 Good afternoon and thank you for joining us for another episode of Kondo Insider. My name is Jane Sugimura and I'm your host today and today we are going to be talking about something that is kind of near and dear to my heart mainly because I have to appear before the state legislature and the city council and testify and advocate on behalf of all of you guys you know who live and work and have anything to do with condos. Anyway the issue today is condos and the political process or why condo residents need to actively participate in the electoral process and we got a general election coming up on November 6th and so that's what this show is going to be concentrating on because I've had so many people who run for elected office tell me that they one of their their challenges is they can't get into condominiums to talk to the residents and so I have with me today as our guest Sharon Moriwaki who's running for the state Senate Senate District 12. Correct. Sharon thank you for joining us. Thank you Jane for having me on. This also is an area that's near and dear to me so thank you for having this show. Okay why don't you tell us about your background. Okay I grew up in the Kakaako who has shared an area so I'm in the district Senate district I went to Kaimaki High School most of my life has been in public service so I was the Labor Deputy Director and the Personnel Director for the state under the Waihe administration I was the Administrative Director for the courts under CJ Moon and that administration most recently I've been with the University of Hawaii both as initially as the Assistant Vice President for the University System and then more recently with the Public Policy Center. Okay and are you a condo resident by the way? I certainly am I've been for many years so condo and condo living is very important and I think that this is why another area that I'm really concerned about. In fact you're on the board of directors aren't you? I am. You're on the board of directors. So tell me what you're you know so you are familiar with condo issues. I am I am we're on the board in a Kakaako condo I'm a vice president we have a nine member board and and all of the problems of the condo come before the board as you know yeah is being on the board herself so we take care of all the association problems looking after the maintenance the operations the working with the property and the general manager for for a condo. Dealing with things is buying the new planters to the gantry and making sure that our building is safe and sound so yeah we deal with everyday problems as well as problems that are coming up from the homeowners as well. Okay and you're currently running for the state senate district number 12. I am. Why are you running? For me it all started with Kakaako about five years ago we saw all the building coming up in Kakaako we learned about it through Andrew Gomes picture of you know oh wow what was happening and being in condos as you stated earlier you really aren't involved so you don't know what's going around around you and so when we started looking and studying the law this being governed by the community development board we found that they were building too close too high not following the rules or the plans building residential where it should have been zone commercial and so a small group can make a difference our neighbors got together formed a group called Kakaako united and we took on the board we took on the governor at the time and we actually changed the law so now that board has representatives who come from the community and today we have a very good board that listens to everyone makes decisions for the people and and that's the kind of government I want to see in our district but really for the state you know a board that listens to everyone and when they make decisions each one tells you why they're voting the way they are and when you guys got together informed Kakaako united you basically had to learn what the political process was all about it we did we did and we had to not only learn the political process and who's who's on first what's on second but also had to read all those project development applications that came in and the plans and the rules so it was a lot of work by volunteers but but it was it was important for us to know that there were people in office that we could start nudging and you guys were able to make a difference we did and you did change all what hcda did in terms of approving condominiums for approval the board changed and and it changed the whole complexion of that board and the way they operate so it's very important to get involved for the for our listening audience for the people because these are all condominiums and your your district is oh 70% 70% condominiums 70% condominiums okay and I think we've got a map yes your district somewhere and if we can show it on on the screen while we're talking so what areas are in Senate district this is really your central urban Honolulu so it's Kakaako, Makali Mo'ili'ili, Alamoana, Sheridan and Waikiki so it's like that big chunk along the coastline and also intruding into Makali Mo'ili'ili are those condos and apartments so I see our urban district as kind of the canary in the whole mind that what happens in Kakaako or Waikiki really will infiltrate other areas although they say oh you know build densely downtown and and you know keep the country country that's not going to happen if we're not vigilant and we're not involved and we don't see what's good for Hawaii okay and you know in your campaign with all these condominiums what kind of challenges have you encountered well I think the biggest challenge is that condos are secure they and for good reason you want to have a secure place to live especially when some of these condos have 500 people in them you know so so they are secure so you can't really get into them but what I've done in my campaign is that build relationships so I know people in different condos or we meet people when I do coffee hours or when I do when I go to meetings and you find people who are interested in the cause we want good government we want to have people who are accessible to us okay so then they will have a coffee hour or they will send it out to their friends in the condo and you start educating condo members so you can get into condos but you have to do it relation person by person relationship a relationship remember the one that we had why Lana the couple was very gracious in having actually all the legislators are all the candidates there for the area and you you then get to meet firsthand and hear firsthand the issues and the people who will represent you and you know this this challenge about getting access to condominiums do you think that's a bad thing well yes and no I think it it's it I don't I don't think that it's a bad thing if you're trying to protect your residents it is a bad thing because condo dwellers stay within their unit sometimes not even within their building and so you're isolated from what's going around around you so then all of a sudden you see why is that homeless shelter or homeless building coming up across the street I didn't even know about I had to read it in the paper or why is it that that this condo is being built right across the street with lights shining and glaring in my my condo when I didn't know about it so so things happen around you and you're not aware because you're so isolated so it is a bad thing that you can't get informed about your environment and what affects you and one of the things to you know with with condo people or condo residents is it appears that you know a lot of them don't know their elected officials who their elected officials are so they really don't know who to call if something happens like like you mentioned the condo goes up across the street and somehow that building affects you know your quality of life in your building so it's like who do you call right right right and I and I think that's why the condo dwellers don't get their fair share but thanks to you you're there representing us at the Capitol but very few legislators live in condos and really don't represent the interest of condo dwellers so so you've got to educate them only way to do it is by being more involved and calling your legislator and legislators in condo dense districts like mine should really represent condo owners so you know you need to to really be in touch with them and if they're not doing the work of the district then you should be looking for other people to to run and and so your message to condo dwellers is that they need to know who who represents them yes and they need to be talking to their elected yes about their concerns yes and not waiting until something happens that you know like a building goes up and then it's kind of too late yes and and and this is how I believe the relationship should be between the constituents and the elected official is that you form a relationship so when you don't have to wait for the condo to come up next door your elected official should be aware of they see plans they see stuff coming before them on their desk they should be having your your number or your email and say hey this is coming up when you think about this so it's a two-way street not waiting just for the problem to come but if they don't know who you are kind of hard to get in touch with you and and that's the isolation of being in private condos where you have no contact with the elected official so part of it in getting engaged and finding out is now when it's campaign season go find out who's running and and put them to be accountable to you and then just like I guess one example is the fire sprinkler law that's right when the Marco Polo fire happened in July of 2017 the mayor immediately decided that all high-rise residential buildings had to be retrofitted with fire sprinklers and that created a huge uproar for you know about 300 buildings in Oahu yes and and a lot of the older buildings that didn't have fire sprinklers that are the residents are older so I'm fixed income so it was even more threatening to these people and you know luckily you know we were able to you know mobilize these people get them into the into the city council thanks to you and and and you know and and we have a champion there we have two champions we have council member Fuku Naga and council member and Kobayashi I mean who have a lot of condos and in fact their districts overlap yours right right and and and so I mean they decided that they were going to have this community conversation and then they dragged in council member Trevor Ozawa who was 100% in favor of that bill and after turning around right he listened to he listened for hours to these people and he testified at one of the council hearings you know I changed my you know he had to change his mind these were his constituents and and and and so that was what one of the lessons of you need to get involved because if you don't get involved bad things can happen to you and you know luckily we were able to change that was really a good example Trevor around but really good example that example and also the Alamona Beach Park where 1400 people swarmed and said we don't want all this this planning of the mayors and and do something about it and don't change it just fix the bathrooms thank you you know okay well you know we're going to take a break right now and then we're going to come back and we're going to talk about why you know condo residents should be involved in what happens in the state legislature where you're right okay okay this is think tech Hawaii raising public awareness if you're not in control of how you see yourself then who is live above the influence when I was growing up I was among the one in six American kids who struggle with hunger but with the power of breakfast the kids in your neighborhood can think big and be more go to hunger is dot org to make breakfast happen for kids in your neighborhood I'm Marsha joiner inviting you come visit with us on cannabis chronicles a 10,000 year artist where we explore and examine the plant that the news has given us and stay with us as we explore all the facets of this planet on Wednesdays at noon please join us hello okay welcome back to condo insider my name is Jane Sugimura and we are talking about why you should let elected officials and candidates have access to your building because you could benefit from it and I have as my guest today Sharon Moriwaki who's running for the state Senate in District 12 which is 70% condo dense and so you know she she's the one that you know would be dealing with all this now you're running for the state correct Senate and and there is a state law that governs all condos chapter 514 B correct yes and so a lot of the stuff that we deal with you know our changes to 514 B so you're you would you would be our go-to-person now right you get elected that's right and I hope that that any change to 514 B really will help the residents and owners of condos and not just change change it for change sake which many bills I've seen in the past have been you know knee-jerk reaction oh we don't like this and somebody gets after somebody but it really making it easier for people to live together in condos which are very dense kind of building multi in the last you know the last two years last two legislative sessions a form a form of this ombudsman bill was introduced and debated and I guess to boil it down the ombudsman bill is it would have been a process where a condo owner could complain to the ombudsman or to the ombudsman agency and that entity or that person would then resolve the problem and make the bad board of directors or associations somehow comply I mean and and although if I think if that was something that could be done I would probably have been in favor of it but one thing I think the legislature and and and now that you know hopefully if you make you know if you get elected you need to remember 514 B is based on the the principle of self-governance which means that the owners vote for the board the board runs the building and the legislature does not act as big brother to the associations and but you know there but there are issues that need to be resolved and and so I mean what have you got to say about you know the bills that might come on come to you on your desk well I think that I think that there is that on the books already the condo education fund and I don't think that it's been tapped enough and I don't think there's been enough I think this is a good program that should be continued but others like that and looking at educating residents I think people don't know that 514 B is self-governance run for run governance for multi dwelling multi multi unit dwellings and really it is people getting along with each other it's like having a big family in one building and and how do we get along so a lot of these going to third parties or ombudsman or anything else outside or to court a lot of people you know say we're gonna sue you we don't like what you're doing we're gonna sue you but it they don't realize that all of that money is coming out of their association budget which really should be there to build or maintain their their building and their property grounds and and pay their staff that that's depleting their supply of making their building a really nice place to live right and those people say I'm gonna sue you obviously don't know what the law says because the law basically says if you sue the association and don't go through the alternative dispute resolution process that's in the statute you may not recover your attorney's fees because a judge can look at your lawsuit and say hey you know there's a statute that says you got to go to mediation first and you got to go to arbitration and you come to the courts if neither one of those things work yeah and we need to educate residents that you can't just go really nearly and sue anybody you want because you don't get your way and that's a real big problem in condos I think right and and there is you know something called a condo specialist up at the you know and and their state employee they're with the DCCA under the real estate commission and I think there's a number and there's a website the website is a terrific website the state of Hawaii DCCC real estate commission and it has articles it has the whole 514 be it has and it has seminars they have tape seminars on and you know on on on different topics that are on that website and and I mean there's just a huge resource in fact one year as a as some for the realtors they taught them there was a whole seminar on my 14 be chapter by you know you know they went through the entire chapter and that is all on the DCCA website so anybody who says that that they can't you know they don't there's no resource they have not been to the DCCA real estate and this is free do you have one of your shows that does that so that you know at least like an intro if you're coming on the board this is an intro here's what you need to know I mean is there's something like that that they can get these we haven't quite done a show on that and that's one thing maybe Richard and I should think about but I know when we did our seminar on you know now you're on the board mm-hmm what do you do yeah one of those kind yeah yeah we did talk about resources we spent the whole maybe first 15 minutes talking about resources that is available online that's great you know so that you it's not like you have to go out and get a book or you have to go someplace you can just sit there in the computer if you don't have a computer go to the library right all of this stuff is online and you know the things that you know we need to you know teach me teach the residents is that they can't keep hiding behind things like well I don't know or I'm gonna sue you I mean because that shows that they don't know what you know what what their remedies are and one of the things the mediation the evaluative mediation is you paid for that you you have a you you you fall for that of mediation and you have a retired judge who is the neutral and you pay for one hour of that person's professional time and the state of Hawaii will subsidize the balance because it's important to resolve these disputes cheaply and quickly because you don't want people fighting with each other living in the same building right that I mean that's a problem when you when you have people who are mad at each other and and and they live in the building and it just festers and they and if it isn't resolved one way or the other it gets worse it does I mean it's very awkward for people who live in the building and and to deal with that so does DCCA have monies or can they use part of that condo fund to actually send out to all the condo resident managers or board presidents once a year then here are the resources is the website here's the link at least send it out so that they know because I kind of like to think that you know and we've been working with the property managers for you know quite a while and so they should you know have they should know about the access they may know but they're not giving it to like right that that's what I what my concern was because you know there was in fact there was this this thing that was in the newspaper about the one point nine million dollar lawsuit in Maui about a disabled person yes I was not allowed to keep his wood floor yeah you know and I'm thinking how why did that go to court and when I talked to the lawyer he did not know about the evaluative mediation program and you know so I'm thinking okay we have failed you know and and he says he will look at that the next time you know and and it's all the lawyer the lawyer the lawyer didn't know about so it's on the website on the DCCA website the whole thing about evaluative mediation you pick up the phone and you call dispute prevention resolution or any of the contractors that are listed on the DCCA who do that it means it's a contract with the state of Hawaii okay and they're listed there and if you want to do evaluative mediation you all you do is you pick up the phone and you call them and they will arrange if you're the unit owner and you want to do mediation with your evative mediation with your association you call the contractor and that contractor will notify the association that you've contacted them and they contact the DCCA to arrange for the payment so you don't want to make one phone call so easy and so few no and there's no paperwork involved you know and so it's you know so anyway we have to keep doing these shows and trying to get the word out you know and and the legislators all know about the value of me and because we we had to pitch it to the legislators saying you got to approve this and and because they have to approve using the condo and fun to pay for the mediators yeah right so we had to pitch the money we said look you know you don't know what it's like living in a condominium when you're fighting with your owners I mean it's a living hell it is because you see them in the elevator you see them in the hallway and they get they give you stink eye and then they're talking to their neighbors and you know and everybody's you know it doesn't make living very very enjoyable yeah it's a big mess yeah and so yeah we need to we need to try to get the word out about this and but we're getting kind of close to the end of our show how can condo residents get involved in the electoral process well I think number one be be engaged look through candidate forums and see who's running find out who's running call them I I have my walking card it has my email address my phone number my website go to the website check them out and in fact it's it's appearing on the screen I just saw you did oh yeah the office of elections and then you can find out who the candidates are going to office of elections but you should know it's in the papers but go find out who is your find out where you live and what your district is and if you go to the office of elections they have a they have this put your address in and they'll tell you where you're precinct or your representative district your state district your council district and those are three different representatives you have to tap all the time so get to know them get to know who's running if you you know haven't had your legislator in or your senator or your representative in your district call them and say I want to find out more about about who you are what you're doing you know and make contact and if they're not responsive keep looking at the other candidates the whole thing I think democracy is exciting we should get more people running because it should be competitive so that you know you have choices right now there's too few running so you don't have the choice but make make them a count of make people in office accountable and if not find other people it's okay now I want to make the announcement that October 9th is a deadline for people to register to vote and on that website that link you can register online October 9th is the last day that you can register for the general election but there's also walk you can walk on the day of you can go in with your ID and you can register that day but the October 9th date is if you want to have ballot mail to you but the walk in on the day of you can take your ID and register okay well we're running out of time so we're going to have to end this program thank you very much for coming thank you good luck on your campaign thank you very much and and next week we're going to be talking about how to run a meeting and and and to deal with you know the crazy people who come in and and try to disrupt your meeting but anyway please join us for con another episode of condo and cider for people who live work and deal with condos thank you very much for joining us great thank you