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Hawaii’s World
MAYOR Stephen M. Yamashiro of Hawaii County presides over an island with more than six times the land area of Oahu but only one-seventh the population. Yamashiro got
Second of two articles | Day One
residents to pitch inAside from the public prosecutor, he is the only county official elected island-wide.
The nine members of the Hawaii County Council come from single-member districts. He thinks it was better when three of the nine Council members were elected island-wide.
Like the mayor, they then had to campaign island-wide and take a broader view of the county's problems. Now the competition for funds and support is from narrower interests except for the mayor's.
The Big Island once was a sugar island, with most of it grown along the wet eastern coast where the island capital, Hilo, is located.
In 1970, Hilo's population was 40,000. Today it is 45,000 but island-wide population has expanded from 70,000 to 150,000, with most of the growth in the Kona resort area and around cool Kamuela in the north.
Because of growth, infrastructure needs are greatest in those areas. The mayor spends a lot of time on the move, both in traveling around his island and in visiting Honolulu, particularly when the Legislature is in session.
He recalls trying to referee a contest over the location of a gym at the site of the old Kona airport. It took two years to try to be fair to the various interests. Then he was accused of undue delay.
"You are damned if you do and damned if you don't," he says, not coining any new phrases, and adds, "All politics is local."
He notes that, despite the high decibel counts of many confrontations, the populace remains basically for law and order and has rejected all referendum proposals that are anti-growth.
In the rough economic times of the '90s, the mayor had to deal with entrenched attitudes of government employees who placed process on a high pedestal, while resisting openness and measurements of results. They contended the number of employees supervised was a better salary measure than special competence.
YAMASHIRO and the County Council boosted local projects on a cooperative basis. At Volcano, for example, they provided land for a community center plus some funds for materials and a loaned fire engine. The residents took it from there.
Longtime farmers (mostly Japanese) got together with the retiree population (mostly Caucasian) to build Cooper Community Center, line up a volunteer fire-fighting force, provide a place where youngsters gather after school and where joint community activities take place.
Residents who had lived apart were brought together. Fire insurance rates went down. Similar cooperation was encouraged in more than 10 other communities.
In the tight budget days, Yamashiro still saw a need to increase police and fire staffing. He had to make savings elsewhere. The planning staff was cut 30 percent but the county, fortunately, already had in place some of the best planning and development guidelines in the state.
Yamashiro's faith in democracy remains intact, and he is seeing his county's economy at last pick up despite a rough period in the '90s.
At age 59, he may possibly resume his law practice after he leaves office Dec. 4. A run for Congress is out because he doesn't want to leave Hilo.
A.A. Smyser is the contributing editor
and former editor of the the Star-Bulletin
His column runs Tuesday and Thursday.