Honolulu Budget Committee Hearing on March 10, 2026
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Budget Committee Hearing – March 10, 2026
The Honolulu City Council Budget Committee convened on March 10, 2026, to review Fiscal Year 2027 budget requests from multiple departments. Presentations and discussions covered proposals, staffing, vacancies, and policy initiatives.
Department of Budget and Fiscal Services (BFS)
Director Cobano presented BFS' budget issues, including a $300,000 continuation of procurement improvement consulting, a $45,000 vehicle replacement for real property assessment, automation of the budget book compilation, and a proposed downtown business improvement district (BID) with $1.8 million in assessments. BFS reported 55 vacancies as of the meeting date, with a vacancy cutback reallocation of approximately $1.2 million. Overtime was budgeted at $180,000, with 90% from the general fund. Revenue estimates for BFS-collected taxes were relatively flat. Capital budget items included $10 million for Skyline construction, $68,000 for a DES vehicle, and major equipment for DFM and DPR. Key discussion points included the project adjustment account for CIP, carryover funds (restricted ~$1 billion, unrestricted ~$400 million), and the use of fund balance to balance the budget.
Department of Emergency Management (DEM)
Director Collins presented a 40% increase in salary budget to add eight new full-time employees, with a total budget increase of about 30% ($518,969). Four existing federally funded positions would be moved to city funding, creating flexibility. DEM's overtime budget was $62,500. Federal funding increased, including a 314% increase in the urban area security initiative. CIP requests included $2 million for a Haula resilience hub and $333,000 for regional operations center improvements. A vehicle replacement for a 2005 SUV was requested at $62,500. Discussion touched on the lack of hurricane‑rated shelters, the need for logistical contracts, and the impact of potential federal funding instability.
Prosecuting Attorney's Office
Prosecuting Attorney Steve Alm presented a $1.24 million increase in the mayor’s proposed budget, but noted a 5% salary cut overall despite a 69% increase in felony filings from FY2023 to FY2025. The office has 48 general funded vacancies, many filled by contract employees. Federal funds (VOCA) are down about 40%. The office requested 20 additional deputy prosecutor positions at an estimated cost of $2.3 million to reduce caseloads and speed up screening. Overtime and legal intern programs are supported by salary savings. The office noted a recent surge in applications (212 in FY2026 to date vs. 25 in FY2025), indicating ability to fill positions if funded.
Royal Hawaiian Band
Bandmaster Clark Bright presented a budget with salary increase of 7.4% and current expense increase of 11.64%, offset by a 20% equipment decrease. One vacancy is expected to be filled by June 30. Overtime of $70,000 covers truck drivers and sound engineers for performances. A capital request of $140,000 was made for a passenger/equipment van to replace two vans (25 and 17 years old).
Medical Examiner's Office
Dr. Masahiko Kobayashi presented caseload trends showing increases in accidental deaths (largely drug overdoses) and natural deaths post-COVID. The FY27 budget includes increases in salaries, current expenses (including $50,000 for relocation of temporary equipment from Ewa), and equipment. Three new medical‑legal investigator positions are requested to support a 24/7 home death investigation initiative responding to over 550 additional scenes annually. Federal CDC overdose‑data grant funding ($155,000/year) will end in August 2026. The office reported only one remaining vacancy and is recruiting to fill by June 30.
Corporation Counsel
Director Dana Viola presented a 0.11% salary reduction and a 7.5% reduction in current expenses, for an overall 2.29% budget decrease. The judgment and loss account is recommended at $19.1 million, down from $19.5 million. The office has 13 vacancies (two deputy positions). Overtime covers trial preparation. Discussion noted that $4.2 million of the FY26 appropriation was actually spent.
Ethics Commission
Acting Executive Director Almira Sang and Commission Chair Shelton Jim On presented a 0.19% budget decrease ($1,831). The commission has four recent vacancies, representing a disproportionate impact due to its small size (11 staff). The vacancy cutback of about $36,000 will hamper operations, especially with upcoming deadlines for financial disclosure reviews and lobbyist reports. The commission requested that the cutback not be applied and that two additional positions (associate attorney and paralegal) be funded to improve responsiveness and outreach.
Key Outcomes
- No formal votes were taken during the meeting; discussions will inform council amendments to the executive budget.
- Several departments (DEM, Prosecuting Attorney, Medical Examiner, Ethics Commission) made specific funding and position requests for council consideration.
- Councilmembers committed to reviewing the requests and working with the administration during the budget process.
- Directors were asked to provide follow‑up information, including BFS data on the project adjustment account and carryover breakdown by department.
Meeting Transcript
Aloha, good afternoon, everyone. Once again, it is Monday, March 9, 2026, and at one fifty PM, I call this committee on budget back to order. Members, thank you so much. We will proceed, we'll continue with our agenda item. So before us now we have the Department of Budget and Fiscal Services. For your information, the presentation is available online as Departmental Communication One Six Five Twenty Twenty Six. Um the first item wanted to discuss is our purchasing and general services budget issue that was an add on uh for um fiscal 27. You know, as you know, we've started our uh procurement improvement um working group process, our procurement improvement um process included, uh outside consultant to uh help us to look at the entire uh purchasing lifecycle or procurement lifecycle. You know, that's starting this year. We're in the first few phases of the project. Uh we budgeted $300,000 in FY26. Uh we are continuing the project going into FY27 uh to implement changes uh to procurement to get us to the future state. Um with regard to future software, we have a placeholder based on um talking to other um agencies on the mainland on their spend for uh software, and we felt that uh putting in $300,000 from multi-year uh contract would make a lot of sense. Um lastly, our procurement uh division will be moving to the Fosse municipal building sometime in October. Um what's happening is on the second floor, the Department of Transportation Services will be moving out. They'll be moving to 711 Capulani Boulevard. Um what we're gonna do is move procurement to the second floor, and we're gonna allow our Treasury department to spread out currently on the first floor, you know, behind uh the customer service windows, and uh, you know, take on uh procurement space and uh be able to uh be less uh stuffed, you know, in one area and um have all the work teams together all in one place for more efficient service to customers of the city. With regard to real property assessment, again um we are proposing a acquisition of a vehicle replacement, $45,000 to replace a 13-year-old vehicle at Kapole Hale, such so that we can go out and uh you know, our appraisers can go out and do inspections at properties throughout the year. With regard to budgetary administration, you know, as we have documented in the budget book and um we have uh talked uh about um you know during visits that we're able to schedule with council members. Uh we're looking at further automation of our budget book uh compilation. Uh we're looking at a platform that would allow multi-users to um input information in a secure basis. We're looking at the ability to uh bring in layers of data and information from different sources uh and uh have a system that can track any historical changes by user so that uh we have we have control on the end product. We're looking at uh more efficiency. Uh we're also looking at a better product that um uh we're able to provide to council and the public uh through more um you know more of an effective uh compilation and um more effective analysis in the report. Lastly, with regard to uh treasury, you know, we have a big um to uh a large task this year. We have to stand up the downtown business improvement district, uh, and we have to do it quickly. Uh they're uh targeting uh invoicing uh assessments under the new downtown business improvement district or BIT BID in the sum of about 1.8 million dollars uh that's their budget. Uh they plan to spend a million eight on security measures, enhanced security measures, uh, street cleaning, and uh general decorative uh improvements to be more inviting uh to the public in in the downtown business district area. Um as such, uh we took a look at all of our BID activities. Uh, as you know, the Waikiki bid and special district have already been in operation. We found out that uh the systems and the way we share information with the uh nonprofit uh in Waikiki is not very efficient. We're we're exchanging spreadsheets. Uh a lot of times the information provided is not accurate. Our supervisor supervisory staff uh would have to clean things up. And it's just a huge weight on the team. And you'll see overtime when we cover overtime, it results in overtime. So we're thinking that adding a supervisory accountant who would be responsible for not only the stand-up of the downtown BID but BIDs in general through a re-org, some reallocation of workload, so we have uh improved supervision over our treasury staff would be a big plus. We're gonna need to um spend some money on workspace uh in FY27. Uh we've budgeted $20,000 for that. Uh we're thinking that because the downtown BID has no staff, essentially uh there's a director and accountant, uh, but they have they really don't have anyone to really get them up and going. Uh we're requesting for uh a budget of 100,000 to um augment uh staffing through perhaps a local um CPA firm to help to put it up. This would be non-recurring. Uh and then finally um we are thinking about uh software development on the current IAS uh Tyler Technology platform to eventually get all of the um billing and collection on the current um uh real property tax billing and collection system. What we're gonna do in the first and second years is we're gonna we're gonna run the billing and collecting on an automated platform offline. Our current ERP system uh CGI uh has uh an accounts receivable module. Uh we're gonna we're gonna quickly um use it to um get the bills out uh in FY27 so that uh the BID can start funding operations. Uh we think that's gonna be important. And um uh as such, uh you know, some of the software costs will be for that to the extent we need it. But uh the real focus is to at some point in time get all of the the BID activities for billing and collections onto our real property tax billing and collection platform so we can send one bill out. So um that's our um summary of our budget issues.
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