LIHUE — Three of the four candidates vying to be the next mayor of Kauai kept things civil during this election season’s first forum on Wednesday.
Nearly 200 people crowded into the Kauai War Memorial Convention Hall to attend the island’s first forum for county offices, where Kapaa resident Curtis “Hapa” Hendrix Lake, mayoral incumbent Bernard Carvalho Jr. and Kilauea resident Dustin Barca touched on issues facing Kauai, ranging from health care to traffic congestion.
In his opening remarks, Lake said his first priority as mayor would be to “implement the protocols that reinstitute the Hawaiian Constitution and sovereignty for this nation.”
Barca, meanwhile, said one of the main issues facing the island is food production and security.
“We live in a place very open to natural disasters like tidal waves and hurricanes, and right now, we’re importing 90 percent of our food,” Barca said. “I find that scary, if one of these natural disasters happen.”
Carvalho said he and his administration have been working hard over the past five and a half years to tackle a number of issues, ranging from keiki and kupuna care to affordable housing and economic health.
“We’ve got to move forward on actual actions and initiatives, so we’ve laid out our plan, we know what we need to do, we know we have a good, good planning place to address all parts of our economy and environment,” Carvalho said.
When asked about what must be done to reduce the negative impact on citizens and businesses while protecting endangered species, Barca said endangered species must be put first to ensure that businesses are successful.
“Living beings, we all got to put ourselves in the same boat, because without one, the other can’t work, and we’ve got to realize that life is a circular form — everything is connected,” Barca said.
One of the biggest responsibilities tied to the position of mayor, Carvalho acknowledged, is fiscal management.
Ensuring that a balance is kept, he said, is “surrounding yourself with good people who are very knowledgeable and have a vision that’s going to incorporate all areas of government in our County of Kauai.”
“We need to look at our fee system,” Carvalho said when asked what revenue-enhancing measures should be considered instead of raising real property tax rates. “Obviously, our people on our island are struggling and our families are struggling so we don’t want to be raising taxes, but at the same time, we’ve got to figure out a way to balance our budget and meet the needs of the people.”
When asked about his views on regulations regarding pesticides used on Kauai by large commercial entities, Hendrix made his message simple: “I’m against it.”
He proposed creating an “I spy for the aina” program to chase the five GMO companies off the island.
“My administration would say, ‘Gotta move on,’” Hendrix said.
Hanapepe resident Debralynn “Mizdebz” DeSilva Carveiro is also running for mayor but was not present at the forum.
Barca, when asked how county government should be downsized while providing the current level of services to the public, said the county is in a precarious financial situation and is spending more money than it’s taking in.
“I look at the county as a business, and in any business, your income needs to be more than your spending,” Barca said. “Right now, I feel like it’s not just up to me as mayor to make the right decisions — it takes a whole team to make the right decisions and run this county as a professional business so our families aren’t feeling the effects and having to pay more taxes.”
Though there has been some uproar about a proposal from Hawaii Dairy Farms to open a dairy farm in Mahaulepu, Carvalho said he supports those efforts and others like it to bolster the island’s local agricultural industry.
“I will continue to look at ways to bridge and connect the business community and the visitor industry to see how we can work together to support this whole effort,” Carvalho said.
On the issue about whether the required number of registered voter signatures should be increased to propose a charter amendment, Lake said he believed that the current 5 percent requirement is fine.
“I don’t see why it should be increased at all,” Lake said.
County officials, Barca said, must work collaboratively with large landowners, the island community at large, and the state Department of Transportation to come up with meaningful ways to solve Kauai’s current traffic woes.
“It seems like our worst accidents are in certain places, like by the jail, and these are the places where, I think, we need to make the proper changes that we need to move forward,” Barca said. “I look at our island like an elevator, you know, and right now, we’re at capacity — we’re over capacity. So, we really need to put transportation and traffic into perspective because it’s one of the biggest issues on Kauai.”
Partnerships, Carvalho said, “are very important in the strengths of a leader to bring people together and make sure that we look at all sides of every issue.”
“In order for us to get anything done within this world of government, it takes partnerships, strong leadership and determination, heart and soul, and all of the above to really coordinate and build trust within government, the business community, and people at large,” Carvalho said.
