People interested in running for a seat on their local neighborhood board can now register as a candidate for the 2025 election, the city Neighborhood Commission Office announced.
Through late February, candidate applications should be submitted online, at Neighborhood Board Elections.
If elected to the board, the two-year term of office runs from July 1, 2025, to June 30, 2027.
Those eligible to vote include:
>> Oahu residents, including military personnel, military family members and legal resident aliens.
>> Voters at least 18 years of age by Feb. 21.
>> Voters who voted in the last general election or who register with the NCO to vote specifically for the neighborhood board elections.
Election dates for this process:
>> The candidate filing deadline is Feb. 21.
>> Voting begins April 25.
>> Voting ends May 16.
All current board members of the 2023-to-2025 neighborhood board term will need to register for the new term. Registration and candidate profile forms will not roll over from the previous neighborhood elections, the city said.
Created in 1973, the city-run neighborhood board system was designed to assure and increase community participation in the decision-making process of government.
That system, according to the city, applies the concepts of participatory democracy, involving communities in the decisions that affect them.
To do so, the average neighborhood board — manned by volunteer board members — typically meets on a monthly basis.
There are 33 active neighborhood boards across Oahu, with approximately 400 members, the city said.
Neighborhood board meetings provide an open forum among government representatives, elected officials and members of the public, who also have the right to submit testimony on any and all agenda items for those respective meetings, the city said.
“Really, the boards do operate in an advisory capacity,” NCO Deputy Dylan Whitsell said Dec. 19 on Mayor Rick Blangiardi’s “One Oahu” podcast. “But the boards actually do have a lot of power.”
“I would say it’s really a power that doesn’t come from writing necessarily like legal documents or laws, but it comes from the power of the people,” he added. “It’s very much a public-opinion and public-driven type of system, where we have neighborhood board meetings where 300 (or) 400 people show up on a particular issue.”
“And when you get that many people showing up from the community and we have this platform here, and all of these people can come out at once and say, ‘This is an issue’ … it’s very powerful,” he said.
On the same podcast, NCO Community Relations Specialist Dylan Buck said the current board term is “coming to an end on our 2023-to-2025 term.”
“Every term begins July 1 and will end on June 30 of the following two years,” he said, adding that anyone can be a candidate. “We really would like so many people to come out and register as a candidate. You’ve just got to be 18 years old and live in that district.”
“Some neighborhood boards are all at-large positions, so in a big community, as long as you’re living there,” Buck said. “Others are by subdistrict, so you’ve got to specifically fit.”
For the most part, the neighborhood board election is run “online,” he added.
“It’s been successful,” said Buck of the internet-based process. “You can do pretty much everything from home in just a few minutes.”
Meanwhile, Whitsell said “a good candidate” for these elective board positions is someone who is involved in their community “and is interested in learning more about their community … and just has a willingness to help and serve their community and just make it a better place,” he said.
Asked whether the elections for the neighborhood board are “competitive,” Whitsell said, “It can be.”
“There are some boards that aren’t super competitive, but there are some where a ton of people come out and want to be on the neighborhood board,” he added. “It’s not always guaranteed that you’ll get on, and that’s what the election is for.”
For more information, visit www8.honolulu.gov/nco, email NCO@honolulu.gov or call 808-768-3710.
