Officials from all four Hawaii counties will meet today through Saturday for the annual conference of the Hawaii State Association of Counties at the Sheraton Waikiki and the Royal Hawaiian Hotel.
Officials from all four Hawaii counties will meet today through Saturday for the annual conference of the Hawaii State Association of Counties at the Sheraton Waikiki and the Royal Hawaiian Hotel.
This year’s gathering is hosted by the City and County of Honolulu and features panel dialogs on agriculture, sustainability, climate change, and resiliency in addition to discussions on the impacts of tourism on counties, and the implications for counties regarding a state constitutional amendment to tax investment property to fund public education.
“These are matters of shared interest among all the counties,” said Conference Chair Ikaika Anderson, the Honolulu City Council’s designated representative to HSAC, and who serves as the organization’s treasurer. “We’ve been talking about these issues all year long at our Executive Committee meetings, so we structured the conference to focus on presenting information that will help all counties think deeper into the search for meaningful and actionable appropriate solutions.”
The HSAC’s 2018 Executive Committee includes council members Dru Kanuha, HSAC president, Hawaii County; Derek Kawakami, vice president, Kauai County; Stacy Crivello, secretary, Maui County; and Anderson.
Featured are leaders of prominence both nationally and locally, including Roy Charles Brooks, president of the National Association of Counties (NACo); Los Angeles City Council Member Joe Buscaino; Josh Stanbro, Chief Resilience Officer and Executive Director at the Office of Climate Change, Sustainability and Resiliency; Micah Kane, President and CEO of Hawaii Community Foundation; Corey Rosenlee, President of the Hawaii State Teachers Association; and Kauai County Council Member Mason Chock.
The majority of the conference takes place in the Sheraton Waikiki, with a welcome reception planned at the Royal Hawaiian Hotel’s Ocean Lawn on the inaugural evening.
