Budget hearings continue

Director takes heat over department’s budget

New positions, unfinished plans at root of discussion

by Nathan Eagle – THE GARDEN ISLAND

After approving plenty of funding for many projects, County Council members yesterday voiced their concerns over shelling out more money to the county Planning Department until they see completed development plans, more effective public outreach and an improved consultant selection process.

The seven-member legislative body continued quizzing department heads over their requests for new positions, equipment and programs for next fiscal year on the fourth day of budget review hearings at the Historic County Building.

The three-hour morning session put Planning Director Ian Costa on the spot.

He explained his department’s request for three new planning inspectors and said that five staff

vacancies should be filled this summer. But when pressed on the precise job descriptions for the added positions and the status of several development plans, he said he would have to respond at the call-back hearing tentatively scheduled for Monday.

Councilwoman JoAnn Yukimura repeatedly asked why the department has failed to complete a Lihu‘e development plan for which the council in 2003 approved $250,000 in funding.

The plan would update a 30-year-old vision of the island’s commerce center, she said, noting that the Planning Department said five years ago that it was of utmost importance and would be finished within a year.

“When will we see the product?” Yukimura said.

Costa said “one of my shortcomings” was to assume that the department did not need to identify additional areas for development beyond the Grove Farm and Amfac master plans, which focus on lands west of Puhi Road and in the Hanama‘ulu triangle.

He said he was unable to justify looking beyond those two plans, which would provide the potential for development over the next 10 years, until they are realized.

The department intends to use the Lihu‘e development plan to address the town core area not covered by the two master plans, he added.

Yukimura said the county funded the Lihu‘e development plan so the public’s will could be represented — as opposed to relying on two master plans that private developers completed.

Council members voiced their concern over the department seemingly blurring the Lihu‘e development plan with a still unfunded Lihu‘e town core development plan.

“Let’s not mix up the funds and the task,” Councilman Jay Furfaro said.

He noted his uncertainty over “how the gears get switched” when the Planning Department goes to implement a project that council approved.

Furfaro said since 2003 the council has approved $1.9 million in development plans in districts islandwide. This includes $500,000 to update the comprehensive zoning ordinance, a top priority that has yet to be completed.

He recommended the Planning Department consider postponing a year the budget request to update the Waimea-Kekaha development plan.

This plan is of no less importance, he said, but the department could use the extra year to finish development plan updates already in progress.

It would also allow time to complete the state-mandated Important Agricultural Lands study, he said, which is expected to impact planning for rural areas on the Westside.

“We have so many irons in the fire,” Yukimura said, voicing her hesitancy at this time to vote for the Waimea-Kekaha plan.

Diane Zachary, representing the Kaua‘i Planning and Action Alliance, said that she hopes the community will not have to wait another five years to have an updated development plan for Lihu‘e.

She said that development plans must consider a wide-variety of aspects and put the interests of the community, developers and landowners into “one cohesive effort.”

Some council members said that they were hesitant to support any more development plans until the community input process was improved.

Councilman Tim Bynum said he has walked out of a community development meeting because it was so poorly run.

“We can be proactive to see that doesn’t happen again,” he said.

The planning director agreed it was important to not repeat past mistakes.

Shifting gears, Yukimura questioned Costa on the department’s decision to hire a public planner that also works for Grove Farm, the largest landowner on Kaua‘i.

“How can you serve two masters?” she said, noting that she regularly sees the department hire consultants with similar conflicts of interest.

Costa said it is never a “conscious decision” to hire planners to work for the county that also work for private developers.

“To some degree, I rely on professionals being professional,” he said.

Costa said he would check to see if the selection committee uses conflict of interest as “critical criteria” in making consultant hiring recommendations to the planning director.

Bynum said he was “very surprised” to learn that a person doing planning for the county is the same person doing planning for Grove Farm.

Returning to the three new “planning inspector/technician” positions in the department’s proposed $2.48 million budget, Yukimura criticized the roles Costa said he expected these employees to play.

The positions were largely created due to increased work expected from a new ordinance regulating transient vacation rentals.

“I don’t know if what we had in mind was inspectors doing processing,” Yukimura said. “That doesn’t seem like an inspector’s job.”

Costa said that “technician” was thrown into the job title so that these positions could perform dual roles — processing permit applications and monitoring for violations.

The added inspectors could help relieve the department’s two- to three-week backlog in processing various applications, he added.

Yukimura suggested making two of the three new positions inspectors and one a technician instead of mixing the roles. She asked Costa to return at the call-back hearing with a proposal on what ratio would be best.

• Nathan Eagle, staff writer, can be reached at 245-3681 (ext. 224) or neagle@kauaipubco.com.