Honolulu City Council Budget Committee Meeting - March 10, 2026
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Honolulu City Council Budget Committee Meeting - March 10, 2026
The Committee on Budget, chaired by Councilmember Okimoto, convened on Tuesday, March 10, 2026 at 12:53 PM to review the fiscal year 2027 budget requests from the Department of Parks and Recreation (DPR), the Department of Housing and Land Management (DHLM), and the Liquor Commission. The meeting featured detailed presentations, discussions on staffing, asset management, funding sources, and operational challenges. No formal votes were taken.
Department of Parks and Recreation
Director Laura Thielen and Deputy Director Kehau Pu presented the department's budget. Key topics included:
- Personnel: DPR has been filling over 100 positions annually for three years, but retirements and separations keep vacancies high. They have 46 positions in interview/selection, 46 approved to fill, and 22 under reorganization.
- Non-revenue contributions: DPR secured ~$10 million in offset projects from DOT for windward/North Shore parks, a $6.75 million green fee application for Ala Moana beach nourishment, $40 million in NORESCO energy-savings park improvements (Phase 1), and $5 million from AES for Kahuku District Park. The Adopt-a-Park program provides over $500,000 in in-kind value annually.
- Asset management: A $750,000 Phase 2 lighting inventory and a $250,000 software license for work order/asset scheduling are requested. The roofing assessment shows 30% of 400+ buildings need roof replacement within five years.
- Maintenance Support Services (MSS): Requesting $8.9 million from transient accommodation tax (TAT) to fund a work program for roofing and repairs. Director Thielen emphasized that delayed roof repairs lead to structural damage, as seen at Pololo District Park gym.
Councilmember Discussions:
- Councilmember Kia Aina expressed concern that using TAT for roofs may not align with the fund's original intent (recreation and natural resources) and warned against using it as base funding. Director Thielen clarified it is an annual allocation, not perpetual. Kia Aina also highlighted potential DOD REPI funding and urged collaboration with the climate change office.
- Councilmember DeSantis Tam asked about the Parks and Playground Fund; Director Thielen noted it is used for CIP and that a new national design-build playground contract may allow more efficient use.
- Councilmember Wire inquired about activating unimproved city parcels; Director Thielen described pre-approved standard agreements and MOUs for community stewardship. For agricultural activities, she suggested that lands better suited for that purpose be placed in a different inventory (e.g., DHLM).
- Councilmember Tupola and others praised progress and discussed sponsorships, turf partnerships, and vertical parks for urban infill.
- Councilmember Cordero asked about the relationship between MSS and DDC; Director Thielen explained that MSS handles minor capital improvements via master agreements, while DDC handles major projects.
- Chair Waters asked about lapsing funds; Director Thielen noted that a purchasing hold caused equipment lapses in FY25 but that purchasing has agreed to push items through promptly going forward.
- Chair Waters also raised concerns about the Hawaii Kyodo Foundation archery facility at Maunawai Nature Preserve and the canoe boathouse roof; Director Thielen committed to community outreach and noted the roof is on the repair list.
Department of Housing and Land Management
Director Kevin Augier presented a budget of $7,007,944, a 35% decline due to capitalizing relocation expenses. Key points:
- Vacancies: 16 of 48 authorized positions are vacant (11 filled by PSCs, 6 hired via governor's emergency proclamation).
- Revenue: The department manages ~60 commercial leases generating ~$2 million annually (deposited with BFS). One tenant default has been worked out, recovering ~$100,000.
- Budget issues: $750,000 for non-capitalizable relocation, $150,000 to reconfigure office space, and funding for four new positions from a prior reorganization.
- Capital programs: $26.8 million for Affordable Housing Fund, $100 million for Mixed-Use Development Fund, $10 million for Villages of Kapolei (reimbursed by state), and $1 million for infrastructure planning in Halawa and Evil A.
- Clean Water and Natural Lands Fund: Current balance ~$70 million. Director Augier noted they are working with the office on stewardship and signage.
Councilmember Discussions:
- Councilmember DeSantis Tam raised concerns about vacant commercial spaces and Bill 10; Director Augier estimated tens of thousands of dollars per month in foregone rent. He also asked about the status of the real property inventory; the deadline from Chief Data Officer Kira Chucham is May 2026.
- Councilmember Wire asked about activating city land and project-based vouchers; Director Augier said they are actively pursuing the voucher program now that a pipeline of projects is in place.
- Councilmember Cordero inquired about flood mitigation at Evil A; Director Augier described a $2 million FTA grant and work with Nippon Koei on flood mitigation.
- Councilmember Kia Aina emphasized the need for better communication on land assets, especially for Clean Water and Natural Lands Fund projects. She urged the department to avoid simply netting out other funding sources and presenting the city with a large bill. Director Augier committed to collaboration.
- Chair Waters asked about affordable housing incentives; Director Augier identified land readiness and pre-development cost assistance as key, noting that they are negotiating development agreements for 10 properties and expect to bring resolutions to council soon.
- Councilmember Tupola clarified the Villages of Kapolei funding and confirmed that the city will be reimbursed by the state. She also praised progress on the Verona Village CPR documents.
Liquor Commission
Assistant Administrator Anna Hirai presented a budget request increase of ~$500,000 (11%) for FY27. Key items:
- Personnel: 16 of 57 FTEs vacant (including the administrator position, under recruitment). The most difficult-to-fill positions are Liquor Control Investigator (LCI) 3, with three positions vacant for seven years.
- Overtime: FY26 licensing overtime was high—two employees logged over 1,600 hours each. This correlates with LCI 3 vacancies.
- IT system: $200,000 for L2 maintenance (the custom licensing database) and $50,000 to complete the purchase of body-worn cameras.
- New positions: Requesting 1.48 FTEs (a full-time and a 19-hour part-time records management analyst) to handle UIPA requests and body-worn camera footage redactions.
- Revenue: The commission is self-funded through annual licensee fees. Current licensee count is 1,506, higher than projected, so the budget increase is expected to be covered without raising fees (staying within the 20% statutory ceiling).
Councilmember Discussions:
- Councilmember Kia Aina emphasized the need to increase investigator salaries ($53,000 starting) and asked the commission to explore reclassification to a higher bargaining unit. She also noted SB 2835 and urged the commission to keep the council informed.
- Councilmember DeSantis Tam asked about the backlog of 350 license applications; Administrator Hirai said a permitted interaction group is meeting the next day to find efficiencies.
- Councilmember DeSantis Tam also inquired about the Way Chen report; Darren Matsumoto reported 13 of 19 initiatives completed, with the remainder in progress, including body-worn cameras and policy revisions.
- Councilmember Cordero suggested raising license fees to increase salaries, but acknowledged it would need commission and council action. Administrator Hirai noted a statewide discussion on moving investigators to a higher bargaining unit.
Key Outcomes
- No formal votes or resolutions were adopted during the meeting.
- DPR will provide a revised list of TAT-funded MSS projects after incorporating the new roofing assessment, and will share the initial list with council members for input.
- DHLM committed to delivering the city-wide real property inventory by May 2026, and to improving communication with council members on land activation projects.
- Liquor Commission will continue working on reducing the licensing backlog and exploring salary improvements for investigators, with a state-wide conference scheduled for November 2026.
- All departments will provide supplementary responses to council questions via the Budget Committee chair.
Meeting Transcript
Aloha and good afternoon, everyone. It is once again Tuesday, March 10, 2026. The time is twelve fifty-three p.m. Will the committee on budget please come back to order? I'd like to welcome back with us into the chamber. Council Chair Waters, Councilmember Cordero, Councilmember Kia Aina, Councilmember Talba, and also welcome Council Vice Chair Tupola. Remember because we are gonna we are we will continue on with our agenda for today. The next department who will be presenting to us as the Department of Parks and Recreation. For your information, the presentation is available online as Departmental Communication 176 2026. With us, we have the from the department director Laura Thielen as well as Deputy Director Kehau Pu. Aloha and good afternoon, Director Thielen. Aloha Council members. And then also with them, their main managers, managerial staff, and they are here to answer questions that you may have. So if we can go to the first slide. We have an additional 46 positions that are either in the interview process or they have been selected through the mass interviews that we do for the entry level positions, and we're working on matches, and then they'll go on into suitability. We have another 46 positions where we've received approval to fill, and we're asking for the lists for candidates, and then about 22 positions that we are looking at for reorganization to take an old position that really isn't more relevant to our operations today and change it, and then we would go through recruitment. The main point that I want to make is that if we did not have people leaving the department, we would be 100% filled because we've been hiring in excess of 100, filling 100 positions plus each year for the last three years. But we have a large number of retirements as the baby boomers are moving out of the workforce. And then we also have a large number of separations that are leaving the department because it is an employee market right now. But we have a net increase each year, and we've been reducing our vacancies, and because we are filling the number of vacancies that we have, almost all of them have been vacant for less than three years, anywhere from zero to three years. Next slide. We're only anticipating a slight increase, but we will probably talk during the QA period about some legislation that may be coming up that may change that in the future. But for right now, this is what we're predicting. And next slide. I did want to point out and take a slide though, is that the department has been pretty aggressive in what I would call non-revenue contributions to the park department. What we've been doing is working a number of different sources for either improvements or contributions to support parks and gardens. The largest one that we have right now, the Department of Transportation is doing a lot of highway improvements using federal funds, and when they take a portion of parkland, they're supposed to offset that. Traditionally, the the city has just basically said, okay, you can go ahead and take it. But we had a meeting with Director Ed Sniffin, and we said, you know, you have a significant number of projects on the windward coast and the North Shore coast due to erosion, and each project is just affecting the park a small amount, but that adds up over time. And we asked if we could work with him on some projects in on a regional basis to help offset that, and he was very supportive, for which we're appreciative. So our district has come up with a listing of projects at various windward and north shore parks that could use improvements, and we're negotiating those with DOT. It's approximately 10 million dollars in value, but they would be doing the construction as part of their road work in that area. So it also would be coming in not at the expense of city staff or time. We've also put in an application for the green fee for 6.75 million for a beach nourishment project at Alamoana Regional Park. DDC had done the permitting for that prior to COVID, but that money ended up getting used for COVID purposes. So that did get into the governor's budget that was submitted to the legislature and is being recommended by the Green Fee Commission. So hopefully that will come through the legislature. We're also working, many of you were beneficiaries in your district of the Noresco Energy Savings Projects, where we made sure that in addition to energy saving, they were also doing park improvements. So we had put in about 40 million dollars worth of park improvements with the help of NORESCO over a I think about a two-year period. So we're working on phase two, negotiating another round of park improvements. It won't be quite as large, but it will be still significant. And then AES out in Kahuku, five million dollars for design and construction for some improvements to Kahuku District Park. And then I have a number of other items there that is listed, but the main one I want to point out is it's hard to quantify the actual value, but it's our adopt a park program. We have a significant number of volunteers coming into our parks, and then also a huge number of volunteers coming into our botanical gardens that are helping to activate areas and then providing a significant amount of in-kind contributions. So I think the value is probably well above 500,000 in an in a given year, but it is pretty significant, and all these things are taking a fair amount of staff time to be supporting and monitoring. Next slide. This does have our overtime, and this is broken out by division, and in the case of some of the divisions, because we have different sections in them that are large, we broke it out further. And in the case of some of the divisions, because we have different sections in them that are large, we broke it out further. For example, division of urban forestry is broken out with the botanical gardens and horticultural services. Our overtime is a little bit difficult to predict year to year because there is a significant amount of our overtime that is in response to emergency events.
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