 Aloha. Boy have we got a great show for you. But normally this show is called Talk Story with John Whitehead. Today we have Talk Story with Governor E. G. N., former Governor Whitehead. So it's the show and the governors. That's why we're hanging out here at the state capitol. That's the modern technology. Welcome Governor. It's a pleasure. I'm glad to be here. Yeah you know my family are very proud of you, you know, especially the Okinawan side of the family. And as you know that's a very important plot. That's whether I eat dinner or not every night. I had never met relatives that I have in Okinawa until I become governor and they were probably more excited than my personal family. But it's been great. Yeah because that's a lot of the story of Hawaii, right? You know, Governor Yoshi was the first Japanese governor. Governor Hime, the first native Hawaiian. Then Governor Kaitano, the first Filipino Hawaiian governor, not Filipino Hawaiian, but first Filipino governor. And Linda Lingol, the first Jewish woman governor. And Abercrombie, the first senior citizen governor. And now you're the first Okinawan governor. So you know, this is the story of Hawaii. Absolutely. Although I got to tell you because I heard that you actually appeared on Tech, you know, Think Tech Hawaii on the shows. Yes I did. In my previous capacity as a senator I had made a couple of appearances here and as a candidate governor I had met and talked about different issues. Well that's why we're going to take credit for you, you know. Think Tech Hawaii believes, strongly believes that they contributed to the first election of the first Okinawan governor. So welcome. Absolutely. I'm glad to be a product of Think Tech Hawaii as well. I saw you in the paper this morning. You were attending the groundbreaking for the whole Peely project. I guess it was yesterday on the Everett plane. And as you know, that was a controversial project that was approved by the prior administration. And I saw you out there. And the justification for that project obviously is the development of housing for the people of Hawaii. So you know, in your view, how will that project contribute to the solution of housing for our people? We do know. And I think governor, even when you were governor, housing has been a big challenge in our community. I suppose it's a function of us being island communities and they're being limited land. Right. But we know that we need today 66,000 housing units if we really wanted to provide for everyone in our community. No, 66,000 units of what kind of housing. The whole range. I think it covers the whole range from affordable to public housing to housing at the market rate. So the thing that I'm most excited about the whole Peely project is it's definitely needed, you know, more than 11,000 houses in a master plan community. You know, there are a couple of first with that project, you know, they will also support commercial farming as part of that development as you know. Right, right. As you said, it was one of those controversies about taking away prime agricultural lands and putting housing on it. And then they also will have community farming as well so that those who are so inclined can grow the food that they eat. And, you know, so the project in and of itself, I think, is part of our sustainable Hawaii initiative, you know, encouraging people and being able to produce more food. So in addition to whole Peely, what what what else do you see as on the horizon for to solve the housing crisis? Well, you know, we had last session, we had a terrific housing package. Right. We had met with developers and all the housing agencies to really talk about, okay, how can we help? You know, I think everybody recognizes the need in our community. And so we had a roundtable and we talked story and trying to find out what would help. You know, a lot of the developers talked about the fact that, you know, the government agencies always also have conflicting deadlines and, you know, that's, you know, they're asking for proposals when when out of cycle of when we can get access to federal funds and a whole bunch of things. So, you know, they also talked about the lack of infrastructure, right, you know, about the state needing to at least be able to support infrastructure for their projects specifically. And then, you know, more assistance in rental housing, you know, I think, and you probably see try to figure out what is the state housing. Exactly. And, you know, and affordable rentals is, I think a sweet spot that I think over time has has been one of the areas that I think government has a role in providing affordable. You know, at one time, at one point in time, the there were a lot of affordable rentals that used to be actually owned by the city and County of Honolulu. Right. And they sold it. And so what do you see as maybe their role in your your initiative? Well, we have we have been talking with the county as well, you know, the whole transit oriented development really comes up as, you know, I think one of the controversies of what made whole Peely controversy was the fact that it was on prime ag land and the ag land was rezone. You know, I know that we need to get more land ag land in production of food. I think that that's what everybody talks about. Right. It doesn't have to be the land at all Peely. And we definitely are making. So what the concept of your concept is this idea of having like almost like a mixed use community, but instead of mix housing, commercial, you have mixed housing and agriculture and commercial. So it's the whole it's the whole package, right. And there'll be schools. There is school. Yes. I know that education is one of your top priority. Yes. What do you see as that we will be doing or what do you see should be done in terms of making our educational system what we all want it to be? I mean, I think it's a couple things, you know, governor. I think we both kind of come from the place that we understand that public education really is the bedrock of our communities. You know, the better the public school system is the better our community functions. You know, I do think and one of my criticisms of no child left behind, right, the federal law was that it really was about one size fits all. You know, their premise was that, you know, this is cookie cutter. Why are we having such a hard time other developing nations might have leapfrogged us because they just said we're going to do this and everybody's going to do the same thing. You know, I really believe that that doesn't work. It's really one size doesn't fit all. It's really about empowering schools and and those closest to the schools and getting them the resources and letting them make the decisions because you know Honokawa High School is different than Pro City High School. Yeah. You know, and and and what how the kids relate to their education. We would play, we would play Pro Pro City though with baseball. You know, maybe not any other sport. Well, baseball, Honokawa would take you guys. Well, we definitely know that but but it really is the notion that every the most important unit within the Department of Education is the school and we need to focus on the resources. We need to make sure that there's quality leadership at the school. We need to make sure that the So one of the big complaints is that it seems like the Department of Education is very centralized. Yes. And I know what you what you're speaking about is is a kind of decentralization of that authority. Right. Now, how do we decentralize? Well, I think it's uh it happens on a couple fronts. I mean, I do think you know that leadership is about walking the talk. So, I mean, part of you know what I've always been concerned for a long time the department talks about empowerment but everything they do is centralized. Right. You know, so it's really about trying to figure out how we can get the funds directly to the schools through the weighted student formula and some of those activities but really make sure that the principals and the teachers and the professionals at the school are empowered to make the decisions. Actually make the decisions. Yes. And I mean, what about things like air conditioning though? Well, that's a little bit different. I mean, you know, and I I know yes that I kind of um by the way, I I believe in your dream. I we should do it. You know, and and it's achievable. It's specific. The last big initiative for facilities in in public education was during your time. Right. I mean, when we had the education fund and we had committed the school's uh repair maintenance. Back love was horrendous and we made a big effort. You know, I think we've done a much better job in the general upkeep of the school since that it started with you and we made all that investment but well it started with you but it with me but it also started with you voting for it. So I was there. I was definitely there at the time and it was you know, it was sort of like coming full circle and you know, I do think that it's tied to climate change and the fact that the absolutely, you know, last summer was the hottest summer on record for for a long time and seeing the children and the teachers in the classroom and it's also a specific thing. I mean, it's a specific goal. It's something that we as a community can actually achieve and see. Absolutely. And I think that was fantastic uh fantastic vision and I really hope that you you don't uh, you know, let go of it. No, and we we are a little bit behind schedule but I think, you know, the department has really stepped up to the task and you know, the first round of contracts have been awarded and I think we'll get that. People don't realize that it's it's you know, we it's not education, not all theory. It's about having sitting in the classroom where learning can in fact take place from a teacher who can in fact teach, you know, like they should. Um, we're going to be uh, you know, now that we're on the subject of climate change, we're going to be coming back to talk to you a little bit about the conference that was just held here. But I want to tell the audience that they can call in this. I got the governor captured here. He has no choice but to answer your questions. So call in 415-871-2474. And I'm inviting all of you to call in and take advantage of this opportunity. At this point in time, I think we're going to take a break and so we'll be back shortly. And when we come back, we want to talk about the conference that was just held in Hawaii. Absolutely. And what that means for the state of Hawaii. I uh, I would look forward to that. Thank you. Aloha, my name is Josh Green. I serve as Senator from the Big Island on the Kona side and I'm also an emergency room physician. My program here on ThinkTech is called Health Care in Hawaii. I'll have guests that should be interesting to you twice a month. We'll talk about issues that range from mental health care to drug addiction to our health care system and any challenges that we face here in Hawaii. We hope you'll join us. Again, thanks for supporting ThinkTech. You're watching ThinkTechHawaii on ThinkTechHawaii.com which broadcasts six live talk shows from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. every weekday and then streams earlier shows all night long. Great content for Hawaii from ThinkTech. Okay, welcome back to Talk Story with the Governors. And what a great day this is. So we did get a call. We did get a call right before the break and somebody wants to know what's happening with the code challenge. Absolutely. I think I thank you very much. The engineer in me appreciates the call and the governor is excited to answer. You know, Governor, and you've said we've been working to improve the infrastructure in state government and a lot of the computer systems are old and so we've in the process of updating all of that. You've still got some of my wings. Yes, I do. And we're trying to make those changes so as we're going through the process of making changes, I personally participated with the university on some of these hackathons and I've been a judge and you know how in a one-day period everybody comes together and tries to develop an app. Everybody has a smartphone today and people compete to to provide an app. This allows you to interact with some of the brightest young people in the state of Hawaii. So we have a new chief information officer, Todd McApoid, a Wailua high school graduate, a smart guy. But I said, Todd, we should do something like this for state government. You know, and he, three months later, we're in the second or third week of the first annual Hawaii hackathon. You know what fascinates me about that kind of is the possibilities that can come out of it when young intelligent people, young meaning, you know, fresh, look at a problem without any preconditions. Absolutely. And we knew that if we just did it in one day, 24 hours, they would not have enough time to understand state government and really develop something. So we smarted. We did it for one month. So it would be one day they meet every week to try and and I got the departments to stand up and identify challenges that they wanted to put before the public. Like solving affordable housing. Absolutely. Well, we didn't know that because we wanted to be high-tech technology and that. So the department did a great job. One of them and you know it's for Oahu community correctional facility, trying to schedule visitations. It's such a big, there's one person they're calling all the inmates. Boy, that is, that is a department that could use a lot. Absolutely. So they came and present to all of the smartest tech. Well, I hope that you take advantage of. No, we, there's seven or eight projects that different agencies have put in front of the public. We have the best software developers going after it. You know, it runs for another week, I believe, or two weeks. And then we hope to get some useful application. Well, I hope you use it and I hope you, and I hope you acknowledge these young people to participate. First annual, we hope to do this every single day. Can you imagine, you're not only creating things and solutions from doing this process, you're creating leaders. Absolutely. And we're creating the people that are sitting in there are you know, can buy into your solution. Right. And we're creating an environment for people to believe that they can do it and make a difference. So it's a couple things, right, that we're supporting development, software development, development of apps, apps here in Hawaii. We're creating the spirit of entrepreneurship that they don't have to just count on somebody else, that they can take action to do it. We're creating cooperation on the state side. You know how it is. Right. It takes something to put yourself out and be willing to work with these guys. Fantastic. Fantastic. And then, you know, so I think it's a win-win-win all the way around. Well, talking about win-win-win, we just had the conference, I think it was the World Conservation Congress. Yes. In Hawaii. You participated in that. The President Obama participated. Yes. He flew down and we created this great monument, a wilderness area that's been preserved for future generations. What do you see as Hawaii gaining from all of this, you know? It's a real couple different things, Governor, and I think you probably know some of the people that really was pushing for Hawaii to host this. Remember, this is the first time that the World Conservation Congress is being held in the United States of America. Right. So Hawaii is the first state in the country to host this. A couple other things, you know, it has become the most successful Congress in the history. They have more participants. The participant count went over 10,000 for the first time. Fantastic. So that's also good for our economy, obviously. It's good for our economy. If you talk to the hotels, the hotels are full and they're in the malls and they're spending, so that all helps. So we definitely will get an economic boost from this conference. Fantastic. I think more importantly, though, as you know, Hawaii is at the forefront of conservation. We have the most endangered species in the world, but we do a good job in different areas and some places we're more successful than others. But so what this Congress has given us is the world stage, all of a conflict. Governor, I want to thank you for making Hawaii a leader, you know, in this whole area. No, we have a call. Sure. I have another question. Okay. Let me tell you another call. And the call is, if Hawaii is a leader, then how much is Hawaii a leader in energy these days? And we have an initiative now that calls for 100% renewables by 2045. Does the Governor think that we are able to make that? And what will it take to be able to achieve 100% by 2045? Well, what the call is basically saying is that in addition to conservation, we are a leader in energy and alternative energy development and the like. And do you think that there's a state goal to achieve that needs to be done by 2025? Do you think we can meet our goal? What is it, first of all, and do you think we can meet it? It's a couple of things and I'm not exactly certain what the call is specifically relating to. We do have the goal of 100% renewable by 2045. As part of this sustainable Hawaii initiative, we've also planted the goal by 2030, reducing use of transportation fuels by 70%. And we've also looked at reducing fossil fuel and conservation to reduce fossil fuels for electricity generation by 70%. So I mean, I think both of those goals are very aggressive and important. Well, they are aggressive. Yes. And you think we're going to make it? Oh, absolutely. You know, I'm the technology guy. I know. We know you love this stuff. And we've seen a huge improvement in the technology. You know, for the first time, we're getting solar PV projects that pencil out at below the cost of us importing oil and producing electricity. Oh, fantastic. You know, we expect, you know, the Navy has signed a memorandum of agreement with us to do these joint energy projects. We have a PV project that we're doing with the Navy and Hawaiian Electric Company. And bring it full circle. And your affordable housing projects, and they all fit into this. Well, all of this is coordinated. Right. I mean, we do know that and most of the new housing projects are more energy efficient. And, you know, we are focused on revitalization. You know, I had an initiative for Kalehe 21. Right. You know, really committed to how would we look at older communities and redevelop them in a way that adds value to the community, provides additional housing. Oh, exciting. That's a great vision. You know, you should talk about this a lot because it is a great vision. I mean, you're doing mixed use housing. Absolutely. And then it's coordination with good education and energy. And you're not only doing it in new neighborhoods, you're rebuilding places like Kalehe. Absolutely. So I mean, you know, it really is looking at, you know, Governor, it really is about what's the Hawaii that you and I would want to see to our kids, right? Exactly. And your kids and what would their future and what would the kids, kids see? See. And if we don't develop in a sustainable way, at some point in time, it falls apart. Wow. That's fantastic. Well, Governor, you know, I know we've been talking about issues, but before this program ends, I didn't want to talk to you about the personal side of being of being governor. Okay. And I was trying to formulate a question to bring that out. But maybe something like this, maybe if you could tell me, like, what is the most or some of the most pleasant things that happened to you after you got elected and some of the most unpleasant? Well, I mean, I think, you know, and I went off to the NGA National Governors Association, new governors and talked about and had a chance to talk to experienced governors and they talked about being governor, being the best job in the country. Yeah, I think so, especially being governor of Hawaii. Absolutely. And I, you know, it really is about the opportunity to make a difference and improve the lives of our community each and every day. So, you know, I do get excited. I'm proud to be governor of Hawaii. You know, I feel it a privilege and the ability to make a difference in a wide range of issues each and every day is really something that you don't get in most jobs. Right. That's, that's, that's really And then contrasting that with being state senator, because she was senator and a major one contributed many things. Right. But as governor, it's very different. As you know, you know, The buck stops there. Right. And, and it's a different thing. You know, as a legislator, you got to pass legislation in order to make change. As governor, you have lots of ladder to, to respond. You know, on homelessness, you know, there's lots of things that we can do to move money around and make a difference today, rather than wait to the legislative process. So, it's things like that, I think, that makes the job enjoyable. Okay. What are some of the unpleasant things? Well, you know, there's a lot of things, you know, people ask me, When was the first time you knew that your life was different? Well, it's two days after the election, you know, okay, I get a call from my neighbor because we're not moved in yet. And he goes, There's a car outside with two big guys in the car. They've been there all night. Right. And it's security because, you know, security is with you. Well, at least you know your neighbor is looking after you. Well, I know, but it's sort of like, oh yeah, I forgot, you know, and then, and then we, we move into the house and, you know, and, and then I get into the laundry room and there's water everywhere. It's flooding. What's going on? The refrigerator. So the life of the governor is not perfect. No. Well, and worse yet, I got to clean up the mess, you know, there's no staff. So I, you know, it's, it doesn't come with water. We'll do something about that. You know, I can think of some of my, well, no, but also I think, okay, we were just talking about a little bit about this. You know, there's this big national issue about emails, right? Yes. Especially for Democrats, right? So now we were talking about the fact that today, you get a request for almost daily for all the emails on some subject or Yeah, I mean, you know, it is and, and, and I, you know, I've been a big proponent of technology and using technology to make government more efficient. And yes, we're all on email and we do get constant requests, information requests for all of the emails on, you know, it used to be next era or, you know, other, I mean, it's just Everybody wants to know. Yes, everybody wants to see everything that, you know, that we have, which can be a burden at some time. Well, actually, okay, let me ask you another question along the same Do when you were in the legislature, you are one of the best loves senators. Do your colleagues still like you as much as they did? Some do and some don't, you know, I, it is one of those things. I really enjoy working with most of them. We have disagreements in different areas. I think it is, it does take a transition to recognize that my role as governor is very different than my role as a senator. Yeah. And it's really, it's taken me a while to really understand what that is. One thing, and they have, at least for myself, what I found is that being governor brought my family unit a lot closer together. Did that happen to you as well? Absolutely. Because you got a great family. No, and you know how it is, when you're running, especially I was running against an incumbent. So, you know, it is about friends and family, you know, are the first supporters. And it really, all of my kids were old enough to really have active and important parts in the campaign. They were doing social media. They were editing press, press releases. They were helping people with speeches. You've got great kids. Yeah, so I'll go now. I want to thank you. I really truly want to thank you for joining us today and making yourself available. And, you know, it was very enjoyable. I appreciate the opportunity. I, you know, I do enjoy having this opportunity. I didn't realize it was going to be broadcast, but I, you know, I've done this. Well, it was broadcast on the website. So I'm very proud of our little show. Well, thank you very much, everyone, for joining us. This is Talk Story with the Governors today. And again, we want to thank Governor Iggy for sharing us his precious thing. Aloha, Aloha.