little testimony before this committee is limited to three minutes max you have no additional minute to count clude sort of please follow the lighting on the podium to assist you with your time if three minutes again when the river light goes on that paris will come forward and share her thoughts with the committee this morning please morning council members good morning my name is connie paris and i am a clerks three with the department of public works as well as a member of the clerical repricing committee i helped to launch this repricing initiative over three years ago when a small group of clerks express their discontent with their salaries in comparison to the work they perform for the county day in and day out it has been a long road that has had many detours and speed bumps along the way we are here today fighting for approval of a budget amendment we were last here in december of two thousand and fourteen fighting for approval of the same issue the difference between unskilled blue collar laborers and clerks then was six hundred twenty five dollars a month we are now at eight hundred dollars a month this number will continue to climb unless someone in power does something about it we have proven our case time and time again i doubt any of you will disagree with me when i say that county clerks should at the very least be getting paid as much as an unskilled labor janitor or parks caretaker there is too much finger pointing going on whether this is an employer union or council issue is irrelevant this is an equality issue and is based on equal pay for equal worth the county nor the state is paying clerks a fair wage for the work that they perform as we have stated in earlier discussions the prerequisite is a clerk must have a lone call for higher pay imagine your jobs without the clerks that assist you how many of you realize that when they are out of the office for just one day how things seemingly non coincidentally unravel though we are at the end of this fiscal year and due to whatever reasons that this issue was not heard in january and mediately after it was transmitted we are here now a new budget amendment for fiscal year seventeen will be sent in along with the supplemental agreement to the current bargaining unit three contracts i challenge you council members to hear that amendment the week after you receive it everyone including this council the marriage and our union all say they want to help yet here we are three years later and only the one sufferings are the clerks imagine yourself in the situation imagine around every corner encountering a roadblock and having to turn around and navigate a new path let maui lead this initiative in equal pay for clerks approving this amendment or a version thereof will be the first step in the long road ahead think of the many clerics you may personally know and how much of a difference you can make in their lives thank you thank you for your comments high council i want to thank you so much for putting this on the agenda we're thrilled to finally get it at least in front of you my name is karen finney i am currently the administrative officer for the department of parks and recreation i'm not a clerk in my job but i see the difference between what clerks make every single day and what unskilled laborers make every single day as part of the written testimony i've submitted today is one hundred and thirty six different titles of clerks in this county and their wages and how it compares to labor wages and you will notice out of three hundred fifty nine clerks nineteen of those are male so out of three hundred fifty nine clerks this appears to be a definite gender issue i know we don't want to talk about gender but the world is talking about gender you're seeing it every single day on television this is not just a maui county problem this is a world problem movie stars are speaking out about it women's soccer champions are speaking out about it i would love to see our island  leader and taking a stand on this women in the county in this state are making ten thousand dollars a year less than a janitor these clerks run the county they run the state and i do believe if we don't recognize this and take action there is i don't know what's going to happen but these clerks are not getting paid what they deserve they need to go to have two years of education or experience just to get a job or a janitor or an unskilled labor highway laborer parks caretaker needs zero for ten good morning budget cheer chama council members i'm just come a commie from feed my sheep and i'm here to speak on the agenda item creasing the funding for family knife and now the reason i'm here is because you know you all know me pretty well i think i have a real heart for those in our island to our underprivileged and we have an epidemic right now one of my staff members at feed my sheep her and her husband went out to look for a two bedroom house for her their son they just had a new baby born baby they can't find anything under two thousand dollars people can't live on this kind of kind of thing so we have to work on this because we have a hidden homeless problem it's far bigger than those on the street we do have a problem with the men on the street who are an issue for people like my husband and all that but we have to take some looks at some permanent housing and i do believe right now is a good opportunity to go in that direction because first off it's not that visible at the moment compared to what it's going to be like next year and we have some people that are players in this that are so high integrity that i would actually put my hand my life in their hands like monique of you all and then my becoming these folks are really good at what they do their integrity is high and they love our island as much as and as much as you do you know i thank you very much for being who you are because each and every one of you sit here because you love this silence so much because i wouldn't want your job i work hard long hours and i work nothing like you so i know that that's your heart as well in what you decide will be for the betterment of our island but we do need to look at our hidden homeless that are people who are having to live on the couches in the backyards i know people who have tents in their backyards or their mother's house my own children live in my house because there's no way they can afford anything and they have good jobs so we have an issue here that if we don't take care to remember that when we called the great exodus back in the seventy's well i think we're looking at that again with our children and we would like to keep our local people here and that's all i have to say thank you for your comments on a scholar coming members any questions for the lead testimony and i have one sense of one sense of one number out there and we see it was some numbers done recently and i don't have them up the top of my head that i think we could probably get some kind of you know the hidden homeless is tough really tough i would say close to one hundred percent maybe seventy five to ninety percent of those i serve are hidden homeless because we serve the impoverished you know for me to say that you  counting to get some better numbers for you just you know we do a survey we're going to be doing that this weekend to start asking people how many live in your household we do get those numbers but where are they several families things like that those are not specific questions we ask it's just something we we know off the top of our heads you know it's just not a number we have at the moment but i think that's something we could work on can thank you very much for your presence this morning we should go to our district offices and is there any one to do with this committee office anyone wishing to provide testimony community and good morning to all of you i want to begin my presentation first of all by apologizing to anyone here who may have been offended or hurt by some of the communications that were in our efforts to be yourself please sorry my name is carolyn mildred franklin i am the commission support clerk for the board of review for the real property assessment division ok all right so now that i've apologized i'm going to give you some statistics that are that i got from the washington post c n n and cornell university this contains the power that we do have we have the power to vote we can vote people in office and we cannot vote for people in two thousand and twelve mr obama won the women's vote he had fifty five percent romney had forty four according to the exit polls more women vote than men in hawaii county this was a statistic from the county clerk four thousand more women voted in the last election so when this issue of the repricing came up i remember when i worked in the hotels and i was a secretary for fifty eight an hour in the dishwasher getting over fourteen they tell me well that's because they have a union so now we have a union so we went to the union and said what about this and they said well it's the employer to set your prices so we go to the employer and they go you know you have to talk to the union about that and maybe the county council so he doesn't do it she doesn't do it they don't do it whose job is it why don't we make it our job everyone here to do something to write this inequality over forty percent of the homeowners in this country are women single women and we have to feed our children educate them close them how do and feed them and we do it on less money than a man who is a single parent this hurts us it hurts our society and i think that's just about all i have to say remember that we have the power of the vote and this is unfair thank you thank you m frank any questions for the levy on her testimony thank you very much david daley on please concerns to deal with the homeless crisis and forward acquisition to shelters to be used in sanctuaries for housing challenge neighbors we understand the reluctance to gauge in this growing problem this is a new expensive undertaking a rabble lease this is a responsibility that our community can no longer avoid shelter is a basic human need while some of those folks elsewheres others are local families often with young children struggling to survive roughly one third of our population are paying fifty percent or more of their county because our community does not have access to lose your home your current home and it may be a long time before you find a new one our association along with the county's department of  housing and you may concerns and maui homo so why is recently sponsored a landlord summer and ordered to seek out any remaining on the utilized to walling units we did that because we have families with section eight more expensive to allow this situation to go on interest to fester homelessness is a crisis for now for both the homeless and for the community as a whole being forced to live in the elements without proper shelter is unhealthy debilitating and delete the crazy behavior having seldon's of these individuals and this conditioning water your around our community cannot but have a negative effect on all of us that is why we believe it's long past time that we act this or the recognizes that it's to seriously address homelessness we need to have someone in government focused on it and we agree with that and that would be very i would think the numbers of mr okama is asking for would come from be an agency like that not necessarily the folks out there in the field trying to make and make things expedition's expeditious development of transitional housing and ultimately a greater or greatly increased development of housing our working population can afford but for now let's take that first step model thank you m happy that the council is turning their focus to address issues of homelessness and looking for proper proper solutions a lot of people who are  large majority of individuals who are homeless are also persons with disabilities and we're we ask that the council also consider accessibility  issues so again you know and we find that all agencies that work together with the homeless alliance but also with the  also low income and making sure that these places are accessible to and also to individuals with disabilities so thank you very much for allowing me to testify i hear that right with the with various disabilities because disability include everything from mental health to physical to sensory disabilities so there's a very big crossover between the two do you have a percentage are we like this nancy my if you would come down committee i'm very nervous today this is my first time being a part of your meetings i did work in the planning department when i joined the county and twenty fourteen as a clerk and so i guess i've been in their shoes and i'm i'm here to t support that how we value our employees how we value those in our community and support their livelihood is going to have a very direct direct relation on the support and value of our community members i'm very grateful for the time and energy you expend here i thought homelessness was a very interesting other agenda item to be in connection with the clerk repricing today simply because i can imagine how many of the women and coworkers that i worked with that many of us are probably about one paycheck away from potential homelessness and many of us probably rely on other community resources to assist us i guess today i have been impressed with there was a press release that you had put out on june twenty third and there is two questions that council member com asked and those were first how will the administration fund these programs that is an excellent question and that is something that i know is a weight that goes on your shoulders i know as we budget our own personal finances in our homes we have to determine what is most valuable and what is not an egg and i hope that you will find that showing equal pay for equal worth i know that there was or i was told earlier that there had been funds appropriated back in two thousand and fourteen for this repricing effort and i do hope that if those funds were once potentially available that they could become available again but i know that will be through your hard work and efforts and looking through the budget with a fine tooth comb and the other question that you asked in the press release was what is the justification for the proposed salary increases that should have taken place during contract negotiations and i guess in support of carolyn's thoughts is that the union is so much more than just the county clerks when i actually prepared but i don't say all have enough time but just the unskilled labor list with a janitor versus a clerk three incoming pay is three thousand and seventy six dollars for a clerk one and twenty four hundred six dollars almost a six hundred and seventy dollars gap between these incoming women who require anyway i'll prepare these statements but just the qualifications are very vast and the and the respective job duties  so i mean six hundred seventy dollars for me is dependant day care suggests a huge issue in what can be comprised and i know that i guess your decisions will be very helpful in supporting us and i know it  makes a difference in my life and the life of my coworkers and it could be a very valuable to us says as you know your neighbors your friends your coworkers and we do appreciate your time and consideration you did very we'll so thank you for sharing your thoughts with the committee members any questions for the levy testimony shared this morning those items if you'd like to share it with the committee please give it to the staff and we'll make sure that each member has a copy of classes of work within the county of mali many employed by the county and make more than women more than their women counterparts excuse me i started working for the county as a clerk typ wow even after eleven years in a promotion i'm still earning less than a laborer so starting pay i believe a higher value is being placed on physically demanding work that is performed by men compared to the intellectually demanding clerical positions held by women we work hard often under pressure and have a lot of demanding daily tasks i feel our pay is not in line with our education training skills knowledge and ability at the costs as the cost of living increases so does our list of job duties and added responsibilities however our salaries do not result in financial hard excuse me our salaries do not result in financial hardship and the burden of living paycheck to paycheck furthermore leave leaving us with nothing left to put away for our retirement please consider a solution to close the pay gap between men and women we have been patient and deserve to be valued for  good morning chair good morning counsel my name is lisa d'arcy and i am the former executive director at home was the home on a foundation and i'm now a consultant but i'm also a very active community member with  very very very large agenda i just have to say based upon what i have read that was on line some always speaking to what the package that i've received on line i mean able to support the mayor's proposal for and i believe it's sixteen forty two and i say this with caution my goal here today to offer a point of view that will ultimately strengthen this proposal i have been trained as a critical thinker and as someone who is always focused on evidence based practices in the proposal is suggestion to make three staff lines at a county level and i think this is really positive they need to be added and they need to be added for a long time i've actually asked me or quite a long time ago to consider the so i'm happy to see that but along with that if we truly want to make an impact we need to add multiple stamp clients to multiple agencies in my opinion  if the goal of this money is to just get people into some shelter i think it will work however we can't address this in a silo and what i think this proposal does is it addresses the silo we need to become more cognizant of individuals becoming self sufficient and the goals of the shelters are generally to get people with government assistance the role i've played in this community is to really get people off of government assistance and to become self sufficient in the community itself i recognise that this proposal is also only addressing like twelve percent of the homeless are on shelter population that's the really critically ill and needy  individuals i think my questions and my my my point of view comes from it begs questions that i didn't see really any input from the mine memorial center that i wasn't able to ascertain whether aloha house was involved or the drug court or sober living program mental health i don't know where their voices in their of delivery to house people in their critical need to how is also steadfast housing my mental health  it's really important i think to understand where they've come from our disability alliance i'm an active member of the my homeless lions and this is never come before us in the maori homeless alliance those pieces cannot be overlooked if you are really going to put a get a proposal together that is going to get people from not just a place where they're going to have no rain on their shoulders but actually a place where they're going to get healthier and i know the three minutes is up i have so many comments on this that  just i hope get considered and yeah the way this stands i really feel that this is not going to address anything long term whatsoever and it may only produce a very short term solution and please this is of no disrespect to everybody who's working their heart out in the community who's doing this but we don't have the oversight to connect all these and if we work if we're going to move forward we have to have that that's yeah pages thank i thank you for your assistance ladies members of you know further requests for just a morning we show close testimony for today's meeting in all directions thank you we have also received communications as part of testimony see upon receiving communications what you chair has in a chronological manner and distributed to the members so members you same tenth of two thousand and fifteen your chair requested for a special meeting to discuss the amendments to this current year's fiscal year budget relating to homeless and affordable housing plan revise bills to between increasing the bond requests for space makes units as well as the revised bill increasing bond authorisation up to nine hundred ninety thousand dollars  and its burden on the general fund on december twenty second we received from the director of the department a response to your cheers letter you see twenty fourth christmas eve the governor discussion on the proposed bills and i would tell you that as far as my records are concerned recording that meeting we had five testimonies three individuals and two from associations not related specifically to the homeless or housing program in that one entity showed up for the meeting the department regarding various information on the county's homeless program february eighth we have the response for misrata february sixteenth we have the response from the director of the department letter of february sixteenth over the fiscal year two thousand and sixteen a five hundred four hundred five hundred forty five thousand dollars projects are funding relating to the home this matter and that some middle further in your committee's review that you said in members c v b g funds did not focus on any homeless subject the proposal to use affordable housing fun for just homeless population or housing needs april twentieth of this year your committee how a discussion with the department of housing concerns the director stated her requests for funding for a new division under d partment we also asked the deputy director what coordination was made for homeless programs with the fifteen point four email dollars that the council has given to department from two thousand and eleven to two thousand and sixteen and we were informed that most of these monies went towards many of the agencies who are part of the homeless alliance agency rick you know further express a clarification on the use of the land immediately across from probably food land is an area planned for exploit shelters and other expanded services mr barr that date o knowledge that one point one eight six million in funding proposed by the mayor was to be used for services for homeless individuals only with no plans for a facility in this area  additional revenue to fund that request of one point five million dollars  and has the corresponding stated that you have received remembers the proposed increase will be generated by the third he put twenty fifth i presented to you the two thousand and seventeen budget proposal i asked where did the one point five million dollars carry over come from at that point in time or presenting from the budget office stated carry over savings came from two previously proposed budget amendments one for the department of housing and human concerns for the homeless program and one for the clerks increases that we did not that we expect not to be a i understand and i appreciate all the testimony we have received so far the reality is there is no money to fund these two bills at this point in time it has been certified personality if you feel is appropriate to be able to come on and respond to any questions from members of this community mr abbas i think mr chair and we appreciate the recap may have a discrepancy in a few minor items but in general we recap a good understanding of what has transpired over the last six months or so and we do also want to acknowledge that the two positions in f i seventeen budget for the human concerns program specifically for the almost division are very much appreciated as it was a part of our original request there and then also this additional affordable housing frank ordinator  division will assist the overall problem of so again we're appreciative of the council's support in those areas as far as the budget amendment originally trans been on november twenty fifth is request additional funding in the homeless programs for that support hoping that space back shelters would be purchased and be able to put into place council did fund an additional three hundred fifty nine thousand dollars specifically in the homeless programs from six hundred forty one thousand to a million dollars and and again that's very appreciative and you know we're looking at ways that we can use that money to impact the other thing that we initially mayor had included in phase two of the request was cemented health support for those that are diagnosed with mental health issues that are homeless and we had requested two hundred thousand dollars and council funded one hundred thousand dollars of that so that was again very very appreciative of the support the council gave for the fiscal year seventeen budget the main concern that the mayor had and the reason for  the implementation in correspondence with governor's proclamation was specifically about the shelters for those shelters to be put into place we needed to do that during the proclamation period and because during that proclamation period it allows us to waive zoning and and building requirements so that was really the rush to purchase those buildings and to be get them to be put into place if you know we'd like to continue this and work on you know what we've got so far and we'll probably be submitting a budget amendment shortly to see ok will what is it they can do now  there was two presentations by the mayor to the council and special council meetings and we appreciate your wait for allowing the mayor to come down and present to those and in there there was the short term which was mentioned in there was also long term that was mentioned as well and i think the testimony that was presented here this morning neglected to to look at the long term that the mayor had presented at that point and then along with you know in  a committee there are items in there that are related to other things you know for homelessness that we haven't been pushing too hard on because we wanted to make sure that we had a space for them to use the restrooms and to be clean before we forced it on them like that to give them alternatives so you know those are still high priority items but getting to shelters and getting on budget director bob but i do want to continue with homeless homelessness chronic homeless veteran homeless homeless families and rise our each why runaway homeless youth yes the rise are on the rise no pun intended i just wanted to how the department is very appreciative of the addition of the two positions in the homeless division and these positions will be able to give cont'd continuity and provide my county the lead for it recognizing the needed entry system for the homeless this is going to be a cordon needed effort by agencies in the able to better house the homeless i really want to think testifiers this morning as well as the molly homeless alliance chairs that are here and the members that have come to support this bill moving forward we just one and just letting you know that we are very very concerned about molly county and the homeless population so i just wanted to say thank you for all that you have supported us with and  moving forward and on behalf of director rhymin and myself we would like to take this opportunity to say thank you as we come to the end of fiscal year sixteen and to thank you for your support and continued working together with the department of housing and human concerns we look forward to a great fiscal year seventeen ahead and then of course i would be remiss if we do not acknowledge our hardworking seas division heads and staff for their tireless and hard work for our money county so thank you department of housing and human concerns and thank you coun time i listen to interest with interest to the idea that we are going to have two positions originally they want to know we have to does that can you function with that for now you just just to really clarify that you know moving forward with homelessness the real and for state red and national also the real focus is on housing permanent housing i understand and  hear a more defined way of when you hear about housing first here housing focus that's kind of like the new term that's out there now so again thank you yes miss but i totally understand that you know the only way to solve this is that we're going to need a lot more permanent housing however we have a we have a situation where you have a crisis kind of situation and in my opinion it goes every day i travel all over the place and everywhere i go i'm beginning to see it more and more to the point where it's very frightening you know it's not unusual to see all bevy of it along the side of the road wherever you know there's quite a few people there so it seems to be spreading and yes we have some major work to do long term but i'm thinking what can we do short term so that's where i'm coming from thank you thank you very much mr coach any questions for   but for this you know we know that we need more affordable rentals i mean we're working on the best we can here have you looked at other programs in other locations that provide affordable rentals outside of the box i know that austin has a really nice little tiny home village that there are many many programs out there yes and we have been looking at many of the tiny homes jacks then of course it all comes down to where and  in my neighborhood and we just need a lot of support in finding the land because we have looked into the many many houses micro units even  containers to be transformed into housing so the answer is yes share issue i just wanted to share engaged and what goes on so that's that's coming up as well as on thursday we will we will be vacating the river mouth area and  personally went yesterday to deliver a dumpster so they know that we're coming and got to talk to many of the people there saying that thank you for bringing the dumpster so that we can put our  the other the other meetings that we're going that's moving forward is the beach park situation with the homeless as well and i think the reason why i make these comments is because you're going to we're seeing that the departments the collaboration of the many departments are coming together now and really focusing on trying to not trying we're really doing  a collaborative effort of of the homeless issues here in maui come to thank you q that opened up another whole lot of but again that's probably housing is still correct with the fourth proclamation of the fifth proclamation right so weavers of state and county laws would be based on the intent of solving the homelessness whether that means temporary housing or permanent housing i am not aware and i don't know if our corporate counsel has is ready to answer any of those kind of questions we have the proclamation here you have  i think we have the latest version i have an older version with not only in my recollection was that we were limited to providing transitional housing and i think most of us cept the fact that the real challenge is we have very little progress in housing that's available and so the transitional housing seems to be getting getting overloaded with people that are staying for longer periods of time than would consider t consider transitional so i think and share i think i'm not sure that i think we probably need to focus on transitional housing as well as permanent housing  wahoo we were given information yesterday that of the homeless shelters documents is only fifty percent because the people go the people that are out there don't want to  be i guess the lack of a better word constrained by the rules of of a shelter and so just building the shelters doesn't solve the problem but i appreciate the collaboration between the to cheer on and i'm keenly aware of it can i do is done it very very mild the other day and it was pretty bad too thank you for bringing that dumpster because i one of the concerns we had was how do we get rid of all that refuse that they have piled up on the area you mayor mayor and i have had some good discussions recently and the media has made it so that there seems to be a wall between us yes we have our disagreements we're too question the intent of the marital we argue on what is the proper priorities of certain subjects and so i say this and i have agreed to continue to improve our communications and we will be looking at finding more common ground regarding the homeless issue so that we can do what is appropriate within the responsibilities and purview of your  county my discussions with america has been it's great to have a governor who's proclamation but being aware of the size of their surplus i'm disappointed the governor has not put more financial resources to the colonies disposal to help move his initiative forward understanding to state constitution as i do it is clear who has the responsibility regarding this community assist the state but in no way should this county feel that we should take the state's responsibility on our limited friend and chill generation components and fun what should be state general fund support for us them and i have discussed this we have some agreement introduced area of general funds and i have i'm assuring you this morning members of this committee that the mare and i have come to agreements to a very sneer future multiple meetings to discuss all we can jointly as a county government move this subject forward and so i can tell you that there is communication  committed to frame coming ground and to move forward there was this agreement and the questions for you chair undecided on key if not members should choose testimony from various employees regarding their concerns of paying equity if i put forth an attachment that we have received this shows and we appreciate this document whoever put this together regarding labor is as well as parting you need three while i can appreciate the testimony that there are bargaining unit chair and members the budget amendment leave presented was based on an amendment to the fiscal year sixteen budget which we estimated the amount of funds the contract and they apply to all individuals in those units for state was right for all employers so for us to go in and change that pay scale  three and so that's where that came from so what we would be doing is you know making it so that a person who is either starting off new or add a step that is lower in dollar value to that would be increasing their step to that dollar value and it's a few dollars higher but very very comparable so an example would be a person start off at a nine a might that's how we came up with the total dollar amount so what we're at at this point is that the department personal services is drafting a supplemental agreement so  s school year two thousand and seventeen budget amendment to cover those costs and then the council will have the opportunity to review the draft supplemental agreement as well as the  budget and you know the cost of that and how we're going to fund opening comments in question thank you for your comments mr bowser appreciate for consultation how long does say ok no we wanted to look at it through again it's more for our information of how the process works mr burroughs again i'm not sure how long it would take and this would be just the my we  the union representation the head of that is mr prayer and we'd be requesting his commenter view on this supplemental agreement not just the maui district office when do you think this proposed supplemental agreement may be moving forward to the union mr boss is shared for see within the next few weeks hopefully by the middle of july will be able to transmit that to the union and then give them you know said certain period of time maybe three months to respond appropriately and hopefully can get a you know they agreed to it in just stood members any other question any questions you may have for mr barr and if you have a question we have the leads so i don't have a problem with asking them as a resource to respond to a members of unit three to express their views on why this is very important overall not only for the county employee but overall as far as labor is concerned we go to work equit talking about this today it's been in the back of my in maine for a long time we have been receiving letters and requests and pleas for many many months and for a long time and i'm glad to see that it's finally coming together i believe that these folks are essential to very essential you know we always talk about essential workers and we think about essential workers we think about policemen and firemen whatever but you know what really makes the wheels to people like this they sit in their desks making sure that everything gets done and put in a computer and get paid into law then they spend a lot of time and they work very hard and are very seldom told good  thank you very much so i think this is what's happening here today we want to let them know that we do appreciate the work that they do and i hope that very soon we'll be able to reward them financially because you know everybody struggling and when i look at the seller is that these people earn their own little income with these tellers if there's two of them in a home they barely make oles median income so i'm glad they were able to do something of i apologize to them for not communicating well it was difficult for me to share some of my as they shared with them some of the strategies that if it was critical to protect the strategy in your budget chair i appreciated they were at least open they may not have agreed but you know i shared my perspective and my apologies to there for not communicating well but second i would say generals or the directors and so i appreciate their role in making county government work because on a day to day basis that's the face the public seems to clerks