City criticized over cost to maintain donated boat

The $2.33 billion operating budget approved by the Honolulu City Council last week includes $14.5 million for the Ocean Safety Division, an increase of $4.5 million for the fiscal year that begins July 1.

Oahu’s lifeguards — primary responders to ocean-related emergencies at beaches and in nearshore waters — lobbied the Council for more Jet Skis and extended hours to better protect beachgoers.

“This budget year we’ve been listening to the lifeguards,” said Ann Kobayashi, the City Council’s budget chairwoman. “They have been asking for more dawn-to-dusk lifeguard coverage and for more Jet Skis because it’s easier and faster to get out to someone on a Jet Ski. We’re buying more Jet Skis because it’s so effective for what their duties are.”

The additional funds are tagged for:

>> $2.2 million in salary raises

>> $630,000 to hire new water safety lieutenants and to increase lifeguard coverage hours beyond 9 a.m. to 5:30 p.m.

>> $345,000 for new equipment including trucks, Jet Skis, lifesaving equipment, uniforms and maintenance supplies

>> $355,000 for new lifeguard towers

>> $1 million to remodel, design and plan new Ocean Safety district offices and training centers in its four districts

But Kobayashi said it came as a surprise to her that the Ocean Safety Division recently accepted a donated rescue boat that will cost the city $160,000 annually to operate on a limited basis.

In April, the Hawaii Community Development Authority, which is overseeing development in Kakaako, announced and presented the boat, a Boston Whaler built in Florida, to the city. It is now being leased to the city for $1 a year. The boat’s $118,117 price tag was covered by state taxpayers.

HCDA, in tandem with the Howard Hughes Corp., developer of Ward Village in Kakaako, had announced that it provided an office, which can be used as a lifeguard station, as a way to invest in public safety at Kewalo Basin. The original announcement was made in 2014.

But Carroll Cox, whose weekly radio show on KWAI-AM1080 spotlights government waste and environmental issues, said providing for the operation and maintenance of the rescue boat amounts to a redundant use of city funds as the Honolulu Fire Department already operates rescue boats.

“No one mentioned this boat,” Kobayashi said. “Nobody said anything about more money for maintenance or training or anything. … The money comes out of their budget, and if the boat is … not necessary, why are we paying all this money?”

Mark Rigg, director of the city Emergency Services Department, maintains that the rescue boat is useful in that it can transport multiple people from boating or aircraft accident sites, has room to perform CPR and other first aid efforts and can tow vessels.

Ocean Safety maintains the boat will be used to respond to ocean emergencies, while the Fire Department’s boats are used for body recovery, and are not meant to save lives.

Last year Ocean Safety began paying $960 a month rent for a boat slip because it didn’t want to lose its spot to another tenant, Rigg said in a written response to the Honolulu Star-Advertiser’s questions about the rescue boat.

The money came out of an Ocean Safety gift account, he said.

So far, plans for the boat’s use are limited to weekends, holidays and special events. Rigg said three lifeguards are required to adequately man the boat, and its operation will cost $160,000 annually, not including raises.

“We will go into operation once training is complete and there is no definitive timeline set for that,” he said.

Funding is expected to come out of the just approved $14.5 million budget for Ocean Safety for the 2017 fiscal year that starts next month.

Cox insists the rescue boat is unnecessary, arguing it would likely have troubles in nearshore waters.

“For people in the surf, canoers, kayakers, they’re in the break zone. You don’t want to take a boat with propellers in shallow waters,” he said, noting that such a boat could easily overturn in breaking surf, or its hull could hit the reef.

Also, a person picked up by boat must be brought to a harbor to be offloaded, said Cox, a former California Department of Fish and Game patrol boat boarding officer and game warden and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service special agent.

A Jet Ski, as demonstrated during big wave surfing contests, is a more efficient means of transporting an injured individual to a waiting ambulance on a beach, he said.

Rigg said rescue skis “may be more appropriate for certain rescues,” and pointed out that the South Shore has one. Ocean Safety currently has six rescue skis for the entire island. He contends that in some cases having an Ocean Safety boat already in the water would “decrease response times considerably.”

Brian Keaulana, a former city lifeguard, said, “The boat could serve as a roving lifeguard tower.” But the lingering question, he said, is “how fast they can get the actual call, jump on a boat and get there.”

The Howard Hughes Corp. began managing the Kewalo Basin Harbor in September 2014. It donated $18,500 to build an aluminum dock and a gangplank.

Todd Apo, vice president of Community Development for Ward Village, said the company was not involved in the decision to donate a boat but made the donation to improve the dock at the request of HCDA since the existing dock could not accommodate the rescue boat.

The HCDA is now providing free office space to Ocean Safety at Kewalo Basin for monitoring ocean and weather conditions, and to store boat and rescue ski equipment.