KTIWG May 2022 Meeting Notes

Kalaupapa Transition Interagency Working Group (KTIWG) Planning Meeting

Thursday, May 19, 2022


1. Introductions

AGENCY PARTICIPANT TITLE

DHHL	Shelley Carreira Andrew Choy Nancy McPherson	Land Agent Acting Planning Program Manager Planner
DLNR	Blue Kaanehe	Land Division, Project Development Specialist
DOH	Michael Casey Baron Chan Sara Beth Newell Kenneth Seamon Glenn Wasserman, MD	Planner, Hansen’s Disease Branch Chief, Hansen’s Disease Branch Administrative Officer, Hansen’s Disease Branch Administrator, Kalaupapa Settlement Chief, Comm. Disease & Pub. Health Nursing Division
DOT	Hannah Hays Brian Kamimoto Traci Lum Scott Pires Herman Tuiolosega	Airports Division, Planner Assistant Airport Superintendent Airports Division, Planner Airport Fire Chief, Maui District Airports Division, Senior Planner
Maui County	Sgt. Nathaniel Hubbard Stacy Crivello	Maui Police Department, Molokai Mayor’s Representative, Molokai
NPS	Nancy Holman George Turnbull	Superintendent, Kalaupapa National Historic Park Contractor
DOI/NHR	Stanton Enomoto	Senior Program Director, Native Hawaiian Relations

2. Review/Edit/Approve Today’s Meeting Agenda

3. Review/Edit/Approve Group’s Previous Draft Meeting Notes
Meeting notes were reviewed prior to meeting and posted to NPS website.https://www.nps.gov/kala/getinvolved/ktiwg-1-13-22.htm

4. Discussion - Updates from Transition Group

NPS – National Park Service

Superintendent Holman reviewed some common themes/needs she has seen in her first months at Kalaupapa:

1. There is a strong need to sort out who has responsibilities (“Decision rights”) for what and to proceed strategically.
2. There has been a tendency of moving on to other tasks when staff get stuck with a current task (bureaucracy).
3. There is a need to focus on “the power of working collectively” and how can we work together to get projects/issues “unstuck”.

Trail access

• The park is negotiating with RW Meyer, Ltd to develop a new access agreement for limited use/access to cross Meyer property at the top of the Kalaupapa Trail.

New staff

• Roughly 2/3 of the park’s Management Team positions have been vacant. Michael Hubbs was selected and is on board as the park’s new Facility Manager. A new Lead for the Natural Resources program has been selected and is being vetted. A certificate of eligible candidates for the Deputy Superintendent and Cultural Resources Program Manager positions will be available soon.

Park reopening

• As covid restrictions have loosened, the park is working with DOH on a measured “reopening” of the park. DOH is currently permitting Kalaupapa residents to host a limited number of family members and friends in the settlement, at the request of patients and employees only. Essential workers are being allowed access. Normal tour operations and visitation (within the requirements of the Patient Rules) will potentially restart sometime later in the year. The reopening will be measured and incremental since the health of the remaining patients is of paramount importance. DOH and NPS will continue to operate with “an abundance of caution.”

Projects and compliance

• The park has used the covid “strategic pause” in operations to reengineer project planning and compliance activities into a more logical sequence. This will allow the park to reinitiate its facility maintenance program and move forward on several large projects including the electrical system upgrade project.

DOH – Department of Health

Travel restrictions – visitor permits

• In March 2022, DOH began allowing patients and employees to sponsor limited numbers of visitors to the Settlement again. There are still additional requirements for visitors to provide vaccination status – unvaccinated individuals ARE NOT permitted to visit at this time. There is still a process for approving any “essential service workers” – the Administrator MAY consider special situations where workers might include individuals that are not fully vaccinated – in those situations, DOH will first ask to substitute vaccinated workers if possible – or delay the work to later time. If neither is possible, DOH will consider approving unvaccinated workers – but there will be very strict restrictions for ALL if any of the work party is unvaccinated.

Electrical system/Mutual Aid Agreement

• Several documents related to the electrical system project and a revised Mutual aid agreement involving DOH, NPS and Maui County are still at Attorney General’s office for review, given the latter’s overwhelming workload associated with covid response and the recently completed State legislative session.

Telephone service

• Problems continue with telephone landline service Settlement-wide. Hawaiian Telcom continued diagnostic and repair efforts. Connectivity is critical to the park and the settlement. This is a clear opportunity for the group to collaborate on a solution that gets this project “unstuck”.

Barge

• No firm date has been set for this year’s barge but it will likely be sometime in July.

CIP funding

After several years of requests, DOH received Legislative approval for 3 projects:

• Construction & Demolition (C&D) landfill closure. This fulfills the response to a consent agreement mandating closure.Leg funded at $7,500,00
• Building renovations. For needed roof repairs to the care home and warehouse, as well as other required repairs on DOH-controlled assets.Leg funded at $945,000
• Underground storage tank assessment and removal plan. This is to assess what is in place and develop a plan for removal since the tank is mandated by law to be closed by 2028. (Additional future “construction” funding will be required for removal of the tanks)Leg funded at $580,000.

Kalaupapa Memorial

SB 3338 was passed by the Legislature – funded at $5 million. It would have really been appreciated if the bill’s sponsors and Ka ‘Ohana had alerted DOH of the intent to assign the funds to DOH. This bill originally identified the Department of Labor and Industrial Relations, Office of Community Service as the expending agency, and was subsequently changed to the Department of Health.The Department is going to be especially challenged to make this appropriation of funds work. DOH will be subject to State Procurement Law, and the fact that these will be “operating funds” imposes an even stricter timeframe (roughly one year to obligate funds).The Department of Health supports the intent of this bill but does not have the experience, appropriate staff, capacity, or mechanism for planning and building memorials. In addition, required approvals of the memorial design by the U.S. Secretary of the Interior (which are required by the federal statute designating the Memorial) and the land lease through the Board of Natural Resources are not yet in place, and are likely to contribute to further delays of any construction timeline. Several other project requirements will need further consideration regarding timing.

DHHL – Department of Hawaii Home Lands

Kalaupapa Beneficiary Working Group

DHHL has invested significant energy into working with the Kalaupapa Beneficiary Working Group to identify issues of concern for the group and to find potential solutions. Four meetings have been held to date, mostly related to organizing the group and framing its efforts. The group’s next meeting is May 24 to consider issues associated with the topic of the Programmatic Agreement developed as part of the completion of the park’s General Management Plan (GMP). At some point, NPS and other entities may be asked to participate in the group’s activities when the group indicates it would like the participation of other entities.Bottom lines for beneficiaries (feedback so far):
Near-term track:

1. Want more participation in decisions about the future of Kalaupapa.
2. Want more opportunities to access DHHL lands in Kalaupapa.
3. Want to assure preservation of important Settlement structures for the future.

Long-term track:

1. Want to explore community management models for Kalaupapa in the year 2041 and beyond

Potential future site visit (Chair, Deputy, staff)
This will likely occur after barge operations are completed this summer.

Staff is scaling up planning efforts for funds appropriated by the Legislature

The legislature provided DHHL with $600,000,000 to build housing and infrastructure for beneficiaries. A significant portion of DHHL staff will, in the short term, be working on a strategic plan to obligate and deploy these funds in the most efficient manner to support their beneficiaries.

DLNR – Department of Land and Natural Resources

No updatesStill awaiting additional survey required to consider DOH request for utility easement associated with the electrical project.

DOT – Department of Transportation

Recognize upcoming retirement of Scott Pires

• Scott Pires - Airport Fire Chief, Maui District is retiring soon. He his been a good friend of Kalaupapa over the years. Congratulations and happy retirement, Scott!

New Staff

• DOT recently made an employment offer to fill a second position at Kalaupapa Airport. They are hoping the new staff member will have housing and be involved with the community as well as attending these meetings.

Contract - USDA - for hazard mitigation

• DOT is in contract talks with USDA regarding Hazard Mitigation at the Airport (deer removal).
• DOH will ask NPS for assistance in response to calls for hazard mitigation given their limited staffing. USDA response can take days and NPS might help with immediate needs.

Need estimate of proposed rental/maintenance costs

• DOT will have ongoing housing needs at Kalaupapa. To facilitate planning for the future, DOT needs cost estimates regarding potential rental and maintenance expenses for this housing depending on whether housing is provided by DOH or NPS.

COM – County of Maui

Maui County has assisted NPS to connect with RW Meyer regarding trail access.Maui County is also willing to assist the various entities at Kalaupapa in attaining improved connectivity in the settlement for employees and residents from Spectrum and/or Hawaiian Telecomm.They are awaiting further notice from DOH/Deputy Attorney General about the revised Mutual Aid Agreement drafted by Maui County Corporation Counsel.