Name on ballot:

James E. Hustace

Running for:

Hawaii county council – District 9

Political party:

No answer submitted

Campaign website:

hustaceforcouncil.com

Current occupation:

Gallery Assistant, Substitute Teacher, Art Appraiser

Age:

39

Previous job history:

No answer submitted

Previous elected office, if any:

No answer submitted

Please describe your qualifications to represent the voters of your county.

I aspire to represent the communities of North & South Kohala, to enhance County services, collaborate with community organizations, and find solutions through partnerships. My time growing up in Waimea inspired me to contribute to my community through leadership roles and meaningful involvement. Our communities deserve consistent engagement and a proactive approach to the challenges we face. I am dedicated to addressing issues, working with our County, State, Federal, and community partners, in an effort to safeguard our residents, strengthen our infrastructure, and care for the ʻāina.

Educational Background and Community Involvement:
Master in Public Administration (Hawai‘i Pacific University, 2023), Waimea Community Association (President, 2019-2023, Board Member, 2017-2023), South Kohala Traffic Safety Committee (Chair, 2016-2023), Hawai‘i County Redistricting Commission (Vice Chair, 2021), Democratic Party of Hawai‘i (Hawai‘i County Chair, 2023 & West Hawai‘i Vice Chair, 2021-2023), Waimea Trails & Greenways (2013-present), Waimea Resilience Hub (2023-present), Lavaman Triathlon (Aid Station Director, 2011-2019), Coqui Free Waimea (2012-2015), Graduate studies in Geographic Information Systems (University of Redlands, 2008-2010), BA in Environmental Studies (Lawrence University, 2008).

What is the most pressing issue facing the voters you seek to represent, and how would you address the problem?

The County district of North and South Kohala faces an array of challenges and addressing our infrastructure is key to solving these issues. We must ensure that our road networks provide a safe and equitable space for commuters, buses, pedestrians, and cyclists as we pursue efforts to limit the cost of commuting and focus growth around urban centers. We must tackle challenges with water, solid waste, wastewater, and broadband, protecting our ʻāina and delivering on critical services that will help to alleviate the financial strain on families. We will need to expand our mass transit network, allowing more options for our workforce and to reduce traffic congestion. Additionally, we have a need to enhance and maintain our park spaces with the potential of partnering with the community to help guide the process. A focused effort on these issues will also help us to address our increased cost of living and get at the root of our affordable housing challenges. Ultimately, investment in our infrastructure through securing CIP funds, partnership with State and Federal representatives, or utilizing our County’s strong bond rating can help us to tackle the challenges of protecting our communities, improving our watershed health, and enhancing community resilience through system redundancy and proactive maintenance.

Do you support or oppose the development of the Thirty Meter Telescope? Please explain.

As a native Hawaiian I support astronomy as an important means to diversify our economy by strengthening workforce pathways for STEAM education, expanding our knowledge industry, and collaborating with international partners through the lens of the Hawaiian language and culture. We have work to do to create balance, both environmentally and culturally, as we honor the commitments to decommission older observatories and restore the ʻāina. While this is a State issue, through collaboration we can establish a partnership with community leaders, elected officials, and representatives on the Maunakea Stewardship Oversight Authority Board, ensuring that they have the authority to guide the process. Our ancestors traveled here by the stars and our future generations should be allowed this opportunity to observe and continue this legacy, sharing our culture, heritage, and knowledge gained here with the world.

What are the best ways for county government to alleviate homelessness on the island and to increase the availability of affordable housing?

While the 2024 Point in Time Count for Hawai‘i County shows a 28% reduction in those experiencing homelessness in the last year, we must continue to support families and communities by tackling cost of living challenges. We need to continue our partnership with community nonprofits that engage with our homeless and houseless populations on a regular basis. We need to support comprehensive services (e.g., health, mental health, social-emotional wellness, substance abuse) for homeless individuals and our veterans in our communities. We will need to expand workforce and language training opportunities to best connect with these impacted community members. We also have an opportunity to expand our housing capacity, offering affordable and workforce units to those living paycheck to paycheck. We can identify opportunities for transitional and supportive housing to help individuals take the necessary steps to become independent and active in the community. Identifying vacant homes in our communities and bringing them back up to code can also increase our long-term housing rental capacity.

What can the county do to help island residents cope with the overall high cost of living in Hawaii?

We can help to stabilize the high cost of living by pursuing initiatives at the county level that will expand the middle housing sector and fund housing projects that are affordable for our residents. We can also identify vacant homes in our communities, bring them back up to code, and get them into the long-term rental market. These avenues can help local families build capital to become first-time homeowners. Through policy and community advocacy we can focus growth in urban centers, limit sprawl, provide more reasonable housing options for families and expedite UXO clearance. We need to expand our workforce and elderly housing capacity in partnership with the state and private entities, enhance mass transit capacity, address zoning challenges and encourage mixed-income developments. We will need to look at our property tax policies and assessments within Chapter 19 that inadvertently impact local families. We can additionally confront cost of living challenges by creating economic diversity through partnership and collaboration with the business community, expanding SNAP benefits, enhancing our STEAM (science, technology, engineering, arts and math) education pipeline and growing our workforce training programs.

How prepared is the county to deal with a major natural disaster and what would you do to improve preparedness and responsiveness?

We have work to do to create strong, resilient communities, especially as we tackle the effects of climate change, extreme weather events, and the challenges in leeward, fire-prone communities. As these communities have grown and continue to grow, infrastructure is desperately needed to address the lack of redundancy in our water systems and electrical grid. Additionally, secondary roads need to be prioritized and provide residents with an opportunity to escape harrowing disasters. To achieve these goals, we need to study and fund improvement projects that will safeguard our residents and help to reduce the growing burden of increasing insurance rates. For a comprehensive understanding of the need and strain on existing systems, for example we need to implement a traffic and evacuation study to properly analyze the extent and capacity of current roads and evacuation measures that need to be employed when disaster arises. As it relates to the impacts of sea level rise, we need to identify assets within inundation zones, analyze risk and employ proper modeling with current data trends, understand the economic loss and impact to transportation networks, recognize assets that would be easier to migrate versus attempt to harden, and identify options to protect unique coastal areas (beach nourishment, hardening, or accommodating for change).

What measures, if any, should county government take to regulate short-term vacation rentals?

We have a need to expand our housing capacity, especially at affordables rates for our residents, which includes a need for more long-term rental availability. We need to find a better balance between the community needs and our tourism sector. Hawai‘i will always be a destination where visitors come to experience the beauty of our islands and learn about our culture. Together we can pursue destination management policies and goals where guests have a greater opportunity to experience cultural aspects of our islands, learn about our history through educational activities, engage as environmental stewards, and practice volunteerism during their visit to enhance community and build relationships. To this end, we need to protect our residential communities, encourage long-term rentals for the benefit of our workforce, while ensuring that our local families can operate hosted rental units. We will need to accurately measure how unhosted rentals impact communities and find ways of bringing those dwellings back into either the housing market or the long-term rental pool. We will also need to streamline the registration and permitting process that helps to fund enforcement capabilities and ensures that all transient accommodation rentals adequately pay for municipal services.

What more needs to be done to reduce crime on Hawaii island?

It will take a concerted partnership between the community and Hawai‘i Police Department to tackle increased crime on Hawai‘i Island. The expansion of our community policing efforts will create a stronger interface with the community and promote more opportunities to engage with our police officers. This will allow for additional support of community efforts, assist neighborhood watch programs, and overall collaboration with community organizations. We will need to increase our police training opportunities and strengthen our recruitment efforts. We can also look into ways of supporting restorative justice initiatives that help to bring communities together. And as we look for ways to improve the morale of residents, we need to tackle our housing challenges, expand social service opportunities, support substance abuse programs, and pursue greater care for our veterans. Implementing more youth programs and expanding our educational pipeline to successful employment will help to reduce juvenile crime rates.

What will be your top priority if elected?

Infrastructure is key to tackling many of the challenges we face across North Hawaii. While this includes roads and bridges, and an understanding that many of these pieces fall within State jurisdiction across the district, it will take collaboration across levels of government to see some of these costly projects to fruition. Infrastructure also includes our ability to process waste, implement greater diversion policies from our landfill, and helping residents to make the conversion away from cesspools. Here, government will need to support residents with this unexpected cost while also considering larger scale treatment facilities at a community level. There is also a need to create redundancy for our more rural communities in our water systems and electrical grid, working with community partners to ensure reliability and coverage, while even providing greater monitoring capability to better understand the health of our stream systems and watershed.

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

While attaining a Master in Public Administration at Hawai‘i Pacific University, I researched and explored the future challenges of sea level rise on major economic sectors and strategic connection points of Hawaii Island (Hilo Bay, Kailua Bay, and Kawaihae Harbor). I utilized previous academic studies with Geographic Information Systems to analyze the economic and physical impact to these areas through visual maps and measurement over time. As a County, we will need to take proactive steps to prepare our island for future challenges through policy, education, and labor from sea level rise and storm events. We will need to engage early on with community and business entities to find solutions and understand the impact.