Hawaii County finance committee hears timeline to catch up on delayed budget reports, approves police transfer and forwards Ulupono services MOU

HILO — At a Feb. 14, 2025 meeting of the Hawaii County Council Committee on Finance, Finance Director Diane Nakagawa told council members the department is behind on monthly budget-status reports and expects about a year to complete a financial-system implementation and staffing changes needed to get current. The committee also heard from a police department accountant about a roughly $500,000 transfer to cover recruit training for the Kau district and voted to forward Resolution 92-25 — accepting donated grant-application services from Ulupono LLC valued at $90,000 — to the full council with a favorable recommendation.

The delay in monthly reports matters because council members rely on them to monitor county finances and make budget decisions. Nakagawa, who introduced Acting Controller Wilson Kreider to the committee, said the county is finishing the annual audit and reconciling accounts — work that has slowed routine monthly closings. "We are in the middle of our audit, tail end of our audit, wrapping things up," Nakagawa said. She said August had been closed and those reports would be provided shortly, but added that full catch-up tied to system implementation and staffing will likely take about a year.

"It takes about a week once we actually close the filing period to actually process all the information," Nakagawa said, adding that only two staff members are currently working on the report processing. She said the county is investing in technology and implementing a new financial system to automate manual work and improve reporting. Nakagawa warned that biannual reconciliations — notably real property tax (RPT) billings in February and August — require more time to close than a typical month.

Council Member Mark Inaba asked when reports would be no more than a…