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Seven mayoral
aspirants all claim
to be pro-business

They tout their qualifications
at a forum in Kaneohe

---

By Brett Alexander-Estes
Star-Bulletin

"As Honolulu's next mayor, I will champion the interests of small business."

That was the message delivered by seven mayoral candidates to more than 80 members of Windward Oahu's small-business community at a forum held yesterday at the Pohai Nani retirement complex in Kaneohe.

Sponsored by the Kaneohe Business Group, the forum included Mayor Jeremy Harris, former City Councilman Mufi Hannemann, former Honolulu Mayor Frank Fasi, and candidates Lillian Hong, DickyJ (Richard Johnson), Larry Hitchcock and Michael Powers.

In general statements and in their answers to audience questions, candidates sought to explain how they would promote small business.

Hannemann, the first speaker, cited his service for three presidential administrations in Washington, his position as director of the state Department of Business, Economic Development & Tourism, his six years on the City Council, and his experience as a private businessman and teacher.

As mayor, Hannemann pledged to do more than "fix the roads, ensure public safety and clean the beaches." In particular, he said, it is time for Honolulu "to step up and act like every other major city throughout the United States (where mayors) are involved day in and day out improving the economy, helping small businesses with an eye also to improving education."

Harris said the mayor should "get government off the backs of small business," by reducing regulations and taxes on small business as well as the size and cost of government.

His administration has worked to achieve this, Harris said, citing a $59 million reduction in property taxes and a 7 percent reduction in the number of city employees from 1994 levels, the year he took office.

Fasi said he was the best qualified to promote small business because of his many years as a business owner.

As further evidence of his commitment to small business, Fasi pointed to his success as former Honolulu mayor in preventing the seizure of the land under Aloha Stadium by the federal government and his 1990 proposal to build a major-league sports complex. With the sports complex, Fasi said, "small business will reap major economic benefits."

Hitchcock, a retired businessman, advocated phasing City Council districts into independent townships that collect their own taxes and maintain their own city services such as garbage collection. Townships "operate very well on the mainland," Hitchcock said.

"Why do we have to remodel Waikiki every 10 years?" asked Powers. "We have to think of our people first and then the visitors."

Hong, a small-business owner, ran for mayor in 1994, she said, and "lost to Jeremy Harris. In 1996 I ran again and lost to Jeremy Harris. So it's about time that I win."

DickyJ said that while he has spent most of his life as a public servant, including a career with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, that "common sense tells me that where there are companies, there are jobs."