Posted on: Monday, April 14, 2003

Kaua'i alliance reflects values of community

By Jan TenBruggencate
Advertiser Kaua'i Bureau

NUKOLI'I, Kaua'i — A new organization that will serve as a communications and action center for the dozens of community groups on Kaua'i hopes to have offices and a paid staff by the end of the year.

More than 100 representatives of nonprofits, government agencies, religious groups, lobbying associations, business advocates and other organizations met at the Radisson Kaua'i Beach Hotel on Friday in a half-day forum of the new Kaua'i Planning and Action Alliance.

The alliance is an outgrowth of the process of updating the county's general plan for development, and it hopes to provide a way for the island's broad range of interest groups to coordinate activities, avoid duplication, develop goals and work together in other ways.

Participants said they had great hopes for the alliance, but Glenn Sato of the county Office of Economic Development conceded that a tightly structured organization might not always be as effective as less formal, traditional means of getting things done.

"On this island, word of mouth and peer pressure are really important in making things happen," Sato said.

The process thus far, under the oversight of the Garden Island Resource Conservation and Development program, has been guided by facilitators Nadine Nakamura and Roxanne MacDougal, but participants Friday elected an advisory board — a major step toward its functioning as an independent organization. The advisory panel will be charged with seeking and hiring a permanent staff and finding offices.

One of the goals of the alliance will be to identify a few specific projects or ideas that have islandwide appeal, and which should be sought by the community at large. Participants in the session were asked to discuss a series of proposals with the individual organizations, and to vote during the coming month for a single proposal within each of four identified community values.

The four are: caring for land and water; supporting culture and a healthy community; preserving rural character; and providing opportunities for all in a strong, diverse economy.

Architect Dee Crowell, the former county planning director, conceded that some issues, such as defining sustainability as a planning concept, can be controversial, and that can be a problem in keeping the community unified.

"Some people may not want to participate because of the heat that the subject can generate," Crowell said.