It’s Kimo Alameda's turn to drive the bus for Hawaiʻi Island. He unseated Mitch Roth in the 2024 election for Hawaiʻi County mayor.
Alameda and the other three county mayors are presenting their respective requests to state lawmakers this legislative session.
Interview Highlights
On his legislative requests and hopes
KIMO ALAMEDA: One ask is to consider our Banyan Drive revitalization bill that proposes to move the authority over out of DLNR to the Department of Tourism. And so that's one. So there's ask on our aquifer out in Kona, our Ota Wells. So our ask basically fall upon what I call five big legislative priorities or domains. One is wastewater. So any wastewater legislation that would help us provide funding for our wastewater system, which includes cesspool conversion — we are in full support of that. The other pillar, if you will, is housing. Any affordable housing bills, we are in full support of that. There's some bills that, two bills in particular, that makes the permitting process easier. I believe that's House Bill 1405 and 1406, and that's something that we support as well. And then there's bills that help our ag industry, one that provides funding to help with the coconut rhinoceros, ag theft. So these bills, these areas, are important to us. These are the infrastructure bills, like roads. If there's any bills that support funding for our alternate route, we missed the boat last administration on that. So if there's any bills that will support that, we are in — any bills that help provide funding to alleviate traffic congestion, we are in full support. So we're hoping for the best. It's tough because the federal government now has put a freeze on some of our federal funding, so we don't know how that will play out, and so we got to wait and see.
On creating new county task forces
ALAMEDA: I want the listeners to know that at the county level, we are maximizing everything we have — every authority that I have to make life easier for our county residents. I am there. I'm at every meeting. You know, that everything I have, we have control over — myself and our team, we are maximizing that. So we have created five task forces. One task force is on permitting. So we have already found strategies to speed up the permitting process. We have control over that, and I'm very excited about our task force, made up of both county and community folks and construction workers and architects. Second task force is on housing and homelessness, and I believe we have control over that, for now, and so we are maximizing and leveraging our local networks and some that doesn't have to do with the federal government, and I'm very happy about that too. Our other task force is on animal control, again, that's something that's in our control. I believe we just need to coordinate better and start to bring in the nonprofits and look at practices that worked in the past. I'm talking goats, pigs, sheep — kind of like one group. And then cats, dogs, another group, and now there's chickens. So, I believe that's more in our in our control than the feds or the state. So I'm also happy about that task force. The other two task forces on cesspool conversion, that's going to require some federal funding. But we do have some federal partners that can help us with that as well.
On wastewater capacity concerns
ALAMEDA: We have a very proactive approach right now in handling our wastewater situation, especially the Hilo coastline. So the Hilo Wastewater Treatment Facility, it was built back in 1993, that's over 30 years ago, and it serves over 30,000 residents. Today, I'm going to be signing off on an emergency proclamation that'll help us, in case there's a break along the shoreline, the pump stations or at headworks, at the facility, we can respond immediately. That emergency proclamation will allow us to suspend certain laws, like procurement laws that help us to respond quickly. So again, that's the things that we can do that's in our control. So I want the Big Island residents to know that, hey, everything that's under our control, which is a lot — we're maximizing that and making sure that services continue to be provided and that public safety is still paramount.
On preventing car collisions with animals
ALAMEDA: That's part of our task force. We met with the state transportation we met with Pōhakuloa Training Facility, we met with DLNR and we talked about the traffic vehicle collision situation up at Saddle Road, where my daughter got into an accident hitting a pig, and I have a friend who took out a couple of sheep, as well as his vehicle was totally smashed. But it's a big public health situation here. And so, we do have some ideas, some strategies. We are considering AI, where there's a device that if there's a game — sheep, goats, pigs in the area, it flashes a light, kind of like a stoplight flashlight, so it allows the vehicles to be aware that, oh, there might be animals in the area, so kind of slow down. So, those kind of low-hanging strategies, I think are things that us at the county, we can do. We don't have to wait for the feds for that.
This interview aired on The Conversation on Feb. 11, 2025. The Conversation airs weekdays at 11 a.m. Tori DeJournett adapted this story for the web.
