Up Close – Jason with JAMES “Kimo” APANA 2014 candidate for State House District 9 on Maui for the State House of Representatives
Summary & Timestamped transcript Below…
Summary
The video features an in-depth interview with Kimo Apana, a candidate running for the State House representing District 9 in Kahului, Maui. The conversation covers a wide range of pressing community issues including homelessness, housing affordability, healthcare, elderly care, and local governance. Kimo emphasizes the importance of collaboration between state and county governments as well as the private sector to effectively address these challenges. He discusses the historical context of housing inequality, the implementation of property tax reforms like the circuit breaker to ease the burden on lower-income residents, and the need for innovative healthcare solutions integrating alternative medicine with traditional practices. Kimo also highlights the significance of community involvement, grassroots activism, and the role of government in fostering a supportive environment for residents while maintaining fiscal responsibility. The dialogue touches on local political dynamics, including the appointment of state representatives, the complexities of district voting, and the importance of having representatives who are deeply connected to the community. Overall, Kimo presents himself as a candidate with substantial experience in local government, a strong connection to his district, and a vision for sustainable, compassionate governance.
Highlights
- [01:19] ️ Kimo stresses that homelessness requires coordinated efforts between state, county, and private sectors.
- [04:02] The circuit breaker property tax policy limits tax to 3% of income, helping lower-income homeowners avoid displacement.
- [10:53] Kimo advocates for improving hospital services, including integrating alternative medicine and wellness approaches.
- [16:49] Emphasizes the potential of combining Western and alternative medicines to revolutionize healthcare on Maui.
- [22:16] Discusses the growth of homelessness beyond traditional areas and its complex causes, including mental health.
- [25:05] Highlights the importance of community compassion and cooperation in addressing homelessness effectively.
- [40:31] GMO debate is a significant upcoming issue with broad public interest, highlighting the need for education on both sides.
Key Insights
- [01:19] ️ Holistic Approach to Homelessness: Kimo identifies homelessness as a multi-faceted problem that neither the county nor state can solve alone. He advocates for a shared responsibility model involving private sector participation, social services, and government collaboration. This insight underscores the complexity of social issues and the need for integrated solutions rather than isolated efforts.
- [04:02] Property Tax Reform as Social Equity Tool: The circuit breaker policy limiting property taxes to 3% of income is an innovative fiscal policy designed to protect lower-income families from being priced out due to rising property values. This demonstrates how tax policy can be used as a lever to maintain community diversity and social equity in gentrifying neighborhoods.
- [10:53] Healthcare System Challenges and Opportunities: Kimo reveals the financial strains on Maui’s hospital system, including budget cuts leading to reduced services like adolescent psychiatric care. He argues for a blend of conventional healthcare with alternative medicine, envisioning a wellness-focused hospital model. This reflects a forward-thinking approach to healthcare that could improve outcomes and reduce costs.
- [16:49] Integrating Alternative and Western Medicine: The interview highlights skepticism in Western medicine toward issues like systemic candida but acknowledges the effectiveness of some alternative treatments. Kimo suggests that embracing a fusion of medical traditions could provide innovative health solutions, attract medical tourism, and position Maui as a healing center in the Pacific.
- [22:16] Changing Nature of Homelessness: The profile of homelessness is shifting from marginalized individuals with substance abuse or mental health issues to working people one paycheck away from losing housing. Kimo’s insight points to the systemic economic pressures that exacerbate homelessness and the need for policy that addresses these root causes rather than just symptoms.
- [25:05] Community Compassion as a Solution Driver: The story of Kimo personally offering shelter to a homeless family illustrates the power of community-driven compassion and shared responsibility. This insight stresses that policy alone cannot fix social issues without grassroots engagement and empathy.
- [40:31] GMO Debate Reflects Broader Societal Challenges: The GMO initiative on the ballot represents a microcosm of public fears about technology, safety, and economic impact. Kimo’s balanced view that education from both sides is crucial reveals how public policy debates often hinge on informed discourse and addressing economic anxieties tied to regulatory changes.
Expanded Analysis
Kimo Apana’s discussion paints a vivid portrait of the challenges facing Maui’s residents in District 9, set against broader statewide concerns. His emphasis on homelessness as a multi-layered problem highlights the interplay between housing, mental health, economic instability, and community safety. This aligns with national trends where homelessness is increasingly recognized as a crisis requiring coordinated policy responses spanning government, nonprofit, and private sectors. Kimo’s call for integrating alternative medical practices into mainstream healthcare is particularly insightful, suggesting that Maui could pioneer a holistic health model that improves patient outcomes while fostering economic development through medical tourism.
His recounting of the circuit breaker tax policy demonstrates a deep understanding of how historical property value shifts and gentrification impact social equity. By limiting property taxes relative to income, the policy helps preserve affordable housing for longtime residents, a critical concern in many rapidly changing communities. This approach balances fiscal responsibility with social justice, showcasing how nuanced policy design can mitigate displacement pressures.
The interview also reveals political dynamics unique to Hawaii, such as the governor’s influence in appointing representatives and the challenges of district voting in geographically isolated, culturally distinct communities. Kimo’s local roots and intimate knowledge of his district’s people are presented as assets that contrast with more detached, mainland-style representation. His grassroots campaign style, including personal interactions and community cleanup efforts, reflects a commitment to servant leadership and accessibility often missing in modern politics.
Furthermore, the discussion on the GMO issue illustrates the complex intersection of science, public perception, economic interests, and environmental concerns. Kimo’s measured stance advocates for informed debate rather than fear-driven decisions, a principle applicable to many contentious policy areas.
Finally, Kimo’s reflections on aging populations and the financial challenges faced by seniors underscore the urgency of developing sustainable social safety nets. His acknowledgment of the need for radical change, combined with community involvement, echoes a larger call for systemic reform that transcends local politics.
Conclusion
Kimo Apana’s interview offers a comprehensive view of the socio-political landscape in Maui’s District 9, emphasizing pragmatic solutions, community engagement, and innovative thinking. His blend of experience, local knowledge, and compassionate leadership positions him as a candidate advocating for inclusive policies that address both immediate needs and long-term sustainability. The conversation serves as a microcosm of the challenges faced by many island and rural communities, highlighting the importance of integrated governance, social equity, and holistic approaches to healthcare and social services.
Highlights
- [01:19] ️ Homelessness requires coordinated efforts across state, county, and private sectors.
- [04:02] Circuit breaker property tax limits help protect lower-income homeowners.
- [10:53] Urgent need to improve hospital funding and integrate alternative medicine.
- [16:49] Alternative medicine integration could revolutionize island healthcare.
- [22:16] Homelessness is spreading and includes working people facing economic hardship.
- [25:05] Community compassion and cooperation are essential in solving homelessness.
- [40:31] GMO debate will educate the public and impact local agriculture and economy.
Key Insights
- [01:19] ️ Homelessness is a complex social issue requiring multi-sector collaboration; no one entity can solve it alone, highlighting the need for systemic, multi-pronged solutions.
- [04:02] Property tax reforms like the circuit breaker serve as effective tools for maintaining social equity amid rising property values and gentrification pressures.
- [10:53] Maui’s hospital system faces financial strain; integrating alternative medicine could enhance healthcare quality and reduce costs, representing an innovative healthcare model.
- [16:49] Western medicine’s limitations in addressing certain conditions open the door for complementary alternative therapies, which could position Maui as a health and wellness hub in the Pacific.
- [22:16] The changing demographics of homelessness to include working individuals highlights the urgent need for affordable housing and economic support policies.
- [25:05] Personal stories of community support illustrate the importance of grassroots compassion alongside government action in addressing social challenges.
- [40:31] The GMO initiative exemplifies how public policy debates require balanced education to navigate fears, economic concerns, and scientific realities.
00:11
oh we realized that we just started talking we didn’t really have an opening so we thought this would be the opening aloha welcome to our show this is kimo panna running for state house district 9 district 9 here in kahului and you can hear an interview and we thank you for watching we’re going to find out if two heads are better than one that’s right let’s begin hello but you’re right that is a gap group and i tell you why it’s a gap group of the politicians are being counters
00:48
and they don’t see value in this area especially when those aren’t voters yeah but to me it’s like traffic you know the mainland guys come here they cause traffic you don’t care about them but it’s affecting our daily lives so you need to address it and that’s one of the reasons i’m running for the state house yeah i believe a homelessness and other things like what you’re talking about is coming to a head and the county nor the state alone can do it and they have not found a way to
01:19
bridge together all the resources i’ve been talking about that’s right staten county that’s like they don’t blame each other better to kick the can and to solve the problem right so i’ve been talking with some of the people that in that industry and they telling me it can be solved but everybody got to do their share and private sector also yeah the private sector you know they talk about have more give more help more nicholando was talking about a staggered property tax on the house
01:52
the land separate but the house so that these simple houses with lower value have less tax rate and those that have more you’ve probably seen all these things over the years well we my year we created the um circuit breaker yeah and the reason was we saw for example kahala in honolulu before the old days all the poor people live on the beach because of tidal waves because of smallpox all these things headsets disease the rich people i went to the mountain that’s atlas manoa that’s all the rich
02:29
the eks the mariner rich all the rich people in the mountain because they didn’t want to stay with their riff raff in the downtown working area of the wharf yeah so they all went in the mountains so that was an expensive property then when they found out tourists and people from the mainland loved beachfront they started buying beachfront so you have a house here that everybody’s house was at one time hundred thousand now somebody rich comes in and said i don’t care about the price i’ll buy it
02:59
and they buy for half a million whatever they build a half a million dollar house because they can now it’s a million dollar housing property this guy here has a shack and the same size property they’re going to value this guy’s place you remember the uh the boat house on kiawa kapoor beach there was a boat i have friends uh mark and archie lived there and their kitchen was the boat it was right on kiabaku beach the owner of that property subdivided they owned both and they had that parcel
03:32
at the thing for three million dollars everything else was low low low low they had the house in the front took them a few years they sold that for three million and you see whoever yeah but the poor the sad part is this guy a local guy that lived there because they’re poor they have to live on the beach tax money don’t have tax money they tax out of the house that’s what happened in kahala at one time was on poor people now it’s all rich people because they don’t only actually build that’s that so we did the
04:02
circuit breaker that you wouldn’t pay more than three percent of your um your income towards property tax so that helped a lot of people then people came and said a kilo but i own two houses and the second one you pay you can afford if you can’t have two houses you kind of well to do because a house in hawaii is about half a million also we know historically we got low property taxes so we complain and we already got a good deal compared to the others but there’s a reason why it’s low
04:33
why is that because department of education with the state that’s right supports you after you hang around you get some of this stuff when people complain we write parking tickets and go to the state to run the courts yeah i’m okay with it because if we had to run the courts would cost way more than what we’re collecting tickets you know so i really don’t have a problem with that we have to give to guma his own like jurisdiction you know taguma i like him he does his job and i stopped
05:08
the water you know i think his first name is kitten you know i don’t mind you do your job you do it well yeah i think you’re following the law i think you do everything correctly but you don’t have to be smug about it you know people know they blew it they parked their three hours and said it to they know just say you know sorry ma’am you know you’ve been here over two hours here’s your thinking not like hey next time nope you know you know you rub it in their face and that’s what i think
05:44
people kind of dislike them at times because they think he’s taking his job too serious yeah but you know the merchants in wailuku love him because he make the traffic turn over so they get more customers that’s how they like the parking working one they feel safe that remember they had a charrette to try to figure out their part that’s a million years ago right sorry no no my time so what’s going on who’s ready to go is that a state thing now no that was a county was ready to go there and oracle came in
06:16
he said he like redesigned the park he like redesigned everything himself because no let the public decide you know i’ve heard i’ve done some interviews now already and it’s like bring in new people you want to see a different thing bring in something new keep bringing five terms they’re off for a term they’re back and then off the two people and this and that it’s quite a scene out there now you you know i feel like i’m talking about you’re running for state house state
06:44
house and i remember years ago thinking that you were i want to say a protege of joe sookie yeah friends and i felt that you were really being groomed for something that would be important because after mayor i thought i’d see you more involved state yeah i think you said because i know that uh what we’re just talking about that’s exactly what someone who’s moving to the state has the experience in the county i sound like you’re a campaign manager but you have the kind of experience that
07:21
to me sets up for a future speaker of a house speaker i’m just talking about you know you had a leadership role here locally yes and you’ve seen things now i don’t know how many way we are arakawa charmaine arakawa arakawa arkawa um you know i know that you guys ran against each other and then i always think that we can move forward in a good way you know if he’s mayor and you’re up in the state i imagine you really can help i would think tremendously you know being the mayor uh
08:02
gives you a lot of insight on the needs of the county what the county candidate cannot do or doesn’t does what things that they don’t do well yeah but by working at the state level you understand that level you have the connections locally you have the relationship with the public because you know council member mayor be very close to the public state legislature you’re kind of a little aloof because you know you don’t deal with much with the public you kind of look at things on a big broad scale
08:32
that’s why i think the legislature now has a lot of council members there some former mayors that they really will take the county’s needs really at heart and basically what is the state it’s the collection of counties it’s the collection of people it’s not like entity all by itself like we are the state and we mandate this now no it’s just like how can it help people from the from the grassroots level coming up it’s just that you work in a larger brush stroke you know instead of just fixing one
09:06
school you’re fixing all the schools throughout the state look at things on a broader uh scale but basically it’s basically running a county almost you’re like running in the district i imagine because you have a limited area to go look at uh running the district is uh is great because you’re closer to the people running is a mirror you run the whole county i mean it’s hard what about council do you have any thoughts on that council is the same as almost identical as mayor district voting i mean it’s amazing that
09:37
people still don’t know they vote for all nine council people how long do we know well district voting uh it is difficult for several reasons because of the really small isolated and unique communities in particular that if we went to district voting those three areas plus a little haiku or somewhere else will make up one seat that means molokai lanai and hana and it talks about 11 seeds with 150 000 now it would be an interesting conversation i know that we have to educate our people right now that they vote for
10:16
everyone we keep seeing these i like you but i’m not voting for it but we hear about preferential voting second votes going all kinds of stuff going on you at the state do you have anything that you’re going specifically for or whatever several things that i’m really um passionate about one of them is a hospital okay a hospital is the only one here it has many it is you know made many great strides under west long who’s a former finance director of mine congratulations to west but it’s just the beginning we cannot
10:53
rest on our laurels we just found out the shutdown one department the adolescence section of the psychiatric ward um they they they probably save about a million dollars a year but the legislature did to the hospital this year which is i think unfair they said this is your budget we’re going to increase your budget by adding more employees pay or whatever they put up on the hospital and i believe the employees deserve to pay but yet the legislature did not fund them accordingly so basically he said here’s more
11:29
expenses you’re not getting up any more than last year go figure it out nearly impossible i mean they’ve been cutting corners they’ve been you know trying to save money internally it came to the point where they had to lay off people actually it’s it’s more than enough people it’s denying the public it’s service yeah and we really need to fix that last year they try to sell the hospital or some kind of combination and you know i’m okay with that if we can’t manage the hospital properly or
12:03
efficiently get somebody else in and if their private sector hey you know wherever it is we’ll find the right people but you do not throw the employees that gave their sweat and blood oh yeah all these years under the bus well so we have to look at i mean i think we have to look at alternative medicine move it into the mix move it into the hospital mix and find an important bridge between all of it because i think the long term is going to be in the healthcare system wellness approach really got to be brought in more i know
12:41
sometimes it’s difficult to remember your original my original intention is to do wellness when we’re in fierce problem with uh getting people better but i think in the long run we’ve got to really um do something to educate people about something other than following this same model we’re on a little island we’re going to overwhelmed how can you handle the demand for the hospital i don’t know you know what one of my dreams when i was the mayor um i called all the doctors to my office
13:12
and i said let’s make a heart surgery center and they said what do you mean i said why do we always have to go to honolulu queen straub whichever to have a heart surgery and you should be able to do it here because the recovery part is so important that you want to be near your family and friends they can come visit you sure i mean airfare and hotel and rental cars is expensive so the doctor said we don’t have the population and i said yes here in maui at that time was about 120 000. i said that’s correct
13:49
but we have all the territories and trusts and all the different nations um the united states has a relationship with they’re flying to queens they’re flying a straw so we have this surgery there i say why can’t we get some of those people to come to maui at our new heart surgery clinic to justify to having such a you know service here and they said great so they went back they did their work and today we see the hearts for the center here i’m so grateful that we had that conversation they went forward
14:26
and today it’s one of the best in the state um my my chairman my campaign chairman dhaka zai uh as we were campaigning he was on a trip to walwood back he needed heart surgery he did it here in maui before in the past he would have to go wahoo we’d all have to go and visit him and stay in the hotel very expensive oh yeah so i think the hospital in the right direction there’s many more areas we need to work on and this is the relationship the legislature oversees the hospitals can do to help increase his
15:03
you know service for our public community and it dumps still into other things and you talk about wellness um natural medicine i think it’s all together it’s a mix well you know i’m i’m aware i’ve talked to you about candida western medicine doesn’t understand systemic candida and doesn’t recognize and will scoff people about it except if they’re experts just bring in big experts a systemic candida is understood fully in more eastern and other medicines if these things would work together we
15:39
could come upon so many solutions and prevent some of the things that are going on where they know that cancer treatment is 90 something percent not effective and they and they find that frankincense but i mean all these things that that are in the world if that were incorporated into a hospital and it could be a hospital that has a wellness center as part of it i think it could be revolutionary okay and and that’s just my input into that because that’s the piece that’s missing otherwise these expenses
16:16
are out of sight how do you keep up with these expenses who’s going to pay for all this that’s come on so much of the natural health stores has great appeal and you see them coming up all over the islands even people with little in their backyards doing lo melomi and other things and it has worked many people gone and said you know i went to the chiropractor i went through this it didn’t work i went to the property naturopath or that was right and it worked naturopath is a doctor but
16:49
you’re talking about go to different kinds of healers and people that are seem like alternative yeah alternatives you know sometimes works this way something works that way and you just got to figure out which one it is that works best like acupuncture you know they say when america allowed acupuncture for pain my ex-wife was in school you know to be a doctor of acupuncture that was such a major thing for for uh alternative medicine and when chiropracty was suddenly into the insurance world so we’re moving in a
17:19
good direction that all that could happen and i bet that would attract a lot of people to maui maybe i’d be able to sell that house up there as a clinic you know one of my dreams again being the american buyer was to make maury the healing center of the pacific and i say this because when a lot of athletes and proteins wanted to come here to train rehab and we really didn’t have all the facilities they needed but we weren’t that far away so i felt they would this would have been a great
17:53
niche market for us they’re low impact a lot of people in the medical field would work high paying jobs clean grain and it puts a good spin on our tourism where it comes to the healthy state not just the margarita or the mai tai state and um i i think that’s a good direction to continue and these are the type of areas that as a state legislation we could give incentives to bring these type of industries to the islands any state issues that are right now sit on the table you think that your timing is good to be there yeah one
18:29
of them is our elderly you know because of good medicine alternative medicine we started to live longer i remember the child we see the numbers was 69 to 73 depends on male or female nowadays i go to birthday parties where they’re 100 years old and not just once in a while nearly every year i go to several they’re 98 99 i mean my auntie gave up her license she’s 98 now she gave up her driver’s license 96. wow she used to drive to her house every time and the only reason she gave up for
19:02
license he said my car is bad no sense i buy a new one and so now we drive around but you know we see the longevity of our seniors but it also causes another problem they can’t afford to um to live in this this expensive world they retired when their retirement was like 150 retirement and they’re not alone you’re talking way old yeah there are people that are in their 60s and 50s and 60s that can’t figure how they’re going to do it imagine decades ago you retired now you have
19:39
a nickel and your loaf of breads thank goodness for social security there’s a chunk there but for some people that’s all they have i know and once you pay your basic rent your utilities your food you’re done you’re already done before you get there you know i’ve seen people that can’t pay their rent they get their money yeah so this is living in cars it’s crazy that area we need to work on how about that one i’m going to talk that may be a county thing why is it criminal to
20:11
sleep in a car when there’s nowhere for people to sleep you know i’m not sure if it’s illegal it is you have private property sleeping in a car on private property you have nowhere to live yeah and you have to sleep somewhere i mean like a beach park or someplace those are closed the streets it’s really closing down here yeah you know i don’t know about that particularly but i don’t see why in that state or county that would probably be could be either one i mean because the county could make it
20:45
stiffer than a state i’m not sure who drafted the law but you know my personal feeling if you don’t see it smell it hear it does it really bother anyone well you know i think that for some reason that seems to be an easy priority for an officer i i don’t know you know it’s when someone’s in a car they think the worst of them actually you know the bigger questions would be why is this person sleeping in the car and how can we help them not sleep in the car because if you ask them do you like living in the car
21:18
they’re probably saying no but i have no other choice that’s what you’ll hear and when you go through the choices that’s for another show there’s you know that’s a whole area i don’t know if that’s a state issue or a county issue but i’ll tell you it’s an issue i’m going to tell you something um what people say is in kano state some have jurisdiction for enforcement but it is all of our issue i mean one of the things i really would like to work on is on the homelessness i mean you
21:48
know we’ve always seen it in the in the in the past in the bushes at the beach but now it’s it’s spreading to the cities and the towns and the houses and the regular people that aren’t drug addicts aren’t alcoholics don’t have mental issues when you’re on the street for a couple of years you get mental issues yeah back in the 70s 80s they shut down all the mental institutions they said that’s not a way people should be treated and but they had no cure for them they
22:16
just shut closed open the doors let them out and shut the doors and shut them down permanent so all these people became street people so i understand that but the mix oh there’s people others that aren’t that’s yeah you know those that were one paycheck away too homeless yeah well the bell rang right and i met a guy yesterday he lost his eight day a month job that growth of a thousand dollars he has six hundred dollars from social security that’s it his rent is six and a quarter so if he
22:48
borrows 25 he’ll pay his rent well he can’t do his electric car oh i know this is where we really need to work on um this is society i mean society is judged by how you treat everyone and in this particular area we’re doing a bad job um isn’t that what golden rule means i mean if you can’t live with that in mind what is our point of living what is this so i’m it’s really nice to hear you say that because yeah that is where it’s at you can’t legislate the heart we need people to come out and
23:27
be part of this community for all of the community you know as america’s county we try to tackle the homelessness it wasn’t as great they were at papalua they took over the beach we went in there we cleaned it up we had to make a makeshift permit process so we could always have the opportunity to go and clean the beach at that time there were not no bathrooms here so people just dug a hole they had goats and sofas and rugs and it was a public beach and it belonged to the public so i said you know we’re gonna have to move
23:57
you guys because we need to give this beach back to the people but we didn’t just kick them out you know you see tv bulldozers and all this no we bought all those social service people in we try to place them in places and we could place nearly all of them there’s one we couldn’t place and he’s mayor now no no no no no no there’s a husband it was a husband and wife with a baby she worked at a retail job he worked at a landscaping job and um both working yeah but he lived in a car say yeah so um
24:34
the failure was unsafe while we’re doing this process because the wife was getting accosted by another i guess homeless person so i made the offer to stay at my house in my garage there’s a bathroom there’s a shower i didn’t even ask my wife and i went home and she said what and i said well we gotta help these guys out she said okay that guy came back to me two days later and i said you know i figured it out i’m okay but thank you but you know i don’t expect everybody to
25:05
take someone in but it’s gonna take many people many hands to solve this it’s it cannot be just a county or just a state or just for non-profits right it’s gonna be uh you’re reporting along and uh everybody needs to like from the heart even people need to give up some of their area or domain that they serve in for a bigger picture and nobody really has coordinated that i think it’s something that i believe the state and counties should join together i mean they do a lot of initiatives together we want to do this
25:43
we want to do that but let’s get to the the fabric of our community and this one is a major one uh when when a lady told me she was going to her car after work she got accustomed by someone and we never saw that before usually still hiding in the bushes i have a friend raped twice i know it’s crazy yesterday i’ll sign waving and this lady and scooter she’s around my age little older and she told me a story about her she said you gotta solve these problems here it’s getting terrible and i know what
26:18
are you talking about you know i just riding my scooter at four o’clock in you know daylight she’s going to the grocery store this person picked her off the car her car her electric scooter she can’t she’s handy you know she’s like she has issues put on the ground took her person right broad daylight in the middle of town unheard of yeah but this is uh the way our community is heading because everything is getting so expensive so much pressure they don’t see any way out the you know this person who robbed her
27:29
helping we’ve come to be i think it’s the tv we see so much stuff that’s so comfortable to us we we have all this imagination and people are acting out this stuff i think also it’s part of our um our fear of what if i mean take for example back in the 70s there was a hitchhike i mean we didn’t have a bus we didn’t or anything it’s like i probably know that person jump in the back of the truck or jump in the car nowadays you know when i was going to pick up someone thumbing it
28:04
i pulled over my friends but what are you doing i said this guy probably going i know where we going let’s give him a lift you know if that person is a murderer you don’t know i mean it’s it’s because of all these other things happening uh we get jaded and uh we come more hardened or i’m not sure what it is it’s protective and you’re talking about the hitchhiking i was talking to niki linanda yesterday where he talked to kalani who brought it up he’d been bringing it up about the
28:32
hitchhiking law no one was listening kalani got on council and it became a unanimous easy decision same thing maybe with the cars and people sleeping in the cars maybe we have to find some solutions here and bring some more compassion and understanding we don’t use the parking stalls at night if they’re not a nuisance to the community you know as an inner measure i don’t see that being a major problem a permanent solution i i think we’re working on a major problem but that’s why we need to
29:07
to solve many things and come together as a community together i mean the hospital the elderly the homeless is you know there’s many overlapping and we need to bring all the players or the people that can help to make sure we’re servicing the people that need the service i mean there are some people who are homeless why actually say homeless choose not to live in a house yes that’s another story you know and those you’ll never convince the ones that have medical or drug issues we need to deal with them another way
29:42
but those are housing they built a hundred thousand houses across the country put homeless people in them handle their drug issues and 85 it was 85 percent are moving forward there’s so many different things we could go at you wouldn’t believe how many homeless people are working full-time it’s incredible you wouldn’t do it and uh those are the ones that we really need to help first there’s a lot you know it takes a little effort to help them out and any things that you want to talk
30:14
about i mean yeah you know this this campaigning here it’s uh during the district it’s smaller it’s closer yeah it’s quaint um i could take a few days off to spend time with my wife and my family uh we’re running for the council or the mayor’s race it’s um it’s large somehow i think the council race every two years is almost ridiculous i mean being a former council member as well as a mayor he takes six months to train the new ones coming in you know as a guy that wasn’t in there we were talking
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about this stuff all this time junior moniz came up to me well this is about a year and changing right is he still with us yeah he’s still alive yeah he’s very nicely he said i know you right now jason schwartz oh i’m junior bunnies and then he said to me something that i thought was really interesting he said you were right about energy you were right about that you you were right about everything a lot of things over time are coming out where we’re all coming to realize you know it’s a really growth
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the fact that you can talk in this way as a former mayor with your level of experience and go into a state position is really really important yeah i think it’s a natural fit how did i know that this is probably a little off uh your opponent was appointed by the governor yes okay you know we had what we call the um it was a passing of inoi that triggered everything when inouye passed away we needed the state of hawaii we the state of hawaii needed to fill his seat the governor had the sole authority to
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appoint someone and he appointed his lieutenant governor brian schatz so he became a u.s senator now that triggered who feels lieutenant governor schatzi and by state rules it is first offered to the senate president and that is shantsui when offered the seat chanted to he said i’ll serve so now shan satsui is lieutenant governor and san sitsui’s senate uh state senate seat is open it went through a process and you agaron was appointed by the governor right and then now since gil left his
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hausee the process went through and then mr woodson was appointed by the governor and that kind of shocked the community because no woodson heard of him when you read that paper you go who who’s this guy and later we find out he’s been in my for a very short time but i guess he has a relationship with the governor and uh it is what it is and that is what um also compelled me to run for the state house i felt that the district needed someone that was born in that area that went to school in that area i know most of the
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residents by name and their kids and you know who married who who moved to one house who sold their house i mean it’s those kind of things where you could bar sugar and eggs and you know we see right uh pedal bike all around the community you know our parents all work so you know i really know the community i really know the local style where we can have meetings in garages it’s okay i mean i’m stopped in the bathroom and said come on you can help me with this problem it’s okay i mean they call late at night and
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this is the the the style of my district uh the current representative is more from the mainland he has a different style and i’m not sure it serves a district well i think my style my experience my integrity will serve the district very very well so i put my name out there and a couple days we’ll find out which way the that’s which way bounces yeah yeah i would like to see it happen you feel that um you can serve better in the seat as an advocate you know i always ask that you know you know part of being on
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legislature you’re one of many so you need to know a lot of uh different people to make things happen like i said many of the house members are former council members and mayors like myself so we come with the uh i guess the the the learning and the job set skills that it’s county first people first versus like the big stroke of trying to change the whole state at once without knowing what i call a domino effect you make this law certain things will happen we from the county side can see that
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more clearly i believe i believe also being the state legislature that you got to have a vision of where you’re going you know and being the mayor and council member you kind of see things your communities what what you tried that didn’t work then you need to have to attack it from another angle i always say there’s 99 ways to skin a cat if it doesn’t work go find out if the other 90 works and so i have these things i wish to do is the seniors the hospital the homeless i think the way our state financials is
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set up that we’ve been you know stealing from peter to people so long that it’s catching up it’s really catching sounds like usa yeah and you know they tried last year they did a good start i think they did 200 men which is a drop in a bucket when you’re talking 16 billion that needs to be accelerated because it hurts our bond debt it hurts a bond rating it’s hurt our bond or can bar interest but more importantly it pushes the debt to our children which is not fair to them because they’re going to get problems of
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their own and if we just keep putting them behind the eight ball someday i am i’m afraid i’m more accelerated than that in the sense that a lot of people are finding that this is the end unless we do some major and dramatic things soon there won’t be any grandchildren to worry about things you know things are happening in our world we can’t stay isolated we have to really expect to do radical make radical changes and like you say it’s time to all of us step up and be part of this
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you know i’m a i’m a john f kennedy kind of guy i mean i never met him i you know i mostly see film clips but listening to him reading him i have the same philosophy that you know it’s not government will do everything we all have to pitch in and help out it’s a community issue i mean you talk about education they always blame the teachers how come my child is not smart now you know you gotta invest that’s your child you need to invest in your child read to your child help your child you know take interest
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in your child sure because you know it’s part about the uh the child feels safe at home they have a meal all these things help them grow and that’s part of a parent to provide these things and so many times people have said that’s the teacher’s job it’s all on our job all of our job yeah and that’s to come up this year you know i really grassroots i mean i like to go knocking at doors i like to walk in streets i don’t mind sign waving i don’t mind going to restaurants and malls and
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meeting people and they’re stopping me i mean even at the stop but they still remember yeah they stopped like chemo what about this you gotta go fix this and you know i really grassroots kind of guy and i believe in community service so this year one of the things i’ve taken up as my personal project is i went door to door knocking on doors i’m walking on the sidewalk and there’s all weeds and thorns and i said you know how seniors cannot walk on this sidewalk they need to exercise
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our kids are going to have a difficult time walking to school so you’re gonna walk on the road it’s you know their clothes stay cleaner so this campaign season and after i evolved to try and clean up the sidewalks so every day i go there and try clean up two or three areas and hopefully uh people catch the spirit and and come out with your own little uh hose yeah and then you’re making a group clean in your area and you know many light many hands made light work my mom always told me and i think part of a
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legislator or elected official’s job you know you have some kind of like rock star power that you can uh enable and light people to the community good like kennedy said don’t ask what your country can do for you but what you can do for your country i believe in that i feel so much that i i try to lead by example and hopefully it’s like a smile and you smile the next person smile and then everybody’s smiling i think it’s the same way with uh community volunteerism want to change
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subjects for go ahead watch this let’s see we’re going to do an initial thing okay g what’s next m o what what genetically modified c g i was thinking general motors gmo as you know we’ve heard this bantered around and i know that you know people there are a lot of people in the world that think that monsanto is the big bad guy and there are people who work for monsanto to think opposite and all kinds of studies and everything this gmo thing it to me is an extraordinary thing that they got that
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many signatures in a short time to bring an initiative on the ballot uh i i don’t think so i think it was um inevitable that’s going to come to a head that’s a lot of people out there yeah put on i saw a commercial that talks in the commercial talks about a small fringe group there ain’t no small fringe group to get that many signals yeah the i think they are 11 or 12 000 and that’s a quite a bunch i don’t think i can’t remember in my career or my lifetime it ever happened before so that’s why i
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was bringing it up because it is almost like it’s the elephant in the room this year you know gmo a lot of people signed the petition to put it on a ballot i guess to ban it from where i’m not sure exactly well the gmo thing is if you want to do it can you show us that it’s safe before you do it yeah that’s all and otherwise you know show us it safe we’re happy to have you you know the best part about this gmo coming for front is that we’re going to get educated both sides pro and against
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are going to come out with their big guns and tell hopefully the true facts about their side my concern is fear the fear of the job loss and its repercussions and the thought that you can imagine as a mayor if you had to change something you needed to figure out how do i use these resources differently same with the people i think it’s almost as if we’re talking wellness yeah you have to really get into a new breed of job creation and take away the fear of loss and take a look at children and children’s children
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you know it’s a yeah big big thing you know you know jobs is kind of like development if we wait for someone to come on our doorstep and pitch something to us we have to take a live what they right we need to be proactive and go out and go find new industries that we want that’s why the mayor i try to get the film industry here the sound industry we got um renewable energy i remember energy i know i started the solar water heater program so that uh every resident could have one so we started a a revolving fund
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and you know you need to be proactive um the healthy hawaii where you can rehab and other things the medical hawaii you know again it’s many ways many fingers or tentacles or or different theories you have to try to solve a single problem and alternative living is one i mean we have to do like again we have to try always there’s no one cookie cutter because if there was we wouldn’t have this problem today and this is where thinking out of the box people who open-minded uh people who willing to try
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are the people that are actually going to solve this problem i hope so yeah and i never thought i’d be pushed to be alternative you know some people would define me as homeless but it’s only through the grace of a friend that i have a place to be because all kinds of things that happen beyond my control we’re in a really interesting time and i know that it takes someone with a history and knowledge and also the heart it’s really been a pleasure oh yeah anything that you know you’d like these
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guys to know you don’t want to forget to say yeah you know i always tell people uh you know me as a council member you know me as a mayor i mean i’m the same guy just a little older with a lot less hair oh yeah but i think over the years i’ve matured a lot and a lot of other things made me realize that life is more important than just collecting the most gold in the world my wife had a medical thing that she needed to take care of and it really really made me realize that the friends you keep is more important
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than the goal you store i think the legacy or actually say legacy but what we leave for our children is very important and i read this poster once and it stuck in my mind forever and they said what we have today was not given to us by our parents but is unknown to us by our children and the more i think about it more think about it yeah we just borrowing it for the next for the next generation you know ask for it and like being a good boy scout you leave the place nicer than you found it you treat others that the way they that
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you like them to treat you and if you can offer a helping hand to a friend a stranger or anyone do it and these are the things that drive me in my life and i hope i can be your representative i think i have great ideas i have a way to bring a unique way to bring all types of people to the table to solve common issues i’m knowledgeable enough the experience i bring i think i could represent the district very very well and this primary i ask for your phone so with that chase thank you very much
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thank you very much yeah thank you thank you guys for watching and taking the time i think that we all know that the most important thing is going out and exercising get involved thank you you
