good afternoon don guzman i'm the chair the committee the hall and it shall now come to order i would like to before we begin remind everyone to please put their cell phones on silence i would like to introduce our members today our vice department of housing and human concerns here good afternoon and we also we have carla who is our legislative attorney as well as carly is our secretary comm secretary before we begin to remind everyone if you would like to testify please sign up at the lobby you'll be limited to today's agenda items when you testify please identify yourself and or any organization which you represent i'd like to check in with our district offices right now also miss lono from han are you there shelby testifying on item c i w one three thank you for an afternoon everybody if you feel as though you've been here before with this particular item you have and before that you have and before that you have this keeps coming up and the cost of hiring other attorneys in addition to our own t attorneys says gone from two hundred fifty thousand dollars to two million and he said to fifty of the minion and five hundred you know two million two hundred fifty thousand and each time there has been an increase in the amount of money that the taxpayers are going to have to foot the bill for it says not to exceed two hundred fifty thousand not to exceed seven hundred fifty thousand not to exceed it's like i don't know his just so frustrating not even to have a phrase change in that it's like we didn't hear the first time for the second time the third time of the fourth time will give  another world you've got a community out there that's really upset about this first of all the issue is having contaminated water which is a health risk yikes we keep hearing about the money it's going to cost in order to pay for extra attorneys we're not hearing a whole lot about how we make this somewhat healthful situation if the money has to be raised we'd like to see it go to the improved health not to where it has been going and in the agenda today it refers to two different other documents i got them i read them i went through them but i also discovered that there were all sorts of other documents and to timeframes when we knew about the clean water requirements their federal requirements they've been around since seventy two we keep saying at this microphone it's not just you who has been up here but nobody is kind of paying a whole lot of attention to that and one of the documents that's missing it's in the binder everybody knows i hope on the seventh floor and we have binders with all this information and if i can read it anybody can read it you're welcome to go ahead up the staff are wonderful about providing just awesome when march tenth of twenty fifteen and i'm quoting from this exhibits lawman s and have not been included well not been included in however we will no one else has signed up to testify in the chamber thank you i'm going to turn to our district offices in an office is there anyone wishing to testify office is there anyone wishing to testify cow for special counsel authorizing legal aid society of hawaii legal services and minister through office on aging the committees in receipt of the following county communication fifteen dash one forty five from the director of housing and human concerns transmitting a proposed resolution to authorize the employment of the legal aid society of hawaii a special counsel to provide legal services to qualified individuals pursuant to section three das six six of the revised charter of the county of maui one nine hundred eighty three as amended administered through the office of aging with total compensation for two year period not to exceed seventy thousand per year correspondence dated jan june twenty second two thousand and fifteen from the department of corp council's transmitting revised proposed resolution in tiding authorizing the employment of special counsel legal aid society of hawaii for legal services in minister through the office on aging the revised proposed resolution corporates non substantive review the committee may consider whether to recommend adoption of the revised proposed resolution with the right thout revisions the committee may also file the communications fifteen dash one forty five and other related actions i would like to go ahead and call on the representative of the department of housing and human concerns to provide any proof comments regarding this resolution and or the contract before the special counsel thank you chair deborah stonewalls mally county executive on a and thank you members of the committee for letting me address here today the older americans act actually with the money that pass passes down from the federal from congress to the state through the whole white executive office on aging requires that each area agency on aging provide legal services to seniors and to grandparents raising grandchildren so this resolution saying that we're required to do this by federal mandate yes sir but they're not giving us money now we get money for it it's they require that we we print we use a percentage of our overall allotment  to go specifically towards legal services for seniors and grandparents raising grandchildren and they provide the money to do so much or ok so this is just more to hire the special counsel using the money that using the country this year we are actually moving towards all of our contracts towards federal fiscal year you're so right now we are on a and extension period but beginning october one we will be utilizing the federal fiscal year for our contracts for services for seniors two thousand and seventeen hear what you i believe a lot of their funding is federal funding for the office on aging so it made sense for them to move towards that federal fiscal year thank you i would a stream when you consider that authorization to be within with that being said mr okama that triggers a question on what are you going to do with the gap because there's a gap period if where if you're expiring june thirtieth and you're starting a federal  up right now we're currently under contract our current contract period ins we we did an extension until december thirty first because the last money was not fully used so we have extended the time period until december thirty first so there will be no gap ok so if you extended it there's provisions in the contract that says that any subsidy of changes has to be approved by the county by the council so i guess my question to corporation counsel would now be is that a substantial change in which an extension needed to be needed to be approved by the council extended the time it was just a time extension to use up the rest of the funding it was in anything beyond that we thought it was non substantive ok mr okama i would requirements and part of what we have to say this afternoon chairman i can say is that mr wong is fulfilling his commitment to counsel that everything he believed was truly a special counsel consideration he w through the appropriate standing committee for review and decision making so why and i want to think mr wilkie to pass it on to his boss that mr one is fulfilling his commitment to counsel and putting forth this type of this is before us a special council other than any other country should have come before us also it's an extension of the contract correct german i would agree with you on that other than that i can support the general intent of the request for the  as the authorization for the council  chair thank you i guess my my little i'm a little confused right now in front of the consul asking for permission for moving forward for the next term  for the special counsel where still finishing up the last one we didn't really make any changes just at the use up the money in the grant money so it's kind of more it's a ground it's a grant that we contract services through so we're just using up the grant money we own i apologize we didn't feel it was a substantive change to just fuse up the grant money sorry mr chairman no no no mr  money in that two year period so they're using up the grant money right now and we're asking for permission to enter into a we rebuilt it because a new federal cycle is coming up so we're asking for permission to enter into a new contract with which what happens to be the existing vendor but under a new bid that's what we're trying to so i think you this program has a spend on issues like other federal programs so we need to be aware of well i don't i don't believe they've had any issues with the spend down for  missed by so i think you very much i don't have a question but i would like to speak in support of this you know this program in helping seniors with beagle services has been around for a very long time and it used to be handled by a direct grant to legal aid and it was determined i was on the consulate in couple years ago for the first time when this was brought to us to approve because it was deemed it was something that would come to a head to approve and we could no longer just do it through a direct grant i think you do with giving grants to all the other grantees that you do and so this is vital seniors certainly coming down this kind of assistance and legal aid has been doing it for many many years very successfully and very economically because we don't have a whole lot of and we have a lot of seniors that need a lot of help so i am in full support and i understand the discussion but i would like to see this move forward thank you thank you any other questions mr  this program use i could give examples  any other questions i had one more question on it for the exhibit a on here on the budget on the period of the period ending june thirtieth two thousand and fifteen so this current reza that we're that we have before us passes are you using the money that is appropriated here in this budget is that tied in with this june thirtieth two thousand and fifteen this is the budget for the coming for the coming two year period since we put out our r p after consulting with corporation counsel one of the issues we come into if we end our fiscal year on june thirtieth because of the legal requirements in contracting we don't have enough time to legally procure services to begin july first so we are extending this year only our current contracts for three years sorry three months saving us all money for three months so that we can be on a federal fiscal year contract procurement so we we don't have the worries are seniors going to get there in home care their meals all those types of services that we that we have to be sure happen july one so this money yes is going to be the money utilized basically for the next twenty seven months are the procurement process allows us legally to extend our current contracts three months like to entertain a motion for the read and recommend adoption to the revised proposed resolution entitled authorizing the environment of the special counsel legal aid society of hawaii with respect to providing legal services to qualified joy versus the county a maori disabled disability compensation division case number seven dash eleven dash zero one four two six committee this is a com receipt is receipt of the correspondence dated april twenty fourth two thousand and fifteen from the department corporation counsel requesting consideration of the proposed resolution in title authorizing the settlement in the colonies on joy v vs the county of maui disability compensation division the claim alleges that mr joyce to stand work related injuries on august second two thousand and eleven the purpose of the proposed resolution is to authorize settlement of this case the committee may consider to recommend adoption of the pro proposed resolution with or without revisions and or consider other related actions corporation counsel roe is here today i believe this is your case and you could go ahead and start with your opening statement and in public session thank you chair this industrial injury that occurred on august second two thousand and eleven employee colson joy at the time was a thirty two year old police recruit he was injured in a arrested defense tactic training program we have been able to reach a settlement on this issue with the claimant however that that settlement is outside of the corporation counsel's authority to settle with council approval because this issue is in current litigation and because it involves confidential medical records i would like to request an executive session members who haven't questions in open session seeing none at this time we have a request  or to convene into executive session i'd like to entertain a motion to convene an executive meeting pursuant to section ninety two dash five a for the white vice statute to consult legal counsel on questions and issues pertaining to powers continue on the next item k the first amended complaint transmitted by correspondence stated january twenty seventh two thousand and fifteen alleges violations under the federal water pollution control act also known as the clean water act caused by discharge of wastewater into the ocean from injection wells operated by the county at the line a waste water reclamation facility the purpose of the proposed resolution is to authorize five hundred thousand in addition to compensation for hunting and williams l l p a special counsel in this case for total compensation not to exceed two million two hundred fifty thousand members for your information the committee has received by correspondence dated june twenty five two thousand and fifteen from the department of corporation counsel a copy of the order denying defendants motion for summary judgment based on lack of fair notice and granting plaintiff's motion for partial summary judgment regarding civil penalties filed in this thank you chair just as a summary of today's agenda we as you stated we forwarded a resolution for the committee's consideration authorizing an increase in fees for special counsel and additionally the recent court summary judgment related to fair notice is in your binders and will discuss the order and the ramifications in terms of special counsel fees and legal strategy going forward in executive session if that's your preference as far as a status update as you know may thirtieth two thousand and fourteen and then again on january twenty third twenty fifteen judge mall way granted plaintiff's most motions related to until the penalty phase of the trial starting on august eleventh so in five weeks on june twenty fifth just last week the the court denied the county's motion for summary judgment penalty will be calculated once we get to the penalty phase on july twenty fourth twenty fifteen we have the final pretrial conference with judge current scheduled and then as i said there penalty this begins august eleventh that's all i have an open session but i would appreciate the opportunity to provide some insight into what our options are moving forward  a regulation applies to you or that a regular something that you are doing is prohibited we argued in essence that none of the regulatory agencies or department of health or the e p a informs the county that the clean water act charges to the wells and chose to regulate those under the u s c permits and the judge did not agree with us members any further questions in open session seeing nine we have a request to convene an executive session i would like to entertain a motion to convene an executive session meaning persuade to section ninety two dash five  for the hoary or vice statute to consult with their legal counsel on any questions or issues that pertain to powers duties and privileges immunities and liabilities of the county council and or can the or this committee at this time members i'm going to take a brief recess so that we may convene executive session did place on the communication on july seventh two thousand and fifteen council meeting agenda to consider the proposed resolution so without further objections the chair will defer this matter oh ok i thank you  moving on to the next item members who are looking at item number cow one friend ten and that is the authorization settlement of the  to recommend adoption of the proposed resolution entitled authorizing the settlement of of color so enjoy v county of maui disability compensation division case number seven dash of eleven