 This is Think Tech Hawaii, Community Matters here. Think Tech Hawaii has dedicated this time for us to interview, to meet candidates that are running for office from all over the state, from as far south as South Point, from the Big Island, all the way up to Niihau and everything in between, places that most of us, especially an urban Honolulu, didn't don't know exist. And today, today is really very special because we are visiting with Representative D. Morakawa, who does represent Niihau. Aloha, D. Thank you so much for coming. This is a real pleasure to meet you. Aloha, thank you so much for giving me this opportunity. Tell us about D. You've been involved in state, community, the state, the legislature for how many years now? Well, fresh out of high school, I was hired with the county of Kauai. So I've been a government employee for 36 years, and then I ran for office for, and I've been in office for eight years now. Wow. My whole adult life is public service. With Kauai. Yes. Now, you were originally from... I was born on the Big Island, and then I was raised here, Waima Falls Park, and then I went to school here, fresh out of high school, and moved back to Kauai to stay with my mother. Yeah. So tell us, as most of us don't know about being Hawaiian, and that the culture of the Big Island, the Hawaii Island, and the culture of Kauai are so different, especially Niihau. Tell us about the different cultures, the different things. I come from the Waipi Valley family, which is traditionally Hawaiian, Chinese, long ago kind of met together, never really interacted with any other races. But fortunately, my dad was able to meet my Japanese mom in Honoka, and here I am today. But the dialect from the Hawaiians on the Big Island versus the Hawaiians on the Niihau or the west side of Kauai is really different. But their similarities culturally were the same, but just the dialect is a little different. So tell us about Niihau. That is, I'm really excited, thrilled to talk about Niihau. I think we have a picture of Kauai, Kauai County, and Niihau. Right. Niihau is actually a private island owned by the Robinsons. I have personally never been there. I leave them alone until they need help, and then they know they're able to reach out to me if so needed. But they thrive on their own, and I respect them for that. And because of that, they're a good neighbor. They're a good neighbor for all of our residents. Why is it called the Forbidden Island? That's a good question. You can't really go there without any permission. We have fishermen who have tried to get onto their beaches, and there's been problems and confrontations, but I think we have to respect their privacy. And I believe that's why it's called that. The Forbidden Island. So now Prince Jonah Kuhio Kalani Aneole was born there. So is that a part of, were they part of the royal family? How does that work? No, I don't think so. I think, if I did some quick research, it goes back to Kamoli and the family way back then were Christians, and that's how they acquired the land and turned it over to the Robinsons eventually. But I don't see anything that links Prince Kuhio with them. But you know, I'm not a student of the Hawaiian culture. Yes. It just seemed interesting that this little, well it's a pretty big island. Yes. And so the Robinson family bought that from, did they buy it? How did they acquire it? Yes. It was bought for maybe $10,000 many, many years ago, and I think it was a Sinclair family. And then through the generations, it ended up in the Robinson's hand. So they were basically a plantation town or sugar plant? Not really. They were I think sheep. And right today, they're more dependent on the Navy to help them economically because their island is situated in a very critical area for Navy operations. So that is included in your district? Yes, it is. We also have to remember Lehua is also in, although no one lives on Lehua, it is a pristine area that we're trying to preserve, especially as a bird sanctuary. So where is that in relationship to? It's just off of Niihau, just the touch away, and of course where I think 17 miles away from Niihau. And so let's go back to you now. So your area of Kauai is where? It starts from Kaloa, Puipu Kaloa, and goes all the way through Kalaheo down to LLA, Hanapepe, Waimea, Kekaha, and then over to of course the Napali, part of the Napali area, and then Niihau and Lehua. So that's huge? It's huge, yes. We have a state hospital, we have a major harbor, we have three recreational boat harbors, which is very useful for the west side because we have a lot of recreational boating that goes out from the west side. When, with this storm earlier this year, was that affected in your area? No, it didn't. Maybe a small portion of Kaloa town, but it was mostly in Hamalei. So that's a different part of? Yes, it's around the Napali area. Oh, and so tell me about, now you have been in the legislature for how long? Eight years now. And so you're running for reelection? Yes, I am. Every other year, we're all up for reelection. It's like our job performance report time. I like that idea. So are you running unopposed or do you have somebody? No, I do have a primary opponent. Does that happen every year? Every year I do have an opponent, usually in the general, because it's a Republican opponent. This one is more stressful for me because my opponent and I share the same group of family and friends. So it's a little tough. Oh my, yes, I would think so. So you have friends, families, so they've got to choose. Is that it? Yes. Yes. Okay, so then now before you decided to run for office, what, you said you were with the county for 35 years? I worked actually under the leadership of our great mayor, Bernard Cavallo, for many years. I was in parks and recreation, so a lot of my work dealt with the kupuna and with the children. So after 36 years, our district wasn't getting very much state representation. So it was at that point that I decided I think I should run and I think I can do more at the state level. And sure enough, you can do more at the state level. You actually can bring funding home and you can provide for the organizations that need help to sustain their culture or infrastructure. And I think that's really where I, this is where I belong. So you are, you have how many other representatives on? We have three representatives and we have one senator. Yeah, obviously one. The senator represents how many, or just Kauai? Yes, the whole island of Kauai anyhow. Oh, wonderful. So you have your own? Yes. That's great. So the other three, how is that divided on Kauai? So representative Tokioka has central, the Hui and the outskirts of that and representative Nadina Komura has the other side of Napali up to Kapa, which includes the Hanalei area. Kauai is much larger than, I know I had this thing about Kauai being a nice, neat little place. So Kauai is the oldest? It's the oldest. Of all of the islands in, or the inhabited islands? Inhabited, all right. And in the chain? Yes. And so the volcano showed up there first? We think. Exactly. I believe so. And we're all like slipping into the ocean slowly as we go. So Kauai will probably be the first. We are slipping into the ocean? Well, that's what geography says. Really? Yes. That's why the big island grows and the other islands kind of go down. That's why we have all those little islands further up the northern. All of those. But that's going to be millions and millions of years. Yes, we're not going to talk about it. Right. But you come together for the sake of, now there's several, what do I call it, rule representatives because we tend to think of Oahu centric. Yes. We do. So is there a way that all of you come together? Of course. It's a good example is how we do work with our Oahu colleagues because they don't understand our rural nature and the big island rural nature is extremely different from Kauai. But they are able, we are able to make them understand our needs and it's important that we have those relationships because otherwise we wouldn't be able to bring home things that we need to improve our infrastructure, right? Obviously. Well, we need to take a break and we'll be back in just a minute. This is Think Tech Hawaii, raising public awareness. I just walked by and I said, what's happening guys? They told me they were making music. Hi, I'm Bill Sharp, host of the Asian Review here on Think Tech Hawaii. Join me every Monday afternoon from 5 to 5.30 Hawaii Standard Time for an insightful discussion of Contemporary Asian Affairs. There's so much to discuss and the guests that we have are very, very well informed. Just think we have the upcoming negotiation between President Trump and Kim Jong-un, the possibility of Xi Jinping, the leader of China remaining in power forever. We'll see you then. And Marcia Joyner and this is Community Matters. And we are talking today with Representative D. Morikawa from the beautiful island of Kauai. They tell me and I agree, it's the prettiest place on the planet, the heart chakra of the world. Yes. So D, tell us what are the big issues on Kauai, even though we think this is paradise, what are the big issues? Well, it's such a beautiful island and we've been doing very well promoting it that we've got this boom of tourism, but are not able to handle the capacity. But when do you say no more or how do you limit it? So what we have to do is at least try to mitigate the impacts that tourism has on our waste, on our sewage system, and also on our traffic. So those are probably the bigger issues that we have to deal with next. How do we deal with expanding roads or bus service or how do we commit to getting residents hooked up to a sewer system that will stop the possible contamination of our oceans and our streams. So they're not hooked up to a sewer system? Not all of the towns. We have many, many cesspools still in operation. And the county, from 30 years ago, the county has stopped using, doing that as a priority because I guess, you know, when you don't see anything come out, you don't really react to it. But we're seeing that now streams are coming out contaminated. Is it the injection? Is it the seepage from the cesspools? No one can really tell, but we should be proactive and try to put the infrastructure in. What do you have, you've got a lot of farmland and ranches. What do you see pesticide? Because that's a big thing everywhere. Yes. For restricted use pesticide, especially we need to make sure that we know what is being sprayed when and we do have, the Department of Ag has a site that you can see what is being sprayed. That was legislation I introduced when I first got elected. And then 2491 was a big issue back on Kauai about pesticide use and reporting again. And what came out of it was a good neighbor program and that was voluntarily tried on Kauai and has worked. So this past session, we finally passed legislation that would mandate the whole state to comply with those same reporting, buffer zones around schools to protect our children especially. And it was a good compromise. And I think we're moving to get forward in a very good direction. So people really understand the issues with pesticide. Yes, especially restricted use. I mean you can use any other pesticide as long as you follow the label. But restricted use is very dangerous and has to be used properly. And our industry is using it properly. As long as we have the enforcement in the Department of Ag, I think we can rest assured that there'll be training and there'll be inspections conducted statewide. So what about the harbors? Do you have issues with your harbors? Well right now we've done so many repairs to our both harbors out on the west side, Kikiola and Port Allen. And because of that, we have this boom of people wanting to use it. So now the complaint is that there's no room for recreational fishermen to get their boats out. There's just too many people and more so with Hanalei shutting down. The Hanalei boating tours have kind of moved out to the west side to get their tours out from our side. That's because of this storm. Because yes, there's nowhere to launch out in Hanalei right now. And so that everything changed after the storm. Yes, so now we have a boom of tourism on the west side which is great for business, but then again we have to watch our infrastructure, whether we can handle cocaine, the traffic going up there is just, I've never seen it like that ever in my whole time on Kauai. And people are complaining there's no parking, the buses can't turn around, so we have to deal with that next session. We're going to have to take a look at how we can expand or better get our visitors the experience that they want. Now what I've noticed in talking to candidates from all over the state, almost all of them have that same thing. What do we do with tourism? We need the tourists, but it's out of hand. What do we do? Do you have any idea how we get this under control? Well I can just talk for my district and I'm looking further down the road. It would be a really nice experience if tourists could get to see like Poké, the Napali or Pohle Halle by getting to one central area, jumping into shuttles, or jumping onto a train that will take them through town to visit the orchards along the way to Pohle Halle Beach and come back and not have to use their cars to go up to Koké or down to Pohle Halle. That would be really nice for the visitor experience. And I think as we expand our roads, we'll be better able to handle tourism. We just have to make sure we plan for the capacity. But now you are now in leadership. What does that mean? What does in leadership in the House of Representatives, what is leadership? You know, when I first became the Majority Floor Leader, I had to pinch myself to see if this is really happening because there are 51 members in the House. And I started as just a Vice-Chair of Health and then became the Chair of Human Services, which is big already. And then all of a sudden with a new speaker, he assigns me to be the Majority Floor Leader. Are you still the Chair of another? No, I have to let that go because now I am in leadership, which top four positions, Speaker by Speaker, Majority Leader and then myself, Majority Floor Leader. That just allows me to participate in those critical meetings where we decide what the policies and our priorities will be and how we're going to move it forward. So I can have an impact on every issue if I needed to. Well, now last year or last beginning of the session, there were almost 3,000 bills presented. Yes. How do you go through these 3,000 bills? How do you make a decision? That's where you come in. Yes, right. Administration, of course, has priority. If the government's administration, we make sure that their policies get looked at. But the chairs of each committee are responsible to look at the bills that are with their committee and then decide which ones are going to get heard. But we as leadership have already said, homelessness perhaps will be our focus this year. So any homelessness bill that looks really good is what we want to push through. Or if it was the rail or if it was tourism, they're the ones that hold the key to what issues actually get introduced out. So we go from 3,000. And you get a few hundred. And then you end up with a couple hundred that finally pass. And so with your, as floor leader, do you interact with all the other legislators to see where they are and what they want and how they feel for their committee? Well, the final bills that come out, it's my job to make sure I know if there's support for those bills or not. So I keep track of the votes. I have to help the majority leader to run the session every day. Oh boy. So the session for anybody that doesn't know, that happens at a certain time every day and everybody comes to the floor. From January to the last, first week of May. And so during the session, every day, do they meet? Every day, yes. So they come from their offices to the, to the, or the capital, yes. Those of us who live outside of Oahu move over and then we go home on weekends. So we spend the time here on Oahu through the whole session. Oh boy. Yeah, it's, it's tough, especially. I was going to say when you've got children. Yeah, when people have children. Families and all, yes. So you have to go back and forth all the time. Well, even off session right now, I go back and forth because I do my business at least once a week here on Oahu. So you come over at least once a week during the summer. Yes. And then get ready for this next session. We have to, oh yes. And then the election, of course, that does kind of throw us off a little bit, especially when we have a very important race. So now you have the primary because there is a person. A Democrat. A Democrat. A challenger, yes. So that would be on the 11th. Yes. And then you get ready for the election in November. Well, I don't, I just have a primary. So if I get past the primary, then I can start working for policy next session. So there's no Republican. No Republican. This is the first time I haven't had a Republican challenger. I'm sorry about that. We should have a two-party system. And it just seems that for some reason, and this is my own thing, the women that they had in the Republican Party were smart, well-spoken, good-looking women, and for some reason they pushed them out. I don't understand that. I'm not asking you to comment. I'm just saying this is just watching. It's their slow march into oblivion. It's all with the presidential administration. It's hard. With only five members, one. Nobody left in the Senate, is there? Nobody. Nobody. No Republicans left, and only five, not even that many in the House. But in the House, we do work very closely with our female colleagues on policy through the Legislative Women's Caucus. Well, that's good. Like I said, it just bothers me watching that happen. Because in a democracy, you need both sides. You need that kind of working together to get to the best. Oh well, what can I say? Nobody asked me. Things of eight. We have gotten so much good stuff past this last session that there's a lot of hope for the future. And I think that's where I'm coming from, is looking at the future. Because we want to leave this place in a better place for our future generations. So I want you to look right into this camera and tell us why we should vote for you. I, when I first got into politics, I didn't like what I saw about being a politician. But I felt that in my heart, I could really deliver for the people in this position. And that is why I have been running election after election. And that is my platform. It's to do the best I can for you with whatever concerns you have in mind. I'm only doing it because of my love for Hawaii. And I just ask that I get supported and get re-elected so I can continue doing this good work that I've been doing for the past eight years. Well, thank you so much for visiting with us. And good luck with your campaign. And we'll talk to you next year. Yes. Thank you. I hope so. Thank you. Aloha. Aloha.