 Welcome to Out and About, a show where we explore a variety of issues, topics, organizations, and people who are making some news in our society and trying to do some good. As a disclaimer, this show is just, from my perspective, it's not connected with any organization I might be affiliated with and any other way and there's a few of them, but yeah we just want to get out some news and perspective and today we are delighted to have a very special guest on it's Choon James, who is running for the mayor of Honolulu and I've known Choon from her, first just watching her in testimony at this city council and and from there then other things that she's been involved with. So welcome to the show today Choon and thank you for being here. Aloha, nice to be here. So I you know I've seen your passionate advocacy for a variety of issues at the city council and I've admired your ability to be very direct and frank on issues that are passionate to you and that's a gift that you have but but you do it in a way that that makes people listen and so what has made you decide to run for mayor? Well that's a good question you know we have been on the outside of City Hall for decades and for decades we have been talking about some things that are really important and COVID-19 has in a way kind of validated a lot of what we have been complaining, groaning about and and one of it was you know certainly preserving our farmlands and making sure that we have food security and you know issues like keeping open spaces and making sure that public lands belong in public hands, keep the country country and all those all those very important issues to us and I'm sure to many of our people here as well and and the fact that we really need to have a good fiscal management at City Hall in my opinion cities fall and cities rise with its fiscal management I mean come on we want things we love things but we need money to make that happen and so if we don't we're not careful with how we spend the very limited resources we have then then we're not really doing the job that the taxpayers would expect us to do it so that's one of the reasons why I'm running I've actually grown older and I've grown more impatient and many of us have come to the realization that hey you know if we really want change we need to be on the inside you know we need to be on inside if things happen better when you're in the inside I think you have been true so many of that way we can all protest we can all petition we can all testify they were blue in the face right and guess what at the very end of the very robust process guess what that decision does not reflect the general sentiment of the people and so we say man we need to get in there we need to get in there because the office of the mayor is a very powerful office you get to you get to put commissioners you get to put people in the boards and to me those commissions and those boards are there to promote more public participation so you get people for all walks of life you know we don't choose the same or same old people that sometimes occupy two or three positions simultaneously right to me commissions and boards are never meant to get extension of the government it's meant to provide a higher level of participation more independent thought and deliberation to the decision-making process so that's that's just some of the reasons why I'm running and you know on so many fronts so many our young people are working to the tree jobs just to put food on the table and so many of our older folks have to delay their retirement just to survive and we see the homeless there and we see pop projects here and we see so many of the issues so many on the management that seriously I think that we we the residents can definitely do a better job do a better job okay and so that's what it's all about now just for folks at home if they want to follow along and some of the issues that you're have have some passion about although there's a lot of them and obviously you can't cover all them on your website it's vote tune.com which is V as in Victor O. T. as in Tom E. Tune C. H. O. N. as in Nancy.com and you'll be able to find out more information and how to contact your campaign if people wanted to get involved or maybe even ask you some questions now is it would this be the first elective office that you that you would hold well I I actually two years ago on the very last day because there were there were two candidates for the city council that I felt were really going to be dental detrimental at least to the issues of our area so I felt like I needed to go in there and make sure that our voices and our issues were heard so I so I filed I filed on the last day and I campaigned for two months and you know I'm glad I did because the issue of keep the country country was on the table and all candidates affirm that they will keep the country country so maybe you you were able to move the needle even if you weren't elected to that office right yeah I knew I was taking a risk because some candidates have been preparing for eight years right I mean some some some people are really ambitious about that and the fact that also with the and and vision like a project all the candidates agreed and they would take on video that they will not change the boundary growth line in Malay Kahana that an agricultural land that they will not they will not encroach into the agriculture land so I feel like those were valuable results that I got from that campaign I'm very happy about it because now now we're still going through our Ko'olau Loa sustainable plan that has been going to the process guys for ten years way the timeliness is way up and it's gonna come up again and all we have to do is to tell the city member like hey this is what you said you were going to do and we are depending on you following up on what you said you were going to do so I'm very happy I'm very happy having run for that and and running for mayor certainly it is a new I I never wanted to and I thought well maybe if I had really been organized by I would have stopped the campaigning three four years ago start cultivating people and start collecting donations but it came down to that I do not believe that any demographic campaign should be bought by big money so I made a very clear clear line to say that I will not accept donations from Peck and Lobis and certainly that makes us the underdog right and well that's a but that's a really important and valid point is that you're not accepting money from from packs or corporations how about unions or have you been endorsed by any unions at all no I have not you know I have not sick any of those endorsement personally I felt like hey I I am going to be a mayor for everyone and and unions to me are important because if you are a worker it is easier to have a group of people for collective bargaining to improve your workplace rather than just one lonely self right so unions are important but my my take is that whether our resident is unionized or not the military or civilian rich or poor Democrat or Republican we are all in this together and that the the office of the mayor is a non-partisan office and so and so I to me you know everyone is going to be a friend everyone is going to be constituent the office of the mayor is a public office we should be open and transparent to everyone it's a great philosophy and yeah and admirable and you know I I hope other candidates and folks running for all types of elective office would share that that view and you know seeking public office it's a it's a it's a it's an interesting thing isn't it because you're you're supposed you got to weigh so many different options and ideas and everything what are people coming up to you now that they know that you're running for mayor and what is it that they're that's right on the top of their minds that oh if you become the mayor I want you to do blank why right well some are interesting thing is some are saying that if I if I help you can you give me a job now so so I'm policing hey you know well all in this the reason why I'm running is because we want to make sure that the government is functioning well and that it is putting the residents first we you know I'm not into groupie or that type of thing I say hey you know if you're looking for a job fine but you have got to believe in our cost right I am looking for people who are believing in our cost not what can you do for me right that's one kind of big question right that's what you know you can do for the country right so yes yeah right so I guess an answer to that could be yes I will give you a job but what I'm going to do is set a proper framework so that everybody will get a job and a good job right right right and and I'm so far very interesting that some people are very one issue oriented and and that's okay some some are saying well what do you think of climate change I say oh certainly we need to take care of that and to me it doesn't matter what you think of climate change you know whether you think is is it's not real or it's real but the idea is that we all I think we all can come to a conclusion that our nature our earth is always changing I mean it's a living thing right it's all changing and how are we going to adapt to that and how are we going to prepare for it even even in the bad times framework that is what we call SWAT you know as new OT so you have your strength and your weaknesses and you and you can look at it in that my frame that yeah you know you go to Mapona Pona and gosh the rose some portion of the area is it's flooded even when it's not raining right so how are we going to address those type of issues and that is the reason why I'm I'm also saying that hey we got to look at the real route from Middle Street to Alamoana talk about that for a little bit because I think that is one of those issues for people that you said they may be single issue right what do you think about the rail well I think that's one of those issues for people that you think about well I I'm from Singapore I I think that real is a wonderful thing in that rapid transit can be equalizer for people for transportation but in this this one this one it is so mess up it is so mess up we cannot have a project that started in 2006 at 2.7 billion and today is 2020 and it's at 9.3 billion and we still don't know what the end figure is going to be right and and the interesting thing is that the final route because it's not going to you age it should have gone to you age right because that's that's a lot of the traffic from the students the final route from Middle Street to Alamoana is going to be in a sea Honolulu sea level rise in that nation zone what does I think there's a reflect that we should be looking at instead of just pouring money into it and so something said whoa we can stop there because we can stop Alamoana well the thing is even if we stop at Alamoana we're still going to branch out to you age so what's the difference between stopping in Middle Street and branching out the UH then stopping at Alamoana what I find interesting is that there are several candidates who are saying that oh you know climate change is the crisis of our generation good you know we need to have that type of a my friend but on one hand you're saying that climate change is the crisis of our generation on the other hand you're saying that well we've got to just finish real to Alamoana is is illogical it's not you know it just we just cannot do public policy in that type of environment it's like the left hand isn't knowing what the right hand is doing right and and certainly you know I have been observing the real for a very long time like I say I'm not against mass rapid transit I you know it is a good thing but it's my opinion now that the real rapid transit is now controlled by an oligarchy that just wants to finish it because there is profit because they they want to continue to make sure that that income is coming in and I think it is it is unethical I think that to say to tell us first that it was for traffic decongestion and then for us to find out that it was only going to relieve 2% of it right and then to tell us it was going to be full jobs 10,000 jobs and guess what only about 1,400 people got the jobs because we were then finally told our local people don't have the expertise of local people don't have the experience so we got to hire people from foreign countries and we got to hire people from mainland and you have lots of workforce people coming in doing the job that will promise to our local folks and that I suppose that that gets to a another issue of yours which is about transparency in government perhaps you know an independent ethics commission some and ramped up civic participation you want to talk about those things some transparency ethics commission and and civic participation right right um to me to me a government has got to be open and the government going out to be transparent in fact I'm saying that one of the first thing I would do is I would set up a whistleblowing hotline so that anybody who feel that there might be some major discrepancy or they have major concerns that they are able to to share those misgiving in the confidential way so that they're not afraid that they're going to be retaliated or in any form that is part of being an open and transparent government we need to do that we cannot have a repeat of what was happening with our former chief K Aloha and Catherine K Aloha you know that that episode happened and took place along a long path so it's not like it happened one day it's been going on for a long time and there were people along the path for new but somehow they felt that they could not share or they could not report and you know we know that's going to cost us a lot of money still you know and and that mistrust in government and and I will also make sure that at the end of each week I want to post on the mayor's website the list of all the people who have come to visit the office of the mayor and and so you know who are the developers that come who are the lobbyists that come who are the friends that come whoever comes I think the public deserve the right to know the coming and the goings and who who are coming to visit us and also to have dialogue and I would expect every department head and every deputy head to do that it's not very hard to do you just you just paste it paste it on your website at the end of the month right that's a that's a wonderful idea that should be implemented immediately just so we can see and what's to hide it's the government the government is here we are the government it's here to serve us which I think it's lost a lot of the time so government doesn't always feel like it's serving the people right right and people feel like they're cut out to me it is a public office is is the people's office you know they should be able to to ask any question I'm certainly not going to hide behind press releases some you know I I'm it's been interesting to watch but but certainly you know it was good news would tell you the goodness it was bad news would tell you the bad news you know we're all in this together yeah it's it's it's just those those simple thoughts speak volumes about you know that the idea of an ethical approach to government that's transparent is possible and I know there's other ideas that you have that would increase accountability and and transparency in government and a lot of these are really simple steps that we could take they're not costly or difficult and in fact probably end up saving a lot of time and money in the long run or even the short run right so it's back to the basics you know it really expects to basic and I have testified before you know that any one of us we humans we will make mistakes you know those are errors and omission and certainly the employer should protect us but if any employee is intentionally and willfully violating the city charter the the Hawaii state law and the Constitution we the taxpayers shouldn't have to be forced to pay for the intentional and the willful wrongdoing I you know I want to make that very clear hey you know if we goof up once in a while we understand but if you are intentionally violating and intentionally doing wrong then don't expect us to bail you out because we should we the taxpayers should not have to do that it seems like we've seen some some pretty staggering cases of corruption lately and right and sadly I think you know most government workers most folks seeking elective office are very noble and high-minded and really do work to serve the public and it's a case where a few rotten apples end up spoiling the bunch or and changing public perception and especially in this day and age when we don't have when our faith in maybe some political process or politicians has been tested who is a who is a who is a leader that you admire that that you respect it could be someone who's alive or not alive but is there any people that come to mind that that you think I respect and admire that person that somebody that maybe that you've looked up to in the past or maybe have to keep a quote in your head from that person. Yeah I think that I admire anyone who gets in the public service and try to do good and I also resent those who get in the public office and try to loot the office but I I would just off the top my head think of a league one you from Singapore he would he would he is generally revered throughout the whole world as as the founder of Singapore someone who have brought Singapore from a third world country into a major country where efficiency is is premier and where the people welfare is really at the top of his of his lease and now first I have to say that I don't agree with everything he does you know because we have our US Constitution and I certainly firmly believe that there is a way the best document in the entire world in the entire human history but he has been able to very very clearly say hey we are here to serve the people and so when he campaign they all wear white just as a symbol of purity and transparency and in Singapore you know what I really like is that is that everyone everyone is expected to do good if you are in a public service you're expected to do good in fact you know he has seen that he has since died but one of the funny thing that he said was that he wanted and it didn't come about but he wanted to investigate any public elected official who may seem to have all of a sudden became rich he was so against corruption and he was trained in Cambridge England he was saying that okay if I see you any of the members of your parliament and all of a sudden I see that you're you're really rich and it seems like you you're making more money than you should as a member of the parliament I'm going to investigate you and it's true I think Singapore is ranked right at the top of transparency international's index it's just at the very top as far as openness and accountability and transparency from at least a corporate perspective so yeah and anyone who's been to Singapore can marvel at how it like you said it has gone from the third world to the first world and and the food is great everywhere too so that's one thing you've got to miss how long have you been in Hawaii anyway well I've been here since I was 17 years old so it's almost almost 45 you know 45 years old and and you know in Singapore and we can have the same culture we can expect that our public restaurants will be clean and that there'll be soap in there and that and that our yard we clean our parks be cleaned and it's a matter of expectation and it's a matter of culture and I think that we can do that we can do that and I certainly want to bring that and certainly it's a very green you would love it it's a green garden city right things grow and and they specifically make sure that the greenery is important you know like I say I don't agree with every of his tactics you know his methods yeah but the the idea and the idea of an efficient effective government where things are run well where there's no corruption that is certainly something that we can do here easily with that with a great amount of civic pride as well because right see that that's so like you said it's yes we can expect excellence from our from our public servants and then then it goes to every member of the society right right right and it becomes a culture but let me share with you a really funny story I was in Singapore for a month and we went all over the roads in the small roads the outer roads every kind of road there was not a single puddle not a single puddle and on our way home cruising back into Honolulu Airport we had to burst into laughter when that when the pilot through the intercom say we apologize there will be a two minutes delay because there's a pothole in front of the of the plane and we have to be pulled into the terminal and there it is I mean we've we've got a lot of work in front of us and and and and those are those terrific examples we have a lot of work in front of us we have a lot of opportunities in front of us but with people like you running for office with with the values that you hold and the ideas that you have I think are really terrific if we can keep that spirit up and and share that with other people regardless of who gets into office but of course you are hoping to be elected by mayor to mayor so people are going to be able to vote tune and if they want to from next week I believe the 20 something it'll get a ballot in the mail so for more information go to votetune.com and unfortunately we are out of time today tuned but it has been my great pleasure to have you on the show and for you to share some ideas with us so thank you for being here. Aloha.