Former County Councilmember John F. Barretto, Jr., of Kawaihau Road in Kapa‘a, is being remembered today as a studious lawmaker driven by his desire to serve. Barretto passed away early Monday morning. He was 69. “We’ve lost a very valuable
Former County Councilmember John F. Barretto, Jr., of Kawaihau Road in Kapa‘a, is being remembered today as a studious lawmaker driven by his desire to serve.
Barretto passed away early Monday morning. He was 69.
“We’ve lost a very valuable citizen,” said Hartwell H.K. Blake, a former county attorney and friend of Barretto’s, when he heard yesterday of Barretto’s death.
“He was one of my dad’s favorite students at Kapa‘a,” said Blake, whose father Hartwell Blake taught vocational agriculture for 26 years at Kapa‘a High School.
The deceased elder Hartwell Blake also served as mayor of the county of Kaua‘i. Barretto unsuccessfully ran for mayor later, losing to incumbent Tony T. Kunimura.
“He always considered John one of his brightest and best students,” said the younger Blake of his father.
The former county attorney Blake knew Barretto before Blake left Kaua‘i to attend Kamehameha, and said Barretto started and operated several successful businesses during his life on Kaua‘i.
There was Auto Aid Unlimited, an auto-salvage operation along Ahukini Road past the airport. And he was a successful commercial fisherman as well as a studious councilmember, Blake said.
“He was a councilman who actually read and studied the (county) charter,” Blake said. “I always appreciated the fact that he always came in prepared. He was a hard worker. He did his homework, and he spoke his mind.
“He was motivated by service to the community, to the island of Kaua‘i,” said Blake. “He never stopped being concerned with what was happening to the county of Kaua‘i. I always was happy to run into him because he was an interesting person.
“He was my friend.”
And when he wasn’t talking politics, Barretto always had enough fishing tales to go around, or stories about boat-building or car-fixing, Blake continued.
Blake was a friend and trusted legal advisor of Barretto’s, and Barretto on several occasions went to Blake’s office, then a bit down Rice Street from the County Building, to have discussions about how the county charter was being interpreted during Barretto’s time on the council, Blake recalled.
“He was one of the few guys who came in and didn’t say ‘I think,'” said Blake.
Ron Kouchi, who served one term with Barretto, remembers him as “the little guy roaring and fighting for the underdog, with a fiery personality.”
Kouchi recalled Barretto’s determination: “Once he got a hold of your ankle, he didn’t let go.”
State Sen. Gary Hooser, D-Kaua‘i-Ni‘ihau, also a former councilmember, said he had heard Barretto was ill, and said Barretto’s passing is unfortunate.
Calling himself “the tax buster,” Barretto positioned himself as a maverick in the County Council during his terms served out in the mid-1980s.
In 1986 Barretto, running as a Republican, challenged incumbent Mayor Tony Kunimura.
Kunimura defeated Barretto in the general election in November, 1986, following one of the most contentious mayor election campaigns ever on Kaua‘i. Barretto sued Kunimura over hints the incumbent mayor made during a televised debate that Barretto was a marijuana grower. The mudslinging battle continued through the campaign, which Kunimura called one of the dirtiest he was ever involved in over a 30-year-plus political career.
Associate Editor Paul C. Curtis can be reached at pcurtis@pulitzer.net or 245-3681 (ext. 224).
