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UP CLOSE & PERSONAL 2010 – Jason Schwartz with Alan ARAKAWA for MAYOR; former Mayor Alan Arakawa explains why he has come out of a comfortable retirement to again run for the County’s leadership seat; differences with present Mayor are clear as light in this one hour conversation.
Summary & Transcript Below…
This extensive segment is a detailed interview with Alan Arakawa, former mayor of Maui County, discussing local governance, community challenges, and his reasons for running for mayor again. The conversation reveals deep insights into the political, economic, and social issues facing Maui, alongside Arakawa’s vision for leadership and recovery.
1. Background and Motivation for Running Again
Alan Arakawa explains that after retiring comfortably and enjoying leisure activities like bridge, softball, and poker, he was compelled to run for mayor again due to growing community concerns. Many residents expressed frustration with the current mayor’s policies, especially regarding vacation rentals and the perceived lack of transparency and communication from the administration. Arakawa felt a responsibility to respond to these concerns because people were suffering economically and emotionally.
2. The Vacation Rental Controversy
A major topic is the handling of vacation rentals (TVRs). Arakawa outlines a previous cooperative approach where an amnesty was granted to vacation rental operators while new regulations were being developed. The council, including Arakawa’s administration and the previous one, promised an amnesty period to prevent economic harm while rules were drafted. However, the current mayor, Charmaine Tavares, reversed this promise upon taking office, declaring many TVRs illegal, which caused widespread financial hardship for operators and their employees.
Arakawa highlights the impracticality of processing thousands of individual applications under the old system, which could take over a decade to resolve. He argues that the initial plan to create clear, comprehensive legislation was logical and community-oriented, but it was undermined by the current administration’s abrupt changes, leading to job losses and economic decline.
3. Broader Community Impact and Integrity Issues
The fallout from the vacation rental policy extended beyond operators to local businesses dependent on their activity, such as gardeners, bakers, and stores. Arakawa stresses that government officials must maintain integrity and honor their commitments to maintain public trust. He expresses disappointment and frustration that promises were broken, leading to bankruptcies and despair among constituents.
4. Challenges with Current Administration and Call for Debate
Arakawa criticizes the current mayor’s approach, including her denial under oath about complaints against vacation rentals, which he sees as dishonest. He calls for a public, one-on-one debate with Mayor Tavares to clarify positions and discuss these critical issues openly. He also notes that the administration has similarly disregarded other groups, such as ocean activities operators, by discarding existing rules and ignoring community input.
5. Media and Public Communication
Arakawa emphasizes the importance of open communication and transparency in government. He hosts two radio shows and a TV show to discuss community issues openly and invites public participation. He laments that local newspapers often avoid reporting these critical discussions, limiting public awareness and engagement. He advocates for mandatory public forums for candidates and officials to improve voter knowledge and accountability.
6. Economic and Housing Issues
The interview highlights the economic downturn in Maui, with many industries suffering significant job losses, especially construction and tourism-related sectors. Arakawa points out that affordable housing projects and homeless shelters initiated under previous administrations were canceled, exacerbating social hardships. He argues that the current administration has blocked development initiatives, worsening the housing crisis.
7. Infrastructure and Water Resource Management
The conversation turns to infrastructure, particularly water resource management. Arakawa recounts ongoing projects his administration started, such as water treatment plant expansions and well developments, which were halted or canceled by the current administration. He criticizes the failure to utilize federal and state funds allocated for a large reservoir project, calling it a “supreme insult” to the community and legislators who worked hard to secure funding.
8. Leadership Philosophy and Public Service
Arakawa reflects on the burdens and rewards of being mayor. While acknowledging the long hours and physical toll, he expresses pride in accomplishments from his tenure, including the establishment of a county bus system, air ambulance services, preservation of public lands, and community centers. He views leadership as a service to the community, aiming to improve quality of life and ensure sustainable growth.
9. Vision for Economic Development and Job Creation
Arakawa elaborates on a multi-faceted economic development strategy based on a Geographic Information System (GIS) to coordinate projects and infrastructure. Key areas include expanding medical services to meet growing senior needs, supporting high-tech industries, and promoting alternative energy sources such as wind, solar, ocean thermal, and geothermal power. He notes his personal involvement in a wind energy company to gain expertise and advocates for legislative changes to increase renewable energy integration.
He stresses the importance of creating a diverse, local economy that reduces reliance on imported goods and energy, keeping more money circulating within Maui County.
10. Critique of Current Administration’s Spending and Social Programs
Arakawa disputes Mayor Tavares’s claims of fiscal austerity, noting that county budgets have increased year over year, contradicting statements about spending cuts. He highlights that while public employee salaries have risen, average public incomes have declined, and cost of living has increased, worsening economic conditions for residents.
He also criticizes cuts to social service programs during times of peak community need, pointing to growing homelessness, foreclosures, and unemployment. Meanwhile, the mayor’s office staff and salaries have significantly increased, which Arakawa frames as government bloat amid public hardship.
11. Impact on Small Businesses and Community Access
The interview addresses the administration’s enforcement actions against home-based businesses struggling to survive, such as shutting down operations over signage issues. Arakawa views this as counterproductive and harmful to community resilience during economic stress.
He also discusses the difficulty residents face in obtaining appointments with the mayor, citing specific examples of long-standing community requests for meetings that have been ignored, undermining government accessibility and responsiveness.
12. Closing Remarks and Call to Action
Arakawa closes with a heartfelt appeal to voters ahead of the election, urging them to look beyond political hype and evaluate the real impacts of current policies on their lives. He frames the upcoming election as a critical decision for the community’s survival and future well-being. His motivation to run is grounded in a sense of duty to his neighbors and a desire to restore integrity, economic vitality, and compassionate governance to Maui County.
The transcript begins and ends with a repeated uplifting song emphasizing hope, change, and collective action. The lyrics call for unlocking the hope within everyone, healing loved ones, and standing together to make a better life. This thematic framing sets a tone of renewal and empowerment, underscoring the interview’s focus on community revival and leadership to meet current challenges.
The closing lyrics reiterate the opening message, reinforcing the urgency and necessity of change. The repetition emphasizes that nothing will change unless the community collectively unlocks its hope and acts decisively.
Overall Themes and Insights:
- The interview reveals a deep dissatisfaction with current local government leadership, particularly regarding broken promises and policy reversals that have harmed key economic sectors and community trust.
- Alan Arakawa presents himself as a seasoned leader with a pragmatic, visionary approach to economic development, infrastructure, and social services.
- The discussion highlights critical issues facing Maui County: affordable housing shortages, water resource challenges, economic decline, social service cuts, and lack of government transparency.
- Arakawa stresses the importance of public engagement, open dialogue, and accountability as foundations for effective governance.
- There is a strong call for community-centered policies that balance growth, sustainability, and social equity.
- Energy independence via diversified renewable sources is positioned as a strategic priority for economic resilience.
- The election is framed as a pivotal moment for Maui’s future, emphasizing the need for leadership with integrity and practical sol
This detailed interview is a comprehensive case study in local governance challenges and opportunities, capturing the complexity of managing community needs amid economic and political pressures.
Transcript
00:09
The time has come to make a change The time has come to unlock a hope that lives In each and every one of us And we must do our part
00:28
We hold the visions God dreams of Our hands can heal the ones we love Let’s gather round and let us make a stand For you and me
00:45
Unlock the hope and there’s a better life Unlock the hope, there’ll be no turning back But nothing changes unless we unlock the hope The time has come to make a change
01:13
The time has come to unlock the hope that lives In each and every one of us And we must do our part We hold the visions God dreams of Our hands can heal the ones we love Let’s gather round and let us make a stand
01:42
For you and me Unlock the hope and there’s a better life Unlock the hope, there’ll be no turning back But nothing changes unless we unlock the hope But nothing changes unless we unlock the hope
02:12
But nothing changes Unless we unlock the hole Unless we unlock the hole Aloha!
02:42
Welcome to another Up Close and Personal 2010. I’m sitting here with someone that probably all of you know well, and if not, you’re not from Mallee County. This is Alan Arakawa, our former mayor. Welcome to our show. Glad to be here, Jason. I think of Alan as the once and future mayor. There was a book written, I’m sure we all know, The Once and Future King.
03:10
it’s quite a story you know you last election season what was that how many years ago three and a half almost four years now yeah four years ago we had a race almost and in a small margin our present mayor basically quote stopped you cold in your tracks of a plan that i’m sure you were doing as mayor thank you for running again there are a lot of people out here who
03:38
You know, when you have a race that’s that close, we know that half of our county is saying, wait, wait, wait. And what made you decide to run again? Actually, I hadn’t planned on running. I’m very, very comfortably retired. I’ve been playing a lot of bridge four or five days a week when possible. I’ve been hearing about it.
04:03
all right but i’m on two different softball teams a senior and an open league team i play chester’s evenings i have a little poker game in my house on fridays so basically i’ve been enjoying myself the challenge comes out in that being the former mayor a lot of people talk to me about a lot of their challenges and no matter where i go people stop me they talk to me
04:29
A lot of people within this community are having a real hard time communicating with our current mayor. And a lot of them don’t understand a lot of the policies and a lot of the programs that she’s been implementing. So what’s happened is when she promised the vacation rental people that she wouldn’t go after them as chairman of the committee and the council that was dealing with the vacation rental group. She literally promised them. They actually put that promise on YouTube so the world could see it.
04:59
And then, as soon as she gets in as mayor, she double-crosses everybody. Literally, she tells everybody, you’re all illegal now, when they’re not. They’re really not, because the council and the former mayor, Apana, before me, agreed that we would sort of give an amnesty to this group as we were working through the new legislation. Now, the reason for that is very simple.
05:28
At the time when we were holding the committee meetings, it took approximately two committee meetings to be able to pass one bed and breakfast or vacation rental. And we were looking at between 1,000 and 2,000 applicants for special use or conditional use permits. So 1 to 2,000. Again, it takes two meetings. The council committee meets every other week.
05:54
So 52 weeks, that’s 26 meetings a year, if you don’t skip it. 26 meetings, two meetings each, that’s 13 that you could pass in a year. So 13, even if you were to have two or three going through at the same time, let’s say three to maximize it. You’re looking at 39 a year.
06:20
and we’re looking at between 1,000 and 2,000 applicants, it would have taken us well over a decade to go through and individually decide which vacation rentals would be allowed and which wasn’t. Now, remember, the percentage rate of vacation rentals or TVRs that were being approved were a really high percentage.
06:48
Almost everybody that came through the process was being approved. So this was not something that the council or the administration was strongly against. As a matter of fact, with the approval rating, you could see that this was something that everybody was for. Now, how do you deal with 1,000 to 2,000 applicants when you can only pass like 39 a year? The obvious challenge was, well, let’s
07:16
step aside, let’s do this logical, let’s think this thing through. Let’s create a common legislation that would eliminate most of the discussion points. So we wouldn’t have to argue whether we need one parking stall or two parking stalls. We wouldn’t have to argue as to whether parking had to be off street, whether breakfast had to be delivered or whether it could be something that didn’t have to have a breakfast. A lot of these kinds of questions could all be answered generically and then
07:47
Only the kinds of things that didn’t fit in the generic program would then be discussed. So it would make it a lot easier. In other words, create rules that are clear and simple and everyone’s approved unless there’s a problem. Right. Because otherwise you have no way to address… It’s like trying to put this much water through this tube.
08:12
Right. Just doesn’t go. Doesn’t go. And we’ve done this before. You know, when you look at all of the businesses that are in Makawao, Paia, Hana, Apkula, we did a generic zoning approval. It’s called a comprehensive zone. When we were doing the community plans, rather than going through each one of these lots individually, the council just took all of these lots and said, we’re going to respect the current use on each of these lots.
08:43
And the planning department went through and literally assigned zoning to all of these areas so that the council didn’t have to go through individually and the individual owners didn’t have to go through all the expense of going through the rezoning process. So we’ve done this before. And this was the process that we were working on for the vacation rentals. The same thing would be held true. We would have all this expense and all this time
09:10
And this literally cost me between $30,000 and over $100,000 for a lot of these people to do the application. And then you have to be able to see it and hear it in a timely manner to be legal. So the counsel is required to do things in a timely manner. Usually a timely manner, half a year, plus or minus, not a decade. So in trying to conform with the rules of how things are being processed,
09:38
The council asked the vacation rental group, could you please wait, help us to create the rules, and then we’ll go through and we’ll do this blanket approval, and then the exceptions come in. Now, the vacation rental group willingly came in to help the council. Mayor Tavares, who was the head of that committee at the time, promised these people that if they come in and they help her create the rules,
10:04
Then we’d have a smooth transition and everything would be okay. They wouldn’t be shut down. Then the Apana administration and my administration agreed to honor this amnesty period because it made sense. So they were not illegal. They were acting under the request of the council and the administration not to bombard us with,
10:31
all these applications because it was not feasible for us to work on. So when you ask people to come in and help you, and you promise them, if you come in and help us, we’re not going to hold it against you. We’re not going to take your applications or your suggestions and then go out there and punish you with it. Government should have some integrity, and people should be able to count on the word of government officials.
10:57
And that’s what most of these people were banking on. So was that your entree back into running? That people were talking to you about their challenge with that? That’s one of them. People were talking to me. They were coming in and they were saying, well, you know, you had representatives at our committee meeting. When we talked to you, you told us about this agreement. Charmaine told us about this agreement. Why am I going bankrupt?
11:25
Why do I now have to lose my house? Why do I have to not be able to have a job, and I cannot support my children? All my investments are gone. I think my question really is, you now know me, you may not realize it, two decades. Yeah, it’s been a long time. I mean, I was realizing, I’ve done this TV thing here, nine election cycles, and ran a few times, and
11:53
Could again, because now people know me. It’s really an interesting experience. Some people may not realize the power of this television, but I do. Before they didn’t know who I was, now they ask me when I’m running. But like in your situation here, I just really am trying to understand why this is gone this way. Jason, when you
12:23
When you have integrity. When you grew up with the concept that your word should be honored. And someone comes in and breaks the commitment that you made to people. No, the commitment was just as strong for me as it was for her. What was the reason? I mean, I’m still trying to understand the reason. I don’t understand her reasoning. Are there many people that align to her…
12:50
position? I mean, you know, obviously… When they did the deposition on the vacation rental, Charmaine originally had said, well, there were many, many people that were coming in and complaining. Under oath, she said there was nobody that complained. That’s in her deposition. So she made that whole thing up as an excuse to go after the vacation rental group, which bothered me tremendously. I don’t understand the rationale for it, and I guess…
13:19
That’s what this election is all about. That’s what it’s all about. Now, when I give my word to people and they come to me and they’re saying, you know, we depended on what you said and now we’re going bankrupt. We depended on what Charmaine said and now we’re going bankrupt. I feel guilty to have steered people in the wrong direction when we did it with every good intent. When now somebody…
13:47
that is not in my control, goes ahead and counters everything that we committed to. Could you do something without being mayor? I mean, do you feel that being mayor is critical to being able to do this? What do you do? What avenue do you have? That’s why I’m asking. I mean, I’ve been trying to serve these years that I know you, but I haven’t been running for office over a number of years. But you’ve been running and feel that somehow as mayor,
14:14
you can get this back on track? We can make some of the corrections. We can start honoring… Getting Maui back on track. We can honor the commitments that we made and not be considered liars to the entire group. This really destroyed a lot of people. Not only did it destroy the people in the vacation rental industry, those people that were actually doing the vacation rentals. All the people that they hired
14:43
the people that were doing the gardening, the people that were baking or providing the food for them, the stores, all the support group that was there also got hurt. I’ve walked through Paia, Makawao, Haiku, talked to a lot of the different business owners. Unilaterally, unilaterally, none of them can understand why we did this, and almost every single one of them got hurt.
15:10
There are literally thousands of people that are unemployed today because of this action. Now the stupidity of this whole thing, in my mind, is we are going into an economic decline. The whole nation is going through an economic decline. We’re going into a depressed time. So Charmaine knew clearly that the economy was starting to lag, and yet
15:39
She went ahead and escalated this decline, literally shutting down thousands of jobs and throwing people out of work. When she knows full well there were no other job opportunities for them to be able to fill. So what would Charmaine say if she was here? What kind of response would you hear? What I’m actually hoping for is a face-to-face discussion at one of these forums so we can have, we can find out what she’s thinking about.
16:06
I’ve heard you say, well, the mayor doesn’t have the authority to decide what the law is. Well, that’s absolutely false. The mayor and the council create the laws. We create the laws. We can determine how those laws should be interpreted. And we can also decide what is practical for the community and adjust the rules to make it user-friendly. When we see something is wrong with a rule,
16:36
It’s our obligation to make the correction. It’s not our obligation to enforce something that is going to punish the community for doing something that we asked them to do. Well, I hope that I can help facilitate, and I’m bringing up, if you wanted to do a one-on-one debate, there are many in our committee that might do it, but I’d be happy to sit with you. I’ve been dying to get into a one-on-one debate with Charmaine, the current mayor.
17:05
to try and discuss some of these issues. Publicly, the vacation rental group is not the only group she’s gone after. And that’s really the bad thing. The ocean activities group. If you remember back in the early to mid-90s, we created the ocean activities group to be able to put in rules for ocean activities because we didn’t want the ocean activities to be overrunning the public benefit.
17:34
or going to the beaches, having too many of any kind of business on the beaches. So we created a set of rules. Like the kayak thing and the jet skis thing. The kayaks were regulated to certain areas. The jet skis were regulated, and most of the time they can’t operate. We limited surfing instructions and surfing meets and events in different locations. For instance, Hokey Park can only have so many surfing events. The windsurf and the surfers cannot go out before
18:03
The kite surfers cannot go out before 11 o’clock. There’s an 11 o’clock rule. Before that, the divers can go out. Divers have to have certain kind of equipment. A lot of these kinds of rules were put in place to make the industry safe, the water safe for everybody, and so that we could coexist comfortably. The Tavares administration comes in, even though we’ve been working on
18:30
adjustments of the rules. Part of the requirement was every so often we’d get together and we’d go over the rules and make sure that if something was out of whack, we would tweak it and try and make the rules more user-friendly and if something was wrong, correct it. So they throw the whole thing out. The group that’s been working on this thing for two years, they’re the ocean activities owners as well as the administration.
18:59
She tells all of them, we don’t want your ideas. Even though you’ve been working on it for two years, we’re going to come up with a whole set of all of our own. And she tells the public, well, we have to do this because there are no rules. That was in the paper. She said there were no rules, therefore we have to do this. And that’s blatantly false. But she gets away with these kinds of statements all the time. She’s not called on it. Definite rules in play.
19:25
A lot of these rules took years to be able to generate to their compatriots. On your show, you have a show, right? Yes. Do you talk about these kinds of issues at all? I talk about them. I have two radio shows and I also have a show. I talk about these issues, yes. So what are we missing in our media to get the message out more clearly? The newspapers won’t print anything we talk about in our shows for some odd reason. They don’t want to have this.
19:53
discussion in public. I don’t understand why. Isn’t that what we all need? When you see me sitting with you, you’ve heard me talking about if candidates aren’t getting on an interview show like this where they’ve got more time for discussion, they’re jipping the public. The public sees signs. Signs are great, but that’s not the issue. Who are these people? How can we get into the media? I believe I’m the only candidate running right now.
20:21
that has two radio shows and a TV show and has been doing it consistently, consistently for years. Now, my shows are the kind of shows where we’re discussing issues. Anyone in public who wants to call in can call in and ask any question. Sure. It’s live. They can ask live questions. I did this when I was a council member. I did this when I was mayor. I’m still doing these shows. So if anybody wanted to question what I’m talking about and they wanted to challenge what I was saying,
20:51
They could do it on the air. And oftentimes I’ve asked other legislators to come in or people from our community to come in as guests. We talk about these issues. Again, open forum, open to the public. Anyone can call in. Anyone can critique. So we can expect that of you if you reassume the role as mayor. Why do you think we have so many people running for mayor? You know, I think that what I mean is
21:22
There’s so many people running, and there’s no cooperation. I guess we’re going to be down to two after this first round. We’ll be down to two. A lot of people just want to run. I think a lot of the people that are running on the business side are running because they’ve been hurt badly by this administration. So when I’m listening to Randy Pills or I’m listening to Chris Hart, and they’re discussing all of the bad things that have happened to their industry,
21:50
I mean, the construction industry, let’s take the real construction industry, like the Betzel brothers. I think they had 170 some odd employees and down to less than 29. Good fellow brothers. They’re down to about a third or less of their staff. Almost all of the major construction industry people have been reduced by at least 50%.
22:15
They’re hurting really badly. Are you seeing any motion by this administration, by the Tavares administration, to be able to buffer or to help any people in the construction industry? Are you seeing any program that they’ve come up with to try and create motion so that there’d be some construction? Do you have any program in mind? Well, let’s look at what we were doing and what we should have continued doing. Well, that’s why we’re doing this. The affordable housing.
22:44
Do we still need affordable housing? I believe so. Homeless shelters? We actually had a homeless shelter built in Lahaina. We were working with the homeless shelter here in Kahului across from Cuba. And we had a construction project going in Kihei where the developer was going to put in the property and build the entire site for a homeless shelter, duplicating what we had in Lahaina. No cost to the county.
23:14
as part of their affordable housing requirement. That was cancelled. Cancelled. The affordable housing program in Maui Lani. Maui Lani is required by contract to produce affordable housing. Why are they allowed to do the affordable housing? They went before the administration and the council and they were told, we don’t want you to do these affordable housing.
23:44
So they haven’t been doing it. Sterling Kim’s project, Stanford Carr’s project, Maui Land and Pine project, A&B’s project, all the affordable housing projects. There’s a project up in Kula. All of these kinds of projects that could be providing affordable housing for this community were all shelved. Why? It makes no sense to me. Okay.
24:13
If she says, well, the market dictated, the market turned, well, if they approved them, the developers would have developed what the market would bear. They would only produce what they could sell. Sure. Why is the government putting a roadblock in the way and determining none of these kinds of affordable housing are worthwhile? These are good questions. So, clearly, you see a clear difference between
24:43
the road that our present mayor is taking, and the road that you were taking, and now I’m sure with the wisdom you’ve gained over the past four years, you might do things slightly different based on our times. We would do things tremendously different from what our current mayor is doing. Most of the infrastructure that we need to be able to pursue, and our former administration was working on, that were literally cancelled and derailed by the Tavares administration,
25:14
What was derailed is going to hurt this community tremendously. We were going after the water, developing water resources. Now we’re telling everybody on almost a daily basis, we’re in a water shortage, we don’t know what we’re going to do about water. Where are all the plans for all the water systems? We were looking at doing improvements upcountry, and we started the clear well at Kamoliweir, and we were planning the expansion of the treatment plant.
25:44
to the point where they could treat almost 10 million gallons a day. That was completed. So Kamoli we can now treat up to about 10 million gallons a day. That was our plan. We also were working with the Piholo well and we were working with Marjolaine Pine to develop wells up in Olinda. Those were cancelled. Tavares administration, Charmaine came out and their biggest project was going to be
26:13
100 million gallon reservoir, or 250 million gallon reservoirs a country. It was so important that they went to the federal government, they talked Senator Inouye into getting an allocation to start the process. They went to the state legislature to get allocation from the state legislature to start the process. The legislature approved money. Senator Inouye got the United States government to approve money at the federal level.
26:44
So here we are. We should be ready to start the project. We’ve got the funding in place. The Tavares administration didn’t even start the paperwork. They never even started the request for proposals to get this thing going. They did nothing. They lapsed all the funding. Do you know how bad it makes our legislators who fought for this funding at the state legislature? Our senator who had to fight for this funding while we were getting
27:14
a depressed time? How are we from Maui County now going to go back to the state and to the federal government and say, we need help to create a reservoir system of country? You know what they’re going to say to us? We gave you the money. You were too lazy to even do the paperwork after you asked for it. So we’re going to start with egg on our face and how we’re going to try and resolve this
27:43
at their level is beyond me i mean this is this was a supreme insult when you go and you ask for money you get the money and then you’re too lazy to do the paperwork to start using i think that uh it can change i can tell you one different thing and that is that you’ll have a different person at the helm if they have the same person at the helm it’s going to be hard to get the money different it’s a new day and they recognize
28:14
With the new mayor, we’ll go back and we’ll make the case, well, we’re not the old administration that took advantage and just didn’t do anything. We’re going to do something with it. Do you like being mayor? That’s a funny question. No, it’s a legitimate question. I like the ability to help people. I don’t know, as I really like sitting through hundreds and hundreds of meetings and spending 15 to 18 hours a day working.
28:43
It gets really tiring and physically it wears down. But the ability to help people in the community and the ability to accomplish something, to be able to say we started a bus system on Maui, to be able to say we created, with the help of our legislators, a helicopter air ambulance service that is saving lives, for us to be able to say forever
29:13
The kids in Wailuku are going to be able to go to the Wailuku swimming pool because now it’s part of the colony. The Molea Point in Hana, that’s going to be reserved. The Wahe, the Malacosta Land Trust property, that’s going to be preserved forever. It’s a beautiful property. And when we look at all of these kinds of projects, the senior center in Lahaina, when we go out to Hana and beyond and we’re looking at the community kitchen,
29:42
that’s out there, where people can actually bring things in, and they have a certified kitchen now, they can make products. It’s helping the community tremendously. The flume in Kenai, where the flume was broken, but now that we’ve had it fixed, the taro farmers actually have water. That flume is not the cause of any shortages. Well, it’s interesting. When I hear the mayor’s role, you’re a leader,
30:10
of a bunch of people to perform services for the public and to create better for public good. And to me, the next question is, here we have a government in place that is, obviously you feel you can serve the people and take care of services well. I was thinking about it. If I was running for mayor,
30:38
I would be hiring someone like you as my right-hand man or left-hand man because I feel you have a real good handle on the doing and the processing and this whole system. What I’d like to see is some kind of a leadership inspirational, and I guess maybe it’s called economic development coordinator. I mean, I’m not to talk about specific people, but…
31:07
Jobs, economy, labor, economy, jobs. That’s where I feel I’ve been overlooked for a couple of decades now with the idea of, literally overlooked, how to create jobs and how to create an economy without, like right now. I believe we could create a big local economy. Let me explain to you what our programs were and where we wanted to develop the economy.
31:38
First of all, you have to understand what our system is and what we’ve been able to do with our system. We created a GIS system that was remarkable. We now can identify all of the kinds of projects we’re going to work on, all the construction products. We actually have them all mapped out so we know what’s happening. Just so you know, GIS is Geographic Information System. So when there’s a new project…
32:03
the impact of that is seen and it all goes into a balance you can see and as you build what it’s going to impact now understand the significance of this is we’re working on this giant jigsaw puzzle that we call mali and what we’re doing is we’re putting all these pieces together in order to be able to improve to be able to create a different kind of economy to be able to take care of our community
32:28
Part of what you have to do is you have to identify where and what things were happening so you could look at the map and you could literally see, where do we need schools? Where do we need, what do we need? We need medical facilities. One of the key areas we were working on was trying to develop better medical facilities. We will work with Maui Memorial Hospital. At the time when I was mayor, we were trying to work with
32:57
developing a new hospital period and we’re trying to get ron kwan was trying to do a hospital we were trying to work with maui memorial and ron kwan get something built we didn’t care who built it we just wanted something built maui in order to be able to become a first-rate community needs to have first-rate medical services i will work with mommy memorial to be able to expand the medical field now people like you and i
33:24
We’re part of that baby boom generation that’s getting close to retirement. I’m actually retired. And I’m going to start needing a lot of medical services. You’re not. But we’re going to start needing medical services. You’re pulling them out of retirement. Yes, you are. Okay. So a lot of the senior programs, the seniors are going to need more nurses. They’re going to need more medical services at the hospital. They’re going to need more medical clinics, doctors to be able to work with them.
33:54
So this is an area that’s going to be a huge growth area for Maui County, actually the entire nation. We’re about, we’re looking at about a 90% need for expansion and jobs in these areas. So what we started doing, when we started working with Maui Community College, we now don’t have a Maui Community College, we have University of Maui. That was phase one.
34:23
Get the education going so we can start getting four-year degrees. We can start training the employees that we need to be able to get into the fields that we need. The new jobs that are created at Montgomery Community College, that helps. The new jobs that we’ll be able to create and the personnel we’ll be able to create in the medical field are all high-paying jobs. These are all well-paying jobs. These are not the store clerk, lower-end jobs. These are the upper-end jobs.
34:52
What are we going to do for the lower, I mean, right now? Let me finish out the entire package. Okay. Because you need to understand, this is, again, another part of the jigsaw puzzle. All right. The medical field needs to be expanded. Sure. Because of the lack of time, I won’t go into all the details. We also need to be able to develop the high-tech area. So we were working with the telescope. We were working with expanding the tech part.
35:16
And you’ve noticed in recent years, when I was mayor, we actually were having a lot of construction projects in the tech park. We were expanding their capabilities, creating more jobs. We were able to bring more companies into Maui to be able to work in these areas. Sure. Expanding the jobs. What we need to do now is we need to expand into the area where we’re doing energy conservation. We need to be able to create more photovoltaic, more wind generation, more…
35:45
ocean thermal generation, even using the volcanic action that we have to be able to create power generation as they have improved in the geothermal. These are ideas, which I appreciate. These are ideas, but you can only do them if you have a leader that understands where the limitations are. Now, as a disclosure,
36:15
I’m a partner in a wind generation company. I deliberately became a partner in a wind generation company so that I could learn more about the alternative energy field. We were starting on it. We were working with alternative energy when I was mayor. And there are a lot of areas where we can’t expand. Now, there are literally hundreds of millions, if not billions of dollars worth of work in this area. In order to be able to have a better economy,
36:46
One of the key things we need to do is buy less things outside and be able to produce them within our county so that we’re not exporting our money. That’s economics 101. The more money you bring into the county that leaves the county, the richer and stronger your county is. So if we don’t export our money to buy alternative energy, we now have
37:09
a growing economic base that we can work with this is another field do you find it funny that you’re telling me this because i’ve been talking this as long as i know you funny that’s why i say i’ve been kind of missed because these are not new ideas no they’re not we have to get our public to understand how important it is and open the doorway to make this happen and really be big support right but because you’re also in the industry
37:37
You understand that the legislature has put limitations on how the industry can grow. Maui Electric does not have to absorb all the alternatives. They’re limited to less than 10% right now. So you can’t tie into their system. And it’s because they don’t have the storage capacity, wind generation,
38:03
What it will take does not have storage capacity at this point. Do you ever talk about centralized wind and decentralized solar? I don’t know why we don’t unplug from the grid. Well, what we need to do is we need to be able to allow the expansion into every home some kind of alternative energy. Right, but they could be planned into various much smaller units for a community that’s being built to be self-sustainable. However you want to put it together,
38:33
This is something that needs to be done. There are all kinds of combinations we could talk about. But you notice I’m not talking about just one type of alternative energy. Nor am I supporting just one kind of alternative energy. It’s the conglomerate of all these alternative energy sources that will be able to take care of the various needs within our community. And in some areas, wind is stronger. In some areas, the sun will make it stronger. In some areas,
38:58
I believe ocean geothermal would be better. Some area geothermal might be better. Some other kind of energy might come in that would be good. Maybe hydroelectric. There’s also people who talk about how safe nuclear is. I mean, in a box, there’s all kinds of… But no matter how we do it, we need to create the programs whereby we’re taking the entire industry and we’re doing the combinations properly.
39:27
We’re providing the support that we need for the industries to grow. So what we need to do is we need to go to the legislature, get them to move the standard from 10% to 80% or 90%, require the electric companies to start creating smart grids, or to be able to dissect the grids into smaller areas that you’re talking about. We need to be able to create storage. So maybe Maui County should be working with all of the developers of alternative energy
39:57
in a partnership to create a battery power area where we can actually create storage power for all the alternative energy. And then as people are tying into it, they pay back. They pay back the cost. See, there’s going to be a lot of good things happening and talking about. I’m happy to hear you talking this way. I’m going to quickly change the subject. Okay. Wouldn’t you think, and this is just a plug, a couple of plugs.
40:26
One, a plug for more of the candidates feeling a responsibility to the public to get on some kind of show, with me or otherwise, to talk more. A few minutes on some forum does not choose the candidate. And it seems that there should be some reason that candidates must spend a little time so you know who the candidates are. There are people running, you know, who have no idea who they are, and some of them are
40:55
extremely good. I’ve had great fun interviewing people right in front of the camera. They get to show who they are. You’ve really got a good choice if you know who they are. So that’s why I appreciate you coming and doing this. It should be a requirement, not an alternative, it should be a requirement that elected officials have public forums where they’re discussing in public where everybody can call in or everybody can participate.
41:25
and be able to talk about some of these challenges that we have within our community. Now, I do that on my radio shows and my TV shows. I spend an hour Tuesday morning, 6.30 a.m. to 7.30 a.m. KPMW. KOI, I have a 7 o’clock to 8 o’clock every Thursday morning. And I have, once a month, an Akaku show that plays on Wednesdays.
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all of the candidates and all of our public officials did this, perhaps the public wouldn’t be left in the cold not knowing what’s happening within our community. Right. And every two years they’re looking around trying to figure out how to move things forward when they don’t really know what’s going on. And what we get is we get sound bites. And again, this is why our current administration get away with the sound bites that they put out there. Because nobody… I don’t think they’ve gotten away with it.
42:22
It has been just alarming how many people, I mean, are upset. And I don’t know, why aren’t there more public forums? We’ve got yours. I know Tom is doing the thing with Kelly in the morning on another station of conversation. We need more conversation. And I think there’s something about television media, people seeing you almost, rather than just hearing you, because they have another element.
42:50
Well, I love the idea of any kind of media. Television is the best because you can hear fields and you can see people talking. You know, just the other day from the mayor’s office, they said, well, we have a system in place, so we don’t understand why people are complaining that they can’t get an appointment with the mayor. We have a system in place and we’re going to talk to the mayor. Anybody who calls in can get it.
43:17
Nama’u, there’s a community called Nama’u Street in Kihei. They have been trying for about three years now to get an appointment with the mayor. They have a petition of over 120 signatures. They have hand-delivered the petition into the mayor’s hand. They have yet to get a callback, not even a response from someone. Sounds impossible. Sounds impossible. We talk about it on our KPMW show. We’ve been talking about it for over a month.
43:47
They still have not gotten a call back. And I know people listen to that show. When we were going through the budget process, Sandy Voss, head of MEO, he pointed out that the mayor, he asked the mayor for an appointment for three and a half months to be able to understand what it is that they’re going to do with the budget. She wouldn’t give an appointment for three and a half months. There are a lot of other non-profit directors that I’ve talked to that are having
44:17
horrible time trying to get to talk to the mayor. Doesn’t she have assistants? According to the paper, they have a system set up to be able to process and call people back and talk to them. But that’s not what I’m hearing and you know as far as I know this is just a blatant lie because if somebody who’s coming on my show on radio
44:44
virtually every week and talking about the same thing because they’re still trying to get an audience with the mayor three years after the fact. And what they want to talk about is they’re on the Ma’u Street, the street is supposed to connect up to South Kingi Road and to the North-South Collector. On the North-South Collector side, the road is blocked off by a series of boulders. And if they have a fire in their community or there’s a tsunami, they all have to
45:11
Followed through to South Kihei Road, they’re having a difficult time getting out of their community. And they’re very much afraid they’re going to get trapped in their community. In the Maui Street where the rocks are, the road is almost constructed that they were supposed to connect up. What they want the administration to do is remove those rocks so they have two-way exit and entrance. That’s all they want.
45:38
Three years, not even a call back. Do they need the mayor to do that? Can’t they get another department? They can’t even get the department people to call back. This is an open government in theory. I don’t consider that open. I don’t either. No. Let’s take a look at some of the other issues that have been landing a bomb in the community.
46:03
Let’s take a look at the mayor saying that… Let me quote her directly. I don’t want to misspeak. From the Maui News, July 21st. Tavares said that voters should look at the progress her administration has made in getting the county through one of its toughest economies in decades. She noted that her administration has cut spending by millions of dollars each year for the past four years to prepare the county to weather a serious drop in revenues.
46:33
Wednesday, July 1, 2010. Then you go to the county budget. You can get this on the website. This is the county budget. This is the summary page. From 2007, there are two general categories that you look at. One is the general fund, which is the revenue raised in the county. And the other is the total funds.
47:00
which is all the grants and everything else that put together the total amount of money the county gets. Let’s go through this in the two categories that were fair. The general fund in 2007 started off at $279 million. Okay. Okay? $279 million, 2008, $307 million. Is that a decrease? No. Okay. So you’re spending more.
47:29
From 307 in 2009 to 328 maybe. Is that a decrease? 307, 328. Seems like an increase, right? Doesn’t seem like that. Then you go from 328 to 347. 28 to 47, is that a decrease? Doesn’t seem like a decrease.
47:55
So I wonder, so what kind of a report is that in the Maui News? Could she have said that? Yes, she did. She said it more than once. This is how she’s telling the public. So how, obviously, I can’t understand. If we see increase, reporting of decrease. Maybe I’m not looking at the total funds. Maybe there’s something that’s missing. Let me do the total funds.
48:23
So we’re very fair to the administration. In 2007, $467 million. You notice the difference between general fund and total fund? $279 versus $467. Oh, yeah. A lot more money, so $467 million. That’s the total amount of money the county had to spend. You go to 2008, $524. So from $467 to $524.
48:52
Is that a decrease? Clearly not. From 524 to 561. Is that a decrease? I don’t think bigger numbers don’t mean a decrease. They mean an increase. From 561 to 572. Let me just finish this up. 572. The reason this bothers me is she’s telling the public that we have to raise all of your trash collection, we have to raise all of your water rates,
49:20
We have to raise all these fees. Your community centers have to go from $60 to hundreds of dollars. Your motor vehicle registration has to go up. Everything that the county is doing, they have to raise everything on a public that’s suffering. On a public that’s suffering.
49:40
Pam Tupac, the Chamber of Commerce, they did some statistics. I’ve got them here. I’m going to just talk off the top of my head and give you generality because I don’t want to spend all the time going through finding specific things. Right. We’re going to be wrapping soon. Right. The average salary for the general public has gone down by about 10%. The average public employee salary has gone up about 12%. Okay? Okay.
50:10
So the general public has had a decrease on an average of about 10%. The cost of living for the average person has gone up somewhere around $300 per person per month since he’s taken office. I got you. I was going to change the subject because it’s clear that you have a totally different approach than Charmaine, and it’s also clear by looking at the numbers.
50:38
someone’s playing with Charmaine’s calculator. My wife’s a math teacher. I could never get away with a larger number and say, I’m saving millions of dollars and I’m spending that much more. So I’m going to get out of the technical for a second. What about people that are suffering now? I mean, literally, I know hundreds of people that have lost their homes, don’t have jobs, and these services
51:07
that are around the lower house, department, so they’re not handling it all. And there are people in major crisis. Do you have any thought on what can be done to help these people? Jason, not only are they not able to handle it, for the last three years, the Tavares administration has been cutting back on the social service programs when the public needs it the most. That’s why I’m bringing it up. It’s very important. When the public is in stress,
51:36
is when they need these programs more than anything else. And Tavares’ administration has been saying, well, you know, we’ve got to economize, so we’ve got to cut back. And they’ve been cutting back on the services that have growing needs because the public is suffering the most. So what are we going to do now? We know they’ve been cutting back, and obviously that’s why so many people are running, because they’re not happy with what it is. And when you take a look at, I’ll give you one more statistic just because. I’m going to use the mayor’s office.
52:04
The budget in the mayor’s office. When I left office, our staff was about 29. The mayor’s office staff was about 29. The Tavares administration currently has about 48 members. Just three and a half years, they went from 29 to 48. The salaries in the mayor’s office went from under a million dollars to $2.5 million. $2.5 million.
52:34
I don’t think any other department has gone up that much, or even close to that much. But they’ve gone up from under a million to 2.5. While they’re telling the public, you guys, you have to economize, you have to bear with us, because we all need to suffer together. So they’re living in fat city.
53:01
while everybody else is struggling. When you’re seeing the foreclosure, did you see the article in the paper just yesterday? Of course. The foreclosure rates? They basically doubled last year. They basically doubled last year. Last year was horrible. It was over 600 foreclosures last year. Now we’re seeing almost 100 foreclosures a week. A week. This is telling me
53:28
that people in our community are really, really struggling. Oh, I’m telling you. That’s why I said it. There are people that are struggling to the point that falling through the cracks at these social services and have no idea what they’re going to do for food or shelter or any future or any hope of jobs at all. And so Charmaine was able to cut a deal with the union, the public employee union, and she committed. I will not cut any position, she said.
53:58
So she’s not going to cut any county positions. She’s even got mad with the council for cutting back on the positions that were not filled. She made a big deal of it. That’s a good way to get an endorsement. But is it good for the public to have a growing county government? And it is a growing county government. Because even if they stay exactly the same size, they’re going to need more money just to be able to exist.
54:28
So you have a growing government and you have a population that’s being paid 10% less on average. A population that has already had most of their income level increased by about $300 per person per month while she’s been in office or in the mayor’s office. People are literally being forced out of their homes
54:54
They’re giving up in despair. And at the same time, we’re going around, we’re sending inspectors around. They’re hiring new inspectors to go around and shut down businesses because of signages. They’re shutting down businesses, home-based businesses, people that are trying to help themselves. You know, when a lot of these people are saying, I can’t afford to have my business in a commercial shopping center anymore. I just can’t afford it. I can’t pay the rent. So they want to
55:23
start their own businesses at home. And then we go and shut them down. And instead of allowing them to be helped, instead of going out of our way to help them, we’re now punishing them and saying, we think you are bad for trying to help yourself. We’d rather see you starve and on welfare and lose your home. I think the county has completely lost it.
55:47
So you probably know we’re running out of time here, but listen to what you’re saying. We need to continue this discussion on one of your radio shows or on your television show.
55:57
And we have to keep these issues in public view, and we need to come up with some solutions. Because as much as this is a role for you looking to reassume the hell, but there are people hurting, and whatever happens in politics, we need to help. There are so many people hurting. I’m afraid that the next step is, I mean, it’s just disaster. We need a leader that actually understands what’s going on, that is willing to make the changes that we need to do. Understand that…
56:27
Government is there to help people, to help people in our public. That’s the sole purpose of government. The people in our community are not here to build the biggest and best government. We should not be forcing people to pay for bigger and better government. Government should be paying to help people in our community to have a higher quality of life. And in this case, for many people, it’s just survival. You asked me earlier why I’m running.
56:56
This is why I’m running Gation. The kind of things we’ve been talking about right now have bothered me to the point where I’m willing to come out of retirement because I won’t feel comfortable enjoying myself while all of my friends and neighbors are suffering. And I feel strong enough about it. Thank you for coming out. Thank you for spending the time with us here. Thank you guys for joining us and watching all this. If you see this guy on the street, go up and talk to him.
57:24
And if you’re wondering why I don’t smile so much, it’s because I’m really concerned and I’m having to deal with a lot of people calling me up and telling me about all of their challenges. And it’s gotten to the point where it’s really bothering me that something has to be done. This administration is the worst administration I have ever seen. They’ve hurt more people than all the other administrations combined. And I don’t say that lightly. That isn’t the right statement.
57:53
So remember, you’ve got an election coming up here. What’s our date? September 18th. September 18th. Many of you have your ballots already. Please, fill them out. This is not a popularity contest. This is a contest for survival. And I think we really need to look at what has been done to most of you. Forget the hype. Forget the PR. Look at what’s actually happened. And you’ll see very clearly the role that we’re doing right now
58:23
The track that we’re on right now is the absolute wrong one. We need to reverse, go back to have government or you, the public, rather than you trying to create a bigger government. Thank you very much. Thank you all for joining us. Thank you, Alan. Thank you, Jason. My pleasure. We’ll see you again. Aloha. Aloha.
58:58
The time has come to make a change. The time has come to unlock the hope that lives in each and every one of us. And we must do our part. We hold the visions God dreams of. Our hands can heal
59:23
the ones we love let’s gather round and let us make a stand for you and me unlock the hope and there’s a better life unlock the hope there’ll be no turning back but nothing changes unless we unlock the hope
59:57
The time has come to make a change The time has come to unlock the hope that lives In each and every one of us And we must do our part
01:00:15
We hold the visions God dreams of. Our hands can heal the ones we love. Let’s gather round and let us make a stand.
01:00:31
for you and me unlock the hope and there’s a better life unlock the hope there’ll be no turning back but nothing changes unless we unlock the hope but nothing changes unless we unlock the hope
01:01:00
But nothing changes. Unless we unlock the hole. Unless we unlock the hole.
