Housing, early education, broadband, and combating climate change are all priorities of Gov. Josh Green's administration and Kauaʻi County. Mayor Derek Kawakami was sworn in for a second term on Dec. 1 after winning reelection in the 2022 election.
He just returned from a trip to Washington D.C. with fellow mayors Richard Bissen of Maui County and Mitch Roth of Hawaiʻi County. They attended the U.S. Conference of Mayors and met with federal officials and lawmakers.
The Conversation talked to Kawakami about his hopes for this 2023 Hawaiʻi State Legislature and his second term in office.
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On Kauaʻi's financial outlook since the pandemic began in 2020
DEREK KAWAKAMI: We got the transient accommodations tax, we got the general excise tax surcharge. You know, we got all these additional sources of revenue. What we didn't forecast is when we went through the pandemic, I think a lot of us thought that we're gonna be in economic collapse for a while — let's get through this. But on the other side of the coin, the real property values went through the roof because of, you know, supply and demand. We had a surge of people wanting to move to Hawaiʻi because we were a safe place. They were doing soul searching, that every person going through the pandemic was. Some people dropped what they were doing, moved out here, which drove up the home values, which in turn, was favorable in a sense from a real property tax revenue standpoint. But, you know, what we're trying to do is always strike the right balance, to not make too much money. We are in a place where we, fortunately, had a great team to line projects up, make sure that we had funding behind those projects to be able to sustain us into the future, and sort of buffer us from all the challenges that the state is going through. And I can appreciate what the state is going through, because at one point in time, I was at the Capitol trying to figure out the state's budget and how to make ends meet. And they have — if I thought my job was huge — you know, the state's job is just monumental.
On working with the state Legislature during this session
KAWAKAMI: What we do best is just get to work. We here on Kauaʻi have an awesome delegation representing us at the Legislature. Of course, I think we're still trying to figure out who is going to replace former Rep. James Tokioka so that — I don't even know what district it is since they redrew the district lines, I believe District 16 — Līhuʻe has some sort of representation. But we collaborate very well. We partner in ways that perhaps makes us unique in the state of Hawaiʻi. Basically, what we are focused on for this next legislative session is to be supportive of the Legislature so that they can balance their budget, make sure that they pay teachers what they're worth. I know that lieutenant governor's main initiative is early childhood education. It's a huge gap here on Kauaʻi, is affordable child care. So we're looking at one of our vacant buildings, to renovate it just to create a space of opportunity that if there is an early childhood education operator that would like to operate, that the building would be able to accommodate that because we would have no idea where to start with running a preschool. But there are people that do and so we are trying to make sure that we formulate our projects to be supportive of both Gov. Josh Green, Lt. Gov. Sylvia Luke. The governor has made it clear he wants to focus on mental health, houselessness and housing. And fortunately, we have an awesome housing team that did very innovative projects like Kealaula at Pua Loke which is our permanent supportive housing for our houseless families.
On Kauaʻi's broadband expansion efforts
KAWAKAMI: We just had a meeting with Hawaiian Telcom, and it was in regards to the last-mile connectivity. And they have moved aggressively to try to make sure that every zip code on Kauaʻi has that last mile fiber optic. Spectrum, because of their cable service that was already well established, has coverage. There are some pockets where coverage is challenging. But on the county side, we try to shore it up by providing free Wi-Fi at our public spaces, on our buses. The big challenge is finding out what families have a challenge connecting because of financial reasons, and what can we do to make sure that every man, woman and child has internet access that's reliable and that's quick, so that they can be dialed in and be competitive and move up into the ladder of society. Like right now. I would view broadband access as like a social justice issue because kids are dependent on it to do their research papers and be connected. We want to make sure that our families that need it the most have access to it.
On addressing climate change on Kauaʻi
KAWAKAMI: I think we've been very proactive. We have a very forward-thinking planning department that, you know, during COVID, they started going out to different communities. We already had one of the strictest shoreline setback laws as far as being able to develop near our shoreline areas. And just recently we were one of the first I believe in the nation to create a sea level rise zoning ordinance. So it's taking into account climate change, bigger tides, more storm surge, rising sea levels and making adaptations to where people can develop and if there are already entitlements and people have a right to develop, what is that going to look like so that their structures will be able to withstand what's forecasted as tremendous impacts from sea level rise.
This interview aired on The Conversation on Feb. 10, 2023. The Conversation airs weekdays at 11 a.m. on HPR-1.
