>> Good morning everyone. And
welcome to our Council Meeting. Today
is January 7th, Happy New Year to
everyone. And wishing everyone a
wonderful year. Before we get into the
agenda, we do have a certificate
presentation, and also, I just want to
make a real quick announcement, Mr.
Carvalho has family medical situation
going on and he may be stepping out
during the meeting. And we offer our
prayers to the family, and so just so
if he walked out it's not because he
doesn't like you all, but he has some
personal issues to deal with. With
that, if I could have tracon Kaneshige
and Bart. Coming on up, man. For those that don't know
tricon, he is an artiest and I get it's
called a muralist. We just used to call
it graffiti guys that go around
and spray point everyone, but tracon has
managed to perfect this Art and for
those that don't know, he just did an
amazing mural at the Kaua'i's veteran's
center that will be unveiled all we'll
talk about that in a little bit. I
will go ahead and read the certificate
and have some discussion on what is
coming up next. The Council of the
County of Kaua'i presents this
certificate to tracon Kaneshige muralist for
his work at the Kaua'i's veteran as
Museum and the Council of the County of
Kaua'i recognizes Mr. Kan shige for
his amazing dedication and
Artistion vision for contributing to the
community with a remarkable set of murals that
are now a perpetrate nent
[TP-EUPT/]ture the Kaua'i's veterans Museum.
We'll be able to show some pictures
later, yeah? And, in fact, if you want to
go ahead and put themum. Tracon has
created three magnet murals spaning
more than 80' of the Kaua'i veterans
Museum walls, which have transformed
the space into a living tribute to the
courage and sacrifice of America's
service men and women. These murals
vividly depict the military con ticket ins our
nation has endured including World War
I, World War II, Korea, Vietnam,
desert storm, Iraq and Afghanistan,
capturing the hardship and enduring
spirit of those who served. Through
Frieson's compassion, vision and Artistic
mastery, he has given life to images
that will be remembered and spoken of
throughout the Kaua'i community for
generations to come. Tricon's murals
stand not only as works of Art, but
enduring symbols of remembrance,
respect and Aloha for all who have
served in the military branch of the
United States. The Kaua'i County
Council on behalf the Kaua'i veteran's
Museum and cure community acknowledges
tricon Kaneshige for the work that will
forever enrich the legacy of our island
and our nation. Thank you. And
appreciate you, man. [ APPLAUSE ]
Whenever we turn this stuff on, our
mics go off. So you just have to press
it. Trison, I guess to start, maybe
just introduce yourself, and how did
you get started with muraling? >> I started in High School,
where I painted a two story mural, at
Kaua'i High School. And I had
multiple concussions from soccer, and I
couldn't paint, but painting became my
therapy to heal. So this is why I
started getting into mural Art, which
is a larger- it's more fun, more
freeing and easy on the body. This is
my way to heal and to help Kaua'i as
far as the community Art scene. I
want to do more like place space and
healing murals around Kaua'i,
hopefully, to help . I had a lot of head
injuries, that is why I paint.
>> So what -- what moved you to do one
as a dedication, or a tribute to our
veterans? How did that come about?
press the thing again. Sorry. what's going on?
>> So my grandpa is in the Korean War
and he live down the road from me and
saw me painting and how I was introduced to Bart and I wanted
to give back to the community, Kaua'i,
as far as the veterans and everyone,
because this isn't just about me. It's
more about the community as well,
from my heart. That is the reason why
I really believe in Art being a way to
heal for our community as well. So that
is my passion, and that is why I want
to do long-term for the island.
>> Nice. Thank you. Thank you. I
saw the pictures, and is it showing?
>> Yes. >> It's not -- that is not the
picture. [Laughter ] my hair is white
yeah? So Bart, I know you are a big part
of the Kaua'i's veterans Museum, and
interestingly enough, a lot of people
know that the vet center sitses where
it sits, but there's a lot of people
that don't know there's a fully functioning Museum in there and
if you could introduce yourself.
>> My name is Bart Thomas, I'm a
veteran as well and a Director of the
Museum. In the last I would say four
years we have completely renovated the
museum. The neat thing about the
Museum, it's unique, to the islands,
it's 80% is donate by families on this
island, which makes it very unique.
And so there's history, and not just
history, but military history from
Kaua'i, which is a great thing. For
me, I have always loved this thing,
because we blew out the wall, ceilings
and we made it so -- you walk in this,
it's breathtaking. But right now, it's
phenomenal from what he just did and
completed; which is really cool. So
for me, about two, three years ago,
this kid was in the front of our vet
center, painting. I get what the hell
are you doing? And he was actually
with a project for a gentleman who was
doing his scout for eagle, so he
painted the eagle on this. So when you
guys and see the eagle in front, that
is trison's work. Which is amazing.
So for two years, man, I keep driving
by the road I wanting to find out -- he
kept changing murals in front of his
house. I have to acknowledge this is
his family, if you could stand please.
[ APPLAUSE ] And you got to give him
gratitude, because they are dealing with
this kid's passion, in front of
their house. And so every time he is
changing something, and, in fact I was
upset, because I drove by and he just
did one in one day, oh, my gosh, I
didn't even take a picture of it. I mean,
this is what it is. This kid is just
phenomenal. And he has something he
wants to offer to you guys as well at
the finish, I want you to listen to
what he wants to accept. Thank you,
guys and thank you so much for everything that you have done,
and believe me from the veterans'
hearts we appreciate it. We really love
what he has done and it's going to put
the Kaua'i veterans Museum on the
map. Because people are going to be
like I have to see this thing. So
thank you so much. Anyway, that is what
I enjoy. And the unveiling is going to
be Friday, 5:00 come out, we're
going to be doing is we're going to do a
small presentation, and then we're
going to -- Jade is going to do a
blessing and I have Kaua'i island Brewery
bringing alcohol in, it's legal, guys.
And Uncles is providing food.
Unveiling at 5:00, 5:30 we'll do a tribute
with Jurassic Park in Kaua'i and
show the movie premiere of Jurassic
Park. God bless you. You are awesome. I
shut the Museum down for two months
just to give him space and every time I
walked in this, I watched his wheels
turn, constantly. His artwork is
spray-paint, which really blows me
away, amazing, amazing stuffment I will
turn it back to you. >> I put together a proposal
for a teen mural initiative program,
just to see if there's interest. And
it's -- I don't know if --
>> One of our Staff will get it.
>> He made seven packets for you.
>> It's to do place-based murals. So
telling stories about the ahupua'a and
bringing education into the community
for people to learn and then it could
become a tourist, like people could
take pictures of the murals, with the
muraling and it could become an educational tool. So kids
could learn, kids could get involved with
artwork, because Art is not really as
supported in the schools any more, and I
wanted to try and introduce this as a
way to -- as far as it's also therapy
for me. So like it becomes a healing
Art -- Art becomes a healing tool, too,
for people that are going through it.
Like for my concussion stuff I had to use
Art as a way to heal and maybe other
people could use Art as a way too,
like how I have been learning from my
ownself, and that is another way to be a
part -- like to help the community as
well from my side, I think, as an Artist.
A muralist. I am really
passionate about doing mental health advocacy as
well, because of my concussions,
yeah. So I'm trying to do Workshops with
kids, or more for students that are
going through stuff with school, you
know? >> I'm intrigued.
Because it's like Bart said, you
painted this with spray cans. I just
have a hard time understanding how --
like were you an Artist, pencil Artist
or regular Artist before? >> Yes.
I started out drawing and then I
started getting into, like, just trying
my dad bought me spray-paint. >> Keeping it legal.
>> Yes. And that is how I started to
get into realism. And in the Museum,
it's actually realism painting.
It's like I'm actually painting real
figures, like movement, it looks really
different from what you think of Art.
It's more cinematic realism is what I'm
kind of calling the style I'm painting
it. It looks like a movie scene with
Ujima and I paint a lot of bird and
nature scenes and it's inspirational
for me. So painting Iwis, but making
it real on the walls so people know
what the Iwi ilook like many front of
them and kids get to see what Iwi looks
like without going to Koke'e and
actually learning about educational
side of mural. That, too. >> Wow, I don't want to -- I
want to allow my colleagues to ask
questions, too. I got to ask, did you --
are you professional trained? Did you
go to school?
>> I went to school in San Diego for
graphic design. >> Okay. All right.
>> And I picked it up. >> All right. Thanks again.
>> Thank you. >> And congratulations !
appreciate it. Thank you. >> Questions?
>> Well, first of all, I want to say
thank you, and we're having a little
bit of audio/visual problem, but I'm
not. I'm watching your Art going
across the screen here, it's at the
Museum. And it's beautiful. >> Thank you.
>> And thank you. I'm hoping that it
does make it up for everybody to see,
but that's extraordinary. I can't wait
until Friday to go in and look at it.
I know you have done some things along
Rice Street here and I have been able
to watch you are as you are doing it.
I appreciate you so much. I'm so
thankful that you have this -- when I
was young I had some traumatic brain
injury and I have been able to overcome
that pretty well, but I identify with
what you've endured and I just so much
gratitude for how it's expressed itself
beautifully. And I'm really happy to
try and help support your ideas for how
we can move this even further. >> Thank you.
>> Thank you, Bart; for doing this for
our veterans. And putting us on the
map, and I'm really, really thrilled
with how our Museum in there honors our
own people here. I have been here and
watched it, but I haven't seen it new,
haven't see it now. So yes. >> Anyone else? Mr.
Kaneshiro? >> Just a quick question. So
the only way you can practice graffiti
is on like a big wall? You can't
take out a piece of paper; right?
>> Not really. I use ply Board in
front of my house and the backyard.
>> , In fact, stop by and take a look
at latest one he just did. Oh, my gosh.
>> That is awesome. I would say,
congratulations, and thanks. I'm very
excited to see it. I'll be there
Friday and keep it up. I was wondering
it's not that easy to practice when you
need a big landscape. I don't know
when you are practicing. >> Travel. Travel around the
island, like Hawai'i painting at
schools. >> Actually gave him 20 images
that the veterans thought were great
because we want to break it down into
con ticket conflict and World War
I, II and Korean and Vietnam. So the
images turned out really cool. I'm
very honored to say that is one of
the best murals I have ever seen
so you hand sketch to them? >> I have a graphic design and
use Photoshop to mock it up to show
to the client or whoever for approval.
>> He has another contract with our
Commander for two murals inside the
center as well, which is real ly going
to be cool. So we're first. >> So I'm assuming this is
your business?
>> Yes. >> So how does someone that is
watching that wants to? >> So I have a website called
inspire to create media.com.
>> Inspire to create media.com. >> And I do logo design, shirt
designs, auto graphic design and murals
is my passion. I'm trying to do more
murals for business as well. So like
small businesses, more, institutionally, just whoever
really is interested. I like to do story
mural stuff, its more fun for me,
because I get to tell a story how to my
Art. That is even more fun.
>> I suck so bad at Art. It's just a
unique talent, and it's just -- anyone
else? Ms. Holland. >> I just want to echo the
gratitude for you and excited on Friday
to see your murals. So thank you for
that. >> Thank you.
>> Mr. Bulosan? >> I have been a huge fan
since the beginning. I think I was away
when you did your first mural as a High
School student and I was just
thinking, man, Kaua'i has a star, and I'm
excited, and ever since that beginning you
have kind of led the pack on Art in that
medium for our community and inspired
so many people. I think one of the
things people especially young people
and people in our community you
can't realize the impact that you
have until you get to hear the storiess
and you don't really hear the stories
often. So I just want to thank you for
all your help for our community,
because personally for me, you have
changed my life in so many different ways
it's hard to explain just with my
wife and my kid, every time we go
somewhere and see your mural it make a huge
impact in a positive way. And so I hope
you can take a moment to just feel all
of the goodness that you put out for
our community and really transform
the experience that you had, and
make lives better. We just can't thank
you enough and your family, and everyone
that supports you and is there for
you, because it's just immeasurable
the impact that you are making.
Thank you. >> Thank you. I really
appreciate it. >> Mr. Carvalho.
>> I appreciate your gift. You have a
special gift. A A lot of it also has
to do with visualization too, and
dreams and I think that is another big
part before it actually happens. I
have seen some of the work you have
done, obviously and look forward to
Friday. Just continue doing what you
are doing and you are an inspiration
for the younger generation coming up.
It's impacting our community and I like
the cultural part, too, that you are
looking at, that will really bring to
the table, upfront and make it have a
true meaning and value to each part of
our island, as well as to our community
culturally. So keep doing what you are
doing and we are totally there for you.
Mahalo. >> Thank you.
>> All right, Mr. Kuali'i. >> I was curious because he
asked about any training and you said
you went to school in San Diego,
and you picked it up.
>> Yes. >> So like, was it University,
or you were there for a long time? I
think it's probably more a natural
talent and gift, but I assume you have to
hone that, and learn some skills,
but what was the education exactly,
young people to hear?
>> So I have a Bachelors of science in
graphic design and while I was in
College, started my -- when I was in
College, I did some mural stuff around
the school, and stuff. But I actually
had some people teach me as well along
the way. I actually had to believe in
myself first to be able to do it kind
of mural artform. I had 200 people
that from here and O'ahu, and I want to
acknowledge them as well. I had to --
so I'm kind of trained in both sides,
educationally and that side of the
mentorship. So in my sense I'm bringing lineage of Artists
throughout the generations and not just
one person, but multiple people are
behind me. I kind of want to carry
that throughout my career.
>> Well, I'm in awe of what you do,
and I think it's amazing and beautiful
and I'm looking forward to Friday. I'm
planning on going and Bart let us know
a while ago. I am intrigued with your
proposal and to talk with the Office of
Economic Development and budget is
coming up and assuming money is involved.
>> He is looking for mentors from you
guys, so please whatever you can do,
get this kid on the right path, because
what you is talking about doing, all of
this tagging that we see, let's get the
kids creative to they are tagging to
Art. >> And in a place that people
want it. >> Correct.
>> Thank you. Thank you, Chair.
>> Thank you. I'm in, as you said, I'm
in awe. We don't often get feel-good
moments in these Chambers, but this is
one of those that I'm just inspired.
For me, you know, thinking about the
gift that you have, and the gift that
you are willing to share with the other
kids coming up it's heartwarming, I
guess is the right word. It's just a
would wonderful way to kick off our New
Year. Thank you very much. With that,
we'll take a short break and get the
photo. Mr. Fujimoto is here, who only
comes on very special occasions. So
with that, we'll take a short break.
[ GAVEL ] With that we'll call the
meeting to order, roll call, please.
>> Council Member Bulosan? >> Here.
>> Council Member Carvalho? >> Here.
>> Council Member Cowden? >> Here.
>> Council Member Holland? >> Present.
>> Council Member Kaneshiro? >> Present.
>> Council Member Kuali'i? >> Present.
>> Council Chair Rapozo? >> Here.
>> Seven present. >> Can I get a motion to
approve the agenda.
>> So moved. >> Mic.
>> Second. >> Moved and secondeding. Any
discussion or public testimony? Seeing
none all in favor say aye? >> Aye.
>> Motion carried. Next item, please.
>> Chair, next item on page 2 the
minutes of the following meeting of the
Council, the December 17th, 2025
Council meeting. >> Move to approve.
>> Second. >> Moved and seconded. Any
discussion or public testimony? Seeing
none, all in favor say aye?
>> Aye. >> Motion carried. Next item,
please. >> Item on the Consent
Calendar for receipt C-2026-01.
>> Move to receive. >> Second.
>> Moved and seconded. Any discussion
or public testimony? Seeing none, all
in favor say aye? >> Aye.
>> Motion carried. At this time, if
there's no objection I would like to
take C-2026-04 out of order, please.
>> C-2026-04 communication from
Council Chair Rapozo and Council
Vice-Chair Kuali'i requesting the
presence of the Roslyn Roz Makaula
Director of Government relates Kamehameha Schools to provide a
briefing relating to the legal challenge to Kamehameha Schools
admission policy. >> Move to receive.
>> Second. >> Moved and seconded. Thank
you. With that I will suspend the
rules and invite the Representative of
Kamehameha Schools up here. We have a
companion Resolution and we'll get the
briefing and we'll have the discussion
and questions, and then we'll take the
Resolution immediately following the
briefing. But I would ask that all the
discussion, and things happen here at
the briefing and we can move right to
the Resolution. With that. >> Okay.
>> Good morning and Happy New Year.
>> Good morning. Happy New Year.
Mahalo nui loa. Our Vice President
abad is here and she going to come up
and provide today's briefing and I will
follow-up with the testimony later.
Mahalo. >> Thank you.
>> Good morning. >> Aloha Kakou. Mahalo,
Chair. Mahalo Vice-Chair and Council
Members. So appreciate the opportunity
this morning to have some time with
you folks.
>> If you could just introduce yourself for our captioner.
>> Yes, my name is Kekua abad. I'm
the Vice President of Strategies and
experience at Kamehameha. So one of
the executive team leaders. On behalf
of Jack and the rest of the executives,
we want to share some Aloha with you,
and some information that we think
might be helpful for the Resolution
that you have before you, and we so
thank you, Chair, Vice-Chair, and
Council Members, for consideration of
the Resolution. >> You were at Waimea?
>> Yes. >> At the theater?
>> Yes. >> You were a little more
energetic at the theater, bouncing all
over the place.
>> Yes. >> How it's here, I did attend
and I got to hear, I think a lot of
people have heard about this
litigation that is ongoing. But it was only at
that presentation that I got to
fully understand what is going on,
and in my opinion, how bad it is in what
is going on. So I did want the
community to be able to hear what is truly
going on, and the best people to do that
would be you all. Welcome.
>> Mahalo Nui. Thank you. So before we start
introducing ourselves, maybe we don't
have a whole stack on the situation,
because we have done the presentation
and I didn't want to have you folks
double hear it, but for everyone's
sake, maybe I will just set some
context. So what we're facing as
Kamehameha is a legal challenge brought
forward by Edward bloom of students for
fair admissions. He and his organization are situated in
Virginia, and they are claiming that
we're in violation of a certain law,
federal law 42 U.S.C. 1981 that was
actually written a very long time ago.
It comes to us from 1866. So this was
back right after the Civil War and
there was a piece of law initiated to
ensure that the emancipated slaves at the
time, so this is Abraham Lincoln behind
the original sort of civil rights
legislation that emancipated slaves
would have the opportunity to enter
into contracts like everyone else
without being discriminated against,
because at the time, of course some
were being discriminated against and in
the society at the time. So if you
were trying to rent a home or something, you might not be
able to get a contract. So you are at the
whim of a landlord doing who knows
what? Kicking you out or changing the
rent. There was no contract to hold
to. And so the law said that everyone
should be able to enter into contracts
equally, and no discrimination there.
So that is a law that we're being
accused of breaching right now. Let me
maybe just to introduce ourselves. So
what is at stake? It's our preference
policy, but we're concerned if they are
looking at Hawai'i's estate and saying
that her willing and her wishes that
preference for the Lahui, the people she
was caring for as Chiefess, that
her wish to care for them is up for
interpretation and up for a third-party
from Virginia to impose upon. Than
what else is at stake? Just so share
who we are and what other parts of the
us as an organization might be chipped
away at little by little? If they can
chip away the at this fundamental part
of her willing, what else are they are
able to chip aat? The use of maybe
some of our resource for -- you get
what I mean? So you are familiar with
us. We have our three campuses and 30
preschools. 157 of these students are
from Kaua'i. We have community programs every year about 67
million are used -- dollars are used to
support scholarship and community
grantses. We have about a dozen different
community organizations providing
yearlong services for Kaua'i families
and students here on the island.
In fact, thank you for introducing us to
Trysen, because I talked with him
afterwards and we would love to work with
him with some of the Charter schools
that we support on the island. I would
love to get some murals done here and
that is some of the things that we do
in community. We have nearly
11,000 acres of conservation land. We have
an endowment that Hawai'i has very
generously -- sorry, I'm not sure what
is going on with that -- >> Hold on real quick. I'm
sorry to do this. But we're going to
take a break. We're going to take a
short recess, because the whole
purpose of this is to get this information
out to the community, and when our
thing cannot work, so we'll take a
recess and get I.T. over here. Sorry
about that. >> It's okay.
[ GAVEL ] yes.
Yes. [ GAVEL ]
>> We'll call the meeting back to
order. Thank you for your patience.
With that, if you would not mind coming
back up. Sorry for that disruption.
>> Mahalo. Aloha. >> Aloha.
>> I'm going to try -- I'm going to maybe summarize a
little bit and stick to the slides.
So with a we're talking about when we
last left off is what is the at stake.
What is Kamehameha and what we're
trying to do and a little Artistic rendering
of our theory of change. So every
five years we do a new Strategic Planning.
You see there's a code to it, our SP
Strategic Plan 2030, and really speaks to
where we have come as an organization
and where we're heading. For those
who remember older Kamehameha, like
when I went there, back in the 80s.
We wouldn't have spoken like this.
This wasn't where we were at. We
minor league have said the very first
part and it's kind of hard to read
in this Artistic rendering, so I will
share it. When we operate world-class
schools, that is Kamehameha since 1950s,
60s. But we have been growing and
our theory of change that we're charged to
fulfill in the new Strategic Plan adds
in the notion of 'Oiwi leaders and
seeing our ho Mana, when we think about
what Poi really wanted to do. She
wanted to have and in her will she said
"good and industrious men and women."
Those who will be productive in the world
and help the community, the Lahui,
Hawai'i and beyond. So we're saying
that is what we mean by 'Oiwi leaders
and the set of learner outcomes that we
want to instill the sense of Kuleana in
our student. So this is where
Kamehameha has been moving in the last 10,
15 years and really anchoring to a
Hawaiian organization and saying
regenerate 'aina, again a different
sense of the 60s and 70s, as people saw
our 'aina as a way to make money so the
schools could operate, but to think
about 'aina as community rejuvation and
how the 'aina is regenerated and in
some senses it's generating income, but
in instances it's focusing on making
food for the community, and how it's
bringing water, you know? Creating
these great forests that draw water
that create aquifers that give you Wai
to drink. So it's right in the change
and we say, too, when we offer world-class schools what we
have been doing all along, develop 'Oiwi
leaders the sense of growing new
Homomanu that they have a Kuleana and
regenerate aina, we will together with our
communities, there wasn't 67 million
going into community grant and scholarships, but now it is and
that community partnerships are
essential. We will together with our
communities, and this last part is I feel
like it's the big turn that Kamehameha is
making in this SP 2030 cycle. Exercise
the -- necessary for thriving and
self-determined Lahui and it's one of
the words that we hear a lot of other
instances, and we heard it referenced
as the life of the land is perpetuated
in righteousness, but it's so much more
than life. It's the whole set of ideas
from breath to agency, to rising up, to
sovereignty, to independence. All that
of that is a waand saying as we face
this sort of issues that we have as a
Lahui as Hawai'i and larger Hawaiian
community we're all here to work for
and with, that it is this AWWA that is
ultimate ly some of the biggest solutions to the biggest
problems. This is what we're committed to
and something that we had put forth
at the close of June in order to be
ready for our next Fiscal Year, which is
July. So we put this out there for a
while and sure enough, the kinds of
challenges that are always before us in
October we had SFFA putting out a call
to people, hey who wants to be a
plaintiff? We're looking to sue
Kamehameha and by November they filed
their complaint in court. We're saying
at this stage, some of you may have
heard a recent announcement, we're
saying it's very important for us to
double down and understanding who we
are as an organization. We do not see
ourselves as being founded by a
benefactor for the service of education. No, really it's
always been and they are looking at this
way and we're looking at it this way
and it's always been the same thing.
This is a Chiefess, who is trying to take
care of her people. She was endowed
with 'aina, like many of her Kupuna,
and what they do with their 'aina?
They managed it well so people could
thrive and make a good living off that
land. In this case, she saw that land
as providing people with
education, feeding people with education
to then do good, be good and
industrious. So that is what we're trying to
protect is her will to take care of her
Lahui in this way and make sure if this
is the Ka'auhuhu, the Foundation
provided that they understand all of our Hu
Mauna and it's not like shing is giving
us a gift to go and take care of myself.
No, no, no; this is a kuleana she is
exercising and to be good and industrious. So that is what
is at-stake saying that they want
to define us in their way and
saying that we can't continue the work in
mind. So we so appreciate that you folks
are taking the time to consider
ways that Kamehameha and Poi might be
supported at this juncture. And happy to
answer any questions that might come
up. Mahalo Nui for the time .
} thank you. And again, I apologize. I
know the presentation was a little
longer, not much, and you talk a lot
about the accomplishs and plan for
Kamehameha School and the impacts that
you have with our kids on Kaua'i so I
appreciate that part. For me it was
more important to inform the public of
what is really going on. For the life
of me I can't understand how this
Attorney out in Virginia feels like it
is that important to him, and his firm
or whoever to come out and take on
Kamehameha Schools. For my own non-lawyer, I always wanted to
be a lawyer, but my test scores were
too high
[laughter ]. But you know, again, correct me
if I'm wrong, what I heard at Waimea
and what I heard today this was in the
will -- this was her will and her
desire and what she wanted for the kids of
Hawai'i and this is a private school.
And this is an institution that accepts
no federal funds at all.
>> Zero. >> Which again, in my
non-legal analysis, where and I don't
want to get too technical and legal and I
understand you are in litigation, so we
have to be very careful. How does that
pass the test if we're private, we're
not funded by public funds, and --
sorry, why does this thing keep --
okay. I got to be nice. More important to me is the fact
that this was in Pauahi's will, and to
me, that is a very sacred document. So
how does this thing play out and again
you have to push your mic, because this
thing is cuckoo.
>> There's a host of different civil
rights law; right? As you talked
about it; right? Because we're
private entity, certain civil rights
laws don't apply, because we do not
take any federal or even state funding,
other civil rights laws don't apply.
It's this one piece 42 U.S.C. 1981 that
speaks of contracts and that is the one
that we're being charged -- that we're
supposedly breaching according to SFFA.
Again, we feel that our 2006 Ninth
Circuit Court ruling is solid, and
because it was the same thing back in
2003. There was a case Doe v. Kamehameha Schools the exact
same charge of breaching 42 U.S.C.
1981 and we defended it. Ultimately we
were successful at Ninth Circuit
Court -- sorry, yes, Ninth Circuit
Court, the appellate court where we fought
the case and stated all of our
reasons, you know? We aren't there, we
aren't that, as we were just saying; right?
And we believe that the timeses the
argument was Kamehameha is doing exactly
the kind of thing that Abraham
Lincoln was trying to do, the real reason
for the 1866 law was to even the
playing-field and make sure that those
emancipated slaves who weren't getting
contracts were able to get that
remediation and at that time that is the
argument we put forth. Eight of the seven
Justices of the Ninth Circuit Court
agreed with us. So we won by 8-7 margin
there. On top of that, so we stand in all
of that, but on top of that, we're
putting forth like you saw our
Strategic Strategic Plan and you really
need to think about us not from your
cultural lens, and applying your view
this way of how you see us; that there
is someone who is asking for
tuition, and contract that is grant in
services and this sort of transactional
nature. We're saying really it's always
been more of a relationship between
a Chiefess and her people. And
that is the heart of it. So even if
you look at the tuitions that we have
been charging it was minimal. It's
always been minimal for the education
costs that occur. Tuitions have
always been historically only about 3% of
the total, and that 3% is coming
from the fact that why is it so small?
Well, tuition, and I put it in quote
because it's not like how most school
charge tuition; right? About 85-90%
of all of the costs have always been
borne by Pauahi. So you know, for --
>> Vice-Chair. >> Any of us in this room who
have gone to Kamehameha in earlier
times, that was what was given to us;
right? We were always on massive
scholarship from Pauahi and she has always
been in this relationship. And even
today, 75% of all ho Mauna are on full or
partial financial aid. So what is
being paid by families is just tiny margin
of that 3%. So we definitely feel that
we're able to manage that cost going
forward, and certainly it's not going to
diminish what we're investing in the
community. So we're solidly holding
fast to keeping the same investments
going, scholars and grantss, and making
sure that now what Pauahi had intended
that it be more of a relationship.
That we go all the way, and we make it
clear to everybody, it's always been
this. And that last 3 per % to move
aside and say there should be no
mistake by anyone now. It's the
Chiefess taking care of her people and
the Foundation of Kuleana that has been
established. So that I hope that helps.
>> It helps. I think that whole what
the Chiefess wanted for her people is
more of the issue that I have versus
the -- what they are claiming as
Constitutional violation. I think it's
purely disrespectful to me for them,
because isn't it true that the last
lawsuit that was filed that the Justices ruled in your favor.
That one, there was a student that
was attempting to gain entry into
Kamehameha schools, correct? And may
have sought that person out and try to
apply for Kamehameha School and be
denied and sued. My point there was a
student who was denied entry and the
lawsuit followed. In this case, there
is no student, correct? when the first complaint
oh, they found one subsequently? >> They did. They filed an
amended complaint.
>> You see? >> So yeah.
>> That is even more disrespectful.
>> Neither, you know, so initially
they hadn't even applied and in this --
there was an instance there was someone
who had applied and was put on a
wait-list. >> Any questions? Council
Member Cowden?
>> Well, >> Well, I'm not sure if it's
a question.
>> Questions. Mr. Kaneshiro? >> In general, is it going to
get any traction? When I hear those
types of lawsuits, oh, this thing is
going to try. They can try and fight
it. They can try and make their
argument, but I always feel at the end of the
day, they are just reaching, you know?
That is just my opinion, and from the
very start when I see this type of
stuff, but I know it takes time,
energy and money to fight it, which could
go to better uses; right? It could
be going to more education for students.
But at the end of the day, I always
feel like it's going to go away
eventually, because I feel like they are
just reaching with a lawsuit like
that. You see them getting much traction,
or just a matter we just got to fight
it, spend the time, spend the money and
eventually win? >> We're taking it very
seriously for a number of reasons. One
significant one is that SFFA has been
successful. They sued Harvard University of
North Carolina, and won. So that was
-- they were using the piece of law
relating to federal funding; right? So
because these universities got federal
funding, they are saying that okay now
you can't have affirmative action as part
of your application process. Certain
groups even though what you are trying
to do is create student population
that reflects the regular population
out there. Of course, this is
something that was supported, and
encouraged, ten years ago. In any case, SFFA
won. So the kinds of legal precedence
that had been set that were supportive
of that are no longer. So that is the
change that makes our situation a
little different than it was back in
2003 through 2006 when we were
fighting the Doe case.
>> Council Member Cowden. >> Probably said this, but
what court are you facing right now? What
level of the courts? Is it?
>> The District Court. >> Federal District Court.
>> First level. >> I was looking and it's not
just Harvard. It looks like --
>> Yes. >> The U.S. Air Force Academy.
I mean, the levels of who they
are going after are the big league;
right? >> Yes.
>> So there's about seven or eight
schools that are being challenged and I
don't even see Kamehameha Schools on
the list; right? So these are big
schools. What about the Native American schools which I don't
think have quite the same foundation
that Kamehameha Schools have. I
grew up near the reservations, so they
were reservation schoolss and those
were intended to separate people
from their family and their cultures. How
is that paralleled? Is there any
question on Native-American schools?
>> SFFA hasn't gone through those and
something that our legal team is taking
into consideration. >> Because it's when they
swing they want to hit. When you look at
the Foundational institutions that
they are going after, they're big. So I
think Kamehameha Schools maybe they
are just trying to grab where can we
find an extreme? You know? Because if
they can take down something as pono
as Kamehameha Schools, that is a
very big statement.
>> Anyone else? Mr. Kuali'i? >> Just kind of a broader
question about a lot of the attacks on
the Native Hawaiian people and
Native Hawaiian program seem to come
under the guise of discrimination of one
race of people over another race of
people. But isn't it true that Native
Hawaiians in Hawai'i, it's not about our
race, it's about our origin and being
the only 'aina-based people from
this place. So the word indigenous;
right? We are the indigenous people
of this place. And our aLili who ran
the country at the time, continued
even though their rule ended, their
connection to the land and to the
people continues because of their
intelligence and thoughtfulness, and
compassion, and forward-thinking to
continue to invest. What more brilliant way than to ensure
the future of a people, of a race, of an
indigenous people from a place, then to
invest in the education of their young
people? So that, I mean the most
important thing I thought you said was
the thing about the creating industrious young men and
women, and creating them with the
responsibility of having to give back, give
back to your family, give back to your
neighbors, give back to your community,
give back to your state, give back to
the world and planet. I mean, you can
spend rest of your life living Pauahi's
legacy and trying to give back. But
the difference is race-based versus the
indigenous original people; right?
>> I think you make a very significant
point when Pauahi wrote her will in
1883, the Hawaiian Kingdom was still
well in existence, very strong, in
fact. And she does specify very clearly
in her will that the preference, and
she uses the word "preference for
Aboriginals of Native Hawaiian blood."
Because at the time in Hawai'i, the
Hawaiian Kingdom had some citizens of
all sorts of backgrounds, but the lands
were designated in such a way that
Native Hawaiian tenets, Aboriginals had
certain rights to lands -- tenants. So
she was honoring sort of that understanding that it is as a
Chiefess, first and foremost, she needs
to use her lands to support these
people, who in the Kingdom context had a
special kuleana to the land. That
reciprocal relationship with the land. So
I think that is a really important
point and some people would make the
issue that we need to consider the fact
that the those rights may still in many
respects, as for instance the Apology
Resolution that President Clinton
signed and the Congress at that time
signed. Recognized those rights were
never relinquished and President
Cleveland called it an act of war and
what is going on in other parts of
world, it was considered an act of
war that President Cleveland intervened
here. >> Thank you. Thank you,
Chair. >> Ms. Cowden. Nawab
[ INAUDIBLE ] Many families that maybe don't
have Hawaiian -- ancestral Hawaiian,
but deeply care about in their
lives surrounding hula, or any kind
of cultural practices. So
Kamehameha Schools typically support those
schools; right? >> That is something that we
want to emphasize that we would
encourage more people to seek such education
that are 'aina-based, culture-based and
we're strong supporters. So all of
those Kula are -- --
-- I just mentioned the ones that we
had historical strong relationships
with and open to continue to develop
further relationships. For some over
20 years we have been supporting these
schools to some degree and happy to
continue doing so. >> And even supporting kids go
to island school. You guys
support them as well; right? Hawaiian kids
that go to island school they get [
INAUDIBLE ] >> So there's -- we're
finishing up some of those ki Puna
scholarship and we're continued to redesigning
with the hope to have them more tailored
to the specific needs of the different
regions and what would Kaua'i most find
useful? So some of the conversations
we would love to have with you folking
and others how do we design them to
really meet the needs of the
community. They can still do other things
in the way that they want to do, [
INAUDIBLE ] It's only in your core campuses
that you are trying to stay tight to
be nourishing your own keiki with
that background. They can be mixed.
That whole time I was off Sorry.
>> Thank you for pointing that out,
because really since the 1970s our
extension education programs have been
supporting efforts within the Public
School System and other areas of the
community that are completely open to
any ethnicity, yes. Thank you. >> Following up with that on
your slide, the is that where this
extension education comes under? What are some of the examples
of where -- what that is?
>> So for instance on island here we
have so the partners in development
programs they have I think some program
on Kaua'i, the four Charter schools I
had mentioned. Kanaka - listing
schools -- Kekaha, Kaua'i Kini and
other programs as well. Let me pull
those up. The phone is on Trysen's
site. So let's look at Kaua'i, just a
SEC. Boys and girls club and centers
Ku Mana Ikila. Kupuna -- Malama pu yea
and 'aina site like Waipa. >> Clearly, it's a wide array
of investment in community across
the State probably that Kaua'i is
just an example; right? .
>> Yes, mahalo. >> Thank you.
>> Any other questions? For Kamehameha
Schools? If not, thank you very much.
>> Mahalo Nui. >> Mahalo.
>> Is there anyone in the audience
wishing to testify? Again, we'll be
doing the Resolution immediately
following this communication. I will
entertain all of the discussion in this
item. We have a couple of young
students here. Not sure if they want
to testify or not, but I got to meet
them yesterday. They are so excited to
get engaged with local government and
they look extremely nervous right now.
That is fine, you don't have to come
up. If not, I will call the meeting
back to order. Any further discussion?
Again, the Resolution we can have the
discussion about the topic and we'll --
who? I'm sorry. I will suspend the rules.
>> Aloha Mai. Aloha again, Chair, and
the County Council here. I really
appreciate that you paused, and looked
over to the folks and the keiki here,
and just giving the opportunity to
testify. Thank you for being here.
Mahalo. My name is Roz Makaula, the
Director of Government relationships at
Kamehameha Schools, and it really is a
privilege and an honor to be here
before all of you. Aloha Mel Rapozo.
Kipukai Kuali'i. Aloha Mai. Kamehameha Schools offers our
very strong support for Resolution
2026-01 affirming and supporting the
Kamehameha Schools' admissions policy,
mission, and its contributions to the
Native Hawaiian community. We mahalo
Chair Rapozo, and Vice-Chair Kuali'i
for introducing this Resolution,
and we truly support and appreciate --
we appreciate the support of the
Kaua'i County Council to uphold and
affirm the will of Keali'i Bernice Pauahi
Paki Bishop a very powerful
expression of her chiefly authority to ensure
through education, generations of
Native Hawaiian children will grow,
they will lead, they will help restore
and sustain their 'Ohana, their Ky
Lulu and 'aina. Kamehameha Schools
continues Pauahi's chiefly charge. We do
this on our three campuses and on our
30 preschools focusing on Hawaiian
culture-based education. We also
extend Pauahi's reach by investing in
the community, through educational
programs, events, 'aina stewardship
watershed protection, food system,
renubble energy and all of these things
not just for Native Hawaiians, but for
all the people of Hawai'i. So again,
mahalo for your support, and for all of
the work that you do. I'm also here
for questions. >> Any questions for Roz? I
just want to say thank you. And again,
for your patience and understanding on
our technical problems. Thank you,
Roz. I will give the public one more
opportunity. If not, I will call the
meeting back to order. Any further
discussion? Ms. Cowden? >> I would like to say thank
you to Kamehameha Schools for the
endurance that you had since all of this
time, the commitment to our Chiefess'
intention and for helping our kids and
I see Kamehameha Schools as an important if not the Foundation
of perpetration of Hawaiian
culture in our islands, and I wanted to call
attention to the Charter schoolss and
everything else that it is sprinkled out
all over the place. But when I think
about if some how Kamehameha Schools was
homogenized into a way they couldn't
really fit their mission and the depth
at which they need to? I think it's
good for kids to be in a group, where
there's a concentration, where they can
feel like the norm, instead of you
know, a minority in their own lands. I
have over the years that I have been
here, I might go a First Evangelical
funeral and if it's Hawaiian funeral,
it's big, but when I only see a small
handful of people that only have the
culture so deeply imbedded even in
their genes. So I think it's great for
the kids to go and really be nurished
in a concentration of self-empowerment
and know they have a real place on the
island. So it's kind of an attack on
all of that to lose that anchor for any
child that is wanting to paddle or to
be strong with their fishing, or you
know, all of these different skill sets
and Aina-based education and it
rips out the heart of the culture with
Kuleana to support the culture. I was
at an event last night and what was
commented really strongly is how impacted
they were when they gone across the
nation in different places to be at a
place where the culture was still
alive. And I think for all of us, whether
we share in that history we can still
feel into it, you know? We still into
it, and so removing this vessel that is
the generator of keeping it alive
and moving with real fierce and
effective ability is really, really hard
on even our economy, you know? I hate
to be that crass, but it matters to
all of us. It isn't really about
civil rights issue in a school admission
policy. It's about supporting and
preserving what makes us Hawai'i. So I
want to thank you, and I will certainly
when we have our Resolution, I will be
supporting it. You know, with all my
mite. So we wish you well. >> Thank you. Anyone else?
I'm going to take up the discussion on
the Resolution here. So we can
just go right through the Resolution.
Mr. Kaneshiro.
>> If we're going to do discuss now, I
just want to say the foresight of her
willing written 140 years ago and I
don't think I could write something
today that would be relevant in 20
years probable But having thepaque on
all the lives over the years it's
humongous. So for me, I will call it a
frivolous lawsuit. I think it's
frivolous, they are suing huge schools
with billions of dollars. Kamehameha
Schools has provided so much opportunity in Hawai'i, and
unfortunately it takes time, it takes
money, it takes resources to fight it.
But I do believe Kamehameha Schools
will prevail and will come out on top
and I will be in full support of our
Resolution. >> Thank you, Ms. Holland.
>> thank you. I find this legal
attack on Kamehameha Schools to be
pretty atrocious. To me, it's disrespectful, as Chair Rapozo
said. You know, you have shared so
much great information today about the
many things that you give back, and you
know, for me, when you said about about
leveling the playing-field and the whole
point is to do that. Very easy
searches across the Internet, you can
see how much inequality there has been
over generations and Native
Hawaiians faced significant disadvantages
through stoyses knows higher poverty,
homelessness, lower educational opportunities and attainment
and even worse health outcomes. Some of
these statistics which I won't read
are pretty astounding. And then
when you hook at when Europeans first
arrived, you know, diseases that were
brought syphilis, influenza, smallpox,
things that never had generational
immunity. 84% of Hawaiians may have died
over those decades with an estimate
of hundreds of thousands, reducing
our population from potentially 800
to over 50,000, a loss comparable to
genocide and we lost so many people and
84% of Native Hawaiians and those
generational descendants are not given an
equal playing-field. So it's so
disrespectful and obviously I support
the Resolution. I just wanted to share
some of that when you think about the
privilege that many have come or come
to Hawai'i with, and the generational
white privilege that many people
obtained. So then to use that, this is
a direct attack on evening the playing-field. This is a
direct attack on those equalitis that so many
people fought for so long. Council
Member Kaneshiro and I when we were in
Philadelphia, spent hours going through
this Museum about the history of The
Constitutional Amendments that led to
the emancipation of the slaves and
equality and 50 years later the right
for women to vote. And it's incredible
how hard and how often throughout
history I noticed in those timelines,
how many times we took steps backwards.
We passed these things and they
legalize all these exemptions for
slavery and that is the policy change I
realizeded being involved in politic
and how hard it is to get that change
and you must continue to push that
line. So for me, obviously it's a huge
support for the Resolution and I'm
thankful it was introduced and that we
can help in some way to at least show
our disappointment and disgust in this
attack on Kamehameha Schools and this
opportunity for Pauahi's trust to be
respected, and to be honored, and know?
I had nieces and nephews I got to help
apply through the process and get
accepted into Kamehameha schools and
seeing the opportunities that it gave
them has been incredible. So thank you
for being here. Thank you for the
opportunity to share this information
with the public and I really hope that
you are victorious in this battle.
>> Mr. Bulosan. >> Thank you so much, Chair,
and Vice-Chair for introducing this
Resolution. I'm going to be if full
support. Mahalo to everyone who showed
up and testified, and is present and
continue to do all the work that is
being done. Past, present and future.
Uluhiwa Kamehameha Schools. And ditto
everything that was shared. Funny
enough, I have a 21-month-old and I
joke with my wife every day, oh, I
can't wait to admit him to Kamehameha
Schools do they pick them as early as
21 months and she is no, not going to
O'ahu, he is going to stay here. I
joke, because of what this Resolution
mean and what Kamehameha Schools means
to our community and to our family,
especially to me, it's more than just
education, more than just experiences,
or responsibilities to a land and
people, there's this book I just read
to my son, it recognizes all of the
indigenous people who have done impact
in the world and there's several in
this book. It was actually written a
while ago. And one -- it was actually
acknowledging Hawai'i, and the thought
of legacy and trying to understand how
important certain things are for us as
a human race is so immeasurable, and
it's very important for people who have
vision like Pauahi, and for organizations, and community to
continue to work together to build a
better future, and work in this life to
keep caring for all of the things that
we care for. So it's super important
for us as a body, County Council, to do
this work, and this work as in this
Resolution, to help make sure that we
are on the right path and continue to
stay on the right path. So when I this
I about this situation that we're in,
and I feel it as I'm part of it, not
separate from what the experience is
from any organization that is going
through it. I think it's important
wherever we can to step into these
uncomfortable spaces. Whether it's an
attack on our partner organizations, or
direct attack on us, because it allows
us to think about what matters. And
work on the things that will make a
better place for all of us. And so I'm
super excited to pass this, because I
hope it continues as a part of a
movement that has already been started
and restarted and continues to grow to
empower people to feel inspired to feel
strong and willing to do the work to
make sure that we have a better place
for our community. So thank you to
everyone that is here and doing all of
the work, and again, I will be in full
support. >> Mr. Kuali'i.
>> Yes, Chair. I wanted to say mahalo
nui loa to you, to thank you, because
you brought this forward. And then
honored me by asking me to join you. I
was not able to see the presentations
that was here on-island, because I was
away traveling and very happy that you
see the presentation and inspired to do
this because it's very important. It's
of course, important to me, so thank
you. I agree with some -- with all of
the statements that were said, and I
would say for sure when Kamehameha is
under attack, we're all under attack,
and that is our people, that is our
community, and our entire state. So
over 100 years of investment in our
people; right? So as a class of 1980
graduate, I was there for Junior high
and High School from 74-86 and Kamehameha also played a role
in encouraging me onto college and
even supporting me while I went to
College with financial aid as well. So
I am a living legacy, a part of
Kamehameha, and Keali'i Pauahi's legacy,
and her investment in me has meant
everything in my life, to my family, and
to everything that I have been
able to achieve because of that
investment. I can't thank her enough, and
thank everyone at Kamehameha enough.
So please, please, stand behind
Kamehameha forever.
Thank you, mahalo. I don't know what
is happening. >> You are making us all cry,
that is what is happening. Yeah, you
know, I never went to Kam Hamm had Kam
Kamehameha School, but I went to a
wedding there in a chapel and it was
like, wow. I would encourage everyone
go to KSBE . EDA . Ed.Edu and get all
of the information there. It's a
compelling presentation. It made me
release how ignorant I am to the
history of this place that I call home.
In High School we learned, again
Kaua'i High School, not Kamehameha. We
learned and it was a chore to just
remember names, Hawaiian names. I
can't remember. It was very hard for
me. Anyway listening to the presentation and following the
timeline that was clearly put out of all
of the events that had occurred, and
just the struggles that had to happen
for us to be where we're at so we can end
up with the product of that, with
someone here like Mr. Kuali'i and so many
others. It just makes me try to realize
why -- what would drive anyone to try
to disrupt that? You know, I'm
trying to be politically correct here,
but it's very difficult. Because I
think as was mentioned, so many
opportunitieses to go sue whoever you want. You
go and it's not hard anymore,
especially with AI and ChatGPT you can find a
defendant someplace, you know? It's just
disturbing that they would choose this
little island and this little state and
I understand that they are looking at
the past lawsuits and maybe low-hanging
fruit. I know Mr. Kaneshiro said,
eventually it will go away. Well, I
know on the little research I have done
on this law firm, they are not going to
go away. They are going to fight.
They are going to appeal and they are
going to appeal until it gets to the
U.S. Supreme Court, which would take
ten years, or longer. And why? And
why put the Kamehameha Schools, the
Foundation, the Pauahi foundation
through that all expense for what? So
prove a point. That is where I struggle, and that is where I
struggle to remain civil. Because I
just cannot imagine anyone who would choose
to do that? Are they that immune to
humanity and to our culture and our --
just like what -- from what I understand,
one of those attorneys is actually
from Hawai'i on the plaintiff's team.
>> Wow. >> How do they sleep at
night? Shame on them. Go pick on somebody
else. So it's frustrating for me. And
I'm not even Hawaiian. But I'm 6
generation here and I don't even know my
Portuguese culture except for the soup
and bread and Catholic school. I am so
-- skill still have so much more to
learn about the Hawaiian -- this has
helped me so much. For me, I'm trying
to grapple the why of these people?
Like why -- shall we just go pick on
them? Make a name for ourselves, get
some publicity? At what expense? Come
on folks. So it's frustrating for me.
For our public and especially to our
young ones that I got to meet yesterday
to talk about how the legislative
process works. I'm so happy that you
showed up today. I told them, this
would be the one to come. I didn't
know that the whole system was going to
shut down, but that is okay. You guys
stayed and you guys are here. What
we're talking about today is a Resolution versus a Bill. We
talked about bills yesterday about how
bills become law. We never really
talked about Resolutions. So a
Resolution doesn't have any effect of law
whatsoever. It is a policy statement
of this body right here. It's a
statement of this Kaua'i County Council
that we want to put out together and
saying this is how we feel about a
specific issue. And today's issue is
about supporting Kamehameha Schools
admission policy, so we don't have to
waste fund on defending a lawsuit for
something that has been in play for so
long. For all of the right reasons.
And again, as I have state, yes, I'm a
law-abiding citizen and sworn an oath
to uphold the law, but I think the most
disrespect comes because of the attack
on the will of of Pauahi and it's like
spitting on your grave. I know this is
what you wanted on your last day you
wanted to take care of your people, but,
tough, because we don't think that is
right -- that to me is -- anyway. I am
not going read the whole
Resolution, but for the sake of our young ones
here today, I do want to share you
just the parts that you can understand
why we're doing -- oh, you have it. So
you are telling me to shut up and no
need to read it? That is fine.
[Laughter ]That is fine. >> The two resolves. I just
let me read a couple. And I will read
it in Hawaiian -- no, I won't.
Whereas, Princess Bernice Pauahi packi
Bishop with the rapid [TKHRAO-EUFPB/]
Hawaiian population due to disease as
many Holland talked about cultural
dictionruption and displacement from
ancestral land and through her 1883
will establish -- through her 1883 will
established the Princess Bernice Pauahi
Bishop Estate and charitable trust
dedicated to founding school for Native
Hawaiian children. To me, that is
power. That to me is the most important thing. Whereas, new
legal challenges including one
brought by Students for Fair Admission
threatened the 140-year-old admission miff
to full full
i's intent for the education of Native
Hawaiian children. Whereas, the
Council of the County of Kaua'i recognizes the profound
cultural, educational and historical
importance of the Kamehameha Schools and
believes that Princess Puhaie's legacy
should be [PRAO-EFRBD/] and protected for
present and future generation of Native
Hawaiians. And I think more than one
of my colleagues mentioned about how
preserving that rights and benefit for
Native Hawaiians is actually beneficial
to all of us. So this is the most
important part of our Resolution where
we said be it resolved. This is where
we're telling people giving the people
our statement, our policy statement, be
it resolved by the Council of the
County of Kaua'i, that the Council
strongly supports and reaffirm the
Kamehameha Schools' admissions policy,
mission and its contributions to the
Native Hawaiian community and the
preservation of Princess Bernice Pauahi
Bishop's legacy for future generation
and be it further resolved that the
Council urges all levels of government
to respect Princess Pauahi s' charitable intent and legal and
cultural Foundation of the Kamehameha
schools' admissions policy. This will
be sent across the nation. That is why
we're here today. Without further
discussion, this is the communication,
the motion is to receive, all in favor
say aye? >> Aye.
>> Motion carried. Madam Chair, with
no objection, we'll take the Resolution
up next. After the Resolution, we'll
take a caption break and we have
people for the audit but I will take
the Kaua'i Coffee issue out of order,
you because I know you took a lot of
work time to be here today and he we
want to get you back to work. >> Chair, on page 4,
Resolution No. 2026-01 Resolution supporting
and reaffirming the Kamehameha
Schools' admissions policy, mission and
its contributions to the Native
Hawaiian community.
>> Move to approve. >> Second.
>> Thank you. Is there anyone wishing
to testify on the Resolution? Is there
any further discussion? Seeing none,
motion is to approve, roll call. >> Council Member Bulosan?
>> Aye. >> Council Member Carvalho?
>> Council Member Cowden? >> Aye.
>> Council Member Holland . aye.
>> Council Member Kaneshiro? >> Aye.
>> Council Member Kuali'i? >> Aye.
>> Council Chair Rapozo? >> Aye.
>> Motion passes. >> Motion passes, Resolution
passes. Thank you all. With that we'll
take a ten-minute caption break.
[ GAVEL ] [ GAVEL ]
>> Call the meeting back to order.
Members, with no objection, I will like
I said earlier, we'll take the Kaua'i
Coffee item up, so we can get these
people back to work. So with that, can
we have that item, please. >> Chair, on page 3,
C-2026-08, communication from Council
Chair Rapozo requesting the presence of
Wayne Katayama Senior advisor Kaua'i
Coffee to provide a briefing regarding
the current operations of Kaua'i
Coffee, as well as any future plan.
>> Move to receive. >> Second.
>> Thank you. With that I will call
Mr. Katayama up. Just real briefly,
the reason this is on the agenda is
probably a couple weeks ago, social
media went crazy about Kaua'i Coffee,
and we had some discussions. This body
had some discussion during the Planning
Bill regarding the Plantation camp
housing, and Numila project and talked
about the importance of Kaua'i Coffee
and how this housing Bill that is
currently at Planning right now is
going to benefit the employees of the
Kaua'i Coffee. So it was quite shocking to start reading about
comments that were being posted about
the potential closure of Kaua'i Coffee.
I did have some discussions with the
landowner Representative and Kaua'i
Coffee over the last months and I was
aware that negotiations were happening,
it was pretty evident by the testimonies that were being
posted that it was starting to look like
Kaua'i Coffee may go away. And that
is quite disturbing, and disappointing,
and so I contacted Mr. Katayama, see if
he would be okay with giving us an
update, more for the benefit of the
community and of course, our employees, their
employee, because many of them are here
today. I thank you again for your
patience, because of the little technical
problem. We're way behind schedule.
So with that, Mr. Katayama, if you
could come up, I will suspend the rules
and you can give us an update on what
is going on, and I think for most of
us, Kaua'i Coffee has been part of our
island culture for a long time. And
it's kind of hard to imagine that they
would go away. >> Good morning, Chair Rapozo,
Members of the Council. Thank you for
having me here today. I'm Wayne
Katayama, Senior advisor at Kaua'i
Coffee, and I cannot overestimate the
seriousness of why I'm here before you today.
Let me put this in perspective, Kaua'i
Coffee is a fully integrated premium
specialty coffee company. What that
means is that we grow the coffee and put
it all the way to the bag, all here on
the Island of Kaua'i. To do that,
we have about 4 million coffee trees,
and we farm about 3,000 acres. We
harvest anywhere from 10 to 12 million
pound of cherry coffee, which needs to
be processed into about a million
to 2 million pounds of green coffee.
And that is all done at 'Ele'ele,
and that green coffee is then roasted
and put into bags that you enjoy as
Kaua'i Coffee in the mornings. To do
that, I think, one of the unique things
that we have, we have three queue
graders on Staff in the coffee roasting
business, equivalent to three Ph.D.s.
Today we have 141 employees that covers
all of these responsibilities. And at
least I haven't reflected on it,
because you see people day after day every
day, year in, year out, 30% of our
workforce has over ten years with us. We
have people with 20 years, and it's
just a head-scratcher. Three people
with 50 years. So they must have
started when they were 3 years old because
they look like they are in their 50s.
And we're heavily all our employees are
in the communities, you are probably
related to some of them. You probably
have friends with them, you know
their families, and certainly you
have come in contact with them I thought
your community outreach. And I think
that is sort of what is the
seriousness of where we stand today. Now let
me sort of take a little step back, and
put this into historic proposal how
we got here. In 2021 one of the
largest beverage companies in the world
purchased the coffee operations for
Alexander & Baldwin. Alexander &
Baldwin had been farming that land for
150 years from sugar and in the late
1980s, started to plant coffee. So we
had a landowner that was very attuned
to how you view the use of agricultural
land and the horizon was very long and
knew that once you had a crop you were
in there for 50-100 years. In 2023, I
would say Alexander & Baldwin, A&B,
sold its land assets both here on
Kaua'i, and as well on Maui, because
they had changed their focus. They
also had diversed a lot of their other
company like Madsen, but the land on
Kaua'i was solid to BBCP, and they
assumed the existing lease. So 2023 to
the expiration of the lease in 2026 was
really two-and-a-half years. BBCP
recently has publicly communicated they
are not willing to renew the lease.
And that is the reason why I'm here
this morning before you, because all
141 of our employees will be receiving
notices that they are jobs will be
terminated in the next few weeks. The
precise date that they will be terminated will depend on how
we divest ourselves of the operation.
But nonetheless, they will be given
notice shortly. Now this doesn't mean
that we at Kaua'i Coffee have given up,
and resolve ourselves to the fact
that we'll be terminating the
operations at the end of March. It's not --
it's just the opposite. We'll
continue to seek some kind of Resolution
and hopefully, that will be able to
negotiate something successfully by the
end of March. That however has put a
strain on our 2026 crop. For our
farming operations and processing
operations, and the employees behind us
represent all facets of our business.
We have the AG component. We have the
processing people, as well as the
roasting and sales people all here
today, as well as administrative Staff.
So that is the reach and the depth of
the type of employees that will be
affected if we cannot resolve this
successfully. Hopefully, we can do
something, but again, this is to inform
you that there is a Cliff, and it will
happen on March 28th, 2026. You know,
I thank you for your time, and for you
to give me the opportunity to share
with you our perspective, and what is
happening and the impact to not only
the operations, but also the community.
In our written testimony, we have
identified some of the financial
impacts, as well as social/economic
impacts, and we have tried to be good
neighbor, you know? We had 2491 and
realized that it's very important for
the community to rest assured that
we're responsible citizens, and so post
that, we're not rainforest and free-trade certified with
independent Auditors at times being more
restrictive than EPA and OSHA. I think we're one of the few
farms in the State that have both.
Unfortunately, I'm unable to discuss
specific terms and conditions of the
lease, nor I'm unavailable to speculate
on any post-March 28th activities.
Again, I thank you, and I'm available
for any questions. Thank you, Chair.
>> Ms. Cowden. >> Thank you for coming, and I
appreciate the presence of your team
here, too, because it's important to
speak to all of you. I have a couple
of questions you can tell me if you can
answer them or not? What I read is the
press was that they are intending to
continue the coffee just not without
your Administration, is that -- did I
read that correctly? >> That has been shared both
publicly and to us directly that they
would want to continue coffee operations
post our exit. May I share something
with you, not to get too academic? But
becoming fully integrated specialty
coffee really required three key
elements, and it took over 20 years to sort
of get it to work. One is again I shared
with you the vision of the
agricultural land. It's not something that
you can turn over quickly or change in
very short periods of time. The
second is availability of resources, both
physical resources, the utilities
required to run the farm, and the
processing in terms of water, electricity, is huge. You also
need the financial resources, the
funding of the equipment, the crop, field
activities that needed to really start
in December. You will not get a crop
until September/October,/November,
December, middle in January, February
and probably sell it in March through
the next December. So you are talking
financial security of at least 18
months in turning initially. And
lastly, you need the intellectual
capital. Alexander & Baldwin, or A&B,
very comfortable with long agricultural
visions, Matzyama beverage, one of the
largest coffee companies in the world
very comfortable with vesting in brand
development. You know, in terms of
roasting coffee, in terms of investing
in the market place, very comfortable
doing that. So it takes those sort of
three -- two elements to come together
to help launch the brand development
and get coffee, Kaua'i Coffee where it
is today. The last and the most
important is community support. We
have from you, from our neighbors in
'Ele'ele and Kalaheo. That is a
critical element of why we're here
today is that our neighbors allow us to
be here and we're very thankful for
that, and we do not take that responsibility lightly.
>> I have another question. Sorry to
ask about the future, but have they
shown any intention by coming and
looking at the equipment, the land, is
there -- because I'm looking at all of
these people that I want to keep their
jobs and we're sure proud of Kaua'i
Coffee and you are a star of Hawai'i/Kaua'i on the hill in
Washington, D.C.. Has there been
outreach to the team? Is there any
sort of look of intention for forward
that we're going to keep our coffee?
>> There has been visits by their teams
, but in terms of the process, it seem
that it's very superficial, given the
length of time there is available.
Normally these things start a lot
earlier. Because there's a lot of
details to comprehend and there's the
drafting of the documents that go along
with this. And here we're less than
100 days, and none of the details have
been addressed. I mean, it's sort of
very superficial high-level and again,
maintaining the specialty premium
coffee business is a challenge. >> I have one more question.
Is that okay? I don't mean to
dominate. I'm concerned about the surface
water that the 100 what sound like 155
years since Alexander & Baldwin took it
away. Surface water on management on
Kaua'i coming -- we're talking about
our Hawaiian Kingdom times they
were very good request surface water and
plantations were very good with surface
water. Typically that is not the
strength of equity capital investor.
So the surface water management, how is
that handled now and how will it be
handed out because surface water is
critical in terms of how we move
forward with our island? >> We have been very fortunate
to inherit a small portion of the
sugar water system and sugar water
system s are huge. For our 3,000 acres
of coffee we have two primary
water sources one from Alexander
reservoir and the other from Hanapepe
river. Our storage capacity is in six
reservoirs, four of which are regulated.
And all of those require certain amount
of attention to manage. Typically
flows from Alexander between 6-8
million gallons per day when there is
water in the reservoir and all of that
has to be managed. Our earlier speak
from Kamehameha Schools it's key
that there has been an effort to restore
Mauka to Makai flows, but keeping the
water up on the land and dispersing it
on the land is far more efficient and
recharging aquifers. And if we would
like to maintain our aquifer system, I
think spraying water over 3,000 acres
is much more preferable than to have it
run into the water, ocean. >> So you guys have being
managing your water system, and then I
know that your background is in sugar.
So you really understand this deeply.
Have with your potential leaving the
land in less than 100 days is there any
dialogue going on for passing that
knowledge along for the water system?
Is that being handled? >> Well, generally that would
take place as part of the transition
process. There are certain things that
normally take place. There's an asset
purchase agreement. There's a service
agreement. There's an employee assumption agreement that if
you are hiring Kaua'i Coffee employees,
what terms and conditions? Today
fortunate we have the iWu, which the
majority of our workforce are members are.
There needs to be an agreement what
is the assumption on the unionized
labor force? All of those
conversations have not taken place in any great
detail. >> Okay.
>> Thank you. Any other questions? I
just have I guess for me, for clarification, No. 1, Kaua'i
Coffee is the largest coffee grower in
the United States, correct?
>> That is true, yes. >> Which is significant. I
mean, there's a lot of coffee
companies in the world, in the country, and
so back in 2011, I remember when
massimo Zen yety, there were a lot of
skeptics including myself, here we go,
here comes a mainland company coming
to take over Kaua'i Coffee, a nice
local coffee company. I remember reading
all of the promises of how this would
benefit the community, and again, I was
very skeptical. Well, fast-forward
to 2026 and we find out that was an
amazing purchase, and, in fact, they
developed the brand now where Kaua'i
Coffee is all across the world, which
would never have been possible if that sale
never occurred. My question is with
massimo -- how do you pronounce that.
>> Massimo Zen yety. >> Italian name.
>> I thought it was Portuguese. That
came, this global distribution system
that allowed for Kaua'i Coffee now to
be sold across the globe, and, in fact
if I'm not mistaken, I could be wrong,
correct me if I'm wrong, isn't our
coffee sales abroad more than -- I
heard I could be wrong -- no? >> I need to get back --
>> I read that somewhere. But the
point is let's say I was interested in
purchasing the farm. Let's say Mel
Rapozo all of a sudden wants to be a
coffee guy and I find some investors
and we buy the land, and we work out
the agreements. What will be missing
is this global distribution network
that is required to sustain the business; right? If not for
massimo Zenetty's purchase of the
property, that that business, of Kaua'i
Coffee in 2011, do you think we would be
where we're at with Kaua'i Coffee?
>> I was there during that purchase
and part of that purchase and again, of
the three critical elements, Alexander
& Baldwin had half of it, massimo Zen
yety had the other half and together
they had the wherewithal to develop a
fully integrated coffee company. And
generally speaking, you know, you could
have people that are good farmers. You
could have people that are good processers, and you could have
people that are good marketers. But
rarely do you have it on Kaua'i in one
place that you have it all. And look at
the number of different skills that
is required to maintain that. I
think that was the accomplishment of all
of these partnerships, and literally
they were partnerships.
>> I have two more questions. >> Go ahead.
>> Is there a pathway for Kaua'i
Coffee to survive off of that property?
Is there going to be any kind of way
you can feather on to new land? I know
it take a while to grow new plants,
probably, two, three fours year for
maturity. >> So get a crop -- assuming
that you had a good varietal selected to
propagate, to plant it, and to have it
mature at least five years. >> But we have a good crop.
So we can just move that crop; right?
But it would take five years. In
terms of the variety?
>> You would probably because of the
issues with CBB and coffee leaf and
brewers you would probably want to
start in a fresh area with a fresh
coffee plantings. You don't want to
carry over. >> We would have the seeds
though. We know what variety we want.
>> We'll probably want to diversify
even more. Currently we have five
different coffee varieties that services maybe about 20
different coffee profileses that we
currently offer. We probably want to
expand that by different varietals
>> But your market could manage that
transition if it's abrupt, like the end
of March? >> That is correct.
>> Then the other question is probably
hard to answer, but you're here right
now. How can we help? >> Hopefully by having this
conversation, that we can create a
pathway that is a little longer than
March. It will help us better transition.
>> Do you have land that you can move
to? >> We'll certainly -- if we
had the runway to do that, we'll
aggressively start seek something
alternative. >> Because there seems like
there's plenty of available farmland on
the West side
>> It's consistent with the Community
Plans there. >> So I don't know if we can
do a Resolution or anything like
that? This is business. I'm happy to make
some phone calls, but I'm sure a lot
of those phone calls have been
made. But how can we get them to give you
a few more years? Or is there
certain amount of acreage? We can talk about
that later, but I would like to know
if you had -- if you let go of x
amount of acres, X amounts of acres and
to look at the machinery and
communicating with your team? Because there are
jobs out there; right? So I'm sure
that people will get other jobs and once
they are gone, it's hard to bring these
highly-skilled people back. So I want
to help you survive. >> Can we get back to you on
that? >> Okay.
>> Let us think about that. >> So just clarifying real
quick, 4 million trees, that is a lot
of tree. If you were to -- and I think I
heard you say, it would be better to
start fresh and plant new trees. I
don't know if you could plant 4
million trees, but whatever the case
may be, you wouldn't require 141
employees during that period; right?
I mean, you would lose until your crops
are ready, your crop of coffee is ready
to pick and roast and my concern is
that if there's a break in this lease,
and you go and plant, and acquire the
land, and prep the land, and there's
going to be a period of time, where
some of these employees are going to be
unemployed. >> We have coffee inventory.
The coffee that we harvested in
2025 has not yet been completely milled.
So we have inventory that will carry
us 18-24 months.
>> Right. But you wouldn't have --
where is all your equipment going to
be; right? Obviously you are going to
lose this land; right? >> If we're restoring
orchards it will still need the spray
tractors, everybody, but the harvesters.
>> But you would -- this would be
dependent on you finding land and
getting your equipment and your buildings set up to do all of
these activities; right?
>> Yes. >> I have a follow-up.
>> That was going to be my follow-up
question, having land is just one small
piece of the puzzle. You can plant as
many trees as you want and harvest, but
you need a whole entire facility to
process and distribute. So that takes
way longer than a year or two years or
three years to even try to do if you
are doing it from scratch. >> If you looking on the West
side with Gay and Robinson, DHHL,
this are agricultural suited lands with
sufficient water supply that look
pretty good actually. >> So your facility now that
you require for all of the -- I
don't know coffee, but that -- are you
picking up your equipment here and moving
it to the new site, is that how it
would work? If that happens then so
much for the new owners to be carrying
on with the coffee business like they
are saying they are?
>> That is part of the -- there's a
Section of our lease with conditions on
termination. And that is the reason
why there needs to be a serious discussion on asset purchase
agreement, if not, we're responsible for
moving the equipment that we want to
keep. Anything that is left behind
would be considered abandoned.
>> So Kaua'i Coffee is going to have
to make a decision. >> Yes.
>> Council Member Cowden. >> So this coffee inventory
that you have it's not roasted?
>> It's all in green form. >> Okay, if you have to leave
at the end of the March, how are you
going to process it anyway?
>> There's several outlets and we can
lease the current. >> You could lease?
>> That would be a discussion, you
know? >> Okay.
>> If that doesn't work we'll have to
look for a cold packer somewhere else.
>> Okay. >> There are a lot of
different permutations to this, and
because the situation is so fluid, the
ideal situation would be we'll get an
off-ramp of two years or more. So we
can sort of craft a win-win situation.
>> Okay. So you have -- you could
possibly do that. I'll just say for
the record, right after the property
was bought, I was able to go and speak
with Chad Brew, two days later for a
couple of hours and Kaua'i Coffee was
one of the first things I brought up.
So I was really relieved to hear there
was a commitment to keeping that going,
and that seemed like something that was
very Foundational, because removing all
of that coffee, all that, you know?
It's very expensive and I believe that
is all important ag land and correct me
if I'm wrong, that can't get turn into
another Kukui'ula, is that correct?
>> There's only a sliver of that land
that is ial. It would require rezoning, but the fact of the
matter is it could be.
>> We don't have the roads and the
water and everything else >> Neither did Kukui'ula when
they started.
>> Okay. >> You know? I'm hoping that
is not the intent. Because that would
be sad. If that is the intent, again,
back to the disrespect that we talked
about earlier. That would be sad for
these guys to come in, purchase the
land, talk about preserving the AG,
and then turn around and I'm not saying
that is what they are doing, but I'm
saying that is not all important ag
land that you cannot farm. There's a
sliver, and I don't want to put you on the
spot, because you guys are in
whatever negotiations you have. I'm
just saying in my research, there's that
sliver that is important ag land. So
that has to remain in farm, in AG, but
all the rest, that would be terrible to
get rid of Kaua'i Coffee to put up
another subdivision. Whether or not it
would even be passed through the
Planning and County Council at the time? I
don't know, but if that is the
intent, that is disappointing. That is
disappointing. You know, McDonalds
over here, I don't know if they own the
land. Let's say whoever owns that land
kicks out McDonalds and I go in to open
up a Hamburger store. I can take over
the place and take over the building
and they left back their stoves and
microwaves I will keep that, but it's
not a McDonalds. It's not going to be
a McDonalds. It's going to be Mel's,
and Hamburger is not going to taste of
the same. It probably tastes better,
but my point is the marketing of
McDonalds is what makes it successful.
Cheeseburger is better than McDonalds.
So the global distribution network is
what the value is at. Who decides to
buy the land it won't be Kaua'i Coffee.
It just wouldn't be. Ms. Holland.
>> I just wanted to follow-up on that.
Correct me if I'm wrong, aren't there
some accusations that they actually
intend to continue to brand under your
logo and your information even if they
do kick you guys out? Can you clarify
that? >> There's an option to buy
the brand. >> Oh. so they could.
>> >> There needs to be a brand
evaluation. That will require capital
on their part, just for the branding,
then they have to buy the inventory,
then they have to buy the equipment.
And that process really should have
started months ago, if that were their
intent. >> Thank you
>> Thank you. >> Any other questions? If
not, thank you, sir.
>> Thank you very much, Chair, for us
to really present our view of the
outcome, and the next 90 days that are
going to be critical. I would like to
thank the employees for spending their
day with us today. Thank you very much.
>> Well, that says a lot when you have
that many employees show up, you know?
And I'm on social media a lot, but I
also recognize that it's not the most
accurate source of information. And
that is why I wanted to hear it today,
so we could get it from Kaua'i Coffee
and understand from the people and
families. I just saw people in the
hallway I have known a long time and
not aware that they worked at Kaua'i
Coffee. I looked at your website
because I couldn't remember massimo's
name and what do you call it? Roasting
-- what is roast masters. They are
water? >> Cube rators. That is like
having a Ph.D. in coffee.
>> I look at the pictures on the
website and they are young local people
from here, that are roast Masters.
It's such a -- it's hard to imagine
Kaua'i Coffee gone. It's like, Ishihara's. You know? You
just get so used to it, it's part of the
island. It's part of our culture. It's
part of our life. And then poof. It's
gone. >> I think that's the
seriousness of it, because to have it
developed to where we're today, it was a
very long journey. Again, with all of
the key elements that needed to be put
together and to have it dissolved
artificially, I think, that is the issue, and
the seriousness of it. Thank you,
Chair. Thank you for your questions.
>> Thank you. Anyone in the audience
wishing to testify? No? I will call the
meeting back to order. Any further
discussion? Ms. Cowden. >> Well, I really want to make
sure we find a way to have a solution,
because the legacy of what Kaua'i
Coffee has become, you know? That is
something that we have struggled to
create, you know, for economic diversity
and agriculture. You know, it's
deeply disappointing for Kaua'i to
endure this potential loss of -- it's been
a relatively new path forward in
agriculture relative to sugar. That
gives us hope for not having overdependence on the visitor
industry. I think Kaua'i Coffee has done
a very good job of things, like,
having an ecotourism piece there. It's
educational. It's a really good
presentation for what we do have. I
also appreciate the many different
efforts, like, working with Kaua'i
community correctional center to be
offering new potential for people who
maybe made mistakes and have been
incarcerated. There's many different
ways that Kaua'i coffee has been a
very good community partner. I don't
see benefit for our island, especially
-- you know, I don't mean to overemphasize the legacy of the
water distribution system, the
canals, and the reservoirs. We need to
really keep that going, you know? The
island could change in so many different
ways. The world economy could change in
so many different ways. And having
that knowledge that is really
important about how to manage the land,
how to manage the water is essential.
And then another thing that we look
at since the loss of different
agricultural products is the Fire
hazards that comes with unmanaged land.
And so we look hard to find agricultural tenants on the
land, if they don't own the land, to be
there. So it keeps us all safe in many
ways. So I just wanted to thank
everybody in this room who does the job that
you do, and to recognize the
contribution that you make to the island as a
whole. I hope very much that we can find
a way -- I'm hoping that BBCP is
listening and that somehow they are just
playing a hard game of cards because I
can't imagine if they are really
wanting to take over the coffee business
that aren't more deeply engaged in
making sure that they understand the
water systems and make sure that they
understand how to hang on to the team
that is creating this fine product. So
I haven't tried to step out of line and
insert myself in this. I wouldn't do
that without an invitation to do so
much and I don't know what I can
create, but I will try my hardest and
sometimes I'm pretty surprised that I'm
sometimes able to shove something some
way. I want you to know I'm right
there with you and we can talk about
that. But I would like to see -- I
would like to see our government do our
very best to keep you guys solid.
Because we have your back and want to
have your back and we need you, and we
appreciate you, and thank you all for
what you have done to create a product
that is really outstanding, and across
the nation, and I guess in the world.
So thank you. >> Thank you. Anyone else?
Mr. Kaneshiro.
>> I have a lot to say, but it will
probably be jumbled. So I will keep it
shorter. I don't need to hear people
come and testify. I know exactly where
they all stand already. I appreciate
them coming out and taking time to be
here. You know, Kaua'i Coffee is
exactly what I ran my campaign on
pretty much, you know? I said I'm
probusiness, proAG and that is exactly
what they do. More recently people
have asked how do we keep AG sustainable? My answer is that
we have to expand and we have to sell
our AG outside of Kaua'i, you know?
During COVID we realize that Kaua'i
cannot support itself. We have have
to reach out, outer islands and reach
the world and Kaua'i Coffee does just
that, marketing outside of Kaua'i and
doing a good job. So they have all of
the plusses that I ran on. They
provide a great economic impact to the
island. They provide jobs. They are
taking care of a large area of land,
AG land, which I think is precious to us
and we don't want to see developed.
You know, they provide a visitor
attraction. And so for me, I don't know what
the solution is. You know, I would
love to see Kaua'i Coffee stay there. I
don't know what the intention of the
landlord is, so it's hard to say what
direction this is going to go. But I do
hope that they find an amicable
solution and understand this is -- it's not
so easy to up and get rid of Kaua'i
Coffee and think they are going to run a
coffee company that is exactly the
same, or maybe a boutique coffee company
or something. It's not that easy.
Why do that? You know? At the end of
the day, with you have an operation that
is doing great, makes Kaua'i look
great. You know, why would you want to
interfere with that? I bring Kaua'i
Coffee, I have a friend in Las Vegas a
Council Member in Vegas and I'm always
bringing him Kaua'i Coffee. We have an
upcoming NACo event and it was sad I
said I have to the store stockpiling
because I don't know what is going to
happen. Any time Senate Dru Kanaha and
saying who has better coffee? Kaua'i
Coffee is the largest coffee Plantation
in the US, you know? So it is a legacy
and something to be proud of. I want
to see it continue. So anything that I
can do to help support you guys, I'm
all there. I will say, you know, for
landowners that have operations like
yours, future development other things
that they are trying do is dependent on
how they treat their tenants, what they
are doing with their land? And you
know, I'm just putting it out there, it
does affect and will affect what they
do in the future and how they will be
treated in the future, you know? You
encourage a good company like Kaua'i
Coffee, it's a lot easier for people to
approve things . You kick them out and
create destruction, it's harder to
approve things. That is just what I
have to say. It's pretty sad to hear.
It's been sad. I have a lot of close
friends that work there. And it's
definitely you look at our audit. They
talk about agriculture, Kaua'i Coffee
is in there, you know? As one of the
bright shining stars for agriculture on
Kaua'i. So I just really hope for some
type of amicable solution, or you know,
I wish they came with a plan that said
we're going make it better and help
provide more resources and help make
Kaua'i Coffee even bigger. So I don't
see that and it's pretty disheartening.
That is my comments. >> Thank you. Mr. Bulosan.
>> I want to echo everything that
Council Member Kaneshiro shared,
especially whether I first thought
about running, With businesses and local
people, it's hard to look into the crowd and
not be super mad and cry. So think
about what is happening to our community,
and the product that has been a staple
to generations of people that have
experienced coffee. Funny story, I
never drank coffee until two years ago,
so I never understand why coffee was
important, but now I know. Having a
21-month-old, I take -- [laughter ]A quad shot of
espresso every day now and I get it.
Get coffee to everybody, especially
parents. I don't know how you function or
even be a nice person until you have
coffee. So like in reality, what
happens to Kaua'i Coffee is like our
mental health is going to go really bad.
[Laughter ]Around the world, because if
you think about the experiences that
people get; right? Like I literally
went to the gift shop yesterday, what
is today? Monday. And you just see
the people coming out of there super
happy and super stoked and I had my
latte that changed my life for the next
three hours. For my wife and son I'm
not a grumpy guy, because I'm not that
old. It's like the earlier conversations, you know?
Again, thank you to Chair for putting this
briefing, and for Wayne for sharing with
us the actual details and everyone for
being here. Just like the earlier
conversations that we're having, like,
we have to stand up. Like this makes
no sense. It just feels like we're
starting this year with just a bunch of
attacks on our people, on our lands,
and it's like I just want to stand up
and not feel this way. Can we just be
in the space? Just make a living and
do good things, save lives, save
people's mental health and just be us,
you know? That is what I hope as we
deliberate and have these conversations, as everything
that is going on in the back-end and
the front-end, I just want everyone
to know that in this corner, Kaua'i
Coffee everyone related and all of the
organizations and the impact that you
guys do, we are -- I am, I am right
there with you guys. And any leverage
that I can do to help make sure that we
continue what you are going because you
are exactly -- you are doing exactly
what our community needs. Your business is exactly what we
need right now to be successful, and
continue to make the impact. So it makes
absolutely no sense why we're in this
situation with you guys, and I just
hope as we always hope; right? People
do good, businesses do good. Organizations can change their
minds and I hope minds get changed, I
hope. Perspectives get incorporated,
and that we keep going on a better path.
Thank you again, Chair, for putting
this briefing, and thank you all for
being here.
>> Thank you. Ms. Holland. >> Thank you, Chair. This is
another pretty upsetting topic. I also
echo a lot of what Council Member
Kaneshiro said. You know, we do need
more types of this agriculture. I want to
commend also how much improvement in
land management, and the incredible
benefits that you guys have taken up
over the last ten years. You know, 2491
was brought up, and you guys were
caught up in that. Actually
unintentionally. But the immediate response to
doing better, and to transitioning
into such -- so many changes that were
moved to move away from restricted use
pesticides and do what you could do was
an incredible showing of how much you
are imbedded in this community. I have
been so thankful and so encouraged by
that transition, and the many other
agricultural efforts that we need to
see, like these, to expand. We talk so
much about moving away from dependency
on tourism and we have goals to double
agriculture, double food security, but
instead, we see attackses like this on
such an important agricultural operation that we have. And at
this time, too, when so many familis
are struggling, cost of food have
gone up an average of 30% and most of
us had our rents or housing costs
doubled. And the West side is already
we're still coming off the back of a
pretty quick transition out of
Plantation, and the scale of 150 years of
history. So this is really upsetting that
they would come in and do this. It
just seems a very another
disrespectful move to our community and the 141
workers whose jobs are at-risk right
now. I emphasize and I'm just really
upset this situation has been brought
forward. My -- I grew up Kapahi. So I
didn't spend much time on West side
outside of my late boyfriend's history
growing up in camp 6. I didn't really
have a great appreciation, I think, for
how incredible that coffee operation
until I got a monitoring position
during Lima Ola and the expansion of
Lima Ola, where I spent a year literally parked between the
rows of your coffee. I have some
incredible pictures, too, of just all of
the flowers and just seeing those
giant tall harvesting shaky things
that go through the aisles. And I was
blown away by the operation and the
water. I got to watch the decommission
of that 110 -year-old difficulty
difficult that ditch system that was just
an incredible year in 'Ele'ele
with more rainbows than I have seen in my
life. It's literally the land of
rainbows. It's incredible.
As Council Member Cowden was saying
that if these people are listening that
they reconsider, because it's damaging
with all of us that feel this hit to
our community. And I don't have too
much to say except for I really hope
that a Resolution can come about that
doesn't result in you guys getting
kicked off the land. If there is any
else that this body can do, I would
encourage us all to do it. I don't
know how we possibly can, and this is
the reality of the world we live in
where money talks. But I really hope
that there's a solution that keeps
everyone's jobs and keeps Kaua'i Coffee
not just in its current state, but
growing. We need more orchards and we
need more of this type of agriculture
as Council Member Kaneshiro said about
exports. We talk so much about this
and this is just another hit that is
really upsetting. Thank you, Chair.
>> Thank you. Anyone else? Mr.
Kuali'i. >> I will just primarily just
want to express my gratitude to you,
Chair, for bringing this forward, and to
Mr. Katayama, and everyone at
Kaua'i Coffee for everything that you have
done over the years. I mean, you truly
have been a vital part of Kaua'i's
agricultural heritage, and local economy for
38 years; right? So I truly hope
and pray that something is worked
out. I mean, we definitely are at a
critical point. You talked about the
60-day advance notice, and March 28th,
2026, so in three weeks you have got
to make that notification. So I just
truly hope that something is worked
out, and I hope you will keep us posted,
and let us know if there's anything
that we can do to help. And communities
stick together and fight, and try.
Thank you, Chair.
>> Thank you. Anyone else? If not,
thank you all for being here today. I
know it's a long day. I just wanted to
clarify one thing that Arryl brought up
about Senator Kanaha. I am a coffee
aficionado, ask anyone here. This is
always, always, always filled with
coffee, morning to night. I can sleep
after drinking a cup of coffee. And
there's no dispute that Kaua'i Coffee
is better than Kona coffee. There's --
>> I agree. [Laughter ]
>> Tell Kanaha, sorry. Again,
thanks. Thanks for your patience. Thank
you for being here and it says a lot
what that many employees show up to
support their employer. The union
Representatives are here to support the
employees. So it says a lot. I don't
know where this road is going to end
up. I'm hoping that there's at least
an extension in the lease. So more
negotiations can occur. And worst-case
scenario is that if, in fact, the lease
does expire, that I hope that the
intention of the landowner is to
maintain that very important agricultural operation on the
island. I don't know how this works
out. My hope is that Kaua'i Coffee will
remain and continue, but that is well
above our reach. Thanks again.
Thanks for being here. With that, the
motion is to receive. All in favor say
aye? >> Aye.
>> Motion carried. Next item, please.
>> Chair, did you want to go to the
audit? >> Sure.
>> On page 2, C-2026-03 communication
from Council Chair Rapozo requesting
the presence of the Managing Director,
Director of Finance, and the Representatives of N&K CPAs,
Inc. to discuss the Annual
Comprehensive Financial Report, Single Audit
Reports, and management advideosor
report for the FY'[TKP*-RBG/] ended June
30, 2024. >>
Hang on. >> Before we take the motion,
it is my intention for a few reasons,
but I am going ask this Council to refer
this to the Committee next week, to the
Finance Committee next week.
Because I think we all got to see the
audit. We all got the audit and we did
meet with the Administration. Today
we'll hear from the Auditors and I want
to have an opportunity to digest what
we hear today and what we share, or
what the Auditors share with us to.
And have some time to formulate some
questions for the Administration rather
than drop it like bombs today, and
force them to be answering questions
that they may not be prepared to
answer. So ultimately that is what I
would like. It's obviously going to be
up to all of you. But I'm not saying
that we're not going to have the
discussion. I want to hear from the
Auditors. I want to hear from the
Administration and definitely have some
Q&A and discussion, but ultimately and
even more so, Mr. Carvalho is not here
to have this on the Committee agenda,
where we can expand the questions to
more and not put anybody on the spot
today. >> Move to receive.
>> Not, we're going move to refer to
the Committee. >> Refer later?
>> Why don't you go ahead and make the
motion. >> Move to refer to Committee.
>> I have a procedure question. >> Second.
>> There was so much noise in the
room, I couldn't hear the agenda item
that she was reading. >> It's the audit.
>> So that is agenda item 03. >> 2026-03.
>> So they are here in the room. So
we're still going to hear them today?
>> Yes, we're going hear from the
Auditors. We're going to hear from the
Administration. I just want to give us
an opportunity to expand the discussion
after -- I'm just asking >> I'm good with that. When
we move to defer
we're not moving to defer. >> We're moving to refer.
>> Refer. >> We're going refer to
Committee next week.
>> Do we refer it now or after discussion?
>> We can refer it now. Because it's
not -- we can do the motion to refer.
>> It's just for clarity we're going
hear it today? >> We're going to treat it as
a normal item. I just want to based on
what I read and what I expect to hear
from the Auditors I will have many more
questions, but I want to give the
Administration an opportunity to get
those questions in advance so they can
be prepared to respond. So with that we'll suspend the
rules and have the Auditors and Ms.
Reiko. >> Good afternoon, Council
Members. Reiko Matsuyama, Office of the
Mayor and I'm here to introduce the
Auditors from N&K. So before they are
going to give you PowerPoint
presentation of the audit. They are going to go
into the technical details of the audit,
and going over any significant
variances, or fluctuations from
prior-year. And then they are going to go
through some of the findings or all of the
findings. So there were five findings
this year, which is less than there as has
been at least in the prior-year. And I
just want to point out that all the
findings were like a record keeping type
finding, not any money going out the
door, not any money being laundered or
fraudulent or any of that kind of
stuff. So they will be here to explain
more of that. Obviously, we try to
avoid findings. But really the findings are what make us
better. They are ways for us to improve. So
we thank the Auditor for being
here and being able to uncover some of
the things that we have did
incorrectly in the past or overlooked in the
past. So that is what they are here for.
This is the only audit that we have
on the County that is a recurring
audit. We welcome other types of other
operational audits or others that we
can dive deeper into divisions. This
audit is done every year and unfortunately it's kind of a
continuous audit. It has been over the
last couple of years. And we'll get
into a little bit more of that. These
findings will help us, turn things
around and make sure we're doing things
better and find where areas of improvement are needed. We do
have some recurring findings,
meaning that there were findings in Fiscal
Year 23, and is there are again findings
in Fiscal Year 24. Those clearly
are unwelcomed, because it shows
that we did not improve. We did not
make the necessary adjustments from
year-to-year. I had say that for this
audit though, it leads us into the
bigger question, why this is still
delinquent and as we talk about the
audit, that is handsing down the
biggest problem of the audit that we're
so behind schedule. I fully recognize
that being so untimely makes the
information that is presented to you
basically irrelevant because we're 18
months past the information you are
looking at now. I fully acknowledge
that and I take full responsibility for
that. So as we sit here today, Malia
and Chelsea are basically cleaning up
the mess that I made, that I created
when I was the Finance Director. So I
will take full responsibility. So as
we go through this, I know you will
have questions about why we're so far
delayed? Ing And I will also say it's
not going to be corrected in the
immediate future and I will fall on the
sword for that. Malia and Chelsea are
doing the best they can with the help
of the Auditors. So I want to be fully
transparent, yes, we're late. We have
been late for fiscal 23 and late again
for fiscal 24 and we'll we late again
for fiscal 25. We'll try to chip away
at delinquencies to get us more caught
up. The delays also have an impact on
the Auditors' schedule. So we realize
that ideally, we're timely with this,
and that is all of our goals. Operationally, also for Malia
and her shop is that when she we can
finish this timely, she has more time
to work on her Staff and do training
for her Staff and find other
operational issues, or improvements that
they can do on a day to day basis with
regular operations and not involved in
the ACFR 12 months of the year. It does
prove a lot of burn up for this. As we
go through this, we recognize it's
late and there will be questions on
it. I will answer questions on why
we're late, but to make sure that you
folks know that is by far the biggest
issue with this audit. So with that,
>> Because I appreciate you falling
on the sword, Reiko. I appreciate you
taking full responsibility, but I also
want to make it very clear that as you
know you might say, findings and
findings are good and we learn and we
didn't lose my money, but the fact of
the matter, these are material weaknesses; which is the worst
kind of finding in an audit. These
happen every year. So we'll have some
discussion afterwards, but I want to
set this upfront, before we hear from
the Auditors this isn't simply findings
that make us better. And I am going to
be honest with you Reiko, we were late
last year, late this year and next
year. Is not acceptable. So you need
to tell us what we can do to make it
work. Is it staffing? Is it what?
That is just not an answer that I can
accept. Oh, we're going to be late
again next year. Because it just
exponentially compounds and gets
worse. So you'll have time and go
through the presentation, but this
Administration needs to start thinking
what this can Council do to help you in
this upcoming budget to make this work?
So that is it does be on-time? Do we
need to bring in a firm? Do we need to
contract a firm to come in to put
everything in order? This is not
acceptable. >> Yes
that we're going to be late next year.
>> We did bring a firm in, and we had
a firm working with us the last two
ACFRs and what we tried to do to bridge
that gap. It wasn't as effective as we
had hoped it would be in dumping more
of the workload onto them. So it could
be we weren't balancing correctly. But
really there's really nothing, like we
can't add positions. We could add
positions to Malia's Staff, but if we
hire just accountant trainees and
accountant 1s that is not going to help
her. We need to attract higher-level
accountants to figure out the complicated GASB GFOA
recommendations and that was our problem when
we lost -- when we lost five of the
eight accounting Staff, we lost
accountants 3s and above and we replaced
them with accountant trainees and
accountant 1s. We tried to recruit
higher-level accountants and they weren't in
the pool of candidates. Malia has
done her best and thank goodness we have
her and we have somebody helping her
now that will help us catch up. So I
don't think it necessarily
exaggerates the problem if we cut down the time
of delay. Because right now, we
should really be presenting fiscal 24?
>> We're one year behind. >> Yes.
>> So while you may at say it's
irrelevant, technically it is, but we
have internal issues that we have it
fix is what this audit is telling me
and we haven't been able to do it.
That is where I have a serious concern.
All right. >> If we issued a year-ago
versus issuing now, the number are not
going to change; right? The
Auditors do their job and the findings
wouldn't change necessarily unless they
are recurring. So the information
we're providing wouldn't have changed
whether we issued on-time or issued
now. But yeah, we fully recognize it's
late and it shouldn't be late and we're
doing what we can to correct it.
>> Why don't you get started? Thank
you for being here and thank you for
your patience. I know we're running
late from our technical issues later
on. What time is your flight? >> 3:00.
>> Okay, you will miss it. [Laughter ]
[Laughter ] >> If you could start by
saying your name for our captioner and
proceed. >> My name is Jong Bautista,
the audit engagement Principal and Andrew
Hodat as well. Today we're present
as Reiko said, June 30, 2024. So we
issued throw different reports for the
County. Starting with the Annual
Comprehensive Financial Report. Everyone
should have this large book. This is the
financial statements of the County also
issue a Single Audit Report on the
funds expended by the County and
management advisory report which is an
additional recommendation that arises
during the audit.
So we'll start with the ACFR. So going
onto the different sections starting
with page 1, that is an introductory
Section, including a transmittal from
the Department of Finance and also
management's discussion and analysis
for the results for that current Fiscal
Year. Page 14 is our independent
Auditor's report. In the second
paragraph we do state that we issued an
unmodified opinion. And the ACFR is
presented fairly, which is also known
as a clean opinion on GASB and government auditing standards
and we go over our basis for opinion,
that clarifies our responsibles as
you are Auditors for the audit, further
detailed on page 15 audit whether the
ACFR is clear from material misstatements and the standards
of GASB. Actually clarifieses what
procedures we did perform, including County's
internal control and audit procedures
related to risk assessment. If you
flip to page 17 we issued another
report under government auditing
standards that we'll discuss on another
slide. After this report, the ACFR
goes to your government-wide statements. Individual fund
financial statements, notes to the
financial statements, other required
supplementary information and unhe had
or audited statistical sections on next
couple of slides. Your County statement of net position
starts on page 31. So this is basically
the County's balance sheet. This
year there was no new pronouncements
issued for Fiscal Year 2024. So all
of the line items are consistent
year-to-year. There's no new line items, but
going down, the balance sheet for
significant balances with cash and
investments an increase of $59 million
primarily due to interest activity and
increases in fair market value of the
investments. Going down a couple of lines
other government. That had an
increase of $14.4 million. That is due to
increased grant activity in the Fiscal
Year. And the timing of work that was
performed and we'll see those changes
also in your statement of activities
when we go to the following page.
Though that capital assets had an
increase of $32 PST 6 million due to
construction in process of Lima Ola
housing development and various land
upgrades and improvements. Deferred
inflows on pension and OPEB, Other
Post-Employment Benefits. These always
have year-over-year changes based on
third-party actuarial reports that
driver changes in the balances. And
finally your net position had an
increase of $134.4 million. This is
attributable to current year increases
in the general revenues such as real
property taxes that we'll now go over
on our statement of activities which is
the following page. This page, this is
your income statement. Government-wide
for the County. So on the top left is
your expenses. For your government-wide. So there was
an increase here large portion
being due to temporary hazard pay that
was accrued prior to the issuance
of this ACFR to be paid out. And also
additional expenditures related to OPEB
and pension experiences. To the right
is your program revenue. So some
fluctuations there is an increase in
your capital grantss and contributions
of $60 million, and this is again
related to Housing and Urban Development and state
transportation construction work such as for
road improvements. This was shown
as increases in your capital
assets on your statement of net position.
Below that is general revenue. So
this is all of your taxeses so property
taxes with an increase due to new
construction on the island and slight
increase in the taxable properties.
And then unrestricted investment, and
interest earnings also had a large
increase, again due tot fair value
increases in investments. The last
item of note in the business type
activitis in [KHR-UPLT/] to the right
of that. There was a prior period
adjustment. This actually increases
your net position for your business
type activities related to a liabilities accrued for the
sewer fund. We'll go over that in further
details on one of the following slides.
So going on to page 34. Yes.
This presents each individual balance
sheet and income statement, two pageses
after that. So as a whole, we went
over the asset and liability fluctuations, but fluctuations
are on page 36. So the General Fund
had an increase of $13.7 million. So
again, this was due to tax revenue of
28.4 of an increase that was mentioned
from the statement of activities, and
again an increase in your expenditures
of 23.6. Because of $10 million in the
temporary hazard pay a lot of it went
into the General Fund. And on the
bottom of your General Fund column, we do
have a prior period adjustment related
to investments that were accounted
for in the General Fund, but it should
have been accounted for in the solid
waste disposal fund. So you will see
that exact same period adjustment,
just fliping it from the two funds.
On the solid waste disposal fund there
was a $6.6 million increase. This
was related to fair market values
of investments held in that fund.
And all the way to the right your
general CIP fund with an increase $19.6
million to help fund the projects. So
that was your fund financial statements.
Your disclosure notes to the
statements starts on page 51. I will skip
ahead to page 92. On the very
bottom is thish header for Employee
Benefit planss and really this details
the pension and OPEB plans. So
there was no major changes in estimates
are or year-to-year in measurement of
both liabilitieses
again, overall changes in your liability deferred outflows and
inflows, were due to changes in next
investment or net investment income,
benefits paid and other factors. Again
this information that Kaua'i picks up
comes from third-party actuary reports.
Another one starts on page 109. This
is the County's landfill liabilities.
So it's closure and post-closure care.
The current year increase here is due
to a change of some of the inputs in
the calculation of the estimate. So
there was a slight change in the amount
of additional years for Kekaha one and
Alaka for post-closure and monitoring
costs and at the same time, for Kekaha
2 landfill closure and post-closure
costs were increased due to forecasting
for inflation for that existing estimate. For those costs.
And the final notes that I wanted to
point out was on page 115. 115.
So here we have note 20 related to
restatements I mentioned earlier. So
that 8.8 million is that first paragraph. This was just an
error in the entry that recorded full
liability for a loan, but under GASB,
you just report what was drawn-down as
of year-end. So it was taking off
the 8.8 which wasn't drawn down yet and
the secondentry is related to the
adjustment to the governmental fund
under general and solid waste. So
again, the investments should have been
flip-flopped between general and solid
waste. But overall, in the statement
of activities there wasn't an effect,
because it's just between those two
funds. Additional information on this
prior period is going to be on the
single audit slides on the findingsing
and recommendations. Below that
finally we have a subsequent events
note. So we just wanted to mention
this was a significant transaction
subsequent to 2024, but that information was obtained prior
to the issuance of 2024. So it is
required that for users of financial
statements that you would disclose certain
significant transactions and this notes
the that County issued additional bonds
as additional refunding for A bonds.
So that concludes the ACFR portion of
significant transactions and disclosure
notes. >> Any questions on that
Section? Can you go over the landfill
closure again, page 109?
>> Yes. So under GASB 18 you are
supposed to accrue 30 years' of closure and
post-closure care in order to identify
the liability that should be there,
that the County will eventually pay
out. So there's two closed landfills,
Hal Akala and Kekaha 1 and estimated
the that post-closure care, since they
are closed would incur another one, two
years based on contracts already in
place. So they accrued for those costs
and Kekaha 2 that is still opened for
inflation costs that were in the prior
year. Tch any other questions for the
ACFR part?
>> Okay, with that I will hand it over
to Andrew for the single audit. >> So I'm going to go over the
two other handouts the Single Audit
Report. First if you turn to page 6,
the first report has a report on internal
control over financial reporting and
financial matters. One major highlight
this mentions the four findings that
we determininged to be material
weaknesses. If you flip to page 9, you
will come across the second report in
regards to the County's use of federal
funds under uniform guidance. So pages
9-1 is report of compliance on either
program internal control over compliance specifically and
reporting on the schedule of expenditures
of federal awards. Page 9
specifically there's a clean opinion on
compliance. From there, in this report, you
can flip to page 11 with the note
that we did not identify any material
weaknesses, nor significant deficiencies in internal
control specifically over compliance
and page 12 mentions the page of federal
awards as stated. From there, fliping
to pages 13-19. This breaks down
all of the federal programs with the
specific break down of federal
expenditures for the Fiscal Year, one highlight
to mention is that there was an
increase from the previous year, due to
housing and Transportation Programs.
The last thing before I flip to page 22,
which is the summary of Auditor
results is going to be this year we had
eight major programs, major federal
programs that we had to audit, and some
of that has to do with required
programs that need to be audited per the
Feds. Some of it has to do with the volume
of dollars that were spent during
this fiscal period. If you flip to
page 22, so this is basically a
high-level summary and John mentioned
financial statements. And we'll go more
into depth with specific listings of
all eight major federal programs
that we did have to audit. The last
thing of note is due to the County --
that was due to prior-year material
weakness findsingsment so that results
in a higher percentage of federal
expenditures that need to be audited.
>> Just real quick, if we're not -- if
we're a low-risk auditee, what is the
difference in number of programs
generally? >> As a low-risk auditee would
audit 20%. As a high risk auditee,
40%. >> One thing to note with the
mix of programs that were audited
during this fiscal period, some were must
selects. So that impacted some of it.
Moving on, we'll just high-level
summary of the types of findings. First
off is material weakness high-level as
Chair Rapozo mentioned deficiencies
in internal controls. One thing
to mention if you are talking
about compliance and federal awards
that would be listed as material
non-compliance. A significant deficiency is a deficiency or
combination of deficiencies, less
severe, but to call to attention to
your folks. One thing to mention is
the word "material." This will be
calculated based on the City's financial statements or in this
case the schedule of expenditures of
federal awards the dollar amount will
determine the materialitiality for the
particular year. In the case of financial
statements the amounts there. If any we'll get into the
financial statement findings. So first
off we have 2024-001 on page 23. This
is improved controls over
Financial Reporting. This is the first
of four material weaknesses. Basically
there's a bunch of post-closing journal
entries that came up during the course
of the audit and these entries needed
-- should be made before or during
year-end closing. One thing of note,
this is one of the repeat findings from
the previous audit. Second on page --
>> On the 23, you say we noted numerous instances, what is
"numerous?" >> So each fund, not every
fund, but each fund had multiple entries
not just one or two, but as far as the
count, we would have to go back to that.
>> Numerous is a lot. >> I don't think it's 100.
It's not 10.
>> It's definitely not 10. >> That is super numerous.
>> This was again, a repeat finding,
okay. And just if you could just -- I
know in your report you say what the
effect is, but I know like Reiko
mentioned, it's kind of more ministerial or
paper, you know, recording and not my -- I
want to make sure that there is no
potential for missing money, or
misallocation or misappropriation of funds.
>> We didn't detect that kind of
finding it's more about record keeping.
>> I know you didn't detect it. It's
not like you were looking for fraud.
What I'm asking does this finding tell
me that there is no misappropriation or
mis? >> So the objective of the
audit is not to findpraeed.
>> Correct. >> This does not tell you
otherwise, I guess.
>> Right. Okay. Next.
>> Page 24 and 25 covers finding
2024-002, material weakness 2 of 4.
It's a two-part finding so first off
during the initial piece of the audit
at the start of the audit and throughout, County's
investments were not recorded at fair value as
of June 30, 204 as stated in the
third-party custodian statements and the
second piece that John mentioned
earlier was a prior period adjustment that
needed to be occur between the General
Fund fund and Solid Waste Fund due to
accounting for an investment account in
the wrong fund.
Turn to page 26, 2024-003. Untimely
processing of expenditures. Material
weakness. This is -- this is a new
finding. So in this case, the County,
there are two things that came up.
First off, the County didn't record
roughly $622,000 of expenditures in the
current fiscal period. So it was
recorded, it was just in the wrong
period and cut-off issue. Secondly
there was approximately $1.9 million of
expenditures not initially tacked for
capitalization and initially recordeds
capital outlay expendituring, rather
than being designated to book as an
asset. I misspoke earlier. We have
three repeat findings, and four material weakness. So I
miscounted that. The last finding
2024-004 due to other government prior period
adjustments cited as a material weakness is a new finding.
John mentioned earlier was
specifically relatesed to the sewer fund,
and the County at the time overstated
liabilities by approximately $8.8
million rather than what was drawn down
in draws from the grantor as of fiscal
end. Keeping in mind, this came up due
to reconciliation provided by the
County during the audit, and some of
the information that came up in current-year activities caused
us to ask additional questions, which
resulted in this finding. I know
there's a lot that you folks have in
terms of discussion, and things that
you might be concerned about. So we
have good news, statute on prior year
finding last year's audit I believe we
had about, what was that? We had five
of material weaknesses, two significant
deficiencies for a total of seven
reported findings in laster's Single
Audit Report. Sorry, this is on page
35. You will see the status report in
the report. But finding 2023-001 is a
repeat finding that came up again as
2024-001 and then the investment
balance finding last year for 2023-002,
which came up this year as 2024-002.
The good news is the other findings
that we have of finding related to
reconciliation of interfund balances
2023-003, material weakness was accomplished. And we didn't
come across issues this year for
that. If you flip to the next slide,
2023-004 there was an issue regarding
controls over accounting for capital
assets regarding accounting for land
purchase. We didn't come across issues
for that in this current Fiscal Year
audit that was accomplished. Finding
2023-005 landfill post-closure cost
prior period adjustment material weakness,
we didn't come across issues regarding
that. I think there was an erroneous
accrual in the prior year, so that was
accomplished there. Finding 2023-006,
completeness of transient accommodation
tax revenue was a significant deficiency. We didn't note any
issues regarding that in Fiscal Year
24 audit. And lastly, 2023-007
reconciliation of lost data was a significant
deficiency during the prior year's audit
and we discussed with management and
looked at what they had done and we
believe that we think that is accomplished
as well. So seven findings from last
year's audit, two repeats down to four
in the report.
>> All right. >> The last report we'll cover
today is the Management Advisory
Report. So this is a smaller pile. Page
3, we discuss using this as an
opportunity to strengthen internal control and
operating efficiencies. Page we had
finding 2024-001 compile absents
records accurately. This is a repeat
finding during our audit we noted
Pfeiffer incidents that employee hours
didn't agree to the Department accrual
report, which is used for the ACFR.
>> I got a question. What is -- I
understand what work day is, what is
the Department accrual report, is that
a paper? >> That's -- so like I believe
what happens each Department will
submit their breakdown of employees'
vacation hours and sick and that
correlates, so they take that information from
each Department to calculate the
amount booked as a liability on the
financial statements.
>> I would assume though, and maybe we
can ask the Administration later, I
would assume that the Department,
wouldn't the Department accrual report
come from workday? >> It starts with workday, but
based on the previous set-up there's
a bunch of different reports, so it's
not like you can pull it and set it and
forget it. I beef there's a Mary Kay
Fualaau process to get it perfect point
A to point B and it's not as simple
as pulling the report, aleast it
wasn't at that point in time. Due to
that, there was some human error involved
and that resulted in some of the
findings that came up.
>> Okay. We'll wait for the Admin to
come up. >> Okay.
>> Next anybody else have a question
on that? That one is a burn for me.
>> And last item page 10 of the
report, just a status update. So
2023-001 as you folks know is a repeat
finding and just wanted to mention that.
>> Any questions? They won't be here
next week. So if you have a question
for them, ask them. >> They are so fast, it's kind
of challenging to keep up.
>> It's almost like hearing it again.
Go ahead, do you have a question?
>> Yes, please. I'm the newest
Council Member and I'm learning a lot.
And I am just wondering you guys, I'm
assuming you do this for municipalities
across the country? >> In the State of Hawai'i.
We do County of Maui as well. >> Okay. That's it?
>> We used to do County of Hawai'i,
but that was a couple of years ago.
>> In your experience of auditing,
even outside of that, whatever experience you have, is
findings of five findings like this kind of
a normal thing that you uncover
in audits of this nature? Or is it low?
Is it high?
>> I believe other Counties also had
similar amount of findings. >> Okay.
>> It's not out of the realm of
possibilities for an organization as
large as the County? >> If you were to rate these
findings, in your experience of really
bad things you may have found in audits,
and the best of the best, between 1-10,
can you give me a number of 10 being
the absolute best and 1 being the
absolute worst.
>> I'm not sure I could rate 1-10.
>> It was worth a try. Thanks. >> I have a follow-up on that.
My memory is a couple few years
ago, we got really a good star on our
audits. Is that right? We were doing
excellent? >> Well, we did used to finish
it in January.
>> We finished it on-time. Weren't we
getting acknowledged as having done
very good job on it? There was some
sort of -- >> If you used to submit by
that deadline of December 31st, you
would get the GFOA certificate of
excellence that used to be in the front of
ACFR >> So we had a certificate,
but I guess that is not determining
the number of findings , but we got
it done on time.
>> It's a participation trophy. >> All right.
>> You turned it in on time and here
is your little cookie. It's -- I
always question, like, yeah, we take so
much pride on certificates that means
you turned it in on time. >> I just want to support a
little bit of what you said.
>> Did you notice it's not Heber this
time. >> Yes.
>> I just want to make sure we don't
normalize having late, because it's too
late to actually be meaningful for this
budget, but I appreciate appreciate Malia. We just
whipped through this so fast, it's hard
for me to get questions, but I will
ask our team.
>> The Auditors are here to pretty
much the ACFR and the numbers and the
sheets. It's the findings. That needs
to come from the Admin. As far as it's
internal processes that are messed up,
and that is why in the beginning I'm
asking the Administration to tell us
what you need. That -- I'm not going
to be up here -- my biggest fear is
Malia quits that is my biggest fear
that Malia says screw this, they are
dumping everything on me. I don't want
to see that happen. That is why we're
here. That is the value of this audit
for us to make a determination, what do
we need to make that happen? I won't
buy the excuse we lost Staff, people
left, what do we need? If we have to
invest, let's invest to get it right.
I will tell you, it's going to be late
next year. If we're late next year
more than likely we'll be late the next
to year after that. So let's do what
we got to do to get it right. >> Yes.
>> That is my whole position. >> It's important for me,
because for me, I usually go through these
every single page and as noted make
my yellow sticky notes because I find
this is an essential piece for me prepping
my mindset for looking at the
budget and knowing where we need to make
differences. So you know, I needed
this a year-ago. >> Any more questions.
>> And there's a lot of changes.
>> Any questions for the Auditors?
>> Not their fault. >> If not, thank you
gentlemen. I guess you will make your flight.
If we have any questions, we don't
expect you to be back next week, but
we'll send them over if we have any
questions. >> Thank you.
>> Again, if you guys have any questions for the
Administration, that they can answer today, again, I
want to have a little more time to
digest, and that is entirely up to you all.
>> I have a question on the workday
finding. Is in a way we can update it
so we don't have to do manual work,
where workday works with the current
system that we have? It's always been
an issue, you know, of updating our
whole system. I know we put some money
into it. I don't know if we updated
anything yet or made the transition,
which I know is difficult to do.
Workday is a newer system and ideally
we would not like to do things manually. Have we been able to
do it so we don't have to do it
manually. >> Thank you.
>> Did they prepare you? >> I prepared myself -- yes,
they did. To answer Arryl's question,
it's been a continuous work in progress.
I have been like spending countless
hours trying to push the button
report and we magically have the beautiful
thing with all the right numbers in it.
The best I can explain based on my
knowledge of the workday system, there's
constant updates, workday sends us
annual things and we have this and this and
taking the knowledge, how can I use
this and make these reports to get you
folks what you want to see to make
sure that the end-user is happy? So far
in my research with this system, it's
a compilation of different
reports that I have to physically take from
this, put it in here, take from this one,
and put it in a spreadsheet, so the
Department liability report you asked the
Auditors about, that is my baby right
now, since Fiscal Year 24.
>> Let me ask a stupid question, if I
right now, if I went to our fiscal
person here Cody and said can you print
out a list of everybody's vacation
balances, she cannot do that on workday?
>> She from my knowledge she can do
like a record by each person, not all
on one piece of paper. >> Okay.
>> Staff by Staff? >> For certain.
>> So workday won't compile a list.
This is why I ask and you were here
last year. Last year we had the same
finding. >> Yes.
>> Last year were were told because we
had half of the year, we had workday
only half of the year. But next year,
we're going to be fine, because we're
going to have a full-year of the
workday. Well, we had the full-year of
workday and that is still here. What I
hear with workday we don't have the
ability to create overtime balance
reports even though workday is what
we're using? >> Are we talking about
overtime or accrual balances?
>> So right now as I understand it, if
an employee wants to take vacation
that's through workday? >> Yes.
>> It's electronic? >> Yes.
>> And a Supervisor approves, like I
approve everybody's here. >> Yes.
>> Doesn't workday have the capability
to process or catalog that information?
So that if I want to run a report on
everybody in my Department how many
vacation hours they had and they took
that is not available in workday?
>> You can put as of know as of a
certain date, that is what I pulled for
this Fiscal Year one. I want to mo the
end balance of a certain date for all
of the these people in this Department.
I can do that. >> Okay.
>> What it can't give me is how much
did they earn over a Fiscal Year? So I
have to pull another report and add
that to my one that I have here to get
all of the information. And that is a
manual process. So we're still like
catching up with workday and calling
consultants, hey, make this work for
us. So it's in inprogress thing.
>> So it hasn't made it more efficient
-- I shouldn't be talking to you. It
hasn't made it efficient. >> Annette Anderson, Director
of Human Resources. Thank you for
the question. I want to emphasize
the Departmental accrual report is
needed by the Finance Department for
the ACFR, there's components of the ACFR
that needs to be put in. The whole
workday program is wonderful. Our goal
since workday is to tweak so we
didn't have hardly any manual process. I'm
upset and there's nothing I can do
about it, in order to complete this
report that finance needs for the ACFR, we
need a manual report. She is pulling
different manual reports from work day,
putting it into a spreadsheet and doing
formulas in excel and that is where the
errors occurred that the Auditors
pointed out. The good news, when we got
the findings from the Auditors she has
also researched how can I make pulling
of the data together so that we don't
have errors? And it's my understanding, and she can
confirm, that we're almost 100%
confident that we have fixed it going forward,
because she knows how to create the
appropriate formulas when she is pulling
that all of these reports from workday
into a spreadsheet, which again a Mary
Mary manual process. It's
unfortunate, but we have Human Resources work
day for the payroll,
Time accrual and recruitment. Workday
is a big company with different types
of software. There's a financial
management software that workday has.
If we had that, which we don't and I
don't think we will, it would automatically pull the
components that are needed for the ACFR. But
it ain't going to happen.
>> Why isn't it going to happen?
>> Well, that is a procurement issue.
>> Okay. >> So my understanding is that
we're not going to have that from
workday. We're going to just like we
have now, a different financial system
and that is part of the problem we have
with this County; right? Because you
have softwares that cannot integrate.
>> That is -- >> So we went with workday,
because I remember the sales pitch. We
went with workday to make it all
electronic. Because we're using a different
software to handle a different part of
financial reporting, now we have to
hire somebody to manually input data
into a spreadsheet and then manually
recovery the data from workday and now
you are telling me that workday has a
module that would eliminate that.
>> It's a financal system. I don't
know it's called a module. >> Whatever they have.
>> It's a huge investment for the
County; right? So then another way I
guess it's been represented is HR needs
HR software. Yes, Human Resources
Management system; right? So we when
we went through the procurement, and
had all of the different vendors;
right? We decided workday was the
best for HR needs for payroll and being
able to do recruitment. So we got
workday. When you have a finance side
of the house looking for what all they
do for the finance, and again, I don't
want to get into any procurement
issues, but my understanding there are
different vendors, you know? Sharing
what their product could do. And the
costs of their product; right? And so
it is what it is that finance has a
different system now, or will have a
different system, or will have the
same? I don't know how to characterize
it, but my belief it's not going to be
workday. So yes, I'm frustrated, but
like I said, I'm confident working with
Hale and others in HR, Jill, our HR
Manager, and Brandon, who is the HRMS
Administrator, that we have done our
very best to make sure that the way
that she is going to compile it for the
next Fiscal Year is not going to have
the errors, because she figured it out.
So it what it is and the other thing
is too, from the past, the Departments
prepared this report accrual report.
And she took over last year, so now
it's on payroll. But I mean, I can't
promise you that it's to be perfect,
but I feel good, and I'm sad about what
I just said about the manual, but I
feel good we got it. >> Anyone else? Mr. Kaneshiro,
was that what you got? You got
your answer? >> It's not possible to
integrate the two systems. But they're
trying do their best on doing it
manually, however they are doing it.
>> Well, we have to figure out how to
fix it. I guess that is where I'm at.
When we look at a material weakness,
this one isn't necessarily a material
weakness, but when you get these repeat
findings, you know? We got to fix it.
And if it's cost should not be the
obstacle. I can only imagine how it is
for you to be pulling all of these
numbers and then manually putting them
on spreadsheet, hoping that the number
you got from your system is correct.
? >> It's been a learning
experience, but echoing what Reiko said
earlier, I'm very appreciative of the
finding because it makes me want to and
perform better not only my
efficiencies, but the end-user. How to use this
complex and robust system to help not
only my Department, but everybody, and
looking at accruals every day and not
questioning is this right or wrong?
How can we get to this point? I
believe this system. It has so much
capabilitiess, you know? So I think it
offerss a meaningful insight and
supports stronger accountability on me
and my Staff to do better for our
County employees. So I'm hopeful.
>> One more thing and when we did get
the findings the five instances, she
and her Staff did go through the
remainder of the employees, you know,
to assure that everything is correct.
Because we know audits, they pick
certain things. So that was another
step done to assure that everything is
correct after we received the findings.
>> That is what the audits are, a
tool; right? Thank you. With that,
we can move on. I would expect next
week at the Committee meeting we can
dig into each of the other findings, and
hopefully Administration will be
prepared to respond. Otherwise, we can
take a lunch break and come back, and
hammer it out today. >> Let's just do it.
>> I think we can wrap up this agenda
by 1:30. This is- I know it's keeping
Staff a little longer. If we do the
Committee meeting briefing, if not,
then we can -- if we want to do it next
week, we can get through this agenda
today and not take a lunch break. Is
that okay with Staff? Staff, do you
want to take a break? You are okay?
Can you do another 15 minutes? 20
minutes? Okay. All right. So we'll do
that. We'll proceed. The motion is to
refer. Is we'll get to Committee next
week, and the only thing I ask, get
your questions across the Street as
soon as possible, so they can be
prepared when they come back. When
that, I will call the meeting back to
order. Any further discussion? Seeing
none, all in favor say aye? >> Aye.
>> Motion carried next item, please.
>> Page 2, C-2026-02 communication
from Assistant Chief of Police Darren
Rose, Police operations bureau requesting Council approval of
the indemnification clause
contained in the navigate 360 master service
agreement and training terms and
conditions which continues to use the P3 tips
Crime Stoppers platform, enabling
community members to anonymously report
council actiest and to indemnify the
County against claims resulting from
the company's gross negligence,
willful misconduct or initial legitual
property infringement.
>> Moved. >> Sick.
>> Any discussion or public testimony?
All in favor say aye? >> Aye.
>> Motion carried next I. [PHRAO-RBGS/]
} It's C-2026-25 communication from
the Executive on Aging requesting
Council approval to receive and expend
federal funds for the first allotment
in amount of l9,516 for Fiscal Year 2026
and to indemnify the State Executive
Office on Paging for the Nutrition
Services Incentive Program provision on
congregate and home-delivered meals.
>> Moved. >> Second.
>> Any public testimony or discussion?
If mot, all in favor a aye? >> Aye.
>> Motion carried. Next item, me.
>> C-2026-406 communication from the
Director of Planning requesting Council
approval to receive and expend Federal-State fortunates for
the Hawai'i CH2Ms CZM program in an
amount of $2200,000 and to indemnify
the State of Hawai'i in accordance with
the State of Hawai'i general conditions,
for administering the program, this
recurring pass-throughbrant will be
utilized to continue the implementation
of the Council President program on
Kaua'i, commencing July 1,2025 to June
30, 206 uniwill be [KP-EUPBD/] on
salariess, wages, travel and other item
for the Council Presidenting program
specifically for the implementation and
enforcement of the special management
area rule and regulations of the County
of Kaua'i and Shoreline setback provision of Chapter 8 Kaua'i
County sod
Code 1987, as amended,. >> Moved.
>> Second. >> I don't see planning.
>> I saw Planning earlier. Not sure
if they stuck around. >> Hi Ka'aina.
>> I'm just asking if anyone had any
questions >> I have a simple question,
this [KR*-PLGZ/] $200,000 is that
what we continue do with the c Grant
Program? >> Ka'aina Hull on behalf of
the Planning. Sorry, Chair, I
heard you say lunch. So I ran back.
Apologies, the sea Grant Program is funded
by the County of Kaua'i CZM funds come
from the Feds and fund through the
State Office of Planning and given to
the County of Kaua'i to run our CZM
program. I will say that this $200,000
was not actually released previously by
the White House and we have been
somewhat functioning to fund our
positions internally until we got
signaled by OEP to create a possible
funnel in these small, small chance
that the White House releases the funds.
>> That is why it's July 1st, I was
wondering why it's after the fact.
>> So when we generally come to
Council, that we annually receive and
expend the funds, that is early on in
the year. The Office of Planning had
made the determination, made the
assessment that even though Congress
had allocated these monies the White
House wasn't going to release them. So
we never came to this body to request
permission to receive and expend, and
now it looks like not a Sun strong
possibility with discussions with EOP,
but a strong possibility these funds
may be released to receive these funds
the people who run our CZM program?
>> Four Staff. >> So we have four members and
so have been pulling that money to pay
them - excess for unhired people?
>> We have two vacancies that we'll
probably get during budget discussions
with two vacancies that we have not
filled with express purpose because we
have been using those funds to fund the
live body positionses that the Federal
Government no longer provides funding
for. >> So we have avoided laying
off people critical to our program.
>> Correct. >> Do we think these monies
are ever going to come in or we're going
to have to add different General Fund
dollars for moving forward?
>> We're going through that discussion with Admin right now.
>> Okay. With those two positions
that we didn't hire, there's enough
money to keep this program going
through until the end of June? >> The State somewhat in
response to the White House withholding the
monies last year appropriated monieses
statewide for the Coastal Zone Management program and Kaua'is
was allocated roughly $94,000. So
we add that $94,000 to the vacancy
positions and we're able to make the four
existing fully staffed CZM positions
whole. >> So we won't have a Money
Bill between then you anow?
>> We don't anticipate that. >> The other two positions?
>> We're tracking all of our positions
for the reimbursement, but in the
chance to get that we have been tracking those hours
specifically for that.
>> And do you mind telling us what two
positions aren't being filled? We just
heard about that we're behind in
finance, because we had an unanticipated gap in skilled
staffing. Who aren't we filling in order
to be taking care of this, if you
know? >> There's a long range
planner position and excluded
managerial position that runses our budget
and administrative Staff
>> So two important positions that
aren't filled right now. Okay; thank
you. >> Any other questions for
Planning? If not thank you, Ka'aina.
>> Thank you for running over. >> Anyone in the audience
wishing to testify? Seeing none, I will
call the meeting back to order. Any
further discussion? The motion is to
approve, all in favor say aye?
>> Aye. >> Motion carried. Next item,
please. >> C-2026-07 communication
from the executive on age requesting
Council approval to receive and expend
donations from three various sources in
the amount of $340 to help offset the
costs of meals served from the home-delivered meals program.
The purpose of the nutrition
program is to reduce hunger and food
insecurity, and provide meals to the
participants. >> Move to approve.
>> Second. >> Moved and seconded. Any
discussion or public testimony? Seeing
none, all in favor say aye?
>> Aye. >> Motion carried. Next item
[STKPWHRAO*-EFRPBLGTSZ/] C-2026-09
communication from the Director of
Finance, requesting Council approval to
accept unappropriated and unknown/unspecified future
obligation terms in the State of work
associated with the transient
accommodation tax payments on line with Tyler
Technologiess, which are typically of
online payment agreement and present
limb to no risk to the County. >> Move to approve.
>> Second. >> Any discussion or public
testimony? >> Can we ask Chelsea a quick
question? >> Sure, with that I will
suspend the rules.
>> Unknown, unaappropriated, unspecified -- kind of weird
hearing that.
>> Chelsea Sakai, this is typical of
online payment program. So we don't
know so we don't have it budget. So
it's unknown in that sense. >> Okay. This is our TAT so
if somebody's credit card doesn't
work, something like that? So we
don't go after Tyler Technologies?
>> So we're responsible for the
charge-back, if there are any. >> So Tyler Technologies say
hey, if you have a bad card it's not
our challenge. Thank you.
>> This is not an indemnification, but
basically allowing them or agreeing to
the term that we'll pay the charge-backs.
>> Okay. >> Any other questions? If
not, thank you.
>> With that I will call the meeting
back to order. Any further discussion?
Seeing none, the motion is to approve,
all in favor say aye? >> Aye.
>> Motion carried. Next item, please.
>> C-2026-10 communication from the
Director of Finance requesting Council
approval to accept travel-related
reimbursed expenses from the International Association of
Assessing Officers for the County of
Kaua'i Real Property Tax Manager to attend
the IAAO Governance Committee meeting,
which will be held in Kansas City,
Missouri on February 27-28, 2026, the
meeting en sures that the County remains
at foe front of industry standard and
best practices, provides Mohawking
with others, gains insights into the
latest trends and developments in the
field, and fosters relationships that
can lead to future collaborations.
>> Move to approve. >> Second.
>> Any discussion or public testimony?
Seeing none, all in favor say aye?
>> Aye. >> Motion carried. Next item,
please. >> On page 4, claim.
C-2026-11, communication from the County
Clerk transmitting a claim filed
against the County of Kaua'i by Michael
Scott for personal loss and injuries
pursuant to Section 23.06, Charter of the
County of Kaua'i.
>> Move to refer to the County Attorney for disposition and
report-back as necessary. >> Seg[STKPWHR*-PBLT/] moved
and seconded. Any discussion or
public testimony? Seeing none, all in
favor say aye?
>> Aye. >> Motion carried that
concludes today agenda
[ GAVEL ] thank you all.