Council wraps up 2 legislative packages

LIHU‘E — When the state Legislature opens the 2013 legislative session on Jan. 16, Gov. Neil Abercrombie will likely hear a loud and clear call to repeal Act 55. But it may not be as loud as the Kaua‘i County Council hoped for, as Mayor Bernard Carvalho Jr. has again expressed a willingness to amend the act rather than repeal it.

Without surprises and mostly with unanimous decisions, the council on Wednesday wrapped up two packages of proposed measures — the 2013 Kaua‘i County and the 2013 Hawai‘i State Association of Counties legislative packages — to send to the state Legislature.

The final 2013 Kaua‘i County package, however, could be slimmer than what the council passed Wednesday. Because the package is a joint effort by the council and the administration, each measure in the package needs approval from both government bodies, according to County Clerk Rick Watanabe.

When Carvalho puts his hands on 2013 the Kaua‘i County package, two out of the six proposals approved by the council are at risk of being dropped. More specifically, the package could lose a call to repeal Act 55, along with an energy-savings measure already rejected by the administration last year.

Last week, county Managing Director Gary Heu surprised council members by stating the administration preferred to work with legislators to change Act 55 rather than seeing it repealed. On Wednesday, Heu again expressed the administration’s willingness to amend Act 55 rather than calling for a straight repeal of the controversial measure.

“It’s a poorly written bill, and I think we are all in agreement with that,” said Heu, adding that the administration wants to seek out opportunities to solve the problems in the law, such as the “home rule,” the composition of the Public Lands Development Corporation, which lands should be developed and which lands should not be touched.

In the meantime, Heu said the administration is already working on proposed amendments to Act 55.

Council Chair Jay Furfaro said he agrees with Heu that Act 55 is a poorly written law, but he will stick to his original approach.

“My position for the full repeal (of Act 55) has not changed,” Furfaro said. “ I want to make this clear.”

In addition to including a call for a repeal of Act 55 in the county’s package despite knowing the administration’s position, the council also included in the package a proposal that Carvalho had slashed in the 2012 Kaua‘i County Legislative Package.

Last year, the administration did not support a council proposal to patch a loophole in a state law that mandates new homes to be equipped with solar water heater systems. A variance in the law allows for tankless gas water heaters to be installed, as long as some criteria are met.

On Kaua‘i and on the Big Island, the variance in the solar water heater law has been over utilized — on Kaua‘i alone about 65 of new homes have used it since the law went into effect Jan. 1, 2010. On the Big Island, more than half of the homes used the variance.

By contrast, only 5 percent of new homes in Honolulu County and 12 percent of new homes in Maui County have used the tankless-gas variance.

Act 55

On May 20, 2011, Gov. Neil Abercrombie signed Act 55, which created the PLDC, a corporation with five board members, none from Kaua‘i, who have broad powers to allow commercial development on public lands — including 1.8 million acres of ceded lands — while circumventing county zoning laws.

PLDC’s intent is to generate additional revenues to a funding-depleted Department of Land and Natural Resources, a state agency which has in its mission a pledge to protect the state’s limited natural, historic and cultural resources.

Since the PLDC started conducting statewide public meetings in August, a tsunami of public opposition has swept the state’s four counties. Many state legislators who voted for the act now support a repeal or say it needs further work.

Last September, Councilman KipuKai Kuali‘i introduced a resolution calling for the repeal of Act 55. Maui and Big Island county councils also passed similar resolutions.

Council Vice Chair JoAnn Yukimura had concerns over amending the bill. Even if a Kaua‘i representative would be included in the PLDC board, it would not resolve the problem of county zoning, she said. Approximately half of Kaua‘i’s lands are in conservation, out of county jurisdiction, and lands which are larger than 15 acres fall into the responsibility of the state Land Use Commission.

Yukimura questioned if there was another way to fund the DLNR rather than developing public lands.

Heu said his perspective is that there are public lands that could be developed, and the PLDC could cut a two-year permitting process in half.

Why? Why? Why?

Wednesday, Kuali‘i poured a series of questions upon Heu, regarding Carvalho’s position. Kuali‘i said the PLDC was put in place by the state Legislature and signed by Abercrombie.

“Why would the mayor feel responsible to help them keep this in place?” Kuali‘i asked Heu. “Why would he not stand up for the repeal and tell them to go back to the drawing board and start all over again? Why are we now responsible? Why the administration and the mayor feel responsible to help those legislators and the governor by defending a bad law that ultimately could take too many amendments?”

It would be a lot more logical, smarter and “the right thing to do,” he said, to just say “no” and start all over again.

“We have forever, we have the rest of our lives, we have our land, we have our people, generation after generation will work on what needs to be worked on,” Kuali‘i said.

He asked Heu if Carvalho’s position was because Act 55 is something that would probably never pass again if it’s done the right way.

“Why does the mayor get pulled into that? The mayor is here to represent our local community,” said Kuali‘i, suggesting to let the Legislature and Abercrombie deal with their own political problems.

“Why are we getting sucked in?” he said. “Is it our four local (state) legislators that are pushing the mayor? Because the people can push back too, and there will be another election. There will always be another election.”

He said he doesn’t understand why Carvalho is taking it upon himself to be collaborative with state legislators and Abercrombie “at a time when he should be standing up for the people, for our local citizens and for the county.”

As Kuali‘i finished his comments, the small group of residents at the council chambers gave the council member a loud ovation.

Heu said the short answer is that Carvalho sees the problem and wants to collaborate will all parties to find a solution.

“I hear your passion, and I appreciate your comments,” Heu told Kuali‘i, adding that he doesn’t necessarily agree that the community unanimously wants a repeal of Act 55.

“I’ve had discussions in the past week with people who support the intent of the act,” Heu said.

Carvalho values the recommendations of the council, the legislative team, the governor, Heu said, adding that this is one large issue among many issues, and it’s the mayor’s nature to see a problem and look for solutions.

Kapa‘a resident and self-described “nitpicker” Glenn Mickens took the stand, and questioned Carvalho’s absence in two back-to-back meetings in which Heu stated the mayor’s position.

“Why isn’t the mayor sitting here and answering these questions?” Mickens said.

Others testifying against Act 55 included Felicia Cowden, Caren Diamond, Debra Kekaualua and James Alalem.

Legislative packages

Carvalho has until Dec. 19 to decide which bills to support in the 2013 Kaua‘i County Legislative Package approved Wednesday by the council.

Besides the energy-savings bill (proposed by Yukimura) and the call to repeal Act 55 (proposed by Kuali‘i), the package has a resolution urging the state to preserve the counties share of the Transient Accommodations Tax (proposed by Furfaro); a bill relating to affordable housing credits (proposed by Yukimura); a bill relating to liability; and a bill relating to collective bargaining (both proposed by the administration).

The 2013 HSAC Legislative Package has 15 measures approved by the council Wednesday. HSAC President Mel Rapozo will now take those measures to the association’s next meeting, where the bills which were approved by all counties will go into the final package.

The HSAC packaged approved by the council also included a bill calling for a repeal of Act 55, and this bill was introduced at last HSAC meeting. Out of the remaining 14 measures in the HSAC package, Kaua‘i introduced two, which were also in the Kaua‘i County package: The bill relating to energy savings and the bill relating to affordable housing credits.

Honolulu’s county council proposed nine measures. All were approved, but two measures did not receive unanimous support.

One of them was a bill proposing to require prescriptions for products that contain pseudoephedrine, an over-the-counter ingredient in the production of crystal methamphetamine. Yukimura and Councilwoman Nadine Nakamura voted against this bill on the basis that it would create additional costs to consumers and bring delays while waiting for a medical consultation.

Nakamura was also the lone council member opposing to a bill that would allow voter registration on Election Day. She thought this could create problems and delay election results.

The other Honolulu measures include a resolution to preserve the counties’ share of the TAT; a resolution to relax visa restriction to Chinese visitors; a bill relating to landowner liability; a bill relating to employer-union health benefits trust fund; a bill relating to retirement system; a bill relating to electronic waste recycling; and a bill that would give the counties a portion of revenues from undisputed traffic infractions.

Big Island’s county council contributed with a resolution asking the state of Hawai‘i to monitor the counties’ readiness to conduct elections; and a bill relating to agricultural product branding and country of origin or region of origin labeling, which was born out of an attempt to curb false claims of Kona coffee branding.

Maui County Council contributed with a bill to label products manufactured with genetically modified organisms.

Besides these two legislative packages, there could be more packages coming from Kaua‘i or with input from Kaua‘i.

The Kaua‘i County Council gets to send its own legislative package, and other statewide organizations of local government agencies could also collaborate in their areas of responsibility, according to county spokeswoman Beth Tokioka.

Additionally, the Hawai‘i Council of Mayors, of which the administration is a member, has sometimes submitted its own package, said Tokioka, adding that formal discussions for an HCOM package have not started yet.

• Léo Azambuja, staff writer, can be reached at 245-3681 (ext. 252) or lazambuja@ thegardenisland.com.