Name on ballot:

Duke Bourgoin

Running for:

Honolulu mayor

Political party:

non partisan election

Campaign website:

Duke4Mayor.com

Current occupation:

Media Producer and Business Consultant

Age:

59plus

Previous job history:

-Law Office of David L Bourgoin 1980 plus Honolulu, Hawaii
–
Business, Environmental, Real Estate, International, Social Community
-Realty Office of David L Bourgoin 1990 plus Honolulu, Hawaii
–
Real Estate marketing and sales
-
Instructor/Professor: 1980’s to 2000’s. 
UH Business School- Management & TIM -Travel Industry School of Management- Hotel Management

HPU and Chaminade University, Management

The University of Maryland, in Asia and Europe, Management, Marketing, Economics

Thammasat University, MBA Program(Thailand) -Management
Wurzburg University (Germany) -Internet Law
-Journalism: Press and Media Production-TCR Productions, LLC HI

-Agriculture: greenverdefarms.com, HOFA, Hawaii chi Trading CO

-Counselor: SCORE and ELAN

Previous elected office, if any:

Makiki Neighborhood Board

Please describe your qualifications to represent the people of Oahu.

Management, Marketing, and Administrator of a Law Firm, Consulting Firm, Realty Firm, and Media Firm. Teaching Management, Marketing and Economics for several Universities. Organizational director for Environmental projects in Hawaii and around the World. Press representative to UN COP 25, EU Commission, International Film Festivals, and the Vatican.

What is the most pressing need for the people you seek to represent, and what can you do to address that need?

Environmental improvements while diversifying the Economy for a more secure, safe, and healthy Community. Honolulu’s “New Economy”, is this Sustainable, Self-Sufficient, Circular, Organic, non polluting Community of growing our own food and creating our own energy. Encouraging rural farms and urban cooperation through District Community Centers to grow food at our homes and on available land. Solar energy production by making our own panels for community use while allowing small solar farms to sell energy to community energy banks. The Tech Industry and the Design industry will be developed connecting the University, Government, and Private Industry with all level students along with interested individuals, to educate, cooperate, and create a New Hawaii Internet System with increased security and privacy, software, games, media, product design, all unique to our Islands, and promoted for export. The Industrial sector should also be encouraged to find products and services from our waste.

As Hawaii faces the COVID-19 pandemic, what more should county government do to protect residents’ health?

As long as there is a pandemic growing and existing in the World, Honolulu should protect our citizens from outside infection, while limiting interactions by citizens in the City to three or fewer people, wearing masks or a plastic headgear keeping all personal aerosols separate and safe. The 14-day lockdown for incoming visitors and residents is prudent to keep in place until this health crisis decreases to a low rate of concern.

What should county government do to help residents who have been economically affected by the pandemic?

Financial assistance if affordable is always a needed solution. Meanwhile, let us move forward empowering people to be self-sufficient growing food, creating energy, offering living opportunities like greenverdefarms.com community farms, while offering free or low-cost nutritious vegan meals, and limiting rental and property payments till the emergency is manageable with the Economy functioning with people back to work.

Should public worker furloughs, pay cuts or downsizing be used to help the county deal with lower tax revenues and higher expenses during the pandemic? Why or why not?

Public worker furloughs, pay cuts, or downsizing may be needed to help the county deal with lower tax revenues and higher expenses during the pandemic. This crisis may last a long time and the county cannot create money like the Federal Government, so we must find a way to go forward adjusting to reality. Our County workers along with our fellow working citizens can be encouraged to go forward using the Sustainable Economic program. Keep our citizens safe and healthy with self-sufficiency development with food and energy, while creating a circular economy to create products and services for localized income.

What specific solutions do you propose to combat homelessness?

The greenverdefarms.com project is a good method to find a rural home for people to work together and produce food and income. These projects can be facilitated with incentives to the landowners, gentlemen farms, and other entities as a way to make their land produce food, create food for the landowner, create the community plan for self- sufficiency, and better utilize our land. Requiring gentlemen forms to do agriculture with the benefit to the landowner of not paying wages to the workers should be acceptable with many landowners not using the land for agriculture. Much of the cost can come from the allowance of land use, and the people who start to build their housing for rural living in harmony with the land. Monetary help can come from landowners improving their own land, and budgets available from Government, Religious, Social entities, etc., and possibly issuing a bond fund.

Do you support or oppose stopping construction of the rail project at Middle Street? Please explain.

Rail should be downsized to create an inner-city system using local talent and labor. This project can be low tech and less expensive for now. Rail is important to connect the economy, create a more efficient transportation system, lower energy use and costs to the Community, and lower pollution and noise concerns for a modern city. HART should exist from Downtown to University Avenue along with King or Beretania Streets (and possibly extended from Middle Street to Kahala or/and further when affordable), and with a SkyTrain connection to Ala Moana and into Waikiki. Plan using 95% local talent for management and engineering. Control and ownership should be solely within Hawaii. Land and airspace above local stops can be leased out to business for additional income to existing funds and can be a source of lease revenue for years to come. These air rights above HART stops can be partially charged upfront to add to monies already accumulated from the tax so far. High prices to visitors, with discounts for yearly and monthly use.

Do you support or oppose using new city funds to cover any shortfall in HART’s construction or operating costs? Please explain.

Plan to start on this project ASAP using City employees, and low tech materials to have a system running while pumping the Economy with income to the unemployed for labor costs and from payment of unemployment fixed costs to the system existing today. Not sure how much funds can be used that are new, but actively connecting the city will give hope and purpose changing this time of wait and see.

Do you support reforms to policing in Hawaii? If yes, please explain what reforms you support.

All transactions between police and citizens could be recorded in real-time on the Web. This will create accountability and responsibility from both sides. There is a movement to reconnect the police to the pubic creating trust and cooperation. Decentralization with local ‘Outposts’ where Police can house giving visibility to the public and offering more security. Officers knowing the local neighborhood, and helping daily with community affairs is good community development. Oversight of the Police by a community commission is another possibility of changing a confrontational approach to working together with the community program. Reforming and strengthening an oversight committee includes, committee membership made up of qualified city entities to include Hawaiian, minorities, parks and land-use officials, health, etc. This Oversight Committee could be further decentralized to local neighborhood meetings of interested citizens reporting back to the main committee. Community-based policing could be a local volunteer program under the local police officer attached to each District Community Station.


What can county government do to mitigate the affects of sea-level rise on Oahu?

Preparing for climate change here in Hawaii includes laws prohibiting building by the Sea. The further the setback the less damage to the buildings near the sea and the infrastructure of the City around this building. Sea Walls can protect to some extent the structures now existing close to the sea in the City. Structures can be coded to be further protected and reinforced on the lower floors. Emergency group housing sights can be organized for storms and sea rise. Pumps, drains, water catchment and waterways can be created to address flooding and drainage. Hawaii should do its part to prevent climate change, even though the crises should be less here than in other parts of the World. Reduce carbon emissions, become sustainable and self-sufficient, reduce imports, and stop polluting the land, air, and sea.

Is there anything more that you would like voters to know about you?

Empowering each citizen of Honolulu to be self-sufficient growing their own food and creating their own energy, sharing this agriculture experience with community members, supporting green- verdefarms.com projects to find housing and agriculture work for creating organic food and income, and developing value-added products, is the base of this circular sustainable Economy. The Tech industry should be organized combining Government, Private Business, and University with Secondary and Elementary school students along with interested Citizens, for the creation of our own internet system to include programming, apps, games, tracking software for controlling the virus and pollution, and promoted as a business to market goods and services to our Community and the International market. The design industry would also be organized around University expertise, creating a plan for biodynamic organic agriculture to improve soil health with mixed crop rotation incorporating natural beauty into the community with plant layout, and energy design with solar to include building supplies, clothing, and transport, all for local market and export.