The Kauai County Council convened on April 22, 2026, at 8:30 a.m. in the council chambers. The meeting included public hearings on two bills, a resolution recognizing ocean safety officers as first responders, approval of a $15 million loan for the Lihue Wastewater Treatment Plant planning, and consideration of several tax and fee amendments. All votes were unanimous where tallies were recorded.
Morning, everyone, and uh welcome to our council meeting today's April 22nd. Uh, we do have a public hearings, couple public hearings that we have to do. Uh but before we get started, I just wanted to uh recognize our staff. Today's administrative professionals day. So I just wanted to say thank you all to uh to all the administrative professionals out there. I still I still think ours is the best, but you know I'm I'm biased, of course. So thank you all for all that you do for us and for the people of Kawaii and um all right with that uh we do have like I say we do have a couple of public hearings. Madam Clerk, could you uh read the notice for the first bill, please? Chair notices hereby given that the Koei County Council will hold a public hearing on Wednesday, April 22nd, 2026 at 8 30 a.m. or soon thereafter in the council chambers 4396 Rice Street, room 201 in the historic county building on bill number 2990, a bill for an ordinance to amend ordinance number B 2025-905 as amended, relating to the operating budget of the county of Koi, state of Hawaii for the fiscal year July 1st, 2025 through June 30th, 2026 by revising the amounts estimated in the general fund. This is for the Hoei Firefighters Association Local 1463 Bargaining Unit 11 temporary hazard pay. This bill proposes to fund the agreement of resolution with the Hawaii Firefighters Association, IAFF Local 1463 Bargaining Unit 11 for temporary hazard pay for exposure to the coronavirus disease 2019 for those bargaining unit members employed during the period of March 4th, 2020 to March 25th, 2022, including portions thereof, and to resolve the THP class grievance submitted by the Hawaii Firefighters Association. In total, this bill appropriates $3,790,769 to fund the agreement of resolution for the Hawaii Firefighters Association Bargaining Unit Employees. Chair, we have uh six pieces of written testimony and no remote testifiers. Thank you. Is there anyone in the audience wishing to testify on this bill? Seeing none, this public hearing is now closed. Can we have the notice for bill 2991, please? Notices here. By given that the Koei County Council will hold a public hearing on Wednesday, April 22nd, 2026 at 8 30 a.m. or soon thereafter in the council chambers 4396 Rice Street in the historic county building on bill number 2991, a bill for an ordinance amending chapter 5a Coe County Code 1987 as amended relating to real property tax. This bill proposes to amend COI County Code 1987 as amended, sections 5A-11.4 and 5A-12.3 to allow certain property owners who did not apply for a home exemption by September 30th deadline because they did not yet own property to apply for an owner-occupied principal home tax credit after the September 30th deadline relating to the property of their principal home. Successful applicants will receive a tax credit that shall equal the difference between the tax amount based on the classification of the property at the time of application and the tax amount based on taxes that would have been owed if the property were classified as owner-occupied or owner-occupied mixed use beginning on the first day of the month following the date the taxpayer commenced occupancy of the property as a taxpayer's principal home. Applications will be accepted starting with the date of assessment, October 1st and ending on June 30th of the following year. The more than 270 calendar days of occupancy normally required of the owner-occupied and owner-occupied mixed use tax classes will not apply to this tax credit. Property owners will still need to qualify and apply for the home exemption in order to be assigned to the owner-occupied or owner-occupied mixed-use tax classes and to be taxed accordingly for future years. Chair, we have no remote testifiers and one piece of written testimony. Thank you. Is there anyone in the audience wishing to testify? Seeing none, this public hearing is closed. With that, I'll call the meeting to order. Roll call, please. Councilmember Bulasan. Here. Councilmember Cavallio. Councilmember Cowden. Here. Council Member Holland. Present. Councilmember Kaneshiro. Present. Councilmember Kulei. Council Chair Opposal. Here. All present. You'd have a motion to approve the agenda, please. Second. Thank you very much. Just for your information, if there is no objection, uh after the consent calendar, we will take resolution 2026-13 out of order so we can get all these uh people back to work. All right.