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Editor’s note: For Hawaii’s Aug. 10 Primary Election, Civil Beat asked candidates to answer some questions about where they stand on various issues and what their priorities will be if elected.

The following came from Kaloa Robinson, candidate for Hawaii County Council District 3, which includes parts of Orchidland and Hawaiian Paradise Park, Panaewa, Puainako and Keaukaha. The other candidates are Kelton Ku’uelani Chang, Dennis Onishi, Kaloa Robinson and Leomana Turalde.

Go to Civil Beat’s Election Guide for general information, and check out other candidates on the Primary Election Ballot.

1. What is the biggest issue facing your district, and what would you do about it?

One of the top three priorities of my campaign involves the need to update and expand the district’s current infrastructure. There is a need for county wastewater connectivity as many of the homes in the district still have cesspools or septic systems. Over the years these aged systems can affect our water quality.

In addition, there is also a need for water connectivity systems because many homes in the district continue to be on water catchment systems. Improved roads and maintenance, alternate and emergency routes from lower and upper Puna leading into Hilo and more wastewater treatment plants are needed.

Other priorities of the campaign include the need to assess property taxes that are fair to the elderly on fixed incomes, and the expansion of renewable energy such as geothermal and solar power.

2. Overtourism can degrade the environment, threaten biodiversity, contribute to wear and tear on infrastructure, generate traffic and disrupt neighborhoods. What do you think about the amount of tourism on the Big Island and how it’s managed?

I do not feel that tourism is managed very well. Many visitors visit Hawaii with a shallow understanding of what our people and islands are about. They will automatically expect their visit to be something like that of the continental U.S. because that is their only context. Hawaii island has historical trails and sites that still exist, and visitors need to be educated of those and other sacred areas.

Probably the only way tourists can be “managed” is when they are part of a tour group when visiting sites. We depend on our local tour bus drivers and tour company narrators to provide an educational briefing on the history, uniqueness and sacredness of our island sites and provide warnings to visitors.

It was impactful to see how sites flourished during Covid-19 when areas were left alone and provided a break from visitors. The water was cleaner, the fish were more plentiful and the environment thrived. Our local government should determine dates when certain beaches and sites are closed just so they can recover, like how they manage Hanauma Bay on Oahu.

3. What needs to happen to relieve traffic congestion in and around Kailua-Kona and along the Puna-Keaau-Hilo corridor?

Alternate routes need to be designed coupled with road expansion and contra-flow measures which maximize the use of existing roadways that meets the needs of commuters. Creative measures to get people to where they need to go when they need to go should be allowable during peak commuter time periods.

The county, state and federal governments need to collaborate and invest in routes that continue to be improved and expanded, anticipating the growing number of commuters on the roads.

4. The cost of living on Hawaii island is rising rapidly. How are working and middle-class people expected to buy a house or pay the rent as well as take care of other expenses? And how can the county government help?

Zoning changes that allow more density in developments, smaller lot sizes that are more affordable and county building codes that meet the relevant characteristics of the island can help make housing more affordable. In addition, the bureaucracy and unnecessary requirements imposed upon developers need to be lessened to stop disincentivizing projects but to promote public and private partnerships.

If the county can provide the expensive site work and the developers can do the vertical work of building affordable units, coupled with the use of local labor — then success can be experienced within the building industry. Affordable housing units only happen when market units are built, but if government continues to impose unreasonable barriers to market units the affordable units will never be built.

In addition, affordable units and market units need to be constructed in the same phase thereby ensuring affordable units are made.

I also feel financial literacy and a basic understanding of real estate needs to be a curriculum offered in primary and secondary education. In addition, the Department of Hawaiian Home Lands and the military needs to build units, thereby increasing the local stock of housing availability.

5. Do you support the construction of the Thirty Meter Telescope on Mauna Kea?

There was opposition because of the breach of trust between the state institutions coupled with the astronomy community versus the residents and indigenous population. The astronomy community paid dollar-a-year leases, tried to discourage access to the summit, and treated the local community as subordinates to their science.

There were defunct astronomy facilities that needed to be decommissioned and removed, and the astronomy industry did not want to be held accountable for the costs and mandates of removal. Instead, monies from the astronomy industry were expended hoping that would quell the injustices experienced by the indigenous and local communities.

I believe it will take some time to regain the trust between the opposing groups. Trust can be built when the astronomy community develops astronomy pathways that begin in our local elementary schools that track students throughout their educational tenure that will lead them to advanced degrees to be in the highest positions within the astronomy community.

There are opportunities to develop astronomy pathways with Hawaiian charter schools to reach and identity students to prepare them for the rigors of the profession. There should be a checklist of mandates required for new telescope developments, and the astronomy community needs to fulfill those obligations.

6. Homelessness remains a problem statewide, including on Hawaii island. What would you do to come to grips with this persistent problem?

Homelessness requires intervention at different junctures. We must turn off the spigot that leads to homelessness. It is not feasible to react and focus only on the homeless but our local and state government needs to assist those who are on the brink of becoming homeless.

Foster teens who are aging out of the system, those who were recently released from being incarcerated and those with addiction and mental health problems are who we need to pay attention to. It is much more expensive to manage those that are homeless than to assist those who are threatened to become homeless.

In addition, like how we are trying to recruit and retain medical doctors through the Rural Residency Program of JABSOM and Hilo Medical Center, we need to recruit and retain mental and behavioral health social workers and nurses to provide treatment with wraparound services to those in facilities or shelters.

There are new medicines like long-acting injectables that stabilize a patient from addiction or behavioral/mental health episodes over a longer period so they can make logical decisions on their personal health. Hopefully, the homeless can mend their familial relationships that have been damaged through addiction and behavioral episodes.

7. Half of Hawaii’s cesspools are on the Big Island, some 49,300. Seepage from cesspools can make people sick, harm coral reefs and lead to a variety of ecological damage. By law, cesspools must be upgraded to septic systems by 2050. What can be done to help people who may not be able to afford the conversion?

As I noted in my response in question No. 1, the investment into wastewater treatment systems for large areas is needed. Water and wastewater systems are required before affordable housing projects can even be considered, because it is a health and safety issue.

Local and state governments need to collaborate and acquire federal funds to build multimillion-dollar systems and these projects should be ongoing acquisitions for our island communities. We should have wastewater systems that replace the former plantation systems and gang cesspools that currently exist.

8. What is the first thing Hawaii County should do to get in front of climate change rather than just reacting to it?

Hawaii County needs to have a curriculum that is taught in middle and high schools to educate families and adults. There needs to be an aggressive campaign of education via our news stations, nonprofit cable companies and consistent county community outreach that provides the education. The curriculum needs to illustrate the changes in coastal and shore areas to anticipate when land areas will be lost to sea level rising.

The setbacks need to be enforced to prevent the crisis that is currently being experienced on the North Shore of Oahu. Secondly, responsible development needs to take these considerations into account when developing projects.

9. Should the Hu Honua biomass energy plant be allowed to start operating? Why or why not?

Yes. If Hu Honua meets the requirements mandated by oversight agencies they should be allowed to operate and not continue to be held hostage by those with NIMBY perspectives.

Large projects that will provide diversification in making Hawaii island’s power more accessible and stable should not be prevented by those who want to hold these projects up through our judicial system that is already overtaxed.

Diversification in power needs to begin to allow employment and labor a means to make a living for their families and allow them to stay on island and not be forced to move outside the state due to lack of skilled labor.

10. How would you make the county administration more transparent and accessible to the public?

Technological systems exist and should be implemented so that users of the system will know where their permits are within the queue.

In addition, those in the industry that play a role in having their clients’ plans submitted into the county system which may be flawed or below standards need to also be held accountable for repeated submittals of documents that require county staff unnecessary time to review or correct. There are numerous instances when plans and permits are submitted by outside professional into the system knowing their plans may not meet the required standards, but place blame onto the county departments when informing clients of why plans are requiring a longer review period.

Technological applications can be incorporated into county processes that will take the burden from limited county staff time as well as filter less complicated applications quicker through the review queue. Many county processes can be tracked using modern technological applications.