KEITH REGAN 2016

01:21

By getting to know the candidates, and as I get to know them, let you get to know them. So thank you for being with me and asking for this show, because we’re a whole different format. I have a great guest today. He’s the first guest for this season, and I hope that it plays again and again, and you’ll all send it out wherever, because that’s what TV’s about.

This is Keith Regan. Aloha. Keith, aloha. Welcome to the show. Thanks for having me, Jason. I appreciate it a lot. Now, many of you hear the name Keith Regan, and you say,

01:51

Is it Regan or Reagan? It’s Regan. It’s Regan, that’s right. Now, Keith Regan, you know that name because you are the managing director of Maui County now, aren’t you? That is correct. I’ve served as the managing director now almost eight years in total. So, two with the mayor in his first term, and then for the last six years in his current next two terms. So…

02:19

It’s always hard to explain that. I understand. Yeah, so it’s been an honor. Have you been a managing director before? I mean, that’s an interesting role. Yeah, first time serving in that capacity with the mayor, but I started off as his finance director back in 2002. So he found you from the mainland? Yeah.

02:38

No, I was here. You were here? Yeah. Wow, a finance story. What were you doing before? I had my own company. I had a trucking company that had about 10 employees and 10 vehicles just running around Maui doing deliveries here to various different businesses. Yeah, I mean, it was a tough business, but it taught me a lot of life lessons. And taught you how to juggle? Yeah.

03:01

Taught me how to juggle, that’s right, that’s right. And I had just completed my master’s in business administration and got to know the mayor through a service club that we both were in called Kiwanis. I’m not sure if you’re familiar with Kiwanis. I was going to say the chess club. Yeah, no, no, no, no. And, you know, we got to know each other and

03:24

We really respected each other, and when he won his election, he asked me if I would be interested in joining his team, and I thought, wow, what an interesting opportunity. Kind of always had this preconception of government, local government, and how things worked, but

03:41

I wanted to experience myself. I’m kind of that type of a person. I’m a hands-on kind of person. I really believe that to really understand something, you have to have that experience, that direct experience. So that’s what I did.

03:56

And I haven’t regretted it ever since. I mean, it’s been an awesome experience being… What does a managing director mean? It means you direct the other directors in the different departments, or you overlook everything that goes on. What do you do? It’s a great question. Essentially, the managing director…

04:19

is the chief management advisor to the mayor. So part of my role is to oversee the departments that are assigned to me by the mayor, which currently are all the departments that he’s asked me to oversee.

04:37

I work very closely with the directors and the deputy directors of these departments to make sure that they’re accomplishing the things that they’re supposed to be accomplishing, that they’re moving forward with the vision that the mayor has set for them and for this community as the mayor. I work with various different complex issues that require

04:59

I don’t want to call myself a mediator, but oftentimes I find myself in that position where you have two different departments that have conflict, and so trying to come to the middle ground and resolving some of these issues is part of my job as well. The vision that the mayor has, that’s an interesting spot. The mayor says, I say, I want this, we have to take care of the

05:26

The physical plumbing. We gotta take care of the whatever. But they have a vision on top of…

05:33

what he wants them to accomplish? As an example, one of the things that the mayor has really pushed for is improving our roadways. This kind of broad vision of focusing on our roads has been translated into more miles that have been paved or reconstructed or rehabilitated or sealed in different ways than ever before.

05:57

in the period of time that he’s been the mayor. So that has been a big push for us to do things like that. So he says that we want to make sure that we improve our parks. So we want to have parks that are safe and that are enjoyable. So the managing director says the mayor wants to give you another $20 million to be able to pave Mahalulu Street and put a light up and take care of this. Does he get that involved?

06:23

I mean, not that granular, but I mean, it’s more like we want to improve the safety of our communities to make them more walkable, more bikeable. You know, what can we do? So, I mean, as managing director, you set a tone of just I want them walkable and bikeable. Right.

06:38

And when you see a dark spot, I want you to make sure of that kind of stuff? And working with the directors to make sure that they’re actually taking care of those issues. So you’re the managing watchdog for the mayor so that he can be more visionary? I’m more like the chief operating officer of a large corporation.

06:55

So I work with the day-to-day things, right? I work with the directors to make sure that they’re carrying out their duties and functions, that they’re following through on their budgetary responsibilities, that they’re addressing their human resource issues that they might have. So you can change, would you say that, I don’t want to say change horses in the middle of the street, as managing director, let’s say now the next mayor is blue. Mm-hmm.

07:21

Does your role change, or could you still be managing director in that way? Like, I’m trying to understand. Well, I’m trying to say, many people perceive you’re running for council. Right. Now, council is a separate role in this governmental thing. Mm-hmm.

07:43

Sometimes, imagine for example, you’re acting mayor, you’re managing director and acting mayor, but you’re not making decisions, your decisions are based on an agenda set from somewhere else. If you were on council, just trying to get a feeling for what your role is. You pretty well have, you take the vision of the mayor, you’re the guy that makes it all happen, and make sure that it’s all getting done. What does the mayor do?

08:13

The mayor, well, I mean, he’s the one that comes up with the vision, right? So he’s the one that kind of has the big broad ideas that we have to take, right, and distill and turn into action items, right? So, I mean, that’s kind of what we do as directors, right? And it’s actually very exciting, I mean, to be a part of that. Interesting. I’m just thinking, for example, that when…

08:38

I’m just playing ahead, right? We were talking about should we have a managing director instead of a mayor, all kinds of drama going on back and forth. What is our goal? If you were on council and there was a mayor versus managing director, how would that affect you?

08:59

As a council member? Yeah, you’re running now for council. And you have, it’s almost like you’re running from a different branch of government, if you will. But it’s interesting to me to get your perception.

09:13

Because the job that you would be taking, whether you would sit on council or mayor or managing director, your input comes from a place. So I’m trying to get a feeling of you. So, you know, I feel like I have a different perspective, right? Having been in the operating side of government, the executive branch of government, really, I understand how the

09:39

departments work, how they function, what they need to be able to do their jobs. And my job, I see it, that if I’m given the opportunity to serve as a policymaker, as a council member, is to enable the departments to be successful, to make sure that they get, whether it’s funding, whether it’s code changes,

09:57

Things that are necessary to be able to carry out their mission. Those are things that are important from a policy standpoint, right? Do you get along with the council people? I think I do. I mean, I’ve had a very cordial relationship with a number of council members. If you are a council person, kind of you’re…

10:16

In my mind, the person is still the person, still you. I really believe in finding that middle ground. Because no matter what problems you have that you’re dealing with, there’s always the middle ground. And if you can work towards that middle ground, you’re going to find a solution to every problem that you face. A solution that you accept and that I accept. I was sharing with your wife before you came in.

10:42

I am a different kind of politician in that I’m not looking to see what our differences are, but what do we agree on? What do we have in common? Because that way we can accomplish so much more and these other things that seemed like major distance come together and compromise can happen and understanding. That’s nice to hear. I think just the tremendous amount of experiences that I’ve had the chance to be

11:11

over the years, like having served as acting mayor many times when the mayor is off island, having to make decisions in those kind of roles, serving as managing director, working with the departments, working with employees, working with my own department, because actually, a lot of people don’t realize this, but the department of management, of which I am the director, has roles and responsibilities

11:41

in addition to everything else that I just talked about. For sure. So, IT as an example. So all the networking, the computers, the servers, the cyber security, I mean, all of these different things are part of my responsibility as a department head. And on top of that, even GIS is something that I’m responsible for. Do you know what GIS is? Geographic. Geographic information system. Exactly. Thank you. I’ll just test this, guys. You know…

12:09

GIs, how’s that been going? That’s always been a real exciting thing. GIs is an extremely important tool for the county. It basically takes data and visualizes it. We have this amazing opportunity to utilize GIS to do planning, to do project planning, to do zoning planning. Everything you can imagine

12:33

that is a data point can be put into these layers which then give you this visual perspective on your community. So GIS is an extremely important tool and we’re continuing to expand that tool because we found that it is one way to get through some of the silos that exist or have existed in the past

12:59

And this, when I talk about silos, it’s not unique to Maui County. I mean, it’s every government agency… What does a silo mean? What does it mean? It means, this is my realm, this is my kuleana, and, you know, I’m not thinking about other people’s kuleana, right? I mean, I’m just thinking about my own responsibilities. Interesting.

13:20

So, you know, we have to stop that kind of way of thinking, and we’ve been very good about trying to break those silos down. And GIS is a great tool for that, right? And so, as we go forward in some of the systems changes that we’re doing at the county, GIS you’ll see playing a much larger role. Almost every department in the county has their own GIS staff embedded within those departments, and those GIS staff

13:47

are very important resources to those departments. But we need to kind of bring them all together and make sure that we’re speaking the same language, we have the same mission in terms of how we’re going to utilize that data, and that we are ultimately serving the public the best way that we can through that particular resource that we have, which is the GIS layers.

14:09

Does that move on each time? I mean, you’ve been here now a long time. We’ve changed regimes. Do things stay in some continuity? Yeah, for the most part they do, Jason. And primarily it’s because you have layers of…

14:28

supervisors, right, of management that exist within the county. You have the directors, you have the deputies, and those individuals, sometimes they change, sometimes they don’t change with administrations, but then beneath that layer are the division heads. And the division heads are all civil service

14:47

employees right so those division heads generally speaking do not change when administrations change i say generally because you just never know i mean i have yet to experience that i don’t think it’s ever happened but the division heads generally speaking are the stability right for the county that’s why government is able to you know sustain itself when there’s a change in administrations because

15:13

These division heads offer kind of a layer or a buffer, if you will, from these changing directions that may occur. Just like in the feds of the state, civil servants and then the management of those civil servants. So they are the stability, they’re holding up the walls. There’s continuity, right? Really, there’s continuity. So no matter who comes in as mayor…

15:38

Who comes in as the new director or deputy. There’s always that continuity that exists from those division heads. Those division heads share a lot of information with the new directors. They are a resource. They understand how the department operates or how that particular division operates and fits in with the other pieces within the county. So there is continuity when it comes to that.

16:05

I’m just thinking about this. You have been operating from a top-down kind of management layer.

16:17

Any specific issues that are your, you’re going to come on council, or, you know, you obviously serve the whole county. And remember, no matter where you live, if you like Keith Reagan, vote for him. There are no districts at this point. That’s another conversation for another day. So if you like him, no matter where you live, vote for him. There’s no such thing as blank. You can vote for the candidates you like. And if you like two candidates in the same race…

16:44

You see, you like most, but you vote for everyone. You got a lot of choices. They all represent you. So, what are your thing? Did you say, well, I live in Wailuku and I want to run in Wailuku because I want to change this? What was your rationale for running and running?

17:05

I see tremendous opportunity to do really good things with our community and push us in the right direction in terms of making sure we address big issues that we have, such as homelessness, such as housing.

17:20

such as our economy, even our environment. There are really big issues that we have that need to be addressed, and I just feel that given my experience, given my education, given the commitment that I have to the community that

17:35

I can apply all these different things to try to move forward and address these big problems that we have. For all you ladies out there, he’s married, but he’s a young guy. He’s a young guy with a lot of experience. So you can serve on council for a while and still be able to move into different roles in the future. I’m just talking ahead of myself. We’re building for council, but council…

18:02

and things that happen on a local level are affected by things that happen on a state and national level. Absolutely. Have you looked at all that kind of thing as a career, as a direction? You know, honestly, Jason, I mean, I’ve never really…

18:16

looked at it as being a job from a long-term career perspective. It was only recently when I started thinking about serving the community. How can I continue to serve the community? What can I do and apply some of my experiences so that I can continue to be a part of this? Did I start thinking about running for this seat? And I haven’t really given much thought to what’s beyond this particular seat. Well, I’m thinking, for example,

18:47

People say that Joe Suki, if Joe Suki retires, we lose a lot of clout that we had on Maui. He’s been so many years, and he’s senior in so many ways. You ran for a local county kind of position, whereas, because of your experience, you also could, and you live in the same kind of area. You are someone who might think about that kind of direction, yet you chose… I’m just bringing it up because it’s interesting to me.

19:17

You’re the kind of managing person that has a capacity, again, this is my opinion, a capacity to rise up and be helpful, not only at a local level, but at a state and federal level, and work well to integrate what goes on locally with things that are coming that can create a greater opportunity for the people of Maui County.

19:42

Well, I appreciate that. One of the things that I’ve really enjoyed serving as managing director is that local government is really where the rubber meets the road. Yeah, I mean, we are the lowest level of government, but we are so much more in touch with the people of our community than any other layer of government. Think about that for a minute. And yeah, it’s scary to me, like homelessness, you mentioned.

20:12

We’re in touch, but that’s a state issue. It’s crazy. I’m sort of maybe putting it in a funny place, but we’re in touch with services that need to be…

20:27

I called it before, plumbing. We take care of the physical needs of the people, but the state somehow has this role of the money. Does the county give money? Well, we do collect real property taxes, right? So we do generate revenue that is then available to do things like fund our homeless programs that we have. So the answer is yes, we can get involved. That is a state issue. The state is somewhat involved, but…

20:54

You know, when you’re talking about issues that directly impact the people, and even if it is a state responsibility, oftentimes the county steps in and gets involved because it’s so close to home.

21:08

These kind of issues that are so close to home really are county issues. And so, the homelessness issue, we have done things like try to fund homeless programs to give additional monies to expand some of the shelters that we have here in the community. It seems that it doesn’t go very far because we have such a tremendous need. You know, and the thing is, it’s not cheap. No, of course. Programs are not free, for one thing, but…

21:38

When you really think about the impact that non-profits can have on these issues, a dollar that’s given to them by the county, as an example, to a non-profit, can oftentimes be turned into three or four or even more dollars, in terms of how they’re able to leverage that dollar. That’s an interesting conversation for some time. Yeah. And there’s ways to use a non-profit that is light on the need for…

22:08

Hei.

22:09

When you have someone working for a non-profit, and they have a retirement, and a lot of structures here are built on people. They have to be. So how can we serve the people and pull that requirement and put it in a different way? That’ll be an interesting conversation we’ll have. Maybe another show. But, you know, you asked me what are some of the issues, and I really believe that we need to focus on addressing the homelessness issue, and

22:38

We need to put forward policy that’s going to address that. Either it’s funding to these programs that are directly focused on homelessness. Can you impact the police and get a safe zone so that there’d be a parking lot where people know there’s a place they can stay and sleep at night? I’ve been talking about that exactly.

22:57

That very exact concept. And I really believe that it’s going to take a change in policy to allow for things like that. Is that a mayoral thing? A council thing? No, that’s a council thing. So those are the kind of things we need to think outside of the box. We cannot be so narrow-minded when we’re talking about these kinds of issues that we say, oh, we can’t do that.

23:17

No, other communities are doing these things. So why can’t we? I’ve visited communities that are doing these things, so I know it’s possible. I’ve talked to leaders in those communities, and they’re saying that, look, we should have safe places, exactly like what you talked about. It’s very challenging out there, because sometimes you wonder whether mental illness follows homelessness, or homelessness follows mental illness. I’m using that as a specific. Absolutely right. Things are out of control. Yeah.

23:46

The guy with a similar name and a different pronunciation turned all the people to the streets many years ago. President Reagan… No relation. I understand. I’m not blaming you. But I might say he was the greatest president, but I wonder at some of the decisions he made. And I think you’re talking about the… They closed down and stopped funding on institutions. And right now, it’s become a problem.

24:15

It has, and you touched on something really, if I can, just really quickly, and that is that, you know, does mental illness follow homelessness, or does homelessness follow mental illness? And so what I have learned over the years is that there is a direct link between homelessness and mental illness, and it primarily is because you’re not addressing the basic human needs of these individuals. You know, when you look at Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, the basic needs are safety, shelter, food, right?

24:45

Imagine what happens to the human psyche when you don’t have those basic needs being met. There is a correlation between homelessness and mental illness. That’s why it’s so important that we put into place these programs that provide safety, shelter, food. They’re wondering. I know there’s a monitor there, but I can’t see it. See that? That’s what they call it. I can tell I’m getting old. 24.

25:13

I guess we’re just talking in general, but a lot of people throw homeless into one pot. They think there’s, and then someone said, oh no, there’s the working people homeless, we’ll help them. Then there are those that do drugs and alcohol, that’s a different kind of homeless. But if you have a safe place to be, people that don’t want to hang out where the knifings happen and all the rest of the things…

25:39

We can create showers and we can do things in such a different way. I feel there’s an untapped huge resource here. There is. Because things are set up on a combat of, you know, the Shaka movement is fighting the mayor. Throw away all that hate and see we’re on the same team. I think we can accomplish quite a bit. I can see in you that you’re a lot more… I want to say a little…

26:08

Not that the mayor isn’t open. Let’s say that you seem like you’re down there. You’ve got to make ten departments work, however many. Fifteen. Fifteen. Maybe I’m talking, the mayor is also a figurehead and takes a lot of the heat for whatever they can’t figure out who’s to blame, they can blame him. But it’s…

26:33

I’m glad to see you’re very different. You were in a race with all kinds of people. I mean, I can name them by name. You got a former environmental person with the county. She was hired to be the environmental person. Then you got someone from the environmental movement. And you have a former council person that ran for mayor that’s running again. Then you got a guy that was a policeman. He has a different kind of a perspective. What makes you the best candidate, you think?

27:01

That’s a great question. I can only tell you why I’m running and why I really want to have this opportunity to serve. It is about service. For me, my life has been about serving others. And I believe that…

27:18

Through service, we can do amazing things in our community. And with the experience, the education, with having to deal with complex issues, and trying to find solutions, and all of these different things that I’ve been exposed to over the years, I believe, has brought me to this point in time where

27:40

Now I can serve the people through helping to legislate, helping to draft good policy, helping to address big issues, complex issues that, you know, there are people on both sides, you know, and trying to find that middle ground where we can move towards to be able to address these big issues, because you’re right. Like, just take homelessness as an example. You’ve got people that say, don’t do anything, and you’ve got people that say, give everything. But,

28:06

You know, we need to bring those two groups together so that we can actually move a program forward that’s going to address this problem. And bring in jobs. See, I keep thinking this is a labor force. These are people, you know, if you say the word socialism, everyone thinks, ah, ah, ah.

28:26

Men sosialisering betyr at vi alle relaterar til hverandre, og at vi husker at vi alle er en. Det er en spirituell oppløftning av å bruke alle våre ressurser og det vi alle har til å offere. Om disse folk var hjemløse, så ville mange av dem føle seg så mye bedre om de hadde noe de kunne gjøre.

28:47

to be able to then create a place to live and farming and what can be done there’s tremendous plans going on there are i understand that you may be working in in farming area yeah we’re going to get into that um and um but before i move on to that i just wanted to mention just a couple of quick things is that i love people that’s the other thing and i love this community

29:11

I love Maui County. This is my home. This is where my wife is from. Our son was born here in Hawaii. This is where I plan to live the rest of my life. When you have a cross-section of support that comes from all segments of our community, people have understood and gotten the chance to get up close and personal with you from the different roles that you’ve played, doing what you’ve done for all these years, which is really nice.

29:40

All of these things kind of culminate into the reason why I’m running and the reason why I’m asking people to humbly consider me for this office. It’s a big challenge, but I see it as opportunity. I see that we can do amazing things together.

29:59

Look in there and make believe those are the 100,000 people that are going to vote for you. What would you say to them that I’m not giving you a chance yet to say? You know, I think I’ve said a lot of things, but really, I humbly ask that you consider me for this office, for this seat. I want to work with you. I want to work with the people. I believe that we’re able to, together, find solutions to these big problems that we have. There’s opportunity that is before us to

30:28

really address these issues together. So I humbly ask that you consider me for this council seat going forward. You know, it’s…

30:39

This whole thing is just a humbling experience, to be out there, to talk to people, to meet people, to ask them what’s on their minds, what are their concerns, what bothers them, what keeps them up at night, what are they worried about. I take that as a huge responsibility, and it really is part of service, right, is to understand.

31:00

understand what is on your mind, and how I might be able to help you address that issue. I might not be able to solve it. I might not be able to, you know, 100% solve it. Yeah. Before we were so rudely interrupted, you could tell by my glasses. You were saying, Keith. I forget what I was saying.

31:22

I was saying we had opportunity. Opportunity to solve these problems together. And that if I’m given that opportunity to serve, if you select me and vote for me in this upcoming election, I look forward to working with you. I look forward to working with the people of this community, as I have done in the last eight plus, almost nine years now. Well, actually almost ten years when you think about it.

31:47

To solve these issues, right? To come to this middle ground. I want to work together. And I also know that if you weren’t elected, you’re the kind of person that has resources that can find their way here. In fact, I think, how am I going to bring this guy into my organization? What are we going to do? So you were mentioning about farming. I think that’s what we were talking a little bit about. We were talking about farming. Al Perez, I know for more than 25 years…

32:16

And I found, he’s now the head of Maui Tomorrow, and they’ve got a pretty significant farming plan, knowing that HC&S has given up 32,000 acres of a plan. And so they have a very extensive plan that I’m looking to…

32:35

be able to help get out there, and I’m sure that we’ll have conversation. It’s very different when you’re on council, because I can see you’ll have an opportunity to initiate different programs where you, I guess as managing director, you’re working for someone. Right. You’re a very different person than the mayor. You have different ideas than the mayor, would you say? Yeah. Do you agree with most of the things you’re doing? You know, I work for the mayor, and…

33:04

I believe in a lot of what he’s doing as a mayor, otherwise I wouldn’t continue to work for him. I think he’s done some really great things, but we’ve had our differences. We don’t necessarily see eye to eye on every single issue or things that are being presented, but he’s a very fair person, he’s a very understanding person, and

33:28

He respects that if we agree to disagree, that that’s just how it is. But he’s my boss, and I have tremendous respect for him. You’re your own man. I am. Yeah, I am.

33:44

Which is, you know, sometimes I ask questions, and you wonder, why am I asking these questions? I think it’s important for people to see that Keith Regan is a different person than Mayor Arakawa. And you’ve done a lot of work, but now you’re able to shape policy. That’s where you see the council role is. And that, I think, is really good. So, you could be a great compromiser and help bring together parties about things that

34:15

I find there’s a way to talk. If you can talk, you call it mediation. There’s so much more that we can agree on and move forward. Suddenly we’re in a new space. We’re not dealing with the same problem from the same distance. A lot of politics is set up where people come from different places and they’re fighting for ideologies when it all comes down to making it all work, especially on an island. Yep.

34:43

I’m sure that’s what you discovered. This is an island. We can’t just take the people we don’t like and move them to the water on the edge. We have to learn how to make this work. A lot of it is understanding, too. Oftentimes when we get into an area of disagreement, we kind of shut down. We don’t listen. We’re hearing noises, but we’re not listening. I really feel that

35:13

you know, when it comes to making policy, when it comes to having discussions, that having a deep understanding about these issues, and how operations function, and how, you know, certain piece of legislation might impact another piece of legislation, or, you know, doing something over here might impact something over there, you know, and having that kind of broad understanding,

35:37

And being willing to listen, especially when there’s other people that are coming forward and testifying and explaining why this might be an issue or why that might be an issue. You need a council person who’s willing to step back and say, you know what, I’m going to listen to what’s being said here and I’m going to take everything in.

35:55

And I’m going to apply my understanding, my experiences, my perspective to be able to try to find a solution that works for the majority. We’re not going to be able to make everybody happy, right? That’s not going to be possible. But we should be able to find that middle ground where a majority of people are going to be satisfied. And I think given my background working with people,

36:21

who have completely different perspectives on issues and getting them to at least listen to each other is something that I can apply in my role if I’m given that chance to be one of nine. I look forward to that because I think we’ve got good people who want to do positive things for the community, but sometimes we get caught up, right?

36:47

They get caught up in whatever’s going on and the politics of this situation that they’re in, the council. And sometimes you’ve got to break that and put a stop to it, right? And say, wait a minute.

37:00

Let’s take a step back and let’s really think about what it is that we’re talking about here, this issue. Maybe we’re seeing it not the proper way. And the other part of it, too, is I’ve noticed there seems to be this level of distrust between the council and the administration. And that, to me…

37:19

does not foster good government, right? It’s okay to have… Where does that come from? You know, I don’t know, okay? I don’t know, because I can tell you that in our…

37:34

you know when danny matteo was the council chair we didn’t have any issues we had good relationships between the mayor administration and the council we worked well together that doesn’t mean we didn’t that we saw eye to eye on every issue sure we didn’t but there was no um animosity there was no distrust there was it wasn’t this um i don’t know if um it was there wasn’t this negativity okay we worked well together

38:03

When Council Chair Bysa was there, same thing. We had a very good working relationship. We worked well with each other. Again, we didn’t see eye to eye on every single thing that was put down there. But for the most part, we got a lot of things done. I don’t want to point fingers at anybody, but the way it is right now today, we don’t have that. And I don’t know why.

38:31

We have reached out to the various different council members. We have tried to address whatever concerns there are, but for some reason there’s just this unwillingness to want to work together on, not by all, but by some, to work together to resolve issues. So that has to stop. We can’t do that. It’s okay to not agree.

38:57

But when you start bringing in this distrust and this negativity and now it’s a fight between the council and the mayor, it does no good for anybody, right? For the community it’s not a good thing. But debate, discussion and deliberation is good. Those are good things, right? When the mayor presents something to the council, you want council members who are going to really digest what’s being given to them.

39:22

Yeah. Analyze it. Have discussions. Have a debate. Bring in the resources. Right? Yeah. From the mayor’s office. Bring them in. Talk about it on the floor. Let’s have a discussion. And then vote on it. Either decide, yes, we want to do this, or no, we don’t want to do this. Or maybe we’re looking for the other option. Right? Maybe it’s kind of that middle ground. Remember I was talking about that middle ground? Yes. Right? And moving to that. So…

39:51

That’s just kind of where I see myself. Well, that’s very important. And I’m sure that, you know, I’m not, like you said, I’m not drawing any conclusions or pointing fingers. But I like to say, you’ve heard me say it, this is a spiritual thing. People have to understand we’re all playing together. You know, no one leaves with an extra lollipop. And it’s very important that we

40:23

work together right this is like really important everyone has the wind here yeah and i you know i i want to see us move in a direction that brings more people to the table for discussion right so a lot of people work nine to five jobs right i mean

40:46

Sometimes longer hours than that. Nine to five, five to nine, nine to twelve. Yeah, I mean… There’s a laugher on Maui that people own three houses or have three jobs. Yeah. That’s a sad thing. It is. And, you know… We need housing desperately. We do. I mean, I don’t want to go off on… Housing’s a whole other story. It’s another story. Yes. But, you know, it…

41:07

Getting people involved in these discussions, I think, is very important as well, because these meetings, a lot of the council meetings, the full council meetings, happen at 9 a.m. in the morning. For the most part, people are busy, they’re working, they’re taking care of their kids, you know, whatever it is, they’re busy in life. They don’t have time to come down to the council and testify at 9 a.m. They just don’t. So what happens? You see kind of the same people coming at 9 a.m.,

41:34

who are very interested in what’s happening in government, but they’ve got the time. Whereas the other folks, the people who are working who just can’t get there,

41:46

don’t have that chance to get down there and voice their opinion, and they’d like to do that, and so… They don’t have a vehicle to accept? Well, you know, I mean, part of the issue is getting there on time, right? And so one of the things that I would propose, if I’m given that chance to serve, would be to change those morning meetings, the 9 a.m. council, the full council meeting, not the committee meetings, I mean, that can come later, perhaps, but change those full council meetings to happen later on in the day, maybe even in the evening,

42:14

I know a lot of other communities throughout the U.S. do that. In fact, their full council meetings happen at night, right? So that people can come out and testify and let their voices be heard and share their ideas about these important pieces of legislation that are moving through the council. So one of my goals will be to try to move those full council meetings to a later time. They only happen, you know, they’re not as frequent as other committee meetings.

42:44

I really feel like even if once a month, you know, if these meetings are held in the evenings, it would be pretty powerful. People can come out. So that’s one of the things that I’m really focused on. And the other one is the concept of the biennial budget. And that’s something I actually have been talking about for many years, is that we really need to get away from this annual budgeting process that basically shuts down the policymaking

43:12

portion of government for like three months, almost four months, while they deliberate and discuss the budget process, go through that process. No other legislation moves forward during that time period. So, you know, why are we tying up

43:27

What’s the answer? Because that’s how it’s been done before. Well, the answer is biennial budgets. But I mean, why hasn’t that been brought up before? I mean, that’s a great question, and I really believe that that’s something we need to explore, so that not every year are we basically shutting down the policy, the legislative policy,

43:50

portion of government for three or four months. That to me is unacceptable, because you have so many big issues that need to be addressed. To basically not have other meetings, no other committee meetings, but budget, to me is unacceptable. It should not be like that.

44:08

Do you have any, you know, I’m leaving out such big swaths, but I mean, there’s all kinds of written stuff you’ve probably got coming out about your positions on farming, your positions on, we talked about something about the homeless. This problem is out of control, and the help is not here.

44:30

And some of the people that are helping are being burnt out. It’s getting wild out there. Well, let me just say a couple of things really quick for those watching.

44:40

I am a big proponent of Housing First. I really believe that the Housing First strategy has been proven to work. It is an out-of-the-box solution. We have been trying to address homelessness throughout the U.S. in a way that has not been successful. It’s proven not to be successful, but the Housing First strategy, those communities that have deployed that and employed that… Let’s just tell them what it is. Housing… I’ll just quickly… Sure. Housing First means… That’s a very important thing, and they put out…

45:09

money to get people in housing first they don’t ask them to pay for it they put them in housing and they help them become more productive so that’s what you’re talking about yeah yeah so basically you’re absolutely right jason and um whether they have mental illness or drug dependency or other issues those issues come second

45:30

right it’s putting people in a safe environment addressing maslow’s hierarchy of needs right with safety food shelter those basic components once you address those basic components what they found time and time again is that that will it will start that human being on the right path to trying to address those other issues that he or she may have such as drug dependency and mental illness because

45:57

You gotta get them, you gotta have those basic needs taken care of first. And so that’s why they’re saying, that’s why it’s called this housing first strategy. Put them in a, you know, doesn’t have to be, it’s not a home, right? I mean, in the sense of like multiple rooms and, you know, I mean, it can be as simple as, you know, a small studio apartment.

46:18

There’s lots of things. That’s another show and whole discussion. I think that certain things have to be changed to allow different options. We’re not in the same. The world condition demands some big changes in some of the things that we’re doing. We have the opportunity. Clearly, big changes. I think from sitting with you, I can see that you’re open to

46:44

to hearing ideas. We didn’t talk about Hawaiiana and that issue going on. We didn’t talk about a lot of things. What issues… I’m just sort of exploring based on what I think and talk about you and your knowledge. Any pet things that you’d like to really focus on that we haven’t touched? For me, I’m very passionate about making sure that we provide economic opportunities for not only the people that are here now,

47:14

but our future generations. And I really believe that by creating good jobs, good paying jobs, that our keikis who go off to college, on the mainland perhaps, that if we give them that opportunity to come back, they will come back.

47:31

Good paying jobs, the money has to come from somewhere. Could it come through the self-sustainability and environmental push that are going to create better paying jobs? Let me tell you what I’m talking about, because that’s a component perhaps. But really, I mean, when you look at our tech industry, I believe our tech industry is ripe for…

47:51

for an expansion here in Maui County. Wasn’t they trying to do that there in Kihei for a long time? They tried. But from a policy standpoint, from a council standpoint, there may be things that we can do to attract businesses to come here to set up shop. I don’t think that you’re going to find these big tech companies shutting down their operations in various different places of the world and then moving to Maui. That’s not what I’m proposing. But what I’m talking about is the opportunity to create

48:20

real research and design operations and houses here in Maui that big firms, big organizations can fund and create jobs and create opportunities right here on Maui. What better place to have that than here?

48:36

i mean look at yeah and look we’ve got this mai tai event right where we’ve got hundreds of people from the tech industry that come here for a week or two weeks at a time they love this place you know they come here they surf they windsurf they kite surf they do all these different things they they go out and have a great time they love maui well guess what what if we were to do something similar to that and leverage that and attract those businesses to come here wouldn’t you think that teams of

49:01

of people that are in that industry would love to spend a couple of months, six months, a year, you know, here on the island and doing, you know, these types of jobs. Or, perhaps we’ve got people here in our own community, our own kids that are going off to college and getting these degrees that could be employed right here in their home.

49:20

I their home, where they were born and raised. So I just feel like there’s things that we can do, out-of-the-box things, public-private partnerships, whatever it is, but we need to be open to those kind of concepts, those kind of ideas. The other one that I’ve really been pushing for for a long time is the film industry.

49:39

I believe that the film industry can really produce great jobs here in our community. Isn’t it a tax credit issue? I don’t know what it is exactly, but if it’s the county getting involved, or somehow through policy making it easier for the development of sound stages, or whatever that is. I see.

50:03

We need to be open to exploring that. We have a film commissioner who is going gangbusters on trying to attract new business to come here to the islands. One of the issues that we’re running into is making sure we have the right talent in place. They can do the various different jobs. What that tells me is that there’s a demand for people with those kind of skills. They get paid good money.

50:31

They’re all in the union, they get paid good money, and these are good jobs. So we have to encourage these kinds of economic development, in my mind. I’m staying out of some of the technical stuff. I know that probably…

50:48

You probably have a short laundry list of things that you’d like people to know. I mean, they’re going to read it, but sometimes this is an easier way. Whether it’s energy, I’m sure you have all kinds of opinions about what’s going on with energy. I think there’s an opportunity for jobs there too. Not only from a sustainability standpoint, in terms of providing resilience, resiliency for our community by growing, let’s say, our own kind of crops that could be converted into some kind of a fuel source.

51:15

But there are jobs that come along with that too, right? I mean, so if we’re going to be growing a crop as an example, a sorghum or some other crop, you’re going to have to employ people to farm that crop. So, you know, there are opportunities there. And I believe when you look at Maui County, we are in a very unique place in the world.

51:36

We have a mandate. By 2045, we have to be 100% renewable, right? That’s state law now. So, 100% renewable by 2045. I’m starting to get sick. I’m feeling the ocean sinking. Yeah. With all the people they keep putting on this island. Yeah. 2045! Yeah.

51:53

Well, 100% renewable in terms of energy. Are you going to be here? You’ll probably still be here. I hope I’m still alive. Yes. I hope I’m still here. But, well, you know what’s interesting, Jason, is that I just came from a conference. I was at this Verge conference in Honolulu where we’re talking about clean energy. And one of the things that they talked about as they were talking about this goal of 100% by 2045 is the people that are going to solve this, they might not even be born yet.

52:23

I thought that was a very profound statement because that was true. The leaders, the people that are going to help move us in that direction, some of them are here now, but some of them haven’t even been born yet. That’s right.

52:38

Så det som det beror på er at forholdet for jobber i denne sektoren kommer til å fortsette å vokse, fordi vi kommer til å finne måter å komme til å bli 100% renoverende, og om det er ved å vokse våre egne kroppar, eller om det er ved å finne den neste nye renoverende energisåren, eller om vi finner måter til å gjøre våre solarpaneler mer effektive,

53:00

uh cheaper whatever that is maui is kind of like the incubator for this because has been yeah because we have been right look at all the the wind farms we have look at all the solar we’re at max right now for solar right isn’t that interesting yep so that means that the central utility is feeling threatened yeah and understandable because the system wasn’t designed i think that the central utility should have financed

53:29

solar then they could be charging on light and they wouldn’t have to just a matter of choices well again one different subject it is but just really quick I mean one of the ideas that has been kind of going around in my mind is the idea of property assessed clean energy and

53:49

So that actually what happens is you can leverage county funding to put solar on your property. Because that’s been one of the big drawbacks too, is that people can’t afford solar because it’s too costly if they’re going to buy the system, or maybe now with net metering or the entire system being locked up, they can’t even get a solar system if they wanted to. But these are the kind of out-of-the-box…

54:19

Well, all of you, we could probably talk here for hours because Keith Regan has a lot to say. Sorry. No, no, there’s nothing wrong at all about it. The most important thing that I want to make sure that you know is that…

54:39

It takes a lot of guts to run an election. It takes a lot of work. And I know Keith has a whole group of people working, including his wife, Lynn. But I know that he’s involved. And he’s someone that you’ll see him out there. And it’s refreshing to meet you with all the

55:00

Rhetoric and talk and things. It’s good to get up close and personal. Very nice to meet you, Keith. Very nice to meet you, too. Oh, I just wanted to mention really quick, if you don’t mind. If you want to learn more about me, you can go to my Facebook page. I do have a Facebook page, Friends of Keith Regan. I also have a website, www.regan2016.com If you have any questions or concerns, or you want more information about

55:27

Where I stand on things, by all means, go to my Facebook page. Engage me. I’m always willing to listen. I’m always willing to take questions and provide answers. Thank you for this opportunity, Jason. I really appreciate it. My pleasure. Thank you. Thank you for joining us. Anything that you need and want, just whistle. Aloha. Aloha. Aloha.