 Aloha, and welcome to Business in Hawaii with Redbreaker. We broadcast live every Thursday from 2 to 2.30 in the downtown studios of Think Tech Hawaii in a Pioneer Plaza. We have a beautiful day today for those watching on the mainland. We got some sun out, which is a nice break from all the rain we've been getting, but we've been told that we've got more rain coming this weekend, so stay tuned. The show focuses on successful businesses in Hawaii and the people that make it successful. They somehow figured out to get around all of the challenges, and we have a few here, and they've made it successful. So they got successful businesses and individuals, and we try to highlight them on the show. Today we do have a small business person who is very successful in a lot of different ways, but she's also been very involved in the community. So we've got Natalie Iwasa here. Most people have probably heard that name, but they may not know why. So Natalie, you're going to tell us all about yourself here, I hope. Yes, thank you, Reg. No, you've been in Hawaii a long time. About 30 years. Yeah, and so what now you tell us a little bit about you've got a business out there, right? Right, so I have my own practice. I'm going on about 15 years now. And you practice in what? A county. All right, so you're a CPA? Yes. You're also a forensic accountant, too. Certified fraud examiner, yes. About three years ago I became certified in that profession. So you survived tax season? Yes. I have heard some of the industry chatter is that this was one of the most challenging tax seasons we ever had because of tax reform, and it just so happened that the last day during filing the entire IRS servers went down, they couldn't even file or pay. Yeah, you know, and I think several people, at least that I work with, were a little bit happy to hear that because we got the automatic extension for those people who just don't do things until the very last moment. But yeah, that was really something I don't think we've ever had that before. No, and then you add on top of that some of the issues with the reform that was passed in December, where estimate tax payments were due in April, and you mix that with the 2017 and a lot of confusion. So I'm glad it's over, it's passed, and now we get to focus on post tax season stuff. So how long have you had your practice in Hawaii? So about 15 years. Prior to that I worked 10 years in various firms and doing accounting tax and audit work. Very good. And so that's not enough to keep you busy, so you're always looking for something else, right? So what else do you do in Hawaii? I've actually been very active in the community. I'm on the Hawaii Kai Neighborhood Board and just do a lot of different things with nonprofits and that kind of thing. Right, so you've got your community involvement, you've got your practice in your firm. You also have a family? Yes, I do. I've been with my husband for, well, about 30 years. And we have two boys, Ryan 19 and Asa 15. Wow, those are going to be the sweetheart years. Teenagers, anybody who has children knows what that's like, but they're wonderful, they're really great. Sure, it's good. I guess they're going to school here? Right. I guess a 15-year-old is, and the older one is going to KCC. Yeah, he's getting his core courses taken care of. Actually, I went to HCC. And I got my first two years of community college done at HCC, and then I went to Manoa. And then I finished on the mainland. I went to several schools on the mainland and finally got done. But I think the community, I think the community college route, and we've had different community college individuals on the show before, is underrated. It's a great way to get an education. It is. And KCC, before he went there, we did some research and got nothing but good remarks from people who've experienced the courses there. It's a great way to go. And I have found, unless it's changed, but it's also a little bit cheaper than a regular four-year colleges. So it's a good combination. Classrooms are smaller, too. They get more interaction. So you've been active in Hawaii. You've been doing a lot of different community activities. You've been on the neighborhood board. Just in a general sense, can you educate us a little bit? What is a neighborhood board? That's really our grassroots method of getting our concerns out to our representatives, political leaders. We have 34 of them on the island. And so several of them in the East Oahu area. And it's a way for people to stay abreast of what happens in the area. And also mention to their representatives things that have come up that they're concerned about. So who go? And when you say representatives, are these people that are elected officials? Do they come to the board meetings? So there's usually a set agenda where we have the representative reports from the elected officials, usually the state representative, state senate people, the council member of the district. And then sometimes they'll even go further into the US representatives and the governor. There's also a section in there for updates from the police department, fire department, and border water supply, which is a lot of things that people deal with every day. Well, and a lot of things that are going on that people are not aware of. I was fortunate enough to be on the neighborhood board for a few months. And I applaud you. You've got a lot of patience to go to these meetings and be engaged. But I found out there was an awful lot going on in the communities that people just aren't aware of. Right. Yeah, so there is. And for example, we just had our Hawaii Neighborhood Board meeting the other night. And we talked about the park closures. We talked about the Department of Land Management and how it was cut in the budget by the city council, different reports that we had from various people. So when there are things that come up, for example, there's a group that wants to do skateboarding, having more skateboard parks. They present that to the community. And then we bounce off ideas and provide feedback. And then they go on and work that through with their stakeholders. Well, and that's where the representatives come in. They can hear these things. They can get a feel of the community interest in doing something. And it's a great way for a lot of information to be disseminated among all of the stakeholders that are involved. One of the more interesting parts that I thought was getting the police department reports and where the different crimes are and what's going on and all the park cars and how sometimes the vehicles move around a little bit, the trucks and that sort of thing. You really don't appreciate all of the moving parts in a neighborhood until you go to a neighborhood board meeting. Yeah. And that is such a big thing, especially I don't know if you heard about what happened in Kalama Valley. There was a kidnapping. And so these things do come up. And they hit people on the personal level. And so it's really good to have that feedback. And an opportunity for people to actually come and meet the people who are working in these areas. Right. And so you've been doing neighborhood board activities for how long? You know, my involvement with that goes back about 15 years. I actually just started going to the meetings regularly when I started my practice because I had the flexibility to do that. And so they called me the 16th board member. And then about six years ago, I actually formally joined the board. Very good. And how did that happen? There's different ways of getting on a board. There's at-large type of members. And then there's actual sub-district members. So how does that work? Well, for me, what happened was a board member had to resign. And so they had an open position in the middle of the term. And I said, I'll do it. And they voted me in. And then after that, then they're the regular elections. Right. And that goes out to the community. And they have a ballot process. And they vote. But what I found out, and for people that are watching the show, there's a lot of neighborhood boards out there. They're all over the state. They're on all the islands. And sometimes there are actually vacancies that are available for people that, if they're interested, they can volunteer. And they can get engaged and start finding out more about what's going on. For example, bus routes and how the bus system works and the public transportation and all that. I mean, there's some communities that rely on that heavily. And it's nice to know what's going on in that area. So I think there's opportunities. Now, if somebody was wanting to volunteer to get on a board, not just to Hawaii High Board, but any board, is there a website that they can go to to find out more information? Right. They can go to the Neighborhood Commission Office. And I think it's nco.org. And then there, they have all the information about the neighborhood boards and the vacancies. Right. And there's also an opportunity for them to see some of the agendas and some of the minutes. And usually, some of the agendas that I've seen will actually list some of the vacancies that are available. Yes. And so you'll get a feel for if you're in a sub-district, if you qualify to volunteer in that area. And there's also those at-large members. So it'd be great if there was anybody out there that was interested in maybe getting involved. That would be a good way to do that. Yes. And now you were the chair for a while. Now you step down for the chair to focus on something else. Right. So being chair was a challenge in itself. I mean, there's a lot of work that goes on behind the scenes with that position. But I'm actually running for Honolulu City Council District 4. And because of the type of position, and the chairperson actually sets the agenda and then moderates the meeting during the entire meeting. And because there are elected officials that come and report, including the council member, I decided that it would be best for me to step down. Well, plus it is, as you mentioned, a lot of work. Yes, that's true. And running for office is a lot of work. Yes. And having a CPA firm is a lot of work. And having a family also is a lot of work. So you've learned how to clone yourself, I think. Well, I'm not quite that far. But I've worked out a few things that make me able to do that kind of thing. Very good. And so now you've declared your candidacy for the city council. Yes. And you are actively campaigning now. Yes. All right. So I'm going to ask the question. I mean, with everything you've got on your plate right now and how busy you are, why would you want to do this? I've been involved with the city council, a state too, but more so the city for over a decade now. And I've just seen some things that are not being done for the benefit of the public. Things that are policies that are not good. And with my background, I think I bring that expertise, especially to our money issues, that can really benefit people. I think there's no question. I always find it interesting how people will approach the money situation in government where it always seems that the answer is to increase revenues. Revenue enhancement. Yeah. And in the real world, in the business world that I come from, that's not always an option. A lot of times you got to tighten the belt a little bit around the expenses too, but I don't see a whole lot of that happening very often. So it's an interesting and frustrating observation to watch that. But we're going to take a break here shortly. But before we go, how important do you see the city council in the big scheme of things? I think it's really very important because it hits people with their day-to-day activities. It covers things like parks, which families go to on the weekend, our fire service, our police department, water, water supply, rail. All these areas, even a majority, I think, of the roads and our infrastructure, a lot of that is at the county level. How many city council members are there? There are nine. There's nine of them. So out of nine, they represent the entire state, the entire island of Oahu, which is the county of Hololulu, which represents about 75%, 80% of the population. Something like that, yeah. And probably a big chunk of the state budget. So the city council for the Hololulu County, nine people, they carry a lot of authority. They have a big responsibility. So it's something I think sometimes people don't realize how important a position that really is. So I applaud you for going and trying to get elected into that position. We need somebody with that background that you have. Now, we're going to go into that in a minute, but we're going to take a short break here. We're going to come right back in about 60 seconds. This is Business in Hawaii with Reg Baker. We're here with Natalie Iwasa today. She's talking a little bit about what she's done and where she's headed. And we'll be right back in about 60 seconds. I'm Ethan Allen, host of a likable science on Think Tech Hawaii. Every Friday afternoon at 2 PM, I hope you'll join me for a likable science. We'll dig into science, dig into the meat of science, dig into the joy and delight of science. We'll discover why science is indeed fun, why science is interesting, why people should care about science, and care about the research that's being done out there. It's all great. It's all entertaining. It's all educational. So I hope to join me for a likable science. Welcome back. This is Business in Hawaii with Reg Baker. We're here this week with Natalie Iwasa who has been an advocate in the East O'ahu area for quite some time, serving on both the neighborhood board and now running for city council. She also has a CPA and CPA firm. So she's gonna be pretty hot in this finance and budgeting area. And Natalie, with that being said, city council, as we just talked a little bit about, has a lot of responsibility, a lot of authority. They've got a lot of money that they have to manage properly. How is a city council structured? Do they have different committees and how does that work? Right, so as we mentioned earlier, there are nine members and the island is divided up into nine sections based on the population. And then within the council itself, they do have committees, for example, budget, executive matters and legal affairs, transportation, planning, and there are several others. And so the chair of the council then assigns the council members to each committee and they meet usually once a month. Then the full council meets once a month as well usually, although sometimes they have special meetings. And the meetings usually full council or committees, I guess the committees meet separately? Right, so and then they all have their agendas that they put out six days ahead of time. So for example, next week we have a bunch of committee meetings and then the week after that there's another full council meeting. But this is year round? Right, they actually they took off December a while ago and then I forget who it was that, oh no, you're not gonna be able to do that. So in December they have just one full council meeting, but yeah, it's pretty much year round. Right, so comparing it to the legislature that's going on right now, they're only for a few months whereas the city council's really year round. Right. And they have some of the things that they're responsible for is we kind of touched earlier is the bus. Now I was on Oahu Transit Services, it's an entity that kind of runs the bus for the city. I was on their board for a while and I saw that interaction. I was the chair of the finance and the audit committee. So I got to learn a lot about the bus and few people know this, or you may, but the bus, we have one of the best bus systems in the entire country here in Hawaii. Yes, we're very fortunate that way. We are, and they've done a super job out there and they have for quite some time, they have won award after award after award for a long time, they've done a super job. And I didn't even know that until I got on the board and found out how great they really were. But that all falls under the city council. Yes. And a lot of other things do as well. So what do you think are the most important committees to be on? You know, budget and planning. Our land is finite and so land use and management is very important here. But the money actually is a big driver because if you have a policy and you don't fund it, you can't really do much. It doesn't happen. Yeah, so the money is probably the most important. So assuming that you get elected and you win and you get on the city council, that's gonna be, you're gonna be looking at the budget committee to get involved in. Yes, I've actually paid very close attention to the budget and learned a lot over the last 10 years. And it's amazing. Once you get into that, you see what is happening and how things are done. But I've noticed, as I said earlier, areas that can be improved. And you and I had talked about raising fees and revenue and cutting. But there are other areas, I think, where we can bring more money in without increasing the taxes or without cutting. Well, that would be an interesting strategies to bring in more money to the budget without increasing taxes. How would you, what's your thoughts on doing that? Well, I think one of the things that we need to do is really look at the entire real property tax system. And just a kind of a small example is the real property tax credit. Now, some of this, I don't know how your viewers are, but as you know, we have the dependent care credit. So the real property tax credit for low income homeowners applies if they make $60,000 or less per year. Okay, but the problem here is that if somebody has the $5,000 per year child tax credit, I'm sorry, dependent care credit, which is pre-tax, they can have that. So basically they're making $65,000 and still getting the credit. And the reason is that the city doesn't look at that part of their income because as you know, it's kind of a notation and the taxable amount is actually less. And they look at that box one taxable amount. So, you know, when we tax people, it should be fair. If you're in basically the same type of situation you should be treated the same way. And sometimes that's not happening at the city level. Sometimes there are lobbyists out there that do a pretty effective job of making sure that things are not as fair as they should be. Yes. And you know, one, I guess one strategy or concept that I learned is that sometimes people use the code to make public policy and to guide people's actions in certain directions. And I'm not sure that that, I can see how that can be effective and I can see how it's had some positive but I've also seen where it is not so positive and it has actually hurt people. Yeah. And you know, I think it, tax, that's how it is. I mean, it is used as a policymaker and motivation incentive and we hear that all the time. You know, we got to incentivize our developers to put in affordable housing but I think what we need to do then is make sure that once that program is established, we reevaluate it and sometimes that's not happening. And I'll give you a, for example, you know, with our recycling, people have to pay tipping fees if they take stuff to the dump or to the H power. And so a while ago, I think a couple of decades ago they put this policy in place for recyclers to pay a reduced fee. And so it got things going. But what happened was there's one company that really was doing probably about 85, 90, maybe more percent of the recycling. This was for auto recycling. And I- That's another whole big issue too. Yeah, well now it's kind of changed too because the market has changed but what was happening is this particular company had a couple billion dollars on their balance sheet. Every single quarter they paid their shareholders dividends. It was a public firm. Wow. And so, yeah, there were a few small recyclers in there but the lion's share went to this for-profit entity. And so I brought that up when they were looking at this tipping fee and the discount. This company was being subsidized about $2 million per year. And so, you know, when we look at that and they're paying their shareholders every quarter, something's not right there. And so that's what I say. We need to reevaluate things when we put in these policies. Full disclosure, transparency, a lot of the current buzzwords that are floating around out there. What are your thoughts about some of this? Which kind of buzzwords? Well, for example, we're hearing about all of this, you know, in campaign spending issues that are just now popping up, you know, with different people. I mean, I guess what I'm getting at is that if we had more transparency, if we had more ethics in government, that things would probably run a little bit better. Yeah, I'm 100% supporter of ethics and it's strengthening our campaign spending laws. I think that this is an area where, unfortunately, because the people who are setting the policies are the ones who are being watched, shall we say, we don't always have the best policies being put into place. And I think it's really incumbent upon the people to say, hey, this is really important to us and we want you to do this. Sometimes the people don't understand what questions to ask. For example, there's not gonna be too many people out there in a general population sense that has a forensic accounting or a CPA background, like, well, at least I have the CPA side, you got both. But people just don't know what kind of questions to ask. Where do they look? And that's, I guess, part of what maybe your role could be if you got in on the city councils that you can keep an eye out for some of this stuff. Yeah, and actually, that's one of the things I try to do anyway. I try to educate people, let them know what's coming up, when things happen at city council that are not transparent, for example, if they sunshine an item onto the agenda, where it's something that's maybe important, like they did a few months ago about sponsorships, which is very controversial. That's not right. I posted on Facebook, or I let people know when I'm talking to them. I think that's really important. Now, brief me, executive summary, when you say sponsorships, what are you talking about? Well, okay, sponsorships. This was paying for, not quite advertising, but it's just a way to say, here I'm going to gift the city, whatever, as a park bench, and then they, so they get a little placard on there that says X, Y, Z companies. It's that kind of thing. And mostly, in this instance, it was geared toward the zoo, which is pretty sensitive with respect to the whole Capulani Park Trust. And so, yeah, that was an area where... And a lot of people don't understand how that, I was fortunate enough to be also on the board for the zoo for a little while. Many had. I've had an interesting career, but they work very closely with the trust, and there are certain things they can do. And when we had the concessions out there, there was some very careful strategizing because the trust didn't really want to have something that was making a profit. They wanted it to be for the benefit. So it's an interesting relationship out there. Hopefully the zoo has gotten their back on their feet when they're headed in the right direction now, but that also falls under the city council too. So that's a challenging area there. It's hard to get the elephants and some of the animals all the way out here in the middle of the Pacific Ocean sometimes. Yeah, and there, as you may know, they're going through accreditation pretty soon. And so there are some other issues with respect to the zoo. And one of the things that the voters did, the last election was support that new zoo fund. And I think that's another area where I would like to educate people more about what happens when we have these special funds, because you may know that the real property taxes, our biggest generator of revenue for the city. And as we take pieces out of there, I mean, you can just picture our foundation being eroded with X percent as to go to this and X percent here and another X percent. And pretty soon, you know, we're not left, but very much that we can use for our core services. And that's a dangerous thing. So now what happens, you start going out and borrowing money. I wish we had more time, but we have completely exhausted our time today. But I appreciate you taking the time to come out and talk to us. It was a very educational discussion. So thank you very much. You're welcome, Reg. This is Business in Hawaii with Reg Baker. We broadcast live every Thursday from two to two 30. We usually highlight matters that are going on in the community that impact businesses or business owners. Hopefully we'll see you next week. Until then, aloha.