 This is Think Tech Hawaii. Community Matters here. Hello and welcome to another episode of Condo Insider. My name is Jane Sugimura and I'm your host today. And today's program is about getting involved with your community and joining the Neighborhood Board. And my special guest today is Sean Hamamoto, who's Executive Director of the Neighborhood Commission Office of the City and County of Honolulu. Welcome to the show. Thank you, Jane. I'm very happy to be here. And thank you for being with us. Sean, tell me a little bit about yourself. Okay. I'm a Punahou graduate, class of 89, of my 33th reunion coming up next year. Graduated with a degree in psychology from Hawaii Pacific University right up the street. I was appointed to this position by Mayor Caldwell back in 2015 as the Director of the Neighborhood Commission. Prior to that, I was a Special Assistant in the Managing Director's Office, acting primarily as the liaison to the Honolulu City Council. In terms of Neighborhood Board experience, I am a former board member myself. For a couple of years, I was a member of the Downtown Neighborhood Board, number 13. And I was also a Mayor's Rep to that board for a few years and the first few years of Mayor Caldwell's administration. Oh, okay. So you've been part of the system for a while? Yes, yes. Okay. And the Neighborhood Commission Office is part of the Office of the Mayor? Yeah, it's administratively connected to the Mayor's Office, correct. And so tell us about the Neighborhood Board system. How many Neighborhood Boards are there? And it's only in Oahu, right? Yes. So this board system was created back in 1973 under the Mayor Frank Fossey Administration. The reason for this, as stated in the City Charter, was to increase participation of community in helping government make decisions. So it was basically set up as a grassroots forum for the community to engage with their elected officials face-to-face in their communities. Currently we have 33 active boards around our island of Oahu, which is comprised of roughly 437 volunteer elected board members. One thing I would like to say is that we at the City and County of Honolulu are very fortunate to have this system. We are the only county in the state of Hawaii with such a board system. And in fact, I did try to look nationwide for other such similar systems and very hard I found maybe less than a handful of these neighborhood board systems. I believe there's one in Seattle, there was maybe another one in Michigan or someplace but it's not common. So I think we're very lucky to have such a system of democracy in our community. And so, I mean, so what does the neighborhood board system do? Okay. You said there's 33, so there's one in Waikiki, I know there's one in IA, because I said on the IA neighborhood board there's one in Pro City, you've got them in Kailua, Kanoe, where else? Yeah, all over, Nanakuli, Aina Haino, Nualanu, pretty much every community on our island has its own neighborhood board. As y'all know, we have very unique communities among our island, so I think that's one of the benefits of the system is it allows for each community to deal with its own issues. I'm sorry, your other question was... So you have what is called a neighborhood board and they're all over the island, so what do they do? They essentially act as an advisory board. Who do they advise? They advise the government. At every meeting you'll have representatives from the state, city, your elected officials, city council members, state senators, usually representatives from the mayor's office, governor's office, Honolulu police department, board of water supply, the fire department. So yeah, if any issue relevant to the community, you do have a government agency that's responsible for that usually attending, so in that case it's very good for the community to come generally once a month to talk face to face about their concerns. So these meetings happen at least once a month? On average once a month, yes. In these communities? Yes. They're usually held at night, usually at school cafeterias in the community. And they usually, I would say the average meeting length time is about maybe two hours, give or take. And if somebody who lived, let's say, at Manoa decided they wanted to know what's going on at the Manoa neighborhood board, how would they find out? You bring up a good point, Jane. As I stated, this system has been in place since 1973. What's obvious is that a lot of people still aren't aware of the board's system. So we do our best through social media, getting out there in the community to educate people. But to your question, if someone wanted information about the board, information about the board is on our website. Okay. And the website is going to be shown on camera. There it is, right? There it is. So they go to that website. You can go to that website. Basically, for every single board, there's a monthly agenda that's posted. So for example, for Manoa, you could go to the section of the Manoa agendas, and you can click on to see what's going to be on the agenda. That's one good thing about this board is the transparency. Under state sunshine law, all boards are required to post their agendas about a week prior to the meeting. This allows for everybody in the public to know exactly what's going to be discussed. So you can go on the website and see what's happening in Manoa, what's happening in Anakuli, what's happening in Hawaii Kai, and Kahuku, Alamoana. I mean, you could basically go and see who's doing what where. And not only that, in addition to agendas, we also post minutes of the meeting. We are required by law to have minutes available made to the public after the meeting. So we do post all of our minutes. So the website that was flashing here, not only can you find out the agenda for a future meeting, but you can get minutes for what happened at previous meetings. Yes, going back several years at least, yes. Oh, so it's all there. It's all there on our website. Please visit us. Okay. And if you want to know when the meetings are going to be held, It's posted on the agenda. That's posted on the agenda. So if you want to know when the next meeting is going to be at Hawaii Kai, you would go here. Exactly. Just go to the same website. Just go to that same website. And actually, if you have any questions or need further help, we're happy to help you. You can call us and we'll be happy to tell you our direct line to our office is 768-3710. So either by website or you can call us. We're happy to help. And let's say, you know, you belong to a nonprofit or even, you know, maybe a soccer league and you have a function or an event that's happening in the community. Is there some way you can make it onto the agenda? Yes. The best way to do it is to contact the board chair because the board chairs are responsible for making their own agendas. You can call our office. We'd be happy to provide you with contact information. We have the contact information for each of the neighborhood board chairs. So we recommend people contacting the chair and requesting that an item be placed on the agenda for discussion. That's very common. We get calls like that all the time asking, how can I get on this agenda? And, you know, we're happy to provide the information. And so that means that if you have Pro City High School, they're going to have a reunion or maybe they're going to have a fun fair or something. They want to get word out. They can call you guys up and say, hey, can we get on your agenda? Or we'll reform to the board chair so they can talk to the chair. Yeah. But yes, definitely. And that's very common. I can tell you, you know, I was a member of the Chinatown board. Pretty much all major street events, you know, come before the board. They give us a plan of the street closures, the times. And it's just to keep the community informed. You know, all of these projects and activities can have an effect on the community. Yeah. And you have a dentist appointment. Exactly. You want to get out. But if there's going to be a street event and you don't know about it, by the time you get out to the street, all of a sudden you can't go anywhere. And it's too late. So, you know, the neighborhood board system is an excellent vehicle to bring just information out to the general public or the people of that community. And you guys do other things because there are certain hearings that have to have community input, like a liquor license. Yes. So you bring up a good point, Jane. I mentioned previously, on the one hand, these boards are advisory in nature. However, there are many city departments that actually rely on this advice in making their decisions. What liquor commission is a good example. Any people wanting to open a bar or a restaurant applying for a liquor license must notify the neighborhood board. It's in the liquor commission rules. Park closures. Something is something like park closures. You know, homeless is a prevalent issue in many of our communities. Some communities have chosen to close their parks during certain nights. And it's for safety too. You know, there's a lot of vandalism that goes along in our parks. So now before the parks, the Department of Parks and Recreation will actually make it official to close this park. They need input from the neighborhood board. Right. And so people have to come and make a presentation. Yes. And it's not so much that the neighborhood board is going to approve whatever the presentation. They are just required to make a public presentation and the neighborhood board is usually the forum. Yes. And so if people are interested in what's going to happen in the park or if they're talking about cell phone towers that may pop up in their communities, this will be on the neighborhood board agenda because those people have to come and make a public presentation. Correct. Right. But there's, in addition to the presentation, there's an opportunity for the board to ask questions and for the public. Anybody in the public has the right to come up to the podium or microphone and ask questions. Okay. And I can remember in one of our neighborhoods, the issue that seems to draw a lot of people is conditional use permits. Yes. Conditional use permits is if somebody wants to come and let's say they want to do an assisted living facility in a residential area. They have to notify what is it? Homeowners, 50 yards? Yeah, there's, I guess, a radius. Yeah, there's a radius. There's an area. And everybody in that area gets noticed. Yes. Saying there's going to be a hearing on a conditional use permit because somebody wants to open this type of business in your area. And we're going to have a meeting at the neighborhood public, the neighborhood board meeting and they all show up. I mean, because I know when we start getting these people, I'm thinking, oh my God, I have to look at my agenda. Oh my God, we have a conditional use permit. That's why they're all here. Right. Because they all got those letters and they want to, you know, ask questions and, you know, basically the issue is parking and noise. Yes. Right. They want, you know, that's, that's what concerns people when you talk about. Or if there's like where I live, we're close by Aloha Stadium. So where, when there's an Aloha Stadium event and, you know, you know, you have people coming because they want to know how long is this going to go on? And what kind of noise is it going to create? And how long is it going to go on? And when is it going to stop? And what about the traffic? And, you know, things like that, they want to know that. And so those are the kinds of things that people can find out by going to the neighborhood board, right? And it's an excellent forum because if you think about it without the neighborhood board, what forum would there be, you know, for public input, public presentation? And you bring up an interesting point because, you know, public input. And there are these huge projects like the rail. Yes. The rail. And I know with every neighborhood board along the rail system, you have somebody from the rail that has to be at these neighborhood boards to answer questions from the public. To make a report to say what's going to happen this next month and what, you know, and what kind of construction is going to go on and what roads are going to be closed and who do you call if you want to complain and things like that. And so the rail is an issue that gets discussed. And I know in one of the issues that came up in our area was the prison, not the prison, the jail. Oh. The OCCC replacement, right? And that, you know, resulted in a whole lot of people showing up because it's one of these not in my backyard because I think it was either us or Kapolei or Mililani. That's right. Right. And I think everybody's position was not in my backyard, right? We don't want to give it to Mililani or give it to, you know, Kapolei or something like that. But yeah, we got a lot of people out who wanted, you know, and they asked a lot of really, really good questions. And so this is the type, and you know, even in town, I mean, the L.O.I. Boat Harbor, right? Their development plans and we keep hearing rumors about a wheel going up down there. And so, you know, so they can find out by going to their neighborhood board. Yes. And normally that is when you meet these, you know, project managers, they often give their contact information. So if there are any issues or questions, you can contact them directly. So it's a really excellent form for, you know, exchange of information, ideas. Okay. And, you know, we're going to take a break now. And when we come back, you're going to tell us about how somebody can be on the neighborhood board. Yes, that's why I'm here. Thank you very much. Okay. We're going to take a break now. This is Think Tech Hawaii, raising public awareness. This message was brought to you by UnitedHealthcare and AARP Foundation. I'm getting older. Do I need to worry about falling? Yes, you do. Each year, one in four people 65 and older will experience a fall, and many will be serious. The majority of falls happen at home, so remove things that could make you trip and install handrails to keep you steady. To learn more about the steps you can take to help prevent a fall, please talk to your doctor. You can also visit aarpfoundation.org or medicaremadeclear.com slash falls. This message was brought to you by UnitedHealthcare and AARP Foundation. Hello. My name is Stephanie Mock, and I'm one of three hosts of Think Tech Hawaii's Hawaii Food and Farmer series. Our other hosts are Matt Johnson and Pomai Weigert. And we talk to those who are in the fields and behind the scenes of our local food system. We talk to farmers, chefs, restaurateurs, and more to learn more about what goes into sustainable agriculture here in Hawaii. We are on a Thursdays at 4 p.m., and we hope we'll see you next time. Welcome back. After our break, I'm Jane Sugimura. I'm your host this week on Condo Insider. And we are here talking to Sean Hamamoto from the Neighborhood Commission. And thank you for being with us, Sean. Thank you. We're talking about the neighborhood board system. And basically, for condos, for people who live in condos, this is just a great resource for them. Because if you have a question about plumbing or water and sewage or any street issues, you have to go to the city. And here you have, once a month, everybody from the city or from the state of Hawaii representing your district. They're all in one room. And that brings up a story. The first neighborhood board meeting I ever attended was back in 1999. I was a representative for the state senate. And that was my first time going to a neighborhood board. And I can tell you, I fell in love with it from day one. I thought it was just fantastic that, as you say, in one place, on one night, you have all these people coming here in person that you can talk to. The next thing that popped into my head is, why aren't more people here? This is wonderful. So since day one, I've been a big fan of this system. And I just really want to grow it. And it comes onto democracy. We just want to get more people involved. And so you've got these 33 neighborhood boards. And you have people who sit on these neighborhoods. How do they get to sit on the neighborhood board? Okay, good question. So all of our neighborhood board members are elected. They're volunteers, but they are elected by their community. Our elections are held on every odd year, every two years. So our next one is coming up in 2019, which is one of the reasons why I'm here today. So a board term is for two years. So that means every, and you said there were over 400? 437. So that means all those seats are open? Yes, it's all up for grabs. And so anybody listening or who wants to can run for those 437 seats. There are a few parameters to be a neighborhood board member. You have to be at least 18 years old of age and a resident in the area. As long as you meet those two requirements, you can qualify to be a candidate. Okay. And who can vote? Who votes? Okay. So that's another good question. So basically anyone who voted in this most recent January election is automatically registered to vote for our neighborhood board elections. But what if you want to vote and you're not registered? Can you register now? Yes, you can. Please contact our office immediately, either via the website, our email or phone number, and we can get you registered. The registration deadline is February 15th, so there's still a little bit of time. Okay, good. Right. There's two more months. Two more months. If you want to vote for anybody. Yeah. If you didn't vote in the most recent general election but want to vote in this neighborhood board election, yes, you must register. But to be a candidate as well, the deadline is February 15th. Okay. And how do I find out what district I can vote in? Call our office. There is a map. We have a database where if you give us your street and your address, we can look it up and we can tell you exactly what board district you live in. Okay. So please just give us a call 768-3710. We'll be happy to help. Okay. So that means that whatever district you live in, you can vote in that district. And so do you vote on a paper ballot or how do you vote? So our primary method of voting is online. The neighborhood commission, we started online voting back in 2009, primarily as a cost-saving measure. If you can imagine the envelopes, the postage, it was quite expensive. So we started this new system of online voting. Now, even though that's our preferred method, we do understand there are people out there who maybe don't have access to computers or are not too savvy with computers yet. So we do have a paper, the old-fashioned paper ballot method. So if someone wishes to vote by paper ballot, give us a call and we can send that out to you. Okay. And so when you talk about getting a ballot, so you have 33, you said there's 33 neighborhood boards. Yes. So if you live in, let's say, Nuanu, and you call and say, okay, I live in Nuanu, I'm going to vote in Nuanu. What kind of a ballot do you get? You get just Nuanu people? Yes. So we work in conjunction with our city's office of information technology, as well as the county elections office to help coordinate this. So yeah, people will or should get the correct ballot. If you live in Mililani, you should only get a Mililani ballot. Okay. And you said voting online. What prevents me? Can I vote more than once? No. So we do have security measures in place. What happens is the voting period will begin in April of next year, 2019. For all the registered voters, they will be getting a passcode in the mail. How do you get that? It'll be sent to you via the mail. You'll get a passcode so we can go online and you're going to enter your passcode. And it's a unique passcode. You're the only one with that passcode. Once that passcode is used, it can never be used again. So that means you can't vote once today and once next week? Only once. Once that passcode is used, that's it. So you use your passcode and there's an added security feature where I believe you have to enter your birth date or something like that. So there's a two-step security feature. And this is if you vote online? This is if you vote online. What if you vote by paper ballot? Then it's similar to how we do paper ballots now. You'll get a ballot, mark your choices, put it in the envelope, seal it, sign it, send it in. Okay. And so how do you know that if you give me, if I get a passcode, I mean, can I walk into your office and pick up a ballot? No, we have a security mechanism in place because when they call us for the paper ballot, they have to give us their passcode too. So that, you know how you can only use the passcode once? Yes. Yeah. Okay. And so, oh, I see. So you have to give... So I'll put it to you this way. If someone were to vote online, then send in the ballot because of a passcode, only whatever they did first is the only thing that counts. I see. So the second one will not... It won't because that passcode was used already. Okay. And so when can you begin voting and when does the voting end? The voting begins in... I don't have... I'm sorry, the exact date, but I want to say it until mid-March till the first week of May. And then... So how do people find out if they won? Or who won? We provide the results online on our website. Okay. So you have to go online to find out. Yes. Okay. So who can be a candidate? Okay. Anyone that cares about their community, basically. All walks of life are welcome. Again, the only stipulations that you must be 18 years old and a resident of the area you're running for. Other than that, military, even non-citizens are welcome as long as you're a resident and over 18. And so that's what really matters is you want somebody who lives in that area. Yes. And that cares, you know. Again, this is a volunteer position. So you really do appreciate the people willing to give their time and effort into improving their community. Okay. And so once you... So how do you show you want to be a candidate? Is there a form you fill out? Well, we have an online form to fill out. And so you go to the website, the website that we've been flashing. Yes. It's really simple. You could fill it out in a couple of minutes. It's basically your name, your address, contact information, and then you just write. You have an opportunity. It's not mandatory, but you can write a little synopsis about yourself as to why you want to run. But it really only takes a few minutes to register. Okay. And then you can submit it online as well? Yes. And actually, we've just started a new program using a texting platform where people can actually register via their smart devices or tablets. And to sign up for that, you just need to text GO-N-C-O. That's G-O-N-C-O to 95577. And basically you can receive updates on all our election and other neighborhood board-related matters. You can also access our website through that too. There's so many ways to register. We just wanted to make it as easy for people as possible. We just want a lot of candidates, and I just think it's healthy for our communities and just for our democratic system in general. And so if somebody wants to be a candidate, do they have to go out and basically campaign? They can. I've seen all different types. I've seen people who will just put their name on the ballot and let it run. I've met other people that will go door-to-door, introduce themselves, I am running for the neighborhood board. So it's up to the person. We'll leave it up to them. And so what you want is, you want somebody who cares about the community and wants to promote information and get their neighbors to come. And so where do you see... So if you were talking to a bunch of people who weren't real certain about putting in their hat to be a candidate, what would you tell them? Well, I guess the first question I would ask is, say, who cares about their community? Then I guess the second question I would ask them is how much do you actually know about what's going on? And to be honest, one of the first neighborhood boards meetings I went to was in my community that I used to live in Paola Valley. And my family's from there. I thought, yeah, we know what's going on. Going to the neighborhood board, I realized, well, I learned so much of what's going on in my own community that I wouldn't have known about had I not gone to the meeting. For example, crime statistics, HPD is very useful. They can point out statistics in crime. I've also seen presentations whereby they can give residents heads up, hey, in this era, there's a lot of burglaries beyond the lookout. Things I wouldn't know if I was sitting at home. Right. And so the police are always at these neighborhoods, and so is the fire department. They've been wonderful. And the fire department handles not only fires, but they handle emergency situations where people need ambulances and things like that. Yes, and the reason for that is there are more fire stations than ambulance stations. So in often cases, HPD can get to a scene first to just render some preliminary first aid or whatnot. So it's really important to be able to interface with them. Definitely. Okay, and so once somebody gets elected, how long do they serve? It's a two-year term. Once the elections conclude and we post the results, we have an inauguration ceremony, which will happen next summer. And it's for a two-year term. It goes by fast. It goes by fast. And once somebody gets elected, do you guys do training seminars to show them? Because let's say somebody who's never been elected. I mean, how do they know what they're supposed to be doing? Yes, you bring up a good point. So there is a bit of a learning curve. Neighborhood board members should ideally be familiar with the Neighborhood Plan, which is our governing document. They should also be aware of state sunshine laws, because transparency and openness. And also, ideally, it would be helpful if they had a basic understanding of Robert's Rules of Order. You know, we have 33 meetings, so we do use Robert's Rules as the standard. You can imagine how chaotic it would be if every board had their own method. So we do provide some basic training at our inauguration. And we've also developed an online training program where people can just go to our website and it's an online training. So if somebody's a brand new person to the neighbor, and if they're fortunate enough to be elected, it's not like they don't have a support system. Oh, no, no. And that's why we're here. You know, we're always here to help to clarify the Neighborhood Plan. And to provide support and guidance. Yes. Well, thank you so much for being here, because we've run out of time. And I hope you guys have a real successful election. And I hope that people out there are inspired, you know, to maybe go to the website and check it out and maybe fill out a form. I'd be thrilled, yes. We'd be very happy to have you. We're always looking for more good people. Okay, well thank you for joining us for being on the show today. And please join us next week for another episode of Condo Insider. And we're going to have somebody, and we're going to be talking about training, educational training for board members. So I hope you will join us next week. Thank you.