Aloha and good morning, everyone.

It is Tuesday, July 14, 2026, and the time is 9 07 a.m.

Will the committee on budget please come to order?

Welcome to the committee members who are present in the chamber today.

We have committee vice chair Nishimoto, Councilmember Kia Aina, Councilmember Tolba, and Council Chair Waters would like to also welcome Councilmember Tupola.

Like to excuse Councilmember Cordero at this time.

She is on her way.

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Some friendly reminders and tips.

Thank you, members at 917, we call the committee on budget back to order.

I can like to welcome with us to the chamber, Miss Shannon Smith, our appointee.

Thank you.

I've moved to Honolulu in 1993, became a licensed um realtor in 1998, and have been exclusively full-time selling residential real estate since 2003.

So I'm very excited to try to better understand some of the uh the the way the process works.

And I also set on a professional standards committee, so I understand the uh necessity of looking at specific documents in front of you and making a judgment based on the facts that's presented to you during that um, you know, during that process.

So if anybody has questions.

Thank you, Miss Smith.

Maybe there's any questions for the appointee.

Uh we'll start with council member Kia Aina.

Thank you.

Uh good to see you um, Miss Smith.

And I do appreciate uh your professional background because this board is critically important for a lot of people, uh, both homeowners as well as um uh developers.

And I also appreciate that you have uh certificate in historic preservation.

So good for you.

Um, you know, over time I've had a various constituents come to my office requesting assistance with property tax disputes.

And uh this year I've been contacted by numerous recent condo owners at Ulana at Ward Villages, and I I'm I'm pretty sure that the council member sitting next to me also has been um receiving a lot of inquiries.

Um and they've been contacting me about um assessments, tax assessments that they feel are based on inappropriate or incomparable comparisons, some which is twice as much as their appraisals from a few months before the city's assessment.

The condo they live in is new, but has minimal amenities and is a hundred percent workforce housing building with simpler and lower quality finishing and materials.

One of your key roles as a member of the board of review will be to assess disputes between the city's rural property tax office and property owners.

Sorry.

What are you intelligent to answer this question?

Excuse me, kind of hold that.

Wait, I I haven't finished my question.

Yeah, I'm not interrupting talking to her.

Okay, we'd like to have Councilmember Kiana finish her question for the appointee.

And then if the administration would like to come up in during discussion, but please please proceed, Councilmember K.

Comparison shells.

Um value because of the that's how you evaluate any uh property.

I would would be based on what they're made of and um so you uh you could you uh concede that it does matter.

I would would be based on what they're made of and okay um so you uh you could you uh concede that it does matter uh so that when you're doing comparable uh comparison and assessments, you can't just compare a um workforce housing building with another building uh uh in in that that's fair market value.

I I'm sorry, we we can ask core to chime in on this, but these are active board cases that should in my opinion should not be discussed at this point.

Okay.

I don't know if core or council services can chime in on this.

You're asking specific information relating to cases.

Just for the record, can you identify yourself, Mr.

Takara?

And then we'll see what it is.

Stephen the car, we're a property assistant.

Thank you, administrator.

Thank you for the city.

You're right.