Position Running For

State House of Representatives, District 17

What area(s) of the Island do you call home?

Kalaheo

What is your vision for a thriving agricultural sector on Kauai and how can the State support that vision?

My vision is for Kauaʻi to become more food-secure by making agriculture practical again for local families, small farmers, and community groups. I would support using appropriate public agricultural land for cooperative farming, community farm plots, and affordable small-farm leases, especially for residents and beginning farmers.

As a state representative, I would consider legislation to create a Kauaʻi cooperative agriculture pilot program focused on land access, water, fencing, shared tools, cold storage, and local food distribution. This could also connect with county efforts on houselessness, including grants and aid funding, because food security, job training, and pathways to self-sufficiency are part of addressing houselessness.

The goal is not just to grow food, but to build resilience: feed local families, support farmers, reduce dependence on imports, and create practical opportunities for people to work and contribute.

If elected, how would you engage with the business community prior to your decision-making?

As a small business owner, I know government decisions can directly affect employers, workers, customers, and families. If elected, I would like to hold a monthly business forum, online or in person, to hear directly from local businesses and residents about challenges, proposed legislation, permitting, taxes, workforce needs, and the overall business needs of the community. I would also use social media and email updates to share proposals and invite public feedback.

My goal is open, transparent decision-making. Local businesses, workers, and residents should have a meaningful opportunity to weigh in on policies that affect our community. Good decisions should be community-focused, practical, and informed by the people who live with the outcomes.

How would you help ensure that working middle class residents can afford to buy or rent a home on Kauaʻi?

My focus would be on true homeownership. Rentals are a positive part of our economy, and I recognize that some local families rely on one or two rentals to support their own family. I am not against that. There is a major difference between a local family with a rental and large investors controlling five, ten, twenty, or more homes while working families cannot buy one.

With investors estimated to own approximately 36% of Kauaʻi single-family homes, and nearly half owned by companies, we need transparency and resident-first policies.

I want to make it easier for primary-residence buyers and less attractive for large-scale investors to keep accumulating residential property. That could include stronger beneficial ownership disclosures, higher conveyance tax treatment for owners/benefactors acquiring a third+ rental property, and incentives for investors to sell homes to primary-residence buyers.

BOTTOM LINE: I would protect small local landlords and long-term affordable rentals, while ensuring public benefits, tax credits, permitting advantages, and infrastructure support are tied to housing for residents, not investor profit. Working families need a real path to ownership.

How would you effectively manage budget and operations compared to the past?

Audit. Audit. Audit.

We cannot manage what we refuse to examine. Government should be required to clearly account for how current funds are being spent, whether programs are producing measurable results, and where waste, duplication, or mismanagement exists.

If elected, I would support stronger legislative oversight, regular performance audits, public reporting of program outcomes, and budget transparency that allows residents to see where (and to whom) money is going. I would also consider legislation requiring major programs to include clear goals, measurable outcomes, sunset reviews, and corrective action plans when audits identify problems.

Additionally, if a program failed, ran over budget, or did not deliver results, we should learn from it and then fix it or end it. Responsible budgeting means protecting taxpayers, funding what works, and making government prove that the money entrusted to it is actually serving the people.

What specific ideas do you have about economic diversification and how would you develop these areas?

A key part of my platform is self-sustainability right here on Kauaʻi. Economic diversification should strengthen the areas that make our island more resilient and give local families a future here.

That includes cooperative farming to improve food security, help families and small farmers grow food, and create opportunities to sell excess produce. I would support better access to agricultural land, water, food hubs, cold storage, and farm-to-school or farm-to-food-bank programs.

I would also focus on workforce training for both local industries and remote careers. We should have on-island pathways into construction trades, agriculture, healthcare, technology, bookkeeping, design, project management, and other careers that allow our children to earn a good living without ever needing to leave Kauaʻi.

Other opportunities include small manufacturing, value-added agriculture, food processing, renewable energy maintenance, digital services, and entrepreneurship.

BOTTOM LINE: We need practical policies that reduce dependence on imports and tourism, build local skills, support small businesses, and create real opportunities for Kauaʻi families to work, serve, and thrive here at home.

What are your priorities for infrastructure investment? How would you ensure that planned infrastructure projects (roads, wastewater, facilities, bridges, etc.) on Kauai move forward in a timely manner?

Infrastructure is one of my top priorities because Kauaʻi is already behind, and continued development without basic infrastructure will only increase the strain on our public facilities.

My focus would be on building the missing backbone infrastructure, especially wastewater. Kalaheo, Lawai, Omao, Poipu, and other areas in my district still lack centralized sewer infrastructure, even though regional wastewater planning has been discussed for decades. The South Kauaʻi Community Plan identified a regional wastewater treatment plant as a priority, including earlier planning around the Kōloa mill site. I would support reviving that effort and moving it from planning into funded design, engineering, land selection, and construction timelines. Homeowners should not be left mandated to convert to septic to solve a regional wastewater problem one property at a time.

I would also support incentives for homeowners to connect once sewer infrastructure is available, while reassessing the 2050 cesspool conversion timeline for low-risk properties that do not threaten groundwater, streams, or the ocean.

BOTTOM LINE: Build the infrastructure first, then help residents connect.

What is your vision for effective management of the visitor industry so that economic goals are met while ensuring community and environmental concerns are addressed?

Tourism is an important part of our economy, and many local families and small businesses depend on it. But I do believe the visitor industry has to be managed with residents in mind first.

Kauaʻi cannot keep increasing pressure on our roads, beaches, parks, wastewater systems, emergency services, and housing without a serious plan to manage the impacts. Economic goals cannot be met at the expense of the people who live here.

My focus would be accountability and balance. Visitor-related revenue should be clearly tied to the infrastructure and services impacted by tourism, and residents should be able to see where that money is going. I would also support stronger enforcement of illegal vacation rentals, better management of high-impact visitor areas, and policies that support local small businesses rather than only large outside interests.

BOTTOM LINE: Tourism should support Kauaʻi, not overrun it. We need to protect local jobs and small businesses while also protecting residents, infrastructure, housing, beaches, and the natural resources that make Kauaʻi home.

What is your solution to best manage solid waste on Kauaʻi? Please include your views on recycling, landfill site, source reduction, and other strategies.

Kauaʻi needed a solid waste plan YESTERDAY. We are burying roughly 500,000 pounds of trash every day at Kekaha Landfill. THAT’S INSANE.

Maʻalo was recommended as the long-term landfill site in 2012. Plan development in 2014 added a Resource Recovery Park with an estimated 264-year lifespan. But the initial recommendation was 14 years ago, and the County is again pursuing expansion at Kekaha Landfill because the long-term solution still has not been implemented.

We should not be scrambling to add landfill capacity at Kekaha in 2026. I understand there were FAA/DOT complications around the project in 2022, but those issues should have been addressed more effectively at the time, especially since Maʻalo is now back on the table. We lost years on the project.

My priority would be to push Maʻalo implementation forward: establish clear timelines, move from planning into action, and provide quarterly accountability reporting to the community. Recycling, composting, green waste diversion, construction waste diversion, reuse, repair, and recovery all need to be part of the system today, not 10 years from now while we continue burying 250 tons of garbage in Kekaha every day.

As an elected official, what steps would you take to mitigate the impacts of climate change on Kauaʻi?

As an elected official, I would support investments in drainage, bridge and road hardening, wildfire prevention, water storage, watershed protection, and coastal erosion planning. I would also prioritize wastewater infrastructure because failing cesspools and outdated systems threaten our groundwater, streams, and ocean, especially during heavy rain and flooding.

I would push for clear accounting of existing climate and resilience funds before asking taxpayers for more money. We need to know what has already been funded, what has been completed, what is delayed, and what results were achieved. Any new program should include measurable goals, public reporting, and accountability.

BOTTOM LINE: My priority is protecting people and infrastructure. We should focus on practical projects that reduce risk, strengthen emergency readiness, protect natural resources, and make Kauaʻi more resilient without growing government unnecessarily or wasting taxpayer dollars.

What else would you like to share with the business community?

What I would most like the business community to know is that I understand how hard it is to operate a small business on Kauaʻi. Businesses are not just storefronts or balance sheets; we are families, jobs, and local people trying to make life work here.

Many of my priorities connect directly to business: affordability, housing, infrastructure, education, workforce development, accountability, and reducing unnecessary government burdens.

• If workers cannot afford housing, businesses struggle to hire.
• If infrastructure is failing, businesses pay the price.
• If students are not prepared with critical thinking, trades, and practical skills, our future workforce suffers.
• If government spending is not audited and measured, taxpayers and businesses carry the burden.

I will support policies that help local businesses survive and grow: better infrastructure, better education, more local food production, expedited permitting, accountability, and transparent decision-making that includes the people affected.