In the News

In Part 1 of this article (in the 7/17/20 Herald issue), I featured four outstanding women in the Japanese American community, analyzing their societal contributions through my mentor’s definition of politics as “conflict over meaning and value.”

In this second part, I spotlight recent efforts — both within and outside of Nikkei networks — that try to translate our collective values into meaningful institutional practice. I posed the same questions asked of earlier interviewees: What important social issue today do you think is misrepresented or under-discussed in Hawai’i’s mainstream media, and how can we address this issue via the law, governance or social policy?

Protecting the Economic Well-being of Vulnerable Tourism Workers Until the Industry Comes Back

Visitor-industry worker Rodney Nakashima always wanted to be knowledgeable about the things beyond his hotel job duties —“I wanted to be informed about union membership, wanted to be well-rounded,” reflects the friendly, low-key assistant head gardener of Sheraton Waikiki. The sansei veteran of O’ahu’s mass-tourism sector has put in 15 years of mindfully caring for plants and greenery gracing the grounds of not only the Sheraton but other hotels at the heart of Waikīkī’s famous beachwater edge (including the Moana Surfrider’s nearly century-old, world-famous, iconic banyan tree).

Nakashima trained in the cultivation of native and invasive botanical species brought to hotel grounds from all over the Hawaiian islands and around the world. This type of greenery labor is “really sacred; many plants have a history at their hotel, so we have to be careful doing things like cutting,” he says. He feels humbled by the fact that coconut trees he had planted 10 years ago remain standing and that the special celebration trees and Native Hawaiian plants he had brought into hotel gardens, such as those in the Royal Hawaiian Hotel, are accompanied by signs commemorating their histories there. “People think, ʻIt’s just a tree,’ but it is actually a big informational system,” he explains.

Nakashima descends from tough sugar-cane farmers who migrated across Hawaiʻi to find employment (and who moved from the Big Island to Maui and Oʻahu, then to Kauaʻi). Raised by a Nisei father who had served in the U.S. Army during the Korean and Vietnam Wars and by a war-bride mother who immigrated to Honolulu from Osaka where her family was employed on oyster farms — the hotel worker hails from practical working people.

This genealogy of agricultural and horticultural aptitude seems to make him a cautious observer of the political landscape around him. Nakashima watches for post-COVID-19 shifts in our government’s economic stance, almost as closely as he had once gleaned information on day-by-day changes in the natural environment to perform his landscaping work. In the age of the coronavirus, “I am looking to our mayor and governor who I hold accountable for what is happening and who I respect for taking the time and stepping back in reopening the state,” he says, expressing the complicated position of visitor-industry workers who await tourism’s re-start.

In his estimation, only about 10% of COVID-19’s societal outcomes will result from individual actions such as washing hands and social distancing. More importantly, 50% will be shaped by unions — like Local 5, a very active service-industry labor organization to which he belongs (unitehere5.org). To Nakashima, unions protect workers from corporate employers that are now scrambling to take financial advantage of the virus-generated chaos, threatening to cut back on employees’ hard-earned pay levels and benefits. And the remaining 40% of how coronavirus will affect Hawaiʻi, he says, is up to our government to regulate business so as to keep stable the economic lives of working people in Hawaiʻi.

Now that the state is in a position to bring corporations to the table so as to balance their interests with those of other groups in these tough times, adds Nakashima, what will our government do to get companies to protect jobs, to respect workers’ past pay which reflects their years of experience, to continue providing fair benefits? “Because tourism will come back,” he says, predicting that it will eventually return to the robust economy we had enjoyed before 120 days ago, when the COVID-19 crisis began in Hawaiʻi. “But the question is, when?”

Nakashima calls for state practices and policies that encourage the private sector to keep tourism-industry employees continuously earning a paycheck for their hard work. Through innovative partnerships during the coronavirus situation, for example, Local 5 has helped members procure this kind of much-needed employment. Not only representing hotel and airport workers but also healthcare employees, the union arranged for some of the furloughed hotel workforce to assist with the state Dept. of Health’s Temporary Quarantine Isolation Center in Iwilei. There, high-risk populations (e.g., the houseless, those who have mental illness and/or substance abuse addiction, unsheltered veterans and vulnerable family members needing protection from household violence) can be safely housed during the pandemic. With his background in groundskeeping, Nakashima was temporarily retrained as an environmental specialist and now disinfects room and common areas at TQIC.

Paola Rodelas, Local 5 communication specialist and Nakashima’s colleague, contrasts her union’s strategy of finding more work for furloughed hotel employees post-coronavirus, with non-unionized hotels’ management practices. “They [non-union hotels] laid-off workers and then, as the economy is expected to re-open, made them reapply for their jobs under subcontractors. So employees were unsure whether they can keep the same position, pay and benefits. Because they were not protected by unions, after they got fired, they had to go back and fight for their jobs. There is no excuse for this, especially coming from big corporations,” she says, mentioning Highgate, a Manhattan-based real-estate investment company which manages the Aston Waikiki Beach Hotel, ʻAlohilani Resort and Courtyard by Marriott Waikiki Beach, as an example.

Nakashima says, “I respects these businesses and know they have to get going, or the money will run out.” But he hopes that in that process, the state will protect workers’ jobs which might be lost due to the pandemic crisis. “Not all [jobs] can come back, but what is the pathway for the hospitality industry, the restaurant industry, to help us return? Where are the workers going to work? Have they got other options for employment to that [tourism-industry job]?,” he asks.

When working at the Sheraton, Nakashima was grateful for his Local-5-secured pay, benefits and pension. He hopes that one day, all of the visitor industry might provide jobs that help workers feed their families and live an affordable life in Hawaiʻi. Right now, he feels, without this type of across-the-board standard, the tourism labor market is split into two-tiers or sets of job standards: those who work unionized jobs protected by collective-bargaining contracts like him, and those who end up with hotel and other service-industry work without this kind of security, healthcare, pensions and other benefits. “But everyone [working in the visitor industry] should be up to our [union] standard,” he says of the $2.07 billion-a-year (in 2019) industry’s economic ecosystem.

More Stability and Support for Crucial Gig-Economy Artists that Help Nourish Local Community

Raised in the Himalayan mountains of India, ethnomusicologist Teri Skillman sensed an instant affinity for the diverse cultures of Hawaiʻi when she first arrived in 1982. “I felt the values and priorities here fit [me] in ways that the mainland did not,” reflected the woman who now serves as the Hawaiʻi Arts Alliance’s CEO.

Trained from childhood in classical Indian music and dance (including playing with the Delhi Symphony Orchestra when she was just in high school!), when she initially came to the islands, Skillman studied hula under Kumu Edward Kalahiki and Noenoe Zuttermeister. Eventually, she consulted with many kumu hula for her doctoral dissertation on the Merrie Monarch Festival. After stints such as Hamilton Library’s outreach coordinator (at the University of Hawaiʻi-Mānoa) and executive director of a folk-life center in New Jersey, Skillman now aims her considerable knowledge of the arts to advocate for Hawaiʻi’s beloved — albeit economically undervalued — creative workforce. Cultural artists and performers are respected in Hawaiʻi at the individual level…but not supported societally, something the former musician aims to address.

While a teaching assistant, Skillman once noticed that as much as a quarter of her music-education students, in an UHM undergraduate class of 28, displayed digital-dexterity deficiencies. Attributing the problem to a lack of music instruction when the students were in elementary school, this finding “hit home” with Skillman, at that time the mother of a female child who was attending a Department of Education school. She made sure that her own daughter received basic musical-performance training, but the larger lesson, of public-school classes as a means to transfer necessary cultural-artistic skills to the younger generation, long stayed with her.

Skillman’s Alliance has worked alongside the DOE, the Hawaiʻi Association of Independent Schools, the UHM Colleges of Education and Arts and Humanities and the Hawaiʻi State Foundation on Culture and the Arts as stakeholding partners in ARTS FIRST. Established by Act 306/01, ARTS FIRST anticipated the narrow standardized-testing emphases of the millennial “No Child Left Behind” era. To balance out that schooling trend, these institutional partners put together a fine-arts strategic plan from 2001 to ensure meaningful arts-education learning experiences for all Hawai‘i children in the classroom.

Today, under Skillman’s leadership, the Alliance — originally created in 1981 by HSFCA’s founding director, Albert Preis — also connects working artists through an online database for collaborative projects (hawaiiartsalliance.org/creative-network). “The Arts Alliance used to be, and needs to return to being, more community-minded,” summarizes Skillman of the vision she has enacted since being hired to lead the Alliance in 2019, a vision centered on issues of creative labor in the gig economy.

“Even before COVID-19, we have been trying to get more artists to sign up for our Creative Artists Network. We want to offer business-management workshops and, hopefully, services such as different types of insurance, affordable legal assistance and resources for creative artists,” she says.

“It is inexcusable that creative workers in the gig economy do not have these benefits or even basic job stability,” Skillman adds. Such creative cultural and artistic labor is essential to the visitor industry’s success. After all, “People who come to Hawaiʻi want two things [from their visit]: a beautiful environment, and cultural traditions. Without those two, Hawaiʻi would be seen as not offering anything.”

Skillman cites 2015 Hawaiʻi data from the Americans for the Arts’ Arts and Economic Prosperity 5 study which finds that “Nearly 45% of nonresident attendees [of local arts or cultural activities] indicated that the primary purpose of their visit to the state was ʻspecifically to attend this arts/cultural event’.”

That yearlong national study had also revealed that in the islands, “spending by nonprofit arts and cultural organizations and their audiences totaled $205.6 million,” and that, while nonresidents had constituted just 7.9% of all cultural-or-arts-event attendees, they actually spent 155% more per person than Hawaiʻi-resident attendees, in order to experience the same events, as they also pay “surrounding expenses of lodging, meals and transportation.“

Almost $206 million a year is “not a drop in the bucket,” assesses Skillman. As Hawaiʻi Arts Alliance’s associate director, she hopes that in the next legislative session, an “Arts and Cultural” caucus can build political awareness in the islands about the value of creative workers to the tourism industry as well as to the community. In the last session, mourns Skillman, “There were no bills to support the gig economy — the creative-sector workers. But how crucial they are to how well the economy recovers!”

Skillman’s latest effort to support gig workers in the creative sector is a collaborative application for a National Endowment for the Arts “Our Town” place-making grant with the Downtown Arts Center. If the Alliance were to procure this grant, it could once again help to reinvigorate downtown Honolulu’s historic arts and culture district — an area which in its recent past had been revived by the Alliance’s ARTS at Mark’s Garage, in collaboration with small businesses in that area, through First Friday from 2001-12. “To a great extent,” Skillman observes, “Chinatown has fallen apart, and First Friday is now dead in the water. But for the long run, with the rail [project completion] coming, it makes sense to address the region from Beretania to Aloha Tower and from Maunakea to Richards St. It makes sense for it to go arts oriented.”

The goal would be to focus on local participants, not out-of-state tourism, such as Micronesians and other new immigrants in nearby public and low-income housing — “They should have access to the arts and creative programs…to rejuvenate the historical, cultural arts district,” she stated, recognizing the many independent art galleries, pubs and restaurants, cultural organizations, flower shops, fashion retailers, architecture firms and performance spaces in Honolulu’s longtime small-business neighborhood.

Skillman applies her earlier lessons, which she learned when studying the Merrie Monarch Festival for her dissertation, to this Honolulu urban area. That festival ended up reenergizing business in Hilo, she says, because its organizers had focused on building local community interest and used different sectors of the Hawaiʻi island economy to help out. “Focus on community, on Hawaiian values and issues, and everyone benefits,” she says. “This must be seen as the bottom line.”

Stakeholder Groups Coming Together Under the Right Conditions for Collaborative Problem-Solving

In Hawaiʻi, the gap between average household incomes of the top 1% of our population (around $797,001 in 2015) and the bottom 99% (around $57,587), has been growing — paralleling the rising income inequality in most other U.S. states from the 1970s onward, according to the Economic Policy Institute (cnbc.com/2018/07/19/income-inequality-continues-to-grow-in-the-united-states.html).

For this reason, I interviewed Gavin Thornton, executive director of the Hawaiʻi Appleseed Law Center for Law and Economic Justice, a non-profit which drew my attention due to its unusual mission. Part of a national network of 16 public-interest law centers, Appleseed locally attempts to “build a more socially just Hawai‘i, where everyone has genuine opportunities to achieve economic security and fulfill their potential” (hiappleseed.org/).

To achieve this, Thornton focuses his Center’s team of data analysts and public-policy researchers on what he calls “high-level systems issues.” Hawaiʻi’s decision-makers, he thinks, need to come up with an effective problem-solving process so that various social groups and economic actors in the islands that have traditionally demonstrated differences in priorities and perspectives, can come together to achieve concrete solutions to pressing matters of socio-economic inequality, especially regarding issues such as a livable wage for workers, affordable housing and a rebalanced tax structure.

These issues were underscored by the surprising (to some) data findings of the Aloha United Way’s ALICE report, originally released in 2017. The initial report illustrated the urgent nature of working-class economic struggle in the islands, revealing not only those beneath the official U.S. federal poverty level (about 11% of all Hawaiʻi households), but also the extent of families and individuals with slightly higher incomes that were “Asset Limited, Income Constrained, Employed” (ALICE, an additional 37% of all households here) — in a nutshell, the working poor.

Some forward-thinking political and economic leaders of the state saw from the report that [a total of] “48% of all local residents were struggling to make ends meet, and if you add a few percentage points to that figure, all of Hawaiʻi is done for,” Thornton explained. This motivated these leaders to rethink where we were headed, he said.

The percentage of Hawaiʻi households in the two combined income categories (federal poverty level + ALICE level) fell from the time of that first report to the time of its most recent version. However, since the economic impact of the coronavirus, Aloha United Way now estimates that 59% of Hawaiʻi residents don’t earn enough to cover the costs of a survival budget (see auw.org/more-half-hawaii-households-struggle-under-covid-aloha-united-way-says).

Despite this alarming data, Appleseed’s director shares an encouraging story from the last legislative session when a new package of bills was introduced with the intent of financially shoring up working families. The bills included a minimum-wage increase, tax credits for working families, affordable housing supports and an education component, Thornton described.

For the housing part of the bills, Thornton thought that most of the stakeholders were generally supportive of its $200 million appropriation toward infrastructure that promoted affordable housing development on state-owned lands.

However, he said, that bill’s controversial aspects included disputes over what constituted “affordable” housing, concerns about land use and environmental oversight and protection, and Native Hawaiian justice issues.

Thornton describes how the Hawaii Community Foundation then brought together a diverse group of political actors with often-conflicting interests, representing various perspectives on Hawaiʻi land and housing development. This group included Pacific Resources Partnership (aka the carpenters union), Aloha United Way, the Office for Hawaiian Affairs, the Sierra Club, Kamehameha Schools Bishop Estate, the Building Industry Association of Hawaii and other organizations. Recognizing a shared commitment to improve the affordable housing situation for Hawaiʻi families, the community representatives in the group ended up submitting joint testimony with proposed amendments to provide the bill with a broad base of support, he says.

Although the COVID-19 outbreak eventually led to the effort’s demise, Thornton views it as an exemplary start for addressing our complex political conflicts. “It was one of the best examples I’ve seen of a diverse, broad spectrum of stakeholders — people who historically have been divided — coming together with shared purpose to resolve a problem that impacts us all,” he sums up, contrasting this experience with how problems are often approached through the legislative process and elsewhere.

Thornton concludes that when “the right representatives come together in the right environment focused on collaborative problem-solving rather than negotiation,” even the most intractable problems can be addressed.

Pandemic and protest. Recession and rioting. The first half of 2020 pulled no punches.

Hawai‘i dodged the worst of the pandemic, and we haven’t yet had any riots, but the situation is dire. Massive unemployment, sinkholes in the state budget and crippling uncertainty.

The scale of our crisis is compounded by infighting. In a time when we need to work together, we seem more divided than ever. How can we achieve unity?

Since statehood, Hawai‘i has been dependent on corporate and government bureaucracies to manage social, economic and political relationships. In crisis, these organizations are not always responsive enough.

Yet in the midst of chaos, an alternative form of organization is serving important needs. Networks are forming around common goals, interests and principles. Members of these networks are coming together to help people in need, kick-start the economy and pave the road to a sustainable future.

These networks are flexible and decentralized. They bring together representatives from many organizations. And they provide an alternative way to get things done. Here are three.

Networked Around a Goal: Every1ne Hawaii and #Masks4All

Every1ne Hawaii came together in November 2019 with the goal of increasing civic engagement. At its core were nine friends: Alx Kawakami, Kimo Kennedy, Robert Kurisu, Jeff Laupola, Ryan Matsumoto, Zak Noyle, Dr. Darragh O’Carroll, Nicole Velasco and Keoni Williams. The core group planned to work with a network of community partners and social influencers to drive voter turnout in the 2020 election.

When the pandemic arrived, workplaces and county governments required face masks, but stores were sold out. Every1ne Hawaii pivoted to a new goal: distributing free masks. During their #Masks4All campaign, the group raised funds, ordered 2 million masks from a factory in China, and worked with friends, family and community partners across the Hawaiian Islands to distribute them.

These community partners reached out to their networks, activating more people. Hundreds of people participated in what Velasco calls “the ultimate coconut wireless.” This network allowed Every1ne Hawaii to solidify a statewide distribution network within three days of receiving the masks on O‘ahu.

On Maui, the group partnered with the Nisei Veterans Memorial Center, Kai Lenny and Ian Walsh to distribute 160,000 masks. Lenny, Walsh and Deidre Tegarden of the Nisei Veterans Memorial Center used their networks to get the job done.

Darryl Oliveira of HPM Building Supply had a connection with the Hawai‘i Army National Guard, which helped fly 200,000 masks by helicopter from O‘ahu to Hawai‘i Island. Every1ne Hawaii reached out to Janice Ikeda of Vibrant Hawai‘i, which led the distribution on that island and was supported by Kūha‘o Zane.

“Everybody stepped up and found a way to help,” Velasco says. “There’s no way that we could do this with nine people. Truly, hundreds of people have helped to make this possible.”

Every1ne Hawaii is now returning to its original goal, increasing civic engagement. The core group members plan to use their existing relationships as the basis for ongoing collaboration, working with social influencers and community partners to spread awareness about voter registration.

“At the core, I think we’re people-focused,” Williams says. “Everyone in the group is focused on helping others overcome their own limitations. It’s about calling on people to do more than what they think they’re capable of as an individual. At scale, it’s about partnering organization to organization to do more than what a single organization can do.”

Networked Around Economic Interests: The Retail Reopening Committee

In early May, a committee of landlords, retailers, business leaders and retail associations created a plan for the phased reopening of retail operations.

The committee included representatives from the Hawai‘i Restaurant Association, Retail Merchants of Hawaii, Outrigger Enterprises, the real estate investment trust Washington Prime, Macy’s, Howard Hughes Corp., Hawai‘i Executive Collaborative, The MacNaughton Group, FCH Enterprises (Zippy’s), Kamehameha Schools, Atlas Insurance, Island Insurance, Brookfield Properties and Alexander & Baldwin.

Lynelle Marble, executive director of the Hawai‘i Executive Collaborative, saw a need to coordinate efforts to avoid duplication. “Restaurants and retailers were working on their individual checklists, but they were looking for an overarching agenda,” Marble says. “Everyone agreed to work on a guide that would provide overarching policies and protocols.”

Committee members met for the first time on May 6. Within 48 hours, they produced the “Hawai‘i COVID-19 Retail Reopening Guide.” They sent the guide to retailers and restaurants, the mayors, the governor and the state’s recovery navigator, Alan Oshima.

A&B CEO Chris Benjamin recognized that his company would have a big role in the reopening effort. A&B is Hawai‘i’s largest grocery-anchored retail property owner, and a safe and speedy reopening was vital for its tenants.

Kit Millan, A&B’s senior VP of asset management, was already in touch with landowners and retail tenant associations. Millan had read the CDC and Johns Hopkins University reopening guides and was researching the reopening plans of other states and countries. When the group formed, he shared the resources he’d been working on.

Members of the committee provided feedback and suggestions, each offering a different perspective. The diversity of perspectives was valuable because existing guidance wasn’t responsive to the needs of all stakeholders.

Tina Yamaki, president of the Retail Merchants of Hawaii, was dissatisfied with some reopening guidelines produced by government agencies and committees that “didn’t have experience in retail operations.”

Many of these plans were designed with grocery stores in mind, but they weren’t responsive to the needs of local businesses like clothing stores or crack seed shops. Yamaki wanted a simple, visual guide to reopening that would reflect the needs of the diverse retailers in her association.

The final product was only seven pages, with color-coded visuals explaining which businesses should be allowed to reopen in each phase. Specific guidance was provided for different business types, including gyms and restaurants.

The committee convened with the limited goal of producing the guide, though ongoing collaboration will be needed to ensure safety, monitor health outcomes and respond to any resurgence of the virus.

The members of the committee will continue “to work collaboratively” because they are “bound by common interests,” Benjamin says. “COVID-19 doesn’t end when retail opens.”

Networked Around Principles: Uplift Hawai‘i

Uplift Hawai‘i describes itself as an economic recovery platform bringing together organizations, individuals, coalitions and other COVID-19 recovery initiatives. The group’s “informal advisory committee” consists of AJ Halagao, Billy Pieper, Brent Kakesako, Claire Sullivan, Dawn Lippert, Dee Nakamura, Gavin Thornton, Ikaika Hussey, Josh Wisch and Keoni Lee.

The committee came together through a series of informal conversations. They recognized that because of the economic crisis, policymakers would face tough decisions. With input from others, the committee says it produced five principles to guide the economic recovery effort toward a more equitable and more sustainable future. They want to support:

1. The health and well-being of all Island residents
2. A healthy relationship with our natural environment
3. A diverse Island economy with more local business and a new model for tourism
4. Economic equity and community engagement processes
5. State and local government leadership

At the time of this writing, 100 organizations and more than 100 individuals have signed on to support the principles, the committee says. The committee plans to revise the list, with input from other Uplift Hawai‘i members; the expectation is that the revised principles will help influence
policy decisions.

Dawn Lippert, CEO of Elemental Excelerator, views the principles as a way to bring people together during the economic crisis to discuss and make decisions about the future of Hawai‘i.

“This is an imperfect set of principles,” Lippert admits. “Any plan will be imperfect. The best way to move forward is to get as many people as possible in the room and reflected in these decisions.”

Gavin Thornton, executive director of the Hawai‘i Appleseed Center for Law and Economic Justice, says that a set of shared principles can help decision-makers push through policy gridlock. In his policy work, Thornton has watched people “beat heads against a wall year after year.” He’s seen “countless reports, countless plans.” The task now is to find a plan people can agree on.

Billy Pieper is a VP at Barclays, the international financial services company, where he oversees the Hawaiian Airlines World Elite MasterCard program. He believes principles can guide community leaders to better decisions. “Values and principles shape decision making,” Pieper says. “Leaders are hungry for this.”

Ikaika Hussey, an organizer for Unite Here Local 5, views Uplift Hawai‘i’s principles as emerging from Hawaiian culture. They reflect what the Native Hawaiians “figured out over thousands of years,” he says.

Hussey and Keoni Lee were also involved in writing the ‘Āina Aloha Economic Futures Declaration, a set of shared principles backed by an extensive network.

Uplift Hawai‘i includes the Economic Futures Declaration in its “potluck of resources,” a collection of presentations, reports, fact sheets and vision statements related to its objectives. Uplift Hawai‘i says it intends to support other efforts to create change and serve as a bridge between them.

Of course, agreeing on principles is easy. The hard part is translating those principles into policy. Our legislators share this task with Alan Oshima, the state’s economic and community recovery navigator appointed by Gov. David Ige.

New Networks

Oshima views the recovery as “a play with an ensemble cast and no lead actor.” To make it through the recovery, he says, we’ll need to manage expectations, support safety nets and listen to different voices.

As navigator, Oshima has convened 18 economic sector groups to provide input in the recovery planning process. He’s working with these groups to strengthen existing ties and establish new connections between leaders in unrelated economic sectors. These new networks will facilitate collaboration and stimulate innovation during the recovery, he says.

Oshima says we shouldn’t “build an economy that looks like now, just bigger and better.” Instead, we need to take “an inventory of the new world.” Because of technological improvements in telework, telemedicine and remote learning, Hawai‘i’s “geographical isolation is no longer an impediment.”

“We already know how connected we are to each other,” Oshima says. “But connectivity has revealed our fragility. (After hurricanes) Iniki and Iselle, the damage was localized. The effect of the pandemic has been huge.

“We’re looking for sustainable fixes, not quick fixes. It can’t be what’s good for me, it’s got to be what’s good for us.”

Friday is the final scheduled day for the Hawaii Legislature’s 2020 session. It was hallmarked by social distancing measures aimed at preventing the spread of COVID-19.

The coronavirus pandemic forced lawmakers to close public access to the state Capitol, end in-person testimony on legislation, and broadcast all legislative hearings for remote viewing.

Anyone trying to follow deliberations at the Capitol over the past two months, has likely spent some time on hold listening to elevator music. The only way to watch daily hearings has been to stream them online or to tune in live on Olelo Community Media.

In some ways, that represents an improvement in public access. Previously, hearings and floor sessions were not regularly broadcast for remote viewing. This was particularly disadvantageous for Neighbor Island residents, for whom appearing at the Capitol in person can be prohibitive.

But in most other respects, the current system provides fewer opportunities for the public to participate in government.

Following the action can be difficult, with committee chairs often calling recesses for members to discuss a proposal. In the era of social distancing that means the microphones and cameras, now the public’s only window into the legislative process, are shut off.

That was the case in a June 23rd meeting of the House Committee on Lower and Higher Education, when Chair Justin Woodson called a recess for decision-making on two measures; one pertaining to data collection at public schools and the other on the construction of school facilities.

For the next three minutes, lawmakers could be seen on live stream video, but not heard. When audio resumed, both measures passed unanimously, with little indication of what was discussed.

On June 25, members of the Senate Committee on Public Safety, Intergovernmental, and Military Affairs reviewed a bill that would have created clearer standards for the use of force by police agencies. After reading written testimony, Chair Clarence Nishihara called a recess, but could be heard discussing what the committee planned to do before being directed by a legislative aide to switch off cameras and microphones.

After a minute of elevator music and a screensaver, the sound and video returned, and the committee approved a measure with the lone dissenter, Ewa Beach Sen. Kurt Favella, audibly expressing surprise at the procedure.

Sandy Ma with the good governance watchdog Common Cause Hawaii says the remote viewing system has been problematic.

“There are so many process problems with this current session it’s even just hard to begin,” she told HPR in an interview.

Ma says she has observed audio quality too distorted to understand, camera angles making it impossible to identify speakers, and scheduling errors resulting in votes and hearings taking place without being broadcast.

However, her biggest issue is with the restrictions on public participation. Normally, residents can appear in person to voice their concerns about proposed laws and even answer questions from lawmakers. Ma says that makes for better government and better policy. In the era of COVID, only written testimony was accepted, which she believes is an inadequate substitute.

“I understand that we’re all trying, but we’ve had months to do something better,” she noted.

The Maui County Council and Honolulu City Council have been meeting during the pandemic and accepting live constituent testimony using video conferencing and in-person appearances. Maui Councilmembers had such a system up and running as far back as late March.

In a normal year, not every hearing and vote at the Capitol is broadcast live. House Majority Leader Della Au Belatti says expanding streaming capacity took precedence over in-person testimony.

“That [remote testimony] just added a complicating factor that we could not deal with in this time period,” Belatti said. “I think we would all want in-person participation, but this is the reality of 2020.”

It is worth noting that in previous sessions, lawmakers have considered and failed to pass measures that would have created a system for remote testimony.  That is a move long called for by Neighbor Island residents, who are now forced to fly to Oahu if they wish to participate.

“Residents from Neighbor Islands don’t have the same chance to testify at hearings,” said Nicole Woo, senior policy analyst with the Hawaii Appleseed Center for Law and Economic Justice. “It’s truly unfortunate that they haven’t addressed the need for remote testimony, before the pandemic.”

One measure from the 2019 session that would have established such a system even noted that legislatures in Alaska and Nevada had already adopted procedures for submitting feedback remotely.

When asked about the interrupted sound and video feeds during lawmakers’ deliberations, Majority Leader Belatti told HPR that the practice is in line with normal House rules allowing committee chairs to call for off-the-record discussion.

“It is also the chair’s discretion whether there will be further discussion on the record,” Belatti noted. “So what you’re seeing is just the real-time capturing of what our normal processes are.”

The Legislature and the Judiciary are the only bodies exempt the state’s Sunshine Law, which requires government meetings to be held in public view.

Gov. David Ige suspended the open meetings requirement in March with his first emergency proclamation order in March. He has yet to reinstate it.

Three Kaua‘i students were announced winners of the “Whatchu Eatin’” photovoice contest that was a statewide youth-led initiative designed to collect information about food experiences of Hawai‘i’s youth and presented by the Hawai‘i Youth Food Council.

“We wanted to hear from kids about what they were eating while schools were closed,” said Daniela Spoto Kittinger, director of Anti Hunger Initiative at Hawai‘i Appleseed during the announcement made Thursday, July 2. “So many kids rely on school meals throughout the school year, and we were curious about how school closures would affect that. More than a hundred photo entries were received from across the state from which a winner and two Honorable Mentions from each county would emerge.

In order to compete, students had to submit a photo relating to their food experience and write a description of the photo’s significance. Judging was based on the creativity of the photo and its relevance to the theme.

Photo entries displayed a wide range of food experiences among Hawai‘i’s youth, including growing food in gardens, learning to cook for the first time, and exploring cultural heritage through food.

“Ratatouille” by Kai S., a Kaua‘i island student, topped the winner’s list.

“It is a tasty, healthy dish that I cooked myself,” Kai said in his description. “The challenge that gave me the idea to make it, was to make two meals within a $40 budget. I had also recently re-watched the movie ‘Ratatouille’ and thought that this would be a good, cheap meal to make — and it was!”

Winning entries can be viewed on an online gallery starting June 30 at www.hiphi.org/youthfoodcouncil.

“My love of cooking — Homemade Coconut Chicken Curry with Jasmine brown rice and garlic naan,” said Isabella B., one of the Kaua‘i Honorable Mention winners. “I love to make food. I love to bake and cook all day, then serve the homemade dishes that I have prepared for my family. When I am in the kitchen cooking, all worry leaves me. Recently, I have started to make healthier dishes because with my family, it is hard to please all of my family members at the same time. The dish I made here is something all my family members love and is made from fresh ingredients from our own garden and coconut trees. I spent hours cooking this dish with my dad, trying to make it the best possible one I can. I really do hope I pictured my love of cooking and my experience with the food I make. Thank you.”

Fathers are important food preparation helpers as demonstrated by Reed B.’s “Homemade chocolate mousse,” the second Honorable Mention for Kaua‘i island.

“I have wanted to make homemade chocolate mousse, but because of the COVID-19, I have been unable to get chocolate mousse,” Reed B. said in his description. “So, me and my dad have decided to make chocolate mousse.”

Gov. David Ige and Hawaii Appleseed Executive Director Gavin Thorton joined us today for a Q&A video on the COVID-19 Care Conversation.

The COVID-19 Care Conversation, sponsored by Hawai’i Executive Collaborative and Hawaii Pacific Health, airs live every weekday at 10:30 a.m. on the Honolulu Star-Advertiser’s Facebook page. Yunji de Nies and Ryan Kalei Tsuji discuss the latest news, resources and community concerns about the coronavirus outbreak in Hawaii.

When we think about the future of Hawaii we want to build — the near-term, post-pandemic recovery, as well as the long-term future our children and grandchildren will inherit — what does it look like?

Will we enjoy an innovation-driven economy where everyone can find well-paying jobs that sustain a healthy life with good, locally produced food, and homes that are safe and affordable?

Will we have the social infrastructure necessary to build strong communities where we support one another, shop at small businesses built by homegrown entrepreneurs, and solve problems with the collective wisdom and rich, diverse perspectives Hawaii’s people have to offer?

Will we return to the foundations laid by kanaka maoli, using our natural resources sustainably, allowing Hawaii’s people and future generations to thrive?

If this is indeed the future we seek, we must align our personal, professional and political decisions with the principles and values to which we aspire. To build a vibrant community, we must commit to a serious shift in the way we do business and run our government.

Fortunately, our community has the knowledge and skills to address Hawaii’s current and systemic economic challenges. In June, we invited nonprofits, businesses and individuals who have signed on to the Uplift Hawai‘i principles to nominate projects and programs that are already doing uplifting work. These are initiatives that we can invest in right now to build a better future—using CARES Act funding, along with our local private and philanthropic resources.

Nominated projects include the creation of a Hawaii civilian conservation corps to help unemployed residents work with organizations engaged in restoring native forests and trails, maintaining parks and campgrounds, and building community-serving infrastructure. This program would develop and train a new workforce while addressing long-standing community needs and aspirations.

Another nominee is WAI: Wastewater Alternatives & Innovations, which helps homeowners and communities reduce wastewater discharge by upgrading antiquated cesspools with affordable, eco-friendly solutions to wastewater management. This is an example of addressing a pressing need in our community while diversifying our economy and improving the well-being of our residents and islands.

Other suggestions include investing in a new paradigm of community centers that serve as a place of gathering, education and services that uplift the people and communities they are a part of, following the lead of organizations like Key Project, Kokua Kalihi Valley and Kula No Na Po‘e Hawai‘i. The resiliency they’ve created in their communities, demonstrated through their quick, effective responses to the pandemic by connecting people with the resources they need, is a model for building social infrastructure in Hawaii.

These are just a few examples of the many organizations that give us hope. We know that our lawmakers will have to make some tough decisions during this short legislative session about how to best deploy our economic recovery funding, and that our business and philanthropic community is navigating a challenging environment and facing many calls for help. Through it all, we hope our civic leaders will respect the community-sourced guiding principles articulated by Uplift Hawai‘i, ‘Aina Aloha Economic Futures Declaration and other related efforts, and align their policies and actions with the needs and aspirations of the community.

Rebuilding Hawaii’s economy will take an effort unlike any we have yet undertaken. Although the pandemic has brought tremendous hardship, it has also given us a once-in-a-generation opportunity to usher in the kind of change that normally takes decades to enact. Together, we can bring about a more equitable and resilient future that honors the people, land, culture, and values of Hawaii.

Hawaii lawmakers have agreed to a plan to set aside millions in CARES Act funds to cover some of the benefits that unemployed workers will lose at the end of July. It’s just one item in a budget proposal to use $635 million in federal assistance to address a range of coronavirus-related issues, and jump start the economy.

The state Legislature reconvened Monday under locked down conditions that prevents the public from attending the sessions in person because of COVID-19.

The main order of business: appropriate the over half a billion dollars that have flowed from Washington, D.C., to help the state deal with the ongoing pandemic.

A House and Senate conference committee agreed yesterday to advance the spending plan, with minimum discussion, to the floors of both chambers where votes are expected on Friday.

Among the major proposals is a $230 million allocation to help out-of-work employees. Many have been getting $600 weekly in extra unemployment insurance payments, known as $600 Plus-Up, but the additional amount is ending on July 31.

The conference committee agreed to provide $100 a week to cover some of what will be lost.

“We anticipate this affecting 117,000 recipients. So when the $600 Plus-Up ends, they’ll at least get $100 per week, in addition to their UI benefit,” said Donovan Dela Cruz, chair of the Senate Ways and Means Committee.

Other items in the proposed amended state budget include $90 million for thermal screening and facial recognition cameras at the airport and $100 million to subsidize the rents of eligible households hit hard by the pandemic.

Other appropriations would provide $100 million to the Hawaii Emergency Management Agency for sanitation and personal protective equipment for essential employees, including those that work at child care centers, elderly care homes, small businesses and schools and nonprofits that work with vulnerable populations.

Other expenditures aim to help rebuild the economy: $30 million for workforce training and job placement; $15 million to help local manufacturers produce hand sanitizers, PPE and other products needed to deal with the pandemic; and $15 million for child care facilities to help with PPE and social distancing measures.

Certain businesses will also receive allocations, including $3 million for the fishing industry and $19 million for the Maui Health System that runs Maui Memorial Medical Center, location of a major outbreak of the coronavirus earlier in the year.

The allocations of the federal aid money drew criticism from social service agencies while the process of adopting the budget measure, using a method called gut-and-replace, riled others.

“Families could’ve used more help with food and many have lost their health insurance — the current bill doesn’t address these needs,” said Deborah Zysman, executive director of Hawaiʻi Children’s Action Network in a statement. “Our kūpuna remain vulnerable, and many immigrants still havenʻt received any government support.”

The lawmakers took a bill that had already gone through the public hearing process, Senate Bill 126, then replaced the text with the CARES Act expenditures, critics said. By doing this, the bill did not get the usual public hearing review.

“If we are going to successfully face Hawaiʻi’s complex challenges, we need all of Hawaiʻi’s people contributing to the solutions,” said Gavin Thornton, executive director of the Hawaiʻi Appleseed Center for Law and Economic Justice. “Our strength is our people. A process like this, which excludes our people, is a recipe for failure.”