 Aloha, I'm Marcia Joyner and we are navigating the journey. Navigating the journey is dedicated to exploring the options and choices in life and to assist people to talk about their wishes. It's time to transform our culture so we shift from not talking about government to talking about it. It's time to share the way we want to live our lives. We live in a democracy. We have the option to communicate with our elected officials to be sure they understand our wishes. They work for us. We the taxpayers pay their salary. Most people forget that relationship. Today we will journey down a very special path. The path that began in 1908 when the city and county of Honolulu was a new concept. As far back as the 6th century B.C., there were hundreds of cities, states in ancient Greece, across Europe, and Asia. But not until after the United States annexed Hawaii in 1898 where the city is here. This island, the entire island, is incorporated as the city and county of Honolulu. The city and county of Honolulu, like all governments in the United States, has three branches. The executive, the legislative, and the judiciary. The office of the mayor is the executive, the city council is the legislative, and the court council is the judiciary arm of the city and county of Honolulu. There are nine members of the city council. I'll bet most people do not know who their council member is. I suggest you get to know them. They are responsible for most every part of your daily life. The street lights, the rubbish collection, the fire department, the parks, fresh drinking water, the bus, HPD, street use, lifeguards, ambulance, and oh yes, the rail. And the list goes on. Today I guest vice chair of the Honolulu city council, Ikaika Anderson. Ikaika is a dear friend. I've known him since he was a little boy. I hate to say that. Ikaika is a graduate of Kamehameha schools and then the University of Hawaii. And then he joined the staff of council member Barbara Marshall in 2003 and served as her legislative aide. After Barbara lost her fight with cancer in 2009, Ikaika ran for her vacant seat in a special election and won an overwhelming majority. He currently serves as vice chair of the Honolulu city council, chair of the council's committee on zoning and planning. He is also the executive secretary of the Hawaii state association of counties. That's all of the counties when they come together. You are part of the national association of counties and we go on and on and on. But he lives in Waimanalo and is the council person for that area or that's a large area which most people don't know includes all of these islands down into the Pacific. They don't even know them. They don't know them. Welcome Ikaika. And one last thing before we get into this conversation with Ikaika. I'm selling you to get to know your members. We have a little book, state publishes and it has every elected official's name and number in it. The book is free. Call them. Get it. Call them. Folks can also call our office and we do provide those books as well. So there we are. So welcome Ikaika. Thank you very much Marsha. Pleasure to be here. And now let's talk about all of the things that are going on in the city council. First of all, how does the council work? What is the procedure? We know that you pass bills and like everybody else, all those busy bodies like me that show up and testify and write testimony and do all those things. How do we go from here to here to here? The city council is a legislative branch as you mentioned of the government structure of the city and county of Honolulu. What the city council is charged with is setting policy for the city and county of Honolulu. The mayor is the executive then implements those policies that are set by the council. So the council's role is really to set policy for the city. We also receive the budget from the mayor every year by March 1st as is required by the city charter and then we submit that budget back to the mayor either amended or not amended by June 15th of every year. I will point out though that never in the city's history has the council sent the budget back to the mayor without amendment. So no mayor has ever gotten their budget back from the city council in the form that they sent it to the council in. Well good. So that's the check and balance. Yeah. So do people come to your, to the committee, to the budget committee and say this is as a taxpayer this is what I want or I don't want? That's correct. The city council unlike the state legislature must accept testimony at every single meeting and along the way of every step of the process. So the state legislature when you have first reading, second reading or third reading on bills before the entire chamber whether it be the House or the Senate as you know Marsha. One can show up at the state Senate or state House chambers and offer testimony from the gallery. You'll kind of get escorted off the floor by the sergeant at arms. City council when we are in chambers for first, second and third reading we must accept verbal testimony from anyone who shows up wishing to testify. It seems to me that on first reading it always passes. First reading is usually a formality. But there are certain times where you will have the council vote no on first reading items. It has happened. It doesn't happen often. In my 14 years at Honolulu Hall serving as a staff member for the late council member Barbara Marshall to now my service on the city council as a council member myself. I can count the number of times that a measure has been voted down and killed by the city council on first reading on my fingers. I was going to say I don't remember. I can remember just a handful of times. It does not happen often. So now we last year election year we had this big thing about this charter amendments and you and I had this conversation about how far back we are with the charter and the plan, the planning that's somewhere written someplace. With the Oahu General Plan and all of the sustainable and development plans. Which is 25 years in arrears. Now we come to the sustainable community plans. And again you and I talked about that. So how do we implement this now, the community plans when we still have this 25 years of planning over here someplace. Well all of the sustainable community plans and the development plans come before the Honolulu City Council. And by ordinance these plans are supposed to be revised every five years. In short what these plans do is they guide growth policy for each respective area. So you have the Oahu General Plan that encompasses the entire island. Then you have individual plans. The Ko'olau Poco Sustainable Communities Plan, the Ko'olau Loa Sustainable Communities Plan, the Ever Development Plan, the North Shore Sustainable Communities Plan, East Honolulu Sustainable Communities Plan. All of these plans that fall under the Oahu General Plan. And these plans are guideline documents. Although they're passed by ordinance and they're set in law. These plans are mere guidelines for each community wants to see their community become over the next five years as the plan is implemented. What I will say though is that the five year review process simply is not enough time to be able to pass the plan and actually have it implemented before the review comes up in five years. For example in 2011 the North Shore Sustainable Communities Plan was passed. I'm not exactly certain where the Department of Planning and Permitting is on implementing that plan that the council passed. But I will tell you it's already passed due for the council to revise that plan. How do you revise something that really we don't know where it is being implemented? They're in life's part of the problem. Okay, so then here's this plan and it's passed and it's gone through all this and a developer comes along and says I want to build in the year. That's not part of the plan. How does that work? That developer would still be able to propose their development. Let's say in this hypothetical scenario that you're mentioning, a developer is proposing a rezone of land inside the confines of a Sustainable Communities Plan in an area where their rezoning isn't called for, where the plan doesn't mention any of that. The developer would still be able to propose a bill and to propose a zone change to the administration and to the City Council and have that zone change voted up or down. By the people in the community. By the City Council. But the community gets to agree. The people in the community, exactly. During the hearing process, the people in the community would come to the City Council, would hold up that Sustainable Communities Plan because this has happened before, and would say thank you very much, developer X, for your proposal. But according to the Sustainable Communities Plan, your proposal doesn't fit in the confines of this plan. We are therefore asking the Council to reject it. That has happened before. Oh. I'm glad to know that. It doesn't look like the way buildings go up, you know, you pant concrete and all of a sudden there's a building. So we have had developers come and make proposals in areas where their plans don't necessarily fit. Case in point, we have a developer who has proposed a development in Kaneohe, a roughly 200 home subdivision adjacent to Kolaul Golf Club. When I looked at the Sustainable Communities Plan, some years back when this developer first proposed this plan to my office, it simply is not called for within the Sustainable Communities Plan because that part of Kaneohe does not call for that type of growth. I shared that with this developer, that developer's project still has not gone for it. Oh, good. And I'm unable to support it because of that. Yeah, you're good. Yes. All right, now the big thing that we've all talked about is the Haiku Stairs. Where is that, what has happened, is it, I don't know, where is it now today? The Haiku Stairs have been closed for decades to public access. The stairs were put in place originally, originally this was a wooden staircase going up the face of the Kolaul Mountain Range. How high is it? There are a little more than 3,900 steps over here. And the steps were put in place by the United States military for the purposes of accessing the Omega cables that were utilized to reach our submarines. With today's technology, the Omega cables are now obsolete. That said, the United States Coast Guard allowed people to hike up the stairs, provided that folks came to the Coast Guard Omega Station, registered with the Coast Guard, received permission to access, and then they'd be given the opportunity to hike the stairs. When the Coast Guard transferred the stairs ownership away from the Coast Guard, there has been no management of the stairs, regular management of the stairs since that time. And again, this was decades ago. So the stairs have been closed for decades. Back in the late 1990s, the city and county of Honolulu spent a significant amount of money, more than $800,000, to refurbish the stairs into the metal staircase that it is today. Unfortunately, at that time, research was not done into the ownership of the valley floor. So the city and county of Honolulu was fought, owned the area where the stairs are. Also come to find out, the city and county of Honolulu never did own the watershed where the stairs are. The Honolulu Board of Water Supply was. So now the Board of Water Supply owns the stairs that were refurbished with city and county of Honolulu taxpayer dollars. But the valley floor that is necessary to traverse to reach the stairs in the first place is under ownership of multiple landowners. You have the State of Hawaii Department of Transportation, you have the State Department of Hawaiian Homeland, and you have Kamehameha Schools, all owning property. Oh, different. Exactly, that you have to get through to access the stairs. Now let me say this one thing, because you mentioned the Board of Water Supply and the city. In 1908, when the city was created, in its infinite wisdom, the people that worked to create the city made the Board of Water Supply a semi-autonomous and the police department semi-autonomous. And if you read, if anybody that wants to go back and read all that, the idea was that no rogue mayor could turn off the water or call out the police department. So the city and county has these two semi-autonomous. Now at some point, the police department got folded into the city, and I don't know when that happened, but the point is the Board of Water Supply is still semi-autonomous. It is. Yeah. So that's why you have the two, when you mentioned the two separate owners. So now, okay, so now we have the stairs, the stairway to heaven, and it moves from the Board of Water Supply to the city. Is that what happened? It's under the ownership of the Board of Water Supply. So doing Barbara Marshall's tenure on the council and prior to her tenure, there was the problem of people trespassing through private property, oftentimes through private property owned by private citizens to access the stairs. So Barbara Marshall, during her tenure on the city council, was successful in encouraging the council to appropriate monies to hire a private security firm to put a security guard at the base of the haiku stairs to deter trespassing hikers. That was somewhat successful, but the city at the time was paying upwards of $70,000 per year for these security guards to be there. As we went through that whole exercise, it was then found that the stairs were actually owned by the Board of Water Supply. So the Board of Water Supply steps in, assumes ownership of the stairs. The Board of Water Supply then took over paying for the security guards to be present to deter trespassing hikers. But the security guards were only there at certain times because the costs, as I mentioned before, at $70,000 were fairly significant. The Board of Water Supply, though, increased that dollar amount to have the security there more often, so as to better be able to prevent trespassing hikers. The Board of Water Supply has since shifted to hiring off-duty Honolulu Police Department officers at special duty pay on the Board of Water Supply's dollar to help to prevent trespassing hikers from accessing the stairs. And from what we've heard, that's been very successful. Good. Now we are going to take a break, and when we come back, I want to talk about the other issues before the Council, the rail. Okay. We'll be right back. This is Think Tech Hawaii, raising public awareness. Some say scuba divers are the poor man's astronaut. At Dive Heart, we believe that to be true. We say, forget the moon. Dive Heart can help children, adults, and veterans of all abilities escape gravity, right here on Earth. Search DiveHeart.org and imagine the possibilities in your life. Aloha. We are here with Council Member Ikaika Anderson, who is Vice Chair of the City and County of Honolulu. Let's get that right. The City and County is a corporation. It is the entire island of Oahu. And in 1908, there were nine Council people, and 2017, there's only, there's still nine? Yes. Come on. Fifty-one House members and nine Council people. We started as a Board of Supervisors with only seven members, then in 1960, we shifted to a City Council with nine members. Back then, the population of Honolulu was maybe a little less than 400,000. Now here we are, nearly a million people. We still have only nine members. Keep in mind, the State House of Representatives, of course, has fifty-one members. Roughly thirty-five members represent Oahu. That's still, you know, but that North Shore area, huge, huge. How would a Council member go to meet all of those people? I don't envy being Ernie Martin walking door-to-door in this district. Well, listen, let's complete this talk about the plans and that whole area that was part of the Ko'olau Poko Sustainable Community Plan. With the Haiku Stairs? Yes. The Haiku Stairs, the Hawaiian Memorial Park, all of those things. The Ko'olau Poko Sustainable Communities Plan was recently passed by the Council and went to the Mayor for his signature. Mayor Caldwell did sign Bill 57 of 2016, which was the Ko'olau Poko Sustainable Communities Plan, and over the next five years this plan will be implemented. In regards to the timeline, I will be proposing legislation to increase the timeline from five years to ten years to allow for a greater time period to be able to implement these plans. The Department of Planning and Permitting simply does not have the staff to do a five-year review and implementation before the redraft of the plan come up, nor is five years significant enough time for the community to be able to get a plan passed and have it implemented before they really know what effect it had and what changes should be made. So we are working on that change, Mark. With Haiku Stairs, I'm actively working with Mayor Caldwell as we speak on a permanent solution to the issues of trespassing hikers and access to Haiku Stairs, and we'll be ready to make an announcement. People's property, yes. Because that's the big thing. That's what we hear all the time, is the residents complaining about the rubbish and the cars parked. And as we speak, I'm working with Mayor Caldwell on a permanent solution to the Haiku Stairs that will address trespassing hikers, that will address people being able to access the stairs legally and being able to give the residents some peace. And we'll be ready to have a conversation with the community within the next 30 to 45 days. Everybody in the world saw the steps when President Obama went up the steps. Everybody in the world. And then everybody, I want to do it. So let's go to the Hawaiian Memorial Park. What was the issue of expanding it or not? The main issue of expanding the Hawaiian Memorial Park had to do with moving the urban growth boundary to allow for the expansion of the park. I will tell you that I did not cast a vote on Bill 57, which again was the Koala Poco Sustainable Communities Plan, because my family has owned and operated a floral business across the street from Hawaiian Memorial Park for more than 30 years. And with the expansion of Hawaiian Memorial Park, it can be argued that my family business will increase and will receive significant more business than we've had before with the allowing for more burials. So I did not vote on that matter because of that. So the primary issue was having to amend the urban growth boundary to allow for Hawaiian Memorial Park's expansion and the need for additional cemetery space in Winidawahu and folks concerned with the additional development of expanding the cemetery. Now part of that is the state government, where they bury all four veterans. So that's on that property also. It's in the same vicinity, but this does not have to do with the state veteran cemetery. It's with Hawaiian Memorial Park's expansion. So they coexist, is that it? The two cemeteries do coexist, yes. The state veteran cemetery was created when a former owner of Hawaiian Memorial Park made land available for the state veteran cemetery to come into existence. That was when John Henry Felix was one of the owners of Hawaiian Memorial Park. And while we're at it, I would like to commend John Henry Felix for his gift to make the state veteran cemetery even possible. It was during his ownership and leadership of Hawaiian Memorial Park that he even made that possible. It cost John Henry a significant amount of money to do it. And he was on the council. He was. But most folks don't realize is that gift did cost John Henry and his business partners a significant amount of money to do. Well, that's wonderful. Now, we have just a little bit of time and the elephant in the room is the rail. So where are we in the rail? What is going on? Will it ever get finished? How are we paying for it? I guess we should have taken this whole time to talk about the rail. We could have easily taken the whole time to talk about rail. Well, you can come back. Definitely. You can come back. The Honolulu City Council Budget Committee and Transportation and Planning Committee just approved Hart's financial plan, Hart is the Honolulu authority for rapid transportation. So in short, Hart is the rapid transit authority that is overseeing the construction of the rail project. The Council Committee on Budget and the Council Committee on Transportation and Planning just approved Hart's financial management plan that is being submitted to the federal government. This is a financial cost recovery plan that was submitted to the federal government that will detail to the federal government how the city and county of Honolulu will pay for this rail project's construction and how we will pay for it to reach Alamona Center as is required under the federal funding, the full funding grant agreement that was signed with the federal government. So what many folks will understand is that we are contractually bound with the federal government to have a rail system that goes from East Kapolei to Alamona Center. This isn't because we somehow came up with an idea just to have the system and want it to reach Alamona Center. We have a contractual obligation with the federal government to reach Alamona Center. Do I believe we will get there? Yes, I do believe we will get there. But what this financial recovery plan details is how we will get there and how we will fill the cost voids that have been left with continued cost overruns and that started really with delays and issuing notice to proceed contracts that helped to get us into this mess to begin with. Well, now... So that plan just went to the federal government on September 15th. Yes. The city council just put its stamp of approval on the, excuse me, the city council budget committee and transportation committees as I mentioned just put the committee's stamp of approval on that plan. It goes to the city council for a vote on Friday. Well, now visually, this is where I'm having an issue. All of those new multi-million dollar condominiums at Alamona, where does the train go? At this point in time, the train is scheduled to go down Capulani Boulevard. Well, there's still a million dollar condominiums all along there and in the view plane of these million dollars, you've got a train. You may. And I can't tell you because I wasn't involved with any of the real estate transactions of any of these condominiums being sold. I'm not certain if the owners had to put a disclosure on their sales contracts disclosing that fact. I couldn't speak to that. But real at this point is planned to go down Capulani Boulevard. What I'll also tell you is that the council is working with on this cost recovery plan. We expect to hear back from the federal government according to heart within the next six weeks as to whether or not the federal government will accept this plan or if the federal government will require any modifications. The state legislature authorized an increase statewide of the transit accommodations tax or the hotel room tax to help pay for rail. I believe that the fairest and most equitable way to pay for mass transit is for a simple extension of the general excise tax. We've been paying this tax to the city and county of Honolulu now for 10 years. Folks are used to paying it. I feel that because the general excise tax is paid for by everybody, from homeowners to renters to visitors, this is the best way to pay for rail. The state legislature disagreed. I'm pleased that the legislature did help us find the funding source to enable us to complete rail construction to Alamoa, but I am dismayed at the legislature choosing to utilize the transit accommodations tax. I'm also disappointed that the mode of financing chosen by the legislature will still leave us short of the necessary funding to reach Alamoa Center and the city will have to come up with additional dollars. And then we have talked about once it's up and running, who pays the electricity bill? Once it's up and running, the city and county of Honolulu pays for the operations maintenance. But I'll also tell you that as much as the legislature says they don't want to be partners in our rail system, well, they already are at their own doing. In authorizing the transit accommodations tax increase, they went ahead and authorized the city and county of Honolulu to implement a general excise tax surcharge. If the state legislature really wanted to be out of rail, they simply would have allowed the city and county of Honolulu to implement some type of a tax strictly for rail, and then it would have been up to the city council and the mayor to move that tax forward and the legislature could be out of it. So yes, the legislature is involved in their partner in the rail system, but at their choosing. Well, you must come back when we can spend the whole time on the rail, because that's the biggie and everybody talks about it, whether you like it and don't like it, that's not the issue. The issue now is how do we pay for it? The issue is how do we pay for it and how do we finish construction? So you will come back. It's been a pleasure today to have my dear friend all grown up, a little boy all grown up. Council member Ikaika Anderson. Thank you very much, Marcia. And we'll see you next week.