taken. The committee noted positive developments in enforcement (increased liens) and sign permit streamlining, and plans to continue monitoring the modernization efforts.
- No public testimony was offered on any agenda item.
Meeting Transcript
Aloha and good afternoon. It's Thursday, March fifth, twenty twenty-six, and it is two thirty-four p.m. Will the committee on government efficiency and customer services please come to order. We have with us our uh committee members Cordero and Yishimoto. Pursuant to Hawaii Revised Statute, Section 923. Members of the public will be allowed to provide oral testimony on all items in the agenda when each item is taken taken up in two ways. In person in the council chamber and remotely. Before testifying, each person shall state their name for the record and will be limited to one minute presentation in each item. All persons who register to testify in person will be called upon first. As both English and Hawaiian are the official languages of the state of Hawaii. Pursuant to Article 15, section four of the Hawaii State Constitution and HRS section one-thirteen, members of the public may testify in either language. For oral testimonies offered in Olala Hobai. And as a courtesy, please turn off or silence all cell phones for the duration of the meeting. First item is agenda item number one, resolution 26-20, accepting a gift of travel, hotel accommodations, meals, and related expenses valued at $5,874. From the American Association of Motor Vehicle Administrators for representatives from the Department of Customer Services and the Department of Information Technology to attend an in-person site visit to the Arizona Department of Motor Vehicles in Phoenix, Arizona from April 20th to 23rd, 2026. Members please note that we posted on the agenda a proposed CD1 to the resolution identified as OCS 2026-0077 slash two slash 10 slash 2026 807 a.m. And a summary of the amendments is listed on the agenda. We have with us the director of the Department of Customer Services. I also see the director of information technology here if they would like to provide comments. Hi, good afternoon. Um Chair Dasantas Tamman members. Kim Hashiro, Director for the Department of Customer Services. This trip that is being fully funded by the Association, the National Association of DMVs, will enable the Department of Information Technology and CSD to understand at a very detailed level what is possible to move us off the mainframe and into a much more modern platform. So the mainframe currently houses driver's license, state ID, and motor vehicle registration systems, as well as other systems. But those are the primary and all of the records for these systems reside on the mainframe. It's important that we move it off the mainframe. It is an old legacy system. It's not supportable in the long term. And it's important that the city take steps now to move to a more modern environment. Visiting the Arizona DMV, they've implemented a system called MAX. This is something that Director McKee has discussed with them, and they're willing to share their open source code for the back end of the system. What we need to see also is how they utilize it on a day-to-day basis operationally, what the customer experiences, and what it took to get them from an old system to a modern system. And I think we can learn a lot from this site visit. Members, any questions? Councilmember Cordero. Thank you, Chair DeSantis Tam. Hi, Director Hachiro. I was just wondering if this is one of those types of systems that we need to be uniform across all the other counties as well. Yes, so the other counties, they interface with the mainframe, they're they're utilizing the same driver's license system that we use. In fact, you'll be hearing more shortly about our upgrade to our driver's license system and our new cart production system. But the other counties rely on the mainframe also. So it is a statewide initiative. Okay, understood. Thank you very much for that clarification and information. Are we further behind than the other um counties in implementing this or looking at this or no? Well, it it's one system, it's a statewide system, so the other counties would benefit it, um, benefit from it. Honolulu is the lead. DIT actually supports and maintains the existing system. Brian has some very limited staff that can do this. Um, the programming language is something called COBOL.
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