 I'm Marcia Joyner, and we are navigating the journey. And today's journey is right across the water over to Mohakai, which is one of the most beautiful islands in all of Hawaii. And I'm going to talk to a dear friend. And those of you that know me, that have been with us, you know, I only talk to dear friends. And today, we are going to talk to representative Lynn DeCoy, who represents District 13, House District 13, which includes Mohakai and the Canoe Districts. So we'll talk about what a Canoe District is. So good morning or afternoon, Lynn. Thank you so much for taking the time to be with us. Good afternoon, Marcia. Thank you for having me. You know, as you said, you're a dear friend. I find you very near and dear to our Mohakai Ohana, as well as our Canoe District, because you're always on top of the subject matter. And so I appreciate it, as well as Think Tech Hawaii, to help me on our team. So first, let me ask you, what is a Canoe District? Now, I know this state has lots of Canoe Districts. But yours, I think, now you correct me if I'm wrong, yours is the only one that actually has people living in these districts, where here we have a Canoe District 25. But those islands out there, there's no people living. So am I correct that you're the only one with actual people living in these districts? Yes, I should say yes, I do. Aside from Kauai, Kauai has Niihau, which actually does have actual people that live there. My district encompasses both Mohakai Ohana'i, Ismaui. It also has Molokini and Ko'olavi, which nobody lives on Molokini and Ko'olavi. But there are things that are occurring, like restoration on Ko'olavi. But that's really the true Canoe District, which should be District 13. And so now, how does that work for you? You live on Molokai and your office, of course, is in the legislature, which is Honolulu. How do you go to all of your, visit all of your, all of these various places? How does that work? You have an office, do they pay you for transportation to all of these constituents? How does that work? So of course, it's very challenging. Like every neighbor, neighbor island representative, I'm tasked with the same travel funds that they are. And I, what I do is I try to travel at the most, of course, cheapest affordability that I can. We do have Moko Lele. We used to have Kamakai, I mean Makani Kai, that we pay $50 one way. But I really have to get creative on how I travel, what time of the day that I travel to get the biggest bang for my buck. I've had constituents complain why I can't come there. These are the only travel funds that I do have. And yet the travel funds was meant to get you to and from Oahu, to and from home. But home is here in Moloka'i and a lot of my constituents are on Ismail as well as Lona'i. And those are probably the two most expensive ways to make travel is because I have to do a layover on Oahu to get to the other islands. Oh, you have to come here then, there? To Lona'i. Is there a direct? I can get a direct from Moloka'i to Maw'i and what? And to, you know, it's very challenging. And then just recently they started Moko Lele to Lona'i. What even then is challenging minimal fights, yeah, to get me there and then get me back home. Well, what about the ferry that used to be there from Moloka'i to Maw'i? So the ferry that used to be here, it's time consuming. It did go out of business, but again too you're trying to get in and out of there. I mean, some cases I do travel during a session. So I might have to fly from Oahu to Maw'i and then get back to Oahu for a meeting or for the next early morning session. It doesn't allow me to also stay on the island of Maw'i or Lona'i. I would have to figure out another way to either pay to stay there. Like Lona'i, the hotels are so expensive, it can cost you a thousand bucks a night. So many of my constituents would say, why don't you stay over? Of course, they do offer up their places to stay at which can be good and bad, you know, because it could be found that I've taken preferential treatment over one issue or constituent over others. You wanna be neutral or at least be able to be open about how issues are brought forward because the perception of a community could be that Linda stayed with this individual. So she's gonna help this individual versus helping someone else. So I try to make it a point to either get in early in the morning and get off of the island on the last fight so they can address these issues. But it becomes very challenging, but you know, every issue is an important issue. Maybe not you, but to the individual that wants to have the discussion. Well, now that we're doing Zoom, does that help? It does, it helps a lot, but at the same time, you know, internet service has been a huge challenge. Oh, it is. You know, we got so much people on the internet as you can tell, sometimes we drop, you take a look at what's happening within those areas of Hawaiian homes. You know, they contracted out sandwich aisles. Many complaints have come in as they're trying to do virtual Zooming for their kids. If you have two, three kids and you're trying to Zoom their curriculum and you get all these drop calls, you know, it's crazy because, you know, jobs have been cut short. Unemployment is hard to get your benefits. And some of the parents are saying, you know, I got to open up my phone and use the hotspots on the phone and then they gotta pay more just to get the kids educated. So it's been a real challenge for them as well as ourselves because the internet and the service is very inundated, you know, for those that have had the luxury of having spectrum, spectrum is pretty much held a lot of the service where we don't have the drop for those that are within the Hawaiian homelands areas. Oh my God, it's a huge, huge challenge to try and educate the kids, not being able to understand the curriculum because of poor service and bandwidth. Well, you know, I hate to say this, but we have an issue even here, you know, they don't think of Oahu as being rural, but an awful lot of it is. And there are huge places that don't have cell phone or internet. And that's a problem, especially with things like telehealth and those kinds of things where you really want people to be connected. And like you said about the children trying to learn and not being able to simply because there's no provider in that neighborhood. It's a problem and one we need to fix. You know, kind of like our entire state departments, you know, computerization is key. You know, keeping information updated as much as possible. I mean, as you folks have seen the Department of Health websites, you know, we need the updated information as fast. I mean, everything is about speed and accuracy. You know, and it's a thing of like newspapers, right? But it's how the printout comes, it's old news, you know, but the internet, you want updated most accurate information you want it to be given out by official. You know, this rumors and validating of it takes up a lot of time. Sort of validation of communications, the technology and the internet surface is really key to make sure everybody's updated. Even when it comes to a natural disaster or hurricane, we want to know how a certain hurricane is here. Where do we go? Where is the process? You know, we have been challenged at every department level at the state. Just trying to make sure everything is there for us to get at a split second. And that's not the case. Well, there's federal grants, I know because it's in Senator Schatz's office was, well, he was one of those that was pushing this federal grant to wire America, I think is what it's called. And I don't know why we don't have some of that money to do exactly what you're saying, because there's a lot of it. And it's a federal grant to be sure that rule America. And I'm sure they were thinking of Kentucky when they said rule, but we qualify as rule. I mean, you know, if you lived in Captain Cook, can you imagine? Yeah. Well, you know, and that's where our congressional leaders should play that role. Our congressional leaders is in Brian Schatz and there's, you know, Senator Girono, Tulsi Gabbard and whoever refills, I mean, and of course, Ed Case is done an excellent job when he served prior. I mean, you should have saw the grants that came into Hawaii. I mean, he went after some good grants, but then you got to also remember that with the loss of our late Senator, Daniel Inouye, as many of us have seen the hard, I mean, just look at what he's brought to Hawaii and where we are today. You know, it takes networking, it takes, you know, those long hours and sitting down with your colleagues and basically expressing this is what happens in Hawaii. This is the disadvantage we're at, but it's having that network and that capability to be able to have conversation and to say, this is where we're at. This is what's needed to move Hawaii to the next level, whether or not that conversation is going on. I'm sure it is, but we need to build those bridges they would say, without truly building the bridge for them to literally drive over. You know, you wanna make sure technology is savvy and you said it, there's a lot of grants out there. It's a matter of how much is being pushed at that level. And when those grants are initiated, you really gotta go at a fine tooth comb to make sure that it's not limited for populations of 10 million people or more, which knocks Hawaii out of the ballpark. So, you know, that's where our congressional leaders need to say, hey, let's include this portion of it and let's include that portion of it. Do you have at the state level an office of people that do nothing but look for grant, grant writers that know where to look for grants and how to write them? It shouldn't be somebody in your office and somebody in that office over there. Is there an office? Is there a place where that you do nothing but look for these grants? Because I'm sure we're losing a lot of money because nobody looks for it. No, we don't and we should. And we should. So those monies could be put in very good places. Of course, you know, I've always said this, Marcia and you know how I feel about agriculture. You know, agriculture, even at the budget level of the state's budget, you know, 0.5%, half percent of the budget and we talk sustainability. We talk about growing our own food, worrying about the less imports, but this is a reflection of that, exactly that. Whether or not it's in the state capital or outside of the state capital, you do have awesome grant writers. Maybe the state consider wanting to contract those grant writers out if they don't want to have to hollow them in the state capital. But I know there are a lot of great grant writers. It's a matter of being pointed in the right direction. I know Senator Schatzkei send down their information of what grants are available. But truly, as you know, many of us as lawmakers were not grant writers, you know. That's why I was asking if there could not, well, you can introduce it since we're talking about it. But, and I think that we need you, like since we're talking about it, and we have a question from a viewer who says, will you be introducing any bills in the upcoming session that will address the challenges of internet access? So definitely yes, you know, internet access has been a major challenge. Of course, you know, for these companies that try to do something, and I'll say it, I asked spectrum in several areas, you know, of Hanna, Moloka'i, you know, there's so many blackout spots that you cannot even get a tower there. You know, I'm trying to figure out what is the best approach to it, which is why I continue to have conversation. So, you know, even while being at home, we're constantly working, we're constantly trying to prepare for the next session. And as you know, it's an election year, whether I'm here or not, you know, it's still be an issue for me that I'll constantly be requesting. What's happening here? How do we get to have this service, you know, in these areas? But again, I'll say it, you know, on an island like Moloka'i, that is economically challenged. You know, they have a preference on what they want here and what they don't like every other island. Tourism has not been at the forefront. Agriculture to somewhat, a lot of the agriculture is phased out because of costs and cost increase like that of young brothers has played a major role on how we plan to move produce food grown forward. You know, you need big companies and small companies, but at the same time, legislation is what you just said or having a grant writer in the state capital is huge. You know, at the same time, you gotta remember that the powers that be will be. I introduced the bill this year to do take back of pesticides. In other words, those that have inherited farms and so forth, you know, they're sitting on pesticides that they want out of their properties. The bill was killed this year. The funds would have been used by the settlement monies by an individual company that was put out there. But now we wouldn't even have to tap the budget. It would have been a take back like how we do on prescription. Let's take back the prescription, get them off the streets because the kids don't have to, or anybody use it in the wrong way. You know, I've encountered pesticides being dumped in the landfill. You know, is that what we want? No, it's not what we want. We want the pesticides off the streets so that it doesn't get dumped into rivers like it was in our district in Nihiku. You know, you have to see stuff like that. And before, you know, you got dead fish or dead, he buy going down the rivers and so forth. You know, people don't want to be stuck with it because the penalties behind it is really high. You know, the misuse of it is really high. So why not let's get this thing off the streets and have it disposed in a way that people are not throwing it in their landfills. You know, but that bill was killed. You know, I was disappointed. You know, we can't introduce bills, but at the same time, it's a concerted effort within the communities to bring in testimony and support. What you got to remember is you don't just introduce a bill and then not have support behind that bill. You know, you have to introduce it. You have to then you have to do a relationship with the chairs and say, hey, you know, this bill is important to not just my district, but because you want broadband support just like that of the internet service. And when you get that support, then you have a better chance of moving that bill forward. Again, what does that bill cost? How much money we're gonna use on the state budget to initiate whatever the issue might be. You know, but the community and the people have to understand it's not because I said, hey, let's do this. If you're not gonna support it and bring in testimony, as you know, Marcia, that bill is gonna go nowhere. Well, let me ask you this speaking of bills. Last year, last session, there were more than 3000 bills introduced. And Mike, I just wonder how in the world you as a legislator even began to tackle that immense volume of bills. How in, it just boggles my mind. So of course, as you know, with the exceptional staff that I have, maybe all of our offices, we have exceptional staff. We put our trust in our staff with our lives. And to be honest with you, by the first, within the first week, half of those bills are gone. You know, you have bills that are repetitive. You have bills that, you know, the legislature really has to be more focused on not just the volume of bills, but the vision of that bill. What is the guts to the bill? How important is that bill? And then you have bills that have been reduplicated because, you know, somebody else saw another bill and they wanna take credit for that bill. But you've gotta realize, where did the initiation of the bill? Did that introducer, that politician really have the guts behind introducing that bill because it's something that occurred in the district or across the state. And I'll say this just like the Hawaiian Homes Bill. Operations and administrations, $20 million on a castamated decision. Well, I'll tell you what happened is that, you know, I took a look at it and I said, you know, this is right. The state should, you know, provide. Well, the numbers that was given to us by DHHL was wrong. It should have been $23.5 million. Court decision cannot dictate a money. There's a separation of power from judiciary to the legislative branch. Only the legislative branch can put a price tag on the decision-making and not no money tag coming from the judiciary. The bill that I introduced died. It was then injected into the governor's budget after reviewing DHHL's finances. They only came up to $23.5 million in expenses and not $28 million. But they put $28 million in the court requests on the castamated decision. But what you've got to realize is that operations and administrations, you can get real creative about a budget. Because what is the actions being done and even within that budget, what has the department done to address the waiting lists? But those are things that need to be carefully put into place on the broad reach of the people. Yeah. And you said, back to your canoe districts, they are different islands, different needs, different everything. How do you take a bill that's of value to, we're back to honor and the highway that you think I have got to fight to this. And then you have these other districts that are saying, well, but you need to fight for me too. How does that, I know you've done a good job. So I'm not gonna question that. But keeping all of that, all of those people together. You know, one is that's the challenge is trying to find out what's the problem. And it normally starts, it's gonna have to be health and safety first. And it's being able to work with a good body of people on the house and the Senate side, having a Senator that you can work with because without buying from both the house and Senate, you go nowhere. It takes a lot of manpower, a lot of hours, having to talk with a lot of people, you know, not just outside in the district, but talking to them inside the building. If you ain't getting buying in the building, you ain't gonna get nothing. Well, who is your Senator from your? Well, my Senator is Kalani English. English. Kalani English is my Senator. And of course, you know, like everybody else, senators have overlaps of two representatives within the district. So they cover a broader area, but at the same time, they have a broader, as we would say budget on their side, legislative budgets and so forth. But it takes all working on both sides of the aisle, house and Senate side to make sure that what you put forward is beneficial and that they also push on their side on the Senate side to make sure that the benefits of that bill comes forward or the capital improvement projects of money appropriations is used in its best way possible. Now, let's talk about you, which is one of my favorite subjects. And for anybody listening, you know this is one of my favorite people. So let's tell us about you. You told me a great story when I first met you that you were growing sweet potatoes, vegetables and your husband at a ranch and he had cattle and you decided to get married. Now tell me if I get this wrong and then you would have meat and potatoes. Did I get it wrong? Hold on, you got it all right, Marcia. You still have those meat and potatoes but I tell you with this weather, there's been a lot of casualties with this weather with ranching as well as farming and COVID hasn't helped that one bit. I gotta give them a big shout out to the Farm Bureau and Brian Neal Motor Guys have done an awesome job in helping many of the farmers and ranchers still float. You know, they've really come out in outreach and the food distributions of many of those ranchers. They have done a good job. Really, the food distribution has been wonderful. You know, and I gotta share this with you, Marcia. You know, it's been near and dear to me farming and ranching because I know if we can't feed anybody, they can't do anything. I mean, you need water, you need food and without the two main necessities, you can kiss everything else goodbye. But you know, it's always been about a lot of egg for me growing up on my husband. So tell us about you and your farm. So my farm sits on some of Hawaiian homelands on Moloka'i as well as, you know, I've leased some of the egg park areas. Again, it has its challenges for the farm itself. It's a third generation. My grandmother started farming, then my dad, my dad retired out. And then, you know, we decided to start our own farm. Of course, my dad still comes around and from somewhere to 15,000 to 20,000 pounds of sweet potatoes. Once COVID hit us, we went down to almost 8,000 pounds of sweet potatoes. We did some layoffs of our own, you know, trying to manage as best as we can, you know, which is why as a family business, and some have said, how can you be farming and ranching from Honolulu? I said, I'm that good at it. It's a family business. Three generations, of course. I mean, you know, I have a husband that holds down the fort internally. And of course, technology has allowed us to work. Distance, of course, I spend a lot of my time after hours working to my farm and to continue to make dialogue with many of our wholesalers and our partners along the aisle, which is why it makes it so easy for me to understand why agriculture needs to be put at the forefront and for the state of Hawaii to live up to its talk about sustainability. You know, you can't sustain yourself on grants every time it fails. You need to build it and understand that, you know, if it doesn't sustain itself off of what you produce, then it's not sustainable. Well, now you are chair of the Agriculture Committee in the House. Is that correct? I'm the vice chair. I'm the vice chair, I'm sure. Well, at least that, now that makes sense that they would have a farmer as the vice chair, somebody that understands agriculture. You know, they need someone to understand it because if you don't understand agriculture, it's gonna be hard to champion the moving of sustainability in the 2020, which we have not doubled food production. We've actually went to less than half of the existing food production and that hurts because we didn't split it. We always put tourism on the forefront and we put all our eggs in one basket. You should have seen that last survey that said 80% of the people don't want tourism to come back. Did you see that? I just read it yesterday. You know, it should be focused. It should have some tourism back, but you need to incorporate it with more of a high-end tourism and agriculture involved because people come here to have the foods, the taste and the culture of what's happening here. People don't come here to eat apples from Washington or patients in California and by the time it gets here, it's like five weeks shelf life. They don't want the fresh stuff. They want the sweet potatoes and the oranges that are here and the tangerines and the papayas. You know, and we got to get creative about the value-addedness, which is why if you have farmers, they don't become value-added people. You find the specialty people that do that and then you incorporate that at 10 to 20 times its value and you market that along with your tourism on the high-end because you don't want to look at the white cake can. It's flooded with tourists. You want to walk in it where you can still kind of maneuver around and then, you know, not in indeed the infrastructure, you got to have a little more worlds here. We have exactly one minute left. I, the time goes so fast. And so now in that one minute, you are, you have two, did you sell, tell me two opponents? Yes, I have two opponents in my general election. In the general election. And now I know on Oahu, the ballots will be delivered on the fifth and sixth. When will they be delivered for you and your district? We're told about the eight. Now I have one last thing. In 25 words or less, give us your best pitch on your election pitch. So in 25 seconds or less, I'd say there's not much. I mean, I can tell you, aside from VOTE, that you can find a lot of information about what I've done. And again, come November 3rd or when the ballots drop, VOTE, Lindy Coyt. And thank you, Marcia, and think tech Kawa'i because I really enjoy spending time and having conversation with you. Mahalo. Thank you. And we'll talk to you soon. Yes, we will. Thank you, Marcia. Have a good one. Aloha.