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Committee closes multiple fiscal reports and hears questions on transfers, overtime and Safe Routes change order
Summary
Committee members approved motions to close several finance communications and heard detailed staff explanations about year-end transfers, a $1 million overtime transfer for police, a $650,000 signal/street-light purchase, a $49,000 vehicle replacement and a $300,000 Safe Routes engineering change order for waterline work.
The Hawaii County Committee on Finance on Aug. 5 closed multiple communications reporting year-end fund transfers, change orders and reallocation reports and questioned departments about specific transfers and project changes.
Clerk-read communications included: a report of fund transfers authorized in June 2025 (communication 23.17), change-order reports for May and June 2025 (communications 24.14 and 24.15), a separate June change-order report (24.16), a fourth-quarter reallocation report from Human Resources (118.2), and a fourth-quarter report of uncapitalized donations (127.2). Each communication was the subject of a motion to “close file” and the committee approved the motions by voice or roll-call votes, typically with seven members recorded in favor and two members excused.
During the discussion of communication 23.17, council members asked department representatives to explain significant transfers. Kelsey Kalua Luis, public-works business manager, said traffic operations had surplus in some line items at fiscal year-end and staff purchased supplies and fixtures under a price-term agreement to accelerate upgrades to lighting fixtures and signage. “Traffic is always consistently working on those types of things, so we opted to transfer the funds and purchase while we could,” Kalua Luis told the committee.
Dennis Lynn, deputy for Research & Development, explained a $9,000 variance to replace an older vehicle: the department had budgeted $40,000 for an EV lease but administration repurposed those funds and a vendor quote for a replacement vehicle returned at $49,000, so the department used other internal balances to cover the $9,000 difference.
Hau‘oli Aiona, accountant for the Hawaii County Police Department, described transfers totaling about $1 million to cover overtime costs. Aiona said some regular salary and wage lines had been underspent because of vacancies and those funds were moved to overtime; a separate shortfall of about $572,300 required transfers from other operating categories where expenditures were lower than appropriated.
Committee members pressed finance staff about whether frequent transfers reduce year-end fund balance available for the next fiscal year. Deputy finance director Malia Keikai said unspent funds lapse into fund balance if not transferred, but transfers are used when a department has overspent a line item and another line item has leftover appropriations; Keikai said the county’s new ERP implementation and a forthcoming controller’s reports should make actuals more visible during the budget process and reduce end-of-year surprises. “When we budget, obviously, we can’t budget exactly because we are trying to predict,” Keikai said. “Could we be tighter? I think, you know, going forward, we always strive to be closer and closer and follow the trends.”
Members also questioned a change order tied to Safe Routes to Waikia Schools (contract number 011511). Kelsey Kalua Luis and staff said the original civil engineering contract totaled about $1.04 million and a change order of roughly $300,000 was approved because project work revealed a need to repair or replace waterlines adjacent to the planned pedestrian infrastructure. “When they went in and actually started the project, they realized that the waterline repair would be necessary,” a public-works representative said.
Robin Bauman, business manager for Environmental Management, described a six-month extension for specialty engineering consulting services with Okahara & Associates to support smaller projects. Charmaine Felipe, parks and recreation business manager, said most aquatics work cited in the reports fell under ADA compliance projects and could be funded from other program accounts, so the transfers reflected reallocation within the department.
After department responses, the committee approved motions to close the listed communications. Council members used the exchange to reiterate a desire to see more accurate and timely actuals in future budget presentations and to consider whether the county’s chart-of-accounts specificity should be adjusted as the county’s new financial systems go live.
