One is a political novice who drew the spotlight on social media during the 2018 Kilauea eruption. The other is a veteran of county government, the island’s top prosecutor for the past eight years.
Hawaii County voters are choosing a new mayor after veteran county leader Harry Kim failed to capture enough primary election ballots to finish among the two qualifiers, finishing a distant third.
Mitch Roth, 56, is the front-runner, having topped the primary with 31.5% of the vote. He is a former Honolulu prosecutor who joined the Hawaii County’s prosecuting attorney’s office in 1998 and was first elected to the top post in 2012. He touts, among other things, his experience in government as a key reason for why voters should elect
him mayor.
Ikaika Marzo, 36, who captured 21.4% of the vote, gained a strong social media presence during the Kilauea Volcano eruption after he posted video of the lava as it entered Leilani Estates. He went on to organize “The Hub,” a volunteer community relief center also known as Pu‘uhonua o Puna.
Marzo has no experience in government.
“I’m just a normal local boy who wants the best for our community,” said Marzo, a Native Hawaiian who grew up amid the
lava fields of the Kalapana region.
Marzo has been a musician, high school basketball coach, tour operator, rancher and fisherman.
“I might not have the experience of government. I might not have the experience to deal with budgets that are over millions of dollars. But I have the capability of taking our government to the next level because of my outside, not-status quo thinking,” he said during a recent community forum.
One of his outside-the-box ideas is to add Kim to his
administration’s transition team. Marzo said he’s been meeting with the current mayor regularly, and he expects Kim to help him ease into the job nicely.
“I think it’s wise for us
to ask for his manao and guidance,” he said.
Roth counters that he can hit the ground running and quickly work to solve the problems that face the county.
“What I’ve done throughout my entire career is solve problems,” he said.
As prosecutor he launched the first Community Oriented Prosecution program in the state and helped create the Pahoa Weed and Seed program, Visitor Aloha Society of
Hawaii Island and Hawaii County Citizens Emergency Response Team, among others. He also launched the first Restorative Justice Program in a prosecutor’s office in the country.
As mayor, Roth said he wants to change the culture of government and improve such things as the way people apply for a building
permit.
“For too long we have been anti-business,” he said. “We need to change that philosophy of government to help people thrive and succeed. If you can’t make the permitting process go a lot faster and more certain, people will not invest money here.”
Roth said he would create a cadre of grant writers to capture dollars to generate new revenue and work to diversify economy by luring new industries in
agriculture and technology, upgrading technological
infrastructure and creating green energy jobs.
He also wants to end the county’s practice of hauling rubbish from East Hawaii to Kona.
“We cannot continue to haul rubbish across the
island for the next 20 years,” he said. “We knew 20 years ago we were going to be in this situation, and we’re in this situation because we were reactive. We need to be proactive and start looking forward to solving these issues.”
Both Roth and Marzo have plans to help the county rebound from the coronavirus pandemic. They also agree on working to meet the state’s goal of generating 100% clean
energy by 2045 and on building a hospital in Puna.
Marzo said he would encourage the cultivation of hemp now that it was legalized by the state in August.
“Hemp can be a stimulator for our county government and our economy on Hawaii island. We can use that for textiles, materials, everything you possibly need — and that’s an opportunity we can take now,” he said.
One area where two differ significantly is the Thirty Meter Telescope, the controversial Big Island project that has been delayed for years due to protests and legal and regulatory delays.
Roth is a big supporter of the TMT and astronomy in general. His son is employed at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory operated by the California Institute of Technology, a TMT partner, and his wife works for
Subaru Telescope.
Marzo said Hawaii County police shouldn’t be harassing the Mauna Kea protesters.
“Our Police Department should be down in our communities attacking the real crime, because the crime on the mauna is not a crime at all,” he said.
Marzo said he supports the protection of sacred
areas.
“I’m a Native Hawaiian. This land is very precious to us. It’s very sacred.
Every place we go on this island is very sacred to the Hawaiian people. For me, my ancestors’ bones come from Kalapana. We protect them like they are a living thing. We need to work with burial councils with the county government to help maintain areas protected from development. The past is the key to the future. That’s how we always lived as Native Hawaiians on this island.”
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