Can This Candidate Reverse Policies Hurting Big Island Farmers? Hawaii County Council District 1

➡ Ren Del Rosario, a candidate for District 1 County Council, shares his journey from the Philippines to Hawaii and his passion for sustainable farming. He criticizes the current leadership for not listening to the community, particularly farmers, and believes that many of the bills being passed are an overreach. Ren is committed to reevaluating these bills if elected, and is concerned about the potential for increased taxes and locals being forced to sell their property. He also discusses the need for additional evacuation routes in Waimea due to safety concerns.
➡ The speaker is running for office to represent their community, driven by their background as a successful entrepreneur and their desire to listen to and advocate for their community’s needs. They express frustration with current leadership and legislation, which they believe often negatively impacts the community. They also highlight their commitment to positive campaigning, despite facing criticism and false accusations. The speaker emphasizes the need for change, better education, and more community-focused regulations, promising to bring these issues to the forefront if elected.
➡ The speaker, a community member running for office, believes in creating legislation that benefits the community and doesn’t harm their quality of life. He criticizes the current council for disregarding public opinion and promises to be present and listen to the community’s concerns. He emphasizes the importance of unity and community building, and plans to start his term by setting up community meetings to understand the issues at hand. He criticizes the current leadership for over-regulation and taxation, and promises to fight for the community’s interests.
➡ The speaker discusses the importance of enforcing existing laws rather than spending money on new technology or legislation. They also express concern about Hawaii’s goal to be 100% renewable by 2045, suggesting that all alternative energy options should be considered, but also acknowledging the challenges and potential pollution issues associated with each. The speaker also emphasizes the need for community involvement and majority approval in decision-making. Lastly, they express concern about potential election fraud and the need for stronger oversight to ensure voter confidence.
➡ The speaker is concerned that their opponent isn’t addressing a certain issue. They plan to win by getting many more votes, and they believe in the importance of people’s voices in making the world better. They express gratitude for those who stand for the people and trust in the journey ahead. They end with a hopeful note of seeing their friend in office and celebrating afterwards.

Aloha, everyone. Michelle Melendez here with Blossom Inner Wellness and standtogetherhabai.com and I am here with Ren Del Rosario, who’s running for District 1 County Council. And Ren, thank you so much for joining me. Oh, my pleasure. Aloha, everyone. So I would like to just ask you, the first one is why did you decide to run for County Council and definitely why you decided for District one? Um, well, district. I live here. I love the Hamakua Coast. It’s where I chose to not just live, but spend the rest of my life. I was not born on Hawaii.

I was born in the Philippines. My parents migrated to Oahu, and I was one of those kids moved off to the mainland to. For better opportunities. My dad said it was temporary, but temporary meant over 45 years, and it took a while to get back. Not, not being born here. I have really chose, like I told you to, to live the rest of my life here. To me, that’s even a more conscious effort to say, this is where I’m going to live the rest of my life and I’m gonna die on this island. And I choose to do that because I feel so connected to it with the people here.

It’s everything I always wanted to do. It was my dad’s dream to come back here, and unfortunately, he passed away in the mainland and it became my dream to come back here. And after a lot of hard work, founding a company and realizing that monetarial wealth was not the key for happiness, I kind of went full circle and kind of came back here. I don’t know what my parents would, would think that after all their hard efforts and going to college, running successful company, I’m back toiling on the soil. That’s actually. Yeah, the Hopi prophecy actually says that, that we need to return to the earth because we kind of get lost along the way.

And it’s not that I chose to live out there. You know, I was. I was a young kid that got moved out to the mainland. But, you know, I’m just happy that I kind of found my way and realized making a lot of money without helping people is not, not, not true path of happiness. You know, I’m. I’m a lot happier when I grow food and I can share with people. You know, when, when I’m. You know, sometimes when I harvest bananas and I got five racks and like, what do you do with hundreds of pounds of bananas? Well, you share.

And when people receive it and enjoy what you grew, I don’t think there’s Any, any greater joy, at least in my life, that that’s what I see if I can help feed people. And the way I look at it is if it’s a small percentage of food that we can grow that lessens our dependency on imported food, isn’t that the goal? Isn’t that the idea of sustainable farming? And what is more sustainable than growing for yourself and that that is the true definition of sustainable agriculture? You know, what, what we can grow. Imagine if everyone grew 20 of the food they ate.

I mean 20 doesn’t sound like a lot, but that would be a huge difference. Currently we have government that pushes us, have been pushing us away from that. So we are dependent from these corporations, corporate entities. Now. Now farming agriculture is not about, you know, your local farmers at farmers market. It’s about this big aggro and you know, and all the bad things that come with it. You know, herbicides, pesticides and food quality. You know, the food that we get at the supermarket, it’s not necessarily the best food, the best tasting food, it’s the best traveling food.

It’s best food that can stay on the shelf. It’s the best food that can stand pesticides. And we have to really think about what we put in our bodies. And that’s more important to me. And like you said, you, you know, I’m probably getting off of why I’m, I’m running for office, but it really, I’m running for office for all these things that frustrate us about current leadership. And I have to say that leadership, because I don’t see its leadership. Our current councilwoman, it’s, it’s more like she’s dictating orders as opposed to trying to move what the community wants.

Yep, that’s, that’s where I, I, that, you know, I have nothing personal against her. I, it’s just I don’t see any of the legislations that come out of our council and primarily our councilwoman here in District 1 coming from the people. Because when I speak to my neighbors who are farmers, they ask me who asked for this. That’s right. And so there’s a, there’s a difference in the way I would do things. I’m more community based. If there’s anything that I would do is all the legislation would come from community and that’s hearing from people, community meetings.

Well, I’d love to ask you a question about that because there was a meeting that was standing room only where she was putting through Bills 57 and 58, which were the ones that Are now farmers have to do some type of two page. I’m not sure how long it is. Business plan and show how much they make. And they have. And you said it earlier, farmers we like, they give food away. They’re not about making the money. She had a standing room only of farmers opposing this. It completely like still put it through even though so many locals were saying, no, don’t do this.

And then my own personal experience with Heather Kimball, who’s District 1 right now county council member, was that I was testifying and. And she literally was shaking her head in my. As I testified, when people are supposed to feel safe when they testify, it’s not. The council members are not supposed to have opinions on their testimony. But yet literally she’s shaking her head, dis disregarding me and disrespecting my testimony. That was in. In the council meeting, which was unbelievable. But what would you do? What do you think about her bills 57 and 58? Not just those bills, but all the bills that we need that the community find unjust.

I would, you know, if elected, I’d sit down with the community and find out which bills we need to reevaluate, actually speak to affected community members and find out what we need to right the wrong. I think a lot of these bills are just an overreach and I think they’re hidden in, you know, they are ag bills, but I think they could go beyond that. And I think it fundamentally, it’s trying to strip away our freedoms. That’s right. Privacy. Why. Why does government need to know exactly what I’m growing in my property? If I’m growing and I’m providing food, it’s just wrong.

At its. At its lightest, it’s just ignorance and they don’t know. At its worst, it’s definitely trying to keep an eye on every single thing we do for a reason, and that may be to raise our taxes. And I think it’s much worse. To me, raising taxes isn’t just raising taxes to get revenue. As someone who. Who’s been forced off the island, I see it as. It could quite possibly be a calculated way to get locals to sell their property and to change this island. And if we don’t stop it now, this, the big island that makes that.

That is so special to of. To all of us here that love could change. I mean, in a heartbeat. We could be Oahu. That’s right. And Also the bills 57 and 58, I mean you have to pay 250 to $500 year just to have this tax exemption and then you have to show you make this money and then there’s fines. You could be fined up to $10,000. Like what Farmer has that type of extra income? I mean, it’s really or horrible what you put. And if you get your fines, 40, $50,000, you have no choice. But guess what? They’ll be happy to negotiate you selling your property.

That’s right. That’s right. So I’m. That’s why I said it’s a calculated effort to get locals off their land. And that’s just evil. So, you know, I would like to think they’re just being naive and they don’t consider the negative impacts, but it’s almost systematic in every. Yeah. And when you have a room full of farmers, when you have a room full of farmers that are saying, we don’t want this, and you completely ignore them, that says a lot about. About your agenda. Let’s talk about the roads. There’s like a road evacu. You know why Maya has been needing a road for extra road for evacuation.

What are your thoughts on that? Well, it’s a life and safety issue. We’ve seen Waimea. We’ve seen what happens when we have dry. I mean, right now we have a lot of rain, but what does that mean? Grass is going to grow and it’s going to grow fast. It’s not safe. Definitely. We have to look at it. I’m. I’m not a transportation expert, nor do I ever claim to be an expert in anything. I’ve never claimed to be the smartest man in the room. And you don’t have to be. A lot of things in community can be decided by the community members, and it’s just having enough respect to let the community voice their opinion, hear it.

And the councilman’s job isn’t to have the opinion. It’s to listen and to hear and advocate for the community. And if you’re not advocating for the community, you really have to ask who is our leader advocating for? And you. And it all boils down, you ask me, why am I running? It’s because I’m part of the community and the community is not being heard. And I have the background, you know, my background as an entrepreneur, business owner. I’ve had negotiation skills. I’ve ran a multimillion dollar company. As I told you, it’s. I’ve kind of turned my back away from it, But I have those skills.

I don’t want to run a company anymore. That’s not my agenda anymore. My agenda is trying to move forward the things that community wants and needs and provide leadership. All I. All I see are bills and legislation that always have what they call unintended consequences. But it’s happening so often. Is it unintended? So I’m starting to think a lot of these things are done on purpose. So I don’t. If. If I didn’t run for office, there really wouldn’t have been much choice for. For people in our district. So sometimes, and I’ll be honest, I didn’t want to run for office.

But sometimes there is a calling, and it goes beyond what I want to do and what’s easy for me. Yep. Yeah, I 100% agree with that, because this is not, you know, the activism work that I do. It’s from my heart and that it’s not an easy thing to put yourself out there. I get criticized all the time, and the funniest part is my supporters. I’ve told them from day one, I want to run a positive campaign, no matter how you feel about it. I want you to stay off her Facebook. I want you to stay off commenting.

We are concerned about our agenda, what we’re trying to move forward and not hers. And my social media is filled with her supporters just badmouthing me, saying everything with no evidence whatsoever. And. And I’m for people. I’m for democracy. And if you wanted to vote for a certain presidential candidate, that’s your right, and I support that. I. I’m happier that you voted, whether it’s for a candidate I supported or not, rather than someone who didn’t vote at all. But I’m accused of being a Trump supporter, and there’s no evidence whatsoever. And I’ve sat down with these people, and I said, if someone’s a Trump supporter, I’m not gonna.

I have enough class not to bash them. That’s their right to vote. But I’ve never voted for the guy. And so why are you slinging mud on me? Because it’s easier to call you names. It’s easier to call me. The other day on my social media, I was. Someone claimed I was a white supremacist. So that was new. I said, you know, I do put my picture out on my website, and my last name kind of tells who I am. But, you know, my campaign’s in very inclusive. We try and bring in everyone. It’s all about community issues.

I’m not. It’s not about being partisan. We’ve seen what partisanship has done to our. That’s right. I Just want to say, too, you know, somebody was like, I don’t want a Republican, blah, blah, blah. And I said, it’s not about the parties, you guys. It’s about the person. Like, look at what she’s done. And do you want the same. Like, you want more rules and regulations, more fines? It’s. It’s really unbelievable of how much she has absolutely disregarded the public and. And public testimony. Just giving public testimony. When. When you’re giving public testimony and you have a county council member shaking their head and disagreeing with you, mouthing her disagreement, it’s like, that’s not pono.

You can’t. Well, she has predetermined. Yes. Ideas. And that’s not the job of the councilman to have a predetermined idea. It’s like having a judge already be leaning one way or another. And a councilman should almost be the same way. Should come in with a neutral heart to try and get the facts and get the truth. And the truth in our community would be what’s best for our community. And if you can help the majority of the community. I never said. If I were to tell you I could make everyone happy with every legislation, I’d be a politician, and you already got that.

You wouldn’t need me. And like you said, why am I running? I’m running for change. She’s had three terms, and we haven’t seen any change yet. We’ve had it worse. We have it worse. It’s going the wrong way. The best thing we could hope for is no change. But we do want better change. We want improvement. And I tell people, well, you want change, but you’re not willing to elect someone else. So you’re willing to do the same, elect the same person, but expect a different result. That is literally the definition of insanity. And then I see a spark in their.

Their eye, and it all calculates. And I said, the only way you’re going to get change is you have to change variable. And the only variable that you as a voter have is changing the candidate. And that’s where I decided to step in. I said, I don’t see any other change. If no one steps up, we’re gonna have the same thing. So I did it. And knowing what I know now, you know, there are days where I go, oh, this is hard. And there are days when I’m canvassing and, you know, my goal is to, like, knock on 100 doors a day.

Wow, that’s the goal. But sometimes I hit, like, 50. And, you know, our district one is the homes are pretty far. I’ve probably knocked on over 4, 000 walk, probably over 50 miles. And it’s just my way. And I don’t deal with, you know, I’ve had a volunteer with me, but follow me. I don’t have volunteers knock for me because to me I want to show that it’s genuine and that I’m willing to do this. And you know, I, I, if I had unlimited campaign funds, I would be doing what she’s doing. You know, I mean, I wouldn’t do it.

But you know, she’s, she’s, she’s got a lot of video. She’s doing her video ads. Yeah, yeah, that’s, that’s her tons. Yeah, I mean I, I’ve even had it on my stuff and I’m totally against her. Let me ask, let me ask you some other questions. Yes. What are your thoughts on the education for the keiki? What are your thought about, about schools? I think our schools are far from being stellar. That’s saying it polite. There needs to be an emphasis and there just needs to be more. You know, I, I just don’t think people care about it enough.

And when I say people, I mean government. And I know council doesn’t have direct input on the state education system, but if the council, county council can get the community interested in a topic and talk about it with state representatives, yes, they can have an impact. If, if I go in and elected and I talk about, you need to speak with our state representative and voice opinion for this, for the education system. It is lacking. And you know, not everyone is, especially the way I grew up. Not everyone can afford private schools. And it’s really a shame that the only way you can get a good education on the Big island is if you were able to go to private school.

And that, that shows a big disparity between income levels. Being that I did not grow up with money, even though I have by all metrics, quote unquote, made it in life, I can’t ignore other people because I’ve been there. And I don’t know about my opponent’s background, but I guarantee you she did not live the life I did. She did not go through the hardships I did because if she did, she would be treating our community with a lot more respect. That’s absolutely right. 100. So what are some things that you want to change as far as going being if you were elected, what, what would you, what are some bills you would like to bring forward? Well, I mean I, I could specify Some bills, the AG bills, you know, STVRs, but basically any bills that have negatively affected our local residents.

And you know, I would go in and ask the community, what, what are the bills that affected you negatively? Whether it’s just added more obstacles in the way you farm taxes or just really just lessened your quality of life by putting all these regulations on you, it would probably be the AG bills, don’t get me wrong. Regulations, we need regulations. But when they affect the local community, when they affect the local community negatively, we have to think back, like, why did this go out? So I’m going to promise myself and I got to find a way to do it.

And it could just be as simple as writing it on the wall or a banner on my office if elected. And I would just say, if, you know, if I’m creating legislation, ask yourself, did this come from the community? And if it did, then, then it’s going to come from a good place. And also did the bill, is the bill going to negatively affect them? Is it going to add obstacles to them? Is it going to reduce their quality of life? And if you ask those questions and it says, you know, and it indicates it does, maybe we have to reevaluate it.

I’m just not a fan of the way council pushes bills through and disregards public testimony. If I have a bill that I think is coming from the community and then I’ve 100 people testifying against it, maybe I met with the wrong people. Maybe we should table this vote perhaps and definitely be there when someone’s testifying. Don’t walk away from your seat. I’ve seen that so many times where not even half of the councilmen are there. It, it’s just a lack of respect. These people have taken their time out of their day to the few minutes that they get and no one’s there listening.

Very disrespectful. Yeah, I’m not coming into the selection as a politician because I’m not. I jumped in this race as a community member, concerned community member that just said, hey, I’ve got the time, I’ve got the skills, I’ve got the resources, and maybe I’m the one to do it unless I find someone better to do it, you know, if elected. And I may be going on tangent on that. If elected, I’m not gonna gauge my, my term in office as how many bills I passed through, how many votes I got on how many bills I passed through.

Because, you know, some, some councilmen wear their legislations that they pass as medals. On their, on their coats and on the resume at the end of the term, I just want to hear people say, hey, rent showed up, he listened, he advocated for us, but most importantly, he was in council and he fought for us. And you know what? I’m probably going to lose more than I’m going to win because I’m only one out of nine. But at least they’re going to know, hey, he fought for us win or lose. And I think that’s all we’ve ever wanted.

And we don’t even have that. And District one is actually an important seat. Yes. The county council. Yes. So that’s, that’s. Yeah, go ahead. Yeah. Well, I think every seat is important, but I’m not, I’m never going to forget who I work for, you know, and it is District one, it is the people of this community. I’ve walked almost every major road in our district. I’ve talked to every little town and all the little problems in every town. And to me that’s just maintenance, things that need to be done. And that shouldn’t, that shouldn’t be the main goal.

Maybe I’m thinking a little bigger, but a council rep shouldn’t just be about to fix the problems. Maybe a councilman should be one to inspire the community to be better, to bring the community together. Because District 1’s a very long district, meaning long from north to south, and it’s very separated. Each town has its own identity, but yet I see a commonality in every town. And I think the councilman could be that bridge between all these towns so that they kind of see themselves as more of a cohesive district. Because we are a lot more alike than we are different.

And it doesn’t matter about income or what size someone house someone lives in. We have to look at what we have in common. What we have in common is we live in a beautiful part of Hawaii and we can all embrace that. And if we can do some community building that brings that bridges people together, I think we can all work a little better together. And then when we do come up with quote unquote compromise, it’s not really going to be seen as a car. It’s not going to be so like in the, in the mainland or in D.C.

where it’s so partisan, you know. That’s right. So I, I think when people really sit down and, you know, and they say if you sit down with someone, especially here in Hawaii, you know, if you sit down and, and, and you eat with people, you know, you don’t think about people’s income. You don’t think about people’s job. You. You get to know the person. And I think we need to have more of that. We need to have gatherings where we can, as a community, sit down and eat together and beautiful. So I don’t know if you’ve heard, but we had a meeting in Pepe Ko.

Yeah, My friend Michael was there. Yeah. The night before. You know, it was just weird because it was on a Sunday and I usually have it with my family and friends. We’ll get food and. And then I had some supporters that called me the, you know, just the day before, and they’re like, hey, what are we doing afterwards? I said, what do you mean? And they said, well, they, they didn’t say they were going to have a potluck or anything. Should we check with them? I said, it’s a little late. I said, you know what, just bring food.

I said, I’ll bring the entrees. I made some big, big pot of pork adobo rice. I brought some chicken katsu, some teri beef that I bought, enough to feed everyone. And my supporters brought all the salads, everything. And at the end, we invited everyone. We said, please stay. You know, we. We may have some differences on election standpoint, but we are one community. Let’s all share food, talk story, enjoy each other’s company, and that’s it. Nothing intended. And my supporters made plates for people who were supporting me. And we just wanted to show them this is.

This is what Hawaii is all about. Yeah, that is true. That’s aloha right there. Yeah. And at the end, the people that organized it thanked me for it, but they said, aside from the actual forum where people, you know, they asked us the same questions, they said the most telling thing was at the very end, you brought food, you brought the community together, and you invited your opponent and her supporters and she left. She did leave. Yeah, I heard that. And you know, I said, well, I guess you have, you know, you have to go. But.

But that’s although the thing too, because she has not shown aloha. I mean, she actually, one of her bills actually took out the word ohana from ohana unit, and she turned it into an accessory dwelling, which is total mainland language and not Hawaii at all. And it actually does a lot of different things because it changed that, that definition for that. But what is one of the things, one of the first things you would do when, if elected as District 1 council member? Well, first of all, one of the first things I like, I Said it all starts from community.

So we would set up community meetings and with our district being so distant, we’d probably have to set up at least three different venues. And it’s all about introducing myself, hearing what needs to be done. Because how can you start repairing things if you don’t know the, the landscape? So we need to find out what the landscape is, what’s been wronged. It’s right. Yeah. So you know, it may take a year or two just to right the wrongs because there’s been three, three terms of what I consider poor leadership and poor legislation. And it’s not that the people wanted it, it’s just that the people, we as a community allowed it.

Well, we tried. It’s also, we tried and we’re completely disregarded. Like I’ve spent, I spent two years on trying to tell the county council, I mean, what the general plan was about. I mean we went from a 60 to 70 page general plan on Big island to 310 pages of policies and all of this stuff and they still passed it. They completely ignored and disregarded. Three of the council members were on our side and the other others were not. And that is, that’s not pono at all. But, and then Heather who keeps bringing forth, I mean, so many rules and regulations.

So I completely agree with you. It’s been three years of more rules and regulations. So people want that more rules and regulations and taxes and fines. That’s Heather Kimball. That’s what she has shown her ex, her experience to be. And I love that you are a stand for finding out what the community wants and what has been the most detrimental bills that have been passed by her. To start there, that’s, I mean the biggest problem we have. I mean fundamentally there’s so many problems, but fundamentally it’s just the over regulation over taxation of locals on this district.

And it just boggled my mind how many bills we can pass a lot of times. And it’s also the, the amount of how easy it is for them to, to come up with legislation to, to spend money when certain things are, you know, try and find a simple way to do things. Like one of the questions that was asked in one of the forums. They asked both of us what would you do about. And it was just like a simple thing like what would you do about cars that are abandoned or cars that don’t, aren’t registered? And with, with the safety stickers, I just thought it was a simple answer.

If it’s a, if it’s a safety sticker that expired. Just give the person a ticket and make sure that enforce the existing laws we have. And Heather said, oh, we can put scanners on cars that can detect the stickers that they’re out. And I said that’s what we have eyes for. If a police officer can, if I can see that a sticker is expired, can a police officer see that? And why do we always have to jump to buying some new technology to scan surveillance and that. That’s what I was thinking. I said, they, they throw all this.

I mean, on the most fundamental level, it’s just like spending money like water. And when we never have enough, they say, and two, it’s just more and more this surveillance, you know, like, why do we need that? Yeah. So I think they’re always coming up with legislations to fix a problem and it usually the problems because we already have legislation, it’s just not being enforced. It’s when is it going to end? You know, that’s what I’ve asked. That’s what I’ve asked as well because I had a meeting with my own county council and I’m like, when is this ending? Like, you guys keep keep tightening the noose.

So I want to have another question for you. Hawaii state, state law says that Hawaii is supposed to be 100% renewable by 2045. And what are your thoughts on that? How can Hawaii do that? And also, here’s the thing that I think. I mean, we have an ocean around us. Are we using that and turning that into electricity? But, but what are your thoughts on that? My answer on alternative energy, as far as ideas. All of the above. Do we use all of the above? No. Any of the alternative energy we have to look at and qualify one, you know, is it good for the island? Meaning is, is it going to cause more problems than it can solve? Well, take for instance, it’s not legal in the state of Hawaii, but like nuclear power, we’ve outlawed it here.

I’m not, definitely not saying we need that, but it causes more problems than, than the, than what’s worth getting the power. So that’s why we outlawed it. But we have to look at other things. You know, we, we have to look at all alternative energy that. Because what is it, 2045. It has to be. It’s mandated. Right. That’s not too far around the corner. 19 years. Yeah. And we are still so far away. So yes, we, we do have to look into it. But definitely whatever alternative energy with the minimum amount of pollution, because there really is no zero pollution because Even the wind turbines, the turbines themselves, when they get decommissioned, when they wear out.

What do you do with those carbon fiber blades? Same thing with the solar panels. But if we don’t do anything, we’re stuck with fossil fuels. So we do have to do something and we do have to look at it and we have to hope that some of the technology will catch up by then. I mean, if you look 20 years ago, solar power wasn’t creating as, you know, a solar panel didn’t create as much power as did now per, per panel. So who knows what it’s going to be in another 20 years. And I know there’s a lot of negative said about geothermal.

I’m not, like I said, I’m not an expert in the matter, but I do know that currently the way it is, I guess it’s polluting. We have to find a way to. I have read a little about it and I know you, in theory you can create a closed loop geothermal system that, where the water doesn’t leach into the aquifers and you could extract the heat. But I guess it costs more to build it that way. Well, also the danger of the fracking and the earthquakes here on the island and actually the planning director said that they’ve actually approved for geothermal to be, for them to keep looking for geothermal areas around the whole entire island.

So that’s very concerning for a lot of us. But, but that’s open loop geothermal. That’s, that’s the fracking type. So I think the closed loop is where it’s basically in a sealed system, kind of like a tube that goes all the way down, up. But I guess the cost of putting a pipe and down there is far more expensive than just fracking. And yeah, so we have to consider all the negative implications. But as a council member, you can’t come in and have a predetermined judgment on, on each one. We have to look at it and see if it passes the test.

You know, does it pollute? Do people want it? Can it create enough energy? Will it reduce our cost of energy? And I think if we look at everything, every alternative energy, we’re going to have a few that pass and that we could work with. We’re literally burning fossil fuels right now. And if you’ve seen it in Hilo when they turn on the furnace, it’s, it’s pretty bad. The first time I saw it I was a little disheartened because, you know, I came here to live in clean air. It’s one of the cleanest airs air in the, in the country.

And then when I saw smoke billowing out of the chimneys, I was like, we got to do something about it. And at the same time, people don’t like looking at solar panels and people don’t like looking at. Again, we have to look at it as a community. And there, there will have to be some negotiation. And you’re. We’re not gonna, we’re not gonna please everyone. And that’s, that’s the, that’s a God honest truth. You know, you’re. You can’t please everyone, but we have to please the majority of people to move this island forward. The people who come and testify and give their manao at these meetings, that’s, you know, they, they matter.

So I appreciate that. You know that because that’s definitely not how we have felt going to these county council members, county council meetings with the majority of us opposing, and then they still ramrod it through. So I appreciate that. I know I need to let you go. Is there any last things that you need to. That you’d like to share? And then I always do a prayer at the end. Okay, well, I’d like to share. I have a feeling that, and I’m confident we have enough support to win this election. I’ve seen your banners everywhere. Oh, thank you.

We have enough support. But I tell my supporters I appreciate your support, but without your vote, it means nothing. So we have to get, we have to cross the finish line. And the finish line is filling out your ballot, whether in person, mailing or dropping it off, however you feel comfortable doing it and to make sure it gets in by August 8th. And, and I think we can do it. And then we’ll. Then it’s time to make some changes and get to work. Oh, I do have one more question around. Yes? Because there’s a documentary about Hawaii fraudulent elections.

I mean, we had 19,000 ballots last year that were on. Had no chain of custody. What do you, what do you think about that? And, and because that, that is a concern for me, I’m like looking at all these amazing candidates and looking at the possibility of our election fraud. It has concerned me because if there’s anyone that would probably get their votes to disappear would probably be me and not the incumbent. So needless to say, I’m concerned about. So anything that can be done with it with the election commission, I’m all for it. Maybe we have to tighten up rules.

I mean, we really shouldn’t even have to be thinking about, hey, did those votes get through. If I fill out my ballot, whether in person, mail, or drop it off, I have to feel 100% confident it’s going to be counted. And that’s right. 19,000 is not a small amount. If that is true, that’ll change the whole election, especially because we’re small. Yeah, absolutely. In my district. Absolutely changed it. You know, I could end up with zero and. And I don’t want that. So. Yeah, I mean, something has to be done. I don’t know enough about the election commission, but definitely, if elected, I would advocate for stronger oversight in it.

We shouldn’t. Our voters should feel confident that their vote counts. And if it doesn’t, if there’s any question about it, as there is now, what are we doing? Yeah. You know, is this a fair election? So definitely, if elected, I will look into it. I know my opponent doesn’t talk about it because I’ve never heard her mention it. Not at all. That’s what. That’s also what concerns me as well, that. That’s what’s concerned me about it, too, because if she was at least concerned about looking into it. Okay. But I don’t hear it. No. In fact, I don’t hear it from anyone other than a few reporters that brought it up, community members and made me really think.

But I just have to keep working, and if it means I have to get twice as many votes as her, I’m doing it. Yeah, that’s what I was thinking, too. Let’s just. Let’s just bombard it with. Yeah. Where they. Where they cannot question it, where they cannot fix it. So let. Let’s get in. Let’s get an overwhelming amount of votes in that they. They cannot change the. This movement. I love it. Okay, let’s do a quick prayer, and then I’ll let you go. Infinite creator of all things, Great Spirit, we’re just so grateful that Ren has in his heart to step forward and to be a candidate here on Big island and for District One.

And we just know that there are so many angels and light beings just guiding his work and those people that we are having the numbers that we need to put the right people into office. We see that now because this world can be a better place. The people’s voice does matter. And we are so grateful for people like Wren who, even though part of them doesn’t want to do the work, they’re stepping forward. And we know that that takes a really, a lot of strength, of inner strength and of determination and of tenacity. So thank you so much.

Great spirit for his journey. We know it’s not a mistake. He’s here for a reason. And we give so much gratitude to all other candidates who are a stand for the people, for the people’s voice, for what it is that will benefit the people most. We know that all people who are running for office who stand for the people will be put in office. Great spirit. Thank you so much for us watching this movie unfold. We trust the journey. We trust our own inner guidance, and we trust in you, great spirit. And so it is. Mahalo so much, Ren, for joining me.

I really appreciate your time. I know that you’re busy, and I see you in office. I’m sending that out right now that it is done, and we get to have a great celebration afterwards. Thank you. Mahalo and aloha. Aloha.
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