Speaker numbers apply only to this recording. Names come from transcript evidence. “Possibly” marks uncertain attribution.
The Committee on Budget met at 9:05 a.m. on Tuesday, October 20, 2026, with Committee Vice Chair Nishimoto and Councilmembers Kia Aina and Talba present. Chair Waters and Councilmember Cordero were excused. The committee advanced two wastewater revenue bond resolutions and one real property tax bill. Agenda item 4, Bill 44 (2026), was canceled and not considered.
Aloha, good morning, everyone. It is nine o' five A.M. on Tuesday, October twenty, twenty twenty-six, and I call the committee on budget meeting to order. I'd like to welcome in the chamber with us, Committee Vice Chair Nishimoto and Councilmembers Kia Aina and Talba. Councilmember Cordero and Chair Waters is excused from today's meeting. Hawaii revised statutes. As both English and Hawaiian are official languages of the state of Hawaii, pursuant to Article 15, Section 4 of the Hawai'i State Constitution and Section 1-13 of the Hawai'i revised statutes. Members of the public may testify in either language. For oral testimonies offered in Olelo Hawai'i, additional time as may be necessary will be allowed for the testifier to provide an English translation of their testimony. 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. All persons who have registered to testify in person will be called upon first. When the timer goes off, please conclude your remarks promptly. Persons who have not registered will be given an opportunity to testify following the registered testifiers. Once in-person testimony has concluded, I will proceed to remote testimony. All persons who have registered to testify remotely by video conference or telephone will then be called upon. When your name is called, please monitor your screen and activate your audio feed when prompted. For persons who are testifying by telephone only, 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. When I call for anyone else standing by remotely, please utilize the Zoom raise hand button to indicate your desire to speak. For those joining us by telephone only, please press star nine to indicate your desire to speak. 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 television when 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 all cell phones for the duration of this meeting. Members item number four, Bill 44 2026 on page three of the agenda has been canceled and will not be considered today. Moving on to agenda item number one for action, resolution 26-222. This resolution authorizes the director of budget and fiscal services to issue and sell not to exceed 210 million dollars principal amount of wastewater system revenue bonds, junior series 2026 and related matters. Before calling up the administration, we will now proceed with in-person testimony in the council chamber. Clerks, do we have any registered testifiers for this item? Chair, there are none. Thank you. Seeing that there are no registered testifiers or no one else in person who would like to testify will not proceed with remote testimony. Clerks, do we have any registered testifiers for this item? Chair, there are none. Okay. Is there any non-registered remote testifiers who would like to proceed at this time? Seeing none, we will now proceed with our administration. We'd like to welcome from the Department of Environmental Services, Deputy Director Daniel Brick. Good morning, and um deputy director. Thank you, Chair. Thank you, Council members. Uh Dan Brick, Deputy Director for the Department of Environmental Services. So we support this resolution, which authorizes up to 210 million in the junior lien wastewater revenue bonds. So we are uh planning on selling variable rate bonds this this year. Uh and that is due to market conditions. Uh we believe we can have a better interest rate uh on these bonds. And uh if conditions uh maintain how they are currently, uh, we believe we we could provide five million in savings uh for this year, savings uh in debt service that we would have paid going with the variable rate bonds.