Nonpartisan Races
Nestor Garcia
Age: 51
Job: City Council member
Past: 1994-2002, representative; 1991-1992, staffer for U.S. Sen. Dan Inouye
What qualifies you to be a City Council member?
A deep understanding of the communities I have served for the past six years — Makakilo, Mililani, Waipahu, Village Park, Royal Kunia and Waikele — as their representative on the Honolulu City Council. Additionally, I have the broader perspective of governance, having served four terms in the state House of Representatives and in Washington, D.C., as a member of Sen. Daniel Inouye’s staff. I am presently the Council’s floor leader and chairman of the Transportation and Public Works Committee with jurisdiction over the transit project and the underground sewer and water infrastructure upgrades.
What can the city do to help residents cope with the rising cost of living?
The city budget must reflect the needs of our communities, and should apply city resources and manpower wisely and effectively to save taxpayers money. We must ensure that the city is able to efficiently provide the level of service needed for the people of Oahu. If it means some non-essential projects need to be delayed, then we need to delay them. But we should not under-fund essential projects and services necessary to protect human health, the environment, and public safety.
The city should also look at charging realistic permit fees that cover the full costs of operating city facilities for non-city activities.
Should the city continue with its planned rail transit system? Please explain.
Without question, people need alternatives to driving a car. Rail is one, TheBoat is another, and bicycling is a third.
Already, rising fuel costs have U.S. motorists seeking alternatives to cars. In Honolulu, ridership is up on TheBus and TheBoat. Bike shops report a 10-15 percent increase in sales, and Vanpool Hawaii added 300 new riders. This loss in gasoline taxes nationally threatens to bankrupt the U.S. Highway Trust Fund, which pays for highways.
I hope residents come to understand that with or without rail, traffic congestion will worsen unless fuel taxes increase and/or automobile use declines.
What should the city do to improve the quality of Honolulu’s roads?
We approved Ordinance 02-52, which assesses a fee on each new home built from Kapolei to Royal Kunia to support regional roadway improvements.
In 2007, I introduced and the Council passed Resolution 07-338, CD1, to update the Ewa highway master plan and consider new roadways for funding, and also Resolution 07-339, CD 1, which requests similar preparation of a multi-modal transportation master plan for Central Oahu. This improved planning will better coordinate and integrate the communities within our roadway system.
As Transportation & Public Works chairman, I will continue to press for timely pothole repairs and improvements to existing city roadways.
What should the city do about homelessness?
While sympathetic to those homeless and houseless, the city is best suited to complement and support the state’s efforts, but the state must assume the lead role since it has the funding and responsibility from the federal government to do so.
But arbitrarily closing state beaches and freeway underpasses that forces the homeless toward city facilities is unfair to Oahu taxpayers and hinders true state-city collaboration on the problem.
The state must recognize that our taxpayers have a right to access a public beach or city park without having to fear for their safety or security each time they do.
Emil Svrcina
Age: 46
Job: Computer specialist, Cancer Research Center of Hawaii
Past: Family man, entrepreneur, engineer, programmer
What qualifies you to be a City Council member?
Twenty years ago I escaped with my wife from an oppressive government, looking for civil freedoms. I knew that with my fervor for freedom I must get to the United States, where I might be a part of true representative democracy. I have deep respect for this country, and wish to add my founded ideas on topics such as energy independence, efficient concepts in food production, and achieving more with less.
This country has given me so many things to be proud of, and now I wish to give back, and God willing, represent people justly and without arrogant elitism.
What can the city do to help residents cope with the rising cost of living?
First, the city must realize that it must act in a fiscally disciplined way. We’ll have to do more with less. City tax collection has risen 46 percent in the last four years. The rail project, if it is fully implemented, will require another major increase of about 40 percent of property taxes. Currently, the city is using more than 15 percent of its budget for repayment of debt. The county debt limit needs a major review. Inefficient city government here is coping with rising costs with higher taxation thereby inflicting pain on us citizens causing our cost of living to rise.
Should the city continue with its planned rail transit system? Please explain.
No. City bureaucrats should listen to many well-educated local residents like mayoral candidate Dr. Panos Prevedourous. He is patiently suggesting projects we can afford, maintain, and we need. Paying attention would save Hawaii’s taxpayers a great deal of money while providing justifiable solutions we deserve. He has explained patiently many times that in a high occupancy transit expressway all buses, van pools and large carpools go for free. About 100 buses and 500 van pools have roughly twice the passenger capacity of the proposed rail, but they use the capacity of only one-half of a freeway lane. No nonsense anymore.
What should the city do to improve the quality of Honolulu’s roads?
City roadway paving is much worse than that of state highways because of years of neglect. As I am informed by the experts, we must stop applying the half-inch pavement overlay treatments that cost tens of millions but last only few years. Sometimes they last barely through the next election cycle and then became political issue again and again for the opposition. Our paved streets need high quality expensive but durable rehabilitation. I will support the mayor, who will understand, that the city must allocate the proper resources and create a plan for routine and periodic pavement maintenance.
What should the city do about homelessness?
Because our society demanded that mentally sick people be free from full acute-care hospitalization, some are now homeless (some drug addicts). Some homeless live on beaches, don’t mind it, and call themselves houseless. Some are forced to be homeless due to their economic situation. The city should consistently force all to obey our laws without exception, only then they can be offered help and state programs. The government is not almighty, but it must foster basics — healthy functioning economy, jobs offering a living wage, decent schools, so people can have the quality education for jobs to support themselves.
Lance Widner
Age: 32
Job: Not given
Past: Community board member, government affairs chairman, traffic calming committee chair
What qualifies you to be a City Council member?
As board member and chairman of the Government Affairs Committee in Royal Kunia for the past three years, I have been involved directly in a land preservation battle with the Department of Education to reprioritize a long-promised elementary school, and am now in communication with the developer of the second phase of our neighborhood. I have also organized a traffic calming subcommittee for Royal Kunia, and have been a member of the Ho‘opili Task Force for three years to ensure proper development and community input as D.R. Horton begins to develop a new subdivision between Waipahu and Kapolei.
What can the city do to help residents cope with the rising cost of living?
The City Council can directly influence the charges they impose on residents. The technology is now available to perform most services online (permits, registration, etc.). While not everyone has Internet access, the larger the percentage of people that do use these services online, the more the aggregate cost will decline, and that savings can be passed onto Hawaii’s residents. Second, we need to continually re-examine how property taxes are assessed, especially for the elderly and those who live on fixed incomes. We need to ensure the inflation index is taken into account when analyzing such taxes and that reductions or exemptions are given when warranted.
Should the city continue with its planned rail transit system? Please explain.
There is clearly a global movement toward mass transit, and the time has come to adopt this trend. We only have one main route from leeward Oahu to downtown, so an alternative is even more critical than in most cities. In addition to the federal subsidy, the rail can be funded with tax dollars, and approximately one third of those dollars collected come from tourism. This helps. However, I am fervently opposed to any additional taxes to fund the project beyond the 4.5 percent GE tax, and, I believe the decision for this project should rest with voters, not City Council.
What should the city do to improve the quality of Honolulu’s roads?
To improve road conditions, we can do three things: 1) We need to continuously explore high-tech alternatives. There are new paving materials that are cheaper and stronger, and will substantially improve road surfaces. 2) In addition to fixing the potholes themselves, we need to fix the substrate below them. Without this, the potholes will reappear much more rapidly. 3) Again, with better communication between city and state, we can repair roads more rapidly, staving off further deterioration and increased costs.
What should the city do about homelessness?
This one is tough. Every case will have to be looked at individually, but it seems that the homeless fall into two primary camps. The first is filled with those who simply can no longer afford the high cost of living and don’t know where to turn. There are programs and transitional housing options available to assist those in need in an effort to help restore financial independence. If the rules are followed, support will be given. The second camp includes those that either don’t want to abide by the law or don’t have the mental capacity to do so.
