 Good afternoon and welcome to another episode of condo insider condo insider is a show for people who live and work in condominiums. And we hope we try to bring you timely issues that affect your quality of life in condominiums and I've started this series now about meet your candidates. And so I have with me as my guest today, Ikaika Hase and he's a candidate for council city council district six. And he'll be running in this this year's election. And I wanted people to meet him and discuss with him because you know it's really important to have people in government who, you know represent our issues and so I wanted to make sure that everybody out here, you know who lives in condo land gets to meet their candidates, and we're going to be showing his website. So if you want to and I really urge you to contact him, get in touch with him invite him to your condominium for coffee hours, and more questions and I'm going to ask him today. You know because he might be your council member. And you want to be the position where you know if you're concerned about something you can pick up the phone and say hey, Ikaika, you know I remember you when you were campaigning. And I have this concern and I want you to help us. Welcome that. Thank you chain. Thank you for joining me kaka. Yeah, thank you. Tell us about your background. Well, I live in clean valley. I was born on the winter side of my family is originally from the big island. And in fact max if the slides are available I can. There's some photos there to provide a little bit of illustration. Not the slides are not available no problem. Anyways, I'm my background is kind of a mix of different things but always have been very engaged in in our community since I was. I was a kid, literally since high school, I was active in local, you know, local affairs. My day, my day to day work is around climate and decarbonization working on a project, developing a project that pulls carbon dioxide from the atmosphere to make a carbon neutral jet fuel with the goal of decarbonizing aviation for Hawaii, because it's our single largest source of greenhouse gas emissions. And, you know, the thing that that keeps me focused. Okay, the slides are ready if you want you can put them up max thank you. Yeah, sure, let's do it. So yeah that's, that's me, my name, and my Twitter handle and Instagram handle. It's my family. And what I was just going to say is that the thing that keeps me motivated and kind of going every day is thinking about the world in which our children and all future generations are going to be living you know the. We don't live in such difficult and sort of insecure times, you know just I was a few minutes ago reading Twitter, which I probably shouldn't do very often, but they're talking about how, and right now in Ukraine in Ukraine, Putin is attacking a nuclear power plant. And that just, you know, it just sounds crazy, you know, and so there's so many things that we're dealing with right now both international globally, but also here at home, you know we have the rising costs of living. It's a million dollar median costs for a house. We have, you know, certainly COVID, whether we have things like the Red Hill water issue. There's a lot of concerns that local people have and I think a general feeling that Hawaii really isn't working well for local people. And I am a believer, actually that government, and you're welcome to advance the next slide max I'm not sure what the next slide is but hopefully anyways these are these are some of the neighbors in your neighborhood. I'm a firm believer that government can play a positive role in in terms of making things in terms of making life just a little bit easier for local people. That's that I think should be that the thing which drives everyone in public office it should be the way that we think about government. And, and I, what I mean is that I think we should take a leadership role. And so for things like this. Like the, you know, the fire sprinkler issue, you know, if we're going to mandate these things, we should certainly be helping to finance these changes these, these what are really unfunded mandates. And I want to just shout out to Carol, and also to Heidi for their leadership, you know, in the permitted interaction group, and for thinking through these issues with our community. I really value their leadership on these, these on these things. And my kind of, you know, quick take, you know, and certainly someone who's not, I'm not in a chair, you know, Carol's in the chair and I'm glad that she's there. My, my quick take is that is to follow her lead, and to support, you know, slowing down the process, make it more easy for for condos to convert. And to make the necessary upgrades, if they truly are necessary. And, you know, I think the city should be on the side of the condos and of the associations in terms of making it possible for them to get this done. The thing about too is that it's not just about the, you know, we're talking about condo land, Jane. Yeah, and I know that the audience for this show is going to be condo dwellers and professionals real estate. But I think that there's a broader, there's a broader theme that we need to pull out of this, which is that, you know, we're requiring a bunch of changes, you know, we're requiring, for instance, upgrades for folks living in more rural parts to upgrade their, you know, sewer systems and septic and all that kind of stuff. And, you know, just on the other side of the island, there's a fish pond Hawaiian fish pond. That's hundreds of years old and it's like 800 years old, but it's unable to produce food because upstream of it there are, there's the danger of, you know, waste going into the into the water system. And, and it's only because we can't finance the upgrades of those upland upstream, you know, systems that that we can't produce the food at the fish pond. I think that we need to be in the position in terms of the city and county of, of helping to make those sort of upgrades as well. And we have a broader series of obstacles that we're going to be facing in the next few years, you know, this decade is the decade of the climate transition. And we have to be thinking about what can government do proactively to address all of these hosts of concerns. So, you know, the strategy that we take, I think with the condos should be instructed for how we approach all of our broader public safety and public, you know, issues for our island. And that's what I think about it. We have to think about it as our island. How do we make it better for everybody, including the residents of the of the condominiums. And I'm glad to hear that. And you know, when we, when we put the headlines out for the show, I put down the area for District six is my Kiki downtown I'm not really. And because of reapportionment, you told me that that's all changed. So what area, what, what, what, what area. Are representing with with districts six. Yeah, so the reapportionment commission, I think it was in November that they change the lines. And so right now Council District six runs roughly from Kalihi to to Ward Avenue. And it's cut most of Mckiki out. I wouldn't really say the Mckiki is part of of Council six. But you still have downtown right. So downtown, absolutely downtown Chinatown, very important. You know, kind of the heart and soul culture of our community is comes out of those areas and lots of condoms. Lots of condoms. That's right. And we have Kalihi, you know, where a lot of our industrial work is done. It's a very, it's, I think of Council six is really being the heart of Honolulu. It's, it's the it's this really important region that that really sets the pace for the rest of the state. And you know, I think a lot of people don't realize that the city council, I mean, you, you have, you have a whole lot of influence and control over how life is affected for people who live in condoms. I mean, the city's in charge of rubbish removal and bulky item pickup. And you know, and one of the bones of contention and you'll find this out. You know, if you get elected to the city council, if an issue comes up on real property taxes, the condo people are going to come and and and and start, you know, screaming and yelling about hey, we pay property taxes but we don't get free rubbish pickup. We don't get city services. And you know, that, you know, that's that's something that you're going to have to deal with and you know we've been going round and round with them. And we have gotten some concessions for townhouses, you know, that aren't as large as high rises, you know where the city, you know has come out and the Department of Environmental Services, you know has allowed, maybe two days of rubbish pickup by the city. And three days by the private hall and to me, you know, that's, that's, you know, that's better than having to pay for five days of private rubbish pickup. I mean it does reduce your costs. And so, you know, we are very grateful to people on the city council, you know, for, you know, for cooperating or making sure that that happens with some townhouse projects. And it started with Arnold Morgato years ago, when he lived in Wailuna. And when I found out about hey, I don't know, how come you got rubbish pickup for your, you know, condo community your townhouse community. And you know, the rest of us don't have it. And so he he was very gracious. And he made sure that you know those buildings that you know could get, you know, maybe two days of city services got them. You've been able to get the council members, you know, down the line to agree, you know, to work with the Department of Environmental Services, and its successors, you know, to do that so I hope you want to, I hope you keep that in mind that when you see rubbish with mobile or bulky item pickup, you know, think of condos because I mean, that is a big bone of contention. And like, and, you know, with with condos we're always using emergency services, the police the fireman, the ambulances. And so those are very important, you know, to the to the condo people, and building permits God we every condominium right we're always doing projects, and everybody's grumbling about. And it takes us for so long to get, you know, building permits and, and how come it takes us, you know, a year to get these projects done. And, and, and that's, and that kind of segues into the fire safety ordinance, which requires us to get permits. And right now, we just got a report from the fire department, 360 buildings are, you know, subject to this ordinance. Yeah, about, you know, 50 of them don't have to put in sprinklers, because they're under 10 stories, or they have open exterior doors. And that's considered, you know, safe and so they're they're exempt from putting fire sprinklers in. But they still have to pass a life safety evaluation to show that the building is safe. And you know when you're talking older buildings. It's, and you know, and you look at that matrix that, you know, came out that was developed by the fire department. It's challenging, especially with the older buildings. The problem we have is the pipes are failing. The concrete is spalling, and those are not cheap fixes. And every building, it's not that we're not taking care of the buildings, they're getting old. Right. And so, and now we get hit with fire sprinklers and Marco pool they paid $5.4 million. You know, that's the benchmark we're looking at, but oh my God, you know, and, and, and out of the 200 that we know of that have submitted their LSE, only 16 have gotten passing scores. And to me that's a nightmare. When you think of all of those buildings have to get building permits. And so what's the city going to do they, they don't have enough people. But yet they expect us to comply with these deadlines and Carol has a bill council member coconut has a bill that is moving that is extending those deadlines, mainly because it you know, though, there's one deadline. That's may three of this year, where all of the LSEs have to be completed. And we're so few weeks. Yeah. And we still got 75 to 80 buildings that haven't done it. Right. Right. And so that deadline. There's a bills of 37 be moved to August. Okay, so we're moving and baby steps. So we're moving that one to August. But then, once you finish your out you know the LSE, you have to comply with it you have to do the fixes. Yeah. And now we know that there are at least 200 buildings that have to do the fixes. And even in the best of both of all worlds. I mean, if we had no supply chain problem, if we had enough, you know, labor for contractors which we know they're not because we can't, you know, even get proposals right now to do other work. How are we going to get 200 buildings through the system by 2025 that's the next deadline. All those buildings have to be in compliance by 2025. Right. And, and now you got a war. Right that's going to affect the financial markets and guess what the condos. None of us have money set aside for fire sprinklers or fire alarm system so we have to borrow the money. Yeah, and get and I, and what I did is I think I sent you the Fannie Mae letter lending letter. And now they're telling us that our units are unmarketable, because now we have an LSE which is a regulatory agency report that says, we have a broken building. Right, and we have to fix it, but yet we need to get building permits we need to get money. And you know so, I mean this is so you're walking into a hornet's nest, because I hear from, I hear from council member, from all over the island about what are we going to do can she stop this bill, or can she stop this ordinance and the easy question is no, the ordinance is the ordinance there. Yeah, I mean, but you know so we're going to have to do another bill. And here we are in the almost mid 2022. Right. And we have to get another bill to either suspend or repeal the ordinance. And neither one is going to be very popular, you know, with the fire department. Right. So Jane, I do have some hope and faith that the, you know that the current crop of elected officials, you know, with Tommy, and, and Carol, and, and also the mayor, that they will in the short term because this is all happening in the current calendar year right before I or any other candidate would take office right. And I think that they will figure out a way to address this immediate pressing problem. But you know it strikes me that I was, you know I was just reading the report that came out I think it was on the 16th of February, so just a couple of weeks ago from the pig from the permitted interaction group that council member, that was put together that, you know, these low passing rates it's in fact they're calling it a very low pass rate for certain LSE categories. Right. That, that should, that should frighten us all because what that means is it's more of an indictment, not of, of the buildings, but more of the whole system that we get this whole edifice that we've set up. All of these buildings aren't passing it means that you have to address the whole thing, you know reminds me of one, you know, like my, my kids are in high school and middle school. If everyone in the class is failing, it means the teacher is doing something wrong. That's what it means, you know, and so I think the approach that you're taking and that Carol's taking makes a lot of sense right now. Right. And you know, and so you know, so you what we want to find out from you is, are you going to support, you know, that that type of movement. Sure, sure. I mean, it has to happen right now right so it's, it very well may not be on on my plate but if it doesn't get resolved now then I certainly would. Yeah, you know, when I would take office. Yeah, because there's also a bill and you know we don't think that's going to get resolved this year, that if you're going to have a mandate. It's got to be government funded. You know, I mean, you're talking about condominiums who found out only two years ago that they're going to have to spend millions of dollars to make their building safe. And that's on top of the fact that their buildings are already old. And, you know, the types are failing. The structure is, you know, deteriorating because it's concrete. And that's nobody's fault. It just means that they're old and it's, and it takes money to do the repairs. And in my building, I mean we're, we're on our second small repair, the first small repair was 20 years ago. You know, so it's not like you do it once and it's fixed because concrete, you know, deteriorates over time. And so you do the small repair, and it's only good for maybe 10 or 15 years. And you have to do it again because we're right by the ocean. Yeah, I mean, I think there's a clear public interest in in helping in having the city play the role of a finance partner for this kind of thing. And you know the other issue that I wanted to bring up Jane is the is the situation that the condos are dealing with in terms of the insurance companies. Yes, and I would love to actually spend some time talking story with them because, you know, it's straight it seems to me as so I should tell you, I used to do insurance years ago. My family's businesses is life insurance and financial planning like retirement planning. And I find the insurance world to be really fascinating, because it's all about using, you know, financial vehicles and financial contracts to hopefully make people's lives better. You know, and to address the risk factors that we all live with, you know, whether it's your personal health or, you know, or some kind of, you know, accidental, something rather happening. But the same principle holds fast here that it's in the interest of the insurance companies to help these buildings to address these, whether they would consider to be risk factors. And I would love to sit down and talk with them to see but you know, is there a way for them to, to help finance these these important, the work that they're requiring. Right. Because, you know, right now the insurance companies are raising the premiums for high-rise condominiums. What I'm hearing. And you know, and under the ordinance, you have buildings in Waikiki like the Waipuna, the Waialana, I think it really is also open. They've got open exterior quarters. Right. And so under the ordinance, they don't have to. They're exempt from putting in fire sprinklers, but their insurance is going up. And that just doesn't seem fair. And so if we have to pay higher premiums, you know, to make sure to get over for the next couple of years, so that they reinsurance companies, you know, can, you know, recoup their losses. And normalize their operations then so be it, but you know, there should be a break for the buildings that are exempt from having to, you know, have the fire sprinklers to begin with. They're getting penalized for already being in compliance with the law. You know, so, so, you know, we should be trying to find out, you know, if we can get some kind of, you know, concession from the insurance company, you know, for those, for those buildings. You know, frankly, you know concession would be nice. But what I what I'd like to talk to them about is can we find a creative solution. You know, are there new ideas that can be brought to the table. You know, can can they help to finance this work. And so that means, you know, instead of instead of just playing sort of a punitive role where they're increasing the assessments increasing the, you know, the premiums I should say, for the building owners and for the associations. Is there a way that they can actually help to address the things that they're calling a risk. And to me that's a win win, you know, it helps everyone. It helps everyone and also it addresses one of the one of the, the thing that really bugs me about this, you know, this particular unfunded mandate, which is that, you know, life in Hawaii is so difficult for most people. Right. For most of the dwellers in all of these buildings and most houses, right, where everyone lives on a kind of a very thin margin of sustainability. You know, most people are living paycheck to paycheck. And, you know, I'm, I'm connected with, with, with United here local five the hotel workers union and you know we represent workers at Kaiser etc. And the model that that local five uses is is one job should be enough. And these kinds of issues like these these unfunded mandates are some of the things that make it so that one job is not enough. In fact, for the most for most people in Hawaii, two or three jobs, or what they need in order to get by. And so, you know, we need to we need a radical rethinking, and, and I say that with all the understanding, you know that that sometimes radical ideas can be frightening and they are folks, but frankly if you look around I think that we, we're in a moment right now where we're we actually need those those things we need to rethink the role that government is playing in our community. Right and you know and to add on to that, you know with condominiums were known for the fact that we have two distinct populations, we have the new families, right and can't afford a house yet. So they bought they buy condo. They're the ones who have paycheck to paycheck. And so when they get hit with a high, you know, a higher increase, you know, maintenance fees, or a special assessment. That's a problem. And then we have the other group, a large group of seniors, original owners. They bought 40 years ago they've never moved out. They're senior citizens on fixed incomes. And so it's very difficult for them. They don't have the flexibility, you know, to, to pay for special assessments. And so when when when when they get hit with higher maintenance fees, because you know now we've got to pay for failing pipes, and for spalling and now we have to do increased insurance if you don't have a sprinkler and the fire ordinance says it by safety ordinances you have to put in a sprinkler. There's a lot of money, you know, it's a and this is, it becomes very burdensome to those, those two types of, you know, populations in our condos. Absolutely. You know, so I'm glad I'm really glad that this, that the pig has done its work and that there's legislation moving right now through council. And I think we should all be supporting, you know, that the work that Carol is doing. And, and, and, you know, it's not going to end with with council member Fukunaga because she's term limited. And I'm pretty sure it's going to continue on to 23 so if you get elected can we count on your support in that connection. Absolutely just replace Fukunaga's name with mine and no problem we got it. Okay, I would be happy to carry on her work. Okay, I'm glad on behalf of condo owners in District six and condo residents in District six let me tell you we're very grateful and happy to hear that. Good. I'm glad to hear that. And like I said, you know, I'm going to be writing this article in business management Hawaii, about how condo dwellers condo residents and condo owners should become best friends with their candidates. You know, people will start listening to me and maybe you'll get a shout out, you know, to come for a coffee hour. And I hope that happens because there's a lot of condos in your district. And, and, and, you know, and I know from talking to council member Fukunaga, I mean she's been there a long time, and there's a lot of condo people that just pick up the phone and and call her and she you know her staff is very responsive. You know, so on a whole lot of issues other than the fire safety, fire safety ordinance. And so I hope that that you know the residents in council district six can can, you know, can be assured that they're going to get that level of service. Sure, be happy to and you know coffee is good for a coffee hour. I'm also open for Paul Hannah, if anyone wants to, you know, we can. I'm happy to bring a six back and we can share some good local IPAs or something together. Yeah, there's, but the conversation is really important. Absolutely. And I want to thank you for being part of the conversation today. And unfortunately, we run out of time. And but I'm, I'm, I'm, I want to thank you for being with me and sharing, you know, sharing your thoughts, and I wish you the success in your campaign, and I hope you get to meet a whole lot of, you know, condo residents in your district. I know those people out there. Like I said, you know, you can't just contact information was scrolling on the screen, give them a call and invite them for coffee do Paul Hannah. But you know, get to know your candidates, get to know your candidates because when something goes wrong, you want to be able to pick up the phone is a hey, I got, I, you know, you came to my coffee hour or I met you when you were campaigning and I voted for you. And so now I need some help. I wouldn't say that, even if they don't vote for me, I'm still, they're still my boss. It's okay. So my cell phone number folks want to just text me that might be the easiest is 808-221-2843 and 808-221-2843. Okay, thank you. And good luck in your campaign. Thanks, Jane. Thank you think tech appreciate your help today. And thank you for the condo people who are tuned in this week for our for this session. And please join us next week Thursday, three o'clock for another episode of condo insider for people who live in working condos Mahalo. Aloha.