Council debates competing operating-budget floor drafts, reallocates vacancy savings for district priorities

Councilmembers on the Honolulu City Council spent the afternoon debating competing floor drafts to the executive operating budget for fiscal year 2025–26 and identifying sources for roughly $8.5–19 million in reallocated vacancy savings.

The council’s discussion centered on multiple hand-carried floor drafts. Chair Waters read a budget-focused FD1 that reallocated lapsed vacancy balances across a set of departments and created a provisional general-fund account to backfill the sewer fund if needed. Councilmember Del Santos Tam and others offered competing FD1s proposing specific restorations and new appropriations.

The FD read by Chair Waters proposed reducing about 33% of inactive vacancy balances in departments including Budget & Fiscal Services; Customer Service Center; Department of Design and Construction; Department of Finance Management; Department of Parks and Recreation; Honolulu Emergency Medical Services; Honolulu Fire Department; Honolulu Police Department; and the Prosecuting Attorney’s office, and reallocating savings to priorities identified by the Council. Chair Waters’s FD included more than $8.5 million in council-directed additions: $112,000 for a data scientist, $250,000 for two federal-grants FTEs and a $500,000 contractor for federal advocacy in Washington, D.C., $218,000 for three community equity liaisons, $85,000 for neighborhood-board outreach, $1.8 million for towing abandoned vehicles in the highway-beautification fund, $150,000 for the Oʻahu Historic Preservation Commission, $100,000 for hazmat testing/abatement in city facilities, and multiple public-safety allocations for HPD and ocean-safety equipment and programs. The chair’s FD also proposed $1.5 million and six FTEs for ambulance staffing in several communities, $1 million for stream and ditch maintenance in the Ala Wai watershed, and district park appropriations.

Councilmember Dos Santos Tam said his FD1 (filed as a hand-carried amendment) reallocated position funding between divisions in the Department of Planning and Permitting, directed highway-beautification funds to a Waikīkī Transportation Management Association bus-staging project, and added ocean-safety funding from Hanauma Bay revenue. Councilmember Tupelo said her FD emphasized departmental requests and technical corrections. Councilmember Weier withdrew an earlier FD and said she would support the budget chair’s approach.

Budget Director Andy Kawano and Department of Environmental Services Director Roger Babcock answered council questions about vacancy-lapse calculations, sewer-fund cash vs. bond financing and how reallocated vacancy money would be used. Director Kawano said many proposed restorations must come from identified sources and noted the tradeoffs of redirecting vacancy savings: “Anytime we add any funds … you gotta find it somewhere. And I found it from vacant positions,” he said. Director Babcock told members that Environmental Services can adjust CIP sequencing and the mix of cash versus bond financing for sewer projects but that some projects have deadlines that limit flexibility.

Public testimony on the FD1s reflected divergent views. Natalie Wasa opposed the FD that would set aside general-fund cash for sewer activities and warned of bond-covenant risk; she urged caution about using cash reserves and asked council members not to adopt Chair Waters’s full FD. By contrast, several speakers including Angela Melody Young testified in support of the budget as proposed and thanked the departments for their work.

After debate and public testimony the council agreed to postpone final votes on third-reading budget measures until the end of the calendar to allow OCS to prepare hand-carried amendments and to give members additional time to review FD language. Chair Waters also directed staff to return with any necessary written drafts and to coordinate edits to accommodate district priorities discussed during the session.

The council did not finalize the operating-budget ordinance during the hearing; members left open multiple paths forward including adoption of the chair’s FD, adoption of a committee-origin CD2, or adoption of an alternative floor draft assembled from members’ proposals. The council explicitly postponed the final vote to the end of the calendar to permit OCS to prepare required written amendments and to give members time to review the competing drafts.