 I'm Rusty Komori, host of Beyond the Lines. We broadcast live on Mondays at 10 a.m. to 10.30 a.m. from the Think Tech Hawaii studio in the Pioneer Plaza in downtown Honolulu. Today's guest is Senator Will Esparro. He has been an extremely popular senator for 19 years and has been involved in state and county government for 27 years total and he's a candidate for lieutenant governor. Today, we are going beyond politics. Senator Will, thank you for being here today. Good morning, Rusty. Hello. Thanks for having me. You have on the campaign signs that you have for lieutenant governor, it's the silhouette of your hat and your glasses. It's very recognizable. It's super cool. I just had to say that. But before we get into your campaign for lieutenant governor, can you tell me some about your early life? Well, my parents are from the Philippines. My dad was fortunate enough to be selected to join the United States Navy in 1954. And his first station was in Yokosuka, Japan at the U.S. Navy base. And that's where I was born in 1960 in Japan. From Japan, we came to the United States. And actually, my mother told me that my first birthday was on the ship. Back then, we didn't take a plane, we took a ship. And then we landed in California and from there, being in the Navy through my dad, we lived around the world. Washington, California, Virginia, Georgia, Florida, Cuba, Guantanamo Bay before it was famous, and Naples, Italy. I attended Seattle University. And after college in 1982, I came to Hawaii and I've been here for 30-plus years. This is my home. This is where I've lived most of my life. I wouldn't live anywhere else. This is such a beautiful place with wonderful people. And I'm happy to be here and to be able to serve our state through government. Oh, for sure. I mean, you've lived in a variety of places, obviously, through being in a military family. What were the challenges, you know, moving around so much? I would say that is the challenge, or if not the challenge, it was just the norm in the way of life where you move every two or three years. So you really didn't have any long-term friends, per se. I'm sure that today now it's a little different with social media, because people can stay connected on the various social media platforms. But back then, you know, you had to write by letter. And when you're growing up, most of us probably wouldn't be letter writers unless you had a pen pile. Although in Washington State on Whitby Island, my dad was stationed there three times. Great. So we were there third grade, sixth grade, high school. So I guess I have some history going back to third grade there. But overall, just moving around was something that you learned to live with. It was a great opportunity to meet people, to see places that others may not have seen. But certainly it would be nice to have old-time hot-about-a-friends, like when I talk to my friends and others here in Hawaii, people that were born and raised together their whole lives. But I'd say now, with the 30-plus years I've been here, I've established some great relationships and friendships, and certainly to be here with the spirit of aloha, the Asian, Pacific, leaning, it makes Hawaii so unique and beautiful. And I'm glad to be able to serve the people. You know, you're definitely a people person. Now what lessons have you learned from your youth that really shaped your character? Well my parents were great in that they got me involved in activities. And I believe that that is something that we in the state, families, should have opportunities for our youth. Not only provide them the best education, but give them extracurricular activities to stay out of trouble, stay away from drugs, stay away from negative influences. So I was one, and I enjoyed being in literally soccer, baseball, football, all of the sports I was involved in. I was a boy scout. I played the trumpet in band. Now that's one thing that I regret that I stopped playing the trumpet in high school, just because there's so many other activities and things I was involved with. So I wish I had continued because I pick up a trumpet now and it's a little more difficult because of the buzzing of the lips and it takes consistency and practice. As you know as a coach you got to practice and play and play. But overall my parents, they guided me and directed me in the right direction and it's important that I think that our youth, our KK, do stay involved in positive activities so that we can keep them away from all the negative influences that are out there, whatever they may be. You mentioned soccer. So many parents in our state, they're involved in coaching soccer teams with their sons and daughters. Were you ever a coach for your sons or your kids? Definitely. I coached AYSO soccer for about six years from when they were five or six to ten or twelve, that age group. And I must say we had good teams. We had winning percentages and that was one of the highlights of my life, to be able to teach children and your own kids and to have a great time on the field and if you win, even better. Now you mentioned that you got your college degree from Seattle University and it was in business management. How has that degree helped you since graduating college? In order to understand business, you have to know about organizations, you have to know about people, you have to know numbers, you have to know economics. And all of that learning in college, obviously, is important when you get out of college, when you're raising a family, whatever job or career one has, it's important to understand that businesses and especially small businesses, which is the core of our economy, there are hundreds of thousands, you know, I think over a hundred thousand small businesses in our state, you know, they need support, they need help and they have limited resources as well and we need to be able to understand their dilemma and help them and help our businesses prosper while at the same time understand that the worker has a family, they need to make a decent wage to pay their bills and there's a delicate balance especially in government when you're talking about business, when you're talking about the social needs of our community and everyone and when you're talking about nonprofits and others and how do we mesh them all together so that everyone is able to prosper and to survive basically, especially in a place like Hawaii where we have a very high cost of living. You definitely have a great understanding of the various dynamics of business. Now, how did you get your start in politics? My first job was with Mayor Frank Posse. My friend was the executive secretary of the neighborhood commission basically in charge of Oahu's neighborhood board system, community association sanctioned by the city government and they talk about issues and concerns that government is involved with and they give advice, neighborhood boards are advisory in nature but my friend left the position. He asked me if I'd be interested in applying and I applied and I was selected and I was with Mayor Frank Posse for eight years. He hired me when I was 26 years old so it was an interesting situation. I was a little anxious when I got in there being so young and being a first job in government but the mayor was a good boss. I had many good people around me and those were some great times working at Honolulu Hall under the legendary Mayor Frank Posse who did so much for our city and county. Yeah, Mayor Posse is definitely legendary. He was extremely positive. He did some very impactful things to really help Hawai'i and the people of Hawai'i. How would you describe him as a leader? As a leader, Mayor Posse fights for the little guy so he's not thinking about big money or major contributors. His reputation was for the little guy. He got the job done. Sometimes he crossed the line now and then but he knew how far he can push it. For example, you know, when he made Honolulu Hall the parking lot, he destroyed the parking lot and they put grass all around and that was something I think that was not planned through the full permit process but he did it. It was a good thing. People liked it and he got the job done. But no, he was vocal. He was one who spoke his mind. When there was an issuer problem, he would bring it to someone's attention and he made people accountable and that's so important that as a leader and as somebody in a management area to hold your employees accountable and your staff accountable to make certain that they know what the job that has to be done. They have the resources and tools to do it and he lets them do it without micromanaging. Now you've been involved in a variety of leadership positions over the years. Tell me about them. Well, it started even before I was in politics. I was one of those individuals who was very involved in the community and in the neighborhoods. You know, when my children were going to school, I was part of the PTSA. I was with the community-based management system of the schools. It was on the neighborhood board as well, the eva neighborhood board. I was the founder of the Friends of the Evo Beach Library. There was an organization called the West Oahu Economic Development Association on the board of the Boys and Girls Club. I served on countless boards as a director, sometimes as an officer, sometimes as the president or the chair and that in itself was a great learning opportunity. In those situations, you're a volunteer, you're not getting paid, but you still have a lot of responsibility and usually you have like-minded volunteers helping you and it's a good place where you could hone your skills and learn to be better. In the JC's, you're familiar with the Junior Chamber of Commerce. That's a great leadership organization where I was able to meet a lot of people and learn a lot as well. You've introduced very important legislation over the years to really help Hawaii and the people of Hawaii. Can you share with me some of those? Oh, sure. I've been involved in, over the course of my 19 years, so many issues from building an aerospace industry, trying to bring STEM jobs, science, technology, engineering and mathematics and one endeavor and initiative we're working on now is space tourism. We're hoping that in the near future, the FAA will grant us a spaceport license from the Kona Airport and next generation airplanes, space planes will take people into lower earth orbit and, of course, that will enhance tourism. I was a key architect in the medical cannabis program and establishing that. That's been around now for a few years. It took us a while to get to the point of opening dispensaries, but I was the lead senator when that bill passed and we have our first dispensaries now open. It's still a work in progress. There's still a learning curve, but we finally have medical cannabis available to patients because now we have it as a health issue, not a law enforcement issue anymore. Big bill that we passed this year was banning the sale of sunscreens with oxybenzone and oxynoxate. We started this initiative in 2017. I introduced the first legislation to have a ban and we were able to pass a bill this year and this is to protect our coral reefs, our ocean environment. This is a bill that we're the first in the nation and many people around the world were watching to see how we were going to deal with this environmental issue. That's such a big issue because it affects all of us living in Hawaii. We're going to take a 60-second break. You're watching Beyond the Lines and my guest is Senator Willis Sparrow, candidate for Lieutenant Governor. Do you want to be cool? If so, watch my show on Tuesdays at one called Out of the Comfort Zone. I sang this song to you because I think you either are cool or have the potential to be seriously cool and I want you to come watch my show where I bring in experts who talk all about easy strategies to be healthier, happier, build better relationships, and make your life a success. So come sit with the cool kids at Out of the Comfort Zone on Tuesdays at one. See you there. Hello, I'm Cynthia Lee Sinclair. I have a show called Finding Respect in the Chaos. It's all about women's rights and gender equality. It's a place for survivors of abuse to come on and tell their stories and a place for advocates to come on and share important resources so that people can get past the abuse and into the hope and healing that's on the other side. I hope you'll join me every other Friday at three o'clock for Finding Respect in the Chaos. I'm Cynthia Lee Sinclair on thinktecawaii.com. Welcome back to Beyond the Lines on thinktecawaii. My guest is Senator Will Esparro, candidate for Lieutenant Governor. Senator Will, can you share with me more legislation that you were responsible for? Sure. I'd like to mention a few more that I think are very important. One has to do with prison reform and improving our correctional system. I've been a strong advocate in making certain that our inmates have resources for rehabilitation because we have a revolving door problem with our prisoners and right now about 50% of them had been in prison previously. So we need to do a better job of giving them support and help so that we can close that revolving door syndrome since the majority of our inmates will be let out of prison and the majority of our inmates will be serving less than 10 years and they're going to be back in our communities, in our neighborhoods. They may even work with you, go to the same place you shop and park. So it is so important that we make certain that they have the skills to become productive members of our society and I've introduced legislation that would help move that forward. Also Hawaii has been one of the very few states that don't have statewide standards for law enforcement officers and this is an issue I've been working on for a few years. I'm happy to announce that we were able to pass a piece of legislation this year. It was introduced by Representative Nishimoto in the House and we will now be able to have a certification, the certification of law enforcement officers and this is not only county police but state police and law enforcement. We have deputy sheriffs, our DLNR conservation officers, harbor police, airport police, even the attorney generals have individuals who carry guns and badges and since these individuals have an important authority over all of us, it's important that they are recruited properly, they have a good education and they're well trained and retrained and supervised and this legislation to give the statewide standards is going to go a long way in improving all of our law enforcement throughout the state. And the final issue I'd like to mention is homelessness and housing. For about the last 18 months I've been the Chair, the Senate Chairman of the Senate Housing Committee and as you know homelessness is one of the primary issues that everyone talks about because we see it every day, it's in our face, it's in our parks, on our streets, in our neighborhoods and this year we did pass an unprecedented 50 million dollars to help the homeless in areas like housing first, housing reinvestment, investing in social workers to help with people with mental illness, drug addictions, lead it's a law enforcement assisted diversion for people that are arrested on misdemeanors and small petty crimes. If they promise and are willing to enter a program and improve their lives, you know, they won't go into the correctional system. We're looking at just ways to improve the skills. Some families just need a little stipend because of an emergency. We want to give vouchers out so it's a wide spectrum of services and programs that we need to continue to invest in to help these individuals with the intent that you must seek help, you must want help and you must want to improve your lives. And not everybody falls in line immediately. Some individuals as you know we have to work with weeks or months or even years but I do believe we can end homelessness and finally we also this year we funded an unprecedented 600 million dollars for affordable housing. Huge. A couple years ago I introduced the bill because we need to think big for two billion dollars in housing and then a lot of people said two million dollars are you crazy they'll never approve that and unfortunately they didn't but what I did was I started that conversation and this year I reintroduced the same bill but I brought it down from two billion to one billion which is still a lot but people still thought well you're going to be lucky if you get half of that but we lobbied, we advocated and the finance and WAM chairs finally agreed that yes we need to do something huge for housing so we put 200 million dollars into a rental housing revolving fund for affordable rentals and housing and then we're giving a tax credit to builders and developers to the tune of 360 million dollars over 12 years if they build and only if they build affordable housing and rentals so there will be opportunities and it's going to take us some time to get out of the housing crunch because we have to build but as long as we continue funding large amounts for several years you know that's part of the solution of ending homelessness and driving the cost of living here because housing is the highest cost driver for most families whether they're paying for a mortgage or rent you know it's expensive here and government can play a big role in making certain that affordable rentals and housing are built. Thank you for being so proactive in a lot of these issues that's very important to the people of Hawaii. I know that you have major community involvement there's such a long impressive list of things that you've done in the community but I want to ask you why did you decide to run for lieutenant governor? Well I have served for 19 years in the legislature and 27 years when you include the city and county and I felt that with those years I have a lot of experience a lot of background a lot of successes and even a lot of wisdom or maybe that's debatable but you know I'm sure you have great wisdom. You know I'm I'm 57 now I'll be 58 on election day November 6th and the primary by the way is August 11th let me plug that real quickly but I felt I had much to contribute I could stay in the legislature or you know with senator or lieutenant governor Tsutsui stepping down he left an opening and I saw okay this could be an opportunity for me and after speaking with my family and supporters and friends we felt this would be a great opportunity for me for the state and you know I think I have the knowledge and I understand government and the people enough to to to come up with policies and shape plans that will be in the best interest of all of our residents. We need a champion we need an advocate we need a fighter I've gained that reputation over the years of speaking out being vocal holding people accountable and I want to redefine the position of lieutenant governor because some people have asked me well what does lieutenant governor do they don't know because we haven't had very active lieutenant governors they've been involved but I'd like to become a very active lieutenant governor you heard some of the issues I've been working on I want to continue working on those as well as many others and be the partner that the governor needs in order to to make the decisions that are going to help all of our residents. That sounds great to me that you want to redefine the role that the lieutenant governor has to really make a great impact yes share share with me the the vision that you have for the future of Hawaii okay and that could be another two hours I will try to condense it but but certainly tourism is going to be our number one industry for the longest time so we need to look at industries and areas that will enhance tourism and one area that can do that is culture and arts I'd be a big supporter of culture and arts and I want to make Hawaii an international premiere destination for culture and arts and when I talk culture and arts I'm talking about you know painters you know whether it's oil acrylic watercolor we have fashion designers architects musicians singers dancers I mean Bruno Mars is at the top of the world and he's from Hawaii we have so many talented people here I want to host the largest dance festival in the world across three months all the neighbor islands half of the performers local half of them from from from international I'd like to see um our urban art that you see all over we could build upon urban art I want us to be become a fashion destination our retail sales are over a billion dollars and there's no reason why our fashion designers couldn't tap into that and and with a fashion industry you have so many you have makeup you have hair although not in my case but you have seamstress there's so many other areas but but art and fashion and especially with our host culture and hula we can we can support culture and art more to enhance tourism and sports you know you're a tennis pro sports can enhance tourism become become known especially because of our weather our sunny weather a destination for sports competition for games and and then as I mentioned earlier uh STEM science technology engineering and math but it's steam now when you add the a for arts and and there are so many opportunities especially with the internet and to be able to market worldwide and you know have people come here and use their creativity and their innovation to to build low capital yet potentially high economic gains for our state and a new area that a lot of people aren't aware of but it is international is is the cryptocurrency industry this is an area where I had legislation this year it didn't pass but there's some economic opportunities for people via cryptocurrency oh that sounds exciting it sounds like there's such a great potential for hawaii yes there is you know senator will I appreciate you being here as a guest and with all of your experience and accomplishments you seem to be the most qualified candidate for lieutenant governor I I like it and I won't argue that point I really appreciate you being here and uh thank you and thank you for watching Beyond the Lines I'm Rusty Kamori and until next Monday Aloha