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Maui voters have three candidates to choose from in the race for state House district 14.

The seat represents an expansive area that includes portions of North and West Maui, including Waiheʻe, Kāʻanapali, Olowalu and Lāhainā, with the incumbent switching parties, a third party candidate emerging, and the long road of recovery in Lāhainā still ahead.

This is expected to be a competitive race.

Tonight's live broadcast and live stream of insights on PBS Hawaiʻi.

Start now.

Aloha and welcome to insights on PBS Hawaiʻi.

I'm Daryl Huff.

State House district 14 encompasses a number of communities in West Maui, going from Waiheʻe-Waiehu to Kāʻanapali down to Olowalu.

And about the center of the district is Lāhainā, which continues to recover from the devastating 2023 wildfire.

The three candidates on the general election ballot have brought added attention to the race, with their different political alignments and distinct approach to how they will guide West Maui into the future.

We look forward to your participation in tonight's show.

You can email or call in your questions, and you'll find a live stream of this program at pbshawaii.org and the PBS Hawai'i YouTube page.

Now to our guests.

Representing the Green Party is Pāʻele Kiakona, a lifelong Lāhainā native whose family farmed in the valley.

He studied environmental science at Hilo, served on the Maui Board of Water Supply, and co-founded Lāhainā Strong, a community led organization focused on the wildfire recovery.

Elle Cochran is the Republican incumbent.

She was first elected to the seat in 2022 as a Democrat, but switched parties earlier this year.

The lifelong Lāhainā resident served on the Maui County Council for seven years and is also the founder of the Save Honolua Coalition and Democrat Sne Patel is a local small business leader and longtime West Maui community volunteer.

He served on the Maui County Liquor Commission and has been the president of the Lāhainā Town Action Committee for more than a decade.

Let me start with the same question for all three, and I'll start with you.

Mr.

Kiakona.

What about your personality or your experience?

Your background will make you a really good, really good candidate and also a good representative for your district.

Mahalo for that question, Daryl.

And just super honored to be here.

You know, I've been born and raised born and raised right there in Lāhainā down at Māla.

My grandmother's property was one that we lost in the fire, generational family home.

And my entire life, I've watched as our community and our people had struggled.

And simultaneously watching our ʻāina and everything around us degrade over time, and the faces around us become less and less familiar.

And, you know, this is the the background that I'm bringing into this.

I've lived these issues that the entire community has portrayed to me as things that they feel like need to be addressed, that are priority for them to address.

And I've lived in my entire life and we are able to, as a community, you know, live between all of these issues and able to move forward with them.

So I believe that ability to problem solve and bring in those solutions to the forefront.

And also, I understand that the it shouldn't matter what you are affiliated with, if something needs to be done for the community, you got to do it.

And that is something we bring to Elle Cochran yourself.

And he brought up the party thing.

You don't have to talk about that now.

We'll probably get into it later.

But what makes you the right person for this job?

Thank you.

Daryl.

And so I think you stated the county council, it's that eight years.

So it said you said seven, but we have two year term zero.

So for elections.

But, you know, it's just the background of my, my government experience.

I think coming to the state legislature, I notice a lot of people without the county background don't really get the, the, you know, the boots on the ground, I level of their constituents and what they, what they deal with on a daily basis.

You're a lot more far removed here on another island on the state level.

So my county background really can take me down to the, you know, where the rubber meets the road type view.

And, and especially with chairing the infrastructure committee back then for eight years and then moving forward with the, you know, rebuilding, it's really giving me a deeper understanding of what needs to be done and who has jurisdiction and how we can get things.

Yeah.

Completed.

So I think just my experience and background in legislature, legislature, helps, you know.

Okay.

Very good.

Sne Patel.

Yeah.

No, I think also for me, it's my collective background.

You know, I came to Lāhainā, been there since I was 23.

So, you know, a lot of the important things that have happened in my life five years ago.

Yeah, like five years ago.

Exactly.

Daryl.

But no, it's, you know, something that, you know, I work my way up to where I've been at.

You know, I started out in bars and restaurants, worked my way up to managing art galleries on Front Street.

I was there in Front Street for over 18 years.

And then, you know, one of the things that I started to do is, you know, if I wanted to make a life here, I was like, I wanted to get involved.

So that's why I did get involved in a lot of community volunteer positions that I have and boards and commissions.

And, you know, that's the thing is the collective knowledge that I have with serving on those boards and commission understanding it from the ground level, but also, you know, being in the position I have with an action committee, you're kind of looking at not just the economic vitality, but the cultural, the community vitality, as well as communicating with different government agencies, state and county, and, you know, looking at ways that you can help the town.

But how does it all connect?

And I think that over time is what I've built is relationships.

And I've built a way of working that brings people to the table and moves things forward in a practical way.

You know, obviously the big, the big thing for your district is the rebuilding of Lāhainā.

And I'll start off with Representative Cochran on this, you know, what do you think is the first thing, the next thing that needs to happen, the next big thing that needs to happen in the recovery of Lāhainā?

What I see meetings are occurring and the general community is not involved.

And I've been hearing that a lot.

I was brought in to a meeting just on Saturday, and it's like these things people have been discussing, things having to do with our for about Lāhainā, but yet it's just been a select group of people involved in planning.

And I spoke to the director on the county, and he failed to mention that there was an upcoming meeting.

And I asked, when is the, you know, the representative of the district going to be involved?

When is the general community going to be involved?

And basically the answer was it's forthcoming.

But, you know, we should be involved from the start.

And that hasn't been happening.

So I think The Voice, because that's what it's supposed to be.

It's our town.

And rebuilding and recovery affects us all and we should have a part in it.

Sne Patel, you're feeling about what's the next big priority here?

I think that the next big priority has to be two things.

One is our infrastructure needs have to make sure that we're building back right the correct way for our future housing needs.

And the other thing is, you know, permitting delays.

I think that especially with the commercial buildings, there's been delays with certain processes and people being able to rebuild back along Front Street, both mauka and makai.

And I think we need to resolve those issues, because the one thing that I think anyone in the community wants to see is where one building goes up, but then you have a whole block that's left over and nothing else is there.

So I think there needs to be some coordination with the state and county, as well as with some of these other departments, to make sure that when we're building back Lāhainā, we're building back with community in mind, of course, but also with this cohesive vision.

And I think that's one of the things that, you know, I do want to actually plan out is how, you know, what is the overall vision of Lāhainā.

The community has had time to input.

There can be more input, but we need to come up with one cohesive plan that works for all the different members.

That's what they've been trying to do.

But go ahead Mr.

Kiakona.

Oh, yeah.

Mahalo, Daryl.

So, I mean, as we're at Dawn arcane, I've had thousands of dollars and pretty much the same issue across the board has just been like price of living, price of housing, costs of groceries and all of these things.

But all of these issues that have been presented from the community can almost always be traced right back to the root cause.

And that is the state of our ʻāina and our environment around us, whether we want to, you know, we look at we look into infrastructure itself.

If our our lands can act as that buffer zone to ensure that we're not taking the brunt force of either hurricane force winds or rain, heavy torrential downpour and flooding, and our ʻāina is not able to absorb those those two and fire as well, of course.

Then it translates directly to the cost that the community has to pay at the end of the day.

And when looking into Lāhainā, one of the biggest things I believe needs to, you know, of course, simultaneously with the rebuild helping to expedite the process of getting everybody's permits through, we need to start looking into how we're going to steward our ʻāina to ensure that we are more resilient after these natural disasters, because every time we feel an impact, our communities who are obviously impacted have to deal with the issues more than, you know, most other people out there.

So I started to get questions in, and I want to make sure that I honor our viewers with these questions.

And while we're on the topic of recovery, Abe says since the fires, how has the legislature helped in the recovery of Lāhainā?

And what would you do to change whatever has been done?

Mr.

Patel, why don't you take that one first?

Yes.

I think once again, I'm going to go back to making sure that people are getting their permits and expeditious fashion.

You know, fashion that we're able to move things along in the rebuilding.

So wherever the legislature can do, they're in making sure that the different departments that are responsible for issuing those permits are doing their job or are staffed correctly, you know, what resources do they need?

And a lot of these longstanding problems that we've had were there before the fires, right?

So it wasn't like, you know, we didn't have issues with housing and infrastructure and with some of the issues with water.

Those were there.

So it's like one of the things that, you know, I'd like to really look at is an overall, you know, view of here's where we are, here's where we need to get to and how do we get there, and what departments are actually responsible for doing what, and then provide that clarity to the public.

So they also understand that, hey, you know what?

It's a complex issue, but you need somebody like me, I think, in there to connect the dots and put things together that will actually have practical solutions and progress for the first time, I think, in West Maui for a long time.

Representative Cochran, you were actually there.

So the question was, you know, what would you do to change what has been done by the legislature?

Well, I'm currently working on a bill, so permits you'll see.

Homes are getting built in Lāhainā.

Things are moving forward.

A bit.

Business is not so much.

So, and people are so at which then they're just grasping at anybody, you know, telling them we can rebuild your home.

T and there's been some unlicensed contractors that taken advantage of this, and people have lost their insurance monies, their entire life savings to fraudulent contractors.

So currently it's just, when you don't fulfill a contract or the job that you say you're going to do for someone, it's just it's not a it's not a felony.

You know, it's not like a crime per se.

So I'm trying to make it to be that level.

So people actually, you know, you're going to get hit if you do this to somebody because it's wrong and you've taken advantage.

And so these are the things that, you know, a legislature can write bills and laws to affect that.

And I'm looking to take care of that because it's a staggering amount of money people have lost.

And so I'm working on that.

You've got your own feeling about how the legislature, one thing that they did do, and this is going to segway into another couple of questions we got, is they did make it easier for the counties to regulate the short term rentals.

And then you guys had this big fight.

But I wonder if you think that was a big significant thing or or is there something else legislature has done or should do that.

You think that should be actionable?

Yeah.

So of course, SB 2919, which gave more oversight to our counties to phase out short term rentals depending on what the situation is there.

Has, in my opinion, has been a very positive step in the right direction.

We're setting a precedent that our housing is not a commodity to be, you know, gentrified and turned into a money making vehicle when the vast majority of our community members either rent or they all pile up in one home because they can't afford to buy a home.

And the short term rental conversation has had a direct impact on that.

We can't even build housing because we don't have enough water, and short term rentals utilize 2 to 400% more water, and just the act of putting a local in that building in that space and turn it back into long term renting has a profound impact on that water availability as well.

But, you know, I want to be honest about something.

And, you know, we've evolved not to speak ill ever about my, my, the candidates, my opponents, but because if I don't have enough good to see about myself, then I don't deserve to be here, right?

And so I will not speak ill, but I will speak some truth.

We have proven with this organization, a strong community members, that it is possible to be present in the community, to be able to show up at the Capitol time and time again.

I learned how to write legislation right there on the beach and show up.

Yeah.

And we've shown that it is possible because that's what the community needed.

But now that there is a race, we do see more attendance and more presence in this room, which I am glad because this is what our community needs, but because they deserve a leader that is going to be there, be present.

And currently we are in this really critical phase when our FEMA funding is starting to dissipate and disappear, and now it is tasked to our state legislators to make the ass directly to the federal government to see how we can get funding to fund specific issues in our home.

And I think just our track record report card right now has not given them the confidence that they can put this funding in our hands, that our community can use it.

Okay, let me go to Sne Patel, moving on to this vacation rental issue.

This is a kind of a pointed question at you as a person who actually is an investor.

Right.

And Shane from email, you both testified extensively on Bill nine as a vacation rental owner and employee of Maui Resort Rentals.

And Elle is spokesperson for lie a strong.

How much do you think your background has affected your position on vacation rentals?

But let's also another question is what's your position on short term rentals and their dual impact on housing and availability?

Have you been in a position where you have to defend this issue?

And, have you been moved at all by the positions that strong has taken and the legislature and the county council?

Yeah, no.

First, you know, what line of strong did you know?

Like I said, the the the bill was written on a beach.

And, you know, I think that the spirit of what the bill intent was to get housing in the hands of local people and get affordable housing, I 100% embrace that.

That's the spirit of what was written.

It was written on the beach.

I wish we had more opportunity to write something that was actually going to be more effective, sooner.

Because as we know in the bill, 2031 is when this inventory comes back into stock.

Now with the affordable rental, I mean, with the short term rental thing, I want to make it clear I don't own a short term rental personally as we speak, because the spinnaker condos, where I own one condo burned down, I'm navigating as the board president to rebuild that project.

57 units.

And it's been hard.

And whether it's a short term rental or not, I'm not even worried about that.

I'm just trying to rebuild that building so that those residents that live there can move back in.

So what is what is rebuilt just so I can so bureaus understand this issue.

And frankly, you and I talked about this before, but I don't remember.

Are you folks going to have to be long term renters when you were able to do short term rentals?

You'll have to.

Yeah I mean it's law now, right?

So and I don't think anybody in the ownership is really fighting that because first and foremost we got to rebuild it.

Now the other thing is with Maurer Resort Rentals.

Yes.

I am not an owner of that business.

I work, you know, and that's the thing is, in the community, I navigate being in the community as a small business advocate, as a father, as a husband, as somebody building back a condominium complex, helping people get back home and somebody that serves on boards and commissions and volunteers.

I'm living it and breathing it.

I have a job.

It's with my resort rentals.

You know, the thing is, I'm director of sales there.

And one of the things that I said when I took that job is I want the title to be director of sales and advocacy.

And I said, if I take this position, the advocacy is there not for the advocacy of this industry, but it's the advocacy of our employees and the community that we serve in.

And I've done that since, you know, I've taken that position.

We've helped a lot of people out.

We're not out there blasting it.

But the other thing is, none of our properties are apartment 1 or 2 zoned properties.

We only operate in the resort hotel zone we have.

That's been our mission.

And let me just continue that, just to say, has this position hurt you, you think in the relationship or people going to you and saying you're an STR owner, I'm not going to vote for you.

I think people don't do their research and they just blast you off of not really knowing you.

Pilot and I have talked like we're not, you know, on opposite sides of this problem of getting affordable housing.

But yeah, I think people just see labels.

They think of your as business person or they think of you as a short term renter.

And that's not true.

The real big problem.

Let me let me get Representative Cochran a chance.

Where where are you on the short term rental issue and where do we need to go from here?

Well, for when we started, we created it as when I was a council member, and I always knew if it wasn't enforced and monitored, this is the situation it would get to ensure enough.

So, you know, there was only supposed to be 88 in West Maui, 88 in South Maui, and we're in the thousands over.

And that's lack of enforcement.

So anyways, can't.

So now fast forward, I, I never thought this was a particular silver bullet per se to take care of our affordable housing issue.

It would help some.

But no, I never heard anyone really talk about, you know, how much are home.

What are the you know, what are the cam fees going to be, right?

What are the maintenance fees going to be?

Those things never go down.

I worked at Marriott for 13 years.

We flipped from hotel into timeshare.

I was a timeshare owner until it came.

The cost of just the, you know, the maintenance fees were so astronomical, I couldn't even rent it to take care of that.

I sold it, but, you know, it was it.

No one talks about that.

So to have to think it's going to be affordable for families, it's not going to be in the long run.

So let's in a minute, in a minute we'll move on to, affordable housing certainly because I'm getting questions about it.

But I wanted to give you a chance to respond to this statement, like you said, writing a bill on a beach.

But that but I think didn't ultimately, the mayor take that bill to council and council, you know, barely approved it.

But, well, whether it's written on a beach or whether it's written somewhere else, it still legislation.

Go ahead.

I want to give you a chance to respond to that written SB, SB 2919, which was the bill to give county oversight on this issue.

It's actually been 15 or so years in the making and has been tried and tried again, but this to no, no success because there was a lot of, opposition fighting against that.

Right.

And rightfully so.

It's a huge money making vehicle.

But, the only bill that was written on the beach was the one that I wrote myself was to incentivize regenerative tourism, but we learned how to do legislation getting confused on the be okay.

But Bill nine was then SB 2919 translated into Bill nine, which then the county mayor introduced.

Okay, I'm going to move on to tourism that you just brought that up.

And is tourism going to change forever in, in in West Maui?

I mean, given where we've been or is tourism still going to go right back to being the number one driver, the number one employer and everything else?

Representative, do you think that's the way you hope not.

I mean, it's back from Covid.

I thought we had the opportunity then to do two things differently.

Right.

Diversify economy that everybody's campaign talks about.

That never happened.

Opened the floodgates.

Tourism came back in.

We were back to square one again with the tourism and the impacts to us.

And living in a resort town.

Yeah, you're living some impacts.

You know, we generate taxation and we put monies into the coffers of a lot of people, but we we have to live through that.

So I'm hoping no.

The answer is no.

And we're going to do things differently.

We're going to be you know, the general plan does say that the population of tourism, the ratio of tourism versus the population of our residents should not go beyond the 33%.

And that's been, you know, beyond 33%.

What of the the ratio of residents versus the visitors that are on the island any given moment?

67% residents and 33% should never go over that.

But we've had over that.

Yeah.

Yeah, exactly.

So no one's again enforcement tracking following the you know, the letter of the law basically is not occurring.

And you know, we want things that are not.

Yeah.

So I've been a ambassador of tourism for, for President Trump's administration was just here.

And we're talking about doing things differently, as you're saying, you know, with with visitors and bringing back our Asian marketers, Japanese visitors who come and don't really leave a heavy impact, you know, but they do leave some nice dollars and they, yeah.

And they're they're very respectful and cultural wise.

So we're looking to, to reinvigorate, I guess, that that visitor demographic to come back the 70s, I recall, I mean, I was in the tourism industry for 33 years, so I lived those and saw it was it was a really successful time for many of us.

And so yeah, that's to give you know, I want to add this thought into the conversation about tourism from Eddie.

Should Lāhainā be rebuilt to what it was, or is there a way to rebuild it better for the residents and not for visitors?

Do you feel things are heading in the right direction?

Seems like this tragedy is a way to correct so many wrongs.

Again, your thoughts about tourism and and how does the rebuilding of Lāhainā fit with a vision that you might have for how much tourism is part of it?

Yeah.

So I'll say this we need to do tourism better.

It needs to work better for our community and the people that live there.

Tourists get a five star experience when they come here.

At most hotels or resorts, that same five star experience isn't returned back into the community.

And that's a problem.

It's an imbalance with the tourism dollars.

It should benefit the community way more than it has, and that needs to change.

Now with respect to Lāhainā and the rebuild.

You know, when I first came here, all those years ago, and I would walk down Front Street and you couldn't tell it was the capital of Hawaiʻi.

You couldn't, you know, it was just, shop after shop and then maybe you had, you know, some sort of museum.

But where was the Hawaiian culture represented there?

And I do feel that strongly, having been the Hawaiian kingdom, there should be a strong element of culture there.

And I think that we're moving towards that.

That's the balance that I, I hope to see.

And especially with, you know, the Hawaiian culture being represented there, because I'll tell you what, even the people that are visiting there want to see that.

So, you know, I think where you've seen the rebuild work best is where you have spaces for the tourist, you have spaces for the community, you have spaces for the cultural elements.

You have spaces to gather.

It's, you know, we could rebuild it back the right way and we should okay.

We have an opportunity to do it.

Your thoughts?

There's a lot of stuff there.

Yeah.

I mean, well, you could pick your elements.

There are a lot of outside forces pushing us back into business as usual.

And that was our biggest fear after the fire of the reopening of, you know, of our space to our visitors just so soon after.

We just wanted to hit those benchmarks to make sure that our community was taken care of before we start getting back to business as usual.

And yes, it is.

It has gotten to a point where it is very imbalanced.

But the reality is, when I worked in restaurants, bartending, even in the industry itself, the tourism industry, every single person always wanted more authenticity when they come to Hawaiʻi.

Now, being clear that I've garnered the support of five of the largest labor unions in Hawaiʻi, but two of those include I, O W and local five, which are representing many of our members within West Maui that work in these hotels, in poly, you know, all the way up north.

And we need to, of course, keep them in mind as we are trying to make that diversification.

And when we are on the beach.

And I spoke about this a little bit earlier about I've written a, a bill myself personally and worked with Senator Angus McKelvie to introduce it, and it was a bill to incentivize regenerative tourism.

Now, when I look at the overall amount of people that are there in Maui, in our peak seasons, we can expect anywhere from 80 to 90,000 people, even 100,000 sometimes.

And I asked them, would you be willing or wanting to participate in a in a tour that takes you up to a very exclusive piece of land where our local is bringing you in, chanting, chanting your permission in, and you get the full scope of what our culture is, and you get to go out there and actually replant and reforest our home.

Now, this also has a lot of positive environmental impacts, but I see this as an opportunity to diversify industry by diversifying the tourism industry itself and bringing all of our community along with us as that transition takes place, so that we are all encompassing and taking a holistic approach and not just completely clearcutting it.

But yes, it has gotten to a point where it is at a very much so imbalance, and I believe our community deserves respect.

You know, we we generate 27% of the state's tat, yet we only get a fraction of that back.

And we are only 11% of the state's population.

You know, that's a point that is kind of reflected in this next set of questions.

And along the lines of what you described, what you describe about cultural importance.

And also Representative Cochran's, a couple of centuries ago, Lāhainā was referred to as the Venice of the Pacific.

We've all heard that due to its waterways and terrain, its natural state, how would you, as our representative, get us back to that splendor?

You know, I've seen all the hardened streams that go through Lāhainā.

You know, some of them are now trying to come back and drive back the property themselves.

Rebuilding Lāhainā is one element, but what about the surrounding area that over generations has been either ignored or mismanaged for the reasons we had the fire?

The winner here holds one seat in the state House.

How do you make a difference?

That was from Elizabeth.

District 14 includes many historical and cultural important areas to Native Hawaiian history.

How will you respect, honor and represent that rich cultural heritage as a state representative?

Sne Patel, you know, is there enough resource in the community to accomplish these things and does need to be more support from the state government?

Would you go for that?

And what is going to bring about this vision?

And kind of what Mr.

Kiakona is saying is there's so much open slate now, right?

Yeah, but go ahead.

What are your thoughts about the restoration of cultural sites and how to resource that?

I care deeply about the community I live in to the point where it for me, it doesn't feel good walking around.

And for many, it doesn't feel good walking around.

And there's this divisiveness that either you're this or you're that.

And, you know, one of the things I like to bring the table is you can be both.

You can be an outsider and be an insider.

You could be somebody that's part of this community that truly wants to see the wrongs of the past righted.

And that is something that is dear to my heart.

And you know how to the chief that there's individuals that are way more capable of speaking on that.

What I would do as a state legislator is make sure I listen to them, keep my door open, and provide the resources that are needed to move those projects forward.

It's not going to all happen at the same time.

So we got to pick, you know, you know, is that going to happen first, which has already gotten approval right.

And help support that.

But there has to be this connection once again, from what I've learned is the, you know, system, market and Makai, it all connects.

Right?

So you can't just have one healthy system down here.

It's got to start from upstream to.

So, you know, all of that needs to be looked at very carefully.

The resources need to be provided.

And when let's look at it from a project to project basis.

Elle Cochran I know it's a kind of a big question, but what do you see is the key to actually seeing this vision that everyone seems to share of a balance between the cultural, the environmental and, you know, the business communities.

There's a lot of moving parts and there's a lot of collaboration.

So I already live that day to day as part of why, which is Waiola Church, Waineʻe graveyard, It's 203 years old.

It's where King Kaumualiʻi, Queen Keōpūolani, Hoʻolulu, who is King Kamehameha’s war advisor?

You know, I mean, all these ali'i are there today now and I care.

Take them every day.

I just put a lay on them this morning before hopping on a plane to get their guidance while I'm here.

And I do every day.

These flowers, that's where they grow, you know, and and talking about protocol and talking about, you know, education.

And this is and this is currently happening every day.

So it's not something down the road or we'll get to it.

It's happening.

And that is the fear for me and others.

The, you know, my cultural advisors and kūpuna that is being lost and those traditions and protocols aren't being handed down in a proper way.

And so I had a group from 30 Keiki Appeal, you know, and six kumu teachers came and spent the day, got their hands dirty.

Yeah, they did community work.

They also learn the history, learn what protocol was about and participated and were just so thrilled and excited to understand, you know, and so bringing back the the water and right next door is moku.

And the people that were there who lived on that island are now the ones that that I care take.

So there's no separation, you know.

And so above obviously we know we're former plantation fields and, you know, we need to bring back agriculture.

Right?

That is part of the the volunteer, the volunteerism and where people want to come and get involved and learn culture, get educated, learn and do while while they're visiting.

And also our people who live here, the residents there learning to, but also can hand it down to the next generation and on and on.

Let me give you a collective collaboration, a chance to talk about that.

So it is very important that you have Hawaiian culture as a base, not just something you seek out from somebody and get their input.

It is something that you need to live and be.

I grew up in from Pūnana Leo.

I went up throughout the entire Hawaiian immersion system.

So I do speak fluent Hawaiian, and my ʻohana is actually has genealogical ties right back to McCullough itself.

So a lot of the work that's already being done has been, you know, spearheaded from Lāhainā Strong and all of the connections and the relationships that I have within that community of people who have that deep cultural, ancestral knowledge of this space.

But to to be clear, Moku ULA and all of that, coming back to basically trying to recreate that vision of the the Venice of the Pacific, it is a holistic approach again.

Right?

McCullough is the last receiver of all of this water and the way that comes down from our mountains.

So we need to also be looking up Moca to make sure that we are forcing our area so that it can help to replenish the aquifer, so that these spaces can help, you know, to to come back and be revitalized.

But you know how and culture is not just something you you touch upon as you continue on.

It needs to be the base.

It needs to be something that you live.

Because in this space, our kūpuna had very deep knowledge of how to survive in these places.

And that is why one of my biggest pillars of this campaign is living in balance with our ʻāina.

Because living in the middle of the Pacific, we feel the effects and the shock of everything happening globally.

And our kūpuna saw if we are not taking care of and fostering our home and our spaces, then we are putting ourselves in a situation to just to the to.

Let me follow up with you on the next issue on that point, or one of the many points, the the issue of water, you mentioned it earlier.

You're from Valley, are you farm there?

And there have been a lot of disputes, frustration with the farm in the way that we land.

And pine has managed that water system.

Now there's a lawsuit between Maui Land and Pine from the golf courses, as well as the ongoing water dispute that you folks have been involved with.

What is the solution?

Ultimately, the county says it's going to be possessing these water systems.

I mean, how important do you think that is to to moving forward on the water issue?

And it's just one question specifically from Paula.

Shouldn't the legislature be more forceful to help the situation in West Maui and overall become more about people who live there?

Ended up being a tourism question, but but about water, I mean, do you think that the state needs to step in and help the county reorganize this water systems?

Thank you for the question.

Yes, and I believe the state legislature needs to step in with helping to fund our county in receiving or purchasing our water systems back.

So prior to the fire, we have definitely made progress in this, this statistic.

But we were 77% owned by private entities and private purveyors on the West, West, West Maui.

And that was we are the only county in the entire state that has this problem in this issue.

And tourism is also related to the issue.

Right?

There's a lot of consumption in these spaces from from the view and the water itself, where you have a golf course.

You know, one golf course consumes about a million gallons of water a day for that place to remain green.

And by the county standards, with 3 to 600 gallons per a single family home.

How much homes go to build with that?

You know, in the thousands.

So for one, the county is moving in the direction of purchasing our water system.

You have irrigation, the whole system purchasing from Maryland and Pine.

And this is a huge step in the right direction, because we can also tie these lines and these water systems back into the county system itself.

When we go into drought situations prior to the fire, we needed to withhold them on a water that we are utilizing because we were only utilizing that 23%.

The entire community is fighting over that 23%.

We can't build housing because we don't have water.

We don't have a natural firebreak around our, our, our homes because of that lack of availability.

And all of it ends up translating into, you know, trickling down to, to McCullough area.

Mr.

Patel, your own feeling about how important it is to get this water system together.

And there is some question, like Mahi Pono, for example, is not that's not your guys.

District is resisting the county taking over.

How important do you think it is for there to be a unified water system?

We all need it.

It's the basic for life survival.

Water should be, you know, is a public trust should be in the hands of the public.

I mean, it's bottom line.

You know, one of the things that we have to do is also, look at the bill.

I mean, the MoU itself, because when you look at the MOU in terms of purchasing, you're talking about the one between Maui Land and Pond and the county.

Yes.

And making sure let's look at the state of the infrastructure.

Let's make sure we're paying a right price, because when you're using public dollars, I want to make sure that those dollars are used wisely.

And we're we're purchasing something, you know, at the right price.

There's you know what I've been told maybe some infrastructure issues.

They're definitely deteriorating systems.

And when we plan for the system, let's not plan for the system for the current need right now.

Let's look at it for the future needs of our community as well going forward.

But yeah, this water issue getting it right, that's one of the biggest things I think we have, because that's once again at the foundational level tied in with the infrastructure.

How are you going to build something back when the infrastructure and the base layer is not right?

And it all starts with water?

What do you think should change representative first this happened.

So first off I think everybody needs to realize that yeah water is a public trust.

It's the transmission and how it gets to your faucet and and to be used that's privatized and overarching.

Who runs the system or not.

It's Sea Worm Commission on Water Resources Management that divides up how the sustainable yield of who gets to use what and what.

You know, so County can take over whatever they want.

And currently there are pumps.

There's I mean there's wells.

Yeah.

And pumps and, and springs that are untapped.

But Sea Worm is saying, no, you can't dig.

No, you can't utilize these resources.

Why not.

So yeah.

See where they need to be looked at.

But also Lāhainā needs redundancy.

I just had a meeting today about our Lāhainā.

The one Lena is fed by one source, Kanahā Valley that Hans Michael and his family has been taking care for for years and walks in the back and make sure that intake is clean.

So the water flows into Lāhainā.

There's a couple wells there, all solid because we are over pumping.

So more wells is not the issue.

Sticking a strong this cup over more and more straws is not going to create more water.

And so yeah, we need the transmission and infrastructure to come from north where, you know, ditch system to connect into Lāhainā.

And I give props to Kāʻanapali Golf Course because they utilize our recycled water or on one water, a million gallons a day, they utilize instead of injecting it down that seeps then into the nearshore waters is being is irrigating their golf course.

Let me ask, so do you, do you do you agree that it should be an integrated county system, or do you feel like it's okay to have people, private entities, controlling or owning the water?

No, no, I don't know.

I don't want privatization, but I think the equal and fair utilization of the water really needs to be looked at, the prioritization of how it's used.

Okay.

So I'm kind of looking up here.

We're moving right along and we're almost out of time.

And there's a lot of issues.

I've been getting some questions about other issues other than just the rebuilding of Lāhainā and so on.

You know, as legislators, obviously you would have to deal with a broad range of issues.

And the one question that I would like to start with, though, just when you start talking about politics and so on, is you guys, this is the only race, I think, where we've got a Green Party, a Democrat and Republican running.

And I'll let you start with you.

Since you changed parties that have been in two parties, what?

How important is party affiliation?

How do you think it would be affect your ability to be a good legislator?

I actually love nonpartisan, right?

I ran six, five nonpartisan races, and I really wish it was just about people.

Yeah, I wish it was just about people who you are, what you stand for, what you're going to bring to the table.

But unfortunately not unfortunate.

But the way the system is set up, state and feds, you have to pick a party.

So yes, I came in with the majority, you know, the Democratic Party.

But I found out very quickly that when you have different perspectives or you want to have a little bit of discussion on bills or ideas or anything that's not taken, it's not taken nicely.

And so I was.

Yeah.

Not treated well.

And it was, for me a toxic environment and something that I felt it was, not a good place to be.

And I was, I was just going to.

You're talking about the Democratic caucus?

Yeah, the Democratic majority caucus.

And, decided to switch parties because and plus, I wasn't agreeing with the waste, fraud and abuse that they were voting on things they were pushing through and they wouldn't hear me out.

And so I noticed that I was siding more and more with the way the Republicans were voting anyways and decided to, you know, find out.

Is this possible?

Can I switch parties?

And it's possible to tell you, you're hoping to be in part of that caucus.

That doesn't sound very pleasant, but how would you say that being a Democrat is important to this district, or having a Democratic representative?

At the end of the day, I want to get things done, and I want to bring resources back to our community.

The Democratic Party, you know, is about working families, is about the environment, is about organized labor, in education.

So these are the things that are important to me.

And as I Dornoch and walk around are important to a lot of the people that are, you know, voting.

And I feel that being part of the Democratic Party, being part of that majority, allows me the support as well as, you know, hopefully getting the resources and more importantly, attach the money to be able to get things done in West Maui.

Because right now we're at a critical point.

We we need to make sure that we have the right person in place to actually push things through.

Okay?

I mean, green I mean, that's putting yourself at a very lonely position in the legislature.

How do you feel about that?

Trust me, I've been criticized a lot for it.

But the reality of the situation is it didn't matter what party you were affiliated with after the fire.

When we walked those doors and we walked the halls of of the Capitol itself, it was the community that helped to push what our needs were forward.

Right.

And it wasn't necessarily a party that that helped to push that forward.

So I'm trying to create an opportunity in this movement to educate our community on showing us that left wing, right wing.

Since when cans this plane fly without both wings?

You know, I want to be able to move freely when you are in either a Democratic or Republican Party, you are beholden to the, the, the laws within it and what govern it.

And you have to follow those rules or you face repercussions.

And at the end of the day, I just need I want it to be in a space that I can do whatever I need to do for this community, whether it be, take a step back.

Sorry.

When we were walking around and advocating for SB 2919, we had both Democratic and Republican representatives vote on something together.

Right.

And for our Republican, side of this, it gave more government oversight on on an issue which is 100% not necessarily within the the guidelines of the Republican Party, but they understood that we just needed to do what we needed to do in that time.

And I can almost guarantee that there are a large amount of our legislators and representatives that probably don't 100% fully align with this system.

When we look at the system itself as a transition from the East coast, and it made its way over to the West coast, your borders, your cultures, your climates, the landmass that you have, all of that comes into play with how your system and how you govern your space.

What let's go and try and take that square and make it fit in the circle, which is Hawaiʻi.

And we're wondering why we're falling short.

We live in the middle of the ocean, and we need to make sure that our legislation and our policy matches our home.

And we needed to do kind of a little lightning round now on some of these other issues, because I appreciate that people have want to hear about I mean, I'm fascinated by what you folks.

And I want to say, though, I know you've all been through a very difficult, difficult time, all of you.

And I appreciate and understand.

And, you know, I feel for all of you guys, I just wanted to say that from a personal point of view, but we're talking about some other things.

Okay.

So I'll start with you.

What I'll do is actually if you give me like a ten second answer on how you feel about something, okay.

First one is gambling.

I'd like to look more into it.

I believe that there's perhaps an avenue where we can start small and pilot it and see where it goes.

Maybe we start with the lottery.

I think there are a lot of things that need to be addressed before we step into that realm.

We are obviously one of the I mean, our native Hawaiian population is the vast majority of the homelessness here in Hawaiʻi.

And adding something like this to the to the mix could potentially, you know, add, add to that.

But it could also help to alleviate some of that stress.

So that is a question that I would need to speak with community more to get a full answer.

I'd like to put it on like a a retired aircraft carrier or something, something out in the ocean that you can monitor.

Who gets on, who gets off, what's brought on, what's not, you know, or these cruise ships that come in and open it up to our residents.

They want to get on and gamble.

Usually those visitors are stuck on that ship for days on end traveling.

They want to get off and come to port.

Well, how's about our residents go on the ship and then, you know, we get a kickback somehow a percentage of the funds that whatever.

You know, I don't some of the ships have casinos on them already.

They do.

That's what I mean.

And so, you know, I think let open it up.

I know Vegas probably doesn't want it because they want all of our people.

That's right.

Okay.

So that's my idea.

All right.

Next one, recreational marijuana.

You first.

This is an issue that I, I spoken with a lot of community members that would see as a benefit to our economy.

It's happening in so many other states.

Of course, we look at it as a gateway drug, but if we have the proper management and oversight over recreational marijuana, I believe it can be a huge moneymaking vehicle for our space and help us do diversify economy.

But again, on recreational marijuana, why not?

Really not.

I've been supportive of it through the legislation.

Okay, I'm open to it.

But just like, you know, I just served on the liquor commission, I want to make sure that it's done safely.

We have a way to, you know, make sure that it's not happening with the underage and then also with the, you know, sort of, DWI.

Right.

So making sure that it's done safely, I think it's important, but I'm open to it.

Okay.

Which one did I just do?

I'm running marijuana.

Okay, that's two of them.

Okay.

Now, here's another one.

Okay.

Should the state finally end the general excise taxes on groceries and medical costs are only going up.

We need to find relief somewhere.

Sniper tell.

You know, I'm open to it.

Once again, I think bringing down affordability for working people in Hawaiʻi has got to be top of mind for not just myself if I get elected, but many of the other state legislators.

So is that yes or no?

Sorry.

I'd have to look at, you know, look, we got to make revenue somewhere and I'd rather, you know, make sure I educate myself more on that and look at how we're going to look much like how much we talk about money.

Exactly, exactly.

Elle, your thoughts about those particular taxes on food, rent, that sort of thing?

Yeah, I believe some of that we can for sure help to alleviate from the community.

When we're looking at the cost of things in general, a lot of it is due to the fact that we import most of our food, most of our groceries, and all of the things that we're speaking to.

Then we pay a tax on top of that.

So, I mean, we can definitely look at that as a ways to help bring the prices down.

But we've got to look at some everything more system systemically, systematically and holistically as well.

Totally support it I mean there's yeah we necessities definitely.

Everyone needs toothpaste.

Everyone needs to tell the paper everybody you know let's not tax it I think Oregon I went there and I was blown away when you didn't get taxed on that stuff.

And, you know there's a pink tax thing.

We can read your property taxes real quick.

Oregon.

Have you.

Yeah.

So have you seen like if you order I mean, if you go and buy a blue razor and the pink razor, the pink is going to be more because of the girly and and it costs.

Yeah.

Swear to God, the same thing.

So yeah, I buy blue razors.

Okay.

All right.

Good.

So the other question that was floating in my little action thing here, but you know, we've only got about five minutes left and there's now it's only three minutes.

So each of you have one minute to talk about what do you picture West Valley looking like in 20 years?

And is there a place for my generation?

Noelle.

Elle Cochran.

Wait.

My generation.

What is that?

I think that's a younger generation.

20 years from now.

Most definitely.

But obviously it's people getting priced out of here, right?

And so we have to tackle that.

And I and number one, our government is not broke whenever they say there's no money.

That's not true.

It's always been how it's prioritized.

So definitely need to reprioritize how we're spending.

I mean look at the audit on the initiative for starters.

Okay.

These bribery that are going on anyways.

And so yes, the way we build it's, it's controlled by a select few of contractors and developers.

And yeah, it's a PR thing Pacific Research Partnership.

And so we need competition in the building.

We need competition everywhere to bring the cost down.

Sne Patel 20 years from now, what do you picture for West Maui?

Well, I'm hopefully picturing at my kids are able to live here.

Just as many other parents are hoping the same.

Afford to buy a house, have a good paying job, and you know where people only have one job and can make it here.

So that's what I'm hopeful for and I hope that we see, Elle, this is actually your generation we're talking about.

Yeah.

I picture it being one where community is the majority again, where our community can actually afford to be in this place where we know that our ʻāina is going to help to alleviate a lot of the strain that we're experiencing on a in our climate and our, you know, with these natural disasters.

But, you know, a lot of what needs, what we need to do to get there has already been done with Lāhainā Strong with the work that we've been doing.

We've already been looking into how we reforest these spaces.

We're already been looking at how we cut costs in certain areas, looking at the how we're going to generate energy in our home to make sure that we are more resilient in all of these cases.

So the work is already being done, and I strive and evolve that regardless if elected or not, that work will continue.

I'll be those doors knocking every day if I don't make it there, or I expect at the very least that community be doing the same if I'm elected.

You guys are all much more efficient with your words than I expected.

On that last question.

Last question, and again, 10s on each.

How do you convince other elected officials from around the state to see your vision for West Maui?

How do you keep people?

West Maui is important, Sne Patel.

Well, once again, I think a lot of the bigger issues that we're facing, the other counties and state legislators are also facing in their districts.

So it's not going to be hard, I think, for on these larger issues, affordability, housing, infrastructure to be sort of a model.

Yeah, exactly.

How do you feel about that?

Sorry.

Can you repeat the question how do you feel?

How do you convince other legislators to do what your vision is?

Yeah.

Well, that's kind of partly why I ran as a Green Party member, right?

I caucus my community is my caucus.

I'm of the community, from the community and the the way that you are able to do what you need to do for your community is to make sure that they are 100% involved and informed from the very beginning, and you're educating them and bringing them along on this process and having them show up for you in these spaces let you finish 15 seconds.

It's going to be interesting because there's no room for his caucus.

I mean, maybe the closet down the ways, the hallway, but no real quickly to get that legislator to visit, to be to to put themselves in my shoes or my community shoes to see what needs to get done.

Very good.

Thank you very much.

We want to thank all of you for joining us tonight, and we thank our guests.

The candidates for state House district 14, Republican incumbent Elle Cochran, Green Party candidate Pāʻele Kiakona, and Democrat Sne Patel.

Next week on insights, it's the section of the general election ballot that could really force voters to stop and think constitutional and charter amendments.

This year, there are only two proposed changes to the constitution, but each county has its own charter amendment proposals, including a whopping 20 questions for Honolulu voters.

We'll try and break them down for you.

Please join us then.

I'm Daryl Huff for insights on PBS Hawaiʻi, Aloha insights on PBS Hawaiʻi is by Carlsmith Ball.

Aloha State Daily and the University of Hawai'i Cancer Center.