 Good afternoon, everyone, and welcome to another episode of Kondo Insider. My name is Jane Sugimura, and I'm your host for the show. And I don't have a special guest because I'm gonna stand on my soapbox today and talk to you about something that's kind of near and dear to my heart, mainly because I feel like I bear some responsibility for it because I was appointed to a task force that worked on drafting the ordinance 18-4, that's the fire safety ordinance. And those of you who are regular listeners to this two Kondo Insider know that I've talked about this fire safety ordinance for a while. I've talked about it many times, okay? But recently I was interviewed by Civil Bee. They ran an article that discussed Hawaii's condominium maintenance fees and how they're the highest in the nation. And it may be because we live in Hawaii and everything here is more expensive, mainly because we live on an island and everything has to come to us. And that means that we have to pay extra. But that interview and the discussion we had on the show kind of revived a discussion about why do we even have this fire safety ordinance? And maybe, and we kind of know that it's not working well because it's in the implementation of this law, it was passed in 2018 and here it is 2022 because of the pandemic, deadlines in the ordinance were extended because people couldn't do inspections and people weren't working. And so they were having trouble making paying their maintenance fees. There were cash flow problems with the association because they're dealing with the challenges of repairing and maintaining older buildings that are 30, 40 years old and a myriad of other issues. And now on top of everything else, you have to deal with this fire safety ordinance. So anyway, people have been asking me, why do we need this? And is there something we can do about it? And the answer is, yeah, we can repeal it. I mean, it's harder to repeal. I grant you that it's much harder to repeal. Maybe it should never have been enacted, but who knew? Who knew back in 2017, 2018 that we were gonna have this worldwide COVID-19 pandemic that would turn everything upside down and create economic havoc, where people lost their jobs and the economy was disrupted. I mean, who knew back in 2017, 2018 that that would happen? I didn't. And now that I know, I kind of regret that I was part of the process. But anyway, that's why I'm talking to you today about discussing why we even had this and maybe it's time to think about repealing. But to just give you some background, the fire safety ordinance 18-4 was enacted as a response to the Marco Polo fire that happened in the summer of 2017. And the original bill that was introduced by Mayor Kirk Caldwell provided that all high-rise buildings that were over 10 stories and did not have open exterior corridors were required to install fireshifters. That was the original bill in a nutshell. And as a result, you had hundreds of condo owners showing up at City Hall objecting, testifying against this bill. Why? Because they felt that it was unfair to impose this huge financial burden of installing fire sprinklers is not cheap. The Marco Polo, which is probably the only one that I can think of that did the retrofitting, it costs them $5.4 million in $20, $21, $20 and $20, $21. That they flip the switch in October of 2021 for their fire sprinklers. It costs them $5.4 million. The Marco Polo has almost 600 units and you do the math for your buildings. So it's not cheap. And so, you know, back in 2017 and 2018, when we were having hearings, when the city was having hearings on this bill, I mean, you had condo owners protesting in City Hall. And one of the hearings happened just before Christmas. It went on for hours. And the testimony was, this isn't fair. You know, where are we gonna get the money? We're gonna have to assess our owners. And we don't have $5 million to spend on fire sprinklers. We got old buildings. We have to worry about spalling and we have to worry about railings and, you know, fixing our elevators and other things that are health and safety related. And so, you know, now you're burdening us with an additional expense of installing fire sprinklers and we don't even have money in our reserves because it was never required before. And so, there was a huge protest and the city council set up a task force. I was one of the members. And so we tried to come up with an alternative to fire sprinklers. In other words, you had a choice. You could either do fire sprinklers or you could do something else. And the something else turned out to be something called life safety evaluations, the kind of inspection. That's where you get, you know, a licensed professional to come into your building and they do an inspection and they figure out that, you know, you have to, you know, your building is not quite safe. And most of these buildings, 30, 40 years old, you know, they're worn and, you know, so if you had safety features in the building, they're probably all worn out and have to be replaced or upgraded. And so, but the cost of upgrading those of the safety of the building and to install fire equipment was a lot cheaper than putting in fire sprinklers. So we thought that that was an acceptable alternative. And then, so that passed, that passed. And at the time when we were doing this, the fire department made a list of all the high rise buildings that would be subject to this law. And it was about 360, okay. And then from the 360 buildings because the ordinance did not apply to buildings under 10 stories and buildings that had open exterior corridors. Open exterior corridors means that when you come out of your building, there's air. You don't have, you don't have walled-in corridors. And those buildings were considered, you know, safer. Even, and to give you an example, you don't have to be a small building to have open exterior corridors. The Yarnhofer Tower of Wailana, I think they're both over 20 stories. They have open exterior corridors. And so a lot of you probably live in buildings, you know, that have open exterior corridors. And that means that you would be exempt from fire sprinklers. You still have to pass the life safety evaluation. And you know, the whole purpose of all of this is to make sure that the buildings are safe. And nobody, I don't think anybody objected to that. It's just that this ordinance has deadlines. And because of the pandemic, the deadline for complying with doing the life safety evaluation was extended twice. And I believe that the last deadline was August 31, 2022, which was just a few weeks ago. And coincidentally, in August of 2022, the fire department released a report, that said that 275 buildings associations in Honolulu had submitted life safety evaluations. And of the 275 buildings, 20 had passing scores. That meant that means there's 255 high-rise buildings in Honolulu that did not pass the life safety evaluation and have to do additional installations. And the most popular one seems to be upgrading your fire alarm system, which requires a building permit. And the building permits have to be issued by the Department of Planning and Permitting, DPP, at the city. And we all know that DPP is having its own problems. I mean, right now, I mean, in today's newspaper, the two top officials have resigned because they're not getting along with the mayor. They have staff shortages. Some of their inspectors and evaluators are facing criminal charges for taking bribes. So they have, this is a city department with a lot of issues. And now you've got 255 high-rise buildings in Honolulu that didn't pass their life safety evaluations that are gonna need building permits. And guess what? Under the ordinance, we have three years. Those 255 buildings, they've got three years to comply with the LSE, the Life Safety and Evaluation. I think some of the buildings would be lucky if they get their building permits within that three-year period, much less comply with the three-year deadline. So I'm pretty sure if we're gonna keep this ordinance, we're gonna have to go back and extend the deadline yet again, because there's no way the building, the DPP that's part of the city agency is going to be able to issue building permits to 255 high-rise buildings in Oahu so that they can comply with the LSE in the next three years. I mean, that's like impossible. It would be a miracle if that could happen. So now we've got the pandemic, the COVID pandemic resulted in lost jobs, wages, and when things started to come back to normal, you had supply chain problems and all the costs of everything have gone up. And this is just making everything worse. And that's not only to comply with the ordinance, but for just getting your ordinary stuff done for your buildings. I mean, I've been hearing concerns from buildings saying, we can't even get a building permit to do our regular stuff, our regular repair maintenance. And now you're telling us we're gonna have to get a permit so that we can comply with the life safety ordinance in three years, give me a break. It's not gonna happen. It's not gonna happen. So that part of it is just unrealistic. We're gonna have to go back and if we're gonna continue with this process, we're gonna have to go back and amend the law yet again. And what we're finding out, and this has nothing to do with the fire safety ordinance, but in January one of 2022, the insurance business suffered some losses. I mean, they suffered the losses in 2020 and 2021, but in 2022, they raised the insurance on all high-rise buildings that did not have a fire springer. And the buildings, their insurance premiums increased by 30 to 40%. The insurance in my building on January 1, 2022 went up $45,000 and we didn't have the extra money in our budget, so we've been, you know, scrimping and saving, you know, to just make it through this year. So I've heard worse. I've heard some of the buildings had increases of over a hundred thousand, not covered by their budget. So now you're dealing, now you have the condominium associations and co-op associations dealing with trying to repair and maintain aging buildings, and they've got increased insurance and you have an ordinance that has these deadlines and the next deadline is three years to comply with your LSE. And we know that we have 255 buildings in Honolulu that need building permits that aren't gonna get them so that they can comply with the statute, comply with the ordinance within the three years remaining. And, you know, and it just seems like, and you know, the thing about the insurance, which is really galling, because it's the industry, it's the industry, insurance industry, they suffered losses, the reinsurance industry suffered losses. And so our local carriers who rely on the reinsurance companies, you know, to provide them with money to pay off claims, they had to raise their insurance to us. And the ordinance specifically says that if you have, you are under 10 stories and you have open exterior coordinators, you're exempt for fire sprinklers, but yet the insurance commissioner allowed the insurance companies, the reinsurance companies to raise their rates to the same buildings that are exempt. And to me, that's not fair, but, you know, that's what, you know, we are dealing with now. And, you know, and one of the big things that, you know, one of the big complaints that I have, you know, with all of these, with especially this fire safety ordinance, I call it an unfunded mandate. It's a law that mandates it's us, it's a condo and co-op owners to do something. And that's to install a fire sprinkler or to comply and to spend money to comply with the life safety evaluation. But yet the city has not given us, they promised, you know, in the original bill that they would help us by, you know, providing some kind of subsidy or even low interest loans to help associations deal with, you know, finding the money to pay, you know, for these improvements to the building. But neither the Caldwell administration or the current administration has been moving to establish meaningful, you know, financial assistance, you know, by giving incentives, you know, you know, like tax breaks to go with the mandate or to establish low cost loans where condo and co-op associations can apply for money to help them comply with this ordinance. And on top of that, you know, all these high rise buildings with no sprinklers are facing skyrocketing insurance premium costs. And, you know, the Hawaii Council of Association of Apartment Owners did a study of other jurisdictions that have mandatory fire sprinkler ordinances. And Honolulu is by far the largest municipality. And it's not states, they're cities. And so Honolulu is the largest that we've been able to find. And none of the other municipalities are mandate, are enforcing the mandates. They're letting them happen voluntarily. And that is, you know what, you know, I am suggesting, you know, rather than go back and amend 18-4, ordinance 18-4 to extend the deadline so that we can have, so the buildings can comply with their LSE is to, you know, allow, I mean, first of all, you know, this ordinance, it just seems so impossible to enforce. It's just, you know, there are certain issues that were never contemplated, you know, at the time we were working on drafting it. And now it's come to the implementation and it seems like every time you turn around, there are roadblocks or obstacles to compliance. And one of the obstacles is money. Where's the money? And, you know, so, you know, so I think it's time to consider maybe repealing this ordinance. And you ask me, how do we do that? And my answer to you is, you've got to tell your council members. There are nine people who sit on the city council. And I think we're going to be scrolling. There they are. Those are the nine people. And there's the link. And if you go to that link, that's www.hanalulucitycouncil.org backslash council members. At the bottom of the page, if you don't know who your council member is, there's a box right there that says, not sure who represents you on the council. Look at, and then you click on that box and it will tell you. You tell them where you live and it will tell you who your council member is. And so it's up to you to tell your council member that you would like their help in repealing this law that is creating, because you as a member, as a condo owner, you're going to be paying for this because any installation is going to come out of increased maintenance fees or special assessments. And that means it's coming out of your pocket. And if you're having trouble paying your bills, meeting your financial obligations, so the last thing you need is a special assessment or increased maintenance fees to pay for, to comply with this ordinance. And or, we don't have to do a total repeal. We can just do a modification of the ordinance to make it, to take away the deadlines because the deadlines we know now, we know now are terribly unrealistic. Nobody is going to be able to comply, especially the city, the city who issues the building permits that we need to do the installations. There's no way the city is going to be able to issue a building permits for 255 buildings in the city and county of Honolulu so that they can get there so that they can comply with the ordinance in three years from August 31, 2022. That's August 31, 2025. You have to be in compliance. And so for those of you who have concerns, if you don't sit on a board, you can still call your council member because you're a taxpayer and you're going to be affected by this ordinance if the city council doesn't change it. And all we need is five members of the city council to repeal it. And one of the members is somebody that I'm talking to, I'm not going to reveal that council member's name, but that council member has indicated that they will prepare a bill to repeal ordinance 18-4. All we need is the will, is for the constituents. That means all of you guys out there to pick up the phone, call your council member or go to that website, find out what their email address is and send them an email, please, please, please, repeal ordinance 18-4, the fire safety ordinance. That's all we want. We want messages to go to the council member to tell them that that's what condo owners and co-op owners would like them to do. And we will probably have the council member introduce the bill. It has to go through three readings, which means it has to have three different public hearings where you can testify and you can go online and submit testimony or you can show up. And I think they're allowing in-person testimony so you could go to city hall or they're using, I think they're using Zoom, but they're allowing remote participation and you can go on the city website and they will tell you how to participate in a hearing by submitting testimony or even just showing up on their Zoom or go to meeting. I can't remember what platform they're using, but they do allow remote testimony and you just need to tell your story. That you're a condo owner, you live in a condo that's subject to the ordinance and you know that you have three years to comply. You know that the fire department issued a report in August of 2022 that says there's 255 buildings in Honolulu that have not comply with the life safety evaluation. They need building permits. There's no way the city is gonna do it. And even if they could, you can't afford it. And so what you need from them is their vote, their political willingness to help you, their constituent to get rid of this ordinance that is causing such hardship to so many condo owners. And again, that link is www.honolulucitycouncil.org backslash council members. There it is on the screen right now. That's where you go. That's who you talk to and when you call them, their staff, I mean, they have paid staff and the only job the staff has is to talk to constituents and to deal with constituent concerns. So I guarantee you, if you call a contact your council member once you find out who they are and just say, I'm a constituent and I have a concern and you tell them the concern, give it to them really quick. There's an ordinance, 18-4, fire safety ordinance. I live in a condo and we can't afford to put in these things to put in the fire safety installations. And it's gonna cost us an arm and a leg. We can't do fire sprinklers because we have to do special assessments. And we just can't afford it. And we would appreciate it if you would help us repeal this ordinance. That's all you have to say. Or you don't have to say all of that. Just say 18-4, can you help us repeal it? Cause they'll look it up. They know, they understand that shorthand. So they will understand. So if you tell them that you would like their help in getting 18-4 repealed, they will know what you're talking about. And if enough people call their council members, they will talk to each other and word will get out and say, I'm getting all these calls about 18-4. And we gotta do something because I'm up for election and I need their votes or I'm gonna run for another office and I want them to vote for me. I want these people to vote for me. And so, yeah, your voice matters. So, please, please, please, if you're concerned about this, that's how you fix it. You go to that website, figure out who your council member is, give them a call, ask them to help you by repealing ordinance 18-4. Okay, now I'm gonna get off my soapbox. And I wanna thank you for being with us for this episode of Kondo Insider. And I want you to join us next week when it will be Raylene Tenno and she'll have another very hopeful, hopeful, interesting show for you about Kondo living and dealing with Kondo issues. So thank you for joining me today. Mahalo and Aloha. Thank you so much for watching Think Tech Hawaii. If you like what we do, please like us and click the subscribe button on YouTube and the follow button on Vimeo. You can also follow us on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and LinkedIn and donate to us at thinktechhawaii.com. Mahalo.