October 18 Meeting

Well we had our October meeting last night.  The picture above is a list of requested donation items by RYSE Hawaii.  If you aren't familiar with RYSE they are a shelter for the young homeless population, between 18 and 24.  At our last meeting they were asked to for items that they could use so they created a donation list.  Their number is listed on the bottom as well.  Just in case the list isn't readable I will give you it typed out in this post as well:

• socks
• underwear for both genders
• towels
• razors
• big hygiene items (soap, toothpaste, deodorant, etc.)
• musical instruments
• milk, eggs, butter, yogurt
• utensils, cups, bowls
• 39 gallon trash bags
• laundry detergent
• paper towels
• toilet paper
• gift cards
• movie tickets 
• saimin
• spam

To get a hold of them you can call RYSE at 808-4978-5180 or go to their website at http://rysehawaii.org/

The rest of the night was productive.  Both HSTA and the Affordable Hawaii Coalition PAC had people present their perspectives on the Constitutional Amendment which would grant the state legislature the ability to tax investment properties for education.  There was a lot of heated debate.  

HSTA's official, Micah Pregitzer, spoke about how just with raw math currently the budget for education provides about $11,000 per student and that with building upkeep and maintenance that it doesn't go very far.   He also talked about how we have a teacher shortage and many classes have to rotate substitutes as well as pointing out that we are the only state to not have an education property tax

Hawaii Coalition PAC's rep, Stanley Lau, spoke to a lot of fears surrounding the bill on what the definition of investment property will be and that we shouldn't be granting the legislature a power like this.  He referenced the hotel tax, which was originally done to build the convention center and is still there even though the convention center is built.

It was obvious that the room is divided on this issue so we will have to see what the community wants once it goes to the polls.

For board business the board passed a resolution against the Wong Residence which will be presented as our opposition to them being able to get a permit for the illegal work they have done on their property.  This has been an area of frustration and anger in our community so we will see if our local government decides to give the resolution some teeth.

On happier notes a new member was elected to the board, Trenton Oshiro, who we welcome and look forward to working with.

Our committee for the Hawaii Memorial Park Expansion reported back on their meeting.   They stated that the developers have done more work than most developers they have encountered to address the community concerns with the plan and to mitigate potential impacts.  There were still many community members unhappy with the plan.  It was unclear based on the discussion if there will ever be a plan that some members are ok with.  On one hand the committee said they addressed all the previous concerns and then on the other some community members still are not happy.  I don't know if there will be a resolution that everyone can live with, but we will continue the conversation and see.  The board chose not to take a side on this issue yet, but is reporting it's findings to relevant officials.

The neighborhood board committee reminded us that there will be board elections in the next coming year.  December through February will be the time to register.  In March profiles online profiles will be created.  April through May will be the time for voting.  In June the tabulation will occur with the new board taking over in July.

That was a very productive meeting.  We hope you attend next month when we will have DTS there to speak about various concerns we have in the community and then of course December is our fun pot luck meeting!