BOARD OF WATER SUPPLY
COUNTY OF MAUI
NEW MEMBER ORIENTATION MEETING
Held at the Kahului Shopping Center, Kaahumanu Avenue,
Kahului, Maui, Hawaii, commencing at 8:40 a.m. on
April 24, 2003, pursuant to Notice.
REPORTED BY: JEANNETTE WALTI IWADO RPR/CSR #135
IWADO COURT REPORTERS, INC.
A P P E A R A N C E S
BOARD MEMBERS: Michael Nobriga, Chair
Clark Hashimoto, Vice Chair
Stacy Helm Crivello
Kent M. Hiranaga
Kenneth M. Okumura
Ginny Parsons
Dorothy R. Pyle
Sally Raisbeck
Michael Victorino
Staff present: George Tengan director
Herb Chang, Engineering
Ellen Kraftsow, Water Resourses and Planning
Bryce Fukuyama, Plant Operations
Robert Vida, Field Operations
Paul Seitz, Water Treatment Plant
Jacky Takakura, Public Information Officer
Ed Kushi, Deputy Corporation Counsel
Cathy Howard, Board Secretary
TRANSCRIPT OF PROCEEDINGS
IWADO COURT REPORTERS, INC.
BOARD OF WATER SUPPLY
NEW MEMBER ORIENTATION MEETING
APRIL 24, 2003
CHAIRMAN NOBRIGA: Good morning. I'd like to
call the Board of Water Supply new member orientation
meeting to order. It's 8:40 in the morning here in
Kahului, the shopping center, in the Board of Water Supply
conference room.
In attendance this morning we have board member
Kenneth Okumura, Vice-Chair Clark Hashimoto, board member
Ginny Parsons, board member Mike Victorino, board member
Stacy Helm Crivello, board member Dorothy Pyle, board
member Sally Raisbeck, board Chair Mike Nobriga, department
director George Tengan, Honorable Corp Counsel Edward
Kushi, Junior, board secretary, who has been hard at work
this morning setting up our facilities, Cathy Howard.
We have one written testimony from the public
for our orientation meeting. The written testimony comes
from Terryl Vencl, which was the Chairman of the Charter
Review Commission. It is entitled Charter Change.
Director Tengan and board members would like to address
some questions I have been asked out in the public
regarding the change in the water department after the
election on November 5, 2002. The Charter Commission
provided options for the change due to the many meetings
held in all geographical areas of our county. Everywhere
we went the consensus was that the water department was
broken. We felt it important to call for the community two
options, and they chose to put the water department under
the Mayor's office.
My comments are going to be limited to my own
personal perception of what I think the new advisory board
can be to the department. I think it's important for the
board to understand that they can be an integral part of
the direction given to the department. If they come to be
a credible board in the eyes of the community, they will
have more power than they did as a board with the ability
to make more final decisions.
I believe the new board should be consulted and
have a part in setting the direction and tone for the
department. I think the board should assist the department
by monitoring projects to make sure CIP, capital
improvement projects and other projects are getting done in
a timely fashion. I believe it is the responsibility of
the new board to be the sounding board for the department
and the community. I think that they are the bridge
between those entities.
I think the board is the research team for the
Mayor to the Council. The board will hear the concerns of
the department and the community and assist in advising the
Mayor and the Council on what direction to take. Whether
it is rates, conservation, public relations, environment,
or other more legally binding decisions, the Mayor and
Council will hopefully look to the board to research issues
and provide options for their decision-making. I believe
this board can be the catapult from which the department
begins to gain the trust of the community.
I do not, however, believe that this board has
any real decision-making authority any longer. In my eyes,
however, that doesn't mean they have no power. It's about
how you choose to set yourself up as a board and how you
choose to use your ability to provide advice. I hope that
the win in this scenario will be the community. I believe
it will be, and I look forward to the wonderful work that I
believe this board can achieve. Thank you from allowing me
to comment. Sincerely, Terryl Vencl.
Is there any other public testimony to be
provided at this orientation meeting of the new board?
Hearing none, we will move through our agenda. Item IV,
new member orientation. Item A, the presentation on
meeting procedures by Chairperson Mike Nobriga. That's
me.
Good morning, fellow board members. Hot diggidy
dog. I have enclosed in the handouts this morning a
summary of an introduction to Robert's Rules of Order.
Robert's Rules of Order is, I guess, the recognized
authority on the use of parliamentary procedure.
Parliamentary procedure is important because it is a time
tested method of conducting business and meetings and
public gatherings. The whole emphasis of using Robert's
Rules is to protect the minority's opinion while getting a
consensus of the majority by having clear decisions made
and moving forward.
There's a whole list of things covered under
Robert's Rules and the use of parliamentary procedures.
Parliamentary procedures encompass much more than having
just motions made and seconds. There is four distinct
levels of priority of motions. You have main motions,
subsidiary motions, privileged motions, and incidental
motions. The priority of these motions is all found in the
last page.
Motions are presented by obtaining the floor.
Once the Chairman recognizes you, make your motion. The
motion needs to be seconded. This is to assure that more
than one person would like to speak on the topic. The
maker of the motion is supposed to be given the floor after
making the motion so that they can speak about why they
made the motion, their feelings about the motion, and the
course of action they wish the body to agree upon. Then
the floor is usually opened up for other members to discuss
the validity of the motion or to offer negative comments
against the motion.
At all times I'd ask everybody to be considerate
of the speaker. Don't interrupt, don't have side
communications going on while someone is speaking so that
everyone can hear what the person wants to say. You should
never criticize or attack a speaker.
The meetings should be run where there is no
personal interest stated with the speaker of the motion. I
would like everyone to be very polite and courteous while
someone is speaking. If you have a question, questions
will be entertained and answers will be provided. Above
all, during our meetings I cannot allow anybody to
beleaguer the department's staff.
In our meetings we provide open testimony.
Testimony can be provided in one of two ways. Either
verbally, as a person comes up to the front of the room and
speaks his piece, or written testimony, which we had an
example of this morning. Not all times will the written
testimony be read into the official minutes. We have had a
practice in the past to have a court stenographer record
the entire meeting. We have chosen to continue with this
process because what happens at this meeting is usually
looked at very closely by the legal system.
During testimony, after someone provides
information, I do invite board members to ask questions to
clarify the testifier's position. If the testimony does
not include -- well, let me put it this way. If a
testifier would like to ask questions, questions need to be
in written communication to the board. This way the
department staff can have an opportunity to create an
answer for the question.
Agenda items are welcome. I ask that all agenda
items be submitted to the Chair. This way we can have a
good flow of the meeting, and we also can have department
staff work on appropriate responses to the agenda items.
Every communication item to the board will always appear on
the next agenda. This is so that we can refer the
communication to the department for a report, then it comes
back to us for deliberation. If the communication is very
small, very concise, we may and we can deal with it at that
time. Not all communication needs to have department
research and department answers.
The responsibilities of being a board member is
very serious. Although with the new charter changes we as
board members are not the ultimate authority to the
department, in the previous charter this board had full
authority over the director, and we had a lot of -- we had
the ability to basically remove the director. That's where
our authority really was in existence with the department.
Under the current charter we are not the department and the
department is not the board. That needs to be understood
at all times. The public, though, will see every one of us
individually as the supreme authority when it comes down to
department business.
I ask everyone to please be aware when they are
speaking individually in public, please do not use your
personal thoughts and views when speaking about the
department and this board. Please use the board policy or
the board's official position on topics when you appear in
public. It does not do any one the right justice when we
speak out of turn at public functions.
If there is something that you need the board to
decide upon so that we have full support from this body,
please put it on our agenda. Ask me and I will put it on
the agenda so we can speak about it, we can debate it, and
we can get a formal position and move forward. We do not
have any authority over the department, individually or as
a whole. The authority of the department comes from the
Mayor. We are purely advisory.
I have had a few discussions with Mayor Arakawa,
and he has relayed to me, and I will be trying to get
written communication to the effect, that the Mayor would
like this body to be the sounding board for the public. He
has looked to us to be a judicial body to listen to
customers' complaints and requests for appeal.
Later in the agenda we have a discussion by Corp
Counsel. He will also restate this. The Board of Water
Supply rules still exist prior to the charter amendment.
The Board of Water Supply rules are still valid. Part of
these rules entrust this body with granting waivers to the
rules. We will be hearing many of these appeals at today's
regular meeting.
Before we waive any of the department's rules,
we need to have all the wise answers so we can state rule
and verse on the particular reason why we would recommend
this waiver. I urge everyone to look at the big picture of
the entire island, the community of Maui, before taking
action to grant waivers of the rules at this point in
time. That's it, thank you. Any questions? Sally.
MS. RAISBECK: Okay. The Corporation Counsel
says the Board of Water -- oh, sorry. The Corporation
Counsel says the Board of Water Supply rules are still
valid, however yesterday at the orientation for all the
boards and commissions Mr. Kim was talking about interim
rules as if it implied that our rules, since they have to
be changed because of the charter change, that they are
presently interim rules rather than valid rules. There are
too many references to the board's powers in the rules.
So I just question that as to whether that is
indeed -- I mean we obviously can't operate under the rules
that say the board has the authority to do this and that,
so wouldn't they be called interim rules?
CHAIRMAN NOBRIGA: I guess. It's just the rules
are the rules. They still apply.
MS. RAISBECK: No, they can't.
CHAIRMAN NOBRIGA: If we choose as a body to say
that we have no rules, then the meeting should be adjourned
already.
MS. RAISBECK: I think yesterday they were
referred to as interim rules. That would be my question,
as to whether they should be considered interim rules.
CHAIRMAN NOBRIGA: Mr. Corp Counsel?
MR. KUSHI: Mr. Chair, I will address that
question when I do my stuff.
MS. RAISBECK: Thank you. And my other question
relates to, you're saying that when board members are
speaking in public they should not really speak as
individuals, they should only speak in accordance with an
adopted board policy. When the proper moment arrives I
will be asking about that because, perhaps not right now,
but at some time, because of the fact that I see an
advisory board rather than a board that has authority.
An advisory board has the opportunity to present
to George and the Mayor and the Council, to present a
spectrum of positions rather than saying this is it. I
would like to see the board present the options in the case
of actions or policies, present options and say these are
the pros and cons of going this way, these are the pros and
cons of going that way.
So I think being an advisory board gives us the
opportunity to give a wider range of opinion in our advice
to the director and the council and the mayor. So that
would be -- at some point I would like to have us have a
debate on that issue. Thank you.
CHAIRMAN NOBRIGA: Thank you, Sally. Any other
questions? Okay, move on to item B, presentation on the
Department overview by Jacky Takakura. Jacky?
MS. TAKAKURA: Good morning. I'm Jacky
Takakura, I'm the information specialist, and I will be
giving you an overview of the Department of Water Supply
and what we do. Can all of you see the screen? If you
want to move, that's fine.
The people of Maui have been supplied with
potable water by the government since the days of the
Hawaiian Kingdom. According to the Department of Water
Supply's first annual report, printed in 1953, David T.
Fleming, president of the Maui County Waterworks Board,
remembers back then a two-inch line was run from Wailuku to
Kahului to supply the needs of Port Town.
Today there is more than a two-inch line, there
are several lines from Wailuku to Kahului, and they're more
likely to be in the 12-inch to 18-inch size in diameter.
The Maui County Waterworks Board was established
under the Legislature of the Territory of Hawaii, Act 289,
approved May 17, 1949. Prior to this, the development of
the water systems in Maui County was supervised by the
Board of Supervisors, or the present day County Council,
with each system functioning under its own overseer and
doing its own billing and collecting, under the direction
of the County engineer.
Through the creation of the Waterworks Board,
the development of the water systems and sources could meet
the growth of Maui and Molokai, and the demands for a
steady supply of fresh water for domestic and commercial
use.
According to the 2003 County Charter, the
Department of Water Supply shall manage and operate all
water systems owned by the County. This presentation will
show you some of the things that we do to manage and
operate the water systems for the people of Maui and
Molokai. It should take about half an hour, and then we
can answer questions after that.
Now, a brief review of where the water comes
from. As I told the Council, we don't actually make the
water, it comes from Mother Nature. It all starts out in
the Pacific Ocean, the sun, evaporation, we have the
clouds, the tradewinds. We are very fortunate to have the
tradewinds bringing the clouds over Haleakala and the West
Maui Mountains. And we have rain.
And then we have two things, the water that
falls on the slopes of Haleakala and the West Maui
Mountains either goes into the streams and ditches, which
is what we call surface water, and eventually flows back
into the ocean to continue that cycle, or it soaks down
into the ground, which is what we call groundwater. Here
on Maui these two kinds of water, the surface water and the
groundwater, are very important for us. They're both water
sources for us.
As you know, we occasionally have droughts. The
droughts affect the surface water supplies fairly quickly.
Droughts affect the groundwater supplies too, but the
effects are usually not noticeable right away because it
does take some time for the rain to percolate through the
mountain. It is often in the order of years for the rain
to reach the aquifer, and that's why droughts mainly affect
the upcountry area, because that area is so dependent on
surface water. In other areas, like Lahaina where we use
both surface and groundwater, when there is low amounts of
surface water we can pump more from our groundwater
supplies from our wells.
This is a cut-out drawing courtesy of the
Honolulu Board of Water Supply. You can see that
underneath the island is the zone of fresh water with the
aquifer, and that is sitting on salt water. We drill the
wells to the fresh water. And we have to make sure that we
maintain that balance of fresh water and salt water,
because if the draw is too high on the fresh water, the
salt water will start to rise. So we really need to
maintain that balance.
The next two maps answer the question just how
much water is there. These two maps are from the Hawaii
State Commission on Water Resource Management. They show
the aquifer boundaries and the amount of water that they
consider the aquifer can provide, or the sustainable
yield. You can see that the areas that receive more rain
have aquifers with higher yields. For example, the Ke'anae
aquifer, 96 million gallons per day. Waikamoi, 46 million
gallons per day, as compared to the south side, Kamole, 11
million gallons a day. And that makes sense, because
that's where the rain falls. Of course, that's not
necessarily where the people are that want the water, but
that's where the water is, and the water is there.
The total available supply that they consider
for the island of Maui is 476 million gallons per day. For
the island of Molokai, developable yield is 38 million
gallons per day. And this is only for groundwater, this
doesn't include the surface water from the streams and
ditches.
The mission statement of the Department of Water
Supply --
CHAIRMAN NOBRIGA: Excuse me, Jacky. Could you
explain to the board members why Lanai was not included in
the overview?
MS. TAKAKURA: Even back in our first annual
report when I was doing research, Lanai was always a
private system, and it's run by the Lanai Company.
Although we do provide, because they're part of the County,
we do do some work for them regarding watershed protection
and other things like that. Lanai is not the only place
where there's a private water system, Kapalua and Kaanapali
are the other big private water systems, and there's also
some smaller ones here and there.
CHAIRMAN NOBRIGA: Thank you.
MS. TAKAKURA: Our mission statement is to
provide clean water efficiently, and you will probably see
this over and over again. This is our goal. It's about as
simple as you can get. This is our job, and this is what
we want to do. In some areas we have already met this
goal, and in some areas we're still striving for it, but
this is what guides us in all our work.
As I mentioned, we were created back in 1949 by
the legislature for the Territory of Hawaii. Back then we
had less than $2 million worth of assets, and you can see
that has increased about a hundred times, $259 million in
assets as of last year's annual report. And that includes
things like our pumps, our pipelines, our tanks, our water
reservoirs.
Meters you can see have grown considerably, over
31 thousand meters now. Our largest area is the Central
Maui area, with about half of that, with about 15 or 16
thousand meters. And we provide about 34 million gallons
per day, as compared to Oahu, which provides about 150 or
154 million gallons per day. To pay for all of that, our
revenues, you can see, are the ones in pink, about a little
bit over $30 million a year. Expenses are just a little
bit under that. Projected for 2004, $30.7 million in
expenses.
From 1997 to 1999 our expenses were actually
greater than our revenues. In the year 2000 our revenues
were actually equal to expenses. Only in the last two
years have revenues been a little bit more than expenses,
and this includes depreciation. Now, where does the money
come from? Our main source is the water bills that you pay
every two months, and we're still using fiscal year 2002
rates.
We will be working on a water rate increase in
the near future, so you will probably be seeing that soon.
A water system development fee, which was increased in June
of 2002. Government grants or loans, which would come from
county, state and federal government, and also bonds. And
the money goes to operations and maintenance, taking care
of that water system, replacing it when it's needed.
System expansion, watershed protection to make sure that we
have water for our future generations, and also repayment
of debt.
For the first two, operations and maintenance
and system replacement, those monies would come from the
water bills. System expansion would be from the water
system development fee, which is the money that you would
pay when you get a new meter, and that's the theory of
growth paying for growth. The government grants or loans,
and also the bonds, are usually earmarked for specific
projects. And you can see in the capital improvement
program handout that you received, we do keep these things
separate so that we can keep track of where the money comes
from and where it's going.
Okay, about our operations. We have five water
systems, and within these five there are smaller water
systems too. But in general, we have five separate water
systems. As I had mentioned, Central Maui is our largest
area. About half of all our services are in Central Maui,
and this extends from Paia to Waihee to Maalaea, all the
way out to Makena, and that water is primarily groundwater
from the Iao and the Waihee aquifers. We do have one
surface water treatment plant near our Iao tank, which
provides about a million gallons per day.
Our next largest area is the upcountry area,
which you can see in green, and there's about 9 thousand
services there. That area gets its water primarily from
the East Maui rain forest. It's primarily surface water,
although we do have a few wells. I'd say it's about 85
percent surface water, 15 percent groundwater. West Maui,
Lahaina side, about 3 thousand services. And as I had
mentioned, we use about two-thirds surface water, one third
groundwater. Hana, about 500 services, all well water.
And Molokai, about 1500 services, and that's all well
water. And there are no links between these five systems,
not at this point.
The basic functions of the water department, of
any water utility, is source, transmission, storage and
treatment. Getting the water, making it safe and clean,
storing it so that whenever customers need it, it will be
there, and getting it out to the customer. The first is
providing the water source, and those would include our
wells, also our surface water sources, like you see in the
upper left-hand corner, our Waikamoi watershed, you can see
our Kualapuu well, which is our main source of water for
Molokai, and also the North Waihee well and another well
out in the Lahaina side, which is in the lower left
picture.
Treating the water, which is mainly an issue for
the upcountry area and the Lahaina area. The surface water
must be filtered and treated to comply with the Safe
Drinking Water Act rules. So we have six water treatment
facilities, three upcountry, two in West Maui, and one at
the Iao tank in Wailuku.
We use different kinds of technology, we use
microfiltration, which is a state-of-the-art technology.
We use that at the Olinda plant, which provides water for
the Upper Kula system, and the Kamole treatment facility,
which provides water to the Makawao systen, and then also
at the Lahaina treatment facility, which is above the
Lahainaluna High School. The Iao facility is also
microfiltration.
At the Mahinahina treatment facility, which you
see in the picture at the lower left, and also at the
Piiholo treatment facility we use direct filtration, which
is a different kind of technology.
Okay, once the water is brought to the surface
and treated, we need to store it so that it's always there for
our customers. We have 136 tanks of various sizes
ranging from, say, 10 thousand gallons to 3 million
gallons, at a grand total of 262 million gallons total
storage. Our larger tanks, like what you see in the upper
left-hand corner, that's the Mokuhau tank near the Iao
Stream. That's 3 million gallons. The lower left picture
is the Lower Kula tank, which is 2 million gallons. And
the other picture on the right is Kualapuu. That's the
smaller tank on Molokai.
Okay, and then we need to get it to our
customers. Transmission and distribution. In terms of
what they do, transmission and distribution is basically
the pipes bringing it to the customers. But transmission
are usually the bigger pipes taking it to the subdivisions,
or taking the water to Kihei. And then the distribution
would be the smaller pipes, where you would have the
service laterals or the meters coming off of.
We have got about 750 miles of pipe, and our
operations personnel are on standby 24 hours a day, 7 days
a week. If you have a water break or if you see a water
break, someone hits a fire hydrant in the middle of the
night, you call our number. Our men have the pagers and
they will answer that call and be out there regardless of
what time it is to restore the service. We also do
flushing, which is what you see in the left-hand picture,
particularly in the upcountry area where we have dead-end
lines, to make sure that the water stays fresh.
Other things that we do, we do the engineering
design and construction for projects, capital improvement
projects. And that includes things like building tanks,
which you see in the upper left-hand corner, drilling
wells, which is what you see in the upper right-hand
corner, and also the drill rig, which you see in the lower
right-hand corner. The other left-hand bottom picture is
the GAC, the granular activated carbon filtration system at
the Napili A well site in Lahaina. Those are things our
engineers work on.
Another thing that we do is monitoring all of
this. As I had mentioned, we have -- our men have pagers,
and it doesn't have to be somebody calling in to report a
hydrant being hit or a water line break. Our tanks are all
on computers, and if a tank goes too low that will signal
the pager, and the men would call up and find out what the
problem is and go out there if need be. Or if it's during
working hours they can go and see what the problem is at
the computers at the baseyard or at the computer at the
director's office.
What this is is, this controls and monitors the
water system, so that from our Naska baseyard we can see
what the tank levels are out in Hana, in Makena, or here
this picture is of the central system. We can see how much
water is coming out of the wells and how much is going to
each of the different parts of the system. And this was
all done in-house, saving our department millions of
dollars. I heard that the Kauai Department of Water has
contracted to have a SCADA system put in, and they're
probably going to be paying about $4 million for this.
This was all done in-house by our own men. It's real
state-of-the-art high tech.
Also, we have to make sure that the water is of
high quality to meet all state and federal standards. Our
lab takes about 16,000 samples a year. Sometimes you will
see them out there. Maybe some of you participated in like
our lead and copper sampling. Our lab is state certified,
so we do a lot of the tests in-house.
We also want to maintain our water sources for
our future generations, so watershed protection is
something that we do participate in also. Myconia removal
to preserve the native forest. The watershed partnerships,
there's two. Like you see on the map, they're from Maui,
the East Maui Watershed Partnership, which protects 100
thousand acres. And also the West Maui Mountains Watershed
Partnership, which protects 50 thousand acres. Then we have
the East Molokai Watershed Partnership too.
We also monitor our water sources, North Waihee
and Iao aquifers, and the stream flows too, and then we
also participate in a wellhead protection program, which we
work with landowners on. That's an interactive group.
We're not just making things for them to do, we're getting
their participation in there too. Other things we do, as I
mentioned, is making sure that the water meets all state
and federal rules. We also do accounting, billing, and
purchasing, and permit reviews.
Our goals and objectives for this upcoming
fiscal year -- and you will see these often, especially
when you look over the capital improvement program -- meet
the Safe Drinking Water Act requirements, reduce the
effects of drought upcountry. I want to mention that we
haven't had required cutbacks for our customers in several
years now. Even though we have had droughts, we haven't
required our customers to reduce their consumption. Reduce
the draw on the Iao aquifer, continuing with our pipeline
replacement. As I mentioned, we have 750 miles of pipe.
Some of them are very, very old, so that does need to be
replaced. Developing new sources. And then as I had
mentioned, protecting our watershed for future
generations.
Compliance with regulations, you may already
have heard of the now-infamous Lead and Copper Rule because
of the upcountry issues that have been going on regarding
the use of a phosphate to comply with this rule. We were
using phosphoric acid in the upcountry water system to
comply with this Lead and Copper Rule. The Lead and Copper
Rule requires us to make sure that water coming out of
peoples' faucets in their homes does not have lead. The
lead would come from customers' plumbing and customers'
faucets, not from the Department of Water Supply system.
Even though the lead is coming from customers'
homes, the EPA requires the water utility to treat the
water if action levels are above their triggers, so we're
doing that. We were using C-9. A couple of weeks ago we
switched to phosphoric acid, which doesn't have the zinc in
it, which we think was the problem with C-9, and we're
waiting to see how that's going to affect customers, and if
it will work. We will be taking lead tests in about four
weeks or so.
Surface water treatment rules, that mainly
affects upcountry and Lahaina. Groundwater disinfection
rules, making sure that our water is clean and safe.
Getting our operators certified. Of course, security with
all the things that are going on now, and many other
things. The EPA makes most of these rules, and they're
enforced by the Department of Health Safe Drinking Water
Branch. And state standards are often more stringent than
the federal standards. So you might hear of two standards,
federal and state, but we're required to comply with the
state standards.
Upcoming projects that we're working on.
Pookela well, which is an item on the 10:00 am meeting
today. That well has been drilled and we're working on a
design contract, and then we will be working on the
construction of that well later. Makamakaole well for
Central Maui, something on the drawing board. Also the
feasibility of a Lower Kula raw water reservoir for
upcountry. That would be one of the big reservoirs. This
one would perhaps be in the order of 2-300 million
gallons.
Also, the USGS monitor drill rig will be coming
to Maui probably next year, and that's what you see in the
picture there. That was when the monitor, I mean the drill
rig was on Maui a couple of years ago. We had it at the
Mahinahina water treatment facility, we had a monitor well
drilled. And then of course pipeline replacement we're
continuing to work on. And you will see that in our CIP,
our capital improvement. Pipeline replacement gets the
bulk of our funds. That's a real high priority.
Okay, now about the people that do all this
work. We've got seven groups, the director's office,
finance, engineering, water resources and planning, and
these are all based on the fifth floor of the county
building. And then we have our operations, field
operations and plant operations. They operate mainly out
of our baseyard in Kahului, which is on the way to the
airport. Water treatment facilities are at the treatment
facilities. We also have smaller baseyards out in Hana, in
Lahaina, and on Molokai.
Okay, table of organization. This is a little
bit older one, so the names will be different.
CHAIRMAN NOBRIGA: Jacky?
MS. TAKAKURA: Yes.
CHAIRMAN NOBRIGA: Try back up and introduce the
people, because they're all here.
MS. TAKAKURA: Okay. You already know our
director, George Tengan, our deputy director, Jeff Pearson,
water resources and planning program manager, Ellen
Kraftsow, field operations chief, Bobby Vida, our plant
operations manager, Bryce Fukuyama, our water treatment
facilities manager, Paul Seitz, our fiscal officer, Holly
Perdido, and our engineering manager Alva Nakamura is not
here right now, but when he comes I will introduce him.
CHAIRMAN NOBRIGA: Thank you.
MS. TAKAKURA: Okay, down on the bottom you can
see the six groups. Fiscal, which also takes care of
customer service, has about 31 positions, engineering 23
positions, water resource and planning, 4 positions, field
operations, 69 positions. That takes the bulk of our
staff. Plant operations 30, and the treatment facilities
also 30. In all, we have about 160 or 170 employees.
Okay, and what each division does, starting with
engineering, they review plans. Like when somebody wants
to build a subdivision we would go over their plans and
make sure that they all meet engineering standards, which
is the same throughout the state. Prepare plans and
specifications for projects, especially those done
in-house. Working on the capital improvement program,
working with consultants. As I mentioned, working on
in-house projects. And then inspecting projects as they're
being constructed. We have inspectors that go out there
and make sure that the construction companies do what they
say they're going to be doing.
Fiscal division, accounting, budget development,
which they do every year. The annual audit, which I should
have received for fiscal year 2002. We have an independent
auditor do our audit every year. Also long range financial
planning, advising you on fiscal matters. They also take
care of customer service and support, working with our
customers when they can't make a payment or when they need
to have a payment plan set up. They do our payroll, our
purchasing, inventory, maintaining our warehouse with all
the pipes and fittings for our guys when they need to fix
pipes, and then also processing bills and payments.
We had mentioned earlier that we don't have
customers on Lanai, but we do provide them water bills
because they get the county sewer, so we do the billing for
the water and the sewer. Okay, water resources and
planning. They take care of reviewing permits,
environmental review, working on all those regulations
coming from the EPA and the Safe Drinking Water Branch,
information systems, managing our water resources, and
conservation.
Okay, the biggest group we have are our field
operations division. They take care of all the
transmission and distribution, all those pipes. Responding
to customer complaints, like when someone calls in the
middle of the night saying that there's a broken water line
in front of their house. Installing, maintaining and
replacing storage tanks. As I mentioned, fixing water main
breaks, flushing, and also supporting our vehicles,
equipment, hydrants, the reservoir sites, valves. We have
carpenters on staff and then also installing the new radio
read meters. And fixing the meters, too, when there's
problems.
Okay, plant operations. They take care of all
of the deep well pumps and other pumps in other locations.
We have electricians on staff. They monitor the deep wells
and do the readings. The SCADA, which I had shown you
previously. Chlorination, they control that water is
disinfected and safe. Our laboratory is part of this
division, taking samples. And also backflow and cross
connection, so making sure that other things cannot get
into our water supply.
And our last group is the water treatment
facilities. They take care of filtering and disinfecting
the surface water. Upcountry Kamole, which is in
Hali'imaile; Piiholo, which is in the Makawao Forest
Reserve; and the Olinda water treatment facility, which is
at the top of Olinda Road; West Maui, Lahaina, above the
high school; and Mahinahina out by the airport; and then
also the Central Maui facility near the Iao tank. They
make sure that the water is in compliance with all the
rules, and they take care of the operators being certified,
which is required by the Department of Health.
Things that we're looking at for the future, and
this is kind of a reiteration of things that I brought up
previously, is source development, watershed protection,
pipeline replacement, of course compliance with the Safe
Drinking Water Act, and to continue with our mission to
provide clean water efficiently.
So that's basically what we do and the things
that we are looking ahead at in the future. If there are
any questions we have our staff, as I mentioned, here to
answer questions, if you have any. We also have our
website there if you want to look up stuff later. Thank
you.
CHAIRMAN NOBRIGA: Thank you, Jacky.
Questions? Mr. Victorino.
MR. VICTORINO: Well, not so much of a question,
but a point of organization. Go back to the table of
organization, Jacky, please. Just so that there's no
misconception, it does say as of June 28, 2001, but our
organization would have substantially changed because we
have our customers still number one and foremost. Next
would be the Mayor and council after that. And we would be
actually out there as an advisory council, advisory board
to the Mayor and the council, so we would extend there.
And then between the customer, Mayor and then the director
himself. So just for that, so that the public and anybody
doesn't have a misconception of where we're at as far as
this, that would be really the new organizational change
that would take place. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
CHAIRMAN NOBRIGA: Thank you, Mr. Victorino.
Any other questions? Kenneth.
MR. OKUMURA: I wanted to ask about, you know,
the projected increases in income and expenses. How do you
base the increases?
MS. TAKAKURA: I'd like to call on our fiscal
officer.
MS. RAISBECK: I couldn't hear the question,
excuse me.
MR. OKUMURA: I was just wondering, I was
wondering about the projected increases in income and
expense. How do you figure -- do you just figure that's
going to be coming from homeowners or I mean more water
use, selling more water in the future, that's it?
CHAIRMAN NOBRIGA: Okay, thank you. Go ahead.
MS. PERDIDO: Basically we review all our
previous revenues and most, the majority of the revenues
here is from water sales, the rest is small amounts that
are comprised of sewer billing. I don't have them all
right in front of me.
MR. OKUMURA: You're just projecting it?
MS. PERDIDO: We're just projecting, and we have
about 600 new customers added every year. And we kind of
look at, well, we look at the weather. It's just hard to
really predict, so we just kind of project an amount based
on past history.
MR. OKUMURA: Thank you.
CHAIRMAN NOBRIGA: Any other questions,
members? Mr. Victorino.
MR. VICTORINO: Again, going back to Jacky, you
mentioned earlier on the upcoming projects, if you go back
to that slide, the USGS monitored drilling rig will be here
next year. My question is, how often are we able to get
that rig here on Maui, because I know it's a matter of
scheduling and it goes throughout the state. So how often
and how long do we get to keep it? Or is it George, okay,
sorry.
MR. TENGAN: The normal rotation for that drill
rig is once every six months. Not once every six months,
but it's for a six-month period following the City and
County of Honolulu and Kauai. There are three counties
participating in the operations of the drill rig.
Originally Maui wasn't in that partnership. However, a
couple of years ago Honolulu wanted to pull out, so they
asked us if we were interested in purchasing their interest
in the drill rig, and the board authorized that purchase,
so the department went ahead.
And the rig has been on Molokai and Maui one
time already to drill some monitor wells for some Hawaiian
Homes projects. The operations of that was paid with
federal funds, so the board didn't expend any monies for
that purpose.
Anyway, it's coming to this island next year and
we expect to do a couple of wells. These wells are
primarily for exploratory and for monitoring purposes.
They cannot be turned into production wells.
MR. VICTORINO: So, you know, that was my next
question. When it does come to Maui, or let's say Maui, is
it very portable enough to move around or it stays in one
location, and you just mentioned a couple. Is there a time
frame, like if you are going to go to say, let's say one of
those sites in like Pookela, for example. If it went there
what would be the normal frame of time you would need to
get accurate readings?
MR. TENGAN: Well, that would depend upon the
geology of the site. It's soft soil, you know, it wouldn't
take as long as let's say drilling through some blue rock
or something like that. And it would also depend upon the
elevation at which you're drilling. So depending upon the
sites we select where we need more data, that's going to
determine how many wells we can get during the six-month
period.
MR. VICTORINO: Thank you, Mr. Tengan.
CHAIRMAN NOBRIGA: Yes, Sally.
MS. RAISBECK: Just to follow up, George, this
rig only can drill an exploratory or monitor well which
would be smaller than a production well. It couldn't drill
a production well if it wanted to?
MR. TENGAN: The rig itself could probably drill
a production-size well. However, the agreement with the
USGA is the wells would only be used for exploratory and/or
monitoring purposes.
CHAIRMAN NOBRIGA: Any other questions members?
Thank you, Jacky. We will now have a ten minute recess.
(Whereupon a brief recess was had).
CHAIRMAN NOBRIGA: Reconvene the meeting, the
orientation of new members and board. The next item on our
agenda for today is a presentation on the actual status of
our rules and responsibilities -- excuse me, Mr. Victorino
-- presented by our Honorable Corporation Counsel Ed J.
Kushi, Junior. Mr. Kushi.
MR. KUSHI: Mr. Chair, thank you. I think Cathy
passed out a handout to you, you should have it dated March
4, 2003. And just to summarize what I'm going to say
today, this is a memo from our office to Danny Mateo, who
is the chair on the council of Water Resources Committee,
the newly-formed committee, and in response to his
request. The meat of the memo, two pages, kind of outlines
our response to his inquiries as far as what the council
can do since the charter change. But for my purposes, the
February 18th notes attached is what I will cover, and it's
probably four pages, and I will just kind of summarize the
charter changes.
What I've done, what I did was summarize the
charter changes that affected one, the Board, two, the
department and its director, three, the council, and four,
the mayor. And then subsequently, based on those changes,
what we thought were the rules of each entity or body. And
I will just concentrate this morning on the board and the
department.
As you know, the electorate decided to vote, I
guess it was charter change 9-A, and our office has said
that that became effective on December 5, 2002. Based on
those changes, we summarized that the charter change that
affected the board from the previous charter, from the
previous charter, are as follows: One, that the changes as
far as the board is concerned, it delegated to the board
the authority to act as an advisor to the director, the
Mayor, and the council in all matters concerning our county
water system. Let me emphasis that. We don't deal with
private water systems.
Two, it delegated to the board the authority to
recommend the establishment and adjustment of rates and
charges for water service, which would then go to the
Mayor.
Currently, well, I guess previously how the
system worked in terms of rates and charges were that the
rates and charges are following the rules. And previously
your rules were amended. If you wanted to change up or
down the rates or charges you made a rule change. That
rule went through the board, it went to public hearing,
then it went to the mayor's office. Then the mayor's
office set a time limit to either -- previously, in I guess
the previous administration, the previous charter change
previous to 19 -- anyway, when Lingle was here, the mayor
in essence had a veto power. If the mayor didn't like the
change, it didn't go down.
Then subsequently there was a charter change
saying that the mayor had a time period, and if the mayor
didn't act it would automatically go to the council. Then
the council would look at it and then say yes or no. They
couldn't mess around with the rates, it either was up or
down. Anyway, as a result of the changes, none of this
happens now. And I'll get into your rules later.
Number three delegated to the board the
authority to review and submit, review and submit to the
mayor the department's budget, which previously the board
just did a budget, it didn't go anywhere. Now only the
County council does budgets. The department is cast as a
regular department similar to Public Works, similar to
Planning, the Prosecutor's Office, et cetera.
Okay, four, the changes deleted the following
powers from this board. Power to appoint, evaluate and
remove people, like the people next to me on my left, the
director; power to create and abolish positions; power to
adopt rules and regulations having the force and effect of
law. Okay, that got deleted. Power to adopt a budget;
power to issue revenue bonds; power to accept, acquire,
appropriate, sell real property.
The last one has put us in quite a bind in terms
of holding, accepting, acquiring, or selling real
property. Previously the board had directed, delegated to
the director the authority to accept easements, to accept
tank sites. Now as a regular department only the council
can accept real property and we've come into sort of like a
standstill situation where subdividers that need that
pursuant to our rules are required to give us easements.
We can't accept, we have to go to the council. That takes
three to four months. We have tried to work out that
situation. If the board had acquired property previously
and wanted to sell it or do something else, you can't do it
now, it has to go to the council. Only the council can
dispose of or accept real property.
Further, going on, changes that affected the
department and its director, it delegated to the department
the duty to manage and operate, same situation. It
delegated to the department the duty to make studies,
surveys, and investigations regarding water systems,
sources. Same status quo. It delegated to the department,
a little bit more specific, the duty to prepare and update
long-range CIP programs, capital improvement and water use
and development plans for council approval.
Okay four, deleted from the department, deleted
the department's full and complete authority to manage and
control water systems. You know that may be a typo. Let
me think about that.
Five, as to the director, deleted the power to
recommend rules and regulations for adoption by the board.
I will get into that. Deleted his power to appoint his
deputy. The next page are situations as far as affecting
the council and the mayor, and you can look at it and ask
any questions. I want to concentrate on the board and the
department for now.
On the last, I mean the third page in terms of
rules, moving onto the bottom of the page on the
department, now we feel that the department's role is the
duty to manage and operate all water systems, county water
systems; duty to make studies, surveys, investigations;
duty to prepare and update long-range CIP plans and
long-range development plans for council approval; perform
other such duties and functions as shall be prescribed by
law.
In terms of the board's roles, it's basically
four: Authority to act as an advisor to the director, the
mayor and the council; authority to recommend establishment
and adjustment of rates for water service and submit same
to the mayor. And I will get into that later in the
rules. Three, authority to review the department's annual
budget and submit same to the mayor, who in turn submits it
to the county; and four, perform such other duties and
functions as prescribed by law.
Now, in terms of your rules, Member Raisbeck
brought this up and it has been brought up several times.
Our office issued an opinion dated December 5, 2002, and
you are free to get a copy if you want it. In essence, we
were saying that your board, your rules adopted,
promulgated correctly previous to the charter changes, they
don't go away, they still exist. Chapter 91 HRS basically
says that an agency, be it the board or the department, who
is authorized, who is authorized by law to enact rules,
once they're enacted they have the force and effect of law
until repealed. So your rules still exist, they're not
interim rules. I need to talk to Mr. Kim about that.
They're not interim rules.
However, due to the charter change regarding
rules, powers, duties of this board, as well as the
department, we have taken the position that your board,
your rules exist unless in conflict with the charter,
unless inconsistent with the decisions or the implications
of the charter amendments. Likewise, there are certain
situations in your rules where you can overrule the
director. Appeals. The charter says you can only advise
the director. Now, therefore, it's our opinion, if asked,
that that rule is inconsistent. However, the balance of
your rules, including rates and fees, still exist.
As to how you can change the rules, it's an
ongoing sticky situation. HRS 91 -- I forgot what is -- in
its definitions of agency, meaning the board, the
department, boards and commissions, there's a set procedure
to amend, enact, repeal rules and promulgations and notices
and all that. However, under the definition of agency, it
does specifically say any agency authorized by law shall do
the following to amend or repeal or amend rules.
We cannot find at this point the department as
an agency, the board as an agency, you are not authorized.
The charter specifically wiped that out. So we're stuck in
a situation where you have existing rules, and if they
conflict with the charter, they're superseded. However, if
you want to amend it, nobody can amend it.
We have advised the council of this, and we will
continue to advise the council that what they should do or
what we will suggest is enact an ordinance. And where it
says as prescribed by law, enact an ordinance either
authorizing the board or the department to promulgate
rules. Whether it goes to the council for approval or the
mayor or whatever, prescribe a procedure.
If no procedure is prescribed, Chapter 91
specifically states the department as an agency authorized
by ordinance can do public hearings on rules. And if the
department is satisfied after public hearing, can amend the
rules. But then it needs to be submitted to the mayor's
office as the chief executive of the county. And if the
mayor is satisfied, he signs off. Then it goes on to the
county clerk's office. That's the set statutory Hawaii
procedure.
The previous rules deviated from that in that it
went to the council, okay. So again, that's the status of
your rules right now. That's it, Mr. Chair.
CHAIRMAN NOBRIGA: Thank you, Mr. Kushi. Any
questions, members?
MS. RAISBECK: Yes.
CHAIRMAN NOBRIGA: Yes, Miss Raisbeck?
MS. RAISBECK: I would like to tell you what I
heard you say, I think, and then you tell me if I missed
something there.
MR. KUSHI: I will try my best.
MS. RAISBECK: So you're saying that to get new
rules -- obviously some of the present rules are in
conflict with the charter, and it will be a messy situation
if in time we have to look at them and see if this is in
conflict or not, because there could be two opinions about
that. But to get new rules, the council needs to just pass
a simple ordinance that says the department has the
authority to promulgate rules as an agency, and that would
neeed to be simple. That wouldn't need to go into the
changes in the rules, correct? It would just be an
ordinance that gave them the authority, is that correct?
MR. KUSHI: That would be our office's response
and suggestion. Just say that. Pass an ordinance which
would then fit into your charter language saying as
prescribed, as otherwise prescribed by law. The ordinance
would be law authorizing the department or the board to
promulgate rules.
MS. RAISBECK: And then the director could set
up new rules, revise the old ones to be in conformance with
the charter, and make any other changes that might seem
good to him. And then he could put that out with the
public hearing and go through the rule making process
whereby there's a public hearing. If there aren't any
major changes as a result of that public hearing, then it
would go from the director -- I mean I'm talking real
authority now -- from the director to the mayor, and if the
mayor signed them, that's it. And our role in this would
be advisory. We could advise the director about what we
thought the rule should be. We could advise the mayor.
But there's no role for the council in this arrangement,
correct?
MR. KUSHI: You know, at this point, and I'll
respond at this point, subject to change, I would say you
could do one of these ways. You could just say authorize
the department as an agency to promulgate rules pursuant to
Chapter 91 HRS as set procedure, and that procedure says
the department conducts public hearings. I'm assuming the
department would come to this board first. It goes out and
submits it to the mayor. The mayor likes it and signs
off. The mayor doesn't like it, too bad, he's the one that
signs off. That's one suggestion, scenario.
The second one, the council could say the board
has the final authority. You have got to set this in
ordinance. Say the council could say do this procedure,
but the council has the final authority. Lastly, they may
say the board has the final authority.
Again, it's a close call because of the charter,
the language of the charter the intent of the charter. And
if one would challenge it, is it inconsistent with the
charter? And there's not too much intent, language that I
can glean from the charter commission's discussions on this
amendment 9-A. That's unfortunate because there were no
provisional carry-over provisions when we discussed this
amendment 9-A, so we kind of have to just guess. I
shouldn't say guess, strike that. Budget director's
guess.
MS. RAISBECK: So to recapitulate again, you
mentioned three options, but which option, which route was
followed in making the rules would depend upon the
ordinance the council passed?
MR. KUSHI: That's correct, because they can
only prescribe laws.
MS. RAISBECK: Okay. So they would pass
authorizing some entity, some procedure for making rules.
MR. KUSHI: Correct. Now, in terms of hierarchy
of a law, first you have state statutes, then you have the
charter. And the case law says the state statute is a
total statewide concern. It preempts everything. If it's
strictly administrative, executive functions, not a
statewide concern, your charter would control. That's the
HGEA case in 1998.
Then you have your county ordinances. Only the
council can pass county ordinances. If I were to challenge
something, I would say council -- I mean I would say, you
know, challenge the county ordinance about rule making. I
would challenge it in saying this: The electorate said the
charter is this. The charter takes rule making away from
the board. Now, council, you pass an ordinance giving it
back to the board. What's the situation?
I'm just giving you situations. But
unfortunately, there were no provisional carry-over
discussions and intent by the council or the Charter
Commission in this amendment.
CHAIRMAN NOBRIGA: Thank you. Any other
questions, members? Thank you. At this time we go to item
D, distribution of board materials, which would be your
annual report, your financial summary, the new and improved
charter of the County of Maui, and also the rules and
regulations of the Department of Water Supply.
Unfortunately, Cathy was unable to secure assistance in
transporting this bulk of material down here, and they will
be forwarded to you postwith, with expediting whatever it
is. Okay? No further business, the meeting of orientation
is adjourned.
(Whereupon the orientation meeting was adjourned
at 10:00 a.m.)
IWADO COURT REPORTERS, INC.
Department of Water Supply
County of Maui
P.O. Box 1109
Wailuku, HI 96793-6109
Telephone (808) 270-7816
Fax (808) 270-7951