The nine members of the City Council criticized Mayor Kirk Caldwell and his administration on Wednesday for asking the Council to approve two last-minute measures that would spend $48.1 million on housing projects.
In a rare move, the nine members of the Council voted to approve — but all "with reservations" — resolutions 13-172 and 13-176, both of which are tied to the city’s sale last year of 12 affordable housing complexes to a private developer for $142 million.
City Budget Director Nelson Koyanagi and Community Services Director Pam Witty-Oakland told Council members that the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development required the city to include the sale’s proceeds in its Community Development Block Grant "action plan," or a priority list of housing projects, and that the list needed to be submitted by Aug. 15.
An original action plan, submitted by former Mayor Peter Carlisle’s administration, was rejected by HUD in June because it did not include the $37.6 million from the sale, Koyanagi said.
Witty-Oakland said failure to meet the deadline would jeopardize the city’s annual share of the Community Development Block Grant and other federal funds of about $10.5 million this year.
Council Budget Chairwoman Ann Kobayashi said the late action on the two measures curtailed opportunities for public comment and for the Council to carefully weigh its options.
"It’s unfortunate that we’re in this predicament that we were not able to have a Budget Committee hearing on these priorities, which are important not only to this Council but to many people in the nonprofit world," Kobayashi said. "The public was who suffered on this because there was no hearing on this matter."
Witty-Oakland said the Council would have a chance to further refine the priority list when the administration seeks its approval to solicit proposals on the projects in the coming months.
Among the changes are $10 million for a "multiservice center program" and $5 million for Caldwell’s Housing First pilot program to help the homeless.
Councilman Stanley Chang also raised questions after the meeting.
"Federal CDBG funds provide important support to neighborhoods, where the critical funding is needed for infrastructure, affordable housing, social services, and other key programming," Chang said. "Today was the first time that the priorities have been made public … and I am concerned the public was not more involved in this process of determining these priorities."
Councilwoman Kymberly Pine said Council members should have had the opportunity to contact HUD officials themselves and ask for a time extension.
"We have a public policy of ensuring that the public is involved," she said.
"I’m really disappointed that we find ourselves in this position where we’re having to approve something without much discussion," Councilman Breene Harimoto said.
Council Chairman Ernie Martin questioned why Caldwell would chastise the Council for placing nonprofit grants in the budget without much fanfare, even though that plan went through multiple full Council and Budget Committee hearings, and then allow for these changes to be made with no public input.
Witty-Oakland later told the Star-Advertiser that very few changes were made to the final language from the original drafts of the resolutions and that most of those changes, including the priority list, reflected the wishes of the Council. That list, however, was unavailable to the public on the city’s online Docushare file system as of Wednesday night.
Council members also voted to defer a vote on Resolution 13-177, which would put on the 2014 ballot a proposal to amend the City Charter to strip the Honolulu Board of Water Supply of much of its authority, including its ability to approve its own budgets. Several people raised objections that the resolution was scheduled to be heard despite it not being on Wednesday’s agenda.
Board of Water Supply Manager-Chief Engineer Ernest Lau submitted written testimony arguing that the resolution is unnecessary.
Approved on first reading were bills that still require two more approvals of the Council as well as several committee OKs:
» Bill 48, granting rezoning necessary for the 576-acre, 3,500-unit Koa Ridge project between Waipio and Mililani.
» Bill 47, adopting a revised Koolau Loa Sustainable Communities Plan that will guide growth and development in the area from Kaaawa to Turtle Bay.
» Bill 44, granting a rezoning request that allows a 120-unit apartment-condominium complex as high as 350 feet on the site of the Central YMCA on Atkinson Drive.
