Audit of the Fire Plans Review Revolving Fund, Resolution 25-4

from City Auditor, August 25, 2025 (excerpt)

We found that although the Honolulu Fire Department (HFD) relies on the Fire Plans Review Revolving Fund (FPRRF) to support its Fire Prevention Bureau, the fund is not structured or administered in accordance with city ordinance requirements. Ordinance 12-4 required that the city establish a revolving fund to receive and disburse fire plan review fees. Instead, the fees are deposited and managed within the city’s Special Projects Fund, which was designed for state contract revenues and does not provide the safeguards and review requirements for revolving funds. The Special Project Funds structure limits transparency and oversight, and leaves critical financial information—such as fund balances, revenues, expenditures, and staffing decisions—unreported to the city council.

We also found that HFD relies significantly on the fund to supplement its operations. We found that between 12 to 19 percent of annual Fire Prevention Bureau spending between FY 2020 and FY 2024 was paid from the FPRRF, which occurred outside the city’s annual budget process. During this period, HFD added unbudgeted staff and maintained between 4 and 9 staff annually, and spent nearly $1 million on unbudgeted equipment purchases without council oversight or approval. In addition, inconsistent accounting and the absence of clear reporting led to conflicting assessments of whether the fund operated with a surplus or deficit in multiple years….

read … City Auditor Report

SA: HFD fund lacks public transparency, city audit states | Honolulu Star-Advertiser