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.
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.