Leadership Values Came First

I have received a few inquiries regarding the recent appointment to the County Water Board.  Yes, I was one of six council members who confirmed Syngenta spokesperson, Beth Tokioka to the County Water Board, In short, I don't believe in condemning people because of their affiliations or philosophy, even if my ideals differ. It was a difficult decision as I would have preferred the mayor appoint an environmentalist, or irrigation specialist, or a cultural practitioner, however, In the years I've known the candidate, she has proven to be very competent as well as a person of high integrity. Her many years of exemplary community service makes her a good candidate to any board or commission.  The appointee has shown to be objective and a person who sees further than one issue. She sees clearly the issues this current water board faces in providing infrastructure needs to our island and the FRC challenges our housing crisis is facing.  As I said in my testimony, I don't pass judgement on the at risk youth I work with who come from a bad home or who's family has a bad reputation. I take them at what they say or agree to and what they follow through on. Call me naive and I realize its only a matter of time when I'll regret my decision to trust someone on their word, but I believe trust is gained and built in no other way but by allowing trust to occur. Beth made a promise to recuse herself from decisions specific to conflicting situations where pesticides or Grove Farm (Syngenta's leasor) were involved. I will hold her accountable to those promises and so will the public record. If she veers from it I will know and I will not support her further involvement. I saw this as an opportunity to take a step towards breaking down the silo between factions.  A much needed step to accomplish our collective goals.
Our boards and commissions process is not an optimum process as the council has no say in who the mayor puts forth and I question the boards and commissions process that we currently have. We need to amend the charter to ensure more specific, balanced representation and a more inclusive process.
As this relates to the ongoing GMO/Pesticide Battle: The pesticide issue has divided our community and this appointment re-ignites the polarization.  My approach to making positive progress In our community is by engaging those from all sides, especially those who see things differently from me. I believe I am the right person to do so. If we don't, we will always have opposition rather than understanding and respect.  Real solutions will be more difficult to achieve.  I'm making good progress at fostering the kind of farming we want which I hope will one day displace our current industrial farming operations, but I will not accomplish this with further division or battling in the courts.  Given the climate we are working in, I believe working at diversifying agriculture on the westside is the answer.  I have a group of young progressive westside organic Hawaiian farmers that I've been working with to get ADC land.   They intend to educate the new generation of farmers needed with the mindset for healthier and diversified agriculture by creating incubator programs.  This is how we create the change we want, by creating the model for people to choose.
I want to move us all along faster as an island, but I can only move as fast as the collective and Kauai is far behind.  To add, the divisiveness regarding the issue has completely divided leaders on the island which has made it more difficult to take simple steps to accomplish the common sense.  On our still small island, I will do it by educating and shifting mindsets so the options our people have are healthy, feasible and a source of abundance. The island culture we live in needs successful models to believe in that they can trust. Once it's tangible, people will respond by choosing the obvious better options. Supporting the appointment was a tough decision for me and I had conflicting values at play. I'm sure I disappointed supporters who see only one way to address the chemical corporates, but in the end I couldn't get away from leadership ideals that my kupuna taught me. Their words were, "It is an inclusive future and we don't move forward unless it's together.  Speak the truth and be courageous, but don't veer from aloha "  I hope you can trust what I'm trying to accomplish.