Mayor's Race - What do you think of Billy Kenoi?

[Rob Tucker]

At the door step of this election cycle for Mayor....

What is your assessment of Mayor Billy Kenoi?

Strong points? Weak points?

[Kapohocat]

A little disappointed.

[mmaruyama]

I think it's great that in such tough times, the Mayor still got stuff done. He never raised property taxes, but Puna still got a new police station, a new fire station, that playground down Pohoiki, Pahoa's new transfer station...

[Rob Tucker]

Minor points(?): I believe the goodies you refer to.... police station, fire station, transfer station and park were all in the works from the previous administration. They all take several years to get funded and built. I also recall that property tax rates were raised to maintain county income at previous levels while property values were declining.

http://www.bigislandvideonews.com/2009/1...the-table/

[Kapohocat]

Kenoi did appoint a pragmatic Plan Dept director. That was a good thing.

[Rene Siracusa]

Kenoi has been a major supporter of the Puna Community Medical Center since before it even opened: he made it part of his platform when he was running, then found grant money to help its startup ($35k, $50k and $52k)- we couldn't have made it without him. To date we have managed about 16,000 patient visits, almost all of whom are Puna residents with just a few visitors and tourists thrown in. He has also written eloquent support letters that have helped us to leverage other grant monies. Since Puna has a federal designation as a medically underserved community with a provider shortage, his support is no little thing.

Another thing I want to share, since most people don't know this about Billy: when he selected the members of the HI. Cty. Redistricting Commission, he chose community activists. He never asked us our position on district lines before he nominated us, and he never stuck his nose into the process. He never suggested that we vote one way or another. He just chose good people and let us do our thing. I have a lot of respect for that.

[opihikao]

In short, not much.

(Sorry, can't think; coqui frogs too loud...oh, wasn't he in charge of that issue while Kim was Mayor?)

Nice guy, a real "brudda", as Keoki Kai stated in Yagong's thread. In fact, all of Keoki Kai's statement mirrors my sentiments.

Please encourage everyone young and old to register to vote, no matter our preferences, we need to have the people heard, not just a fraction of our community. IMO.

[LeeE]

Rene, Mahalo! Didn't know any of that.

Lee Eisenstein
http://members.cruzio.com/~lionel/event

"Be kinder than necessary, as everyone you meet is engaged in some kind of strudel."

[JerryCarr]

First of all, I want to say that I respect Rene and I believe the Redistricting Commission did a better job than many of us had expected or even thought possible. There were, however, a couple of factors that slightly tarnished what was otherwise a sterling job. First, there was a last-minute adjustment that prevented two current council members (and frequent Kenoi supporters) from having to face each other. Second, some of the Commission members are now running for the Council districts they helped create. This gives the appearance of something funny, but it is fully legal under our Charter.

As far as the Mayor's selection of the Commission members, I seem to remember it taking a very long time. This was probably due at least in part to vetting the possible candidates. A good politician would select persons who were not obvious supporters, but who might be felt to be sympathetic to his or her point of view in general. To be fair, any smart mayor would do this, so I'm not saying Kenoi did anything anybody else wouldn't do. I also fully believe that he didn't ask Rene or any of the others about their redistricting ideas. I would just note that after it was all over, we have Rene making favorable comments about the mayor.

I believe Billy Kenoi is a smart politician of the local old school, but I don't think he is a very good mayor. More specifics about that later.

[liskir]

Pragmatic planning director??! BJ Lighthead-Todd likes to skew the facts a lot.