 Think Tech Hawaii, civil engagement lives here. I'm Marcia Joyner and this is Community Matters. And we are starting a new series here at Think Tech to talk to candidates all over the state. So from the tip of the big island all the way to Hawaii. Today we are going to talk to our dear friend, and I'm going to screw up his name. He is a representative from Windwardside, and it's Jared. See, I knew I'd screwed up. Aloha, Jared. Aloha. Thank you for coming. Thank you so much. Thanks for having me. We want to talk about you are moving from the House to the Senate. So how long were you in the House of Representatives? I was elected in 2014, so this is my fourth year. Fourth year? Yeah. And so what part of, where were you, what district were you representing? So it was House District 48, which is Kaniohe, sort of the Makai side of Kaniohe, Kahlu'u, and it goes all the way out to Waihole. Oh. So now you are going to move over to the Senate. What districts are those? They're going to try. It's Senate District 24, which starts in Kailua, near Kailua High School in parts of Enchanted Lake, and it goes all the way out to Temple Valley, and sort of everything in between, all the way out to Aikahi. So most of Kaniohe, almost all of Kaniohe, and a good part of Kailua. Kailua and Heia, Kahlu, Waihewa, oh, no, Waihe, not Waihewa, come on, Marcia, Waihei, Waiholy, and I'm sure I missed some. Yeah, Aikahi, a good chunk of the Windward side. All the nice parts. All the nice parts. Well, there's all nice parts. Look, come on, it's really lovely. So tell us all about what it is that you're looking for in moving from the House to the Senate. Why the move? Well, I've been in the House for four years. I've learned a lot. I think I've done, I think I've done a lot. I think there's more, obviously, to do. The Senate seat is opening up because our current Senator is vacating and running for Lieutenant Governor. So I think it's an opportunity to do more. The terms are a little longer. It's a little bit different dynamic in the Senate. And I have some long-term projects that I'm trying to work on that I think will be, I'll have a little bit better chance to make an impact in the Senate. But I also think that I can do a good job and bring some urgency to the Senate. One of the things that I've, one of the big things I've learned about the Legislature is that on many issues, on most issues, there's just not enough urgency to really dig down and fix the problems that are causing some of the big challenges we have in our state. Some of that requires a new approach, new perspective, new ideas. But for the most part, it requires urgency to fix our problems. Too often we sit on things and wait until they bubble into crises, housing, homelessness. Those are just good examples. So... Yeah, it's easy in the Senate when you can say, well, next season, I'm in the City Council is like now. Well, not just the City Council, but all County Councils. The issues are today, where in the Legislature you can push it off till next time. Yeah, I think that happens probably too much in the Legislature. And we have big challenges coming up. We have big challenges now, and oftentimes, even when the economy is good and we invest large amounts of money to fix these problems, most of the time we don't address the underlying issues that are causing them. And so we need to start making some of those hard choices before it's too late. Well, what are the big issues on the windward side? Sure, I think one of the biggest ones that is often under-reported on the windward side is homelessness. We do have a large homeless population on the windward side, and we just don't get the coverage that other areas of the island get. And that doesn't mean that we don't have a problem. That means that our problem is being under-reported. We have a really significant problem with housing and the cost of living, as does the rest of the state. But again, I think on Oahu, oftentimes the windward side gets ignored on some of these major issues. And I think long-term education is a big concern, especially because of how expensive it is to live on the windward side. I've talked to a lot of folks who are just concerned that their kids aren't going to be able to afford to live there, and have to move to the mainland. Is the cost of living higher on the windward side than in town? I think it's expensive to live in Hawaii. Period. But is it more? But the property, for example, the property values on the windward side have risen faster in the last five years than any other part of the state of Hawaii. And folks from the windward side will tell you there's just a lot of pressure on the windward side. And part of that is because we have an overall problem with housing and the cost of living. But part of it is we have an influx of people who want to come. And so that's a major concern. It's a major challenge. It's a major part of a lot of different problems. Homelessness is another one. A lot of the homeless population on the windward side is actually from there. That was my question. Are these people that have lived there all their lives? A good portion of them are. And I think that is a reflection of the fact that we have been ignoring mental health issues. We've been ignoring things like better substance abuse funding and treatment. And we don't have enough low-income housing. And so, you know, these are things that we can make an impact on if we actually admit that they're a part of the problem and try to address them. Now, what I see, and of course I don't live there, but I think it would annoy the hell out of me to see the tour buses that go through there all day, every day. And that would just, I know that we need that as part of the economy at those big buses and that little road just unbelievable. Yeah. It's a big point of contention, especially contention, especially in Kailua. Folks in Kanyohi see what's happening in Kailua. Folks that are in Kailua have to deal with it. You know, it's hard to even go into Kailua town on a Saturday afternoon and get a cheeseburger because it's so crowded. And a lot of that is because of the influx of tourism. And a lot of the folks I've talked to have said, you know, they understand that it's good for business. And I just, my major concern is how we manage that growth. You know, it is getting crowded in Hawaii, on the windward side. You know, we just hit 10 million tourists a year. And the way we manage that growth is really important. And, you know, too often, especially when it comes to tourist traffic, we just sort of haven't been planning for how to accommodate this influx of people. In a lot of ways, we can't stop it, but I think we can do a better job of doing community planning, making sure that we're helping the local businesses that are in those areas stay and deal with the influx of tourists. Do those local businesses benefit from the tourists? Or do they just go straight to the Polynesian Cultural Center and just drive through? Well, so more and more in Kailua, especially, you're seeing a huge influx of tourists. And it's a double-edged sword because it does impact small businesses in a positive way because you have more traffic. You have more folks coming from the outside and spending money in Kailua. But, you know, part of the development changes that have been happening in Kailua have increased the property value. All that tourist traffic has led to things like higher rents. And these are contentious issues. And so a lot of that demand for tourist amenities and things in Kailua have driven up demand for commercial property. And some of that turnover is pushing people out. Some folks in the community are really not happy about that. And I think it's fair. We do need to, like I said, I think we just need to manage that a little better so that folks can take advantage of the economic benefits. But we don't lose the character of the community. Kailua was a sleepy town when I lived there in the 80s. And it's really changed rapidly. And so some of that, we can't help. But we, you know, it does take leadership to step in and figure out how to manage some of these issues more effectively. And Lanakai is just overwhelmed with tourists. That's too bad, because it used to be a beautiful place. Yeah, well, you know, and we have this issue everywhere, especially on the windward side with the internet. It's just easy for folks to access the little nooks and crannies of our state that were sort of secrets to everyone except the locals. And now when you have these large influxes of people that come in because of social media and what have you, we get these ancillary challenges. The hypostares is another one. You have people going through a residential neighborhood that was never used prior as a tourist thoroughfare. And it's causing all this contention. And so it's a problem that's just been sort of festering for a long time. What about now? And this was several years ago. I went to a workshop out there and that was a school next to the Rapoon Farms. And my question, my idiot question was, if all of these farms are here next to the school, why can't the children whose parents all work in these farms? Why can't the children eat from the farms? Why is it that they have to ship it in from Honolulu? All the same food that everybody gets, why can't they eat? Well, we got back to the bureaucracy. Still didn't make sense. When they grow this food, that they've lived on these farms, their parents have done this for generations. What can we do to have the children eat? From these farms all along the coast. Well, not just there, but Waimanalo, Wahiawa, the North Shore, all have farms. How can we encourage farming so that we can feed these children in these schools? Well, like we talked about before, we need urgency. That's the big difference is you're right. There is a lot of bureaucracy involved in how we manage school lunches and farm to table access. And just a lot of inertia that has made it difficult for local farmers who are trying to transition into growing food or expand out their ag operations to grow food. And farming is hard. It's difficult. And one of the things that makes it more difficult to grow food for schools is the bureaucracy and all of the different systems that you need to navigate, all the paperwork you got to do to make sure that you comply with all of the different DOE and state government and federal government regulations. And so we have been making progress on that. The Farm to School Initiative is now finally has legs. We started on the Big Island more recently in Mililani. And so we are working with the farmers, particularly in Kahalu'u, to try and find ways to connect them to the distributors and the DOE to try and get the ball rolling on how to get the food back into schools. Because you're right. It doesn't make any sense that we have elementary schools surrounded by farms and the farmers are selling their products to restaurants in Waikiki or hotels or at farmer's markets. And they can't they can't sell them to the cafeterias right across the street. Yes, that that is a big thing. Well, at least for me, because it looks so obvious. But then that never works. The obvious never works. So we need to take a break and then we'll be back in a minute and tell us more about the other issues in that neighborhood and why they should they let you. OK, we'll be right back. Aloha, I am Howard Wigg. I am the proud host of Cold Green for Think Tecawaii. I appear every other Monday at three and I have really, really exciting guests on the exciting topic of energy efficiency. Hope to see you there. My name is Stephanie Mock and I'm one of three hosts of Think Tecawaii's Hawaii Food and Farmer series. Our other hosts are Matt Johnson and Pomai Weigert. And we talk to those who are in the fields and behind the scenes of our local food system. We talk to farmers, chefs, restaurateurs and more to learn more about what goes into sustainable agriculture here in Hawaii. We are on a Thursdays at 4 p.m. And we hope we'll see you next time. Aloha, I'm Marcia Joyner and we are doing Community Matters with my dear friend, Jared, Representative Jared. And Jared's going to tell us his last name because I will screw it up every time. So whole color. I love that. It's okay to try. Jared is now a representative and has been for four years now. And he is going to run for Senate District 24, which the House District that he was in is encompassed in this Senate District. So tell us, A, the district, what communities are in what are the issues most and then why should we vote for you? So thank you. The district is Kaneohe and Kailua primarily. It starts out in Temple Valley. It goes all the way to Kailua High School Enchanted Lake area. And then it cuts across Kawainui Marsh. And I have Aikahi, the Kala Hill Hillside. And like I said, all of Kaneohe. The big challenges on the windward side in our district, I think, are not very different from the challenges in the rest of the state. It's too expensive to live in our community for seniors, for working families, for young people. We have a real big lack of housing. We have a growing homeless problem that's primarily related to a lot of the mental health and drug issues that we have in our community. And people are real concerned that our school system is not preparing our kids to be resilient enough to be able to survive in Hawaii with how expensive it is. There are lots of other challenges, but going through our community, those seem to be some of the real primary concerns. I think the reason why I'm running for office and why I think folks should vote for me is because I grew up there. My wife's from there. We're raising our kids there. We came home from college because we wanted our kids to be from the windward side and grew up near their family. Our family is mostly still there and because it's a nice place to live. It is lovely. So, you know, I think I understand the challenges that most of the folks in our district are going through because I'm living them too. It's hard to make it over there. And we need we need big change. A lot of our state government was designed for the plantation economy of Hawaii in the fifties when we became a state in 1959. And the truth is a lot of those systems that were set up in 1959 have not really changed very much since then. And unless you address some of those underlying issues, we're just going to continue to have problems in the same areas that we've always had. Education has always been a concern. It's always been expensive to live here. We've always had a shortage of housing. And, you know, ever since drugs came on the scene, we've we've always had this big problem in Hawaii. And if you're not talking about these issues, if you're not putting them, you know, on the agenda, it's difficult to get them solved. We we need to do a better job of of trying to fix these things. How do you enable emboldening your community to support your efforts? It's not enough. I don't think it's enough to vote and then go home. How do you embolden people that say, OK, you elected me. Now, come be with me, support me in these issues. How do you do that? Well, it takes effort. That's the biggest thing. And so oftentimes when you don't have community engagement, it's because the government stakeholders are not really making the effort to reach out. And I say that bluntly because I've seen it happen time and again, not just with the legislative representation, but you have agencies that have community centers that have that are located in neighborhoods, jails, health care facilities. And if you're not talking to the community, then they don't know what's happening and that most of the time can create these neighborhood concerns and controversies that could easily be remedied if you were just reaching out to people. So I've tried very hard to maintain communication with the folks in my district. That's why I knock on doors so I can figure out what people are really interested in, what they care about. And we try we try really hard to connect people. Email, social media, calling them, knocking on their doors to make sure that they're engaged. And that doesn't solve it all, but it does go a long way. I've seen it work. You do have to try and bring people together to move on issues. You're not always going to get it right and you're never going to make everybody happy, but it's better to try than not try. Yeah, because if your constituents feel comfortable in talking to you and calling you, wouldn't it be, well, it's simpler, easier to have it happen if they are part of you and you are part of them. Or am I dreaming here? Maybe I'm dreaming because I agree. I've tried to do that. I think it's better to, I like to sort of run to the fire when there are neighborhood concerns. I try and go out and just knock on the doors and talk to everybody to see what they think. Because number one, what often happens is people are often much more reasonable than people fear, people fear activists and protesters and that sort of thing. And when you actually talk to the folks in the communities where these issues are going on, oftentimes they're far more reasonable and willing to have a discussion on how to best move forward on issues. And then the other thing is people oftentimes don't know. People in Hawaii are busy. Oh yes. And so not everyone has the time to read hearing testimony or even to read the newspaper on an issue. It sometimes has just a cursory over what's going on. And so oftentimes people just don't know what's happening. And that's where you can folks can end up making assumptions or the wrong message can get out and it just spreads like wildfire. So better information and actually trying to reach out are really important. With last year it was almost 3,000 bills and 76 elected legislators, how do you handle 3,000 bills? Yeah, well that's a good point. I mean that's why we have our committee system. But the other thing I've learned is that everyone has their first amendment free speech right to have one of their representatives or senators introduce a bill on their behalf. Oftentimes folks introduce bills just to get the conversation started knowing that policy issues are sometimes take vetting. Sometimes you're not gonna get through the first time for good reason because you have to make sure you let the community weigh in and figure out what the consequences are of any particular piece of legislation. Now at the same time that's often, those are often used as excuses to kill bills that probably should pass. That's a part of the system. Democracy is ugly and messy. It is messy. It is messy. It works better than everything else. So when a bill comes, let's say I call my legislator and say this is the bill I want, then I send them to their office and they say this is fine, we like this. Then what happens? Well if they, if you're my constituent and you came to me and we discussed the idea and I think it has the potential to help and make it through the legislative process, then if you've already written the bill, then I'll take it and prepare it to be introduced in the legislative session. If it's just an idea, then we can work together to draft a specific language. And then we introduce it and it goes through the process. The House and the Senate will set it for hearing. We'll put out a public notice so that people who are interested, stakeholders can read the bill and submit testimony, ask questions about what the intended effects are and what the potential, positive or negative ramifications of any idea are. And then we debate it out and figure out whether we can make it work or not. So. And that's, but of 3,000, some of them have to go by the by, yeah. Usually only about 10% of those bills pass every year and that's because we don't have enough time to do everything, we probably shouldn't do everything. Some of these ideas are just bad. And sometimes it takes setting it for a hearing to figure that out. And so, I don't think that's a bad thing, I think it's a good thing. No, I'm just saying it just seems overwhelming to have that many and then try to make it work in that short amount of time with just 76 people. That's my, it's not a good or bad, it's just overwhelming the thought of that. And you're right, the legislature, the design of the legislature was 50 years ago. So perhaps we need to rethink the design of the legislature. I agree, I think that one of the big things we need to do at the legislature is embrace technology a little better, maybe a lot better. It should be, so oftentimes on contested issues, we will have community members or activists come in and they will stick their smartphone up and they will live stream hearings. I don't see why we can't do that. If you can do it on your smartphone, members of the public can, we should be able to do it. So those sorts of things to just provide better accessibility for folks are easy. Especially for you, because to come from Laie into the capital, they'd have to start yesterday to get there on time. So that would be wonderful to, especially if it's dedicated to your district and people out there know that they can reach you. Yeah, well, even though you have traffic on our side and it takes a long time, at least you can get there, there are folks on the neighbor islands. That can't get there at all? That really can't, yeah, or they'll fly in and then they'll miss the hearing because of scheduling or they'll have to leave. So we just can do a better job of providing a more accessible legislative process. And so we need to do that, it's a good point. Okay, now we have a minute left. And I want you to look right into the camera and tell everybody why they should vote for you. Okay, okay, well, I appreciate the time to come here and explain myself and just share some thoughts. I've tried really hard to get results for the community that I represent in Kaneohe because I'm from there, my family's from there. We're trying to raise our kids there. And it's a challenge, the windward side is getting crowded and expensive. And we have a lot of modern day problems that we need to start to try and address. And we're not gonna get everything right, we're gonna fail, but we need to keep trying. We need more urgency and more new ideas and approaches in the legislature. And so I'd appreciate the opportunity to try and fix those problems and address those issues. And so I'd appreciate your support. Well, thank you for everybody that's listening and anybody that doesn't know. The election is coming up August 11th. You can vote absentee, which I suggest the best thing to do is absentee and you fill it out at home, put it in a mail and it's done. And you don't have to worry about traffic and getting to the polls on time and all of that kind of stuff. So remember to vote for our friend here and it is August 11th. Aloha, thank you so much for coming. Thank you for having me. Aloha.