Kauai County election filings closed

In 2014 Kauai elects the mayor and county council. Here is a summary of candidates who have filed nomination papers - to appear on the ballot the signatures they have collected still need to be verified. This year we elect the mayor and the full council; the prosecuting attorney is not up for election until 2016. State office holders are also on the ballot, but not mentioned in this piece.

• Register to vote (or re-register if you have moved) by July 10, or call 808-241-4800
• Request absentee mail-in ballot at least one week before election day
• Primary election is August 9, voting begins July 28
• General election is November 4, voting begins October 21
• Kauai county elections web page, elections fact sheet
• League of Women Voter's candidate info: Mayor, Council
• Last election (2012 results): over 40,000 registered with over 25,000 voting

Mayor

There are four mayoral candidates with the top two vote-getters from the primary going on to the general election. Incumbent mayor is widely expected to win but there is a lot of buzz about former pro surfer Dustin Barca challenging in his first election for public office.

1. Dustin Barca - Kilauea
2. Bernhard Carvalho, Jr. (i) - Kapaa, wikipedia; Facebook (not updated since 2010)
3. Debralynn M. Desilva-Carveiro - Eleele
4. Curtis H. Lake - Kapaa

County Council

All seven council positions are up for election this year. The top 14 vote-getters in the primary will be on the General Election ballot for the seven at-large positions. Vote for the best candidates of your choice, not necessary to vote for seven. I recommend against the strategy one sometimes hears of not voting for good candidates considered "sure to win" - obviously if everyone did that it doesn't work. Over-voting (voting for more than seven) is not allowed an nullifies your vote so count carefully.

1. Arthur Brun - Kekaha, works for Syngenta (biotechnology corporation)
2. Tim L. Bynum (i) - Kapaʻa, recently won settlement to lawsuit against the county in court
3. Mason K. Chock, Sr. (i) - Kapaʻa
4. Felicia E. Cowden - Kilauea, prominent local radio personality
5. J. Furfaro (i) - Princeville, current chair of the council
6. Joanne Georgi - Eleele, ran for state senate unsuccessfully in 2010
7. Gary L. Hooser (i) - Kapaʻa
8. Ronald J. Horoshko - Kalaheo, operates the golf course cafe Birdie's
9. Joseph H. Kaauwai, Jr. - Anahola, ran and lost in 2012
10. Ross K. Kagawa (i) - Lihue
11. Ernest L. Kanekoa, Jr. - Kalaheo, police commission member
12. Arryl J. Kaneshiro - Lihue
13. Sandra I. Klutke - Kapaʻa, on the Agribusiness Development Council (source)
14. Kipukai L.P. Kuaalii - Anahola, ran and narrowly lost in 2012
15. Tiana K. Laranio - Kapaʻa
16. Arnold W. F. Leong - Hanapepe
17. Darryl D. Perry - Lihue, chief of police
18. Melvin F. Rapozo (i) - Kapaʻa
19. JoAnn A. Yukimura (i) - Lihue, former mayor

My predictions for the primary election, not that it matters:

• Mayor: Carvalho (over 50%) and a strong showing from Barca for mayor
• Council: all incumbents plus Brun, Cowden, Georgi, Kanekoa, Kaneshiro, Kuaalii, Perry

Kalaheo water details

There has been interest in details I have been writing up here from folks in the community, so here are some more. I hope it is of interest.

Most of today water department trucks were gathered at the entrance to Kakela Makai around a hole in the road working on something.

Gauging the water level in the tank

Today I learned from a citizen in the Kakela Makai area how you can tell the level of water in the supply tanks, i.e. how close the community is to running out of water.

Along Puu Road on the makai side of the Kukuiolono golf course there is a big green water tank. The GPS location is approximately (21.912192,-159.523775) or see Google map.

Along the right side of the tank is a white vertical bar that has an indicator that goes up and down: see the yellow arrow in photo at left. This is attached to a pulley at the top, over, and down into the tank connected to a float to measure the water level. The further up this indicator goes the lower down the float is and vice versa. This shot (June 2, 3pm) shows the indicator about 1/4 from the top (dashed yellow line) which means the water lever is roughly 1/4 from empty (dashed blue line below). As the indicator moves lower it means there is more water in the tank (and if you look closely at the Google Street view at the link above, the indicator is down a few feet from ground level) showing normal very full supply.

Kalaheo's wells and water tanks

The two wells that have both failed causing this water shortage are mauka side uphill from the highway, approximately at (21.938187,-159.525099) according to the map provided at the water department meeting on Saturday. There is a water tank near the wells and another tank (100,000 gallon) further uphill on Puuwai Road.

On the other side of the highway to the south in addition to the Puu Road tank shown above, there is a (250,000 gallon) tank up near the northeast edge of the Kukuiolono golf course, roughly at (21.9180151,-159.5261859).

What about all the other water?

At the water department meeting one good question was about potentially using Alexander Reservoir (21.9570011,-159.5243735) which is just uphill from the highest mauka tank and presumably contains lots of water. Chief Engineer Saiki responded that the water treatment facility for the reservoir was damaged in Iniki (major hurricane) and have been abandoned. Restoring the treatment facility probably doesn't make sense as an interim measure since it would take considerable time and expense, probably repairing the wells is cheaper and faster. Additionally, since this isn't a department of water reservoir (it seems to be private) it isn't even part of the system as I understand it. This explanation makes sense to me. 

Another question was about the nearby Kauai Coffee fields having water while the adjoining neighborhoods in Kalaheo don't. The coffee fields are supplied by private agricultural water system not part of the department of water and since it is non-potable water it isn't clear how they could even usefully share even if they wanted to. That said, so see all that water running in ditches when you have none in the tap is hard to ignore.

Kauai new ordinances

After all the Bill 2491 / Ordinance 960 hubbub last year the legislative activities of the county council have been relatively quite. I recently heard about new county legislation to address the long-standing issue of dealing with barking dogs had passed but it took quite an effort to find it online. This seems like a good reminder so I managed to dig up all the recent new county law.

Here is a summary with links to the actual details. Obviously the law is more complicated than a simple summary so read the linked text if you want to understand the details.

Ordinance 960 - "The Bill" (more precisely Bill 2491) about pesticides and GMO.

Ordinance 961 - Repeals temporary exemptions to ease rebuilding after Hurricane Iniki (well over twenty years ago). Specifically, repeals Ordinances 642, 649, 653, 689, and 716.

Ordinance 962 - Provides exemption from solid waste dumping fees for volunteer public space cleanups.

Ordinance 965 - Provides mandatory licensing for pet cats.

Ordinance 966 - Extends the deadline for homeowners to apply for the Home Preservation Tax Limit (a low income property tax reduction) this year.

Ordinance 967 - Barking dog law.

Ordinance 968 - Changes some fees for solid waste disposal and incorporates the public cleanup exemption of Ordinance 962.

Ordinance 969 - Updates county vehicle tax raising rates.

I do not know why numbers 963-964 were skipped.

The barking dog ordinances carefully defines nuisance barking and imposes escalating fines after an attempt at remediation. A dog violates the ordinance if it "barks, bays, cries, or howls intermittently for a period of twenty (20) minutes within a thirty (30) minute period of time, or continuously or incessantly for a period of ten (10) minutes." It's not easy to define exactly what constitutes a problem but I'm not sure this is the definition I would come up with. I am not a lawyer but I think like art it is something people generally recognize when they see hear it.

Let's hope nobody has a dog next door that barks for nine minutes continuously then takes a six minute rest as I don't believe that qualifies as a violation!

It's nice to see the council addressing contentious issues without an island-wide firestorm. Hope it works.

County council race update

With the filing deadline a few days away here is an updated list of candidates (as of 30 May) vying to get on the primary ballot.

The council's latest appointment Mason K. Chock, Sr. has now filed so all incumbents should be on the ballot ... with the surprising exception of council chair J. Furfaro who has not yet filed nomination papers.

Question mark (?) indicates candidates who have not completed filing. Candidates file and receive papers that they must returned with voter signatures to get on the ballot. June 3 is the deadline to file nomination. Next step to getting on the ballot is for the nomination papers to be validated by election officials to ensure they have the requisite number of voter signatures.

New candidates since last time I reviewed the field are in italics.

1. ? Dominic C. Acain - Kekaha
2. ? William U. Asing - Lihue
3. Arthur Brun - Kekaha, works for Syngenta (biotechnology corporation)
4. Tim L. Bynum (i) - Kapaʻa, recently won settlement to lawsuit against the county in court
5. Mason K. Chock, Sr. (i) - Kapaʻa
6. Felicia E. Cowden - Kilauea, prominent local radio personality
7. ? Vince E. Flores - Lawai
8. ? J. Furfaro (i) - Princeville, current chair of the council
9. Joanne Georgi - Eleele, ran for state senate unsuccessfully in 2010
10. ? Eva Hoopii - Kapaʻa
11. Gary L. Hooser (i) - Kapaʻa
12. Ronald J. Horoshko - Kalaheo, operates the golf course cafe Birdie's
13. Joseph H. Kaauwai, Jr. - Anahola
14. Ross K. Kagawa (i) - Lihue
15. Ernest L. Kanekoa, Jr. - Kalaheo, police commission member
16. Arryl J. Kaneshiro - Lihue
17. ? Sandra I. Klutke - Kapaʻa
18. Kipukai L.P. Kuaalii - Anahola
19. Tiana K. Laranio - Kapaʻa
20. Arnold W. F. Leong - Hanapepe
21. ? Toi Pualaa Norwood - Lihue
22. Darryl D. Perry - Lihue, chief of police
23. Melvin F. Rapozo (i) - Kapaʻa
24. JoAnn A. Yukimura (i) - Lihue