 In Hawaiʻi Show, I am Daela Nyanagida, and we are broadcasting live from the ThinkTech studios in downtown Honolulu. If you want to tune in live, we are at www.thinktechhawaii.com, and while there, please subscribe to our programs and get on our mailing list. The theme of business in Hawaiʻi is to share with you stories of local businesses by local people, and our guests share with us their journey to building a successful business right here at home. In the ThinkTech studio today is Robert Kundiff and Mary Albitz from the Small Business Regulatory and Review Board. Robert and Mary, thank you so much for joining us today. So I understand, Robert, you should be addressed as chairman, and Mary, you are also a board member with the Small Business Regulatory and Review Board. Is that correct? Correct. Before we go into exactly what the Small Business Regulatory and Review Board does, I'd love to hear from you individually about what you do outside of the Review Board. Sure, absolutely. I was shown we'd like to defer to Mary first, and she can begin first. Okay. I am the owner of Island Art Party, which is a paint and sift studio in Maui. We take people step-by-step through painting whatever painting is that day, and they get to take home their masterpiece, souvenir. Nice. Very nice. Yeah, super. So my brief background, Dalen, is born and raised in Hawaii, basically spent my entire career here in Hawaii. I've spent just over 30 years in the packaging industry with a company called Warehouser. We had a manufacturing facility on Nimitz Highway where we manufactured corrugated packaging. And through that business, I was very fortunate to be able to interact with several of the state's industries and get a better insight as to what they are confronted with on a day-in and day-out basis, so that was a tremendous experience and a knowledge source for me as I had my career in packaging. About two years ago, I retired out of it and currently a business consultant helping different businesses and industries to work on operational improvements, strategic planning, those types of things. Very nice. You know, the both of you being small business owners and giving up your time to volunteer your time to the Small Business Regulatory and Review Board is such a generous, offer to small businesses and small business owners alike. What I'd really like for us to do today is to learn about what the Small Business Regulatory and Review Board does, because I think a lot of people don't know the magic that you folks take care of right there within your scope. So could you give me some background on how the, and we'll call it the SBRRB, if you don't mind? Yeah, that's easier. It's a mouthful. And how it was established, Mary, I don't know, if you want to start off or Chairman, you want to start off? And for the sake of the viewership, maybe you can throw up slide number one. And so what happened was back in 1980, U.S. Congress passed an act called the Regulatory Flexibility Act. And that basically established in a nutshell the insurance that regulators don't burden small business disproportionately. And so over time, Hawaii enacted the Small Business Regulatory Flexibility Act in 1998 under the Hawaii Statute HRS 201M. And so that statute basically created the Small Business Regulatory Review Board. And we are administratively attached to the Department of Business Economic Development and Tourism. And we are very fortunate to be attached with that state agency and certainly thank and appreciate all of Director Mike McCartney and Deputy Director Randy Tanaka's support and assistance as we conduct our business. Can you tell me a little bit about the members of the board? Mary? Sure. We have two gentlemen from Hawaii County, James Lee and Garth Yamanaka. And I'm the representative from Maui. And there's four from Honolulu, our Chair Kondiff, Dr. Nancy Amasparo-Wolk. Jonathan Schick and Harris Nakamoto. And then we have Will Lightgate from Kauai County. Now, how do all of your... I'm sorry. This is all from various different businesses. Now, how do all of the board members or how did you all find your way onto the review board? Well, there was a small business convention on Maui. And I met Dory there, who works for the Department of Economic Development. And she recruited me, you know, suggested that I might be a good board member. So I applied. And so people submit an application to the board and they have to be referred by the governor or senators or representatives. Chairman Kondiff, can you tell us a little bit more about the board's purpose? Sure, absolutely. And, you know, maybe you might want to throw a question. So basically, our purpose and there's the statutory part and then there's really the emotional or business element to it. On the statutory side, we basically review state agencies as they initiate or make changes to rules and regulations. And they're required by statute to develop a before public hearing impact statement. And then after the hearing, they have to develop a post-hearing impact statement. And so that's the statutory side. Quite simply, what we try to do as a purpose is to work towards creating and sustaining in an environment where small business can succeed and grow. It's kind of the bottom line is making sure that as rules and regulations are developed and, you know, we recognize that they are important so that we can ensure that we're compliant with laws and environmental impacts and creating an equal competitive field. So in the process of making sure that small businesses, voices are heard and then in the process of being heard, there were developing rules and regulations that really facilitate them to succeed and grow. Now, I know we also have another slide that's pictorial of the makeup of the board. Is that slide number three? That would be slide number four. There you go. So there's all the good looking members of our group. Of course. And so is it at the board's discretion to add members or how does that get assigned? Yeah, the original makeup of the board was dictated by statute and it was originally set at nine members. And we have a member representation from each county and then from Milwaukee. In the process of conducting business because we are consistent of small business owners, extremely busy people that donate their time and occasionally have to tend to their business. And so we really nice that sometimes we have a problem reaching quorum. And so last year's legislative session, we went to the legislators and asked for an addition of two members to join our team, which was approved. And so now we have 11 members on our board, nine current and two prospects going through the process right now for confirmation. Very nice. Can we also bring up slide number three at this time? Can you speak to a little bit about the extended purpose? I know you alluded to the HRS briefly. Sure. Mary, you want to take it? Yeah. Whenever a department has new rules, they bring them to us before public hearing. We talk to them and our biggest push is to make sure that they get as much stakeholder input as possible. It really works a lot better that way. We get better decisions that everybody can compromise and agree with for the most part. Sometimes that doesn't happen, but when they do get more stakeholder input, that's more likely to happen. There was a recent one dealing with the Manta Ray viewings at night off of the island of Hawaii. And there's one boat that is propelled by oars that's not motorized. And they don't have the same lighting things that the other ones have. And so they're able to cater to people with disabilities and elderly and things like that. And so the rules were going to impact them very negatively. And so they brought their concerns to us. And then we were able to have them work with DLNR to work out an agreement that worked for everybody involved. So that's an example. I think what's interesting on that slide that we were just looking at was also the definition of small business. Because I think very commonly in Hawaii we assume that most businesses fall under small business. Could you define that for us? Correct, yeah. Small businesses are businesses with 100 people full time. That's pretty big. It's a wide spectrum. And I think it's important to recognize the fact that 98% of the businesses in Hawaii fall within that definition of a small business, which is less than 100 full time and part time employees. And it's a for profit organization. The other interesting fact is that 57% of all employees in the state work in small business. And so it really is that you hear the terminology every now and then that it's the backbone of the economy. It really is the backbone of our state's economy. And a healthy small business community is really critical to the state's economic success. And you often see the fact that we're ranked, I think, 2018, we were ranked number 47 out of 50 states as the top states in the business in. And so as a board, I think we're trying to do our little part as to moving the state in a direction to be a little bit more business friendly. And as Mary alluded to, the state agencies and the regulations that are developed are critical elements in that. And so as we try to bring state agencies and small business people together to really reach some level of cooperation and development of the work for them. We're going to need to take a short break. But when we come back, I really wanted to talk about how the review board helps small businesses. And of course, I've had the honor to sit in one of your meetings and they are extremely detailed. And I definitely want to ask some questions about that. So we're going to go to that short break. This is Business in Hawaii and we'll see you back here shortly. Hey, Aloha everyone and welcome to the Think Tech Hawaii studio. My name is Andrew Lanning. I'm the host of the Security Matters Hawaii. We air here every Tuesday at 10 a.m. Hawaii time trying to bring you issues about security that you may not know, issues that can protect your family, protect yourself, protect our community, protect our companies, the folks we work with. Please join us and I hope you can maybe get a little different perspective on how to live a little safer. Aloha. Stand Energyman here. You can see me every Tuesday at 3 p.m. here on Think Tech Hawaii. We're not on Friday anymore so don't be looking for me on Friday. I'm on Tuesday at 3 p.m. here on Think Tech. Coming to you live and direct from the beautiful studios and downtown Honolulu's Pioneer Plaza. So please join me and we'll talk everything about hydrogen and clean energy. Not only for Hawaii, but for the whole wide world. Aloha. Welcome back. This is Business in Hawaii. With us today is Chairman Robert Cundiff and board member Marielle Beetz from the SBRRB, or the Small Business Regulatory and Review Board. Hi guys, welcome back. Thank you. When we went to break, we were talking about the purpose of the review board. Tell me a little bit about what the review board does for small businesses. Yeah, certainly. We'd be happy to. And, you know, I'd be remiss if I didn't say, Dylan, thank you very much for this opportunity to be here with you and to be able to engage with your audience in this manner. You know, one of the objectives that we are trying to accomplish in terms of what the SBRRB can do for small business is to grow and increase our outreach. And so we're trying to do different things and be creative in the way that we get out in the community and we reach out to small business so that they know, you know, who we are and what we do and how we can help them. This platform is a perfect way for us to accomplish that. So we thank you very much. You know, some of the things that we do is to identify where the regulations are burdened to small business. And as we recognize what those burdens are, there's a process that we can go through to help small business surface it and interact with the state agencies, you know, to at least surface and get a conversation going about, you know, what may or can be done to minimize, limit or reduce those impacts to small business. And so we work close with the state agencies. The state agencies are very willing for the most part to work with small business. They understand the critical nature of small business. And so they do reach out quite a bit proactively with small business stakeholders. And we found that to be the best way for these impacts to be minimized. We also are available to take complaints from small business where they recognize where there's an impact to their ability to succeed and grow. And I think a little bit later we'll identify where the tools are, where small business can use them to help. Thanks. Mary, I have a question for you. So as I had mentioned when we went to break, I had the honor of sitting in one of your meetings and they are extremely detailed. And it seems as though as a board member, you need to know quite a bit about all avenues of business in each sector of the state government. Tell me about the scope of knowledge that you need to serve on this board. The main scope of knowledge is having an idea of, you know, what all is entailed in a small business. So being a small business owner, you learn that you have many hats. You know, I have many hats that I wear and so having that experience under all those hats really helps to bring that to those meetings. And that's what's great about having a whole board is with everybody's different businesses that they're involved in, you get that perspective. So I think that's how we're able to really drill down on everything. I was extremely impressed at the scope of knowledge that all of you had to possess in order to hear the different departments and agencies speak to, you know, some of the things that they are doing that could impact small business, positive or negative. It was just amazing, the scope of knowledge that you all held. You know, my deal, and I will add to that, you know, the board members are volunteers. And each month we have meetings and those meetings, the material for the meetings are hundreds of pages long. So God bless our board members. They're an awesome group of individuals. They dedicate a tremendous amount of time reviewing the information to be knowledgeable about the project matter so that when we get into our meetings, they're able to ask questions. They really surface the issues that impact small business. And we have a great administrative staff with Dory and Shatem and they support us tremendously. And we just have a great group and I'm truly blessed to have them on the team. I know that a lot of your fellow small business owners would be interested in how they can help. Maybe they may want to be able to be considered to join the board or just how they can support your efforts. Can you tell us a little bit about that? Sure, absolutely. And for the sake of discussion, maybe put up a slide six. And so the biggest way that small business can help our board is through participation and involvement. Even though we run small businesses ourselves, we're not always the subject matter experts in how a particular rule of regulation is impacting their ability to succeed. So we certainly want them to get involved. Through their involvement, then we can gather information on how a specific rule is burdensome to them and how difficult it is to comply with some of these rules. And in the process, we've developed a couple of tools to facilitate that which we can discuss in a little bit as well. But mostly it's for them to get involved. You mentioned earlier that the board is a group of volunteers, which we are. And so we're doing our best to try to help the state's business environment and to help small business. And so what we could ask of the small business community is to also get involved so that together we can really make a difference. Mary, that level of service that you folks provide to the small business community is great. Tell me about the time commitment that you spend with the board. Yes, I spend a few hours before the meeting the day before usually a couple days before reading over the material, getting acclimated to it. If there's a particular part of it, I don't understand. I read further, do some research. If it's in an area that I'm not familiar with, I'll look it up on the map and try and see what's around that so that I am as knowledgeable as possible about whatever's being presented. And then flying over, getting up super early, getting the airport early, flying over, which the state fortunately so far has paid for it. So that's been great. And then I've been able to do some business while I'm over there also. But sometimes I don't get back depending on what flight I have back. I don't get back till evening time. And then I'm usually pretty tired by then. I bet. So it's like a whole day, yes, the whole day plus a few hours the days before. So in the service that you provide to the state and our small business community, you get any feedback? Yeah, we definitely get feedback. We have several individuals and again, I mentioned Dori Palkovich and Zatem Alcos and they're our administrative staff at DBET. They will get emails, they'll get responses through our website. They will receive letters and a lot of the small business where they recognize where through our process and our interactions that we've actually made a difference for them. So they show their appreciation in that matter. You know, you would think that some of the state agencies would look at us as a conflict to what they're trying to accomplish, but it's quite the opposite. A lot of our state agencies work very well with us and with small business. And as we facilitate the process that is established by statute and working closely with state agencies in the involvement of small business, it really makes for a smooth process which they appreciate because it could get very lengthy at times. You know, Think Tech Hawaii has had the privilege of speaking with other divisions from DBET. And one of the things that I'm impressed with the most is the programming, the tools that are out there to help our community and our business owners, our small business owners to help launch and support their efforts to be entrepreneurs in our state. And I do know that the review board also has tools to support. Can you tell us about, can you both tell us about those? Sure, Mary, why don't you start? Sure. So that our website has historical information on various rules. You know, this has a rule status tracker. If it's, you know, especially that's really helpful if it's one you're really interested in. Again, like Robert said, we have the regulation for review that they can submit. And then there's also the rule making process. We have a whole diagram on the website of the rule making process and where small businesses can submit their input along that way. And there is multiple times that they can do that. And then it also has all our meeting dates, our agendas, minutes and are, you know, all that information for each meeting. David, quite recently over the last year, we spent a lot of time revamping our website. I think a lot of our board members when we joined, we kind of felt that the website was a little too much government. Not that that's a bad thing, but as we reach out to small business, we want them to feel like they're working with a board and an agency and a website is really there to support them. So we spent a lot of time revamping that. I think we recognize the fact that, you know, small business owners, leaders and entrepreneurs, they are busy working on their business. And so as our meeting comes up on a monthly basis at 10 a.m. or as a public hearing services, it's usually during the daytime while they're busy doing their work. So we felt that it wasn't the easiest way for them to bring forth their information or their thoughts about certain rules and regulations. And so we revamped our website to be a lot more user-friendly for small business after hours when they're done with their day to log in, you know, take a look at what the status of rules are to be able to submit information to us on how rules are impacting them and where they feel that we can improve. And so that website as a tool has really become a way in which we can engage with small business a lot easier. I wanted to share with our viewers your information and how to get in touch with you. It does have your website on it. Let's put up that slide. Your website address in addition to a telephone number. And I'm sure that they can reach out to D-BAD to communicate with the board. Do you normally invite the public to your meetings to participate? Absolutely. We encourage the public and small business to come to meetings to participate if they can to submit some testimony or information on upcoming rules that we will be reviewing. And that's the only way that we can truly represent small business and the specifications that they deal with is through their involvement, participation and information. You know, I personally want to thank you and all of the board members for giving of your time voluntarily in the interest of other small business owners. Unfortunately, we are out of time, but I am so thankful for the opportunity to share and to gather that information and be able to reach out and get to your website and see all the great things that you folks are doing for small businesses in Hawaii. It's our pleasure. Thank you. Chairman Kundeff and Mary, thank you so much for joining us. A big thank you to our production staff here in the studio. If you would like to be a guest on the show, please like us and subscribe and leave a comment below. Business in Hawaii airs every Thursday at 2 p.m. and we look forward to seeing you here next week.