 Good afternoon and welcome to another episode of Kondo Insider. My name is Jane Sugimura and I'm your host today. Kondo Insider is a show about Kondo living and for it's for people who live and work and have relations with Kondo associations and today we're going to continue our discussion about city legislation and before I get to the topic which is an update to Bill 13 that we spoke about maybe two weeks ago I want to update you on some good news relating to the life safety evaluation that's the fire safety bill ordinance that the city passed in connection with the Marco Polo in response to the Marco Polo fire in July of 2017 and that's the bill that requires mandatory fire sprinklers to be installed in the buildings in all high rises unless your building is less than 10 stories and or it has exterior open exterior corridors if you have those if you are in either those types of buildings then you're exempt from the mandatory provision but you still have to do something called a life safety valuation and I heard a few days ago and I'm not at liberty to disclose the building but there's a several buildings have gone through the life safety valuation but this is a large building and it's a downtown building and we understand that the life safety valuation cost about five thousand dollars and they got a passing score the first time so it's not impossible it's happened and I understand that the site manager the general manager of the building is willing to be a resource person for people who you know haven't done the life safety valuation and want to do it and so in if right now I've got a call into him and if he tells me it's okay for me to disclose his name and contact information we will be doing that on the Hawaii council website and in our next condo insider show we will be broadcasting that information so that you can talk to a live person who has actually gotten a passing score on life safety valuation on the fire safety ordinance that was passed over a year ago and so that's good news it means that it's doable it's not expensive it just means that you need to make up your mind to go on the website get familiar with the matrix and just find a vendor and do it and it's and so hopefully we will have a lot of success stories I know that over 30 buildings in the city and county of Honolulu have already done a life safety valuation this is the first I've heard that of somebody a building getting a passing score on the first time and so you know that's that's got to be a milestone and we will be sharing that information to our viewers so that you will have a resource person to talk to okay but the topic of today the topic is an update on on bill 13 and bill 13 is the rubbish pickup bill and where we left it is the city was going to start the city was going to start charging and that portion of the bill is dead and there's going to be another hearing in a few weeks because they have to make a decision in early June and to finalize the budget but I think that the mayor's proposal requiring residents to pay for a garbage pickup is not going to pass out and for those of us who live in condominiums most of us have private rubbish removal companies remove our you know our rubbish so we would not be affected but where we would be affected is bulky item pickups and and bill 13 and there's a pilot project that starts Monday is about bulky item pickups so that's what we're going to be talking about today and let's first talk about the pilot project the pilot project for bulky item pickups okay that's going to start Monday June 3rd and there's going to be a website that's going to be flashing across your screen opala.org okay that's where you go to make your appointments the whole the the bulky item pickups under the and the pilot project starts June 3rd it only affects single-family residences and multi-family buildings from from foster village in IAEA to Hawaii Kai okay for the rest of you people on Oahu the bulky item pickup the old system is still in effect which means that if you're there's you know what everybody's assigned a day in the month and so that means if your day for pickup is last Wednesday of the month that's still your pickup day if you're not in the pilot project area again the pilot project area is from foster village in IAEA to Hawaii Kai and so if you're in that area then you will be part of the pilot project that I'm going to be talking about now the pilot project says that for bulky item pickups the city will only pick up if you call in and make an appointment okay and you can call in to a number at the environmental services department that's the city and county of Honolulu and they're the ones who you know administer the rubbish removal for residents in the city and county of Honolulu and they are the ones who also administer the bulky item pickups and they have a website which is opala.org or you can call the environmental services department and I understand that the person who answers the phone to take your information is very helpful the two people that I've spoken to who did not use the website like did the call in says that the person was very very helpful and so I guess you know that's a relief but what you do is you call in and you ask for an appointment and I'm not going to be talking about single-family residences I'm going to be talking about multifamily residences and these are condominiums, apartment buildings, cooperative housing and these include townhouse projects okay and so what you do is you have to call in and or go on opala.org and make an appointment and under the and right now the website for if you're in a multifamily residence which means it's a condo, a co-op, an apartment building or a townhouse project it says that your resident manager or property manager has to make those phone calls the website is wrong okay there was a city council hearing two weeks ago and they changed that and so so even though you go online to the website at opala.org and you you know you the instructions will say that your resident manager or property manager has to make the appointment that's that's wrong and what I'm being told is that let's say you live in ABC condominium and so you go on the website for June and you can type in ABC condominium if somebody from your building has already called in to make an appointment then you have to use that same day because they're only going to allow one pickup day per association so whoever calls in first they're going you know they're they're going to have an appointment and if you open up the website and you type in the association name and if it's ABC condominium then you're going to see the appointment there if you type in the name and there's nothing shows up then you can pick any day in the month and make an appointment and I'm and I'm told that when you type in and and you you pick a day and you have to tell them what your your your you want picked up and so if it's a couch I'm told that you know you have to describe it so if it's a couch and and I think they give you prompts and they'll ask you what color is it you know fabric is it leather is it me is it got wood if you're putting in an appliance is it a whatever the maker model is whether it's Westinghouse or GE and it's a washer it's white and and you know so you have to put you have to put in the descriptions mainly because we're told we were told that the you know the hearing on this bill that whatever you put down whatever you describe is what's going to get picked up and so the example we were given was if you call in and you say I have one couch and one chair and when the city people get there and if they find three couches and two chairs they're only going to take one couch and one chair because that was what was called in they're going to go to leave whatever is left there and so the the question is well how do you know that you're picking up the right stuff because if I'm the person who called in and let's say I have this old brown couch it's got cotton fabric and and I have a wooden chair and I put that out there and and you take the wrong couch and the wrong chair I'd be really I'd be kind of upset I really would be upset that you because my stuff then is still left on the sidewalk and I have to figure out what to do with it but anyway and you know I've talked to several people and and and one person who went on the website says says that you know when you make when you type in your description so if you type in one brown couch and one aluminum table with four chairs and then let's say you do a refrigerator a GE refrigerator stainless steel and you you you have those items okay that you can then print out a receipt and you can take your receipt and tape it to your three items and that's what the city will pick up and there are there are other people too who said that you know they they thought of that and they were thinking of maybe doing you know colored labels and putting the colored labels on their items so that the city would know that that was what was called in but as we all know when you put stuff on the street for bulky item pickups people see the the items on on your sidewalk and they're gonna that that pile that starts off with maybe three items will grow and grow and grow and pretty soon you've got stuff on the sidewalk and and if you have labels then the labels may you know can be removed from one and maybe put onto another and it's like how can you how can you tell that the city is going to be able to take the right stuff and that's one issue that the city tells us that they will have to figure out but anyway you know that's the process that is going to be implemented in the pilot project and if it works it will be implemented statewide and I'm going to we're gonna take a break right now and I'm going to come back and we'll follow up on on what happens you know what happens you know what happens if you put stuff out on the sidewalk and they take did they take the wrong stuff away what can you do okay and we'll answer that when we after the break hey loha my name is Andrew Lanning I'm the host of security matters Hawaii airing every Wednesday here on think tech Hawaii live from the studios I'll bring you guests I'll bring you information about the things in security that matter to keeping you safe your co-workers safe your family safe to keep our community safe we want to teach you about those things in our industry that you know may be a little outside of your experience so please join me because security matters aloha hi I'm Rusty Komori host of beyond the lines on think tech Hawaii my show is based on my book also titled beyond the lines and it's about creating a superior culture of excellence leadership and finding greatness I interview guests who are successful in business sports and life which is sure to inspire you in finding your greatness join me every Monday as we go beyond the lines at 11 a.m. aloha okay we're back we're back for the second part of our program and we're talking about bill 13 about a bulky item pickups and the pilot project that's going to start on Monday and I'm sure and we were told that the pilot project is a learning process and it will it's going to last six months or more and it's basically the reason and we asked we asked the question well why are you doing this and apparently the city feels that it's more efficient it's a more efficient use of their manpower and their resources to have an appointment and and you would put it on the sidewalk the night before and it would be picked up by 6 o'clock the next morning or at least by 8 o'clock so it's not on the sidewalk more than 12 hours because right now the way the system works you have one day a month and like I said if it's the last Wednesday of the month is your pick-up date you put stuff out on the sidewalk on if it's a Wednesday if it's the last Wednesday of the month then you would put your stuff on the sidewalk on Tuesday late Tuesday afternoon and then the city has four days to pick it up and so I mean that takes into account maybe they were busy from the day before and they haven't finished the day before pick-ups or maybe there was they had workers who were sick or absent and so they're falling behind but anyway the city the process was that they had four days to pick up the stuff and we all know what happens if they if people if the city didn't pick it up on the first day it grows and it grows and it grows and so by the time you know and and luckily in the in my condo they've been pretty good about picking it up and maybe there were a few months where the bulky item sat out there for maybe more than a day but you know we were you know we we've had pretty good luck about them picking it up within two to three days but anyway they the city feels that this is a much more efficient system and it's patterned off of a system that was implemented in San Francisco and so so it's not like you know Honolulu is creating this system they are borrowing it from San Francisco and San Francisco has a call in and you and then within 10 hours it gets picked up and so you're asking well what happens I mean what why won't they pick up the stuff like I like I said that the city said that if you have one couch you call in one couch in one chair and there's three couches and two chairs are only gonna take one couch in one chair and they're gonna leave that other stuff so what do you do with that well if it's not your stuff the the department of environmental services says that they have investigators who are supposed you can call it in and they will come and you can make a complaint that other people have come and put items on the bulky item pickup spot and they will handle the investigation other than that what they want you to you know what you can do is you can take those bulky items and put them in a storage area the problem is is that most buildings most high-rises that were built back in the 70s 60 70s and 80s don't have storage spaces to store these things and if it's a townhouse project you have zero storage space okay you have no place to store these things and and another thing is that if you have to store them that means the association staff who and it's really not their job it's not their job to move bulky item pickup for residents in the building and this creates some concern for association a liability concern because if they get hurt if they hurt themselves moving these items from the curb to a storage space that you may or may not have they could get hurt and if they get hurt it becomes a workman's workers comp issue that the association needs to resolve and we all know that you know those things are you know it takes a long time to get rid of those complaints and you know for for for the worker it may mean you know many weeks or months in health care rehabilitation which is something that none of us want to get into so we would prefer that association staff not be used to move stuff back and forth and so you know what I suggest you do is you follow the environmental services suggestion and call the inspectors and say hey somebody left stuff on the sidewalk we don't know who did it and it's not our stuff so can you come and investigate it otherwise you know under the ordinance what they can do is they can give you a fine now under this pilot project there's there is one issue that is of a concern with bulky as a bulky item pickups with condominiums with a multi-family dwellings you have a limit of 20 items and that's not 20 items per unit that's 20 items per association and you know we've already told the city you know if you got a 600 unit building and you're limited to 20 items I mean that's kind of you know unrealistic I mean if you have you know because 10 percent of a 600 unit building is 60 units and and and so you know you got more than 20 items right there and so this and the city doesn't have a response to that but right now that's what they're saying that and when you go on the website and you log in your items the the program that's on the website will you know keep a tally so if you log in your chair your refrigerator and the aluminum table and your neighbor goes on next and logs in a TV and then you know that you would want to put the whether it's it's a console or whether it's just a portable and what size is the screen and what is the make and model and then let's say the neighbor has a television a telescope and a mattress okay that's six items and so the next person who comes on and you can see by the time you get to 20 and if you're the maybe the 10th resident who wants to have a bulky item pickup and you go on to the website and now there's like 19 items and you have three items that you want to put you want to put a desk a chair and a sofa and because there's 19 items you're only going to be allowed to log in one item and so you know so and then and then if you're if you're the next person you won't be able to log in at all because the 20 items has been met and the program is going to tell you that you know the quotas been filled so to speak and that means you're going to have to wait until the next month to be able to put your bulky items out and so so that's a problem because then you know somebody asked me well what if our association has four towers and you know that's a lot of you know units but you know if you've got four towers and you know five or six hundred units you're only allowed 20 items for pickup and you know that's something that you know this the city is going to have to work on and and like we said you know this is a this is a work in progress and if you go on to the website now it will tell you and I'm repeating myself because for those who are just joining us if you go on to the website now and you live in a multifamily unit it's going to say that your property manager or resident manager needs to call in the appointment for the bulky item pickup and that's not true the city is going to allow and then the city is going to require each resident to call in and make an appointment and list whatever items they want picked up and what I'm told to is they're working on a system that's going to put in addresses for all of the condominiums and so that if let's say you live in Discovery Bay and so they are going to put in the address for Discovery Bay and they know that Discovery Bay's got almost 600 units so the you know the program will have all of the apartment buildings in it and so once you find your condominium and you type in your unit number all you have to do then is to add the items that you want picked up and and hope and and I'm not an IT person but apparently this is something that the city is working on and hopefully they can implement it but you know it's going to start on Monday and and I've been hearing things about their people are thinking that this is going to be a mess but anyway it is going to start on Monday and it's going to be from from for people who live in Foster Village and IAA all the way up to Hawaii Kai and if you don't live in that area then bulky item pickup is going to be just like it is right now you don't call it in and if your pickup day is the last Wednesday of the month it's still going to be the last Wednesday of the month and and and at the hearing there were all kinds of concerns raised about you know we we if you put stuff out on the sidewalk yeah if you put stuff on the sidewalk other people see it and they will come and put their stuff on it and and then that means that the the when the city comes to pick up your stuff there's more items there than were called in and so what happens and if that happens what you need to do is call the environmental services department and like I said before they have they told us they have investigators and you want to call in and complain and let them know that people in the neighborhood or people who are driving by are just dropping stuff there because they the the way the ordinance is set up if it's your sidewalk in front of your property and and you're in violation of of the bulky item pickup rules and regulations your association is going to get fined and in order to avoid those fines then you know you need to make sure that you're notifying the Department of Environmental Services whenever there's a violation and uh we kind of think that you know this is something that every we're going to have to watch and we would be very surprised if everything runs smoothly and so yes this is a work in progress and we're going to be watching it and if those of you you know who experience any issues with this pilot project or with with the pilot project you know why don't you give us a call and share that information because we will then you know forward it on to the city because it may affect what they're going to do with bill 13 and the pilot project for bulky item pickups and so next week please join us next week for um uh we're uh we're going to have Hawaiian Electric and they're going to be talking about energy efficient programs and Richard Emery will be here and so it'll be a very informative programs and it's going to save you money so please join us next week for the energy efficient in uh uh uh products okay thank you and my hello