 Matters and I'm Jay Fiedel. Our guest today is Vicky Caetano. She's running for governor. Hi Vicky. Thank you for joining our show. Hello, Ajay. Thank you for having me on. We want to meet you. We want to talk to you about your candidacy. Very exciting, you know. I think it's very important right now. I told you before the show, I thought we were going to have politically speaking, a pivotal time. And so your candidacy is important. The election is important and the way we all see things is important. Thank you for coming on. So Vicky, tell us about your background, your qualifications, and what makes you want to run for office, this office, and what makes you think you can do the job? Well, let me start off by saying that I totally agree with you that we are at a very pivotal time and a very critical juncture for our state. I don't think we've ever been in a situation where we've had as many issues staring right at us as we're seeing now. And I think that the decades old problems that we've dealt with or have not resolved only got exacerbated with COVID. And so why am I running at this time? Well, frankly, I'm not somebody who would be in politics naturally. You know, I would have started 30 years ago if I wanted to be a politician. But I am someone who cares deeply about our community. I have a track record of building a business from the ground up, of working with people. I have a success record, results driven experiences I like to call it. And so for me, why I'm running now for governor is because I feel that the state desperately needs a new kind of leadership, one that can look at things in a different light, bring a new perspective to these old issues that we keep talking about and never getting them fixed. And someone who has a determination to address them and also someone who like in my case, I don't have any political ambition or aspiration for another job, Jay. I'm 65 years old. This is my final stop. And so knowing that there are many tough decisions that need to be made. I feel that I'm at the right place, the right time doing this job for the for the right reasons. That's why I'm running. You want to talk a little bit, ask me to talk a little bit about my background. Yes, let me say and interrupt you. The thing about the 65, you know, you could have fooled me, Vicky. Thank you. You scored points right there. So I started commercial laundry 34 years ago from the ground up. So I'm not only a business woman, but I am an entrepreneur. And we started with 25 employees just doing laundry for three hospitals. But even then we had a vision. We had a vision to do more to grow the business. And in my mind, the most satisfying thing is the opportunity to develop employees. You know, many of our employees are immigrants. Many of them, the job they have at United Laundry is their first job. And it's an opportunity for us to take them and mold them and help them grow into doing not just careers with our company, but even going on to careers, whether it be in health care or in the hospitality industry. Without a doubt, that is the most satisfying thing for me as an employer developing people. And so we started with 25 employees and then pre pandemic grew the business to five locations with about 1200 employees. And then COVID hit. And like so many who serve hospitality, we were in a very challenging environment. But with determination, working with our employees, I'm very happy to say we not only survived, but we're back and facing new challenges, like finding people to do the job that we need to serve our guests. So you have a new set of challenges now post COVID. But all through this, you know, we've been able to communicate with clarity, with collaboration with our managers. And that's just something I didn't see leadership in our state being able to do. I feel that there was a lot of confusion, conflict even at the highest level, different, you know, differing messages that only created more confusion and chaos for the people. So fast forward. I see now a world in Hawaii where we have a lot of challenges, Jay. Five years in a row, we are one of the few states where our population has actually decreased. And the saddest part is that our young people and our working people are the ones leaving our state. So I ask you and your listeners today, that if you think about this, if the future of Hawaii is leaving our state, what kind of future do you think we can hope to have? Kind of a somber thought. Yeah, it is a somber thought. And we talk about that all the time here on ThinkTech. So it's a very important question. So, you know, one thing is, and Rick Plange, you already talked about his experience at, you know, television and White News now as a qualifying point to be mayor. But the difference between Rick and you is that Rick was working for corporate interests that were, you know, external. He didn't actually, he wasn't the entrepreneur for it, although he put Hawaii News now together. It's not the same thing as what you're talking about. You're talking about starting from the ground up, being an entrepreneur, creating a company. And I guess my question to you is that how does that help in running the state? The skills, the experience, the relationships, the problem solving, whatever it is in terms of building a company, being an entrepreneur for a serious company, how does that help in running the state? I think that entrepreneurs have to be very creative, work with nothing and make it something. I think that is one of the differences between being an entrepreneur and a corporate person. You know, we've seen our company, I sold my business in 2016, and though I'm still a part shareholder, it's different and it brings the different skillset. It's not to say one is better than the other, but without a doubt they are different strengths that you bring to each role. I feel very fortunate to have been able to be both entrepreneur, as well as now I just transitioned out, but I've been a corporate person for the last five years. So corporate teaches you all about systems, that kind of brand standard and systematic approach. Entrepreneurs really approach things with a clean slate and say, here's nothing and make something out of nothing. That's the big difference. You have to be really creative. And I do think without a doubt that the problems we're looking at today will be better served if we have a new thinking in how we look at resolving them. We have to have a different mindset and create a new narrative to address the issues that we're talking about. One thing I will say that we have in common, whether corporate or as an entrepreneur, is you have to have the ability to work with everyone. You cannot make decisions by consensus, but everyone deserves to be heard. And the other common thing we have is that we have to move with urgency, because time is our most valuable resource. Think about it. You lose money, you have a chance to make it back. When you lose time, it's gone. And when I see our young people leaving, families that tell me their children are all gone and it's just the two of them at home, that really saddens me, because that is not the Ohana or the Hawaii that I've come to love. Well, let me drill down a little bit on that. I mean, I really did intend to ask you about that. I met you, I think, if you recall at the Hawaii Venture Capital Association. You were a first lady at the time. And I met you also in connection with the arts, with the Hawaii Symphony and the arts of performing arts in Hawaii. So you reach out in many places and you have a huge big Rolodex, which is really important if you're going to be governor and so forth. But when you say that we are at a pivotal point, when you say that people are leaving, brain drain, and an article recently about the doctor drain and how there's legislation pending in the legislature, that would exacerbate the doctor drain. How as governor would you deal with that? How would you save us from their departure? They are our most important asset, our most important recess, except for time. Time is on the top of the list, but they're right up there too. How would you stop them from leaving? So as I've traveled through the state meeting people, one of the things I'm struck with is that there's actually no shortage of ideas out there. But the biggest challenge is the ability to implement and to execute. And that takes more skill sets. That takes the ability to, one, collaborate and talk with people. So for me, one of the most important relationships that a governor has is going to be with the legislators. So working together much more collaboratively to create the solutions that we need to address the problems that we're facing is top of the list. Having a cabinet that is world-class, okay, this is really key. The ability to bring a team around you is what has made me successful for 34 years. It's my ability to bring the best, the brightest together, and to be able to inspire, but to articulate a vision and a plan so that we can move forward. No one person, no matter how good she or he is, will succeed without the hands of many supporting. You don't get to Super Bowl with just a good coach or a quarterback. It takes the whole team. And so collaboration, communication, you know, I think that's very key. The communication skill set is so important because not all the conversations we have will be easy. In fact, most of them will be very difficult. And we mustn't be afraid to have those difficult conversations with stability, with the understanding that we all care about Hawaii, but we have to find the solutions. And I do feel, given my lifetime experience of doing this, that I'm the best candidate to bring people together, not just to talk about things, but to get things done. That's what I've taken a lot of pride in, in what I've been able to do. But it is going to take a whole village, the unions, the private sector. Of course, I mentioned the legislators, the mayors, the counties. Why not look at what the counties do and what the states do and see where there is duplicity, any kind of bureaucracy that we can eliminate to make it easier for our people to navigate through. So you're talking about making it easier for people to start businesses. And that would seem to comport with your experience as an entrepreneur in business. And Hawaii has a really unfortunate reputation for creating obstacles to people who entrepreneurs who want to start businesses. That would be something you'd be familiar with. So can you talk about what exactly you would do to make the path easier? That is, for these young people we are losing, what would you do to make the path easier for them to get good jobs, create businesses, make a life? So I think one of the first things is to address affordable housing. When you have homes now that are over a million dollars, the median home cost of a home, it makes it so unaffordable. And with that go their dreams in hopes of ever being able to own a house. So my affordable housing plan has three components. One is the rent to own program. Addressing that most first-time home owners have a difficulty with putting down the down payment. The rent to own program does not require that. And over a period of 25 years, the rent that they pay every month will go towards owning their home. So at the end of that, they will take title to a 55-year lease with the state and own their home. The second part of the affordable housing program is my workforce housing. And this is very designated housing and aggressively driven to be able to create housing programs for three sectors of our community. And they are teachers, educators, nurses, healthcare, and the last group is our first responders because everybody is important. But without these three legs in our community, you really don't have a community. So that's targeted specifically for these three areas. And then the third part of it is very simply affordable rental. Not everybody needs or wants to think about owning a home. So when we can look at pure affordable rental to make it affordable for people, whether they be who knows, you know, you're not going to think 15, 20 years out. Or for our young people who are oftentimes not sure where they're going to land, they don't necessarily need to own home. So in the affordable rental program, it allows them to rent at an affordable price. And I think housing is very key to retaining and bringing our young people back back. The second part to me is the new economy, the new industries that are out there. You know, the world has changed so much. One of the experiences I had recently in our company was finding a IT person. And the challenge of finding someone who has the competence and quality to, you know, caliber level to do these jobs. And yet we're bringing people from the mainland here. And then we have many of our young people leaving to go to the mainland. I'm like, something's wrong with this picture. Cyber security, digital media, there's opportunities out there. And as governor, I will not wait for people to come to me or to Hawaii. I would like to reach out to not only our community, but to the mainland and to the rest of the world. Because just as we can learn from them, we can also bring Hawaii to the globe. And so I'm excited because as many obstacles as there are, there's also a lot of opportunities. You know, my dad, they used to share with me. He pointed a glass that was half filled with water. And he would say, is this glass half full or half empty? Because both statements are accurate. But how you look at it is the difference between whether you will succeed or whether you will fail. And I've always looked at it as half full with the goal to make it completely full. That's a valuable lesson. So how would you incentivize, because that's the word, that's what you as governor would have the power at least to suggest and propose and exercise leadership on. How would you incentivize young people to stay here, do business, become expert in technology, for example? How would you incentivize people on the mainland to come here, live here, invest their lives here? What programs would you have in mind, at least in general? Well, I think that people want to be in Hawaii. They leave because they can. So this is why I say when most people have to spend 50% of their paycheck towards housing, that's just unaffordable. There's nothing left for them. The second thing is to have that entrepreneurial approach to look at how we can expand jobs in many sectors outside of simply the service industry. And don't get me wrong, service has been my bread and butter for many years. And I'm grateful for that. But we need to understand that our young people have other ambition as well. So whether it be in technology, I'll give you an example. Healthcare is another one that I see. We have one of the best medical schools rated and ranked in the top 20 in our country. But we need to support and expand their programs so that we can graduate more. Then incentivize them. Say, for example, offer scholarships, full scholarships provided that they spend after they graduate, you know, do residency in Hawaii. We need to create opportunities with the hospitals that we have to be able to give more residencies so that ultimately our young people can stay in healthcare. We could really build a niche healthcare tourism so that people in Asia would not fly over us to go to, you know, West Coast or even places on the East Coast for medical, they would come to Hawaii. Such a natural affiliation there. And by doing that, we also elevate the level of healthcare available to our residents. The notion of healthcare takes me to another area I want to ask you about. And that's infrastructure. Infrastructure, of course, includes healthcare infrastructure. It includes rail. It includes, you know, all the things that bring the state together. It includes, I suppose, travel between the islands. It includes energy in terms of providing enough energy and energy that's cheap and not subject to global markets, as we will experience here in the next few days, in my opinion. So infrastructure really important. And, you know, I'm not sure that we have spent enough time and, may I say, energy. I'm dealing with infrastructure. But what are your thoughts about that? What would you as governor do? What would you do on healthcare? What would you do on rail? What would you do on the battle against potholes, if you like? The connection of the islands, both by, you know, by ferry, by air, whatever it takes. The connection of the neighborhoods and the islands for that matter in terms of energy. What are your thoughts about all of those infrastructure points? So, you know, Jay, one of the reasons that I feel I would make a very good governor is because not just talking about one issue. It's that so many, all of these issues all connect with each other. And in my laundry business, what's really interesting that most people don't realize is not just doing laundry. That's the easy part. It's the logistics. So every day, just in our homo-lubic facility alone, we move over half a million pieces to over 100 customers who own these linens individually by lots, all within 24 hours. So every segment of this process has to be synchronized. If one segment fails, the whole system is impacted. So when we talk about infrastructure, you have to talk about the businesses they impact, the energy, right? The education that allows us to plan for these, to fill these. For example, when we look at the, well, the state hospital that just recently opened. Okay, so you have this facility, beautiful. Why is it not operational? You have to ask that question because somebody didn't connect all the dots. And there's no sense, for example, in schools when they talked about air conditioning. Well, the first thing I would say is take a look at the electrical support. Can they manage the kind of load that we're going to put in with all these systems going in? Great idea. But can they do that? Do we have to tackle the infrastructure first? So everything is connected together. And that has been my background for 34 years is seeing all these details and connecting all the dots because one of the big reasons why we fail to progress is because one, we are always reacting to issues rather than being able to proactively see the problem. And whether it's your health, whether it's infrastructure or managing a business, whenever you have to react, you pay a much bigger price. It's inefficiency at best. You know, and of course, if you're in business, you can't afford to have inefficiency. That's because inefficiency means you lose money. But I wanted to also move on to the legislature because one of the things, and living in Hawaii over the years, the relationship of the governor or legislature has always been an issue. Sometimes it has worked better than other times. It has perhaps never worked all that well. And the legislature most recently has been in the news plenty for corruption. So I wonder what your thoughts are about the relationship between the legislature and the governor. The leadership, if you will, by the governor of initiatives in the legislature, how to restore credibility to the legislature. Assuming that there has been a loss of credibility by recent of these recent news stories, then how you would deal with corruption and fundraising issues that make the public wonder. Can you talk about that? Sure. I see the legislature, the legislator, the legislators as a partnership to governing. And by that, I mean that I think it's very important for a governor to reach out and work with them because there's no sense for the governor and the cabinet members to spend a lot of time and energy doing things without getting that the involvement of legislators because they can easily overwrite you. So I think that has to be seen as a partnership. And I do think that there's been a tug of war sometimes about this. One of the things I feel that's really positive for me as a governor is that I have no history with any of the legislators. And so it's a really great clean slate to start with. Just move forward instead of talk about the past. With respect to the corruption, I think that without being judgmental, one leads by example. And I think it's very important that when I govern and the administration and the cabinet that we lead by example, looking at whether there are laws or things that could be introduced to create more transparency and accountability, that is something I advocate for just simply not only for corruption, but also to be more efficient and also to earn the trust of the people. I don't think that most people are excited when you talk about government today. They don't have the trust level or they're very cynical about government. And that is something I really want to restore. Public service. There's no job that's more noble when it's done right. But the people deserve leadership. And that is something they haven't been getting. They deserve better. And they should demand better. And one of the things I'd like to talk with you and I'm fascinated with it all week. ThinkTec is covering this issue in every way it can. Fully half of our shows this week and we do anywhere between 30 and 40 shows a week just like this is Ukraine. And the change in the world order, the change in Europe, the change in American politics to deal with it. And one of the things that I have felt over the years is that Hawaii must observe and participate in the national and international community and process. Not only east to Europe and the mainland, but also west of course to Asia from whence a lot of us came. And so to me, I'd like to know your thoughts about that, about Hawaii's role in larger issues, in larger regional processes and events. And with respect to Ukraine right now, which is arguably changing our world as we speak. So wisely said, what happens in half the world away does impact us. And I think that first one of the concerns will be our supply chain. I think there's an even stronger reason for us to have renewable energy and to not be dependent on fuel from Europe or other parts of the world. Because it's a very uncertain world these days. Food supply and the other argument for why we need to try to grow more here on the islands, you know, rather than dependent. We are in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. And if for some reason a container cannot make it through, we're already seeing all the delays. Look how it's impacting us. We need to address this and say, we'll never be totally independent, but how can we be more independent and not and be more self reliant? These are the things we need to talk about and need to come up with a plan to address. But one of the other things I feel that's really important from leadership is to prepare our state for things that happen, whether it be COVID or a war. We need to be better prepared as an island state ourselves so that we aren't caught unexpectedly and everybody panicking. There's, you know, there's no clarity in a plan where the communication is coming from. We need to communicate and be sure that our residents know what's going to happen when an unforeseen situation strikes us, even with 9-11, right, that happened. So whatever it may be, life we know is very uncertain. Yeah, and state fiscal policy has to respond to that. So you have taxes and fiscal policy that surround us and that, you know, where it's easy to make a mistake and not be ready for a rainy day, not be ready for, you know, the exacerbation of the COVID epidemic pandemic and not be ready for problems with climate change. And, you know, those two items are really important and they are actually connected because COVID could, you know, it could happen elsewhere, it could happen anywhere, and it could wreck our economy directly or indirectly. And then, of course, you have climate change which could, which could inundate our most valuable properties and why could he and the like. And sometimes we don't see those things as priorities in the long term. How do you feel about that, about hardening us, for example, to possible exacerbation of COVID or other pandemic diseases? And for that matter, to the inexorable march of climate change which is happening. And whatever is the headline, climate change is happening. And some journalists feel it's the most important story of our lifetime. What are your thoughts about that? It is. And it's already, we're already behind the eight ball. And though I applaud position statements made by leadership about whether it's affordable, whether it's about renewable energy, whatever the issues or cesspools, that's great. But we need a plan. We need not only to make a statement, but we now need to do the heavy lifting. And that's what I've been doing all my life is the heavy lifting, the dirty work to clean up in the laundry. That's where all the work is really is executing it. We have a lot of great minds in the state of Hawaii. We need to not only listen to them, but engage them in how we can address these problems once and for all. I think that one of the problems why this isn't done is that too many times politicians run really for political ambition and aspiration. So the real focus isn't so much about making tough decisions for the benefit of the people, but more like making a decision that will enhance their political career. And that's why I'm in this because I'm not at that stage, whether it's the mayor of the Big Island or the mayor of Oahu, we're all at a stage in our lives where we really want to leave a legacy that we can be proud of, that the people of Hawaii deserve and that they will be served better. Thank you, Vicki. Vicki Kaitano, a candidate for governor of the state of Hawaii in 2022. Thank you so much for coming down and joining us on Think There.