guest viewpoint

Let’s re-elect KIUC incumbents

by Derek Kawakami

I am writing to you today to talk about the upcoming KIUC board elections and to give you some insight on my working experience with three of the candidates. I not only admire these candidates for their leadership qualities, but I admire them for their willingness to share the mana‘o with everyone involved. I truly have learned more from these three gentlemen in less than two years, than all that I learned while earning my degree in business management. To that, it is my pleasure to share some of my experiences that I have had while serving on the board for your electric co-operative.

Being on a nine-member board can be quite challenging. Nine independent thinkers, each with their own views and perspectives can present real problems if there isn’t a strong leader on top. Fortunately, our chairman, Dennis Esaki, has been that leader. I see first-hand the amount of work that Dennis puts in for KIUC. Along with being the chair of the state of Hawai‘i’s only member-owned co-op, he represents Hawai‘i well on a national level as a director for the board of the National Rural Electric Cooperative Association. I can go on and on about his accomplishments but I won’t, instead I would like to talk about things that most of our members don’t hear about.

Under Dennis’ leadership, KIUC has come out with one of the most aggressive strategic plans in regard to reducing greenhouse gases and carbon emissions by utilizing renewable and sustainable energy. There are special interest groups that claim to be proponents of renewable energy and most of this is true. But what most people don’t know is that Dennis heavily opposed the inclusion of coal as a possible fuel source for the generation of electricity. He was very vocal about the adverse effects of coal on our environment and our quality of life. There are certain individuals who have complained about not knowing what our individual stance on subjects such as coal are. I am here to tell you that Dennis has been very vocal and has stood strong on the issue of coal and how it is not right for Kaua‘i. In fact, under Dennis’ guidance, KIUC has committed itself to generating at least 50 percent of its energy from renewable sources within 15 years. In an address to KIUC members, Dennis stated that, “Continuing business as usual is something we all now know is unacceptable. We must stop depending on oil to generate most of our electricity when its rising price is completely beyond our control and adversely affects our members. It is wrong to continue using oil to generate most of our electricity now that we understand this is causing our planet’s climate to change and destroying the environment our children will one day inherit. KIUC’s goal is much more ambitious than the previously established goals. It requires a paradigm shift that will result in a radical restructuring of the way we do business.”

Please think about that strong statement for one second and what it means not only for you, but your children, your grandchildren, and for all the future generations that will come. Some people talk about change, but here is a man that lets his actions speak louder than his words.

Dennis’ style of leadership is very fair and he truly encourages and embraces everyone’s thoughts and ideas. When I first came on board, I was very self-conscious about vocalizing my ideas. I really thought that my age would play against me as it often does with people of my generation. We are often labeled as “inexperienced” or “green.” Dennis on the other hand, early on, really embraced my presence on the board and encouraged me to participate and made me feel like an important part of the group. I would say that this is true with all directors. He has been more than just a colleague. I consider him a mentor and a role model. He gives everyone a fair chance to discuss and often times debate on some very heavy subjects that directly impact our members. He never “writes anyone off.” He keeps everyone on track and if need be, will step in to get everyone refocused. Another important trait is his humility. He doesn’t expect everyone to agree with him all the time. He truly expects debate and dialogue amongst directors to really “drill down,” and find meaningful solutions. We have a communications agreement that all communication to the media will be through our chairman or our CEO who is Randy Hee. So rest assured that whenever you read or hear about something from Dennis regarding KIUC, it has been thoroughly discussed by all directors and a consensus has been agreed upon and is a statement that represents the board as a whole. He is always giving credit when credit is due, but I have yet to see him toot his own horn for himself. In a day and age where everyone is trying to claw their way to the top, we have a leader that reaches down to lift us up. With Dennis, we are all equals.

He has the members’ best interest at heart. One of Dennis’ biggest pushes has been the need to communicate more effectively with our members. As a part of that initiative, we have included communication as a central hub for our Strategic Plan. Time and time again, Dennis has pressed KIUC to engage our members about why we are paying so much for electricity. He has also been an advocate for educating our members on what they can do at home to conserve electricity and therefore, lowering their consumption and how much they are paying. One of Dennis’ mantras is to give our members the “straight talk.” That’s what he expects from the organization, that we don’t beat around the bushes and that we don’t pull any punches. He is not interested in “spinning a story.” His only interest is that you know exactly what is going on in our co-op. Every decision that he makes is with the intent of not only benefiting you, but as I said before, how it will benefit the keiki.

He is all about accountability. The first point I made was our Strategic Plan that was recently completed under the leadership of Dennis Esaki. What I would like to touch upon is his mission of accountability. As a board, our only employee is the CEO. And one of our most important functions is to evaluate our CEO based on performance. Under Dennis’ leadership, we are currently in the process of evaluating our CEO. I believe that this is the first time that we are having a meaningful CEO evaluation in the history of KIUC’s existence. Furthermore, a plan is just a plan until you start implementing initiatives to achieve the goals that you have set. With Dennis, you can be sure that the evaluation of our CEO will weigh heavily on the CEO’s success of achieving benchmarks that we are currently setting. When we say that we are committed to generating at least 50 percent of our energy without burning fossil fuels, you better believe that he expects to see results. When we say that we plan on engaging the members through communication, he expects to see a plan from our CEO on how we are going to get there. There is one thing that Dennis Esaki knows, “Talk is cheap.”

The two directors that I will be writing about now are responsible for all the great things that I have discussed about Dennis Esaki. When I say that, I really mean that they form the nucleus of support that any great leader needs in order to be effective and successful. Both are true team players and bring a wealth of knowledge from past experience and more importantly, are still eager and willing to learn new things every day.

Our Vice Chairman Peter Yukimura brings a wealth of business experience to the table. As chair of the Finance and Audit committee as well as the Member Relations committee, Peter is tasked with not only being responsible for the oversight of KIUC’ s financial strategy and policies, capital structure, and capital expenditures but he is in charge of managing a committee that deals directly with you and how we can serve you better. Peter brings a voice of reason and his decisions are always well thought out. I am not ashamed to say that there are times that a few directors, myself included, have been on the opposite sides of the fence as far as decisions go only to have Peter bring a different perspective to the table that eventually brought the directors to a consensus.

Peter is also well informed of the adverse impact of fossil fuel generated electricity and is an advocate of our goal to reach at least 50 percent renewable generation by 2023.

With Teofilo “Phil” Tacbian the board definitely benefits from his experience. Some of the boards and commissions that Phil has sat on include the Board of Water and the land use commission. Phil serves as treasurer, chairman of the government relations/legislative affairs committee, and is also the parliamentarian of the board. A one-time representative for Sen. Daniel Akaka, Phil has built many bridges with government officials over the years, and KIUC has benefited greatly from the groundwork that he has done in prior years. Many people only see two things in the electric utility business: either the lights are on (which is good), or the lights are not on (which is not good). But the electric utility world is full of legislative and regulatory constraints that we have to work with. And when the time comes to make contacts with our representatives in Honolulu, our County Council members here on Kaua‘i, or a senator in Washington, D.C., there is one guy we can definitely turn to, and that’s Phil.

There are many more bullet points that I could hit on in hope of convincing you to cast your votes for Dennis Esaki, Peter Yukimura and Teofilo “Phil” Tacbian. Instead, I would like to say this to you: “It is crucial for KIUC to maintain some form of continuity in leadership.” Since the birth of KIUC in 2002, we have been through three CEOs and the board has suffered many turnovers. There will be many issues clouding this years election, but remember this, high costs are mainly due to the rising cost of diesel that we burn in our generators. These three individuals will continue to strive for the independence of our energy needs through initiatives that include renewable energy, educating our members on conservation and by holding strong their concern for the community. Some will also argue that we have not engaged the public in what source of renewable energy we should be investing in. Truth is, there is no single “golden bullet.” The path to sustainable energy is going to come in many shapes and sizes.

I believe that we have truly built a team with our current directors that can and will institute true change. It took us some time to find our feet, but now, we are really moving. With each director that gets replaced, we continue to “spin our tires in the sand.”

Please join me in re-electing our three incumbents, Dennis Esaki, Peter Yukimura and Teofilo “Phil” Tacbian.

• Derek Kawakami is one of nine members of the KIUC board of directors.