 We're back, we're live, we're here at 2 o'clock on Friday with Community Matters. We care deeply about the community, we care therefore deeply about any election. And especially the mayor election coming up. And we have a candidate for mayor right here in the studio, and he's Ron Hokely, and he's an old acquaintance of mine going way back. Thank you for coming down, Ron. Oh, thanks for having me, James. You're running for mayor. Why? I got fed up with the way the city is going. Didn't like how the finances are being spent and how we're taking care of our people, thought the focus is wrong. I felt that special interests were intruding on good decisions, the setting of proper priorities, and it just got so angry one day that I said I'm going to run for mayor without any planning or forth thought, but to say, hey, before I die, I want to do something to contribute because I think things can be much better than they are. Well, you're into community. You have a successful business career, you're retired, and now you're spending time doing community work. Am I right? Yes, yes. In fact, when I retired, I got into a lot of volunteer work that led to some full-time work. I was the director of the homeless shelter up on the Big Island when I was living over there for a couple of years and directed the Kauai High Community Shelter, and then when I came back to, and that lasted there until people, we found a replacement, came back to Honolulu and was volunteering at the Youth Challenge Academy, National Guard Youth Challenge Academy for youth who dropped out of school, and that led to me taking over and running the program. So yeah, I've been doing quite a few things. Why? I love Hawaii. I love the people of Hawaii. My heart is just full for what I've been given here in Hawaii, the values, the people I've met. My family's all been raised here. In fact, it's really interesting. I'm the only Hawley in my family. I married a Filipino girl, had children. They've married Hawaiian or Puerto Rican, so when we get together for family, it's really local stuff. So you're not a politician. No. You're on the neighborhood board for a while. I am. You are now. I am on the neighborhood board at Ever Beach, the neighborhood board. But other than that, you're really not, you're a business person and maybe a community worker kind of person who volunteers for things. But why does your life in business and your life in general qualify you to be mayor of this very complex, difficult and sometimes troublesome city? For sure. I think I'm qualified, I feel I'm qualified for fiscal reasons. I have a lot of business dealings with people. They trusted their savings and their future to me and I was able to help them and deliver on my promises. I really understand money and I understand the value of money to human beings. But early on in my life, I studied to be a Catholic priest and lived eight years as a monk in the Catholic religious order and taught over here at St. Louis and Shamanad. And there there's a great deal of emphasis on compassion. You know, I don't think you would be in that kind of work unless you did have compassion and care about human beings. So there's a lot of problems and things that people are suffering, you know, here. The stresses of living in Hawaii are so great because of the high cost of living, put stress on the family to just keep up. And that has to be understood and solutions, long-term solutions have to be generated that will help them move from, move out of these stresses so they can enjoy a high quality of life. We need that. So you know, political life in Hawaii is tough and so are campaigns for that matter. They say in Hawaii politics is a blood sport. They say that. And here you are, a businessman and a person who does good works and you want to enter that. You know, can you handle that? I mean, are you ready for that? Because it won't be easy running a city with political interests all around you and traps in every direction. You know, one of the aspects that really bothers me is the political process itself that you just described. I think it can corrupt people as they get into it because in Hawaii, and I've learned this firsthand now that I'm trying to get some traction and get some recognition to be successful. Politicians take special interest money, they endorsements, they're promises that are made to these people or their expectations and it interferes with these very smart people who are running for office and are elected to office and it interferes with their setting of priorities. It interferes with their decision making. I mean, a good point is the rail. It's unbelievable to me and one of the things I used to yell at my television about all the time was, I can see yelling at it, I do that to you, I know and it didn't answer me back and I got no satisfaction from it. But the rail was never intended or offered to us to solve traffic congestion. When I read in the EIS, the Environmental Impact Statement, it states very clearly that rail will be worse, I mean, when we build rail, traffic congestion will be worse than it is now. So I'm living in West O'ahu so as I'm driving out and I'm sitting in there for my hour, it's never going to be better. And in fact, they say it's going to be about 21% worse after rail is built. So going forward, any long-term solution to where we are with rail has got to include a consideration of how that decision will impact traffic congestion now. I think our people want a better quality of life and they certainly don't get it by staying in the traffic for an hour. Well, I'm interested in unfunded liabilities and now in a discussion just before the show, you are very interested in unfunded liabilities and the rail is on that balance sheet somewhere along with a lot of other unfunded liabilities. How do you see that? Again, what got me so frustrated because I don't understand how people are making decisions. Prior to making a decision to go into the rail project and spend anywhere from five to ten billion dollars, the city and county of Honolulu had unfunded liabilities of 1.4 billion for the pension plan of the city and county workers, 1.8 billion for the city and county workers' health care, vision and dental, and then 5.2 billion for an agreement with the federal government to improve our sewage system to bring it up to federal codes. We don't do secondary treatment of sewage and so the estimate is 5.2 billion to do that. That's been a fact for a long time. For a while. A long time. But we're not doing it. We're not doing it. We're not. We're not. Addressing the problem, you know, because we don't earmark money to do that. We don't have enough money. In addition to that, then we go into rail, okay, so we tax people more, but I borrowed myself the other day by reading the audit of the rail and then there's no talking about a sinking fund to replace rail cars and other things that deteriorate over time. And I looked and said, okay, well, how much would other municipalities be setting aside? And they set aside annually about $100 million a year to replace worn out infrastructure over, okay. And then we also, and it's not talked about very much, but the subsidy that the city and county will have to pay for rail is about 70% of the operating costs for rail. And the federal government can help, but the most that they have helped anybody was 23%, and that's in Portland, and then 18% in Los Angeles. So, you know, we're going to have a 50-plus percent to subsidize. And that's ongoing. That's money coming out someplace from the budget. So it's an incredible... Well, if you take all these unfunded liabilities or these liabilities, what have you characterized on that? And you think current tax rates, current income of the city, it really, especially with the rail, because rail, so ultimately, it'll be way over $10 billion. In my opinion, it will be, too. I mean, Parsons Brankerhoff did the job in the Boston dig. I think it was three times the original. I didn't know that. So, you know, it's going to be a lot of money. And then when you consider all these other unfunded liabilities, it seems to me we're under water. It seems to me that ultimately we will not be solvent. I mean, you could even make that claim now. So what about that? I mean, cities can go bankrupt, states cannot, and Puerto Rico cannot. What's going to happen here? Yeah. I don't know what's going to happen. If the leadership keeps coming and expanding, one of the thoughts that I had was we need to turn inward. We need to assess where we are. Just, you know, as a community, how are we using our land? How are we helping our people have a better quality of life? I think we've got to stop, look at things, and start a realistic plan to pay down our liabilities and get ourselves back on firm footing. I think the people that they really knew what we were doing, very transparent about it, and explain it clearly and allow anybody to dispute it or criticize it and look at it, I think the people would say, OK, we're going to have to bite the bullet at some point. But I know where the money is going, and I know that it's being honestly applied to where they say it's going to be applied. And I don't think we know that all the time now. And regrettably, the press has not made it clear. It's like, for example, there'd be an article about how maybe we're under water, but that passes. The fickle finger moves forward, and we forget about the article. We're onto some other piece of news, and the reality is we never fixed the first piece. That's right. Short attention span. Yes. Because my wife and I talk about it all the time. People are so busy just surviving. We're just trying to make it through life. There's so much pressure on us. And I think that it caused me at one time to say recently, as I'm thinking about these issues, why are we in Hawaii having such a large percentage of our population homeless? Why? What is it about Hawaii? And I think it's the stresses we put on ourselves. And they cause abuse in the family because they're so uptight. People will strike out on the ones that they're close to. I think that people just give up, get ill. And even when I was on the big island and was in charge of the homeless shelter, what we found out was many of our homeless were working two and three jobs. They started on to drugs to keep themselves going because they had such little sleep, and they end up home. Things blow up, and they're homeless. It's an old story. It's an old story. And the news I've just been reading is talking about a really coming back of a lot of meth and other drugs that being used here in Hawaii. So. That's Ron Hockley. He's trained in philosophy, among other things. So he's got philosophy, he's got business. He's been following the community and doing good works for it for many years, completely invested in Hawaii. And we're gonna take a break. But when we come back, we're gonna discuss how the press and the organizers of the upcoming mayoral debate are treating him and whether they're treating him properly. We'll be right back. Aloha, my name is Danelia, D-A-N-E-L-I-A. And I'm the other half of the duo, John Newman. We are the co-hosts of Keys to Success, which is live on Think Tech live streaming network series weekly on Thursdays at 11 a.m. Aloha. Aloha. Aloha, join us at TEDxHonolulu 2016. It's at the Blaisdale, July 9th. From 10 to 5, the discount code is R-A-C-H-A-E-L underscore T-E-D-X-H-N-L. See you then. Aloha, my channel, University of Hawaii, football team under Rolovich is gonna kick butt this season. In case you didn't understand me, University of Hawaii football team is gonna kick butt under Rolovich this season. So be sure to follow us on Think Tech Hawaii and Hibachi Top, albeit every game. And remember, Aloha. We're back. I told you we're coming back. This is Ron Hokely, an old friend of mine from way back when, and he's running for mayor and good for him. Good for him because he is not a politician, he is a community person. And that's really very important. So there's a debate coming up, a mayoral debate. And of course we know from the national campaigns that that's important because it gives you a lot of contact with the people. What is going on? Well, I only learned that there was gonna be a debate on this coming Monday because Dijou withdrew from the debate. So there's a lot of controversy about that. And I said, gee, I didn't know that. So I started reaching out to say, why wasn't I included, could I be included? I'm a viable, qualified candidate. And you're an official candidate. You filed your papers, everybody knows. And I asked people to at least look at my background to know that I got some substance behind me. I'm very much invested in the community. And would they consider inviting a non-politician even though I realize I have no name recognition. I got a sense that if people knew that there was an alternative to politicians, that there would be a lot of interest in my candidacy, a lot of interest in how I'm going to attack problems, what my priorities are. And I'm not sure exactly what I would do in the first 100 days, but we should talk about that. Maybe talk about it. So okay, I mean, I hope you do get on the debate panel because I think it's important that we hear from you. And I agree absolutely that non-politicians should be involved, in many ways non-politicians can be preferable, they don't go in with baggage. Right, or set influences on them, or a way of seeing things that are not controlled by a party, this is a non-partisan race. But I mean, that's what it says, but I'm looking at it and it looks like a Republican Democrat mayor or race, at least that's what it looks like to me. And so I will go in there with a very open mind. What I think I'm really good at is bringing people together who have demonstrated competency to solve the problems that we have. I don't have a hidden agenda, except to make the quality of life better for all of us. And my grandchildren and my children, my grandchildren. So I think a non-politician not trying to work his way up, let me just talk just a moment about that. What I see as a flaw in the political process is that you get into an office, you then, people know about you, they give you money if you will back certain projects or be in favor of things that they want done. And then that allows you to leverage your office to get to the next level of office. It just keeps going on. We saw that. Occupational career path. Yeah, it's not, and that's not what I'm about. Obviously my age, I'm not about that. I really do care about Hawaii and would like to leave something for the people, to work with them to make Hawaii a better place. And instead of going off the screen and having them find all the trouble, which I think is going to happen. So inherent in what you say though, Ron, is the notion that it's time. It's time for a non-politician. The people will appreciate, part of your thinking must include this, will appreciate me as a refreshing person. Can you talk about that? When I saw what happened in national politics, Sanders and Trump, there was a lot of expression of support for these outsiders like a person like myself, because people are so angry with the way things are done. You just can't keep electing people to do and expect a different response. I mean, that's the height of insanity. So I thought that this was a, I'm sure that that influenced me subconsciously to say, hey, maybe now's the time to try. But again, I believe with all my heart that if people knew there was an alternative that there would be a lot of interest in my candidacy. Yeah, would you agree with me that people are disaffected with government? Because they've seen the politician side of things for so long and the special interests for so long and the mistakes for so long that they really are looking for something better and they're disaffected and they don't have confidence in the system. You see it in so many ways. You do, you know, I, since this is where we're talking and I feel natural here talking with you. But I thought in the 1950s, we had the same thing with the big five, the largest companies in Hawaii had their special interests and controlled Hawaii. And there was a group of young men and women coming back from the Second World War that said, no, we're not gonna allow that anymore. Those special interests are ruining Hawaii and they took on those special interests that were there and in transfer so long. And myself and other people are saying, it's time for another type of insurgency or revolution to say, we're not gonna just allow special interests to control us. We want decisions to be made not just to benefit a few but to benefit the whole population. That's profound. So let's talk about, you know, what you might do if you were elected. Let's assume for this discussion, you are elected. Okay. You marched into the city hall. In fear and trembling. What are your first steps? Well, I would assemble the experts who have demonstrated expertise in the rail. That's a huge issue. And look in a very quick period of time, the developing solutions. Since the mayor and other people have said that we're gonna stop at Middle Street, Civil Beat has shown a couple articles. Civil Beat's shown one by Ray Suchyama. And- He's been here at this table many times. Yes, all right. And then Randy Roth, Cliff Slater, and Panos Panaveros showed an article about converting the existing Skyway to buses. So, I mean, there are ideas out there. There are people who will come forward. If they know that they're gonna be seriously considered in there, we don't have an endpoint that we absolutely are committed to. We're the endpoint of building the rail. The endpoint is to reduce traffic congestion now and in the future. So I think we would gather, I would, that would be a high priority. And I'd be accountable for that. I would be accountable to present that to the people, all of the ideas and labeling them in the order that we think is best, the experts think is best and that I would agree with or my administration would agree with. So that would be top priority. And I'd also, all of those answers have also got to have some physical responsibility to them too. So that would be, and homelessness is really close to my heart. I feel very compassionate for the people, but they do not have the right to make all the decisions that they want to. They might have, they might want to make a decision not to be sheltered. I don't think they have that right for the health and safety of themselves and for all of the citizens. I don't think they have the right to make that. Just like I don't have the right to make a decision to drive drunk. There are a lot of decisions we don't have the right to make. And I think for the, again, for the health and safety, that we have to insist that people are not allowed to be unsheltered. So, but at the same time, one of the first points that I would do is create a list, a centralized list, and know as much as I can, or the social services, as much as we can about who these people are, they'll be named. They're not just homeless. I think of them as residents without shelter. So we would know who they are, what their background is, and that might give us some insight into how to get them sheltered and work with them. So those would be some things that I would do right away. How would you deal with the, what I think we both agree is a fiscal crisis. How would you try to write the ship on this? I get some transparency and communicate that to everybody. There was an article in Civil Beat the other day and they featured Natalie Iwasa, analysis of the rail, all the math within that. She's my treasure. She wasn't when she wrote the article. I got so enthusiastic about that. I reached out to her telling her how impressed I was. Good for you, good for her. And then she became familiar with my candidacy and is my treasure. She's very smart. She's one of the few people that I have ever heard of that goes to all the city council meetings, the heart meetings, the ethics meetings. She cares, Steve. And she's got a blog. I mean, sharp lady. But that told me is that we don't know what's going on. And we'd have to get a very good auditing group in to just see how are we spending our money? I'd like just to know that. And then see how we might deploy that best. Yeah. You know, part of the challenge of being mayor is to deal with the city council. And the relationship between the mayor and the city council has been, what do you want to say, up and down? Lots of the time it's down. And you're a guy, you have no hubris. You're a modest man. Can you deal with sort of the wild horses in the city council run? One of the things that I did is deal with a lot of egos and things. When I was at Merrill Lynch, I got to friendship with a man named Stephen Covey. Stephen Covey wrote a book called The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People. And he and I taught that back in Princeton to people at Merrill Lynch. And since then I'm still licensed to facilitate the seven habits. And one of the main principles of The Seven Habits, the fifth principle, is seek first to understand, then to be understood. So I would really go and reach out and listen to understand, not just to argue points, but really understand the point. Because I believe everybody in the city council wants to do his best for Honolulu. I absolutely believe that. But I think sometimes egos get in the way or careers, future careers might get in the way if I wanted to be the next governor, if I wanted to be the next mayor, if I wanted to be the next city council chairman, or something like that. So I would really, I think I've got the skill to listen to understand. My wife might argue with that sometimes, but. No, but Marcus Aurelius would not. No, he would not. He would agree. He would agree. He's a seminal person for this whole discussion. Look it up, Marcus Aurelius. He's referring to a book of meditations by Marcus Aurelius. I happen to be reading right now. So Ron, we have camera, we call that camera Vivian over there. And could you look at Vivian? Vivian is the people now. And can you talk to the people about your feeling about this election, your feeling about this moment in history, your feeling about the need for somebody like you to run and to win and be mayor? Okay. You know, I put myself up as a candidate for mayor, much to my surprise, my family surprise, because I just had had enough and felt that things could be better for all of us. I love Hawaii. I have grown here in Hawaii with the values that have been shared by the culture, by the people. I'm a hard worker. I will do the best I can to get the most competent, with demonstrated competency, people together. I have no hidden agenda. I'll just work as hard as I can to improve the quality of life for all of us. That's what I'll do. And then I'll leave. All right. And you are available for debate at any point. Debates, forums. Thank you, Ron. Ron Hokely, candidate for mayor. Wish you well. Thanks, Jay. Have a high.