Cuts target beach event, cycle projects
By Treena Shapiro
Advertiser Staff Writer
New City Council proposals to Mayor Jeremy Harris' operational and construction budget plans will contain a $5.5 million police station in Hawai'i Kai, but will cut money for the city's popular Sunset on the Beach program.
Also gone is money for all phases of bicycle projects, including the popular Young Street bikeway proposal and the controversial bike lane on Ala Wai Boulevard that would eliminate blocks of free parking.
But council members are not tinkering with Harris' proposal to bring in about $24 million by raising property tax rates for all categories except for condominium and apartment owners.
Yet, at a time when the council is scrutinizing every penny that goes out, the new proposals also give more than $3 million in federal community block development grants to nonprofit agencies, rather than using the money for city sidewalk, building and park improvements to comply with the Americans with Disabilities Act.
The City Council Budget Committee spent yesterday morning discussing several amendments to the $1.178 billion operating budget and $288 million construction budget proposed by Harris on March 2. The public will be given the opportunity to testify on the proposed budgets and amendments on Wednesday at 4 p.m.
The council must approve the budgets for the fiscal year starting July 1 by June 15.
The council's proposed amendments reduce the construction budget by more than $10 million, with the many of the cuts coming from street, parking lot and sidewalk improvements.
A $2 counter fee for certain satellite city halls may not be approved by the council, but the cost would be closing one satellite city hall location. The amended budget bill will take out almost $1 million in financing, but would allow the administration to determine which site to close.
However, Carol Costa, director of the department of customer services, said because the cut reduces the understaffed department's overtime expenses by $50,000, the cut could lead to the closure of an additional location, cutting a day from three locations that are open Monday through Saturday, or closing an hour earlier at all locations.
City officials say some proposed cuts may have dire consequences. A $703,516 cut within the Department of Design and Construction's current expenses for project and construction management cuts utility fees to power police stations, city hall and other city facilities, said Budget Director Ivan Lui-Kwan.
Cheryl Soon, director of the Department of Transportation Services, said a cut intended to eliminate financed vacant positions will actually force layoffs of recent hires.
Councilwoman Ann Kobayashi, chairwoman of the Budget Committee, said the city would no longer provide $140,000 in financing for one Sunset on the Beach event per month, but the program would not die because three weekends a month are privately financed.
However, Deputy Managing Director Malcolm Tom last month told the committee that the private sponsors pay only $10,000 per weekend. Meanwhile, the city still provides security and set-up for the events.
Because the city still subsidizes the events, Councilwoman Barbara Marshall and Councilman Charles Djou, who had suggested cutting money for the beach events, warned that deleting all Sunset on the Beach money would also jeopardize the privately sponsored weekends, but Kobayashi was adamant that "we're only cutting the one we're paying for."
When the committee moved on to the construction budget, Kobayashi said that the city should not use federal community block development grant money to pay for disability access in public places, even though that is an acceptable use for the money that is intended to improve communities for low-to-moderate income residents. "The city should not be using (the nonprofits') money for services we should be providing," she said.
If the money goes to nonprofits, the council will have to find another $3 million for construction, either by cutting projects or adding to the city's debt service.
Marshall told Kobayashi she did not see a problem with the city using federal money for necessary projects, particularly ADA compliance.
Refusing to use federal money "means that we're going to be borrowing additional dollars. That means that we're going to be increasing debt service, rather than using federal grant money," Marshall said.
The administration had not included the $5.5 million East Hono-lulu Police Station in the construction budget because the bid proposals came in too high, but the project has been included in a council proposal at Djou's request.
Reach Treena Shapiro at tshapiro@honoluluadvertiser.com or 525-8070.
