Planning Dept. responds to conflict of interest by Nathan Eagle – THE GARDEN ISLAND The county Planning Department needs to improve its community development plan methodology if it wants more funding to update the long-term visions of the various island
Planning Dept. responds to conflict of interest
by Nathan Eagle – THE GARDEN ISLAND
The county Planning Department needs to improve its community development plan methodology if it wants more funding to update the long-term visions of the various island districts, County Council members said yesterday at the Historic County Building.
“We are doing our job when we say we won’t spend money until we have assurance that a good planning process is in place,” County Councilwoman JoAnn Yukimura said.
Planning Director Ian Costa responded to another round of questions over his proposed $2.48 million budget at the department’s hour-long call-back hearing. This is the council’s second week of reviewing Mayor Bryan Baptiste’s proposed $155.7 million operating budget for the fiscal year running from July 1 to June 30, 2009.
Council members reiterated conflict of interest concerns and criticized how the department has proposed utilizing three new positions that it requested to help regulate vacation rentals.
Councilman Tim Bynum said he has “very serious concerns” about how the department handles community development plans after the council approves the funding. Specifically, he pointed at what gets delivered, how that process happens and how the product gets implemented.
“It’s an awful lot of money on something that is probably the most important thing for these communities,” he said.
He noted that few priorities identified in the county’s expensive General Plan, a vision for the entire island, have been implemented since it was completed eight years ago.
A community plan is supposed to represent the will of the community, Yukimura said. Development then falls within those parameters.
In some instances, Bynum said, the county has hired a consultant to produce a community plan who is also working on plans for major developers in the same area.
Yukimura said avoiding this apparent conflict of interest eliminates concerns over the planner’s ability to “serve two masters.”
Costa said the committee that selects such consultants will take conflict of interest into consideration for future hiring decisions.
He has said that he relies to a certain extent on professionals being professional.
Council Chair Bill “Kaipo” Asing said he fails to see “anything bad” in the current planning process.
“There’s got to be a time where we let the administration do their work,” he said. “We’re trying to do their work and our work. I don’t see anything that is so bad and so out of line … that it can not work and did not work.”
Yukimura pointed at $250,000 that the council approved five years ago for a still incomplete Lihu‘e development plan. The planning director had said it would be done within a year, she added.
She also relayed the concern that community members have expressed about the process to produce the Kapa‘a development plan.
“That doesn’t mean anything,” Asing said, adding that the community development plan meetings he has attended have been “OK.”
“I want to see the product,” he said. “I don’t want to hear things, I want to see things.”
Yukimura told the chair that he can see that the county still does not have an update to a 30-year-old plan for the island’s commerce center.
Costa apologized for the plans not yet being completed, saying that it has been “more challenging that anticipated.”
Councilwoman Shaylene Iseri-Carvalho said she supports funding the $500,000 Waimea-Kekaha community development plan that the administration proposed as part of a $28.6 million bond float that was submitted with the budget in March.
“We shouldn’t have to wait until one plan is done before we start another,” she said. “These things take time.”
Councilman Ron Kouchi said he would not know what to tell the Westside community if the council decided to use the money for the Waimea plan to finish the Lihu‘e plan.
He said funding could be allocated to produce both plans, “even if we know the chance of getting to Waimea this year are not good.”
Costa said the money for the Waimea plan was included to illustrate a commitment to the Westside community.
“If the process is good, I have no problem with putting money in,” Yukimura said, adding that it is a waste of time and funds to just put it in the budget to say the county is doing a plan.
Councilman Jay Furfaro said last week that since 2003 the council has approved $1.9 million in development plans. This includes $500,000 to update the comprehensive zoning ordinance, a top priority that has yet to be completed.
Aside from answering questions about the proposed Waimea community development plan, Costa responded to concerns about the three new “planning inspector/technician” positions.
At the Planning Department’s budget review hearing April 7, council members asked for detailed job descriptions and for Costa to nix the hybrid position idea.
He told the council yesterday that he would instead request two planning inspectors and one land use permit technician.
Costa said his concern remains having ample staff to process the applications that are streaming in, especially from non-conforming use certificates for transient vacation rentals.
Instead of trying to craft a job description that would tie the new positions to work specifically related to regulating vacation rentals, he said he agrees with the council’s recommendation to just use the existing generic inspector job description.
After the county issues the non-conforming use certificates to allow vacation rentals to operate in some non-visitor destination areas, Costa said he anticipates “many complaints” about illegal operations trying to continue under the radar.
The director said the new positions will help the department proactively enforce the law — a controversial piece of legislation that the council passed earlier this year.
Yukimura more than once suggested that the session should be adjourned and another callback hearing scheduled in part due to the director not providing written responses to the council’s list of unanswered questions from last week.
But the council instead ended the morning session with mention of “provisos” — conditional measures that could be tied to the funding of particular line items.
The departmental budget review process continues at 8 a.m. Friday at the Historic County Building, featuring the proposed $61.25 million capital improvement programs budget and a callback hearing for the Public Works Department.
For more information, visit www.kauai.gov
• Nathan Eagle, staff writer, can be reached at 245-3681 (ext. 224) or neagle@kauaipubco.com
