Good morning with the committee on infrastructure, transportation and technology.

Please come to order.

It is 9 02 AM on Wednesday, June 24, 2026.

I would like to welcome committee vice chair Okimoto and Councilmembers Dos Santos Tam, Tipola and Wire.

We don't have anyone joining us on any council members joining us online.

Pursuant to Section 92 Dash 3.7, the Hawaii revised statutes.

This meeting will be conducted as a remote meeting by conference techno inf interactive conference technology with the following procedures in effect for the meeting.

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

As both English and Hawaiian are official languages of the state of Hawaii, pursuant to Article 15 section four of the Hibai State Constitution and HRS section one-thirteen, members of the public may testify in either language.

For oral testimonies offered in Olelo Hawaii, additional time may as may not as may be necessary will be allowed for the testifier to provide an English translation of their testimony.

For our first agenda item, we have action um item resolution twenty-six-one four T one-four three, which appoints Luca Kunaberdi to serve on the rate commission of the city and county of Honolulu of for a term to expire on June 30, 2031.

I would like to first allow for the um the introducer of the resolution as uh Luca Mr.

Kuniberti is going as a council appointee to council member Weyer.

Um Mahalo Chair.

I appreciate your um openness and you scheduling this item, and I think it'll be an amazing discussion and also grateful for Chair Waters for um supporting our youth leadership and of course most importantly, um Mr.

Cuniberti uh for his willingness to participate in this process and put his name forward and be willing to serve our community.

He's been a fierce advocate uh for transportation uh across you know all areas and still engaging consistently with the department uh you know, just on how to improve our bus routes and access to Skyline and really making transportation more accessible to our community, which I think through you know all the discussions we had and have had in this body, how really vital our public transit system is to just uh you know supporting the quality of life for all of our residents and how so many rely on air, right?

And so I'm just want to say Mahalo, Chair.

Mahalo, uh Councilmember Weyer, and with us from the uh uh uh with us, we have the appointee here.

We have Mr.

Cunibirdie.

If you could please introduce yourself, share a few words, and then we'll have a discussion thereafter.

Aloha, good morning, um, Chair Cordero, Vice Chair Okimoto, and Council members.

Um it is such a great honor to be here today as a young person being able to talk to you all about this appointment.

Uh for the last year, I have been advocating for and with youth on the exact issues that the rate commission works on every day.

As the North Shore's inaugural Hawaii Youth Transportation Council representative, as a uh North Shore Transportation Alternatives board member, as one of the co-founders of Oahu Transit Riders, as a student as a community member, I have been talking to youth on how transit affects them, what that experience could improve, um, or how that experience that can improve and aiding them and getting them in touch with the right people.

I believe it is time for to bring youth uh to bring a youth perspective to the rate commission, because public transit affects everyone.

Kapuna workers, low-income and houseless persons, and cakey youth.

We deserve a seat at the table, and I hope that if I'm appointed, I can help give the voices of youth on Wahu a seat at the table.

Mahalo for your time and hearing my appointment.

If you have any questions for me, feel free to ask away.

Thank you, Mr.

Cunningberti.

Members, do we have any questions?

Councilmember Weyer.

Thank you, Chair.

And also just wanted to Mahalo first um Director Morton, who I see present as well, because he's um, you know, actually, you know, was brought up the idea as an innovative way to bring youth voices to it.

And so a lot of credit to him as well for elevating um this discussion.

Luca, I wanted to uh Mr.

Cuniberti, maybe have you just talk through you have a lot of um commitments and responsibilities, and so can you just share a little bit about how you would balance that with your responsibility uh on the rate commission if appointed?

Yeah, so um I just graduated high school and for the last couple years I've been uh Hawaii Transportation Council member doing all this volunteer work and I've also been uh doing dual enrollment at UH West Wahoo for political science and marine biology.

So it's definitely been difficult to uh balance everything out, but I've I've managed to do it.

I think you know, one of the great things about doing all this, I've learned how to balance my time very well.

And I'll be um going off to college now to Vermont, which of course is is very far away, but I've learned how to uh balance my time, being able to represent my community, being able to represent the communities of Oahu and the youth of Oahu.

So I'm I'm very excited.

Appreciate that.

And then could you just share a little bit about how you became interested in transportation advocacy?

Yeah, so I have, and you know, looking back at a lot of the photos on my phone, I can definitely tell that I was interested in buses for a long time.

Um, you know, on the North Shore, it's a beltway.

So it's either you're taking the car or taking the bus or taking a bike.

And I really just enjoy taking a bus and a bike a lot more because um I am legally blind in my right eye, so it doesn't I can drive, but it I don't I'm not really that confident in driving and being able to be in a bus and just seeing everyone else in a bus.

It's almost like it's fun to people watch and see other youth taking it.

I like asking them questions like, how's the bus?

How's it been today?

Is there anything that I can might be able to help you improve?

And they're like, Oh, you can help me improve the bus.

It's like it's it's a fun experience and being able to meet new people and it's a lot of fun.

Yeah, appreciate that.

Thank you, Chair.

Thank you.