Do you pay taxes?" "Oh yeah, we pay taxes on it." He goes, "So he goes, but she loves it because she gives them she gets them stuff that they won't do." >> And so that's my goal is to give them things that they like and that they won't do themselves. So that's why I do it. And it's it's fun to me to make it special for them. And so that's what I like to do. So I want to keep I'm going to keep doing it. And it's it's not for me doing it. It's it's for them stuff that they can't that they won't do. The problem is usually I go over the $100, but I don't tell my husband that he doesn't he doesn't need to know that. >> I think he knows now. >> Sometimes he watch sometimes he watches but it's because I think they need other things besides just that.
>> For the distributors. Yeah. >> And they they buy they buy what do they have a limit? >> So, we can we can go through the distributors right now, but this is going to allow us to pilot with the smaller local farmers. Yeah. >> Okay. Did you read this audit? >> Yes. I mean I talk about the monies that you guys didn't even reach close to to getting local local food. So are you blaming this that that's the reason why or are you pointing to this as the reason why? Because if you haven't made an effort to reach even even the minimum I don't know how this is going to help. >> Yeah. No, we're definitely not blaming this for not reaching our goal. Um >> what is the problem? Why you haven't reached the goal? Um so there there's many things and thinking maybe we can schedule a separate uh meeting to talk about the audit but I think the the biggest issue would be so we do have a a plan in place to improve our locally sourced uh food on our menu.
So, >> and I'll tell you, it gets thin at dispatch, too. It would it's not a total anomaly to walk in to dispatch and see captain there or maybe Sergeant Rodkkey filling in. Um and so it takes them away from their duties just to um just to fill the dispatch role. We're we're thin. I I'm sorry I I didn't make this um as I I haven't made it as plain as it needs to be. Um this this is crisis level. uh this isn't and and I'm treating it as a mandatory and it's not a discre, you know, discretionary spend. Um what um what I haven't done is done a great job of explaining um exactly what these folks go through on a on a day-to-day basis. And um I've just got to do a better job of that. And they do it a heck of a lot better than me, I think.
>> Yeah. Not a lot to say. It's been busy working everything and learning. still learning a lot and um putting in the time and and I like being here and it's challenging. You know, you're not going to make everybody happy, but I know that from my property management experience. So, I'm still here. I'm showing up and happy to be >> Yeah, I was really uh I really appreciate all the people coming and talking. I think Mr. Parker had a a real good point is they don't really understand everything accorded cores and stuff. I mean, I've been on this board for over 20 years and I've watched this program, some of these programs of what's been going on for a long time and I'm not allowed to say a lot of stuff, but I was here. I voted against this and I felt it was really good for our students.
Uh the the three big ones that we've come up with since that that audit was done is our menu development. So we we need to incorporate more local items on the menu. Um, and we have a a really good collaborative partnership with multi-state agencies to map out the commodities to see what's available in what amounts um, and where they are so we can include those on our menu. Uh, for procurement some of the one of the big things that we're going to adjust with regards to like our distributors as you mentioned is right now for most of the items we cannot see if it's local or imported. Um, and a lot of is because of the design of our contract. We negotiate a certain price for each item. So, we've been trying to work with the distributors to help us meet our goal to increase more local, but there's no financial incentive for them to do that because they have to sell it to us at a certain price.
>> Yeah. I guess the the final point that I want to make on behalf of my department is we're not asking for toys. We're not asking for a drone unit or AI software or any of the new uh buzzwords or things that are exciting. We're asking for relief, for staffing, for quality of life, and to maintain the level of service, which I will go out on a limb and say is exceptional service that you're receiving from the Ashlin Police Department. We just want to be able to maintain that. >> I did think of my question. Um, so how when when a call comes for the fire department, does a police officer always respond to that? That is a very great question, Claudia, because uh Lynn and I were talking about that today. Um yes, we do go on all the calls. >> We're a different animal.
So, if they buy the local uh the local one, it's not in their best interest to do that. It's much more financially beneficial for them to buy the imported one and sell it to us at the same price. So we're looking at for next year or the next contract is to have that bifurcated so we can see the local price of a say for a cucumber price of a local cucumber versus the price of a imported cucumber. So that gives us the authority to make that choice on which one we want to purchase and at least the distributor knows that we're going to um pay for that item. And the third big one is you folks are familiar with is the regional kitchen. Um, so the the big goal of that is it'll serve half of Aahu, all of central Aahu and Leo Aahu. What that does is it changes the structure.
We um are out in the cruisers. We oftentimes get there first. Um >> yeah, I've experienced that when police officer got there first. And I have experienced it as a cop just waiting just hearing that siren knowing that I don't have the capacity or the ability to treat a patient just praying for them to get there quickly with their expertise >> and and one comment about earlier you talked about um the types of calls have changed right and and I think we find that's the case and all of our public safety and our education system you know the world is a different world than when I grew up and so people rely rely on the police, the fire, the school department to do a lot of so social social service um or things that we always were done within core families or extended families or churches or religious organizations of some sort that now really fall on our our public um employees and and the many ways that they support families.
Right now it's it's not um an attractive structure for farmers to deliver small batches of food to multiple schools on a regular basis. For some of it's just not worth it. So what the regional kitchen does, it creates a central hub so that they can deliver large quantities of food which the regional kitchen can handle because they're going to be doing that volume of production of the big goal is when they service all of Central and Leeward they're going to be servicing about 84 schools. So >> then who who purchases and under what procurement amount purchases? >> Oh, those are going to be we're still going to have our distributors and also local farmers. So what this does is it allows us to work more with individual farmers in addition to the distributors. So if we have products that work for our menu and farmers that we have a good working relationship with, there's two ways we can go at that.
I certainly know that firsthand from the schools and and I know that it's certainly the same within the police and fire departments too that so often um you know we're supporting families and and community members who don't have anywhere else to turn. No, thank you. >> I'm sorry. I I I have a question. So, thank you. Thank you, Chief. Actually, it might be more of a question for Michael. So um but both thank you uh for for all this very important public safety information. Something that uh fire EMS that was mentioned during the fire EMS discussion uh sort of resonated with me and I just wanted to bring this question up. Um so like we know that we've got you know a number of buildings coming residential buildings coming online right you know apartment buildings going online and from our earlier earlier discussion I mean I mean it's just math right you've got more people there going to be more calls that's whether they're single family or their apartments whatever like that's that's what it is I you know if we're kind of you know at crisis level now I I'm just curious and we sort of know what we have an idea of like the kinds of calls and staffing models and such.
One is adding those products to the distributors list or two is we can work individually with those farmers. >> And um how are you folks going to monitor compliance with the prohibition on artificial parceling of the procurements? Well, we're we're aware of parceling, so we'll be sure not to to do that. >> Um, how long is this contract you're in now? >> This contract, uh, right now it's year to year, but we can extend it for a few years. >> Okay. So, when you said in the next contract, when is the next contract? >> Uh, for next year. >> Yeah. But when is that up? >> Um, we're in the process right now. It's at the good to the end of the school year. Okay. So, if it's, you know, I was thinking maybe it's a fiveyear contract or three-year contract to but year to year.
Not to get too ahead of ourselves, but if we know this is stuff, this is coming online like you know what what are we what are we looking at going forward? Have we started looking at like optimal staffing models going forward? What we could be aiming for, what we should be preparing for because like we we do know what's coming, right? So I guess that's you know kind of a planning question um maybe after this discussion but I I was just curious if there's there's any kind of work or modeling being done around that right now as we are having these kinds of discussions. >> So so that is a >> we just had this conversation. Um so part of our problem is that we're so we're so short staffed across the board. It's hard to do proactive planning anywhere because you're so busy doing the reactive stuff.
So, you could have made all of these decisions that the contract last year, >> right? Correct. Could have put the changes in the contract last year. We talked about this last year. Did you do anything since the time we talked about it last year to now? >> We haven't. >> Okay. Again, why? >> I I can't I can't answer that to that. Senator, >> who can answer that question? Um, I I can find out. What >> you mean you can find out? It's not with you then. It's with who? The superintendent? >> Uh, it was >> somebody above you. Who? >> Well, it was with me, but I've been on I've been in this position for 7 months now. So, I I can check on when it was brought up and why it was not acted on earlier. >> Okay, we can understand our frustration.
Um but that being said, um we spent some time uh today talking about goals and really the fact that we need to have a a strategic plan for that department. And I think our um our goal for, you know, FY27 in that department is to come up with a strategic plan that does look at those things, Makita, like um what does the growth look like? What do we want the department to look like? >> Yeah. I think that that's going to be immensely helpful going forward, you know, not just obviously for for playing purposes, but also for communication purposes, right? So that the community understands the need before it becomes a crisis. And again, there are benefits to knowing what we have coming. >> You know, sometimes you don't know what's coming, but we do know what's coming. So, I think we're positioned to do some good work around that.
>> Yes. >> Every year we come here, we have these bills, we defer the bills or whatever. We bring up the same issues. I recall the same thing. And then we come back again, it's the same thing. And then you guys wonder why we we get upset and we start questioning and grilling because the same thing over and over again. Very frustrating for us understand. I know it's frustrating for you guys to hear from us, but you know what? This is going to continue because, you know, audit after audit, the same kinds of responses we get from the auditor about DOE not being able to to give the numbers, not being able to show what the plan was. They don't have any method of doing this. It's the same thing. We've seen it in the driver's license, driving education. We've seen it in the um heat abatement.
So, I'm looking forward to hearing more about that uh during the coming months. >> Yeah. >> Thanks. Yeah, I think that's uh I think we need to do that in departments. We need to talk about succession planning um in departments. I think you know part of the problem that we're currently facing is that I didn't do much of that. We didn't really have much bandwidth to do that and it kind of put us in a pickle um when you have single points of failure like we did. So yeah, >> you good with me? >> Yeah, I'm good. Thanks, Chief. Mike, I just have one quick question for either Mike and or uh >> Car with respect to accreditation. How does this affect the accreditation process? >> Oh, that's a >> Yeah, there you go. >> Thank you. Um yeah, as you know, that's a long-term goal of the department to be accredited.
We're seeing it in this audit. You know, we have the Medicaid. I mean I keep naming it. Question. Go ahead. So Sean um recently we started construction of the regional kitchen in Wahwa. >> Yes. So, how is that going to impact how DOE um grows or has contracts with farmers to grow the products that we need that will be delivered to this regional kitchen on a regular basis, which will probably answer some of, you know, Senator Kim's concerns >> that we have >> contracts in place with local farmers that we know we're going to get on a timely basis. is, you know, of course, storms or whatever, you know, can happen, but >> that was part of doing the regional kitchen to cut cost and make sure we were giving our students good products. >> Yes, it's going to make a a big impact on our locally sourced food um because it's going to be a central hub to receive large quantities of food and it's going to allow us to continue with our distributors and also with with local farmers as well.
Um there are many departments that have one, two, three full-time staff working just on accreditation. Currently I'm the sole person working on that with help from throughout the department when we have things to initiate um policies to review things like that. Um I think overall to reiterate a lot of what's been said adding this extra person and I think there is a slide that shows where we are with the national average. Is that >> it? Yeah. >> So we're you know the the we're already below the national average. So, you're talking about like, you know, long-term planning and and knowing like we're starting from behind, right? So, we we need more than just this one officer to get where we where we need to be and then we need to start looking ahead. When you add that extra officer, that's a trickle up effect, right?
So currently we have uh collaborative work that we meet with um the department of with DBED sear uh EDC department of a Hawaii Farm Bureau. So we collaborate on the our menu is going to drive everything because what's on the menu determines what ingredients you're going to have and how you going to incorporate local ingredients in that. So we can't develop the menu in isolation of the product. So this collaboration is important because all of these agencies are mapping out what commodities of the are there and where they're at and in what quantities. At the same time um we also share our menu with the farmers so that they see what the expectation and what the need is so they can scale up their product to be able to supply the kitchen. So um there can be a scale up even without the regional kitchen but the regional kitchen will allow us to scale up a lot faster just because of the volume that can be delivered to that facility.