I have been working since I was 16. I am adaptable, flexible, and a quick learner. I've worked in retail and retail management, the hospitality and tourism industry, debt recovery and management, and also in the non-profit sector. Being a political newcomer, I do not have the institutional knowledge that comes with being an incumbent, however, I have the attitude that anything can be done and I know I am more than qualified to represent the people of District 10.

The top three challenges for individual voters is subjective. The top three critical issues for our district as a whole are: affordable housing, management of tourism, and environmental and public protection.

My highest legislative priority will be mandated to me by the people that I represent, and at the moment they are calling for our Legislature to invest in our futures by creating common sense legislation that protects our people and our environment by creating more opportunity for us to thrive in a self-sustainable and resilient manner.

First, we aren't constituents, we are people who live in a community that needs to demand better representation, communication, and collaboration from our state legislators. The people of West Maui need homes, they need wages that meet the cost of living so we no longer have to work two to three jobs, and that means dealing with the issues of supply and demand not just for housing, but energy costs and food, as well. If we could invest in a more self-sustaining community we could dial back the necessity to inflate our wages and work ourselves to death.

I feel it is necessary for people to know that I am running to give our engaged community members a choice in representation. When I pulled my nomination papers, only the incumbent had pulled his and I felt that allowing a candidate to win by default because no one else was going to bring a different perspective to the conversation was depriving us of a choice. An incumbent winning by default in a district effected by the same critical issues that have plagued us for decades is essentially sending a message that we do not care when clearly we do.

Transparency and accountability are essential in all organizations but especially in government where the Legislature should be beholden to none other than the people represented. As a Green Party member, our platform calls for a requirement to have outside counsel investigate any complaints of breaching policies or regulations, and also advocates for tougher punishments for corruption, abuse of power, or any wrongdoing. I believe in strengthening our “sunshine laws.” I also advocate for utilizing technology to facilitate and archive live streams of all meetings, creating easier to search databases on legislative votes in committee and on the floor, and layman interpretations of bills which would allow people to better engage with the legislative process.

My first voting experience was in California, where citizen initiatives have been a norm for more than a century. Hawaii is seemingly so progressive and yet it lacks direct democratic referendums or initiatives.

I wholly support citizens actively taking part in policymaking. We should be crafting legislation that is meaningful and enables communities to get what they need and what may be overlooked by their legislators. We would, of course, need to ensure an independent agency to assist in drafting citizen initiatives to waylay any possible corruption of the original intent of the legislation.

It is my understanding that the lopsided Legislature is a product of the iron-fisted plantation era, however, I believe we have outgrown the necessity of self-perpetuating single party rule. If anything we should be encouraged to educate ourselves on platforms beyond just Republican and Democrat. In my opinion, a one-party system has increased susceptibility to corruption and infiltration of legislation by special interests when organizations need only contribute to the party in control and their incumbents.

Hawaii voters have historically elected incumbents and Democratic Party candidates almost always have a head start due to sheer numbers. To combat single party rule we should introduce term limits, stricter funding limits, and create an equitable and fair playing field for new candidates by offering complete, front end public funding of campaigns. We should also crack down on lobbying and insist on severe consequences for politicians that represent special interests above the best interests of the people, as single party rule is just a symptom of the underlying issue of political corruption.

Yes, I believe voters should have the right to access information about campaign contributions throughout election years at more frequent intervals than is currently required. Although this may seem onerous on the candidate and their candidate committee, it has become increasingly necessary to be able to see where campaign funding is being sourced. To create more transparency, we should also be able to link contributions from senior employees and lobbyists to their companies to ascertain the actual total amount given to one candidate. We also need to ensure the data is freely accessible, widely published, and easily understandable. We may even find it necessary to mandate that all political mailers include a funding fact sheet on that particular candidate's contributions (i.e. in state vs. out of state, within district, and by industry).

All records, at this point, should be archived electronically and ready for upload to a database hosted by the state as a clearinghouse for all state agency records. If there is a need to redact any information, that should be completed before uploading to the central server. Unpublished records should still be referenced and there should be a way to challenge redacted or unpublished info and access even those records at minimal cost. All electronically archived and published records should then be free to access via the Internet with a pay for page print option. It should never take weeks or months nor extortionate amounts of user fees to obtain what should be readily accessible to the public.

It is necessary to meet pension and health obligations for public workers, however, we should be adopting a universal single payer healthcare system to drive down health care costs. We should also stop pension manipulation. We could possibly switch from final salary to a 401(k) like private businesses utilize for their employees' retirement funds. If we continue using final salary the formula should be based on the inflation adjusted average of all years as a public worker and not the final three top five years to prevent padding of overtime or quick promotions in those final years. Employees should contribute fair amounts to their own pension funds and the state must budget enough to ensure the deficit is reduced over two economic cycles and no future deficit occurs.

Yes, I support the constitutional amendment to levy a property tax surcharge on investment properties worth over $1 million to create an education fund to be solely, and equitably, disbursed to all public schools throughout the state. I believe everyone who pays income tax in the state of Hawaii should be allowed to have one domicile with a preferential tax rate. Any property owners not paying income tax in Hawaii, a resident of Hawaii, or those with multiple properties over $1 million would be subject to a substantial property tax surcharge. Of course, with our affordable housing crisis, we would need to encourage tax breaks for multi-property owners that rent to Hawaii residents for long term leases of six months or more.

I absolutely see illegal vacation rentals as a problem for our communities. Not only do they not pay income tax and transient accommodation tax, thereby affecting our state revenue, they drive down hotel rates, affecting our hotel revenue and therefore wages for our workforce. I work in a neighborhood that has seen an increase in illegal short term rentals (STR). Our West Maui community plan only allows for 88 legal STR permits and according to the county we are not at that limit, yet one only has to search Airbnb's website to see the vast array of rental opportunities in the vicinity of my workplace. The state Legislature needs to enact legislation to permit, register, regulate, and inspect all transient accommodations and enforce that legislation to ensure the best interests of residents, communities, and businesses are taken into account.

It's been 40 years since we have had a constitutional convention. Within 40 years much has changed in our state. Much like direct citizen initiatives create a pathway for community involvement, a constitutional convention allows immediate direction about how we are governed without having to muddle through the normal legislative process.

Hawaii has declared it will be carbon neutral by 2045 and to do that we need to aggressively convert our energy needs from fossil fuel to solar, wind, and biofuel, as well as actively advocate for carbon sequestering programs that are more stringent than cap and trade programs that have been known to become corrupt. Sea levels will continue to rise even as we begin to lessen and sequester our greenhouse gas emissions, therefore, it is my opinion that Hawaii should be mandating and planning for managed retreat of all infrastructure located within inundation zones and coastal flooding areas. The state should also no longer permit any structures to be built on our coastal lands and should not engage in the permission of seawalls and coastal armoring projects without exception.

Choosing one issue that is more pressing than all others is difficult as many of our challenges are interconnected. At this moment I believe our biggest problem is the housing crisis. Not unlike the rest of Hawaii, District 10 has no affordable housing inventory for sale or to rent. The state and county need to collaborate on housing projects that create affordable homes in perpetuity. The state can lease land, the county can provide infrastructure, and potential homeowners can build homes they qualify for at this time and add on if necessary. Equity formulas have been used by other community land trust organizations to ensure that these affordable homes still allow homeowners to build equity while maintaining affordability, ensuring future generations an opportunity to get on the housing ladder before progressing into market value homes.