Who would represent Puna?

[Clayton]

There are some interesting people running for County Council in districts 4 & 5. Does anyone have an opinion of which candidates, in each race, would represent Puna's interest and which candidates would represent Hilo instead?

I'm also interested in your thoughts regarding the district 4 State House race.

Clayton

Clayton

[punaticbychoice]

CC 5- either Pueo or Paleka for various reasons, I'm not sure yet.
I've written the others off.
CC 4- Greene or Illagan, same reservations as for CC 5.
HD 4- Crelly or San Bonaventura, again, reservations and uncertainties about both candidates.

[Guest]

Punaticbychoice, by what criteria are you evaluating these candidates? What scorecard are you using to pick your winner? Or is it just a gut feeling? Who is the last council member (if any) that satisfied you in the past 20 years?

Also, I would like to comment on your choice for County Council 5 Paleka or Pueo. How could you pick two candidates that are politically diametrically opposed to each other? Pueo (like RJ) wants to keep Hawai'i Hawai'i and Paleka wants to hand it over to the developers and the good ol' boy network. I surmise that Paleka entered the race because the good ol' boys didn't think Hunt could pull it off esp. when RJ entered the race. I am sure they are hoping for a Paleka vs. Hunt runoff therefore they win either way and all of Puna loses. And why do we lose? Well I'll tell you. Both Hunt and Paleka are the darlings of Ormat Geothermal Company and GMO development. RJ lost an endorsement from Shipman's Bill Walters because of her anti GMO stance. Mr Walters told Rj and I that candidate Tiffany Edwards Hunt was completely in line with his philosophy about GMO. Mr. Walters respects RJ because of the work that she did on the building codes, Bill 270 but could not support her because most of his farms are GMO! Be careful who you vote for Puna...you might just get um.

[kalakoa]

So long as Puna remains divided, no candidate will succeed in representing its interests.

[Guest]

It was redistricting that split Puna in half. Can you say gerrymandering? Half the people in Puna don't even know what district they are in and that is after 2 years. Pahoa was split right down the middle. If this issue had been Solomon's dilemma the baby would be dead today.

[kalakoa]

It was redistricting that split Puna in half. Can you say gerrymandering?

Puna was divided long before the redistricting.

The local politics are vicious because there's so little to fight over.

[csgray]

I don't see the current district lines as having been gerrymandered, although the division of Pahoa in half was an interesting choice, but Pahoa village only has several hundred people in it, even if it is the commercial center for lower Puna. Gerrymandering is generally done to keep one political party in power, no matter what, and these are non partisan races.

The next census is going to bring another major redistricting effort for Hawaii county, because HPP alone will have grown to the point where Puna will need at least two and a half councilors. Then things will get really interesting, none of the other districts, or even subdivisions, are growing at the pace HPP is and that means the other ditricts will all have to shrink in proportion to the number of new residents in Puna. How will they draw the lines when HPP alone has a big enough population to have it be one council district?

I want our councilors to work together, to work with the Ka'u and south Kona councilors to promote common interests, and to spend their time on issues that actually benefit the people of Hawaii county and Puna. That means not wasting time on meaningless resolutions on global issues, arguing about passing feel good legislation that doesn't actually do anything, or pandering to ANY special interests.

Carol

[steve1]

For me the choice is not just who represents Puna's interests, but who can help represent such a diverse group of people effectively while listening to their constituents' concerns.

Last time Gregor ran he walked door to door in HPP and when he got to my house he asked what was my largest concern for Puna and I told him that it is the Little Fireant because it has the potential to ruin our agricultural crops, way of life, and drive down our property values. Since then I have not heard one peep from Gregor about the Little Fireant nor have I heard any protesting from him when Billy jacked up our property taxes by about a third and tacked a bunch of extra county taxes onto our annual car registration. From what I can tell all the extra taxes went to paying bonuses and raises for top county execs and other highly paid officers. Many of the bonuses exceed the annual income of a large part of Puna's constituents.

While it may not be possible to meet all the varied peoples' needs all the time, it would be helpful if the next representatives were able to work together to try and meet at least our majorities needs before giving away more money to Hilo.

Last time Emily was in office she got too narrowly focused on the needs of a few like that crazy guy who was anti-vaccine and wasted a bunch of her political clout trying to buy that steamvent inn.

I am concerned that some of our candidates may have tunnel vision and not be effective working with other representatives. The Puna reps should be able to share an office in Puna, (not Hilo) and need to be able to work well with others.

As far as real issues we have the Puna bypass route (which should at least be identified as to location), Little Fireants, Albizia and absentee landowners, and getting gas and registration taxes to assist in helping develop all the "private roadways" the County allowed to be built here to substandard conditions.

[Guest]

Steve quote:

"wasted a bunch of her political clout trying to buy that steam vent inn."

Steve, I just want you to understand it was not the Steam vent Inn. Yet I understand how you could have made that assumption but it was the 7 acre parcel next store. It is always the councilperson's prerogative to bring projects to the table and evaluate their worthiness.

As a natural phenomenon the naturally heated cinder cone caves on the property are some of the most unique in the world. They even lack the sulfur egg smell that normally accompanies steam vents. In researching the project we found out a lot of things about the rareness of the property that made us excited about the possibility of the County acquiring the land. There are even remnants of an old village down there.

In many other countries, the government owns and controls the geothermal sources of steam heat and their mineral rights and would not let them fall into a private individual's hands. Mainly because steam vents and these kinds of areas are tourist attractions that bring in revenues. We were thinking outside the box but by no means were we going nuts.

But because Fred Blas was elected he used his prerogative as a councilperson to nullify the project we were working on. That is what we expected him to do. I heard the steam vents have been privately sold. Isn't that the American way. So on to the warm ponds everyone goes...

[PauHana]

" I have not heard one peep from Gregor about the Little Fireant nor have I heard any protesting from him when Billy jacked up our property taxes"

LFA is a State priority and funding for the Ant lab comes from the State and is based in Hilo (
www.littlefireants.com/). Our State reps are on it.

A County control project would be a case of reinventing an expensive project. The County is working to get them out of the parks

FYI -- Greggor voted against Billy's property tax hike.