 And welcome to the state of the state of Hawaii on Think Tech, Hawaii, this live streaming network series that occurs every other week. So I'm your host Stephanie Stoll Dalton, and the Honolulu City and County mayor's race is accelerating as everyone can hardly miss as we approach the primary on August 8th. So by the way, be sure to vote, you should have your ballot. Today we have one of the mayor's race finalists right here. I'm pleased to introduce Rick Belangiardi, who is in his first race for mayor. So welcome. Thank you, Stephanie. Your campaign material saying being Honolulu's next mayor is an extraordinary leadership challenge. The arrival of COVID since this campaign began, you will agree, has changed the game and has disturbed any ordinary notions that we may have had. So I wanted to just mention that you bring little experience of public office holding from you for this run for mayor, though you are recognized for your success as a strong leader and business executive roles. So but given COVID, the playing field may be somewhat level. Do you think that's the case? And how do you feel about being in this situation now and facing the sad losses and brutal effects of this pandemic on Hawaii? Yeah. So how- I think from the standpoint of what you said with regard to being playing field leveled, that's been true from the standpoint of the challenges of campaigning, if you will. We've all been cut off from meeting with people or holding fundraisers and anything and everything. I imagine that our campaign efforts would be about, which was what we started when we had one month of it. It was getting out into the districts, meeting people, listening and doing all of that. So yes, that part has been an equalizer of so as it flow. But I think as candidates, we're all very different and we all bring different skill sets, experiences to the job. So in that regard, my perception is that we are who we are as individuals. I think we've all tried to establish that in the minds of our voters. And you just said something was very kind and complimentary. I've been a leader. I've been a leadership rose my whole life in this community, especially outside of my work. And I'm very proud of the body of work, most notably the last 10 years as general manager of Hawaii News Now. And really quite honestly, we took a broken economy in 2008, had a vision, merged our assets, got FCC and DOJ approval. And we built for Hawaii a 21st century multimedia company, of which I hold great pride. Because it's an exceptional group of men and women there. And we've distinguished ourselves. They have distinguished themselves on the national scene quite admirably. So for me, that's always been a great service to the people. And so that's what I bring. I'm really pleased that for you that the information has been widely distributed. And I think that given the strength of your executive business experience, that is recognized. Now I'm thinking from what you've said that in some ways, do you think it's been advantageous to come into the campaign without a previous office holding experience? I do. Why? You know, I think the climate is such that, you know, I think people are looking now broader at candidates and skill sets and individual personalities and whether or not they can trust and believe in them, but it is a leadership job. I said repeatedly, the mayor's job is unique to me in a sense, and that really is the CEO of the city. And it's not about that title, the CEO of the city, it's about the operational aspects of day in and day out and the kinds of people you surround yourself with, the decision making, the processes, et cetera. And I think a fresh perspective on that is exactly what's needed right now. I was also interested in addition to that, that's very forthcoming. I think that you had mentioned in some of the sessions I attended, you were talking about your listening tour, which was to be so important for validator building and validating your views on the ways to serve citizens best. So what can you tell us a little bit about what you learned from that and a bit before, was it before COVID or did that and COVID deeply influence your hearing? I was, that's not the chronology then straight then just for perspective's sake, Steph, is that I made this decision a little bit before Christmas. I was all set to spend another year in Hawaii News now, I was on the contract through 2020. Fortunately, I had the good vision, if you will, a few years ago to hire an incredible young woman named Katie Pikman to become my successor and she was certainly ready and that facilitated my thoughts because I really didn't want to just walk away from not only the body of work over the last 10 years, but my commitment to a man and woman to work there. So when we made this decision to do it, I felt very good about Katie's ability to step in. And so I did, I notified the company, I gave him, it was during the holidays, if you will, so January 15th was my last day, I retired. And then we announced on February 12th and we did that at the old stadium park and at that point I talked about getting out into all the districts we wanted to hear, but one month later, March 16th, we got shut down. So what's evolved now is that candidly speaking and what I thought were going to be the classic mayoral talking point of concerns started first and foremost with homelessness at that extensive work in that area. And it was really, quite honestly, maybe single-handedly among the things I looked at, one of the real drivers, but also the uncertainty of rail and all that that brought with it and knowing that we were, you know, this was not going to be in 2020, the conversation about rail that we saw in 2012 when Governor Coyotano ran against Mayor Caldwell and where rail was eight years ago and where rail is today. So that was going to be a whole different scenario, if you will, about rail and what all that means. And as we just saw just last week, Andy Robbins announced that they received two of the P3 bids and they're going to evaluate those. And I think somewhere in the latter part of August, it'll be disclosed if whether or not one of them is a winning bid. That said rail, but I was looking at other issues too from a mayor's standpoint of somebody who's lived here for 55 years and loved this place with respect to infrastructure, elder care, clearly last fall, if you remember. And I was just on a phone call yesterday with Chief Susan Ballard talking about where we are with crime. But in the fall last, this past fall, from the lens of my newsroom, we were doing shootings at just unprecedented amount of shootings and crime and old people getting knocked down and parking lots and the purses being stolen and a lot of stuff that was going on. So clearly crime, safety, if you will, one of these issues. I thought all of that would be really classic and important talking points for the well-being of the fabric of our city. And COVID-19, as you've said already, kind of came in, disrupted everything, has preempted everything. It's really amplified, quite honestly, those other situations. But the reality is we're now talking about rebuilding our state's economy, our city's economy, about trying to keep people from losing roofs over their head in an unprecedented way, people who are going to lose work and lose work permanently and all the ramifications of that. You're just unprecedented situations. So this idea of what we're going to do, this whole place always populated, 95% of the businesses that register deep that employ 20 or fewer people. We are a land of entrepreneurs, service oriented, no big corporate headquarters, no big, you know, so how are we going to do it? We're going to do it to keep our small businesses open. What are we going to do to keep people who are in need of food, who are in need of shelter? I mean, this crisis in the perspective, Stephanie, is that five months ago, pretty much is when we announced. If I think back on how much has just happened in five months, these past five months for all of us, anybody listening to it, this has been unprecedented, it's been all used so many times. Absolutely. Unimaginable, almost even, right, this kind of part. And we're still, and we're still five months out from getting in the job. I've never been as a business person. I've never been five months in front of a job. And so it's very difficult, if not impossible, to predict what it will be like on January 2nd if we're fortunate enough to earn the people's conference and get elected. That said, I do know, though, we will be tethered to this epidemic, to this pandemic, okay? And so in that regard, you know, I think it's going to be more crisis management with respect to saving businesses, helping those businesses, navigate through, get whatever federal monies and all monies, whatever we can do to help people with protocols, and then the ongoing aftermath of really having to navigate through, I think, going to be federal subsidies for some time. So I'd go on and on about that, but that's a very different deal. Your points are certainly right on point. All of us are concerned about those, and it's good that you remind us of their priority for you. I know that with those budget issues that are coming up in the shutdown of the economy, and your interesting data on the small business community here in Hawaii, which is so precious and so vulnerable. But you had said something in your materials about you were very experienced with working turnaround, working turnaround challenges. So I thought it was a very interesting label for a set of skills or understandings about how all this works. So can you give us a few examples? Okay, well, let's be clear on the semantics of first. And historically, I have been the guy who was always hired and I can give you multiple settings. My resume is out there. It was hard to replace the person they fired and they said, fix it. That was even true when I came back to Hawaii 18 years ago. I was running a company called Telamundo as a president of it. We sold to NBC. That was a major turnaround. It was highly regarded in the national scene. What we did, I was a president of the company and we rebuilt that company and then sold it, came home, took over KG1 and KGMB simultaneously. But that's germane to broadcast and it's the work that I have done in that context and that I've been a turnaround. This is not a turnaround situation. This is a rebuild. That's why I said on the semantics, but because the impact of this is so incredible. And but at the same time, there are a lot of things I think that one does probably first and foremost, if I can say this. I have no delusions at all about being the puppet master here. One person is all about me, what comes out of my brain, my mouth. I really plan on surrounding myself as I have done historically when I really challenge a group of people. And I believe firsthand that there are really lots of talented people both currently working in city government but other people that I hope to be able to bring in the key selection positions we get to make that will help run the city. It's going to take a team of people. What I'm asking for in getting elected here and running for office is to be trusted with the responsibility for the city but make no mistake about it. It's going to take a lot of men and women to run the city. And that's really how I like to operate. I think leadership style, that's an attitude that's outside of the political arena. Very important mark or characteristic then of how it is that you're gonna go about these, as you say, extraordinary and daunting challenges. So I know that with heart, you've said some things already with the rail. I know that you've said that you want them to be, you want to make them fully accountable. And as you say, you're looking over the documentation that's coming in to be able to fund this enormous project and also just to have them stop wasting money. So now those are some pretty tough goals and any work on those would be most welcome. So how, how is it that you see? Yeah, okay, look, all right. So the rail is a big topic, okay? No question, it's a huge topic. And as I said, COVID's amplified it and we've been waiting for this P3 now almost a year. So here's the perspective I'd like to offer to anybody viewing is that pre-COVID, I was in favor of the rail project for a lot of reasons, as just part of the vision and fabric of our city from the standpoint of what everything was sold and represented in this project and the linkage, if you will, from Honolulu, actually originally was the university to West O'ahu, the building of the second city, et cetera, all of that. And it actually done editorial. So I don't want to be disingenuous about our need to finish the project. I've since then become a contrarian in COVID, at least among the other candidates, because I don't look at it that way anymore. I mean, first of all, there's a couple of things that need to be said. And again, this being just grounded in reality is that you have a project that is years delayed, billions of dollars over budget and under federal investigation. And for corruption and other things that are not very complimentary. Now, some people have a notion of thinking that the rail P3 is going to be the panacea, if you will, it's going to come in. But I'm skeptical about that. If you take a look at where we are in the project, they built the easiest part of the project. I'll be at 15 miles first, and it's more than double the budget. And the P3 has been put out at 1.4 billion for the last 4.1 miles of the city center segment, which would involve coming down the Dillingham corridor and a lot of other things that I don't think is going to be an on-budget situation. And although I don't have the analysis of that, just realistically, in looking at how monies have been spent and what I just simply said in the math and how they seem feasible, especially knowing how difficult it is to construct a bridge, a 4.1 mile bridge through the downtown corridor and all that will come with that. Now I do believe, which is a separate project in the rail budget, there are all the utilities to being done and that Dillingham corridor need to be put in place because I do think we can. There's been much said about transit oriented development. I think we do a lot of development even without the rail. But let's take a look at the macro scene right now. The public transit on the national level is in a debt spiral. Okay, it's accumulating in 36 of the major cities. Just think of New York, everybody maybe has been to New York, the subway systems went up, 90% of the people are not riding. The debt that's accumulating is right now in the many, many billions of dollars and it's only gonna become more aggravated and more so for the government to create bailout. And we're looking, we keep thinking whether it's gonna be one trillion or three trillion almost being argued about as we speak today, those are big numbers, but we're talking about massive bailouts. I don't think the environment is conducive for us to go back and get more money for the feds from this. So as I've said. Great, are you saying that that ridership is down? I mean, I'm familiar with Washington DC. I know it's down there 95%, but are you talking about the COVID or are you talking about? No, COVID has brought public conveyance, if you will, to a standstill, nobody's doing that. And if you just take the top 30s, just the top 36 cities, Washington, CB1, I mean, they have these really extensive transportation systems, which actually was probably one I was in favor of the rail before, because we lacked that. I mean, I go back to Hawaii when we had the hydrofoil and literally cried when we lost the super ferry. I mean, you know, we need to be in between. And it was so late when the discussion came up because the city is of that rectangular flat shape that, and the second city in on out, that it's perfect actually for rapid transit. However, I mean, the time we got to it. Right, but in this circumstance, all things being equal, I was gonna say going back to where we're gonna have, first of all, no tourist for a long time. We're gonna have them coming back slowly recalibrating tourist. The construction of the rail is tied to the GET and the TAT. Those numbers are gonna be greatly diminished and they have a compound effect over the next several years. While we get back to whatever that number is gonna be, but we're not gonna get back to 10 and a half million anytime soon, all the $2 billion we had in tax revenue in 2019. We're not gonna see that for some time. I suggest that this might need to stop. Right, yes, yes. So you have a situation with that and now you have a situation where when I announced in February, we had one of the lowest unemployment in the country. Now we are going to have one of the highest unemployment and soon to be even more and more, thousands of people are gonna be laid off because hotels are not gonna open up until January. You're gonna start to see these announcements. What we're temporary layoffs and furloughs are gonna become permanent layoffs with ramifications on healthcare and other kinds of things. And as the P3 monies run out and P3 monies, rather the PPP monies run out, there's an effect here where you're gonna have a disruption just in sales tax as it is now. Retailers are hurting. You've gotta be practical. So I learned a long time ago since you cited my business background. I was a CEO to CEO kind of thing. You learned that the numbers don't make sense. The strategy doesn't make sense. Saying we're gonna force it by sharpening our pencils or believe in naively gonna wash them to get more money should it go over, it's not gonna happen. And I've made it clear from the get go now for all the other candidates say they won't raise property taxes, but this is not anywhere near a climate in which you wanna do that. And in fact, quite honestly, right now we're operating on the supposition people will be able to pay their property taxes. What happens if we start getting defaults there? Which is the lifeblood of the city's revenue. Well listen, I was gonna ask you about this and of course what I'm hearing is what you're saying in your literature and in your speeches. And I know that the city county has now blocked out a payment plan for everybody. So we've all got that envelopes with we can make four payments or something instead of having one on one point. And that was a smart move. Yeah, but that's, I appreciate it. I mean, certainly by me, particularly by you. Oh no, I've seen those, that's a smart move, yes. So now that we've covered these subjects like rail, I wanna ask you about something harder. That has to do with the comments I've read lately. And the news about, well, your SHOPO support is quite an achievement and certainly feedback for some quality considerations they have for the work of the mayor that they believe you can do. So, but however, but along with that has come concern about your spouse's affiliation with SHOPO over the years. And so I wanted to know how, how you can assure the voters about the situation, especially given your recent support from the group that your family was associated with. Yeah, okay. Well, my wife, you're talking about, the day we made this decision in December is the day she called Mayor Caldwell and Susan Ballad and resigned from the police commission. Okay, she served on that for two years. Quite honestly, she did it for all the right reasons. I was somewhat against her doing it, knowing full well the challenges there because Hawaii News now is very involved in the whole KLO thing. I just thought, you're gonna take on a lot of work. She did, she loved it. But she left the police department. My getting the endorsement for SHOPO had nothing to do with Karen's tenure on the police commission. I fact quite honestly, I was surprised I did get SHOPO's endorsement because we had been reporting a lot of stories about our police. We had been fighting. I had arguments with Louis K. Lowe when he was chief about transparency and so on and so forth. So it really had a lot to do with my personal integrity and who I was in my sense of understanding how fundamentally important it is for people to feel safe. Now, I got that endorsement. Again, Karen left the police department. We announced on February 12th, Mayor Caldwell had her finish up the end of January but she announced her just the same day I said to her, we're gonna do this. So there's no involvement there. And so let me just assure anybody that we'll even be concerned about that, which I think about Karen's hard work is almost ludicrous because she really did that. My wife was also chair of Hawaii Pacific Health for six years. She was on the board for nine years and had a lot to do with that hospital. You call Ray Varada CEO, he would tell you that. In addition to that, when she retired and we got together, she was president of Charles Schwab nationally. She was one of the highest-ranking female executives in the United States. My wife is nothing but capable, honest, highest levels of integrity. And so I didn't even know how that could even get confused except I'm very fortunate to have a spouse, Karen. She was born in Beijing, who was extremely accomplished in corporate America, a great thought partner and very supportive of my doing this. So I wanna say that on behalf of my own wife but the Shopo endorsement was wonderful. It was short lived in the context that we know sooner about that. I felt so proud and so surprised to get that support. And then the George Floyd incident happened and suddenly everything blew up about police and defunding the police. And it's going on to this very day and we're all watching, we're all watching simultaneous with this incredible health crisis, okay? And economic crisis. We're watching video from the mainland that it's really happy to believe. I used to live in Seattle for several years. I know the neighborhoods. I can't even believe that's going on out there as one example. Well, this is, yeah. And so it is nice to have some deflection from these kinds of topics but it looks like you're putting forth some information that people need to hear in order to feel assured and confident about that sort of thing. And it's interesting to hear about the accomplishments of your spouse and between the two of you, you've been quite successful. And let's hope that the comments made on this show are informative for voters to understand what the affiliation was all about. I'm very proud of Karen. They cried when she left Hawaii Pacific Health and they certainly, Carl will actually call me up and say, you can run for office. She doesn't have to leave. And I said, no, she does. We're not going to get compromised for the very reason that you just asked me. And that's what we need to understand that you're thinking in that matter because we are very concerned about corruption in general and in the nation and certainly here in Hawaii too and trying to turn around from any of those kinds of miscreants that people unfortunately are sometimes tempted by and subject to. But I wanted to ask you if you would share, if you would be willing to just project to the end of your money order term, you're already there, you've done, you've been through it, lived through it. And now you're looking to go on to vacate. I probably, that'll be it. That'll be my last chapter, Stephanie. Come on, this is, you know, I've been pretentious about, I'm 73 years old. I feel as good as I did when I was 50. I'll be 74 in office. Let's be realistic here. So whether it's four years of God willing, eight years, I feel pretty good. I was on the phone last night. We were told me she was having a birthday tomorrow. It spries in thinking. I said, how old are you going to be? 60, and she said, I'll be 80. Look, we're in a different place right now. So I told her, I said Barbara, and it was Barbara, I love you. So here's the deal, I would tell you, and this is aspirational, if you will, but I think leaders are aspirational. And we certainly know that going into office at this time will be unprecedented for anybody because a set of circumstances is anything but business as usual. So if I were to talk to you conceptually as a leader on a vision that I hold dear to my heart since you asked me, right now, fear and uncertainty is grown by the day. Okay, and I know for a fact, as you just alluded to, there's trust issues abound, if you will, with respect to elected leaders. So I would tell you that if starting out, we can create hope in people through our actions and build trust in the beginning and the things that we're doing. If when all is said and done, if we can instill hope in people who will be fearful and uncertain, if we can do that, and by the time I leave office, I leave a confident people, everything in between, the journey of all of that and decisions and things that will happen, because I don't have a crystal ball. I mean, look at what we're living in right now. You couldn't have predicted this eight months ago. If we can go from instilling hope to confidence, everything in this next chapter will have been worth it. That's how I see my tenure, since you asked me that question. Okay, I think I had also had in mind asking you for some outcomes or an outcome. Do you have, and I understand this is aspirational and I understand all of the impediments and that surprises, surprises. So as an outcome for your mayorship, what might you see? Okay, I think first of all, we're gonna take a big bite out of homelessness. I mean, homelessness has been kicked around for a long time, we've been really involved with that and I could talk about that all day. It's a multifaceted complex issue, but we have to do something about our chronic homelessness. It's become very, well, just like tourism. You know, tourism used to be pretty much centered in three places, Waikiki, then not too long ago, Kapolei, but Turtle Bay's been out there for a long time. Now because of 14,000 illegal vacation rentals, it's in everybody's neighborhood. Well, it's the same thing that's happened with homelessness. You know, it was confined in some areas, and, but now it's become very discerning and people are seeing things in their own neighborhoods that are very threatening, very upsetting, et cetera. We need to take care of people who can't take care of themselves. Homelessness, a big bite out of homelessness. Clearly, I'm a really big believer. We can do a lot with affordable rental units in the city corridor from Kaimuki to Kalihi and a few other places. They're more than, Marshall Hung is one of the most brilliant men I've ever talked about. There's already ordinance 19-8, Senate Bill 7, that's been already out there that really, they've never really incentivized developers to build the kinds of buildings that I lived in when I went to grad school at UH in 1973. Those kinds of, we need affordable rental units that people who are making ordinary incomes, can afford. We already know about one out of two people, so affordable rental units. Yes, and the best. Exactly, against an AMI that they can afford that. The other development projects are already on the books. No, and they're very informative and those are hopeful outcomes and that's something I see you've got your finger on and I like the bite, getting that bite out of, if not more, eat them all up, clean the plate, but for homelessness. So, I mean, it's a lo-ha time. So, we're out of time. And, Too fast. A bite up, we need more time. I'm Stephanie Stulldalt and this is the state of the state of Hawaii on the Think Tech Hawaii Live Streaming Networks series. So, we've been talking remotely with Rick Blangiardi, mayoral finalist for Honolulu City County and I'll see you again in two weeks on the state of the state of Hawaii. Mahalo Rick and Mahalo all of you for your attention. Aloha. Thank you Steph. Aloha.