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Editor’s note: For Hawaii’s Nov. 5 General 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 Bill DeCosta, candidate for Kauai County Council. The top 14 primary vote-getters advance to the general election. The other candidates are Abe Apilado Jr., Addison Bulosan, Bernard Carvalho Jr., Felicia Cowden, Sherri Cummings, Fern Holland, Ross Kagawa, Arryl Kaneshiro, W. Butch Keahiolalo, KipuKai Kualii, Jacquelyn Nelson, Mel Rapozo and Bart Thomas.

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

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

The average cost to purchase a home is $1.3 million; our local people can’t afford to purchase a home.

This past budget I introduced a property tax increase for hotels, resorts and TVRs to raise approximately $7.4 million per year to go into a special housing fund in our housing agency to purchase land, work with a developer and build out infrastructure to create middle class/workforce housing at about $500,000 per three-bedroom/two-bath home.

We as a county need to compete with these billionaires who are purchasing large tracts of land; we need to land bank these large tracts of land.

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

We need alternative routes in and out of our north- and west-side towns. We need to be more self-sufficient within each community.

We need good relationships with private, county and state leaders/entities so when it’s time to request assistance we are able and willing to come together and solve our problems. Example: Our positive relationship with The Robinson Family ensured us the use of their barge and getting equipment over to the north shore. Our local residents with boats assisted in bringing food and provisions over to needed residents. Our nonprofits contributed tirelessly with supporting in every way possible.

Building and embracing these relationships is the key to our islands success in natural disasters.

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?

Our council two years ago accepted federal funds to jump-start this process. We are currently looking at other federal funds to ensure financial support to our cesspool homeowners.

Every government conference I attend in Washington, D.C., I am able to advocate for our Kauai community and bridge that gap with new information and important government contacts to assist in this transition.

Our state needs to contribute to this financial transition because it is their mandate. We the county can lay out our sewer infrastructure plan to ensure our cesspool conversion communities have an option that is financially affordable.

By the way, a new septic system is nearing $40,000.

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

Each year this question is asked and the only solution is more accessible driving routes in and out of congested areas.

We need to have our tourists bused in and out of their hotels with car rentals at each hotel so they rent their vehicle on those days and times less impactful to our local traffic. We need to provide more shuttle services to our hotels and resorts and provide an incentive for our tourists not to use a car as a primary source of touring our island.

On the west side, the Koloa tree tunnel drastically impacts traffic going into Lihue, but when schools are not in session there is much less traffic. Maybe we need to use this important information to address this specific traffic congestion.

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?

I am currently working on introducing Bill 2919 that will allow more dwellings on Ag and Ag CPR lots. This will create more housing inventory on areas with existing infrastructure already in place.

This bill will give a one-to-one ratio per home allocated to your ag lot. This additional home will be 800 square feet in size, your cover deck space is not included in the square footage. For example if you had a 9-acre partial and you were allowed three homes and one guest house, now you would be allowed three homes and three guest houses. This is a game changer for our local families.

Also, as I mention in question No. 1, I raised property taxes for hotels, resorts and TVRs to put $7.4 million per year into a special building fund to develop middle class/workforce housing for middle income families that make too much and don’t qualify for our habitat affordable housing.

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?

As the committee chair of public works, I am currently monitoring our situation. We will have an RFP out soon that will accept bids to deal directly with our trash. High heat-to-energy is an option we are hopeful to see.

Our phase 1 of our current landfill is being reviewed to see if vertical expansion is a viable option with limited health impacts to our communities. My experience as the chair this past two terms ensures that public health and safety is my priority.

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?

Tourism is an important part of our economy but not as important as our construction trades. We need to encourage high-end tourism, where they come for five to seven days, spend their money, get bused in and out of areas to view and visit, and return home to their mother state or country.

I am not in support of backpacking tourism, and those who enjoy that stay for months at a time.  We also need to do a better job handling one-way-ticket tourism in which people  arrive with backpacks and never return to where they came from.

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

I agree more should be done to encourage agriculture and food sustainability. I am currently working on holding the state Agribusiness Development Corporation accountable to lease lands that are made affordable to smaller local farmers and ranchers.  Currently ADC leases land at $600 per acre ($150 for the land and $450 to Kekaha Ag Association to manage the water) and only your large mainland corporation can afford this lease. The KAA is mostly made up of large corporations.

ADC has over 2,000 acres of unused and unmanaged grasslands that haven’t generated any revenue since the plantation closed down in the late 1990s. They are a huge fire hazard. I am working on livestock grazing to fire mitigate these areas and graze livestock to provide food sustainability through our local markets.

Also our county financially supports our Kilauea Ag Park, which currently grows food and livestock for our north communities. We would like to see an ag park on the west side of our island and possibly one in Lihue one day.

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

This is the easiest question to answer, and I have been doing this since I have been running for politics in the early 2000s: Don’t take any funding from lobbyists.

I fund my own campaign and this allows me not to be controlled by anyone or any special interest groups. Just do what is right for the people, not for those that fund your campaign.