The City Council District 8 race in the Nov. 8 general election pits former Council member Ron Menor against the Republican minority leader in the state House of Representatives, Val Okimoto.

While Okimoto’s key campaign issues are economic development and public safety, Menor said his focus is on “quality of life” issues.

“These would include fixing city infrastructure, including roadways, sidewalks and other infrastructure, implementing more measures to promote traffic and pedestrian safety, creating more affordable housing opportunities for our local residents,” Menor said. “Addressing, more effectively, our homeless crisis … ensuring that city government provides District 8 with the important core services and improvements that the city is obligated to furnish.”

Okimoto maintains that driving economic development and creating more work opportunities, particularly along the rail line, could tackle many of the cost-of-living issues District 8 residents are facing.

“We hear how we’re just losing our youth to the mainland, because we can’t offer them opportunities. We can’t compensate properly. There’s no industries for them to be able to stay here,” she said. “What I’m really passionate about is economic development — having diversity, having opportunities for our future generations” as well as for “those of us who are here that maybe need to find better employment” to help make financial ends meet.

Both Okimoto and Menor want to see the Honolulu Police Department’s vacant positions filled, and support the view that police should play a larger role in the city’s overall homelessness strategy. Last month HPD estimated that it had about 350 vacancies.

“When you have outreach teams, interacting with the homeless, and in particular outreach teams that are working to relocate the homeless out of these homeless encampments in public areas, law enforcement needs to be involved,” Menor said. “The community is very concerned that illegal activities oftentimes do occur within within these homeless encampments.”

Okimoto said a push for a “treatment first” approach is needed to assist the homeless population. “If they’re being impacted by a drug addiction or an amount of mental health illness, we go down to the problem of that,” she said. “We can’t just keep creating housing units if we are not addressing that issue. While it is important to provide affordable housing and facilities and infrastructure to care for those who are on the streets, not addressing the root of the problem is not going to solve anything.”

Menor said he wants to see development of more permanent tiny-home projects along with low-cost temporary shelters that offer ready access to health care and other services.

As a Council member — assuming the post in 2013 and leaving in January 2021 — Menor served as Zoning and Planning Committee chair. He said his decades of experience in Hawaii politics has prepared him to rejoin the nine-member panel. Okimoto, meanwhile, highlights her three-year government experience in elected office at the state level, and said constituents are ready for change and new leadership that she can provide.

District 8 encompasses Pearl City through Mililani and was one of the districts most affected by the 2021 reapportionment process, which adjusted district boundary lines according to updated population data drawn from the latest U.S. census. Among the biggest changes, Mililani Town and Mililani Mauka are now part of District 8.

The Council seat is open because Council member Brandon Elefante reached his term limit and is now vying for a seat in the state Senate. Previously, Menor held the District 9 Council seat. Council offices are currently limited to two consecutive four-year terms, with former elected officials permitted to run again for office following a hiatus.

The District 8 nonpartisan race will likely be close as vote tallies for the candidates left them separated by 1.8% in the primary election. Okimoto received 34% of the vote, while Menor received 32.4%

According to the latest campaign finance report, which tallied figures through Sept. 26, Menor’s campaign war chest was $503,816 while Okimoto’s was $128,227.

The largest contributions to Menor’s campaign came from local labor unions such as the Masons and Operating Engineers. Also, he received donations from the Hawaii Laborers Political Action Committee and the Hawaii Regional Council of Carpenters.

Menor spent nearly $327,970, largely on advertising and printing. His largest expense was for communications consultant services from Mission Control Inc., for which he paid $91,289.

Okimoto’s largest contributions came from labor unions such as the Plumbers and Pipefitters and Hawaii Sheet Metal Workers. The Kobayashi Group was another large donor. Notably, former Hawaii Gov. Linda Lingle also gave $2,000 to Okimoto’s campaign.

Okimoto’s campaign has spent $89,748, largely on advertising and printing.

For more voter information, visit elections.hawaii.gov or call 808-453-VOTE (8683).