Hoff sees 100-year plan to make Kauai right

Republican doesn’t want to `lose it all’

By PAUL C. CURTIS

TGI

Staff Writer

LIHU’E — After watching formerly fertile fields go fallow,

witnessing when one job was enough to support a family to today when four jobs

sometimes aren’t enough, and seeing Kaua’i grow from one traffic light to 15,

John Hoff longs for the simpler days when he first came to the island 35 years

ago.

Lawa’i resident Hoff is again a Republican candidate for the state

House of Representatives seat for District 14 (Po’ipu to Barking Sands and

Ni’ihau). And he thinks a return to a slower, simpler life on Kaua’i is not

only possible, but attainable.

“If we lose what we’ve got here, with the

beauty, we lose it all,” said Hoff, 60. “We’ve got to have a focused, long-term

vision for what we want for Kaua’i,” plus leaders who “will step up to the

plate to do it, and not just talk.”

He favors a 100-year plan to protect

open spaces important to visitors and residents, and to allow certain growth

which would permit families to stay on the island instead of leaving because

the jobs are too low-paying and the cost of living too high, he

said.

“Without Kaua’i families, Kaua’i is just another beautiful place,” he

reasoned.

Regarding the 100-year plan, Hoff said such a scheme should be

fairly specific: “This is what we want to do. This is what we want to leave our

kids.”

Hoff recalls the days when a young contractor could draw up plans

for a new home or other building on a Sunday evening at home and get county

permits Monday morning, before adjourning to Kenny’s for a prime rib sandwich

by lunchtime.

That contractor was him, and those simpler days can be

brought back, he said. There is no reason plans must go through layers of

governmental approval processes before owners are allowed to build on their

land, he said.

“We’ve just got to make a few adjustments,” not major

changes, he said. “And I credit the people of the Westside for telling me

that.”

Regarding allowance for some growth, Hoff said, “Any living organism

that stops growing dies.”

“I’m a family, small-business candidate,” said

Hoff, who has worked since his losing bid in the 1998 election on various

projects aimed at reducing traffic congestion (by reducing traffic lights) to

replanting the island’s fertile fields (by planting hemp). He also noted he has

worked at easing the island’s solid-waste woes (by bringing people with various

new products to the island), and helping the island’s teachers by spearheading

the Adopt-A-Teacher program and getting donated computers into classrooms at

Koloa and Kaua’i high schools.

Hoff has researched what it would cost to

construct low-rise overpasses in the Puhi area to allow through-traffic to

avoid four traffic lights in a one-mile stretch between Kaua’i Community

College and Kukui Grove along Kaumuali’i Highway.

While that section of

highway is not in the House district he seeks to represent, the traffic

congestion impacts people in that district who come to Lihu’e to work, he said.

The cost of one overpass is around $1 million, and he estimated two of the

bypasses would allow elimination of four traffic signals.

Each signal costs

around $250,000. “It’s workable,” he said of his proposed solution.

And

now is the time, Hoff said, to be negotiating with large landowners for land

needed for traffic fixes. He favors exchanging land for zoning and not asking

owners to freely donate their property for governmental

improvements.

“Let’s not be so adversarial” in dealings with the island’s

families that own large tracts of land, he urged. “The big families that own

the land are not the enemies.” He added that sooner, rather than later, is the

time to talk to these families.

The Knudsen family, for example, recently

completed doling out its massive holdings to various family members, and it is

better to deal with one large landowner now than several later, he

reasoned.

Hoff wants the large landowners to keep open spaces

open.

Regarding hemp, he is working for governmental approvals for test

plots on his land at Lawa’i.

“I want to see if it works, if it will grow

well here. I’ll grow kumquats if I have to,” anything to get the fields and

agricultural workers productive again, he said.

“We’re an agricultural

island,” he said, adding he wonders why isn’t Kaua’i getting financial

assistance from the state Department of Agriculture in capital improvements

projects.

One Westside resident has told him the important Koke’e and

Kekaha ditch systems which bring crucial crop-irrigation waters from the

island’s mountainous interior are deteriorating.

“I am not a big player, by

any means,” Hoff said. “I’ve created jobs for 38 years” as a contractor for his

entire time on the island. “Now I want to build futures, for the children, my

grandchildren.”

As Adopt-A-Teacher coordinator, he said he is amazed by the

items on wish-lists from teachers he feels should be provided by the state:

Desks, chairs, fans, screens, floor coverings, computers and paper.

Most of

the problems the island faces, Hoff feels, are the result of decades of

incompetence and selfish motives.

He decided to run for office in 1998

after learning about a $48 million, non-bid state contract Governor Ben

Cayetano awarded to fellow Democrat Bert Kobayashi’s company.

Running again

became a given, Hoff said, when his opponent, Democratic incumbent Bertha C.

Kawakami, turned down the chance to be the second Kauaian ever to lead the

all-powerful House Finance Committee.

Hoff said Kawakami’s declining of

that prestigious position cost the island millions of dollars in lost capital

improvement project funds.

He said the committee chairman, Rep. Dwight

Takamine, secured $57 million for public school improvements on the Big Island,

while Kawakami brought home only $3.8 million.

The Big Island got around 20

percent of all Department of Education capital improvement project funding,

while Kaua’i received about 1.5 percent, Hoff said. Where colleges are

concerned, the Big Island received $11 million for the University of Hawai’i at

Hilo, while Kaua’i Community College got zero, he added.

Evidently,

Takamine saw the opportunity, while Kawakami did not. Kawakami was (and is)

vice chairwoman of the House Finance Committee, so was in line to head the

panel, Hoff continued.

That reflects poorly not only on Kawakami, but on

all three Kaua’i House members, he added.

“Just look at the record. What

has she done for us?” said Hoff. She has forwarded legislation to make surfing

the official individual sport of the state, hula the official dance, and

various official colors and flowers for the various islands, he said.

“To

me, this type of legislation doesn’t bring jobs to the island, or help with the

education of our children,” he said. Further, Kawakami has done little for

Native Hawaiians, small business or displaced sugar workers, he said.

“At

least I’m doing something,” said Hoff, who also has been trying to find out why

the state hospitals here (Mahelona and Kaua’i Veterans Memorial Hospital) lose

millions of dollars a year.

Hoff, the father of four and grandfather of

four, is a college graduate, veteran of the Coast Guard Reserve, former Peace

Corps volunteer in the Philippines, and a Little League coach (Koloa Athletics

and Koloa Phillies) for eight years.

Staff Writer Paul C. Curtis can

be reached at 245-3681 (ext. 224) and pcurtis@pulitzer.net