 This is State Tech Hawaii. Community Matters here. Hello. Hi. I'm Marcia Joyner. And this is Cannabis Chronicles. And yes, we look different today, because we're looking at what else, but napolycliffs. Why? We are changing our format a bit today because we are going to talk to my dear friend. And everybody knows I only talk to dear friends. My dear friend, the mayor of Kauai, who is running for lieutenant governor. And if it seems strange that we're asking him to be on Cannabis Chronicles, because only if we have friends that get elected are we going to maintain our Cannabis Chronicles. Therefore, we're inviting friends. Aloha. Aloha. Mr. Mayor. And think big. I love it. He is big, isn't he? He's big. Tell us about Mr. Mayor. Tell us all about you. Okay. Well, obviously I'm sitting here. I'm running for the office of lieutenant governor. But more importantly, born and raised on Kauai, humble upbringing. I have two brothers, one sister, you know, we're going to really humble upbringing. My grandmother was a big part of our lives. She was a staunch supporter there with her love in Aloha. We didn't have too much, but we had a lot of love and good food. So that was our upbringing, you know. My parents parted when I was 11 or so. But I really took care of my brothers and sisters, so leadership in a home for me. Okay. Now, let me just add a caveat to that. I met your mother several times. Yes. Absolutely gorgeous. Gorgeous. Class A, just wonderful human being, and she just adores you, and she is out holding signs and walking. She is all over the place. Yes. Yeah. So it's a great family. A lot of them, my parents are, everything's all good now. So I believe I'm here sitting, talking to you because of my upbringing and just having to do what I needed to do. Now, when we talk about lieutenant governor. Yeah. Which is usually a nothing office. However, because of all of your years of leadership, and well, you tell us about that, but working within the government and knowing how government works. So tell us about the years that you've been in leadership in on Kauai. Yeah. So within government, I started really coming back from my experience with the Miami Dolphins and moving back home, got married in 1985. And so I really started in my civil service experience in the Parks and Recreation Department. So I know what it's like to serve with seniors or, you know, a kupuna or a keiki in the Parks and Recreation operations. And then Mayor Baptiste came into office and he gave me a chance to be a department head. So from civil servant to department head. And then now sitting before you as mayor for the past 10 years. So I've gained that administrative experience and understanding how to pull people together. Surround yourself with a good team of cabinet members with hearts and souls that know how to make things happen. And to me, that's been very successful for us. And to really reach out and hear the voice of the people. Reach out. I take my cabinet members out every quarter and we go out into community. I kind of want to put the face to the name. I want the people to see my parks director and my county engineer and my attorney, my county attorney. I mean, I manage all of these operations, all these departments, fire, police, elderly, recreation, housing, all of it. So my experience is really not only in the office, but out in the field, talking, asking, reaching out, incorporating the thoughts and ideas of the people into the decisions that we make. And that has been very successful. I want to bring all of that experience to the lieutenant governor's office. I'm ready for that. It's been 10 years, like I said, prior to that, I'm a husband. I'm a dad. I'm a papa. When I told involved, I was PTA president, PTG president, community of schools association of schools president, meaning leading the parent organizations. I've been in a lot of community groups and partnerships. So all of that experience with the community and government and just being a husband, dad, and papa, into the lieutenant governor's office and then really bringing it to a different level. So now we talked before, just at the time of the storm, and I would like for you to tell our audience, if you can remember what we talked about, and you said that because you had been through two hurricanes, you were ready. So tell us what that means. What that means. I was ready. I mean, we were ready. So we've gone through, like I said, two hurricanes. And now we're wearing the hat of mayor and understanding prior to that, wearing different hats as a parks director, you know, I know and understand the total inner workings of how to be ready for natural disasters. And in this particular instance, of course, Kauai was hit with the highest rainfall in the nation, 50 inches of rain in a 24 hour period. And on top of that, it isolated a part of our island. So that's before you as a leader. What do you do? We were prepared. We're already working together with our emergency response teams. We've done numerous trainings. We did preparedness classes and instructional pieces. We know where and what part of our island needs additional support prior to the disaster. Not knowing what kind of disaster. So in this particular case, we're isolated. So immediately, I picked up the phone, made calls to the military base, which is PMRF, made calls to Mr. Robinson, who has a ferry and bars, goes between Kauai and Niihau, and we're able to deploy his barge to help us to get equipment and supplies immediately to the people who are isolated. We have to make do with what we had. That's another thing. You make do with what you have before the real supplies and equipment come. And that's being prepared. Now you mentioned Niihau. Is that part of your Kauai and Niihau? I am the mayor of the county of Kauai and Niihau. Tell us about Niihau. Okay. And then nobody, really, nobody ever talks about Niihau. Well, Niihau is a private island, of course, and Bruce Robinson and the Robinson family. But it's not only that. It's a cultural present. We are the oldest county in the state. Yes. Right? As far as culturally, that's what I feel. A lot of our kupuna, a lot of our ancient chants and everything come from Kauai. Our kumu hula come to Kauai to reconnect. Niihau is a special place. The Niihau language, of course, the culture, and all of it ties into setting the cultural significance for the entire state. So people cannot just go to Niihau, as you know. I've been there numerous times, just keeping the charm and the character and the cultural life there. That's important. We're working on really preserving the Niihau language. And we're doing that. We just finished our general plan update, and we're going to have a version of an entire general plan update, which is a footprint for Kauai and Niihau in the Niihau language. Wonderful. And I formed the Niihau Language Commission to help me to go to now. You're going to have an English version, a university Kahakoa version, and a Niihau version. And the real version. So to me, we're really touching the cultural side and the decisions we make of today have to be tied to the past, which is a culture so our future can flourish. And that's how I've been managing our operations and the disaster. Okay, so I have to come see you to go to Niihau, huh? You've got to come see me. We can talk. I want to see Niihau so badly. And how does it become—why is it a private island? That was long before we were here and so through our monarchy and so with the Robinson family. And they've been very—all the family members, the Kanahelis, and all the family members are living on Kauai and Niihau, so there's this connection there anyway. And so we just go with that, and we've been managing together and Niihau is a beautiful place and a big part of our county, and we continue to support. So now there's so much going on in terms of your rebuilding. Yes. What—tell us what— So the big part, like I said, in different parts of our island, Koloa, it was more a certain part of our community was really flooded, you know, so that's one part. It's gone. Then Keapana or the Kapa'a Anahola, certain parts with areas weren't isolated but of course got devastated by the storm. But the North Shore is the one that, like I said earlier, was totally isolated. So we need to go back in there, do a good job in assessing the roadway, totally wiped out. No way to get back to the North Shore, erosion below the roadway, landslides coming, washing out the roadway, amazing kind of disaster that happened. So we had to regroup, work with the State Department of Transportation, working diligently to secure the funding that we needed to help us. Immediately, got on the phone, got our declaration signed from the Mayor, the Governor signed his declaration, we went into the President of the United States of America for support and we got it, public assistance, where we could actually utilize funds to help us begin the restoration of this area that was totally isolated. And recently, we just got another proclamation signed by the President for Individual Assistance. So now we can take the funds that we have into the homes of the people who lost or got damaged through their homes and sit with them and do an assessment of their properties and they will qualify for support funding as well. It took a lot of time, effort, dedication to get the numbers that was needed but it took that boots on the ground kind of thinking and reaching out in order to qualify for the funds. And then the State Legislature gave us a million dollars and the million dollars is set aside for disaster relief as well. So we have the funding there and Hawaii is such a resilient island, Hawaii is a resilient state, as I say, with all the love and the loha that came from equipment, supplies, fundraisers and all the money and everything came back to quiet. All we had to do was shepherd the gifts to churches and to community groups and organizations and nonprofit entities who manage the funds to get the funds into the families or to the businesses. And to me that's Hawaii. We go through a challenging time, we work together, we support each other, it's not easy but you got to have leadership to understand how to pull that resources together from the federal government to the county, the state county and of course community and the people. And to me that's where we are right now. I'm happy where we're at as far as the recovery. We're not out of the woods yet but we're coming back with some good solid results so we can open up that roadway very soon and provide the support to our families so we're not able to go back home yet. We have to take a break and then we'll be right back and talk some more about, well I want to talk about rural health because that's an issue everywhere except urban Honolulu so we'll be right back. This is Think Tech Hawaii, raising public awareness. I sing this song to you because I think you either are cool or have the potential to be seriously cool. And I want you to come watch my show where I bring in experts who talk all about easy strategies to be healthier, happier, build better relationships and make your life a success. So come sit with the cool kids at Out of the Comfort Zone on Tuesdays at 1. See you then. Aloha. I'm Marcia Joyner and yes this is Cannabis Chronicles and yes we do look different with the Napoli cliffs which is the most beautiful place in the whole world. And visiting today is the mayor of that beautiful, beautiful place, Kauai. And he is also running for Lieutenant Governor at the State of Hawaii. And he brings with him, you're the only candidate with real governmental experience. Administrative yes to manage operations and all of that. And now Kauai, well all of us, these are island nations. And what is this now, the ocean rising and getting warmer and all of these things. Tell us about the effect and what if anything we can do because you deal with this every day. Every day. And yes, thank you for the question. I mean I think we have to be mindful of our environment. The major changes, the storms that came that we just experienced, just over worldwide. But Hawaii is a special place, we're islands and we have to be sure that we manage and take care of ourselves here as well. We entered into Aloha Plus Challenge and there's certain things that I think we've got to be very open and- Aloha Plus Challenge. Which is a challenge all of us mayors got together with the governor and we made a commitment that we would commit to these areas to assure that we are addressing climate change in the future. So the first area was of course clean energy. We transform all of our street lights to LED lighting. This is an example on Kauai, working closely with our island co-op, our island utility company. So all of our street lights have been converted to LED lighting. So that helps great. The second one is local food production. We took 75 acres of land and transformed it into a cultural ag park. We the government opened 75 acres of land to the community. They form a 501c3 non-profit. They are currently managing this entire area as an agricultural park. Grow what you want. You want to grow organic, you want to do tomatoes, you want to do whatever you want to do community. Do it. Take the lead. They are. And they're creating sunshine markets that open fresh fruits and vegetables. So that's a good one right there. The third one is green jobs and green education. We the county working with HLTA brought back into the schools the future farmer of America program, which was eliminated, but we brought it back. So now the kids, our future farmers are learning how to really farm farmers of today with science and technology. So that they get to stay home and they don't go away to college and not come back. You want to keep them home and growing and taking care of our land and really healing the land and at the same time growing what you want to grow. And farming, that's a big part. And the big farms like pineapple and sugar is no longer here. It's more of the smaller ag park kind of thinking that is at the forefront. So I think that's one of the bigger parts that we've done. And then of course the Kaua Inui Kupapa program. We've identified the Moku system on island, which is the land divisions on Kaua Inui. So when you drive along the roadways today, you'll see signage. And each sign will tell you the color, the fish, the plant, and the name of that Moku. So it grew here, didn't grow here. What flowed here, didn't flow here. So we have to be mindful of that. So the whole Kupapa program which lays out the Moku or the land divisions are going into the schools now through an educational component working with the superintendents of schools to teach our keiki about the land divisions on Kaua Inui. I want to take it to the big level. And then the last one of course is transforming the island into walkable, bikeable, complete streets, safe routes to school, lighted crosswalks. It's all about preventive health, taking care of our people before you get sick. So if you make and you create these walkways and connected community, people encouraging people to walk instead of driving a car, that has been an opening vision for our administration. And we're working it. We secured a $17 million tiger grat, which is a transportation grat from the federal government to begin this transformation of this walkable, bikeable kind of thinking. Roundabouts, peanutabouts. We enjoy the outdoors, walking paths, all of it. I think that's, when I grew up, that's kind of like the thinking of old camp setting, walking to church, walking to the little market, walking to school. That's what it was, health and wellness is at the forefront. So I think if we begin to think that we can transform our communities that way, then we can really take care of ourselves and our health before we get sick. Do you have facilities when you do get sick, you know, that will, you know, hospitals, clinics? Yeah, we have. You're not out in the, totally out of the woods. I want to make clear that we are working in partnership with Wilcox Hospital and quite Memorial Hospital. All the key agencies, the Kauai Community College, we're all talking at the table together about how to really promote health and wellness and what would be the best way to do it. And so the hospital is doing, I have a marathon, marathon, ten years we've done a marathon just to encourage people to come out and walk and eat a healthy meal and gather. And so we've done it for ten years, we just had our last one this past month. So that kind of thinking is all in partnership, not just by ourselves, the county, ah, I have a partnership with the education, Department of Education Superintendent, our Chancellor from Kauai Community College, our CEO from the Medical Health and Health Operator. All of the key leaders we meet and talk story and we help each other out. And that's what I want to bring to the Lieutenant's Governor's Office, the ability to reach out, connect and bring people to the table and then go back into community. I think that's what's in the same. But since we are an island nation, what about now, we talked about farming, what about the ocean, oceanography, the turtles, the fish, all of these things that are part of us. What about that? Do you teach the children about that ocean that preserving the ocean? Is that a part of the DOE or not? Or should be? I think it should be, but I don't know. We, like you said, live on an island setting. There's an indoor classroom and there's an outdoor classroom. I like the outdoor classroom setting too. So we need to encourage that kind of thinking from Malka to Makai. We on Kauai, and I want to take it to the big level, we work closely, we'll get with Hui Makai no Omakana, which is a local organization, and we came up with a fishery assistance program where the entire bay in Hanalei is closed off for restoration of our reefs, restoration and replenishing of our limo kohu, looking at how we manage the fish. So there's no, because we're finding, we've got to do things like I believe together to kind of take a little time out and help the reef and the water and the marine life replenish because it's not happening. So we did that through an organizational way and we designated this part of our island as a subsistence area where we close off for now as far as any kind of fishing, just to have it replenished. Yeah. But it's not the county doing it. The government is the community, but we're supporting the community. And that kind of thinking needs to happen, I think, in different parts of the island as well throughout the state. Well, I was thinking of in school, that ought to oceanography, and all of these things about the ocean should be taught as a curriculum in public schools, not wait until you get to the university. These children, at least my children and my grandchildren, my grandchildren, great-grand, by the time they're three, they know the ocean, they swim, they swim with the turtles. Why is it not curriculum? Why do we pretend like everything has to come from the mainland? Why can't the state develop their own curriculum so that this is a part so we grow? We've got to save that, and only if these children grow into that. Right. And not every child lives on the water, you know? That's why I think the bigger part, educational-wise, in bringing it into the classroom versus the outdoor classroom, is taking that understanding of preservation and understanding of what's happening today. Because of sea level rise, because of the heavy use of sunscreen, and that's a big one, right? Yes. That came out recently. And how to really educate our students that we need to take a time out, like I said, figure out how we can replenish, allow nature to come back, allow our limo to grow, allow our fishes to come back. That kind of thinking, to me, that's what we should be, have foresight with our keiki, that kind of thinking. And then also talk about the bigger picture. Because if not, it's going to continue to fade away, we're going to lose it. So I totally support what you're saying, however we can connect the indoor classroom with the outdoor experience classroom, and connect that to your curriculum piece, like we did with our signage, cool papa, all of that ties into that curriculum piece you're talking about. One last area that affects all of us, and that's tourism. How do we have tourism, which we depend on economically without destroying the environment and without destroying all of the beauty that we call, you know, how do we deal with tourism at a manageable, I'm saying it all wrong, but it has to be managed, rather than just said you all come. Right. How do you do that? Well, let me say this, we're going to that right now, because what happened was we're not allowing anybody into the North Shore only residents. So that is showing that there is way less traffic, way less people visiting the North Shore, but all of that is being done because of this current situation, disaster. So this is the time we're doing a better job of coming up with a solid management plan. It's about a plan, incorporating and finding balance between the resident and the visitor. Right. Instead of eliminating one or the other, how do we work hand in hand? An example would be, how do we alleviate the massive amount of cars that visit the North Shore? We look at a hollow, hollow shuttle that will take people from a certain point before you get down in Hanalei out of their cars into a shuttle that takes them down into the North Shore area or different areas, wherever it is. And we did a pilot program on that and guess what, 51% of the ridership came from the residents, the people wanting to get to work. So we can create this shuttle thinking where people who live there can get on the shuttle to work and home safely. And the visitor can get on the shuttle and see our beautiful island and get back to their car and go, that to me is a balance and what we're going to be thinking about. Just a small example. And if we take it to the bigger picture, that's where the balance should be. The visitor, the resident, the experience, the culture, preservation, all of it has to be hand in hand. If you have one over the other, it's not going to work. I believe that. So the solid plan, community plan, development plan has to be solid and then we set the footprint for the future of our islands. So with the Hawaii Tourism Authority, which is bemith, I don't know why the state is giving them all that money when the hotels ought to be advertising, but nonetheless, as Lieutenant Governor, you can have or would you have the community and the Hawaii Tourism Authority working together? Definitely. We have to. And we've learned it, especially now, what we're experiencing now. So you got the Kauai Visitors Bureau, you got the community organizations from that particular community, you got government, you got business, and you got the people all talking. How do we want to better this part of our island? How do we want to keep the charm and character and the beautiful setting of our island, but at the same time, open it up to people to come visit and enjoy? And then they can go, oh, and come back again. So that's what I'm saying in Hawaii, to encourage that and preserve the charm, the character, and the culture of our islands. And that to me is the thinking as leaders. And you can only do that by being able to pull the right people in and discuss this situation. And I'm ready to do that as the next Lieutenant Governor. Okay. Now I want you to tell everybody why you should be elected as the next Lieutenant Governor. My name is Bernard Covalho. I've been the Mayor of Kauai for ten years. I have the administrative experience. I understand how to pull resources together. I understand how to reach out into the community because that's what I do every day. I surround myself with good people with good hearts and souls. I have to manage this entire cabinet with different organizations and all of that. And the Lieutenant Governor's office is a place of the people. It's a place where people should come and ask questions and be served. It's a place, I want to be the bridge, I want to be the voice, and I want to be the action. And that is action with aloha into the Lieutenant Governor's office. Working closely with the governor, whoever is governor, I can work with the governor. But it's about the people. And so to me, that's what I offer you, the people. And my experience, my time as mayor, my time as a dad and husband and a father, all of it ties in, but more importantly, about the people. Ask the people what they want first before we move. Take care of the emotional things before, upfront, and everything will flow. And that's what I bring to the Lieutenant Governor's office. So when you get into the voting booth on August 11, think big. Aloha. Aloha. Thank you so much. It's always a pleasure having you with us. And we will see you August 11. Yeah. Thank you. Mahalo. Thank you. Aloha.