Aloha and good morning everyone.

It is Tuesday, March 12, 2026, and the time is 10.02 a.m.

Will the Committee on Budget please come to order?

Welcome to the committee members who are present in the chamber today, Committee Vice Chair Nishimoto, Council Members Kia Aina and Talba.

Council members Cordero and Chair Waters is excused at this time.

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, the meeting will continue notwithstanding loss of audio-visual communication with remote testifiers or loss of the public broadcast in 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 Hawaii revised statutes.

Members of the public may testify in either language.

For oral testimonies offered in Olalo Hawai'i, 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 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 to 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 please press SAR 9 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 for the prompt to unmute and press star six.

Some friendly reminders and tips.

Video conference from a quiet location if possible.

If you're also watching the proceedings on Olelo, please mute your mute your television at the time you are called to testify.

When the timer on screen reaches zero, please conclude your remarks promptly.

Written testimonies, including the testifier's address, email address, and phone number, will be available to the public as described on the posted agenda.

As a courtesy, please turn off or silence all cell phones for the duration of this meeting.

Members, as a reminder, if you have any supplementary questions for the departments that may come up during or after the meeting, please provide them to my office so we may compile them for the department or managing director's office to respond.

We look forward to all of your questions.

Agenda items number one numbers one and two on the posted March 17, 2026 agenda will be canceled.

Agenda item number three will remain as a contingency due to the inclement weather if the scheduled meeting is canceled tomorrow.

Please indicate by lunchtime if you have additional question requests or questions of any department or office so we can invite them back to the committee tomorrow or next Tuesday.

If we do not receive any requests, both the Friday and Tuesday agendas will be canceled.

I'd like to welcome to the chamber joining us, Councilmember Dosantos TAM.

Agenda item number one, informational briefing, executive capital and operating budget review.

We will first proceed with testimony.

Clerks, do we have any in-person testifiers for this item?

Chair there and then.

Thank you.

Proceeding now with remote testimony.

Clerks, do we have any remote testifiers for this item?

Chair there and then.

Thank you.

We will now proceed with the executive capital and operating budget review.

Joining us first this morning, we have the Department of Human Resources.

For your information, the presentation is available online on as Departmental Communication 188 2026.

And this joining us this morning from the department, we have Director Nola and Miyasaki as well as Assistant Director Karen Miller.

Good morning, Director Miyasaki.

Good morning, budget chair Okimoto, members of the budget committee and members of the council.

Thank you very much for this opportunity to present the fiscal year 27 budget for the Department of Human Resources.

I'm Nola Miyasaki, Director of the Department of Human Resources.

I'd like to introduce my team who are with me this morning from the administration, Assistant Director Karen Miller, Gary Chan, our administrative services officer, Denise Sukuyama, I think she's online or Equal Employment Officer.

Rene Renatcho is not here, but she's the chief of our enterprise and resource planning branch.

Jennifer Wu, Division Chief Employment and Personnel Services, Jerry Nichols, Division Chief Industrial Safety and Workers Compensation.

Sarah Hirokami, Division Chief for Labor Relations and Training, and Denise Miyihara, Division Chief Classification and Pay.

The Department of Human Resources is charged with managing the city's talent based on the merit principle and generally accepted methods of classification and employment.

Included in that mandate is the management of the conduct, movement, and separation of public officers and employees.

The department's objectives are to attract, hire, and retain the best qualified civil servants, and to provide our employees with opportunities for training and promotion so that they may have rewarding career paths within the city.

The department's operating budget is comprised primarily of salaries, which make up 90% of the total budget.

The remaining 10% of operation expenses are mainly projected expenses for arbitration due to collective bargaining.