Todd Apo

Age: 41

Job: City Council member

Past: Attorney, vice president with Ko Olina Resort

What is the biggest problem facing your district, and what would you do about it?
Clearly, traffic continues to be the largest city issue for the growing West Oahu community. While the rest of the island may understand the traffic in the urban core, everyone must appreciate that we have to sit through traffic just to get to H-1 and eventually to the urban core traffic. Government must commit to big solutions, especially if the island's growth is going to continue in our region. Rail mass transit along with fixes to our local connector roads must continue to be our priority.

What qualifies you to be a City Council member?
I have served as the City Council member for District 1 since 2005. My legal and professional background has helped me navigate the world of government and politics with an emphasis on getting things done. I have served as the Council’s vice chairman and the Budget Committee chairman for the past two years. Today, I have a greater understanding of the people of West Oahu and their needs. I stand in a very good position to serve those needs and hope to be able to continue this service.

What can the city do to help residents cope with the rising cost of living?
The City must control its spending just like every family is doing today. Properly taking care of things today will save us money in the long run. The city must continue to catch up and maintain major infrastructure — sewers, roads, parks. The reason we have such large projects today is that past administrations failed to do the repair and maintenance when it was needed. What we are doing today could have been done much cheaper years ago. We must break this cycle to enable to City to avoid unnecessary increases in the cost of living.

Should the city continue with its planned rail transit system? Please explain.
Yes. As growth continues in West Oahu, so does traffic. We are on the path to allow the people to vote on this system. It is the chance for West Oahu voters to take action and be part of the transportation solution. The recent poll numbers show that there is islandwide support for this solution. With a favorable public vote, the city will be in the best position to receive maximum federal funding support for the project, bringing traffic solution, construction jobs and permanent jobs to our island.

What should the city do to improve the quality of Honolulu’s roads?
The simple answer is money. There are many roads, islandwide, that need significant repair. There is obviously a cost associated with that. The Council has been pushing for the departments to come up with a prioritized list of road repairs and maintenance schedule to ensure that once the roads are fixed, they don’t fall back into disrepair. We have to have that plan and then prioritize those costs within our budget. Again, the longer we take, the more expensive those improvements will be.

What should the city do about homelessness?
The biggest role the city can play with the issue of homelessness is to work for more affordable rental housing. The state has taken the lead in providing emergency and transitional shelters. But a shelter is only transitional if the residents have somewhere to transition to. Through its land use policies, the city must encourage more affordable rentals, so that individuals have a place to re-start their lives. It is from these rentals, with proper financial planning and advice, that they can get back on their feet and prepare themselves to move into market housing.

Garry Smith

Age: 55

Job: Retired U.S. Navy commander, mechanical engineer

Past: Bachelor of arts degree, Pacific University

What is the biggest problem facing your district, and what would you do about it?
The biggest problem facing the Leeward Coast is traffic congestion. The solution is not a $5 billion rail system, but using that money to build the infrastructure that will make it so we do not have to drive to Honolulu on a daily basis. Leeward needs a state-of-the-art University of Hawaii-West Oahu campus, a world-class magnet high school and a professional stadium that will attract thousands of drivers away from H-1. Our children will be able to receive higher education at a UH-West Oahu campus without going to Manoa and be competitive for higher-paying jobs to support their families.

What qualifies you to be a City Council member?
As a 30-year resident of the Leeward Coast (Ewa Beach), I’ve seen the lack of commitment by our current city councilman to provide for the basic repairs and improvements needed for a fast- growing area. Leeward roads are the worst in the county and have not been resurfaced for years. We still do not have the third boiler at Campbell Industrial Park that would reduce the amount of trash going into the landfill and allow us to take trash out of the landfill for incineration. The current councilman wants to reduce wet garbage pickup to once per week.

What can the city do to help residents cope with the rising cost of living?
The city, specifically my opponent Councilman Todd Apo has been responsible for raising Leeward residents’ cost of living by raising our taxes. Apo has voted to raise the following taxes (yearly basis): General excise tax, $450 per family; vehicle registration fees, $90 per family (two cars)’ sewer fees, $400 per family; corporate property taxes, $100 (passed on tax to the consumer); property taxes, $400; removed property tax credit of $100. A typical family on the Leeward Coast now has one family member that works for one month to pay just the increase in taxes from Councilman Apo.

Should the city continue with its planned rail transit system? Please explain.
Rail will not reduce traffic congestion. The rail system does not go where it is needed most. There are no transit stations in Waianae, Nanakuli or Ewa Beach exactly where the people are that need alternative modes of transportation. We will have to ride a bus to the station, ride the train, catch another bus and reverse the process to get home. There is no rail to the airport. All of the consultants and the alternatives analysis have stated that rail is not about relieving road congestion but instead is designed to provide real estate developers additional property at increased density to develop and sell.

What should the city do to improve the quality of Honolulu’s roads?
The city needs to devote all the money it is using in promoting rail and pay rail consultants and engineers into repairing/repaving current city roads. The county roads are the worst in the state and shake our cars apart, the mayor and our Councilman Todd Apo are spending too much time diverting our attention to rail and not enough to fixing our roads. This year the city is spending $200 million promoting and starting a rail system and only $77 million to repair our roads. For a fraction of the $5 billion going to build rail, we could have new roads and repave roads.

What should the city do about homelessness?
The city needs to keep our beaches, parks and other public areas free from homeless people living on them. To do this the city needs to work with the state in getting them to the state shelters which are designed to work with the homeless to provide shelter and programs to keep them off the street. Once they leave the beaches and parks, the city needs to make a massive cleanup to remove the trash and drug paraphernalia to make them safe for our residents again.