The two candidates for the Kahalui seat are Vanessa Maderos and Don Guzman.
Aloha Vanessa, this question is for you. Like many other areas around Maui, Kahalui businesses are impacted by the growing homeless population in the area.
Defocating in doorways and parking lots, removing shopping carts, panhandling their customers.
What do you believe can be done to address that situation?
Thank you very much. The homeless situation is a very difficult one.
I think there's two parts to this issue.
Number one, we have a lack of affordable housing options, a way for us to get a lot of the homeless families off the street.
The second part is a lack of political will, and I think that if we really, really wanted to provide affordable housing options, we would do it.
It's unfortunate for these individuals who are giving us a bad taste in our mouth.
It makes us feel bad about the homeless people, but we have to remember to focus first on those who want our help.
Those who want to improve their families and find housing and better their lives.
The second thing I think we need to do is we need to look at enforceable laws.
We have on our books the No Smoky in the Parks Laws, which is really unenforceable.
So we really need to work with our law enforcement community, our prosecutors, to look at enforceable laws.
And then I think we may need to go back to some community policing, sort of like the old beat cops that may be able to assist us in helping these homeless individuals off our streets.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Don, Kahului businesses are impacted by the growing homeless population in the area.
As I said, defecating in doorways and parking lots, removing shopping carts and panhandling our visitors or our customers.
What do you believe can be done to address this situation?
Thank you for the question. The Kahului business is affected by homeless.
I had the opportunity to meet with the Miami Police Department, the Chopo Union, and talk about vagrancy laws.
Other jurisdictions are using vagrancy laws.
And my opinion, they may or may not work.
We have a shortage of manpower on the MPD side of it.
And also they had questions on the requirements, the residency requirements, to have that reviewed again.
Another alternative that we could look at is commercial huis to support MPD.
We've got special improvement districts that are in Waikiki.
They have these aloha patrols that if we have these assessment hui commercials that are putting together this type of assessment to provide these patrols as well.
The bigger picture here is homeless. It's a complex issue.
You have to identify the different categories.
You have displaced families, you have mental illness, you have drug addiction.
There's a spectrum of services out there for each category.
Access, we have to provide access for these services.
And also we have to look at, we're not alone.
It's a national issue.
We have the McKinney Venture Homeless Assistance Act of 1987, where we need to start reaching out county and state for federal aids and supplement and create these local type programs that would nexus too.
There's several other federal programs out there, federal money for the homeless shelters, support housing programs,
continuum of the care programs, shelter plus care programs, single home occupancy programs, and emergency shelter programs.
It's an issue that we're not alone.
We've got to start creating these nexuses.
Thank you.
Thank you very much.
Vanessa, the next question for you.
Maui County's infrastructure is aging.
Key facilities such as the Kahui wastewater treatment plant are located in risky tsunami zone areas.
Many of our roads that were built a generation ago are struggling to accommodate the growth of traffic from new residents and commercial vehicles.
What do you believe can be done to deal with our aging infrastructure and prevent worsening conditions another 10 years from now?
I think the problem of our aging infrastructure is going to be with us for a long time.
We have a lot of old communities.
Wailuku is one of them, Paea is one of them.
It's not only the road surfaces.
It's what's underneath the road that we have to be concerned with.
A bigger area is a Kahui wastewater treatment plant and its location.
There's been talk about moving that for decades and no one seems to be deciding to do it.
This is another area that we need to work and make a decision.
We're either going to start the mitigation process and figure out where this thing needs to go,
or we're going to end up with the proverbial poop flying when the tsunami comes.
We know that it's not about if, it's about when.
We can't wait until when it comes.
Thank you.
Thank you.
John, same question.
Maui County's infrastructure is aging.
Key facilities such as the Kahui wastewater treatment plant are located in risky tsunami zone areas.
Many of our roads that were built a generation ago are struggling to accommodate new traffic
from new residents and commercial vehicles.
What do you believe can be done to deal with aging infrastructure
and prevent worsening conditions another 10 years from now?
Aging infrastructure in Maui County, high priority.
The Kahui wastewater treatment plant, this last fiscal year 2017,
we appropriate as a council 4.5 million in the sewer capital improvement reserve fund.
Also, in every district, infrastructure was designated and appropriated
so that we would plan for CIP improvements in the future.
The expansion, we need to start thinking about expansion of the emergency management center,
as well as beach erosion or coastlines.
We need to create programs for those and support those through appropriations.
We also have to work with the state and the Kahui commercial harbor 2030 master plan.
As well as our roads, we need to keep appropriating monies for a repaidment program
and our resurfacing program under the Department of Works.
I'm a strong believer in connectivity, which is the central Maui pedestrian master plan.
Also, via the most currently designation of Kahui Central Maui as an urban area under the federal law,
we are now have to create an MPO with the multi-metropolitan organization,
which then allows us at a local level to prioritize our projects.
This is, in effect, better than the state-wide transportation program.
We also have to look at, because we're urbanized, we've been urbanized,
environmental protection agency rules and regulations,
and we have to create a storm water management program, MS4 program,
which basically we've got to get up to speed.
Status quo is not good enough.
We've got requirements, federal requirements on our heels, and the people demand better.
So I'm here for the long haul to try to make sure that infrastructure is repaired and maintained
prior to development, or at least simultaneously.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Finally, you'll have one more minute to answer this question.
Vanessa, what would you like those in the room and voters to know about you?
Thank you.
I want them to know that I'm resilient.
A lot of things have happened to me in the past eight years.
I was a caregiver to both of my parents, so I understand what the kupuna are going through as they go to the aging process.
I was unemployed. In fact, I was unemployed at least four of my birthdays over the last eight years.
But I struggled, and I worked hard, and I did everything I could.
I never was late on any of my mortgage payments.
I was never late on any of my bills.
And that's how strong, and that's the principles and values that my mom brought me up on,
is to work hard, tighten your belt when you have to, and that's what I can bring to the table.
It's about looking at things, it's about being real, it's about working with the people,
and it's about making promises that you can keep.
And that's important for me. Thank you very much.
Thank you.
Dawn, same question.
What would you like those in the room and your voters to know about you?
Although I like Vanessa's campaign colors, I like orange better.
But anyways, I have a lot of respect for my opponent, and I'd like to let the people know,
at least the county of Maui, know that, you know, when they elected me four years ago,
or at least three and a half years ago, I committed to a job, and I haven't completed that job.
I've learned from my experience when working at the state house under Tomo Komora,
also working as under James Burns and the ICU, which is the Intermediate Court of Appeals,
that you can't please everyone.
The only thing that you can do is try to be honest, straightforward, and do the best that you can do.
And so that's what I stand for.
I will do the very best that I can do, be honest and forthright,
and I ask the people to give me that opportunity to complete my work. Thank you.
Thank you very much.
