• Nancy McMahon • Bob Cariffe Editor’s note: The following seven questions were posed to the 23 candidates for Kauai County Council. Beginning today, two candidates a day will have their answers reprinted in their entirety until all candidates’ answers
• Nancy McMahon
• Bob Cariffe
Editor’s note: The following seven questions were posed to the 23 candidates for Kauai County Council. Beginning today, two candidates a day will have their answers reprinted in their entirety until all candidates’ answers have appeared.
1) Define what future development on Kaua’i means to you. Please use specifics.
2) What is your vision of the island in 10 years?
3) What specific credentials do you have for being a county council member? Why are you the best for our county? Again, let’s get specific. What positions of power have you held in the past? What connections do you have that will benefit the county?
4) How will you work with the other six members of the County Council if elected? Would like some specific tactics and strategies you would use to act on the county’s behalf within the larger group.
5) What is your history? Born and raised here? Mainlander? Family? Residence? Career? Education?
6) What does open government mean to you?
7) What is the single, most important issue to you?
Nancy McMahon
1) It means new housing, new opportunities for new jobs, new business opportunities, use of renewable and alternative energy sources. Better health care for all.
2) Keep Kaua’i a rural county laced with small towns across the landscape, less dependent on tourism, more truck farmers and hopefully smart development and more sustainable environment to live in. There will be a larger elderly population which we need to prepare for.
3) I am a good listener. I have 20 years of working in government at state, county and federal levels. I know how to write policies and get people to reach consensus. I know all the current heads of the various departments in the state government and the county department heads, as they have to deal with me in my professional job. I think this is a great advantage for me. I think I present a fresh honest choice for the citizens of Kaua’i to vote for. I am one of the heads of a state agency that preserves a sense of place and preserves Hawaiiana for future generations. I work for the Department of Land and Natural Resources.
4) Working with people, understanding their needs and empowering them is one of my strong points, along with being able to negotiate a win-win situation as one of my best assets. Understanding where folks are coming from and their direction is how I think I can work together to resolve issues that come to us.
5) I came to Hawai’i to play volleyball at University of Hawai’i. I started the women’s softball program there, finished my undergraduate and three graduate degrees at the University of Hawai’i. I have worked for the City and County of Honolulu, county of Kaua’i as a planner, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in Honolulu and currently work for the State Historic Preservation Division for 20 years as the Historic Preservation Specialist for Kaua’i. Relocated to Kaua’i by the state after Hurricane ‘Iniki. I currently am the deputy administrator for the division and the state archaeologist. I raised my son who is now 26, a college graduate and fireman. I was born in Denver, Colo., and moved here after high school graduation to attend University of Hawai’i, Manoa.
I live in Koloa and have for the past 12 years.
6) Empowering people to take major roles in directing our future. Being honest with folks on how decisions and directions for government are made.
7) Trying to have our community deal with the current economic situation of the U.S. High costs of fuels, need to train the work force to deal with an expanding older population, increasing health care, trying to create more affordable housing, keep new business opportunities here and meet transportation needs.
Bob Cariffe
1) Future development should be limited. No new gated communities or big hotels.
2) An island free of mosquitoes, if my master plan functions properly.
3) Experience in my travels around planet Earth and living in five different continents. I am best because of my intelligence. I am president of: Earthlings Against Communism, Americans Against Communism, (Removed: not fit for publication), and Forces United Combating Muslim Extremism. 4) It depends on who the other six council members are. I would have to work with people before I can adopt a final strategy on my best way to talk or act with anyone.
5) I was born in Pennsylvania and at age 18 traveled extensively around this country. I first lived in Hawai’i during 1978. I then moved to Africa, where I drove a one-speed bicycle through many countries from South Africa to Egypt. I then went to Europe, where I was horribly disfigured in Germany when a vehicle hit me on July 31, 1983. I went back to Germany in 1985 and finished my bicycle tour to Israel. I went to Afghanistan with the mujahideen in 1989. The year after, spy charges were dropped against me and I was released from a Pakistan prison. Perhaps by now you have an idea about me.
6) Very few closed-door council meetings that violate the Sunshine Law.
7) Answer not fit for publication.
