Note: The transcript states the meeting occurred on Thursday, July 16, 2026, at 2:31 p.m., but the provided meeting date is July 17, 2026. This summary uses the provided date, as instructed.
The committee, chaired by Chair Dasantos Tam, convened to receive an update from the Department of Customer Services (CSD) on the upgrade of its driver's license card production system. The meeting began at 2:31 p.m. and adjourned at 2:59 p.m. Councilmembers Cordero and Ishimoto were present; Councilmember Wire was excused. One member of the public testified.
Hello and good afternoon, everyone. It's Thursday, July 16th, 2026, and the time is 2.31 p.m. while the committee on government efficiency and customer services meeting. Please come to order. I'd like to welcome Councilmembers Cordero and Ishimoto. Councilmember Wire is excused today. Pursuant to Section 92-3.7 of the Hawaii revised statutes, this meeting will be conducted as a remote meeting by 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 when the agenda item is taken up in two ways: in person in the council chamber and remotely via video conference or phone. Before testifying, each person shall state their name for the record. Each speaker may not have anyone else read their statement and will be limited to a one-minute presentation on each item. All persons who registered to testify in person will be called upon first. Persons who have not registered will be given an opportunity to testify following the registered testifiers. Once in-person testimony has concluded, I'll proceed to remote testimony via video conference or phone. When I call your name or the last three digits of your phone number, please follow the prompts to unmute. As both English and Hawaiian are the official languages of the state of Hawaii pursuant to Article 15, Section 4 of the State Constitution, and HRS section 1-13. Members of the public may testify in either language. For oral testimonies offered in Ololoho, but additional time as may be necessary will be allowed for the testifier to provide an English translation of their testimony. HRS section 92-3.7 requires that all votes at remote meeting be conducted by a roll call unless unanimous. Therefore, I'll first call for objections, and if there are any, I'll call for a roll call vote. Written testimonies, including the testifier's address, email address, and phone number will be available to the public as described on the posted agenda. And as a courtesy, please turn off or silence all cell phones for the duration of this meeting. We have one agenda item today, which is an update by the Department of Customer Services on the upgrade of its driver's license card production system. We have the director of customer services, Kim Ashiro here, who will be providing us with a brief presentation. A copy of the presentation has been distributed and it will be available online. It's Departmental Communication D slash 491 of 2026. But before we get to the presentation, let's get testimony out of the way. Chair, we have one testifier. Okay. In person. Anything? Oh, yeah. I'm a fan of the DMV process. Okay, and your name for the record? Oh, Angela Melody Young. Thank you, Angela. All right. Um, anyone else going once, going twice, going three times? Okay. There being none. We'll close testimony and now hand it off to the director. Hi, good afternoon, Chair Dasantos Tam and members. Kim Hashiro, Director for the Department of Customer Services. Thank you for having us here today to provide an update on our card production upgrade project. The current driver's license design has been in place since 2009, and from a technology standpoint. But they were cons they're considered very outdated 17 years later. So the same goes for our card production system. And the reason why we need to update it is because the hardware and software are obsolete. New cards have stronger security features. It'll provide a streamlined operational system for our customers and employees. And it will result in faster production and delivery of cards.