Five strive to gain region's trust

City Council candidates in Honolulu's District 2 agree on one thing: They need to bring integrity back to city government.

A former legislator, a city administrator, a marketing director, a former City Council member and a jack-of-all-trades each argues that he is the candidate who can restore faith to a district disillusioned with government.

Donovan Dela Cruz • Address: P.O. Box 860340, Wahiawa • Occupation: Director of marketing, Watermark Publishing • Family: Single • One big idea: "I think the potential for my community is huge. With all the natural resources and all the natural sites, we have so many opportunities for ecotourism and more cultural sense of places."

Gerald "Gerry" Hagino • Address: 36 Lauone Loop, Wahiawa • Occupation: Research assistant, Oceanic Institute • Family: Married, three children • One big idea: "It's such a big and diverse district. I think one of its commonalities is its environment and its beauty ... its ruralness and country atmosphere and I think it's important to preserve."

Charles Penn • Address: 47-675 D Lamaula Road, Kane'ohe • Occupation: Landscape contractor, student, custodian, auto detailer • Family: Married, one son • One big idea: "Focus on the family, which is the basic foundation from which we were all founded."

Kekoa Kaapu • Address: 54-163 Hanaimoana St., Hau'ula • Occupation: Publisher, Hawaii Public Interest Advocate • Family: Single, two children • One big idea: "Restore integrity to elected office. In all the years I was in, I never took a buck."

Ernie Martin • Address: P.O. Box 235354, Honolulu 96823-3505 • Occupation: Chief executive, City and County of Honolulu Office of Special Projects and attorney, Law Offices of Ernest Y. Martin • Family: Married, three children • One big idea: "Bring more revenues into the area, into the communities, to address the public infrastructure needs and the social and economic necessities as well."

Mansho's conduct has made it difficult to gain the voters' trust, candidates say, noting that is more true of areas represented by Mansho than those under City Councilman Steve Holmes.

Darrlyn Bunda, who was appointed to replace Mansho, is not seeking election to the council.

The district, a mix of suburban and rural neighborhoods, has a population of roughly 92,000, with 36,000 active registered voters.

Former state legislator Gerry Hagino said most constituents told him as he went door to door that they were disappointed in government and looking for new leadership. Hagino said even friends who had supported him in the past might not vote because they were so disenchanted.

Winning back trust and confidence will be his top priority. Drawing on his background in biology, Hagino said, "Diversity is really important to ensure the viability of an organism. If you cut off a segment of the community, you lose their ideas and they don't want to participate, and I think it's important to get them back."

After one term as a state representative and three in the Senate, Hagino said, "I still have my honesty and integrity intact."

Another priority will be to restore a sense of security. After 22 years of campaigning — including two unsuccessful runs against state Senate President Robert Bunda — Hagino has noticed that with every new election, there are "more fences and more dogs" in the neighborhoods. He would like to make sure the police force is adequately staffed.

Fellow candidate Donovan Dela Cruz, a marketing director and chairman of the Wahiawa Neighborhood Board, agreed that public safety is a major issue.

"I've lived in the district all my life, and I've seen so many changes," he said. As crime has increased, "a lot of people have moved out, businesses have closed."

Dela Cruz said that Wahiawa, Mililani Mauka and the North Shore are assigned only four police officers each. "If one calls in sick, you have three. If one has to go to court, you have two."

City government needs to focus on safety and other core services even if it means pulling back from programs such as Sunset on the Beach and the vision teams, Dela Cruz said. While he supports the vision team concept, he offers a less expensive idea to promote community involvement.

Wahiawa, for example, is the only place on the island where cherry blossoms can grow, he said. The city could plant the trees all over the town and start a festival. "Take that concept in each district to create a cultural sense of place without compromising the character of the community," Dela Cruz said.

Ernie Martin, chief executive of the city's Office of Special Projects, said he planned to use his 15 years of experience as a public servant to bring sensibility back into government "so that we can address the needs of the community.

"It's a community that has been overlooked in terms of the services that have been provided."

Martin plans to focus on bringing revenue into the district to address public infrastructure needs, which he describes as "human capital and economic development investments."

Along with road improvement, Martin would push for more cooperation between city and state agencies to prevent situations where the same stretch of road is ripped up multiple times for different projects.

Crime, and associated drug use, is a concern across the district's many communities, Martin said. He would like to see more programs to help youth "develop the type of positive attitudes that aren't going to lead them into those kinds of deviant circumstances."

Kekoa Kaapu, a City Council member in 1965-'69 and 1974-'79, and publisher of the Hawaii Public Interest Advocate, said one of his priorities would be to preserve the character of the district.

"There are people who love the country life, and they don't want it to change. They want to keep the country, country," he said. "A lot of them have to commute to town for work, but they're willing to make that commute so they can live in the most beautiful and satisfying place to live."

Kaapu, who calls himself the mother of the city bus system (then-Mayor Frank Fasi is the father), said he also would focus on transportation issues.

His main goal, however, is to restore faith in government. "I can restore faith in their representative, and by pressure and example encourage the same attitude to become the prevailing attitude — first in the city, then in the state, and maybe in our nation, too," Kaapu said.

Charles Penn, a landscape contractor, student, custodian and auto detailer, said he had decided to enter the race because "I got mad because there was so much going on and everybody was doing their own thing and they weren't looking at the issue that was already at hand.

"We need new decisions, and we someone that is focused and stable," who can make clear and concise decisions, Penn said.

He feels that 14 years in the Marines and personal experience qualify him to serve on the City Council.

"I can work with everybody as far as the budget, dealing with money. Not only that, I'm a businessman, and not only that, a family man, and that makes me overqualified already," he said.

Penn plans to focus on the family. "We just look at the needs of the family and just go from there (to) re-establish the respect and the responsibility of parenthood and bringing back some of the moral guidance and bring it back into the house."

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