Senate Standing Committee on Health and Human Services

Aloha, everybody. Welcome to the Committee on Health and Human Services. No. This is not a glitch on your TV. I am the Vice Chair.

We are running the hearing today. Our plan is to have the hearing on the nominees, and then we are gonna defer time certain to vote on them. So we have full quorum Monday, April 6, 2026 at 01:05PM, Hearing Room 225.

But we wanna have the nominees heard and the testimonies because it's important that the process get done so we can deliberate and make recommendation. First up, GM 543 consideration and confirmation to the Health Planning Council, Woodward Oahu, Subarea, Ella Seroski.

Hope I pronounced your name right. Expiration March 2029. Testifying first on behalf of the nominee is representative Sean Quinlan. He has submitted written in support for the nominee. We have SHPDA.

Yes.

Hi. Acting Chair McKelvey, Jack Lewin, administrator of SHPDA. We're really very pleased to have Ella Saroski as our nominee, for the, Windward Oahu sub area. She's she's up there on on Zoom today. She's out there working in the community today.

Miss Saroski is is is actually a health professional, a tremendous background. She's had ICU and clinical care trauma experience. She's worked in many states in this area, but she's really spent a lot of time in Hawaii. She's part of Hui o Haula.

They're out there in the community right now, helping people bail out on the North Shore.

They provide food services. We just are so fortunate to have her as a nominee for the Windward O'Hare sub area council, and we're looking forward to having her advice and councils going forward.

Great. Appreciate you being here. That's all we wait. Sorry about that. That's me.

And we also have Ace ACN testifying in support. We have Gary Taney, individual, in support. We have Mona Curry, individual in support, and late from Daniel Anderson, also written support. Are there any of them with here wishing to testify? If not, I'd like to bring the nominee on and say a few words.

Ella, you're on. Go ahead, and thank you here for joining us today.

I'm really honored that this is, an opportunity that I'm looking forward to. I've been working as a kupuna support navigator for the past 53 years, and and I'm really encouraged by this committee. I really hope that we can do really good work.

Thank you so much. Really appreciate you being here. I know you guys are under a lot of pressure. Right? Just a real quick question from me.

What do you see as one of the biggest challenges or issues from the Windward Oahu sub area board that you are hoping to address or that should be raised to our level to to look at?

There are a lot of services that are available in town that are not available out here in the rural community. We cover from Ka'aba to Kahuku, and I know it goes beyond that. But, we don't have caregiving out here.

We don't have, we just got a grant from Hawaii Meals on Wheels, so we are working on getting support for our kupuna that are unable to prepare healthy meals for themselves. And and they're really enjoying it, the ones that we've got on it.

We delivered 308 meals last Monday, and, we're looking forward to adding more to that.

Awesome. Great job. Thank you so much. Are there any other questions? I'm the only guy here.

Okay. Well, I guess that would be it. Thank you for being here, Ella. Appreciate your service. And, we're gonna go ahead and defer the decision making till next week because we don't have quorum, but we appreciate you stepping up and and offering to serve.

Thank you. Okay. We'll move on to the next one, which is, GM660, Center for Nursing advisory board, Sarah Kamaka Violi, for a term to the expire June 30, 2027. And on behalf of the nominee, we have several individuals. We have Jackie Mikulanik, individual in support.

We have Thaddeus Pham, who've also written in support. Kioni Nakoa, an individual in support. Manu Tupper, an individual support. We also have an Orianna Leao. Here.

Great. Thank you. Come on up.

Aloha, Chair. My name is Orianna Leao, and I serve at the Department of Hawaiian Homelands. But today, I am testifying in my personal capacity and strong support of GM 6660, for Sarah Kamakavivo Ole for the Center for Nursing Advisory Board.

I met Sarah in Washington DC while she was exercising one of the skills that she does best, which is advocacy for the health and wellness of Karakamali and Hawaii as a whole.

Sarah is a writer's writer with skills and expertise in everything from grant writing to implementation of special federal funds, research, and data collection.

As a person, she has her mana carries as much weight as her last name and she also has keen intuition and a strong spirit of discernment, skills and characteristics that will serve this advisory board well.

As native Hawaiians who serve native Hawaiians we are well aware of the complex ocean of Kalmaha that we must navigate and yet Sarah is able to navigate these open seas and doldrums with the same level of precision and pono as our ancestors.

For these reasons and more I urge this committee to, advise and consent to her nomination. I'm available for questions. Mahalo.

Thank you for being here. Thank you for testifying, and we'll keep that in mind. Okay. That's all we have on the individual is a nominee That's oh, no. Go ahead.

Sorry. Hi.

Sorry.

That's alright. Jump on in. Jump on in.

Hello, Senator. Thanks for for hearing my my oral testimony. I submitted written testimony. I'm Manu Tupper. Okay.

Good to see you. Nice to see you.

I'm testifying here in my individual capacity. My written testimony was pretty dry. So thanks for the opportunity to share some of the thoughts that I have about Sarah. I've known her since we were middle schoolers at Kamehameha Schools.

But in all seriousness, Sarah's academic and, professional experience just scratched the surface of why she would be a great fit for the advisory board.

Sarah has a knack for listening and synthesizing diverse perspectives. She's solution solutions and goals oriented, but will give complex issues, the time and thought they deserve. And she's tenacious and dedicated as clearly evidenced by our almost twenty year friendship.

So Yes. Very tenacious. Is. Thank you. But anybody else who is an individual like yes.

Please come on up.

Hi. My name is Laura Reichardt. I'm the director. Hey. How are you doing?

I am the Director of the Hawaii State Center for Nursing, and my apologies. You have my late testimony. We just we had it written well in advance and somehow didn't get it in, but you have it in your office.

This is perfect.

I just wanna say that Sarah, and I have worked together for a number of years and she is, as you have heard, as incredible and a great resource, and we are very much looking forward to having her on our board.

Excellent. Thank you so much. And thank you for the testimony.

I really appreciate it. Yes. Sorry for that.

Okay. Anybody else before I call the nominee up? If not, would the nominee like to come and come up and testify and maybe say a few words about why you'd like to be, to serve in this capacity?

Hello, Vice Chair. Thanks for having me. I'm Sarah Komakovivole. I am excited and a little bit nervous to be the only non nurse on this advisory board, but I am looking forward to doing whatever I can to support the strategic plan that runs through 2029.

Laura and her team are really incredible, and anything that I can do to support them in the health policy realm is important. They were created through statute, and I think they really fulfill what they were meant to do. So, yeah, thank you for

having me. I'm excited about you being on there because I think it's important that the native Hawaiian community have a voice in these things as strategic plans. Are there any thoughts you have on how the strategic plan and the work of the board can be you know, to reach out

to the native Hawaiian community and address issues that are basically

you know, that have been important to them in so far as health issues and issues of nursing and access?

Yeah. I think that we have a lot of native Hawaiians in the health field, thankfully, in no small part due to support from the state and other government agencies. And I think that representation is critical.

I really feel like the the strategic plan of the center was made with with various native Hawaiian voices and a diversity of perspectives, and I really appreciate the work of the center to to embrace that, to embrace the host culture.

I think what's good for Hawaiians is good for Hawaii, and I really think that that is well reflected in the work of the center and its staff.

Okay. Great. Thank you. Appreciate you being here, and thank you for speaking on your nomination.

Thank you. Okay.

All right, we will move on to the final one, which is GM708. And this one is to advice and consent for the mental health and substance abuse, Maui service area board, Nicole Ocuana for a term to expire 06/30/2030.

And first up testifying on in support of the nominees of Hawaii State Department of Health. They have written are they on Zoom? Oh, go ahead.

Oh, that's Nicole. Sorry. Is Department of Health on Zoom at all? Yes. Yes, sir.

Yes. Go ahead. Department of Health. Go ahead. You're up first.

Aloha, Vice Chair McKelvey, and I am Caroline Wagen-Hildebrand, the and the planner for the Department of Health, and we stand on our written testimony. We are very pleased to to know that Nicole stepped up and applied for this position.

She has very strong ties to Maui, and we definitely need her at this time to step up for Maui. Thank you.

Okay. Thank you so much. Alan Johnson, Hawaii Substance Abuse Coalition. He has sent communications to the committee in support of the nominee.

Brian Baker, Hina Mauka, communications in in support of the non nominee to the committee.

And DR. Late from Dr. Lisa Ponikaterra. Individual. Okay? That's all the written we've received on behalf of the nominee. Anybody in the audience wishing to speak on behalf of the nominee?

If not, I believe we have you online. Nicole, go ahead. Please say tell us why you like to serve in this capacity.

Aloha everyone. And, yes, I realize it's 04:00. And, anyway, I'm, as the the testimony has already stated, I'm from Maui. I'm the CEO for Maui Behavioral Health Resources. I'm a new CEO.

I've been asked for a couple of years to get involved, and I was, like, really overwhelmed. And I was like, no way. I need to learn.

But I have a couple of years in the role, and I think I'm a little more ready to be able to, you know, speak on behalf of my community than I was a couple of years ago. And and yeah.

So I'm just here to serve and improve you know, just work towards improvement of services to meet the needs of the people of Maui.

Thank you so much. I so appreciate you being from the hindsight and you stepping up for for Maui, especially given the impacts we've had in this area over the last couple of years. So thank you.

We're running reached the end of our time, so I'm not gonna ask any questions and the nominees. That's okay. We're just gonna go ahead and but, however, on this nominee, as well as GM543 and GM 60,

the plan is to reconfene time certain for decision making on April 6, 2026 at 01:05 in Conference Room 225. At that time, we look forward to confirming the nominees, and we appreciate all of you for being here and stepping up.

With that, this concludes the governor's message advice and consent hearing.