Latest / The One Oʻahu Podcast with Mayor Rick Blangiardi / Mayor Blangiardi and Budget Director Andy Kawano on the FY26 Proposed Budget

Transcript

Mayor Blangiardi and Budget Director Andy Kawano on the FY26 Proposed Budget · The One Oʻahu Podcast with Mayor Rick Blangiardi

• 0:15
  Welcome to the One O'ahu Podcast.
• 0:17
  I'm your host, Brandi Higa, and today is Thursday, March 6th, 2025.
• 0:21
  And before we jump into things, I just want to thank you,
• 0:24
  our listeners, for helping us get to 10,000 downloads.
• 0:27
  Wow. Yeah.
• 0:29
  So thank you to everyone out there who's listening.
• 0:32
  Putting up with my voice.
• 0:33
  Mayor's voice. Yeah.
• 0:34
  So I said wow. God bless you.
• 0:37
  But we're back to speak of our Rick Blangiardi and budget director,
• 0:40
  Andy Kawano, because it's a big week for the city's Department of Budget
• 0:44
  and Fiscal Services.
• 0:45
  But, mayor, I want to start with you.
• 0:47
  What do you like about the budget that was submitted last week
• 0:50
  to the Honolulu City Council?
• 0:51
  Well, first of all,
• 0:52
  I want to acknowledge you and his team because these are massive budgets.
• 0:55
  So anytime you're talking about something approaching $5 billion,
• 0:59
  there's a lot of
• 1:00
  work that goes into that, a lot of lines to be addressed.
• 1:03
  And quite honestly, in the shifting times that we live in,
• 1:07
  in the priorities that we are establishing and so on, you know,
• 1:10
  there's a lot of thinking, there's just a lot of stuff that has to happen.
• 1:13
  So what I like best about it
• 1:15
  is the fact that it continues to address our priorities, that we have it balanced.
• 1:19
  We feel really confident in it.
• 1:21
  When a guy like Andy says to me, he feels good about it,
• 1:24
  I feel really good about it.
• 1:26
  So good.
• 1:27
  And so we'll see where we go from here.
• 1:30
  But this budget is also it's a 26 budget, which will pick up mid-year.
• 1:34
  Mid-Year, is, you know, truly
• 1:37
  reflective of where we think we are at this point in time as a team,
• 1:41
  from the standpoint of having the proper resources that allow us to execute,
• 1:45
  we say coming into the second term, it's going to be about execution,
• 1:49
  and there's nothing in there that gets our away from executing,
• 1:51
  despite the fact that we've got a lot of complexity.
• 1:55
  And as you know, some of the shifting sands, if you will,
• 1:58
  that have happened as a result of the federal government,
• 2:00
  how are we going to address that?
• 2:01
  How are we, you know, at this point, in a little bit, it's a bit of guesswork
• 2:06
  in a sense, but we've tried to anticipate if if the worst were to happen.
• 2:11
  I think we've got the contingencies in there.
• 2:13
  I think we're we're good.
• 2:14
  So that's what I like best about it.
• 2:16
  It's just thorough, thoughtful, current and even future
• 2:20
  as we could be at this point in time, given what we know, what we don't know,
• 2:23
  and I hope that that's a fair assessment, Andy.
• 2:25
  That's that's a really good assessment.
• 2:26
  I don't have much to say right now.
• 2:30
  Hey, look, I want.
• 2:30
  To make it really clear.
• 2:31
  I want to get really clear. I may be mayor of just costar.
• 2:34
  You know, Andy deserves tremendous credit.
• 2:37
  He and his team again,
• 2:39
  as I've learned and really grown to appreciate it being mayor.
• 2:43
  Now, for some, for a little bit more than four years, this undertaking,
• 2:48
  putting the budget together, it's it's own incredible body of work.
• 2:52
  And so they really do deserve a lot of credit.
• 2:55
  Andy Mayor mentioned flirting with 5 billion for this year.
• 2:58
  If you can break it down for us in terms of operating and CIP,
• 3:00
  what those numbers look like, we're.
• 3:02
  Actually a tad over 5 billion this year, about 5.1.
• 3:05
  So, with regard to operating, we're at 3.93 billion.
• 3:10
  And with regard to our, capital improvement program budget, we're at,
• 3:14
  $1.21 billion.
• 3:17
  So you this is why this over is why and is the numbers guy
• 3:20
  because I just looked at the quick math in my head.
• 3:22
  I thought it came up just shy of five, but that just shows you, you know,
• 3:26
  that's he's a smart guy to me when it comes to addition.
• 3:29
  And there you mentioned priorities.
• 3:30
  What are those priorities as outlined in this budget?
• 3:32
  Well, clearly, you know, we're focused on everything
• 3:34
  and anything we can get done in housing and, and and, you know,
• 3:38
  from that standpoint in the big departments is followed by homelessness
• 3:41
  and what we're dealing with.
• 3:42
  Parks and rec is a big area for us, ongoing infrastructure requirements.
• 3:47
  You know, anything involving our public safety initiatives,
• 3:51
  the systemic operations as we continue to modernize the city
• 3:54
  and staff accordingly, all of that.
• 3:57
  You know, I think we're covering all those bases.
• 4:01
  You got it well covered.
• 4:03
  I think we need to include transit as well.
• 4:05
  Yeah. Bus Andy van in real?
• 4:08
  Yeah. On that.
• 4:09
  Yeah. In fact, I.
• 4:09
  Think for 26, they'll have the largest department budget of the city.
• 4:14
  I think that's almost in the aggregate a half $1 billion.
• 4:17
  That's correct.
• 4:18
  Yeah.
• 4:19
  We can go through it. Line item.
• 4:20
  Yeah. I'm just joking.
• 4:22
  But Andy, let's start with let's start with operating.
• 4:25
  Yeah, I could do that.
• 4:26
  I'm sure that's. The thing about it. He could do it.
• 4:29
  And then. Then we would have
• 4:30
  nobody listen to the podcast because it's it's unbelievable.
• 4:34
  You've you take a break that 10,000 here.
• 4:36
  Okay. So briefly then let's look at the operating budget.
• 4:38
  The largest chunk of that. Where does that going.
• 4:40
  The largest chunk goes to transit services.
• 4:44
  Yeah I broke mirror set approaching a half $1.
• 4:47
  Billion and then the CIP a little bit larger than last year.
• 4:51
  CIP little larger.
• 4:53
  And the largest area that we're funding is, sanitation.
• 4:57
  You know, we have, I believe, just at about $550 million in, sanitation.
• 5:03
  Most of most of it is going to the 2010 concerns that Creek projects,
• 5:09
  and those projects include Sand Island and all that will really,
• 5:13
  I think we're allocating about $244 million to those two projects.
• 5:18
  I think even if we weren't under a consent decree, though, when you consider
• 5:21
  an island population of a million people, you'd be, you know,
• 5:25
  that's just in and of itself going to be, you know, money that needs to get spent.
• 5:30
  You know, are there any other key infrastructure or public service projects
• 5:34
  that you want to highlight?
• 5:36
  Yeah.
• 5:36
  We're going to complete the widening of Sand Island Boulevard.
• 5:39
  I'm so, so. Salt Lake Boulevard.
• 5:42
  I thought that was a street I've never heard of before because
• 5:44
  I'm thinking to myself, worsen our boulevard.
• 5:47
  Sorry about that.
• 5:48
  And that's about $78 million.
• 5:50
  Half of it.
• 5:51
  More than half of it is federally funded.
• 5:53
  We have, work that we're going to do with regard to, the parks.
• 5:59
  So we've set aside, about $65 million for.
• 6:03
  Parks, which I'm very pleased.
• 6:05
  I know, really appreciative of that because, Laura Dern,
• 6:08
  who's our director of Parks and Rec, is the best person
• 6:12
  we could possibly have in that job.
• 6:13
  And she's been a strong advocate for, you know, continual improvement.
• 6:16
  And this is reflective of that.
• 6:17
  And I'm really pleased were able to do it. Yeah.
• 6:19
  And we also have road work.
• 6:21
  As mayor mentioned earlier, we have our rehab of street,
• 6:24
  rehabilitation of streets, monies at close to $40 million
• 6:28
  so that, and, nearly 20 million on top of that for bridge work.
• 6:34
  Yeah.
• 6:34
  All much needed is honestly, you know, if there's been something that's been,
• 6:39
  gratifying in a
• 6:40
  way that, randomly, you know, people will stop
• 6:43
  and they'll notice us getting the streets paved and things that we're fixing.
• 6:48
  They really appreciate that.
• 6:49
  I mean, people go out of their way to say that, you know, and I'm
• 6:51
  and always feels like it's money well spent because all of us travel
• 6:54
  these streets and,
• 6:55
  you know, when you're on a good one and you know when you're on a bad one
• 6:58
  and when the bad one suddenly becomes good, it's like, wow, okay.
• 7:02
  You know, and so I it's it's good.
• 7:05
  It's really,
• 7:06
  I think I have to give a little credit over to the D.O.T.
• 7:09
  of the state Department of Transportation to,
• 7:11
  because that stuff has done a good job, too.
• 7:13
  I think the combination with the state, the city is doing
• 7:15
  is really improving a lot of roadways, and people appreciate it.
• 7:18
  You mentioned folks going out of their way to ask us things, to tell us things.
• 7:22
  This is a question we get almost every time
• 7:23
  we post something on social media.
• 7:25
  When we're out in the community, it's hazard pay.
• 7:27
  So how did how does hazard pay fit into this budget?
• 7:31
  Well, I actually we were funding hazard pay
• 7:33
  mainly from this year's budget in FY 25.
• 7:36
  The managing director, Mike Formby, his team, bfs,
• 7:41
  we work together and we set aside $115 million in their FY 25 budget.
• 7:48
  The managing director is going to, settle.
• 7:51
  The target is to settle this year the three larger unions.
• 7:54
  So we're including, HCA up in show ball.
• 8:00
  And then next year we're going to work on the others, you know, including
• 8:02
  firefighters and, hopefully,
• 8:06
  the Teamsters and, excluded management personnel.
• 8:10
  Well, you have to try to travel back in time.
• 8:12
  Hard to believe,
• 8:13
  when we start talking about hazard pay, because it's directly related to Covid.
• 8:16
  It was five years ago this week.
• 8:18
  The first Covid case came, and a couple of weeks later, we were locked down.
• 8:24
  And and then the rest of it becomes history.
• 8:26
  And what happened
• 8:27
  is that, you know, people got called back to work because the city had to operate,
• 8:31
  and yet we had to lock lockdown and on top of that,
• 8:35
  there wasn't any vaccines available.
• 8:36
  Nobody knew what was happening.
• 8:38
  It was a global phenomena.
• 8:40
  All of us, anybody was watching newscasts from people
• 8:43
  and in body bags all over the planet, people dying in horrific numbers.
• 8:47
  The fear and uncertainty was incredible.
• 8:50
  And yet the people who had to work for city
• 8:51
  and county were asked to come back to work and deemed essential,
• 8:54
  along with the construction industry and some of the businesses. And so,
• 8:59
  we had three contracts, one with HCA, one were up
• 9:02
  and one would show up with the police department,
• 9:04
  the call for hazard pay, but nothing that called for, you know, a
• 9:07
  two year, what became a two year pandemic and, and, and all that went with it.
• 9:12
  And so in the aftermath of trying to settle through that,
• 9:16
  at the same time, on an equitable basis, look at other organizations
• 9:19
  like the Teamsters, the, the, you know, the, our bus drivers and or,
• 9:23
  for that matter, or fire department or other first line responders.
• 9:27
  We try to do the same fair and equitable way.
• 9:29
  But the fact is, with the city being as big as it is,
• 9:33
  the multiplier effect, the number of people,
• 9:36
  became really big numbers, especially given the fact that,
• 9:40
  Maui had started out and created a precedent on their former native Victor
• 9:44
  Reno, with some ceremonies they offered their
• 9:46
  and of course, their numbers were completely different than ours.
• 9:49
  But that carries forward on a responsibility or obligation standpoint.
• 9:53
  And going through some arbitration,
• 9:55
  just trying to be fair to everybody, we wanted to pay.
• 9:57
  I mean, as any just said, $115,000,115 million is not a small amount of money.
• 10:03
  The number is actually in the aggregate, when it's all said and done, it's
• 10:06
  going to be bigger than that.
• 10:08
  It's just taken us a while to,
• 10:11
  figure out because people didn't keep records.
• 10:14
  And, you know, we had everything going on from people working at home to people,
• 10:19
  you know, not coming in and taking extended
• 10:21
  all, all kinds of different things.
• 10:23
  I think it just took a while.
• 10:25
  But I think we're we're pretty close to go on it.
• 10:27
  And I think it's very fair. And I think,
• 10:31
  and if look, if I can offer this, as evidenced by the show
• 10:34
  bow vote was in the 90s, I think 92 or 93% voted favorably.
• 10:39
  And so and these are police officers.
• 10:41
  And so look, I know when it comes to money,
• 10:43
  you're never going to please everybody all the time.
• 10:47
  But this was and this is why I'm really proud of Mike Formby deserves
• 10:50
  a tremendous amount of credit, along with Andy and his team and HR department.
• 10:55
  Knowing the association direction.
• 10:57
  Bug's back, you know, working the numbers.
• 10:59
  Working the numbers were all the variables that were thrown at us.
• 11:03
  I'm anxious to get it behind this, but this is, the best job we could do.
• 11:07
  And and actually,
• 11:08
  you know, in the case of the people who'll be receiving those checks,
• 11:12
  hopefully it's going to good difference in their lives for having gone
• 11:15
  above and beyond.
• 11:17
  Beyond what happened during the pandemic, come after the proposed budget
• 11:20
  is going towards operational costs for our public safety agencies.
• 11:24
  Now, this coming fiscal year, and why?
• 11:26
  That's a good question.
• 11:27
  This year we're allocating $650 million to public safety.
• 11:31
  So that's police, fire, EMS and ocean safety.
• 11:37
  That compares to about $625
• 11:40
  million, last year.
• 11:44
  So there's an increase, but the increase was, deliberately determined.
• 11:48
  We we have, as you know, collective bargaining increases and, police,
• 11:53
  especially, is working on initiatives to, fill vacancies.
• 11:58
  And they're doing different things, you know, signing bonuses.
• 12:02
  They're working on, increases.
• 12:05
  As soon as, the recruits pass, confirmation, and become full
• 12:10
  fledged officers, there's, there's going to be additional pay there.
• 12:14
  And, they're trying to be competitive with the mainland
• 12:17
  because, there was, some lost
• 12:22
  I think members going to the mainland.
• 12:24
  But, you know,
• 12:25
  you know, trying to be more competitive throughout with the U.S, I think.
• 12:28
  Our compensation is competitive.
• 12:30
  We should step up against the high cost of living here.
• 12:32
  And so the net effect of buying power, you know,
• 12:34
  if the salaries are up in measure, it is still a bit of a challenge for us.
• 12:38
  And so, you know, in that regard.
• 12:39
  But there's also you know and I think it's good.
• 12:41
  Look, you asked me earlier
• 12:43
  what what I like about the budget, I think I answered it one way.
• 12:47
  I'll say it another way.
• 12:48
  In this particular case, we talk about public safety
• 12:51
  being your number one priority.
• 12:52
  Then this is about putting our money where your mouth is, you know?
• 12:55
  I mean, we're backing that up.
• 12:56
  So we could try to ensure that
• 12:58
  because we know, first and foremost, people want to feel safe.
• 13:01
  And so against everything that we can, we can,
• 13:04
  with our with our first responders, we're, we're trying to make sure
• 13:08
  that we have the best staffing and the best, best people out there.
• 13:11
  A question we always see
• 13:12
  after this proposed budget comes out is, will the public see any fee
• 13:16
  increases in terms of property taxes, any other type of fees going up?
• 13:20
  So in terms of property taxes, we're not increasing any rates.
• 13:24
  The assessments that went out back in December of 24
• 13:28
  for this, for fiscal year 26 were relatively flat.
• 13:32
  So, there won't be, I believe, significant increases
• 13:35
  in real property taxes, fees get adjusted off and on.
• 13:38
  But, we try to manage increases in fees because we know that,
• 13:43
  a lot of people are living day to day, paycheck to paycheck by paycheck.
• 13:47
  So we try to be very cognizant of.
• 13:49
  Yeah, I think this year especially, I think we've really raised the bar,
• 13:54
  and our internal conversations operationally, the cost of living index,
• 13:59
  knowing for a while this that's a primary driver as to why.
• 14:01
  And we've talked about, you know, I said this recently to somebody,
• 14:04
  I don't know, the first time I heard the word outmigration,
• 14:08
  but it was since I became mayor.
• 14:09
  I don't think it's a word that was in my vocabulary.
• 14:12
  Now. It's something I talk about, I think nearly every day.
• 14:15
  And sometimes, depending on the subject
• 14:17
  or the people in meeting with, it's multiple times a day.
• 14:20
  And so we've been really sensitive,
• 14:21
  you know, used to be really easy to take shortcuts here and there.
• 14:24
  If you didn't want to raise property taxes, change a fee here,
• 14:27
  change your fee there.
• 14:28
  Because in the aggregate,
• 14:29
  like I said, the multiplier effect can absorb some real dollars.
• 14:33
  We're trying to really keep stuff down.
• 14:35
  You know, but there's some things that just in the cost of operations,
• 14:38
  like in transportation, you know, is, is and you just said
• 14:42
  single largest department and, and nearly half billion dollars,
• 14:48
  it had not raised bus fares, a handful of fares in years and stuff.
• 14:52
  And then there's some things you just have to give in
• 14:54
  to dealing with the same thing with our sewer water fees
• 14:57
  eight years prior to us coming
• 14:58
  in, despite the consent decree, there was no increase in surface.
• 15:03
  And so now we're left with a clicking, a click, a ticking clock clicking talk.
• 15:07
  It's a ticking clock.
• 15:11
  And you know, and you got,
• 15:13
  you've got moneys that are owed and they have to be paid
• 15:15
  for the facilities being built in. That's.
• 15:16
  So how do you advertise that in a very different window.
• 15:19
  It could have been spread out.
• 15:20
  And so we're really sensitive with that.
• 15:23
  You know, and that even for that matter, I went over to the Board of Water Supply
• 15:26
  asking them not to increase their fees, but they felt they had to and they did.
• 15:30
  But anything and everything, because we know
• 15:32
  that those things can add up for people,
• 15:34
  you know, and so even right down to parking fees.
• 15:37
  And so we're trying to be honestly, I can tell you, not indifferent, overly
• 15:42
  sensitive to anything
• 15:43
  and everything we can do if we can, if we can still or not do it at all.
• 15:48
  We're trying not to do that.
• 15:49
  I think that's fair to the best of our ability.
• 15:52
  You know, it's a it's a it's a big city
• 15:54
  the years 25, but it's 26 budget.
• 15:58
  And there's a reality to the cost of things in this world.
• 16:02
  And we're just trying to be as sensitive to possible.
• 16:04
  The one thing I can't tell you,
• 16:05
  we've said all along and hopefully we'll get out of here by,
• 16:09
  you know, we never we said coming in, we don't want to raise property taxes
• 16:14
  in the middle of the pandemic, when we came into office
• 16:17
  and there was a budget deficit and so on and so forth, we didn't.
• 16:21
  And we're going to try to hold true to that is and he said,
• 16:24
  as we saw even a couple of years ago, sometimes the assessed values went up.
• 16:28
  And we we know we're up against that.
• 16:30
  It's still a, it's still a very competitive real estate market.
• 16:33
  And so we know the multiplier effect on that as well.
• 16:36
  So I think we're trying to be as sensitive as we possibly can.
• 16:40
  Yeah.
• 16:40
  And I think for sewer fees we're being really deliberate with the increases.
• 16:44
  I know that people are looking at, you know, the ten year schedule, looking out,
• 16:48
  but I think, people have to realize that, we haven't had fee increases since 2017.
• 16:55
  Zero increases, for sewer services.
• 16:59
  And, you know, Covid happened.
• 17:01
  So increases were put off, until we got out of Covid,
• 17:06
  we were in a much more stable situation right now.
• 17:09
  But, I think the the issue at this point is that we have, bills to pay.
• 17:14
  We have contracts that, have been encumbered and, we need
• 17:17
  we need increases to keep up with the payments.
• 17:21
  And if we don't do it, we postpone it.
• 17:23
  We're going to pay more going forward.
• 17:25
  So we're trying to take care of the situation.
• 17:28
  It's it's a lot of it was from the past, but
• 17:32
  we're taking care of it currently and, manage the increases going forward.
• 17:37
  You mentioned the Board of Water Supply.
• 17:39
  I want to ask about another semi-autonomous agency.
• 17:42
  This is a question somebody actually asked me the other day.
• 17:44
  Well, what's the difference between our budget
• 17:46
  and the budget that Hart submits?
• 17:48
  Because they also submit a operating capital budget.
• 17:51
  It's totally separate.
• 17:54
  So their budget separate.
• 17:55
  Hart has their own board with regard to the city's, financial statements.
• 18:00
  We don't include Hart.
• 18:03
  Construction real construction in our financial statements.
• 18:06
  What does happen, though, is when we convert to operations and maintenance,
• 18:10
  we shift, the assets from Hart into the city's books, and we include,
• 18:17
  this the, the Hart operations with the city's operations at that time.
• 18:20
  Yeah, because it's become bloated now that we're operating, you know, was set up
• 18:24
  to be semi-autonomous, to be an oversight, if you will, on the construction,
• 18:28
  of the rail, you know, predating the city's
• 18:31
  and the fact that we're actually running it
• 18:33
  now, I've been doing that since June 30th of 23.
• 18:36
  But now we're it's a blended operation.
• 18:38
  And so the, you know,
• 18:42
  Lori Chiquita and I and and your deputy Rickey and Mike Formby,
• 18:46
  we we meet, we talk, you know, but, the construction of
• 18:50
  that is pretty much, you know, we're not neither one of us are engineers.
• 18:54
  And there is a really good engineer in what they're doing.
• 18:56
  And so we get brought in on certain kind of decisions.
• 18:59
  But they do operate that way.
• 19:00
  But now that we're operating the rail, or skyline,
• 19:05
  you know,
• 19:06
  the, the, the conversations are more blended,
• 19:10
  but yet they still retain, you know, their operation of the decision making.
• 19:14
  That's totally correct, mayor. And,
• 19:16
  because we're operating rail, because people are involved, and because,
• 19:21
  we have to ensure that people are safe riding, the new, newer transit, mode.
• 19:27
  We have to we have to make sure we have all the safeguards in place,
• 19:31
  you know, maintenance, insurance, our insurance,
• 19:35
  because, due to rail has actually
• 19:38
  doubled, nearly doubled since a few years ago.
• 19:41
  You know, we were trending at, you know, 16 to $18
• 19:44
  million a year, and now we're, closer to $35 million a year.
• 19:48
  Yeah.
• 19:49
  You know, for in terms of insurance.
• 19:50
  So the costs are going up.
• 19:53
  Our real costs this year
• 19:55
  in the aggregate segments, 1 in 2.
• 19:58
  You know, after we open segment two, we're going to be, at an annualized,
• 20:03
  you know, 120, $530 million top rate, real.
• 20:07
  Mary, you mentioned this at
• 20:08
  the beginning of this recording, but broad national cuts in Washington.
• 20:13
  How worried are you about that and what are we doing?
• 20:15
  I don't worry, you know, I you know, I'm not trying to downplay it.
• 20:19
  In fact, earlier this week I spoke to Senator
• 20:20
  Shotts about the same thing that want to really,
• 20:24
  wait and see what the actual impact is going to be
• 20:27
  and that will adapt from there. You know,
• 20:30
  at the end of the day,
• 20:33
  does the city and county, there's a level over us at the state,
• 20:35
  and then there's our seat
• 20:36
  of federal government, and, and we'll see what the impacts is.
• 20:40
  No doubt there will be.
• 20:41
  We put contingency money, both in a couple of different areas.
• 20:45
  We have a $10 million contingency.
• 20:47
  We've got some other line opportunities depending on if, for example,
• 20:51
  if we have federal employees who work at the Department of Community Service
• 20:54
  and if, in fact, those federal employees
• 20:56
  will lose their job, then we'll pay them from state monies,
• 20:59
  because that's an important function, that we have to have.
• 21:03
  And, I mean, from city monies, not state moneys, I misspoke,
• 21:07
  so, you know, we'll see.
• 21:09
  You know, at one point we had a larger contingency.
• 21:12
  We dropped it down a bit.
• 21:14
  Look, there's a lot of talk going on.
• 21:16
  There's no question what's happening is unprecedented.
• 21:18
  We just don't know how it's going to impact us directly.
• 21:21
  And my attitude is, once we know that, then we'll figure it out.
• 21:26
  Work in the public, find this year's proposed budget to give it a closer look.
• 21:29
  And for those who aren't familiar, Andy, what happens now?
• 21:32
  What is the process?
• 21:33
  Well, you can find a budget at, Honolulu, dot gov
• 21:39
  honolulu.gov.
• 21:40
  You go to the budget in Fiscal Services landing page.
• 21:44
  You can look up there's a budget line to click on.
• 21:47
  You can get to the budget doing that.
• 21:49
  There's a link to open it up. You can you can look at the budget bill.
• 21:51
  You can view the budget booklets, for both
• 21:55
  the operating budget in the, in the capital improvement program.
• 21:59
  Budget.
• 21:59
  Yeah. We thank you for listening.
• 22:00
  Ideas are it's a perspective they look at the budget just weren't things that,
• 22:05
  is easy to comprehend.
• 22:07
  While though it's a significant number is that,
• 22:10
  you know, it takes a lot of men and women to work at the city, and,
• 22:14
  and with that, in the city is a great place to work.
• 22:16
  And there's really good,
• 22:17
  you know, benefits and retirement packages or whatever.
• 22:20
  But if you were to look at this budget here,
• 22:22
  almost $1 billion of it is tied to all of our employees,
• 22:27
  and whether that's tied to their benefits and retirement and everything,
• 22:30
  it's about 24.8% of the overall budget just on the people.
• 22:35
  So I think it says a lot about,
• 22:38
  from the standpoint of overall priorities.
• 22:42
  I said earlier, we want to have a quality workforce that's out there.
• 22:45
  And, and, you know, whether it's collective bargaining or otherwise,
• 22:49
  you just want to have really good people treat them fairly, pay them
• 22:52
  well, and have them really,
• 22:54
  you know, care about their jobs to do good work.
• 22:57
  And I think that we're, we're, we're addressing it in that regard.
• 23:01
  And, and that's the expectation is that, as a service
• 23:04
  provider, I know that there's been a history of complaints or whatever.
• 23:08
  That's one of the things we've really tried to work to mitigate it.
• 23:10
  I start off with the leadership team
• 23:12
  we have, but it's also to the spirit of this discussion, putting the proper
• 23:15
  amount of money is investing in people, investing in technology,
• 23:20
  you know, people, the numbers of staff, making sure we treat people right,
• 23:24
  across the board, a hazard pay thing like that for our first responders.
• 23:28
  All all, all of that, and not only first responders, it's
• 23:33
  much broader than than, or say, but, you know, so,
• 23:38
  you know, it's sort of like that make it try and make it a great place to work,
• 23:41
  because the people who work for the city and county are,
• 23:45
  in all the high touch positions.
• 23:47
  You know, this is stuff that affects directly quality of life issues.
• 23:51
  And so we're trying to, you know,
• 23:54
  do right by everybody is an administration.
• 23:57
  And where we go from here.
• 23:58
  So we just dropped off the budget last week.
• 24:01
  It's posted publicly.
• 24:03
  The council, members are now looking at it with their advisors.
• 24:07
  We're going to do department presentations next week.
• 24:10
  Right after we do that,
• 24:12
  council members come back with their, initial set of amendments.
• 24:16
  At the same time, we go through the perfunctory
• 24:18
  step of doing the first reading.
• 24:20
  It's usually a process of, calling out the budget bills and,
• 24:24
  essentially council members, pass the bill, subject
• 24:29
  to review in, in the committee meetings, which, much more.
• 24:34
  Detail in terms of going
• 24:36
  combing through the budget and looking at budget information.
• 24:38
  So we do that, council members come back with first amendments.
• 24:43
  They come back with,
• 24:45
  feedback with regard to, questions that,
• 24:49
  they have, for, the budget team and other departments
• 24:53
  to provide, responses on, they come back with, what they call a council draft one.
• 24:59
  We go into second reading, we go through the same process again.
• 25:02
  They come back with amendments
• 25:04
  after second reading, and then we go to council draft two.
• 25:08
  And then there's a lot of posturing negotiation that happens
• 25:11
  as we approach the third reading, which is the final reading of the budget.
• 25:14
  That's typically, early in June.
• 25:17
  And before that happens, the last few years,
• 25:20
  the council members, members have been, coming back with council
• 25:24
  draft to floor draft version of budgets that they review during third reading.
• 25:28
  So it's a it's a deliberative process.
• 25:31
  There's a lot of sharing of information.
• 25:34
  And council members try to fit in, the,
• 25:37
  the needs, for their various districts, administration looks at the budget
• 25:42
  as a whole, and we try to do what's best for, the city and county as a whole.
• 25:47
  So what about if,
• 25:48
  you know, members of the public are taking a look at this
• 25:50
  and like mayor said, there's, you know, some allocated here, some allocated.
• 25:53
  Do they think that more should be put here?
• 25:54
  Can they share them when not on anywhere.
• 25:56
  Well, they can share that at the committee meetings it's public.
• 26:00
  They can share their, thoughts and, interests at that time.
• 26:04
  They can call their council member and, that's that's typically how we do it. And,
• 26:10
  they also sent in written testimony.
• 26:12
  There's a lot of written testimony that comes in on, the more,
• 26:17
  sensitive, sensitive issues
• 26:18
  that, that may come up during the budget process.
• 26:21
  Yeah.
• 26:22
  I mean, I have more than their fair time.
• 26:24
  Yeah.
• 26:25
  And I think we're all always open to the ideas and suggestions,
• 26:29
  you know, that people have and I think they've been very open minded.
• 26:33
  And you said earlier
• 26:35
  this deliberative process with the council, it's sort of assertive
• 26:38
  with the community as well.
• 26:39
  But there's, you know, quite honestly, in as I said earlier
• 26:43
  about putting our money where our mouth is, you know, we do
• 26:46
  we conduct town hall meetings and we we have neighborhood boards.
• 26:49
  We have a lot of feedback. And so a lot of stuff in the priorities.
• 26:52
  And we're not trying that certainly to live in a vacuum,
• 26:55
  being aware of what's going on out there.
• 26:57
  I think we try to make those kinds of accommodations.
• 26:59
  So there's no nothing off the wall.
• 27:01
  I think we've,
• 27:02
  you know, the old saying we're trying to keep a close ear to the ground.
• 27:05
  I think we, we, we do that.
• 27:07
  And I think that I don't,
• 27:08
  I don't think like we're far afield, maybe something
• 27:10
  is always going to have some ideas.
• 27:12
  So as always, get some opinion.
• 27:14
  But for the most part
• 27:15
  the thinking is pretty solid and it's based on a collective sense of community.
• 27:19
  It's not just left in here.
• 27:21
  People operating in their own ivory tower.
• 27:23
  So I feel pretty good about that.
• 27:24
  I think that's why I said I think I perjury.
• 27:27
  Our budgets are reflective of our priorities.
• 27:29
  I think our priorities are reflective of the feedback that we get,
• 27:33
  from the community and recognizing the greatest needs out there.
• 27:36
  So all kind of dovetails together.
• 27:39
  But what do you say to folks who say, what if your projections are wrong?
• 27:43
  What kind of things are put into place to prepare
• 27:44
  for any possible shortfalls in projected revenue?
• 27:48
  We're very conservative.
• 27:50
  From what I've seen, we typically underestimate revenues.
• 27:55
  We've been fortunate from that standpoint.
• 27:58
  So what I would
• 27:59
  say is that, the public should be rest assured that, we're not going
• 28:03
  to put any numbers in there that, we,
• 28:07
  that that would be too much of a reach.
• 28:10
  The numbers that we, we estimate, in terms of revenues
• 28:14
  and resources to fund the budget are, very achievable.
• 28:18
  And, we typically,
• 28:22
  we typically collect
• 28:24
  more on an actual basis now, what we budgeted for.
• 28:27
  So that's that's been a big plus.
• 28:29
  For you when you have a budget a little bit more than $5 billion.
• 28:33
  What if I get that right now?
• 28:35
  I should've done the math.
• 28:36
  Before we get on this.
• 28:40
  But if you start,
• 28:40
  what if it you can go crazy, okay.
• 28:44
  Because in any budget I've ever been associated with, it's just,
• 28:47
  you know, it's the best estimate of where you are at this point in time
• 28:51
  because things happen. And so,
• 28:55
  it's not even about making mistakes.
• 28:56
  There are things that can take place like, you know, look,
• 28:59
  I just got done talking about five years ago this week, you know, Covid hit.
• 29:03
  I mean, who saw that coming?
• 29:05
  I mean, I think that's the thing about this, this deal, we,
• 29:08
  we we just never know.
• 29:10
  So we have to be something really significant.
• 29:13
  I think if the world just to stay in regular, that would be okay.
• 29:17
  It's just it's it's unexpected variables.
• 29:20
  It can throw you off.
• 29:21
  And that's not a malfunction of the budget.
• 29:23
  It's a circumstance external of the budget.
• 29:26
  And then how do we adjust accordingly?
• 29:28
  As opposed to getting the math wrong when you did the budget.
• 29:32
  Yeah. Okay.
• 29:33
  When does this whole process start to balance the budget
• 29:36
  and and econo, how much weight have you lost during this process?
• 29:39
  I don't think I've lost any weight.
• 29:40
  I'm just getting hold up.
• 29:44
  Seriously, no, I have I haven't lost weight.
• 29:46
  We balance the budget.
• 29:49
  Just, as we enter
• 29:51
  into February, the month of February, we start the balancing process.
• 29:55
  It's it's, it's tedious because we have so many funds.
• 29:58
  You know, everyone talks about the general fund.
• 30:00
  That's the main fund for government.
• 30:02
  But we have all of these special funds, including the very large Enterprise Fund,
• 30:08
  for sewer, that, all have to be balanced separately.
• 30:12
  So it's a it's a tedious, it's a process that requires, accuracy.
• 30:18
  And then as soon as we're budgeted,
• 30:20
  and the budgeting, happens across three budgets.
• 30:23
  When you think about it, it's the, general government budget.
• 30:26
  We have to budget the legislative budget for council members.
• 30:30
  And then we we have the CIP budget to balance as well.
• 30:33
  And some of that is also cash funded,
• 30:36
  that the process takes nearly a month.
• 30:39
  So it's about a month of time, primarily in February of each year that we do
• 30:43
  the balancing as we approach the third reading of the budget, when council starts
• 30:49
  getting involved and, you know, including their, input into the process,
• 30:55
  council and administration work on a rebalancing.
• 30:58
  So we rebalance before third reading so that,
• 31:02
  what gets voted on to become the adopted budget is balanced.
• 31:06
  Well, we are about out of time, but this is the one or hope podcast.
• 31:09
  So mayor for one final thought.
• 31:11
  To finish up how I started, I want to give you Indian team
• 31:13
  tremendous acknowledgment.
• 31:14
  This is no you know, we don't talk about it as much
• 31:18
  because we're in the business of solving external problems.
• 31:21
  But at the end of the day, the fundamental responsibility
• 31:24
  of putting together a budget to make sure all these parts work, everybody's paid
• 31:29
  everything, sort of, you know, runs on time, if you will,
• 31:33
  from the standpoint of the city's day to day life,
• 31:37
  is going to be done in the course of budget work.
• 31:40
  And so, they've just done exceptional job.
• 31:43
  You know, he's really modest.
• 31:44
  They've won a bunch of awards the last couple of years.
• 31:46
  You know, the fiscal responsibility is great.
• 31:48
  We've got the city's rating up to a double A plus, which is terrific.
• 31:54
  And, you know, even talking to our bond analysts, the respect that they've shown
• 31:59
  on the fiscal management of the city, well, that's very gratifying.
• 32:03
  So I have great confidence and, department budget, fiscal services,
• 32:07
  especially in our leadership, in the command of the director,
• 32:10
  Carey Castle and a whole host of other,
• 32:13
  people I've gotten to meet,
• 32:15
  really talented people that they care greatly about the city
• 32:19
  is how they approach their work, and they make it and they make it work.
• 32:24
  Thank you, mayor.
• 32:24
  And all of us want to thank you for allowing us to, do our job.
• 32:30
  You give us,
• 32:32
  the flexibility to make decisions and,
• 32:35
  Yeah, with the team we have, we have a strong,
• 32:38
  management team in budget in fiscal services, and they,
• 32:42
  they always are thinking about what's best for the people of our, island of Oahu.
• 32:48
  And, so proud of all of them.
• 32:50
  And, because of, the teamwork that we have, I think,
• 32:55
  you know, we're supporting the mayor and his priorities and ensuring that,
• 33:00
  what's important to the public is being funded
• 33:02
  and we're going to continue to do that.
• 33:04
  I just I get the last word in real quick.
• 33:06
  One thing. It's not just the numbers, Joe.
• 33:08
  The thing that makes the budget really work and feel good
• 33:11
  is the amount of caring and understanding of people
• 33:15
  who are acting responsibly for the very place they live,
• 33:18
  where they're raising their families, where they grew up as kids,
• 33:21
  or for that matter, even their parents are still here.
• 33:24
  There's all of that that goes into it, and sometimes it gets lost in translation.
• 33:28
  But that's what makes it very special.
• 33:30
  Mayor director Kawano, thank you both for your time.
• 33:33
  Thank you.
• 33:34
  Thank you and mahalo to you for listening.
• 33:36
  Next week, Lions, tigers and bears.
• 33:38
  Oh my.
• 33:39
  We sit down with the reigning defending city and County of Honolulu
• 33:42
  Employee of the Year, Rebecca Crockett, a zookeeper at the Honolulu Zoo.
• 33:46
  I hope you tune in
• 33:47
  to that conversation next week right here on the One Oahu Podcast.
• 33:50
  Until then, Aloha.