Committee advances resolution asking administration to submit updated 2025 local hazard mitigation plan

The Honolulu City Council Committee on Public Safety and Customer Services on Jan. 16 reported out Resolution 25‑25, which requests that the city administration submit the updated 2025 local hazard mitigation plan to the council in order to maintain eligibility for certain federal project grants.

Council Member Cordero introduced the resolution and told the committee the measure responds to constituent requests for updated mitigation planning and to meet publication deadlines. Jennifer Walter, acting director of the Department of Emergency Management (DEM), briefed the committee on the plan’s status and federal funding implications.

Walter said DEM is the lead agency and that the local plan must be updated every five years to remain eligible for some Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) grants. She told members the department was delayed because it took FEMA more than 22 months to award the grant that funds the update; that delay compressed a planned 25‑month update into roughly eight months. DEM expects to publish the plan by March 31, 2025 and said there is a public comment period planned for mid‑February prior to official adoption.

Walter told the committee there is no immediate risk to the city’s ability to receive grants because (1) no relevant grants have open application windows during the short gap between the prior plan’s expiration and the expected publication date, and (2) existing awards and applications would not be disrupted. She identified the primary steady federal funding in DEM’s budget as the Emergency Management Preparedness Grant (about $500,000 annually) and Homeland Security grant funding; project‑specific mitigation grants (for example, for tsunami signage) are pursued as available.

Members asked whether DEM has capacity to pursue competitive federal grants beyond its regular portfolio; Walter said the department has limited capacity to expand competitive grant writing and administration but can manage the typical grants it seeks. Members urged DEM to make the public comment period widely known and to offer briefings to neighborhood boards upon request.

The chair recommended Resolution 25‑25 be reported out for adoption; no objections were recorded and the committee advanced the measure.

DEM said it can make post‑publication updates to the plan without waiting five years if stakeholders identify missing projects, and the department offered to brief the council after publication. The committee requested follow‑up on the public comment schedule and DEM’s plan to notify neighborhood boards.