Senate Standing Committee on Agriculture and Environment

To call to order the Joint Committee on Higher Education and Agriculture. Today is Thursday, January 30th. It's 3pm we're in Conference Room 229 and this meeting is being streamed live on YouTube.

And in the likely event that we have to abruptly end this hearing due to technical difficulties like this one. And so it is a false alarm. It's been going on all day. Just so you know that your legislators here would even work during an emergency to get make sure the bills and all of the work get done.

And so the Committee will reconvene to discuss any outstanding business should there be more technical difficulties on Tuesday, February 4, 2025 in this room, 229 at 3pm There is a two minute time limit per testifier and we'll let you know when your time is up so please summarize.

And I'm sure Members may have questions for you that you could finish up with. With that I'd like to introduce my co-chair here from Committee on Ag, Senator Gabbard, a Member on the Ag Committee, Senator DeCoite and I guess the other Members are hunkering down or, so hopefully they'll come in.

So with that we want to start with our first item on the agenda. Joint item.

Okay, so we are on Senate Bill 1158. This is relating to controlled environment agriculture.

It authorizes the issuance of general obligation bonds and appropriates funds for the development of a controlled environment agricultural research and demonstration facility at the Magoon Research and Teaching Site in Manoa. First item, person to testify or group to testify. We have Parwinder Grewal testifying for the University of Hawaii in support. Thank you.

Mahalo Chair Kim and Chair Gabbard for this opportunity to testify. We stand in strong support of this particular Bill. As you know, that controlled environment agriculture is a critical, critical need for Hawaii to build its food resilience.

A single disaster like the one we are predicting right now, a big rain can devastate the entire season's effort of a crop that is outdoors in order to have some sustainability in that respect. And also certain crops that can only be grown better, like lettuce and others that regional kitchens are going to be needing.

This is an essential program. This particular program what we will build a research and extension facility that will be both demonstration as well as a production facility so that we can actually make a difference in terms of self sufficiency, but also stand up a new industry in Hawaii.

There is a nascent industry already. One of our collaborators who might testify later today is already demonstrated that this can be done. This is a higher end than the standard greenhouse type of operation and it will be year round production, but also create a workforce, develop new people for these high end clean jobs in food production.

So we stand in strong support of this Bill and we are open to questions.

Thank you very much, I'm sure. I have a couple questions for you, so stick around. Sharon Hurd for the Department of Agriculture or her representative.

Aloha. Senator Kim. Here on behalf of the Department of Agriculture, we stand on our testimony.

Okay, thank you. Brian Miyamoto, Hawaii Farm Bureau.

Thank you, chair. The Hawaii Farm Bureau will stand on. Its written testimony in support.

Great, thank you. Warren Watanabe for Maui County in support. Okay. David Arakawa in support for Land Use Research Foundation Hawaii. Kerry Kakazu for MetroGrow Hawaii. Welcome.

Thank you, Chair. Kim and Gabbard. I am the owner and President of MetroGrow Hawaii, first vertical farm in the state. And I stand in strong support of this measure. I just want to. I had written testimony submitted also, but I want to add that I think this is such a great fit for Hawaii.

We're in a unique environment and situation. Whereas Dean mentioned food security is such an important matter. We can't expect to just call the next state and send over some vegetables. So we really need to make sure we ensure that we have all the agricultural technologies available to produce our own food efficiently.

Also, I think we have an opportunity as a very unique environment. Our energy costs are so high. We have a different kind of climate than a lot of this kind of farms on the continent.

So it's a good opportunity for us to be a leader in that area where a small tropical based economy can do this kind of research also. And so I look forward to the day that we can invite other people to come here and show them a model example of what can be done. Thank you.

Thank you very much. We have Eric Tanoi from the Hawaii Floral Culture and Nursery Association in support. Ronald Weidenbach, Aquaculture and Aquaponics Association and support. Earl Yamamoto online. Do we have any? Do we have him?

Yes, they're available online.

Okay. Mr. Yamamoto, welcome.

Yes, thank you. Mr. Gates has already presented our testimony. So I'll be here for any information or clarification from the Department of Agriculture. Thank you.

Okay, thank you. And then we have about nine others that have sent in testimony and support. Anyone else here wishing to testify in person? Anyone on Zoom? No. If not, we're open for questions. Members, any questions? I have questions for I guess the Department. Oh, University of Hawaii. Sorry.

So this facility we're putting at Magoon Research teaching site. Right. What's on there now?

Right now there is a old building which is condemned building next to the ravine. And we hope to demolish that building and create this facility over there.

Because this way we have a great opportunity for our students to just go in between their classes to contribute to the development of the workforce and also research easier for our faculty there.

And this is also a demonstration piece for urban locations because these facilities really fit in urban areas and closer to less transportation and all of that.

Is this something that you folks initiated in your budget and was it put out or is just. This is just a legislative initiative?

This is just a legislative initiative. We did not put that into our budget.

So is this a priority for the University?

It is a big priority for CTAHR and it fits in. You know, my personal goal as a new dean for the college is to bring all our college resources to move the needle on food and agricultural self-sufficiency for Hawaii. That's the major goal. To focus on Hawaii centric work, research, and everything else.

And this piece fits right in. And it also takes us to a new level creating this new industry right here where we could get engineers and others to be part of the food and agriculture business.

Well, I agree that I think that our ag industry needs a lot of support and we need to do more.

But when I look at the last line of your folks testimony and you folks say this in almost all your testimony is that you should support this provided that the passage does not replace or adversely impact partners priorities as indicated by Board of Regents approved budget. So you know that the pie is only so big, right?

And you know that if we give money at some point somebody else, we got to take it from somebody else. So from your university budget. And that's why it's important that we know what the priorities are of the University as you guys come forward.

Because it's very easy to support something, but to where the money is going to come from and who do we take it from? It's always something that we have to.

Right? I totally, totally agree. And we also have to abide by our leadership or line as we abide by you what you recommend, what you suggest. Same thing we also respect.

I just hope that the University looks at the broader picture because it seems like they're not in touch with what's actually going on on the lower levels as to what's important in the community. And so the budget reflects a bigger, higher up, you know, type of priorities. When on the lower level those priorities are not being factored into the budget.

And that's one good thing in Hawaii is that you have these kinds of mechanisms for those kinds of projects to be heard.

Yeah, I may have missed it, but what is the requested appropriation you're looking for for this project?

A total of $6 million. It will include the demolition of the building that's there right now and then creating this facility. It will also have instruments, technology in and multi story, you know, vertical farm for production.

Thank you.

Is that just one phase or is that all physical?

It's all in one go. We will be able to do it. It wouldn't be. There will be facilities that are lab so that research can occur. So that's you know, brick and mortar building.

But the rest of the production facility would be a novel facility with type of covering that is now considered industries innovation where light can be utilized. So we're not providing, you know, artificial lighting here so that we are more energy efficient.

And also everything is hydroponic so use less land, much less pest pressure if there is any and efficient, less water use as well.

So you're not going to come back into us for more money?

On this one? I don't think so.

Okay, well that's what they told us on the cancer center and then they ran out of.

No, this one. This one is.

They told us that for Sinclair they ended up using 15 million out of the RIM Fund. So I'm just saying that there's a reputation at the University's numbers aren't, aren't good.

And then you guys come back, you know, they don't keep money for the debt service so now they're coming in, they want money for the debt service. So.

Yeah, that's true in, in this case this is one of my personal top priorities to move the needle. Right. So this one, I am committed to supporting it further.

One major departure we would have in this is we are considering a private partnership so that this facility can also be a production facility simultaneously so that the training of the students is at that commercial scale. And also we are contributing to the food self sufficiency right here. Okay.

And how long you think it's going to take to build the cell?

Thinking two years. Okay.

So hopefully I'll be here in two years and then I will ask you for if we were on budget on time.

We will provide the reports.

Okay. Thank you. If there's any other questions, Senator Hashimoto.

Thank you, Dean, for being here. So I guess what thought has been put into if this is the best location or not?

Yeah. So we would, there could be better locations than this, but this is the facility or place that is with CTAHR where other CTAHR activities occur. So it's kind of synergistic to that.

And then it's closer to our students, the classes, the faculty, so that the students can be there in between the classes to do the work necessary. We hope to hire students, actually provide them, you know, assistantships so that they are actually part of the production team and such, so they hands on learning.

But is this the kind of ag that you're hoping to produce at large scale? I guess is the question.

Yeah. So this facility we are hoping would be between 3,000 to 5,000 square feet of production space. So it is quite close to commercial scale, or would be at commercial scale based on these systems do not need as much space as farms and such.

But absolutely, if there are other opportunities where we could put this kind of facility, we can explore that.

Well, you know, I guess why I asked the question is because I think what we need to understand really is what is the broader strategy of where CTAHR is trying to go. I think if you hear from a lot of people in the industry, they have not said necessarily nice things about CTAHR in terms of your pipeline.

Right. And so I think what the hope is and what I hope this, this begins to get to is making sure that that pipeline is fulfilled.

Like you're actually delivering people that will help the farmers do what they need to do and it's in the right location because if they don't have the right skills, then, you know, it's, then it's useless that we start building these facilities and rethinking CTAHR. Right.

I think in some respects, some people ask, well why, why isn't, why aren't you looking at other places on Oahu? Because that's where the egg is. It's not in Manoa. Right. The production facilities aren't in Manoa. It's not like we're going to scale up in Manoa. But I hope you have that.

Understand, I get, I get just coming from Creative Media, we having that hearing, we do understand that watch where we put buildings or else it might be empty. So I think we need to think about that as well.

But I think from the broader perspective of where you're trying to lead CTAHR I think that really needs to be honed in on in terms of where we're trying to go. So hopefully you have that all thought out. I'd love to see the plan because I think CTAHR is extremely important if we're going to have food sustainability.

But I think we have not been successful in the past. So I think we want to change that.

I totally agree with you. And on my tour as a new dean, coming in, meeting with almost 100% of my faculty, one on one, and a whole number of stakeholders on all islands, I've heard a lot of things and we are implementing some serious changes moving forward.

And in the next Bill, I'll share our plans, how we will work with our stations that are on different islands, different places, how we will transform them as hubs of local innovation and community prosperity. And yes, you are absolutely right. CTAHR was contributing a lot in the past, but in last 20, 30 years, it has declined.

And I agree with your judgment. And moving forward, we have to make those changes.

Thank you. Thank you for being here. You know, Manoa is congested as it is, and if you're looking at something like 3,000. Was it 3,000 to 5,000 square feet? If you're looking at an expansion of commercial, I cannot see that, even if it's hydroponics.

So you talk about the other islands with sea tar, and I can tell you it doesn't have a good taste in my mouth at all. Because the demise of the outreach and what they've done haven't been so great. Same thing when we had the prior Dean Comerford, you know, great plans, execution never occurred.

So how are you going to change the trajectory? In other words, do you have a proof of concept going forward? And it's not that I don't support agriculture. I think I've been one of the biggest supporters of agriculture myself, and I know the challenges.

But I gotta know, when we're in a time of pinching pennies, am I putting my money where I actually gonna help those farmers and they're gonna expand off into commercialization.

Yes. From here on out, you will hear so much from me and all my internal resources. We are moving in the direction that the entire state is properly served. Our stations are not neglected. We will focus on on every island.

When the last time you've been to the Molokai station.

Molokai have not yet visited.

You need to go check it out. Between you guys and the Department of Ag, you guys got the worst stations around. Yeah, it has deteriorated. They got brand new building and it looks like. It is really bad.

And the positions that are there, you guys have hired for that area, but you guys have taken them to the other islands which using them on different islands to help others when they need the help there.

So I can just say this, you need to go check it out because in a place where there's a lot of land, the output is. That much.

So I am with you. I am with you. Being a farmer myself, I grew up on a farm. I really do see that we do need to make a change. I'm very open about it. Some of my faculty might say we have to do research which is open ended. There may be something coming.

I think we get plenty of research. We just got to execute.

So we. Correct. And we have actually started an internal grants program using our own funds to motivate faculty to work on the stations, provide funding for them to actually do the work that is needed.

So you know, within this research and stuff. One of the challenges I've had with UH, was testing.

Yeah.

So your sample, pest sample. You looking at incorporating that into this facility as.

Well into the next build? Yes, we are proposing to restart the soil testing lab because based on what stakeholders have told me, we should not have closed that lab. And we are going to start that and we have the instruments needed for that. By adding stock, we can be more efficient because we need to deliver the results.

The most important thing you need in that facility.

Right. Very quickly, we need to get the results.

I would hope that you would incorporate it in this first part. Because if I don't know what I treating or what my soil sample does, I can wipe out an entire crop.

I can get one result fast if I send it to the mainland in 24 hours, I take it to you guys, you guys hold them and then you guys send them. I get them back 30 days later and I'm gone.

No, that's not. That should not have happened.

So you're going to commit to looking at infusing that here, the soils, the testing facility?

Yeah. Maybe not as part of this particular project, but using my internal funds I'm already committed to restarting the soil there. I have already made that commitment. In order for me to make it more efficient, I would request adding staff to it. That's the only thing. Because we, I cannot hear from stakeholders. Then we're not meeting our land grant mission...

Okay. Yes.

...going to cost us.

Thank you. Thank you Chair.

Members, any other questions? If not going to recess the Joint Committee meeting...

Call the Joint Committee back to order. We are in decision making the recommendation of the chairs or to amend Senate Bill 1158.

We are going to add the amendments that is requested by the University for the name change, recognize the name change and also, I don't know if this is a change, but correct the name and that we defect this measure to July 31, 2050. Any questions Members? Any discussion? Hearing None. Will you take the vote, Senator Hashimoto?

Members. Chairs recommendations pass SB 1158 with amendments.

Thank you.

Yes.

[ROLL CALL]

Chair recommendations adopted.

Thank you. And for...

Same recommendation for AEN. Senator Rhoads, you can take the vote. Chair votes aye.

Chair's recommendation on SB 1158 is to pass with amendments.

[ROLL CALL]

Recommendations adopted.

Okay. That being so, we will adjourn the Joint Committee meeting. Thank you very much.

Call to order the Committee on Higher Education for our 305 agenda item. We are still in room 229 and we're starting out with Senate Bill 663 relating to the University of Hawaii College of Tropical Agriculture and Human Resources.

We tried to put all of the CTAHR bills together in one hearing so we can have a good understanding of what's being asked for. And so with that our first testifier again is our Dean from the tropical from CTAHR.

Mahalo Senator and Chair Kim for the opportunity to testify for in support of this bill. We as you know, the CTAHR Research and Agriculture Experiment Stations are key to generating relevant, locally relevant information for farmers for all kinds of egg production, pest management approaches and all that is farming.

But our work is hampered right now because we do not have enough ag technicians. We are short by 34. I have made my analysis since 2005 we've been declining in the number of tech positions. So in this Bill we are only requesting eight because as Senator Kim pointed out early on, there are so many.

You know, it's the same amount of money that we have compete for. And we think that with aid we will be at a much better place to move. And with the new approach that we have to managing these stations, we will be able to garner additional grants for our work.

Because we hope to build these stations as community engaged and operate them using some entrepreneurial approaches as well. Our goal is to build them as hubs of local innovation and community prosperity. For that we are requesting four community coordinated positions that is one per county so that our deep engagement with local community can occur.

That deeper engagement is bidirectional that our faculty and community leaders work together to co envision and co develop solutions to local problems. That way we are actually expanding the land grant mission.

In addition to farming, there could be other problems that the local community identifies and whatever our faculty can do or bring other university resources to bear to help these local communities wherever our stations are. With this request we are also not asking for money.

But this summer we are starting a new summer research program for high school students and undergraduate students and community college students that will be engaged in agricultural research with their extension agents, with their faculty so that they can get the taste of it how agricultural science works.

And it will be also towards the workforce development and towards giving them opportunity to the university's resources on islands. That is a brand new initiative and it's going to cost us. But we are ready using our internal funds to make that happen. The other piece we are developing is a three year undergraduate degree. Learn by doing design.

The students will be based on all our centers care stations so they don't have to come to Manoa and pay for the residential costs and everything. Our faculty will develop courses that will be delivered online modules.

But much learning will occur practically on our stations where teams of students work under the mentorship of our faculty, our farm managers, our go farm coaches and so on. So that they are ready to become food and agriculture farming entrepreneurs. So that they can be those modern farmers that we are looking for.

That's a three year new degree in collaboration with all community colleges. We just had a meeting today, took a second step on towards the development of this new degree. First in the nation. Three year degree program. First in the nation.

Okay, we have testimony from Eric Tanoy, Nicole Galassi in support. Brian Miyamoto is here. If I say your name and you're here, come on up. But they said they're not going to be here.

Good afternoon Chair Members of the Committee, Brian Miyamoto here on behalf of the Hawaii Farm Bureau. You have our written testimony and support. Senator, we do agree that agriculture needs help. So we do appreciate you hearing these CTAHR bills. They're a critical partner and essential for the success of farmers and ranchers.

Their extension services play a key role. And so we also agree with you with previous comments. Senator Hashimoto, when we talked about Magoon Extension Service and the research stations, their role is they go out to the farmers. So they are located throughout the island. Certain extension research stations specialize in certain things.

And then with Magoon, with vertical indoor farming being or potentially being an urban farm or urban area type of activity, we do believe that Magoon is a good place to have it. Again, we need the positions, we need those bodies, we need to revamp our extension service.

And this bill along with other bills in today's agenda does address that. So we. Again, Senator, we do appreciate you scheduling and hearing the CTAR bills. It is extremely important. Our farm bill members had voted on many of these measures as priorities for the farmer, for the ranchers and the farmers here in the State of Hawaii.

So thank you for the opportunity to testify.

Okay, there are 11 others in support. Anyone here wishing to testify on this issue? Anyone online wishing? Okay, if not questions. So I guess Dean, if you will come forward. So Dean, one of the questions and I think it'll cover the other bills as well. So we gave you positions last year. Correct.

So what are the positions? And I have a list of positions and I'm not sure over the years, but I also have the vacancy table and I see a lot of research tech vacancies, extension agents, vacancies, a whole number of them.

So have you folks looked at all of these positions and that we could use these positions instead of getting eight brand new positions.

So last year the positions that we got, those are extension agents. Those are spread out on different islands.

But you're asking for four right all spread out to the islands.

Correct. Those are now APT positions, staff positions. So last year were faculty extension positions and those are currently we are recruiting all of them at different levels of the process that is going on. Because it's a national recruitment.

We go through that, it takes us usually more than a semester and we are going through all of that and by the end of this year we would have most likely all five positions filled. That said, the positions that you are looking at that you're seeing vacancies within our college, we do not have many vacancies.

There are few vacancies that are there that in some cases we struggle to fill egg to acquisition because of civil service. It just takes time for us to fill those positions. But that said, we just can't be without people.

And as I mentioned early on we are down 34 positions and we are only asking eight in this particular request.

Okay, so I don't know what the difference with this agricultural research tech positions that you have here. You got tech 44 tech 5, tech 6, tech 3. How is that different from what you're asking for?

They wouldn't be different per se, but it is. If any vacancies that we have, we are also in the process of filling those positions. A number of those positions, my associate dean and extension can confirm that that they are at different stages of filling.

Some of them are with civil service being posted or not posted or applications being sent to us for review.

Well, some of them are saying, I mean they've been vacant since 2020 and it says we'll not be utilizing end position counts. So I'm not sure if you can take those positions and reclassify them. But you've also got other positions that have a funds and then you have extension agents.

So you have county extension agents that has been vacant since 3116 and 1019.

Okay, two explanations if I may. The N positions, there is a error of sorts in this that this is, this is not a true count. What we can do is. But you have that position. We, we will provide you an update on that because we had federally funded positions that are used for those N counts.

Yeah, but then you can take those positions because now you're gonna. You're asking for state funds to fund it. Right. Because you don't have any more federal funds.

Correct. So those wouldn't be. We can't really use those numbers anymore because that's what I've been told. Because I was so excited last time when you asked us to look at the vacant position. So I was looking at that.

There are 200 positions that my college has and we went through sieving and looking at what position relates to what number. And at the end of the day we got 18. Only 18 positions were real positions that were available. I tried to fill all 18 right away.

I want to see those. Because when you say 18 real positions, what I am imagining is that 18 positions that they'll give you the money for, but the other positions, they don't have money in it. And they've already taken the money, which is why they're not going to give you those position counts.

They do that to a lot of the departments.

I would provide a better explanation and I can submit that to you in writing. After the hearing. Because as I said, I was very excited that I have these positions that, you know, why are we not filling these. And ultimately it was.

This is not accurate reflection because the federal funds were used for positions before and now they are not used for positions because the funding has declined over time.

But if we put in state fund into that to fund it every year we get requests that the funding has run out and we need state funding for these positions. Also there's a number of positions of A funds in here that is vacant.

So let me provide you with the latest count of what we have within the college that are currently open.

Okay. Yeah. Because I see all these research tech positions that's been vacant for a couple of years, but they don't have any budgeted amount, so they don't have any money in it. But we gave you folks those positions with money.

And what's happened is the University puts all of the money into a pot and then they start divvying it out. So they might not be giving you money, but they've already used the money. See what I'm saying?

It's possible, but I can't answer that question right now.

Well, they did answer that in the budget briefing on how they take all the positions and they take the salary savings and they use it. And then as positions are requested, then they have to get the money for it. So they might just not want you to fill it because they don't have the money for it but they should.

For the faculty positions, we do have a mechanism that each year every dean sends their priorities. Then the university decides which college would get how many new faculty positions. We did succeed last year. Five positions. You gave us extension positions. Then we got 11 faculty positions from the university on top of that.

Yeah, see what was happening? They did this with College of Ed. They had 20 positions. And during COVID the Administration took, took most of them. And then when they needed more positions, they only gave them back seven. So they were short like six or eight positions. So they came back for new positions.

And I said, well, why are we going to give you new positions when you had all the positions? Well, then systems or whoever took it and they wouldn't give it back because they utilized the monies. So that's what they do. And that's what is troubling because we give you the positions and then they take it.

And then they kind of force you to come in and ask us for new positions so that they can keep the money from, from the, all the positions. And now. And that's a way of getting more and more positions without having to be in official budget. And so this vacancy list continues to grow.

And then you add in, you add in eight more positions. And at some point, if you can't fill all those positions, it'll go into the vacancy.

And at some point they're going to scoop the money from that vacant position and then force you to come back in next year or the year after that and ask me for more positions.

One thing that I did learn, this is my 11th month on the job, that anything that you provide, you write it in the bill. They can take away from, for whatever unit you have given those to.

No, but if it's a position count and if it's a position with money in it, they can take salary savings, vacancy savings. So if you don't fill it, it'll become a vacant position and it become vacant savings.

And one more thing.

They don't take the position, they leave it there, but they take the money.

Correct me if I'm wrong. I believe that that money actually stays with the college. If we are not filling the position, then if I need to make any changes, if we are hiring somebody, we need to give higher salary. We use those funds.

Right, you use that fund for the higher salary, but that position now is less that money. So that position cannot be filled because you've taken the money and used it for something else.

It is for that short term, but.

Not necessarily always a short term. I'm just telling you that's, that's the policy on how it's going. That's why we raise concerns about why aren't you guys filling your vacancies and if you can't fill it and you're asking us for more positions and then how are you going to fill these positions?

Yeah, I will definitely provide you with additional information on what vacancies we do have in the college. And that is, I can assure you that I did not find that many because of whatever has happened in the past. These N counts are not real positions. They are not. There is no money.

There's no such thing as not real positions. They are real positions, but they've taken the salary savings. And so that's why they're not letting you, they're not letting you use that position. They forced you to come in and ask us, is this in the budget? These positions are asked for in the budget.

No. This is because I am doing my analysis on all my stations and working with all our staff to see what we need to move the needle.

But don't they ask you in the beginning when they're doing the budgets to what your, what your college needs or what your program needs and you put in the request. And it goes before Board of Regents.

So they only ask us to for the faculty positions. And faculty positions we do have a process every year that we can request. Yes, if somebody, some faculty member retires, that position returns to the university. So it goes to a pool, and then out of that pool we compete. It could go to any college. That is true.

That is the new system. But still, if I can make a good case for it, and yes, we can be successful.

Yeah, but see, that's the problem. Every college is making a good case, including the community colleges.

And so we, when we agree with your good case, and we do often, and we've done it with the community colleges, then the systems, they get mad at us and they write nasty columns about how we only took care of the community colleges and we didn't take care of Manoa, and there's no rhyme or reason because Manoa has X amount of students, X amount of square footage.

And so that's what they do. They make all these in the media and go after us because we're not the listening to them. But we're hearing from the line people, which is what I said. It doesn't necessarily reflect the university's priorities, necessarily reflect what's going on in the community.

And so you folks need to make your points to the regents. And it's troubling that they only let you do faculty and that all these other positions are not being funded or part of the university's budget. And as a result, this budget gets wacky. Because what is the priorities? Right.

Yeah. So right now, all the APT positions there. There is no APT position available for me to get from the university. We've been told that every college has a certain number of APTs. If somebody leaves, we can refill that APT position, but we cannot. We don't have within the university to get any new APT position.

Did you ask them how many specialist positions they have that's open? Because what happened over the years is they started out with specialists that don't teach. Okay. And it's supposed to be APTs. And the union got involved and so then they had to go. And that's why the other colleges cannot have specialists, although they do.

You know, they're not supposed to. If you look at the regents policy, they did away with specialists. Except Manoa has existing specialists. But a lot of the positions that are specialists are really APT positions. It's just. It's been grandfathered in or it continues to stay on there. But they're supposed to be APT positions.

That is a possibility, but I don't know for sure. Specialists title has been used in Agriculture College as well. Our specialist is defined this way. This is a person with the split research and extension appointment. They are supposed to do research and do small amount of extension to train other extension agents who do not have research appointment.

So that is what we call specialists in the past.

And that's another. That's another problem because, UH doesn't have a consistent definition across the university for specialists. And they used to have seven different classifications and with our urging, and finally they're back down to faculty and so forth. So now. But the specialist is still hanging out there. That needs to be defined so that it's across the board what we.

What you know, specialists in your department. Specialists. They also must be ATPs.

Right? In. You have already succeeded on that because the university had to go through reclassification. We are all told we have done reclassification moving forward. We will not have a specialist in my college.

And I got beat up for that, by the way.

No, but you succeeded in that. It's already implemented now.

Okay, Members, questions.

So what was your conclusion when you figured out that you only had these certain amount of positions that you could actually fill? Like what? What? Like so what did. Are you cleaning up your books or are you. Because I would assume that if you have the actual, you know, position, some, some money had to have gone somewhere.

Did you not try and get the money back?

I, I was told that these are only so many positions that I really have out of this because there is some kind of. That's why I want to provide you with the university's explanation as to what has happened there.

What is N count, why it is not a state count, you know, where these N positions came from and how it happened.

Well, at least you should give us a look, an accurate count of what is actually there. But, but so because you're new, I'm just wondering what your process was because I think that's how we would approach it too is, you know, we should kind of know like what is the explanation for.

So you see, you have all these positions that you found out you couldn't use. It was told to you that what.

That we only have these 18 positions.

So you need G funds or A funds then. General funds. So you can't use any of the N funds.

Correct.

Okay.

N funds were in the past through federal grants or whatever.

And they just leave it on the books.

Correct. Correct.

So is the intent of this to do some trade off transfers with the N funds to A funds? Or are you just leaving the A, the N funds on the books and we're just gonna have these positions there forever?

Yeah, because they. Out of those I only had 18. Right. Some of them were APT. Some of them were faculty that searches were going on and so on. But that is a pseudo count. That's what I can say right now. And I, I will provide.

So why don't you go and clean it up then? So at least we, we have a better.

We should.

Okay, so you're going to submit a redone position of what actually you have and which is what is fake because you should just get rid of the positions that you're never going to.

Then we can scoop it and delete it all.

Yes, that's what we can provide. Then the action can be taken.

Because I think if you look from our perspective when you look at this and you pull the vacancy report and you're just like all these vacant positions, what the heck. Right? And then if we can get a better picture, then maybe it's easier for you to show. Show us a measure of success. Right. Okay.

Well, I mean, I think it's good because as I said, you're new. You have a new, fresh perspective. You're not, you know, the same old over the years. So at least. At least you can verbalize this to us because at the end of the day, we just got to know where everything is. And sometimes it's like.

You think our chair does a lot of homework, but it's. It's. You know, it's like when we don't look at it in that detail, we're just kind of taking it from face value. So. Thank you.

But just to add on to that, there's a lot of A funding positions that are baked in too, so I'll be interested. So, you know, your provost should be here. He should be answering these questions because he can tell you one thing.

But then when we ask him in budget briefings, we ask him, we get a different answer. So, you know, we need to be on the same page on these things. So before we give you the positions, we need to figure this out. And that's the only way I'm going to get it to be figured out.

I'm going to have to hold your positions until they get back to us. Otherwise they never get back to us.

I can definitely provide my colleagues a situation that is and counts. It is possible that they are only relevant to my college because of the land grant status and the federal funding that we might have gotten larger funding in the past when. For the college. So that maybe those end count positions are just those.

They should be wiped out, as you are suggesting. And so that we have clean books.

Okay. So you. I'm going to defer this measure until we get answers.

Okay. And can we provide those answers in like within the next few weeks?

Yes, as soon as you. The sooner you give it to me, the sooner we can we put it on and review it again. All right. Yeah. Because we. Yeah. Our last hearing is. We only have three more here. Three more dates. Tuesday, Thursday, Tuesday, Thursday before the lateral. Not lateral, but internal. Is it lateral to the next committee?

Then it goes to web.

Okay, thank you. We will try your best to get the explanation.

Thank you.

Okay, moving on. Members, we will have Senate Bill 666 converts two temporary farm to school extension agent positions within the University of Hawaii at Manoa College Tropical Ag. Establishes an Agriculture Education Coordinator position, appropriates funds. So again, we have testifying on this measure. Candice Park, Deputy Attorney General. Are you here?

She has Comments Chair Kim and Members of the Committee. The Department just wants to recommend that you identify the matter as a law of statewide concern. Okay, thank you. You missed that for some reason. Yeah, but you caught a lot. Thank you. Thank you sma.

And so Dean, you're back on again.

Thank you again for the opportunity. We do support this bill because we do have two temporary employees funded in temporary positions that are working in this area. And we would like them to be continuing and adding a position which would be the educational coordinator.

It is an investment in our keiki which is to enhance their knowledge about food food systems and also looking at the local food systems overall. And it also serves another purpose is to continue a pipeline that is those students who get excited about agriculture could be our future. You know, professionals would be in the workforce.

We are in support of this. Okay, thank you.

Kavika Kahiapo. Did I say that correctly?

Members of the Committee, my name is Kaviko Kahiapo. I am part of Hawaii Public Health Institute and representing Hawaii Farm to Schools Network. I'm also the Hawaii Food Council advisor. We are strong support of this bill. These positions are essential to advancing coordinated statewide approach to offering students regular and equitable access to agriculture and food system education.

This type of quality education will advance Hawaii food security and food self sufficiency through the development of ag educators and future farmers. These positions will also help to meet the purpose of Act 175 getting Hawaii, the State of Hawaii 30% local procurement by 2030. Thank you very much.

Thank you. Brian.

Aloha. Chairman of the Committee, Brian Miyamoto here on behalf of the Hawaii Farm Bureau. You have a written testimony and support. Just want to highlight a few other things. And we all know the average age of the farmer. Thanks Senator Hashimoto, you brought up the pipeline.

We need to educate our students and our residents about agriculture and the importance of agriculture. And we're, we're not naive to think that everyone is going through these programs, are going to become farmers or ranchers, but they will become consumers. They will become our future policymakers.

So it's really important that we engage and we reconnect our youth, our keiki, with agriculture education. And you heard the previous speaker talk about Chapter 170 or Act 175, the Farm to school program. And currently right now we're focusing on the procurement side of our farm to school program.

We do need to focus on the education, the agriculture education. So we really support positions, dedicated positions that can do that education and the outreach that is desperately needed. Thank you for the opportunity to testify.

Thank you, Brian. Sarah Beamer right here. Executive Director for Hawaii Professional Assembly. Any. I do have like four others, but anyone here wishing to testify in this measure, Anyone on zoom. All in support on with comments. Okay. Questions, numbers questions. So Dean, you want to come forward? Okay, two temporary farms agents positions.

So the temporary positions, they are no, there are no vacant positions that they can get into.

There are no vacant positions that are, you know, farm to school. We actually do not have extension agent vacant position that we are not recruiting right now. I mean you may see that on that list. But we are after every position and we are filling them. So what's an assistant extension position? Assistant. Could you explain, Jeremy?

Assistant extension agent.

Assistant extension agent. There are quite a number of them.

Aloha chairs, Members of the Committee. Jeremy Elliot Engle, Associate Dean for Cooperative Extension with CTAHR. So the assistant is referring to the rank whether junior assistant associate. So it's just a level of faculty and that changes a little bit about their performance and the longevity that they have and experience that they have in that work.

And how does these positions differ?

It's not that they necessarily differ on the assistant or associate rank, it's that area of focus of the work. So every one of our extension agents have both a geographic as well as a technical requirement or expectation in their job. So it could be assigned to Molokai with a focus on edible crops, something like that.

So these are focused on the farm to school initiative and one for Molokai.

Okay, then there are Two student services specialists. Three student service specialists that I found just looking here. So how is that different?

Yeah, those are basically for our student services. CTAHR has another associate dean who looks at academic programs and student services. So these are sports top for that particular position. Some of them are advisors, Some of them are helping with moving, providing students professional development and needed services. And what does this one do?

These two, these Farm to school are basically working with K-12. So these are outward focus, extension activity. These are not academic from the University side or higher ed. The farm to school agents are. Their job is to work with K-12 students to nurture and develop their knowledge into agriculture, food systems.

One that does, you know, take them from classes and access to the farm. I mean, instead of having people, excellent student service specialists take them to one point and now you got to get person to take it to the farm.

Wouldn't it make more sense to have somebody that work with the student from the classroom to the farm?

No, these are these student services. They are for our undergraduate students. This is higher education area. Whereas farm to school works with K-12 students only. So they are quite different role. They are different.

Okay, you don't have any others. These are the only two. They are the only two. The only two that you have. Correct. And that's only for Oahu and Molokai. What about the other islands?

So we have two. We are also asking for the education coordinator. That way we could have a person who is focused on teacher education, developing teachers.

So I will ask you if you can provide us, the committee, with a kind of org chart or whatever it is to show us all these different positions, how they interrelate with one another. Because it's very confusing that you have all of these titles. Assistant specialist, associate extension specialist, student services specialist, assistant specialist.

Yeah, they're all over the place. And it's very difficult for us to see how they all intertwine with one another. And are we duplicating? Are we not? I mean, shouldn't there be some.

We can, we can, we can provide. We can provide that information.

Because every year you come in and we give you guys positions and then, I don't know, it's like it's never ending.

Yeah, well, I would, to the dean's point. Within extension, we do have an array of faculty that are providing programming. They have a wide array of technical expertise.

We want someone who knows something about edible crops and we want someone who knows something about livestock and we want someone who knows something about family studies to bring our Programming to life in our communities. They rely on what has historically been called a faculty as a specialist, and now we'll be going forward as faculty.

They also have technical expertise that might be even more narrow to then support those extension agents to bring that programming into our communities. And then we also have APT Technical support that's making sure that the work is happening on the ground.

So I just share that as an overview that we do rely on multiple roles and maybe the other thing that's important to share from our college, that I of course represent one of the missions about cooperative extension, but we also have the other mission of campus based higher education instruction and also research.

So of course that also takes some complexity about different roles as well.

I think you folks have very important roles. It's just trying to make sure that we understand your roles and that it is, it makes sense because it seems like it's all over the place. So if we can make it more efficient, we can have it where people. Can understand the flow.

Because all my years here, I still have a hard time with CTAHR. And then we have changes and it's. So let me ask you this question. How many of your courses are offered online or students are online and not in person?

Not a lot. Not a lot, but not a lot. It would be less than 5%.

Less than 5%, yeah. Okay. And of that courses, how many is async classes?

Maybe those could be counted. I don't have exact number right now, but it would be relatively small.

Okay. Because I just learned about async classes, which is amazing. My understanding is some async, you don't have class time. You don't. You can do it on your own. There's no Professor, there's no class time. Some of it is just slides. There's not even anybody talking. It could be a video and the students just take it.

And at West Oahu, it seems like almost 95% of all their classes are async, which I could not believe that. So you don't. So it'd be interesting to find out in Manoa how many of their classes are actually async, where there's no Professor teaching.

And so then it makes me wonder when they say that the professors at Manoa teaches 8 to 12 credit hours, how many of those are taught with async?

In my college, actually, we are so behind in offering online. If we could offer more online, there could be more students taking advantage. For example, if they go out in summer or one semester, they can actually work from home, wherever they live. Know On a big one, big online is one thing.

Instruction is that's great. But if you have online where it's just a slides and you go on your own, I don't know how much they get out of it. And then my understanding is that the test is a 10 question test online.

So you, you don't know if how much they actually got because they're at home online picking it up or I'm not sure how they do it because it's not proctored.

From my understand, it's not proctored. You are right. In some respects the online education has evolved substantially during the pandemic. Faculty who never taught online, they resorted to sharing their lectures, the slides and stuff online. So we called that as online. So it served that purpose. Yeah, I can see that.

But that is not a good way to have online. Online education has changed so much. You could have actually a wonderful experience and there are team projects. The faculty has to be there still. They open. But student can make progress on their own time.

But they have to finish three lectures worth of material for example to get to open the next series of lectures. That faculty Member comes in and looks at how they responded to the questions and then. Yeah, and that's my idea. That is a proper way and that's.

My idea of online. So when I found. Found out about this Async, I was kind of troubled and that nobody really mentions it to us or I mean, you know, it's new to me. I don't know if you guys knew about async but then yeah, it's worrisome because you know, who's monitoring that?

Who's monitoring that these courses are, are offered with Async and there's. There's no proctor, there's no Professor, there's no time.

Yeah. We don't have in our college because we are more hands on, you know, our practical reoriented education that we provide. So our faculty actually shy away from online teaching. There are very few that are doing it. Those then sometimes the community colleges students also take advantage of those classes because now they can take it.

It's available online. Okay. But the very few. Okay, thank you. Questions.

Attention. An emergency has been reported in this building. Please cease operations and wait.

Okay. We are moving on to Senate Bill 672. This is capital improvement projects for University of Hawaii authorized the issuance of General obligation bonds and appropriate funds for a capital improvement project for the repair, maintenance and demolition of buildings at the Waimanalo Research Station. Testifying on this measure again.

Mahalo Again, Chair Kim, for giving us the opportunity to share this particular program. As I mentioned earlier, our care centers, all on different islands, they need help. University have made significant investment in several of them. For example, on Big island, we have four separate renovation projects are going on. One was funded by the Legislature.

Thank you for that. Others are funded through the University's projects. That said, Waimanalo Station has been serving the community since 1950. And the buildings there are. Some of them are crumbling. Some are in very bad shape. They need repairs. Some will have to be demolished because the assessment shows that they can no longer be saved.

So we are requesting $4 million in repairs and renovation and demolition at that station. And the community engaged work that I mentioned earlier that our new vision for building these care stations as hubs of local innovation and community prosperity.

There the community decides, working with us, as to what should be the focus, what different problems we should be solving together in that this station. We started our first talk story events from Waimanalo. We felt that that community needed help, and they identified food security and workforce development, a number of other priorities.

So we, instead of asking you that, you know, give us money for repair of all our stations, we prioritized. We felt that we need to go for this particular one first. Let us see how we can build this new model of, you know, making these stations as local hubs of innovation.

And that's the reason we just focused on this one. But we do have an amendment for this bill. We request that you please consider that. That is, we need an animal science teaching lab for the accreditation, national accreditation of our animal science program.

We do not have an animal science teaching lab for livestock, for, you know, pigs, goats, sheep. Students need comprehensive training if they are in the animal science program.

Buffer of chickens.

Pardon? And so we have this opportunity to build such a lab now in Waimanalo because we have 280 acres of meadow Gold dairy land that is currently with blnr. But we are managing that land under right of access, and they would transfer that land to the station as soon as we present them with the design.

So we have already prepared a conceptual design how we will use that land in building this facility and also in expanding our Go Farm program, expanding our experimental research, which is field based research. And for that, the design phase of this additional work that we proposing would be $1.5 million in design cost only.

We did not think that it's a good idea to give you the entire project right now because we felt that we will go with the design phase of that. So that we can demonstrate to our national accreditors that we are building this lab. So don't hurt us, don't hurt our students.

We are on our way to be able to gain the accreditation.

Okay, thank you. Thank you, Brian Miyamoto.

Appreciate it.

I have questions though for you.

Thank you. Chair. Members of the Committee, Brian Miyamoto here on behalf of the Hawaii Farm Bureau. You have a written testimony support. This is similar to the Pomo research station last year that Legislature supported $2 million. You heard the Dean and seen our testimony station was built in 1950.

Again, these are critical research stations important to farmers and ranchers. And Chair, we would be supportive of you see that we list specialty crops, tropical fruits and sustainable farming techniques and some of the things they do at Waimanalo we would be open to including feral chicken control and mitigation research also if necessary.

Thank you for the opportunity to testify.

Okay, that's good to know. We have 10 others. They also didn't say they're going to be in person. So anyone here wishing to testify on this measure? Anyone online hearing? None. So Dean, if you can come back, I need clarification.

The $4,000,000 CIP is for the Waimanalo research and the 5.5 is an additional or you want the 4 million to be increased to 5.5?

4 million to be increased to 5.5. I see.

And part of that is for the animal science. Correct. And the 1.5 million is in addition.

Correct.

And that's just for the design?

In addition to the 4 million.

That's correct.

What's the down the road phases obligation.

That the state would have to the down the road? That design phase will actually define what it might cost. But our estimate would be somewhere in the range of say 15 to 18 million. Would be this whole big facility for animal science and also expanding our programs because it is already 1128 acre farm by Manalo.

Now we will add 280 acres land on the top of it. So it will be one of our major research stations, just like other land grant institutions. My thought is that this will become an agricultural campus moving forward. This is where livestock, sustainable agriculture, all kinds of practical education will come together in that area.

Because we have the opportunity to have that land that is available next to it. And it is also close enough to Manoa so that the professors can take their students. Classes could be held there.

And we hope to add new faculty that we will go through our standard University process to be based in Waimanalo so that they can do the Research that's necessary.

Okay. You know, appreciate the fact that you don't want to give us the whole amount because, because you want to ask for it. But it's important that we understand what the commitment.

Because once you go into the design phase, you certainly want to make sure that, you know, we're going to be able to fund this down the road. And now you say more faculty. So it's not only the cost.

No, faculty, we will not ask you. Okay. Faculty. We will go through our standard University.

So wouldn't this $4 million for the research station CIP, shouldn't that be involved with the University in their CIP projects or the room projects?

I did have discussions with them. Since I came on board late, the University has a process 10 year plan. And when I started talking to them, they have given me guidance on how to develop a CTAR plan that they can add to their plan. This particular project, they are receptive to be included in that.

But I was so late in terms of bringing it to them. And now we are working on our own five year plan so that we can put in where we would need what and what needs.

Yeah, but that's the problem. Everybody has their own plan. And we want to. I want to. No, we will. Universities CIP plan their RIM because they take money from RIM for all kinds of other projects and then we end up with buildings that are 1950 and they're falling apart. And they're not using the money for those buildings.

They use it for Ching Field. They're using it for the cost overruns for Sinclair Library. You know what I'm saying? And so it doesn't give us a true picture as to what are the priorities of the University overall, because many of you come into us on your own and it's kind of piecemeal.

Yeah, you, you are right. And it is. Vice President Govea has been very good and instructive to me on that. She's supportive. And we will in the future start adding our priorities then where it may fall, that will be the case. Right.

It's interesting that you've been here, what, nine months? Yes. Okay. And they want you to wait the 10 years. But Ching Field never wait. They find the money nine months, they build Ching feel wasn't on anybody's plan, you know what I'm saying? And so it's like, what's the priority?

And in some situations they don't need to wait 10 years. They don't need get into the hole. And for you. And if this is so, so, so Important that I'm not sure why they couldn't add this to their CIP because I do think it's meritorious. But again, where is the University?

And I hate to go ahead and Fund it. And they go, well it wasn't on our priority list. You know, we didn't ask for it. That's what they tell us we didn't ask for. It's not on our priority list. So I don't want that coming back to us like that.

So I'm going to, I'm going to also recommend we divert to a time certain to allow the. Your provost should be here.

Your provost should be one on one answering on these questions and maybe Jan need to be here as well to explain to us why these projects are not being put onto the CIP and onto their RIM projects.

We respect your decision. Yeah, I want to take it up.

I want to take it up so the sooner they come we put it on the agenda and give them the opportunity to come back in so that we can pass it out.

Okay, thank you.

This is very important. Yes, appreciate that. But I do want to make sure that they are held accountable for these good projects that are not going on the list. Thank you so much. Members. Questions? Okay, now we are going to move on to 865. 865.

This is relating to agriculture appropriates funds to establish a permanent educational support associate position within the University of Hawaii Tropical Ag Resources in Kona Cooperative Extension. So here justify this measure is again our dean and then followed by Brian Yamoro.

Mahalo again for the opportunity to testify. We do support this request because in coffee, which is a very important crop right now for Hawaii and we only have one extension agent that works on coffee, just one. So here the request is to have a position that supports that extension agent. This is important if it can be funded.

Great. My thought on this is that we would benefit from having a extension agent that extensions hate to use the word specialist, but that is how this new faculty classification will make it that this person has a research and extension joint appointment. That person trains other extension agents and they would work on coffee and tea research.

So it will be, you know, faculty position that can serve both. That will be my strategic thought and planning on this.

But I do see the need because our extension agents get overworked with so many things that they need to do because they are also delving into applied research and then they need help with managing their grants and you know, sometimes lower level education the staff can provide.

Thank you, Brian. Thank you. Chair, the Hawaii Farm jewels down on its for good testimony and support.

Okay. Anyone else wishing to justify on this measure? Anyone online? Members? Questions? I have a question, Senator.

Maybe if the dean can return. So sorry, it's been a long day. One of the testimonies talks about how the current extension agent lost, I guess, assistance, you know, from particular grant that was underway in November. And the extension agent learned of this at the very last minute. And so it's kind of alarming that, you know, the.

The existing program appears to also be in somewhat dire financial straits. Is your office aware of this?

I just learned that this morning. I think you might have a little more information than I do. Yeah, we just learned this this morning that it is a grant that is coming from a commodity organization.

Yeah, well, through a commodity organization. So I won't necessarily. We don't control or won't speak on behalf of that organization and their decisions and how that's come to be. But what I can say is that all of our faculty are entrepreneurial in the way that they build capacity.

We ask them to leverage their own work as a individual to raise money in support of their program. That sort of grants, contracts. And so that's the last part of your question about, you know, is this person at. I'm not exactly sure how you characterize that, but that the program was at risk.

So the one individual faculty is on G funds on account. They're a permanent tenure track faculty. No risk on that side. The risk is, of course, about the resources that they're using to extend the program. So we can't comment necessarily on the decisions made by the PI.

So in instances where external partners may change directions without warning, does the Department have access to any kind of additional resources through, I guess, uh, MNOA or, you know, the system, so that, you know, the good work that is being done is not put at risk through the unexpected departure of other organizations.

Right. So in those situations, we from the dean's office do support every faculty Member because sometimes the lives depend. Livelihood of people who we have hired depend on that. Although when we hire people on grants, we make a commitment. Two years, three years, things like that.

But if in the middle of it, there is something like this happens, then we honor that commitment and try to find funding from within the college to support them during those situations.

Okay, so with respect to MANOA campus, was there any effort to provide your program with additional resources to offset some of the unexpected elimination or departure of that partnership?

We have just learned this. I, in fact, got appraised of this today and Jeremy might have known a day or two before.

So we've not yet had those conversations about internal need. What I would say is that there is a person who's providing support in what would likely be a similar role as this. They've been on soft money for a while and so this similar request has come up over time.

Obviously there were additional extramural funds have been supporting it. So you know it's we want that to happen, right? We want to have force expansion that way so it's a new conversation and we can have that again.

And right now it has happened before with some other projects sometimes every year we get some funding from USDA, from PPAR, from Big Island. They have their one time one of the grant was not submitted on time therefore funding was not continued. But then we funded to continue that postdoctoral researcher with us during that year.

So we would look at it carefully.

Thank you. Thank you very much. Members, we're going to go right into decision making the recommendation for the first bill. Senate Bill 663. This is for the positions, the eight count before count.

I'm going to recommend we defer to February 6th meeting and that meeting is at 3pm so we'll add that to our agenda and we will send out emails to the provost and try to get the counts and everything so you can get that information to us.

Senate Bill 666 is the two temporary farm to school extension agents recommendation is to pass with amendments. We will correct the name. We will add the statewide language that the AG mentioned. We will make technical and non substantive amendments and we will defect the date to July 31, 2015. Any questions? Any comments? Not Senator Hashimoto.

All right. SB 666 recommendation of the chairs to pass with amendments. Chair Chair votes aye, Chair votes aye, Vice Chair is excused. Senator Fukunaga aye. I vote aye. Senator Favela Aye. Chair measures adopted.

Thank you. Senate Bill 672 this is the one of the General obligation bonds and the CIP.

Again I am going to defer recommend deferring this measure and deferring it to February 6th agenda also so that we can get more information regarding the RIM monies regarding the CIP projects from possibly the Provost and from Jan Govail so that and Dean, I will I will hope that you are going to coordinate that also.

Any objections Members to that hearing? None. Senate Bill 865 relating to the the appropriating funds to establish a permanent educational support associate position for the Human Resources Kona Cooperative Extension the recommendation is to amend.

We're going to correct the name per Ways and Means, blank the appropriation amounts and effect the date and effect the effective date to July 312050. Any questions? Any discussions? Hearing none. Chair both sides.

All right. Members SB 865 recommendation. The chairs passed with amendments. Chair votes aye. Any Members voting with reservations? Any Members voting no. With all others voting aye and noting the excusal of Senator Kidani. Your measure is adopted.

Okay. We are adjourned. Thank.