Good afternoon, everyone.

Everyone, will the committee on executive management please come to order?

Noting the presence of council members wire, Kia Aina, Cordero, Okimoto, and Nishimoto, and I believe Council Member Tupola will be joining us shortly remotely.

Members of the public will be allowed to provide oral testimony on all items on the agenda in person in the council chamber and remotely when each agenda item is taken up.

As both English and Hawaiian are official languages of the state of Hawaii.

I will then give persons who have not registered an opportunity to offer testimony.

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Video conference from a quiet location if possible.

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Therefore, I will first call for objections, and if there are any, I will call for roll call vote.

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I want to proceed is I do have an opening statement.

I wanted to turn it over to council members Wire, Tupola, and Nishimoto if they'd like to give an opening statement as well as their districts were most impacted by the Kona storm.

Then I'd like to turn over to the managing director and or the mayor if you want to make an opening statement.

And then we can follow up by questions and then turn it over to the public for testimony.

So thank you everyone for being here today.

I want to open by sending a heartfelt Mahalo from the council to the countless volunteers, community leaders, organizers, and the frontline workers whose swift action in the early morning hours of March 20th prevented any loss of life during the unprecedented flooding we saw across the island.

The community-led response immediately followed the floods was awe-inspiring and a testament to the strength of our people.

I also want to thank my colleagues who have been spending considerable amount of time in their impacted communities.

Councilmember Wire, Tupolo, and Nishimoto in particular.

We understand the need to be present in your communities at this time and the challenge that it creates in completing our regular business.

So thank you for making the time to be here today.

The primary focus of this initial meeting is to set clear expectations for the city as we move forward in our collective response to this disaster.

It is my hope that this will provide additional clarity for both the public and this body as it relates to the who, what, and when of the city response.

By the end of this hearing, we should have a clear understanding of the timeline, the chain of command, agency coordination, and the points where the city's response may require additional attention and resources.

Before I turn it over to the managing director, I'd like to offer Councilmember Wire.

Would you like to make uh opening statement?

Um Thank you, Chair.

And thank you for convening this meeting.

Um, I imagine it's gonna be one of many conversations that we'll be having both through the budget process and just as an island community uh about how to improve and meet the needs of the community.

And I know you're gonna hear from a lot of voices today from those that were um saving lives and are still doing work done in the community to those trapped in their home because they couldn't evacuate by the time they got the information about what they needed to do, and you know, others that have experiences from across the entire district are very broad and diverse district.

And so I'm gonna have a lot of questions and I'm gonna let their voices speak for themselves today.

And so one of similarly Mohalo everyone that has just outpoured a law and love to the entire community uh at all levels, from those on the ground working in the mud, working in our streams, pulling people out, saving people, um, continue to provide services that include city staff and employees as well to this day.

And I know that the recovery ahead uh is not something that's gonna happen overnight.

Uh and so I look forward to this body um working with the community and elevating their needs and what they want to see uh to both ensure we make improvements so some of the missteps that happen don't happen again, and also to ensure that we provide a path and uh a brighter future for the community.

So Mahalo Chair.

Thank you.

Councilmember Tupola, in accordance with section 92-3.7 of the Hawaii Vice Statutes, please identify each person who is with you at your location, and then please proceed.

Aloha chair, aloha, council members and community members.

There's no one with me right now.

And I thank you, Chair, for convening this meeting and for the time.

Over the past several weeks, communities across Oahu, especially on the West Side North Shore of experience and uh East Honolulu have experienced real hardship, homes flooded, families displaced, and in many cases, uncertainty about what comes next.

I want to acknowledge our first responders, city departments and community partners who stepped up, often under difficult and rapidly changing conditions.

Their commitment does not go unnoticed.

Specifically in my community, I've been working with the following state and city agencies HFD, DPR, EMV, DFM, DOT, and even HICO.

At the same time, we're hearing clearly from our communities.

There were gaps in response, communication, and coordination.

Some felt the response was too slow.

I'm interested to hear directly from DEM and Director Collins because I haven't seen them in my community or received any direct information, but that doesn't mean that they weren't working or moving pieces.

I'm open to learning how they were moving and what was working and what roles they were playing.

Our office has been on the ground as well as many of my colleagues speaking directly with residents, coordinating outreach, setting up hubs, pumping streams, pumping streets, helping people connect to resources, and seeing the strength of our communities.