Kailua no longer split district

Only one of the candidates running to represent the City Council's Windward district has previously held public office, but a radio station manager, a former broadcast journalist, a retired city planner and a housewife all believe their own backgrounds qualify them for the job.

The open District 3 seat has drawn Don Bremner, Jeff Coelho and Barbara Marshall of Kailua, former state Sen. Stan Koki of Kane'ohe and Kimberly Kalama of Waimanalo.

The redrawn district brings together similar Windward communities and reunites Kailua, which is currently split between sitting City Council members Steve Holmes and John Henry Felix. Both Holmes and Felix are ineligible to run for re-election because of term limits.

Don Bremner, 70, a consultant and city planner and former chief executive officer of the Waikiki Improvement Association, said he wants to rebuild the city's long-range planning process, which requires all capital improvement expenditures to be in conformance with district plans.

"If the long-range planning structure had really been in place, the council wouldn't have had to go through the turmoil that it did with the capital budget in 2002," Bremner said.

He would also like to see a bill that would require public hearings when someone's property is threatened by condemnation. Currently the issue comes up at committee meetings, but no legal notices are published, he said. "It seems to me rather a basic missing link that ought to be remedied."

Who they are, what they think Don Bremner • Address: 348 Dune Circle, Kailua • Family: Married, two children • Occupation: Consultant — city planning • One big idea: "To rebuild the long-range planning process in the city and county of Honolulu. I think if the long-range planning structure had really been in place, the council wouldn't have had to go through the turmoil that it did with the capital improvement budget in 2002."

Jeff Coelho • Address: 333 Aoloa St. #308, Kailua • Family: Married, three children • Occupation: General manager KUMU and KAHA radio • One big idea: "There's one thing I really want to hit hard: trash. I really want people to start thinking about e-trash," such as discarded computer monitors.

Kimberly Kalama • Address: 41-1016 Waikupanaha St., Waimanalo • Occupation: Housewife • Family: Married, five children, two grandchildren • One big idea: "There's a lot of nice but not necessary projects that the city spends money on. I want to really go in there and put the money where it's necessary. The money is there, but it's being diverted and used in the wrong areas for the wrong reasons."

Stan Koki • Address: 45-496 Malio Place, Kane'ohe • Occupation: Manages personal investments • Family: Married, four children, two granddaughters • One big idea: "There's so many things going on that what we're going to have to do is really promote efficiency ... through consolidation of services, through looking at the private sector to help in providing more efficient services where it's possible and consolidating with the state to avoid duplicating services."

Barbara Marshall • Address: P.O. 1750, Kailua, HI 96734 • Occupation: Former broadcast journalist • Family: Married, one son • One big idea: "My big idea is giving government back to the people by restoring their trust in the people who represent them and by telling the truth about how things actually are."

Jeff Coelho, general manager for KUMU and KAHA radio, and creator of "Brown Bags to Stardom," said he decided to get into the race because of "all the graft, corruption and stealing."

Coelho, 55, would like to prevent the over-commercialization of Kailua Beach and address the issue of the public's right to access. Public rights of way to the beach have been getting narrower and longer, he said. "That's a touchy, touchy issue in Kailua. Does the homeowner have the right to cut you off from going to the beach?"

He would also like to see sidewalks and other protection for pedestrians in Waimanalo. "Waimanalo is almost like a neglected area, unfortunately," he said.

Coelho also wants to bring awareness to environmental issues, particularly how to discard obsolete computer equipment, which he terms "e-trash."

"We need to come up with a creative way to get rid of that waste, or a safe way to get rid of that waste," he said, noting that a computer monitor contains 8 pounds of lead.

Kimberly Kalama, 41, a Waimanalo housewife, said she can best represent the district because she relates to her constituents. "They're all individual communities and we all have our differences, and yet we're small, we want to keep it rural and we want to keep it culturally sensitive," she said.

She decided to run for office because she wants to get the community more involved with decisions that are being made at the city level. "I want to bring the people in there and make shared decisions, open the doors and make them feel welcome," she said. "I feel so unwelcome going in there ... it's like being in a foreign land."

Kalama said Hawaiian culture is the state's main resource. She argues against efforts to diversify the economy by moving away from Hawai'i's sand, sea and surf image. "You can't take your main resource from the area and try to bring in someone else's resource," she said. "We're losing the economy because we are pushing out the Hawaiian culture."

Former state Sen. Stan Koki, 55, who manages commercial properties here and in Seattle, Wash., said his business background would be an asset to the council. "We're always looking for ways to make things efficient, to improve services, to cut costs," he said. "That comes second nature to someone who has been in business and who has built a business up."

Koki, who was gubernatorial candidate Linda Lingle's running mate in the 1998 election, said he would like to focus on the city's budgeting process and has several ideas to promote efficiency, such as combining the water and sewer departments and rethinking the Sunset on the Beach program and the vision team process.

The city's first mission is to provide core services, such as police, road and park maintenance and beautification of O'ahu, he said. "Until we can say, 'Yes, we're doing it well,' I don't think we should be expanding into other services."

He also wants to make sure that Kapa'a Quarry does not become the replacement for Leeward O'ahu's Waimanalo Gulch landfill, which is nearly filled to capacity.

Barbara Marshall, 58, who worked at KHON-TV from her arrival in Hawai'i in 1979 until 2000, said that a career built around asking tough questions and demanding answers has prepared her to serve on the City Council.

"I decided to run because I was very concerned about the lack of trust that the people that I live with in this area have in government," she said.

The big issue is the budget, Marshall said. She said she is pleased that some sitting council members have started to ask questions about the city administration's priorities and how money is being spent.

"Before we look to talking about raising taxes or fees for services, we need to look hard at how we're spending money now and whether it needs to be spent," she said.

Like Koki, she said the focus has to be on providing core services. "Obviously one of the top ones is the Police Department. We need to stop the outflow of police officers."

Marshall said she sees the sewer system as another priority. The city needs to fix pipes that have been leaking sewage, she said.

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