Council-elect selects new chair

LIHUE — Kauai County Councilman Arryl Kaneshiro will almost certainly be the next council chair despite overwhelming public support for Councilman Mason Chock at a meeting Monday among the council’s newly elected members.

About 50 Kauai residents attended the “Council-Elect” meeting at the Historic County Building — the vast majority in favor of Chock as council chair, or at least vice chair. But barring some unforeseen and unlikely circumstances, that will not be the result.

After over an hour of public testimony — 18 residents spoke, mostly Chock supporters — the seven-member quorum decided in a preliminary “straw vote” to elect Kaneshiro council chair in a 6-1 vote, with newly elected council member Felicia Cowden the only no vote. Chock voted silent. The council-elect then voted to keep Council Vice Chair Ross Kagawa in his current position.

Both decisions will be finalized Dec. 3, when the newly-elected council meets for the first time to officially decide on its leadership.

The statements of Chock’s supporters centered primarily around three principles. The first was that he was the highest vote-getter among the newly elected council members. The second was his voting record, which supporters said is much more progressive than Kaneshiro’s.

But perhaps the most common concern among Chock supporters had more to do with a fear that Kaneshiro will be unable to remain impartial at times when the council has to decide on matters that could affect his employer. Kaneshiro is the project manager for Grove Farm Company, one of the largest private landowners on the island.

“It is my opinion that you, Arryl, have a severe conflict of interest,” said Marj Dente, one of the first few members of the community to address the council-elect.

She then expressed incredulity that Kagawa could potentially be made vice chair, scolding him for leaving the room or looking at his phone during testimony at previous meetings.

Gabriela Taylor said she has been on Kauai for 45 years and hopes its politicians can see the future impact of their actions. She supports Chock because of his “progressive, open-minded approach,” and said “he can look at the bigger picture, and that’s what we need.”

Eileen Kechloian, another speaker, also spoke about the possibility that Kaneshiro’s day-job could make him a less effective council chair.

“The chair gets to decide what goes on the agenda,” Kechloian said. “And that’s a huge power.”

Many said that Chock deserved the position because they believed traditionally the chair has gone to the council member with the most votes in the general election — Chock led with 12,931, followed by Kaneshiro with 12,644.

Several people spoke simply to urge council members to come together and dampen the hostile politics that they said only fragment and divide the council and community.

One resident showed up to protest the meeting entirely. Ken Taylor was the first member of the public to speak and he began by asking the council-elect, “where do you get the authority to call this meeting?”

Taylor said the county charter does not allow for newly elected council members to call public meetings prior to their inauguration.

Taylor’s point was rebutted by County Attorney Mauna Kea Trask who said that not only was the meeting legal, but called it a more transparent way of selecting council leadership than backroom methods used in years past.

“I think it’s commendable to meet in the open like this,” he said.

But Taylor was adamant. “I want answers,” he said. “And if I do not get answers I’m prepared to sit here until you call the police.”

After several increasingly tense minutes, someone did as Taylor asked. He walked quietly out of the room alongside a police officer and returned about a half-hour later with no further incident.

After public comments and the vote for chair and vice chair, Kaneshiro took a moment to explain his point of view.

“You will see. It will be extremely fair,” he said. “I’m not going to come here pushing Grove Farm’s agenda.”

He said a lot of the information that has come out about him recently is false and amounts to an attack on his character.

“I just want to see us do good for the county,” Kaneshiro said. “I want us to move forward cohesively.”

It was a short speech, but by the time he finished most of the crowd had filed out.