 matters here. Aloha and welcome to another talk story with John Waihe. As usual we have a very very interesting guest for all of you this afternoon and we're also trying a kind of a new process at least for me. Some of my other fellow hosts may have done this before but for me it's an exciting new experience and that is that our guests will be joining us via Skype from Kauai. I would like all of you to meet this afternoon consul well senator slash consulman Gary Hoosier and if you've heard that name before it's probably because it's been associated with some of the more progressive movements political movements in the state of Hawaii. Aloha Gary. Aloha Governor. Hello John how are you? Fine thank you. You know I invited you here well you know because you founded a very to me important important organization I guess or institution project which is to train young people who have a commitment to public service train them how to run for office and be successful but before we go into that why don't you tell us a little bit about yourself you know what it is that you how it is that you came about to do that. Well thank you and I'd be happy to you know I've I've graduated from high school in Honolulu Radford high school. Radford you're a Radford guy huh. Yeah I've lived in Kauai raised my family here since 1980 have a background in small business and then in 96 or so I became really aware of what's going on and became very dissatisfied and I went looking to find other people that run for public office I went to the handful of friends that could get elected and say you know why don't you run right and they told me I was crazy and then said why don't I run and so I did I ran in 1996 and I lost my first race for the Kauai County Council but I hung in there and ran again in one served four years in the Kauai County Council then ran for the Hawaii State Center representing Kauai in the E how survey years there and then ran for Lieutenant Governor lost and then worked up for a short period for Governor Abercrombie as a director of the environmental quality and then I really loved serving in public office so I ran for the council again served four more years in the council and lost my last race well but tell us you know you were a very important part of the Senate I mean you were chair chairperson of the Consumer Protection Committee if I remember majority leader for four years I was a majority leader so you're in the leader and it was very involved with a lot of someone say controversial issues but I think very important issues marriage equality that kind of that kind of thing you know energy environmental protection economic justice issues well it's terrific so how does that background lead you I guess your programs called the Pono Initiative or I know it's connected to something called the Kuliana Academy so maybe there's several organizations that I helped start found you know I'm thinking and talking to my friends people like you and others in the community you know what's wrong with our government why isn't it working the way we needed to work and wanted to work and came to the conclusion was we needed to have better candidates running for office when I say better candidates I mean people that understand the process people that are electable and people that share our worldview of economic justice environmental justice and and so we decided I formed an organization called Hapa the Hawaii Alliance for Progressive Action right and we have a statewide board I'm president of the board of volunteer and we've started this program that you spoke at yesterday thank you thank you and it's called the Kuliana Academy okay we bring in people from all over the state mostly young people but it's there's no age requirement people who want to run for public office or serve and don't know really how to do it and don't know where to start maybe they're a little afraid of doing it and we it's a competitive process people apply their interviews references are checked and then we put them through a very rigorous program training program and this is our third program we we've just started so how many how many people are in the in the I guess you would call them classes yes yes the core program of the one right now is around 15 people 15 and at the end of this year we will have graduated about 50 about 50 people from every single island and of those 50 I would guess 1515 will probably run for office either accounting office or state office in 2018 it's it's important that I point out that Hapa and the Kuliana Academy is a nonpartisan program so we don't endorse candidates and we don't support any particular party even though I'm a Democrat and the majority of people are we're nonpartisan and we train we identify recruit and train but we don't actually support the candidates as they run because we're a 501c3 okay I got it so tell me a little bit about the curriculum I mean how do you train some I mean you got like signholding 101 you know canvassing expertise and what what do you do we actually do signholding 101 the basic you know because it does take a certain experience you know to do it properly just like knocking on doors you know you got to watch out for the dogs as you know you've got a you don't want to trespass you know that has gotten worse over the years you know there was a time when the dogs were very friendly yeah so we have we have first class instructors that come in uh there's a gentleman John Bickel who you might know right John is the big award-winning speech and debate coach and he comes in and he speaks he teaches speech and debate uh another woman uh Don Webster she's a communications professional she has her own business she teaches messaging development uh Rebecca soon she's uh she's an experienced fundraiser she teaches people how to ask for money yeah and that's a core I mean you have to be able to ask and so that we teach the practical lessons like that what's interesting is that those people in their daily lives teach that will work in what they're teaching exactly but you don't get to learn about the practical application oftentimes of what being taught if you just take a college class or even a high school class you know you speaking is making for example but social media I assume that's got to be one of your courses it's big and we bring in social media experts you know when you knock on doors today in an election on your phone you will have who's registered to vote and who's not back in the old days you knock on every door but now you actually know who votes and so we teach those kinds of programs well we thought I thought I thought I was so progressive because I had cards you know and I'd flip it around you know but if I could have that information on my phone how much more effective that would be and you know that that's what we call the skills training you know public speaking fundraising how to knock on doors but we also bring in people people like yourself who have actually done it and we ask you we've had Representative Chris Lee Senator Ruderman Representative Beth Fukumoto Senator Schatz come in real real people that have are actually serving now or have served and and ask them to talk about how they first got elected you know and what it's like to really serve and what it's like what it takes to to uh to get elected the hard work to shoe leather as you mentioned it really takes shoe leather well you know as I said yesterday you know it this it's really interesting but if people are interested in developing or talking about public policies you know the entry is not some fancy classes it's shoe leather it's being willing to go out and go house to house meet your neighbors carry a sign and it's interesting to see that you've incorporated that but you also done something about I wouldn't say values but something about what good government looks like that's right that's right we bring in we focus on three areas when it comes to policy economic environmental and social justice kinds of issues and so we'll bring in people who work in these areas people from an organization called apple seeds you might know them they really know their the the numbers they know the policy and they sit down and talk about policy and talk about the realities of how of how those policies are passed or not passed criminal justice reform another big important issue so we combine the skills the issues and that motivation inspiration of people that are on the ground doing the work well I want to get back to the students again I guess I'll call them students yeah although they're you know as you say a diverse group of people but the students that participate seem to have a real commitment burden really for improving Hawaii are there for is that part of the selection process or do the development in the course of the the training how do you get that level of you know intensity that's a great question that's a great question I think it's a sign of the times actually you know with what's going on in the world and in our state there are a lot of people like the people in this class who are are concerned they feel that urgency and that need to make change happen and a belief in the system you know that's that's the dilemma they believe in the system but the system's not working and they realize a responsibility for themselves to step up and try to make it work and I think there's that urgency that's there and and again it's a competitive process so they apply they have to want to do this it's a sacrifice it's five weekends of their life that they have to spend with us in our program well you know that's all of that is great but it must cost some money it how is all this funded I mean how who who makes that possible the you know as a president of the board I have to brag on our board we've got a very strong board of directors it's a statewide board and the people in the community have stepped up and made donations so we we're out fundraising people go to hapahaihapa.org if they want to help but it takes it it's fundraising and we we fly people from the neighbor islands we put them in a hotel we feed them we you know there's a lot of expenses but we believe it's money that we're investing in the leadership of our community for the future what are we going to do you know we have to uh we what was a true chill who said that democracy is the worst form of government except all the others yeah well it's the best when you compare it to the rest right yeah yeah and so what are we going to do we have to we have to make it work so you go to hapahaihapa.org you know what's interesting about all of that whether we like it or not and you both you and I have been in politics and it's not our favorite part of campaigning but one of the essential ingredients is being able to get people to give you the funds though the resources to run and what you seem to be what I get from conversations with some of the students is this this emphasis not only on getting big donors but getting your neighbors to share in your campaign absolutely I mean a fundamental principle of our fundraising is you have to believe in what you're doing and you have to be willing to ask people for help well we are going to come back in a minute and follow up on uh on this conversation but like everything else we need to put a what do we call this a commercial break no welcome to sister power I'm your host Sharon Thomas Yarbrough where we motivate educate and power and inspire all women we are live here every other Thursday at 4 p.m. and we welcome you to join us here at sister power aloha and thank you aloha I'm tim apachaw host for moving hawaii forward a show dedicated to transportation issues and traffic we identify those areas where we do have problems in the state but also the show is dedicated to trying to find solutions not just detail our problems so join me every other Tuesday on moving hawaii forward I'm tim apachaw thank you for every game day a sign a designated driver welcome back to talk story with john why hey by the way folks if you want to call in and have a chance to talk to gary directly or to myself our phone number is 8083742014 there's also an instagram kind of thing but that's for somebody younger and smarter than me call me if you want to talk again it's 8083742014 so here we are with my one of my favorite politicians gary hoosier gary you know I cannot believe that the only thing you're involved in would be actually non-partisan now I understand why you do that and I and I can see the the commitment and and and the dedication to training people for for participating in the system but you yourself must you know just haven't walked away from all the issues we have in hawaii you are very famous for example as part of the the movement I think to protect the aina in hawaii you know whether it's dumping of whether it's you know putting chemicals in our soil or gmo movements or anything like that I hope you haven't given up any of that absolutely not I mean you can take that to the bank I'm not walking away and that's what I love to do it I feel an obligation to be involved this one particular issue the chemical companies gmo pesticides we've been it's you know it's been really intense it's probably the most intense issue I've been involved with in the 18 years I've served in public office dealing with five major international companies some of the worst polluters in the world are here in hawaii and just trying to pass some real reasonable in my opinion legislation just disclose what you're using just disclose so people know who live nearby and don't do it next to schools and those companies have thought me too to nail you know I lost my last election to a large to a large extent because of that battle but in retrospect you know I'm okay I'm working on a lot of other good good things but we're going to continue pressing that it's kind of hard on a national level with the EPA being well the EPA now is I question whether it's even an EPA anymore you know environmental protection agency under our current president but you know Gary it seems to me like it's just good public policy not to destroy the soil that pleads you now I understand how and maybe I'm wrong you know but I understand how farmers have to put up with a lot of pests and the like but why why create why not create plants that grow well in an environment as opposed to plants that can take absolutely raunchy type poisoning and survive no absolutely and those poisons I mean the science is clear they permeate everywhere I mean they're in here they're in the food you eat oftentimes they're in the water and I equate it to smog in the old days we didn't just accept it right we we put some regulations to limit that and to reduce it to make our air cleaner and water so that's an ongoing battle that I'm not going to walk away from but I'm also involved in economic justice issues tax reform the minimum wage you know the people in Hawaii minimum wage minimum wage living wage that what yeah living wage minimum we call it minimum wage because it's you know in a sense I mean I hate to use this characterization but you know I'll go back to my long hair days you know or when I had here but anyway we you know minimum wage means the the smallest wage that you can get that the politicians would pass with a whole lot of with a lobbyist you know opposing it and so every time it's tried the the lobbyists come in and say the sky's falling bad stuff is going to happen and to my knowledge with all the increases have happened over the years there's never been any kind of economic uh downturn or any bad things ever happen uh yeah by the time people get a minimum wage it's no longer a living wage that right you know that it should it should tie to the cost of living you know what I remember when we were doing health care on the national level Hawaii had already established a um you know an employer mandate for health care and when you're trying to introduce that idea to in other states the same kind of arguments came up it was going to put people out of business blah blah and yet you got to ask yourself if you're not doing well enough to provide health care if you're not doing well enough to provide a living wage maybe you got to take a look at the business you're in you know absolutely absolutely and uh and people here are struggling as you know people they they can't find housing everything's too expensive and they're earning they're working two jobs and I I believe that our government needs to set an example regardless what the federal government's doing our state government and the counties need to start putting people first you know we've got luxury condo luxury apartments luxury homes all over the place we need to start putting our focus on working people in the community and uh that's that that's the kind of vision that i'm trying to talk about and put forward and that's the kind of vision that the kuleana academy participants the people running for office I think believe in also well I tell you when I was in the office one of my favorite uh projects you know to work on and was kakaako for example and and I thought of kakaako as being a place where young families beginning people beginning their careers would go and live and as you know I built the the state built most of the infrastructure not all of probably all of the infrastructure in kakaako and and what we what we said to developers was here's you know this is public money pain for your roads your sewers your everything else that you normally would have to pay for therefore you ought to think about providing housing for uh middle income or or um you know beginning family uh workers and and and we did I think I built like six different condominiums for aging and so forth I go there today Gary and I am dismayed to say I'm being nice to see condos that are being built for millionaires and hawaii millionaires are not going to live in those condos not exactly you know the concept of living working and playing for regular people in the area of kakaako I think is a great one but it's unfortunately been taken over to a large extent by these luxury developers and it's millionaires that don't even live there it's that they leave them empty half the time uh multi-millionaires and meanwhile we have homeless people in the same area you know I don't know the solution but there may be some of the part of the part of the solution may be providing jobs that pay well enough because they have a minimum wage that's a little meaningful no exactly exactly no I know of homeless people who have talked about why should they work all the time when they don't get nothing you know it's it's it's a desperate situation not to mention the mental health care that that is lacking in some of those situations as well we're also I'd be remiss the ponohawaii initiative is a separate from hawaii it's a separate organization right let's talk a little bit about supporting candidates it is supporting candidates okay so you train them as a non-partisan and then you hopefully support them when they decide that they don't like the the um policies of Donald Trump right and they're separate organizations with separate legal structures if you would and separate tax consequences I imagine that's right uh but yeah there's there's a lot going on I'm in it full bore you know every day this is what I do uh working on helping working in partnership with many other people uh you know it's not just Gary Hoosier by himself of course it's working with people like Appleseed or the Sierra Club or so it's a uh ponohawaii initiative going to be um ponohawaii initiative going to be active in the upcoming elections in 2000 it'll be absolutely are we're going to be endorsing candidates we're going to be helping them raise money we're going to be helping advise and support them as best we can around the state at the county council as well as at the state level you know what's interesting is that's the way that the people who now control legislators across this country what would they call I you know the um the tea party yeah like the tea party the tea party would be a good example they actually spent time getting into little offices not only big movements I mean you didn't the tea party obviously objected to some national politics and you know did their usual get out the march stuff you know we trained in the 20th century we trained a lot of people how to do that as a nation so but they actually went and did what you did and went out and elected mayors councilmen supervisors governors and and and worked from the bottom up and I hope that uh you know your your your effort is successful well thank you thank you very much and it feels really good it feels like it's moving in the right direction uh we had several people uh students participants in the program who were elected to neighborhood boards a few months ago and so they realized that that's that the real grassroots neighborhood boards community associations boards and commissions that's where you start yeah yeah if you get that I mean we're still a country that you know I look when Donald Trump got out of the uh Paris agreement or announced that he no longer was going to participate in the part Paris agreement dealing with global warming one of the things that happened is that all across the nation and the world millions of people protest and I thought in my myself was that that's such a 20th century solution as what happened next was it was in my mind more exciting when whole local governments said I don't care what Donald Trump does we're going to follow the agreement including California that seems like the 21st century solution and tell me if I'm wrong but it seems like that's what you're trying to do you're trying to do a 20th century 21st century response to some of these issues exactly you know it it's an old adage of think global and act local so I believe here in Hawaii that at the state level and at the county level we can manage our own affairs and we can set an example for the rest of the country actually and you're going to create local global citizens here we go I tell you thank you Gary I enjoyed it very much governor for for taking the time and invite me on today and good luck and uh you know you're creating some very exciting uh movements in the state right