KAPA‘A — He didn’t give himself a specific letter grade for his first full year as Kaua‘i’s mayor, but Bernard Carvalho Jr. made it clear that he is happy with the results thus far. “Overall, we’ve been hitting our targets,”
KAPA‘A — He didn’t give himself a specific letter grade for his first full year as Kaua‘i’s mayor, but Bernard Carvalho Jr. made it clear that he is happy with the results thus far.
“Overall, we’ve been hitting our targets,” Carvalho said Tuesday night after presenting his Fourth Quarter Report Card at the Kapa‘a Neighborhood Center, “but there is so much more that’s on the table.”
With tonight’s meeting in Kilauea, Carvalho will wrap up a three-week report card tour around the island during which he summarized major policy initiatives for the entirety of 2009 and effectively, if not technically, passed the halfway point of his two-year term in office.
After finishing the term of late Mayor Bryan J. Baptiste, Carvalho is expected to run for re-election this fall, but has yet to pull or file candidacy papers.
Of 18 goals outlined in the report, Carvalho said he completed 12 on time, two more within the same quarter of the projected deadline and two within the subsequent quarter, leaving two items — an update to the Comprehensive Zoning Ordinance and the re-opening of the papaya deinfestation plant — as of yet incomplete.
Carvalho said he hopes the CZO update, on the county’s to-do list for a decade and targeted by his administration for completion in November 2009, will be sent to the Planning Commission this week.
“You never stop development and you don’t want to overdevelop, so you have to manage growth,” Carvalho said Tuesday, surrounded by 30 or 40 Kauaians, most of whom were county employees, including many of his cabinet members and top-level advisers.
Other self-imposed timelines now breathing down Carvalho’s neck include a March 2010 deadline for the development of a plan to utilize Kekaha Landfill gas for energy and an April 2010 deadline to create a community-based “crime task force” with the help of the Kaua‘i Police Department and the Office of the Prosecuting Attorney.
Carvalho also identified a new 60-day clock that started ticking Feb. 1, by the end of which he will provide an update on the county’s proposal to site a new landfill at the Umi site in Kalaheo.
The siting of the landfill was among the highlights of Carvalho’s big accomplishments in 2009, but he acknowledged Tuesday that his administration has heard complaints from Kalaheo residents and other concerned citizens, that other options are being reviewed and that more news could be forthcoming soon.
Other significant projects that Carvalho marked with a purple “X” for completed include the transmission of an update to the Integrated Solid Waste Management Plan, the kick-off of the Important Agricultural Lands study and ongoing work on legs of Ke Ala Hele Makalae, the controversial multi-use coastal path.
Of the handful of questions from the Kapa‘a community, none touched on the recent decision to move the path’s route through Wailua Beach closer to Kuhio Highway while keeping it makai of the roadway on the sand dunes.
County officials have said they are currently waiting to hear back about a Federal Highways determination on whether the Environmental Assessment is still valid despite the change.
Tonight’s meeting is scheduled for 6:30 to 8 p.m. at the Kilauea Neighborhood Center.
For the full report card and Carvalho’s prepared statements that accompany the presentation, visit www.kauai.gov.
