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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 Jeffrey Lindner, candidate for Kauai County Council. The top 14 primary vote-getters advance to the general election. The other primary candidates are Abe Apilado Jr.,ÌýAddison Bulosan, Bernard Carvalho Jr.,ÌýFelicia Cowden, Sherri Cummings,ÌýBill DeCosta, Ana Mo Des, Fern Holland,ÌýRoss Kagawa, Arryl Kaneshiro, W. Butch Keahiolalo, KipuKai Kualii, Jacquelyn Nelson, Mel Rapozo, Bart Thomas and Clint Yago Sr.

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 Kauai County, and what would you do about it?

The biggest issue is the threat to the island culture as local families are being forced off-island due to the county’s relentless attack on agricultural land rights.

The loyalty that the generational locals have for the county could be understood when the government supported the major landowner who was investing in the economy, offering jobs and houses, during the plantation days. What loyalty should be there now when the major landholders only have luxury homes to sell? You worked the agricultural land for generations but the land is only for working, not living. What loyalty is owed when they are walking you to a cliff to fall off the island?

Agricultural land makes up 85% of the privately held land but the county doesn’t want you to build on it. Recently, the governor appointed a representative for Kauai whose platform is, don’t build houses on agriculural land, build them only on urban land.

He was behind Senate Bill 3202 which removes public hearings and testimony, and removed the need for Planning Commission approval of urban subdivisions and leaves the decision solely to the planning director. How critical is luxury housing that the elected officials need to take away the public’s right in the process?

2. Kauai has proven vulnerable to natural disasters especially on the island’s north shore. What would you do to improve disaster preparedness?

First we need water flowing through all communities with enough supply and pressure to put out fires. Currently, that isn’t the case. There have been recent fires where there wasn’t enough flow out of the fire hydrant in order to put out the fire, and the Fire Department had to rely on its own trucks that carry water. 

There are communities that have no fire flow at all. Historically to this day, the county has no plan to invest in providing water to all residents. The infrastructure of water was left to developers of agricultural subdivisions to extend the line, source and storage beyond urban areas.

In the late ’90s an unrelenting attack on agricultural subdivisions stopped the expansion of water service as it wasn’t economically feasible for private development of ag land. The county never picked up the duty to supply water to all communities and that’s where it stands.

Although it is a significant investment, and it should have been done a long time ago, it is the responsibility of the county to provide this resource for the safety of everyone.

3. There are nearly 14,000 cesspools on Kauai that must be removed by 2050. With an average cost of $15,000 to $30,000 to convert to septic, many homeowners say making the transition is not affordable. How can the county help to jump-start cesspool replacements?

The state should take the initiative to jump-start cesspool conversions because it is a statewide problem. In fact, the state had required buyers to convert from cesspool to septic on new purchases of homes. For some reason they removed that requirement. I don’t believe that was out of consideration for the local population as not many residents can afford the price homes are selling for these days.

It did help the real estate market since it reduced the cost of the high-priced housing. How many of those purchases are on the ocean that affect the water quality, and why couldn’t oceanfront buyers afford the requirement to convert?

However, it is a long-term problem that can affect the health of people and the quality of the water. Local residents do need help converting and the state should lead the way with either tax breaks or grants. The state is in charge of the Health Department. They should not keep pushing the conversion date back.

A more immediate problem are the wastewater treatment plants that are chronically spilling and polluting due to insufficient engineering. These support large populations, and may approach the number of people who are on cesspools.

4. Traffic is getting worse on Kauai, and different regions face different challenges. What would be your approach to improve Kauai’s transportation problems?

All the regions face a housing shortage and a labor shortage. To say building only in Lihue and Koloaa will reduce traffic because that is where all the jobs are, and people won’t have to drive so far, without any further analysis of the other communities is irresponsible. That is an uninformed decision and doesn’t bother to look at the individual needs of the other communities, and the willingness of the county to allow for development of commercial services in those communities that would not require residents to have to drive so far to get those services.

Analyzing how much housing is needed in each community should be considered in the county’s zoning policy, instead of building a metropolis where everyone has to live and go for everything. That increases the traffic, it only helps with real estate appreciation in the urban areas that are getting all the development rights.

The federal funding the state gets for state roads should be allocated beyond Lihue and Koloa to improve chronic conditions in other areas, like left-turn stacking lanes which require widening of the road. The county can afford not having roadwork with single lane traffic done during the day, and pay the extra to do it at night.

5. The median price for a single-family home on Kauai has topped $1 million. What would you do to help address the shortage of low-income, affordable and middle-class housing?

Kauai Council needs to change the laws on agricultural land, and stop the county’s long-standing policies against agricultural land that has deprived locals of the opportunity to buy affordable land.

If the county was interested in providing low income and middle class housing, they would have land banked large parcels that went on sale 25 years ago when the plantations shut down. Instead, the policies were geared toward keeping scenic highways for the tourists, and the county adopted an aggressive policy of no development on ag land so tourists didn’t have to look at houses on their way to the hotel.

Not being able to develop housing, and farming large acreage not being profitable, the owners, not having deep pockets, were forced to sell. No one else could afford to own them other than billionaires. The county got its scenic highways, and increased tax base, at the same time providing a manufactured shortage of housing driving prices up.

6. Kauai’s landfill in Kekaha will soon run out of capacity and there’s still no timely plan in place to build a new one. What can the county council do to address what could become a garbage crisis for the island?

The council has gained some valuable knowledge from the county’s extended search for a new landfill.

First, don’t put it in a wet area where the pollutants are liable to leach. You won’t get an EIS approval.

Second, a landfill attracts birds, so don’t put it close to the airport because FAA will not allow it. 

And third, don’t budget and spend $1.5 million on an EIS before knowing points 1 and 2 so you don’t waste money.

Kekaha appears to meet the critical criteria for the location. The residents are given something for the intrusion in the community, if there are objections, the county may need to offer residents something more.

7. Overtourism can degrade the environment, threaten biodiversity, contribute to wear and tear on infrastructure, generate traffic and disrupt neighborhoods. What more can be done to better manage the island’s tourism sector?

The worst result of overtourism is the county’s focus on increasing revenue from it, and not focusing on the needs of the island communities. The money dictates policy. They justify by saying the money raised from increased property values will go to build affordable and workforce housing, not by a supply of free market properties in that price range, no, but by a subsidized program the county controls.

The county gets some money but it it’s not enough because the money the developer pays for the affordable housing assessment is less than what real building costs are. So the county raises property taxes to get more funds for housing and it is still not enough. In the meantime, the cost of owning land goes up, and further out of reach of the working class.

The council needs to remove the county from any power or decision-making regarding agricultural land. The council and the Planning Commission, working under the council, should reinstate all rights that were taken away and ensure full and continuous use of those lands.

8. Should more be done to encourage agriculture and food sustainability on Kauai? What would you suggest?

I suggest to stop the county’s policy of trying to reduce the number of people on agricultural land. The policy of increasing the density on urban land isn’t going to do anything to help agriculture and food supply. The increased population on urban land will only help hotel, resort and commercial land. We need economical and stable labor for agriculture, and the ability to provide housing for more families and workers will do that, and increase the ability for farmers to make a living.

Real incentives need to be offered to ensure a diversity of food that the population needs. Incentives should not be based on the cheapest way for large landholders to get exemptions on their property tax, like cattle, thereby creating an excess of a commodity that is shipped off island and reducing the allocation of land that is needed for other agricultural products on island.

Investment in water supply for agriculture is critical, and has been neglected by the county. The resistance of the county to expand water supply to agricultural land because it can bring development is a taking of the land, and harmful to the general public by restricting valuable resources that can benefit the whole island.

9. What would you do to ensure transparency and accountability in county government?

The essential power at work is clear, private land interests have illegitimate control over your property rights, and your fundamental rights.

When the degree is seen how the state and the county have mistreated and mismanaged Hawaiian and agricultural land for the benefit of private land interests, then it’s clear that the state and county have no legitimate right to control or set policy on that land.

The government is based on territorial rights, which means their interest comes before you, and they haven’t specified if there is any right of yours they can’t take away. This government specified it from the beginning, there isn’t any right they can’t take away.

The county defers to a structure where the special class landowner has final right on everything land. Now the power is shifted, disconnected from any land interests, to individuals in governement who gain from real estate transactions that they have the power to make. We need protection from that, but we can’t look to our own government because that is the structure and purpose it was created for.

When all the acts of self-interest from the territory are seen, Hawaiian culture will be free to shine.