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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 Jocelyn Cruz, candidate for Maui County Council Upcountry District. Her opponent is Yuki Lei Sugimura.

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

1. Clearly, Maui County faces big issues related to the fires. What’s the primary thing Maui needs to do now to recover from the fires?

Reallocating water to the citizens, prioritizing water for affordable housing and farmers.

Lahaina was quite lush when they were farming the land. Land that is alive is less likely to burn and being able to feed our community and working toward food sovereignty is so important.

2. What should Maui do to encourage people to stay? What can the county do to ensure that families aren’t priced out?

I believe leaning in heavily on the actionable steps from the Maui County

Comprehensive Affordable Housing Plan. We really need to focus on housing for people that are below 60% of the area median income.

Also looking for other streams of revenue for the state. I think the entertainment industry is an excellent option, we have good tax breaks for filming and we make it mandatory that the production team needs to be local hires. This will create new and exciting jobs, especially for the younger residents to incentivize them to stay.

3. Do you support the new state law that allows counties to regulate and even shut down short-term rentals? Why or why not?

I think regulation is very important. One place to start is looking at homes of

non-residents who are using their homes here on island as STRs, and eliminating those.

Also consider imposing a vacant property tax for homeowners that live here for less than six months and don’t have anyone living in their home. For housing to remain affordable for residents we need to discourage people from buying second and third luxury vacation homes here that are not in use.

We can’t keep allocating water for pools and lawns when so many residents are struggling to get by. I don’t think we should shut down all STRs, but we should absolutely be more mindful of them.

4. What’s your vision for Lahaina? How should it be rebuilt and who should decide?

I think our best course of action is to assist the current incumbent Tamara Paltin and the Lahaina residents. They’ve proven time and time again how organized and resilient they are so they should take the lead on the rebuild.

Nobody knows that area better than them and we, especially council members and state officials, should do everything in our power to listen and then lend our helping hands where we’ve been directed to by them.

Ideal vision is that water is restored to the citizens so that more affordable

Housing can be built and the landscape returns to being more lush and alive through farming native crops.

5. What should elected officials do to restore trust in county government?

Accountability. I think would be huge. Having clear, laid out deadlines for projects that benefit the community. The Maui Island Plan was written more than a decade ago with some really solid solutions in there and it seems that few if any of those solutions have been implemented.

Similarly the Maui County Comprehensive Affordable Housing Plan was released in 2021 and in the wake of the fires housing has become even more expensive.

We need to hold the people in charge accountable for not taking necessary action that prioritizes our community. We have the ability to look at records and see who has written bills and what bills have been passed.

I think now is the time to align with each other and seek counsel to take necessary action for anyone who is not doing their job. In pretty much every other industry, if you don’t do your job you don’t get to keep it. I don’t think politics should be any different.

6. Do you think Maui County should do more to manage water resources? Why or why not?

I think we need to put water management in the hands of nonprofit organizations. There are too many people making money off of this precious resource and it’s detrimental to our farmers and citizens.

It’s not right that off-shore companies and institutions are controlling some of the water here and then taking those profits off the island. We need to lean into the environmental and cultural groups here who have a deep understanding of our water and take into account their advice for best restoring practices.

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

At the risk of sounding redundant, invest in our agriculture. We are so fortunate to have a year-round growing season so we can really ramp up our production and lean into our food hubs.

Carbon is an essential part of photosynthesis so if folks are worried about that let’s plant more food. Also the more food sovereign we become will decrease our dependence on importing as much food as we do. This will help reduce the footprint of shipping food here as well.

The entire world in my opinion needs to be more aware of our shipping practices regarding food. It’s not the most efficient and creates unnecessary pollution.

8. Homelessness is becoming more of an issue on Maui. What do you think needs to be changed to help people get into housing, and stay housed?

I know eco-villages are not the most popular idea, nor are they a permanent solution, but I think we really need to consider these as an intermediary solution. There are people living in their cars right now who have jobs but don’t make enough money to rent anything and this is unacceptable.

As for the issue of people with mental health issues and addiction problems we need to be much more strategic and make this a priority to remedy. For example, Paia has a really big issue right now with unhoused individuals who are clearly on substances.

Many of these people hang out and “live” near the youth center there and we absolutely need to prioritize our children’s safety. The county should work with the state to see what funds we can allocate to mental health support and addiction recovery programs to get these people off the streets.

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

First we need to finish the bypass in Lahaina. We have to make sure that those residents have safe access in and out of that region. Next, South Maui should be the focus and we should consult residents on how they would feel about widening certain areas of the road.

For the island overall, I think we need safe parking lot hubs where people can catch public transportation to take to work. I’ve heard some people upcountry in Kula and Makawao say they would use public transit more if they could leave their car in a safe parking lot.