Latest / The One Oʻahu Podcast with Mayor Rick Blangiardi / Mayor Blangiardi on UH football's season opening win, the Waikīkī Natatorium, and hazard pay for firefighters

Transcript

Mayor Blangiardi on UH football's season opening win, the Waikīkī Natatorium, and hazard pay for firefighters · The One Oʻahu Podcast with Mayor Rick Blangiardi

• 0:14
  Welcome to the one oahu podcast.
• 0:16
  I'm your host, Brandi Higa, and today is Thursday, August 28th, 2025.
• 0:21
  We're back this week with Mayor Blangiardi
• 0:24
  mayor coach, Coach Rick.
• 0:26
  The 2025 U.S.
• 0:27
  football season is officially underway, and the running game was all right.
• 0:31
  And and I want to address that.
• 0:33
  But let me just say, can two weeks go by any faster than they just have?
• 0:37
  We were just. Yeah.
• 0:38
  And the fact that we have the onset of the football season,
• 0:40
  which I have wanted to have happened for some time, is finally here
• 0:44
  also seems like, wow, it's just, you know, it's just showed up, right?
• 0:47
  Despite the anticipation. Great beginning.
• 0:50
  You know, you can say what you will about Sanford's abilities and abilities.
• 0:53
  Whatever else you know to win in the opener was really important.
• 0:57
  Mike.
• 0:58
  Mike Alejandro made a good debut.
• 1:00
  But you know the psychology, if you will, to finally see us break over
• 1:04
  10,000, get 13,000 people in for a season or opener against a named opponent.
• 1:09
  I just we have a one like that for a while
• 1:13
  against somebody, you know, that was and so I'm really pleased for them.
• 1:17
  Really pleased for the program.
• 1:18
  Timmy and his kids, they all worked really hard,
• 1:21
  you know, in the off season last year.
• 1:23
  And they were living on that last game when, you know, of the year.
• 1:26
  But you know, all the anticipation
• 1:28
  and go through spring ball all the time in the weight room and all the other stuff
• 1:32
  that guys go through, go through preseason, which is always tough.
• 1:35
  Open up at home against Stanford and win.
• 1:39
  Terrific.
• 1:39
  So now we're off and we'll see where it goes.
• 1:42
  Now you mentioned Micah Alejandro.
• 1:44
  What did you think about the play The Command and then the way he did it?
• 1:47
  I mean that injury so early on to be limping through the game like yeah.
• 1:49
  And it's a show the state. Yeah.
• 1:51
  This is what their main.
• 1:52
  Guy gutsy guy and young kid I think he's going to be a real gamer as they say
• 1:57
  concerned about his ankle like everybody else.
• 1:59
  Because one of the things that he has going for him is he's a nifty runner.
• 2:02
  And, you know, you want to be able to have him be mobile.
• 2:04
  Clearly, he's
• 2:05
  got a good arm, good sense of timing, understands the offense really well.
• 2:09
  But you don't want a guy to have to play Gimp like that
• 2:11
  with a whole season in front of you, you know?
• 2:13
  You know, when he falls football enough, you know, what a violent sport it is
• 2:17
  and the hitting that goes on.
• 2:18
  And so if you're trying to play through an injury, you get a little bit lucky.
• 2:22
  But it doesn't take very long for something to happen, you know.
• 2:25
  And so hopefully he'll be on the mend and we'll see, you know, as of this,
• 2:29
  as of this recording, you and I,
• 2:32
  they get the hands for this week, which we knew even before the season
• 2:35
  going into Arizona, and I'm still haven't heard yet
• 2:38
  whether or not he'll be able to play.
• 2:39
  The last thing I heard, he he might not be.
• 2:42
  And we'll see how the how that how they come out of it.
• 2:45
  They want to keep them healthy because I do think
• 2:47
  and I think he showed it in his debut last year.
• 2:49
  But it even in this opening day,
• 2:51
  he's the kind of kid you want at that quarterback position.
• 2:54
  He's going to inspire his team to play hard.
• 2:56
  He's willing to play hurt, injured.
• 2:58
  He's capable. It's all good. It's all good.
• 3:01
  I'm excited for them, excited for our community
• 3:04
  because I think that's the point of making their win last weekend, as we've
• 3:08
  said, you and I said so many times when we've talked about sports, it's
• 3:11
  not just a team winning, it's Hawaii wins.
• 3:13
  And we've needed that infusion of okay, all right.
• 3:16
  So it's good.
• 3:18
  And then of course you know your expertise on the other side of the ball.
• 3:21
  We had that into you by killing him and Johnson.
• 3:23
  But really their defense.
• 3:25
  What did you like what do they need to to do to be successful against Arizona.
• 3:29
  Well they gotta play better against the run.
• 3:30
  I think that they probably learned that, you know,
• 3:32
  and so I think that kind of comes in
• 3:34
  game conditions sometimes it's hard to really simulate
• 3:36
  that in practice in the hitting drills because they minimize that.
• 3:40
  Look, I've said all along, you want to listen defense.
• 3:43
  Defense is what stopped them from losing and kept and put them in position to win.
• 3:47
  And and everybody I think who follows the game really knows that.
• 3:51
  I think overall,
• 3:54
  you know, keeping the other team off the field that our guys be on the field
• 3:57
  more is what you want, especially on a potent offense like
• 4:01
  this is our team gets better timing and game like conditions,
• 4:04
  given the potency of that offense
• 4:06
  and having a really good quarterback, but good receivers as well,
• 4:10
  is going to be helpful.
• 4:11
  So I think that's the defense's
• 4:12
  challenge is that don't let the other team out there on the field
• 4:15
  for quite so long, because Denver was able to kind of
• 4:18
  keep the ball more than more than you would want them to, you know?
• 4:22
  And so,
• 4:24
  I think they're going to get better.
• 4:25
  I look, I, I, they, they played hard.
• 4:28
  You could see the coaching. They played.
• 4:29
  I felt that way last year too.
• 4:31
  It was, you know, and it was I think the what their last 3 or 4 games
• 4:34
  by a field goal last year, something like that.
• 4:36
  They came close. Didn't get them.
• 4:39
  But they were playing hard the whole time.
• 4:40
  I moved time again, walking out of stadium saying, okay, they played really hard.
• 4:45
  You can see the effort.
• 4:46
  You could see the so maybe this year here they take it to the next level,
• 4:50
  they play hard and they find a way to win that, finding a way to win.
• 4:53
  And that's what that defensive play was that interception
• 4:56
  because they were moving the ball was finding a way to win.
• 4:59
  And that's that's what you try to coach.
• 5:01
  But it just has to come out of the plays.
• 5:03
  And once they start to experience that, it's just I don't know.
• 5:06
  It's sort of magical.
• 5:07
  It's you try to coach it, but it has to happen.
• 5:09
  On the field of play.
• 5:11
  They build that kind of confidence and that kind of that kind of resolve.
• 5:14
  You know, in a game situation, you could take the edge of the cliff,
• 5:17
  but you're not going to push this off and they're going to fight back.
• 5:20
  It was like that. And so that's why it was such a good win.
• 5:22
  It had a lot of stuff going for it for season opener.
• 5:25
  You know it definitely did my last one for football
• 5:28
  because I know that you have a city to run.
• 5:30
  Yeah.
• 5:30
  I love talking about football. And we don't get to do enough. Yeah.
• 5:33
  We don't. Yeah. We could do our own sports show. Brady.
• 5:35
  Let's just do the podcast
• 5:37
  during a football season to a sports show and we'll have some fun with this.
• 5:40
  We'll bring Scott in or I'll bring everybody. Yeah.
• 5:42
  Let's just get around and say.
• 5:44
  Yeah. You know you mentioned a field goal.
• 5:45
  You know, losing by a field goal or a field goal
• 5:47
  kind of makes a difference there.
• 5:48
  And then the storyline of content and what's out with the game winning field.
• 5:52
  Yeah.
• 5:52
  You know, the guy
• 5:53
  this is making national news is the guy who learned
• 5:55
  how to kick a field goal by watching YouTube videos.
• 5:57
  Yeah.
• 5:58
  You know, the storyline there is that's that's like what movies are made.
• 6:01
  Yeah.
• 6:02
  I actually want to say I learned how to be mayor by watching YouTube.
• 6:05
  Just jump on the wagon, you know, says, no, I just take it.
• 6:08
  Obviously that's statement.
• 6:11
  But he said that it does.
• 6:13
  Anybody who follows the game, you know, just never hear that.
• 6:17
  Right.
• 6:17
  So it was so provocative.
• 6:19
  I'm glad he's getting some national acclaim for that.
• 6:22
  It was very humble when you really think about it.
• 6:25
  But also, I do know a lot of people who said
• 6:28
  I learned how to take care of my pet. I learned how to cook, I did this stuff.
• 6:31
  I've learned nothing, I try.
• 6:32
  I don't, I love it when I watch it.
• 6:34
  I just space it out.
• 6:35
  Just because I can't focus on longform programing anymore.
• 6:39
  My attention span has really been reduced, so I just like to watch novel things.
• 6:44
  I watch like a lot of dog videos that make you smile at night because it's
• 6:48
  just funny.
• 6:49
  But for him to say that I thought was very honest and very,
• 6:54
  humbling, especially given the fact that he's from Japan and everything else,
• 6:57
  and the fact that he pulled off a clutch field goal
• 7:01
  that's, that's just great stuff.
• 7:03
  It really does.
• 7:03
  And then can do a post-game interview in English.
• 7:05
  Yeah, I know that's yeah, I know.
• 7:08
  You and I recently went to Japan. Imagine. You know.
• 7:10
  Yeah, I think there for a little bit. Time to do an interview.
• 7:12
  Yeah.
• 7:13
  I would be, after a while, I was, I was I must have said that I would be lost.
• 7:18
  I really wish I just said that right.
• 7:20
  I, I don't think so.
• 7:22
  I don't think so either.
• 7:23
  Forgive my placid accent.
• 7:25
  Try to talk Japanese, but it's. It's okay.
• 7:28
  Sorry. Yeah.
• 7:29
  We're. Move it on.
• 7:30
  Another football fan is, Mr.
• 7:33
  Henry, who you recently got to celebrate.
• 7:35
  Can you tell us what that was about?
• 7:37
  Well, you know, Henry, a few years ago started a foundation.
• 7:42
  And, you know,
• 7:42
  he's had a lot of success in his career, worked really hard his whole career.
• 7:46
  But given his incredible, generous heart and his spirit,
• 7:49
  you know, wanted to do more to help showcase local artists.
• 7:52
  And so he started this foundation to promote local artists.
• 7:55
  And a year ago, we gave him a proclamation, declared
• 7:58
  Saint Henry September as Henry Kapono Foundation Month.
• 8:02
  And we did it again this year because I told him, as far
• 8:04
  as I'm concerned, every September can be Henry Kapono Foundation Month.
• 8:08
  Like, I can't speak for future mayors, but as long as I'm in office and sure
• 8:12
  enough, that's exactly, what we're going to do.
• 8:14
  And, you know, he just, finds a way to financially help
• 8:18
  as well as showcase coach, do whatever he can to help promote other artists.
• 8:22
  That's just, you know, he stands in his own light.
• 8:25
  We all know that Henry is really a community treasure.
• 8:29
  Has been for years.
• 8:31
  In fact, I did an interview not long ago.
• 8:33
  It was kind of like they ask you lightning round questions and they asked me,
• 8:37
  is there a sound or a song that that that makes you happy
• 8:40
  and instantly just top of mind?
• 8:42
  I said anything from Henry Kapono, and they put that in print
• 8:45
  because it was kind of like that, because that's how it is.
• 8:48
  It just so feel good, and it's just takes all of us back and our own memory
• 8:52
  banks to all kinds of times with some of those classic, iconic hits.
• 8:55
  So the fact that he's at this stage,
• 8:58
  doing what he's doing, I mean, I just love him for it.
• 9:00
  Everybody does.
• 9:01
  He just this is just with living a living with Aloha.
• 9:04
  It's all about, you know, Merit talking about promoting people.
• 9:07
  I feel like every week I ask you this, and I take pride in asking you this,
• 9:10
  and it's about the women that you lift up.
• 9:14
  You know, we talked about Jason Doane.
• 9:15
  We talked about Jennifer Santos, and now you have Deborah Zissman.
• 9:17
  Well, as part of the City of Awesome Ohana,
• 9:20
  she's a new deputy director over at OIRA, the Office of Economic Revitalization.
• 9:24
  What do you like about her? Everything.
• 9:26
  You know, she, she was really successful in her past career.
• 9:29
  She's just smart, high energy came, had a lot of options.
• 9:34
  Came to the city.
• 9:37
  Purposely wanted to work here.
• 9:38
  You know, her husband works here, too.
• 9:39
  He's one of our best lawyers that we have.
• 9:41
  And corporation counsel Dan Gluck.
• 9:44
  But she came here with purpose and and quite honestly,
• 9:48
  aligning her with Amy as somebody in the Office of Economic Revitalization
• 9:52
  and everything that we set up that office to be about to help small businesses,
• 9:57
  you know, just survive and hopefully thrive.
• 9:59
  She has a bent on wanting to do that.
• 10:01
  She's perfectly aligned in that job.
• 10:04
  Its purpose, if you will, Amy.
• 10:06
  That's combination with sometimes you look at putting personalities together.
• 10:10
  The old synergy thing about one plus one is something greater than that
• 10:13
  as a really powerful alignment, as was Gavin with her.
• 10:16
  But Gavin, we knew when we hired him, was going to move into housing.
• 10:19
  Once the department got set up.
• 10:21
  He's our policy director because he came to us with that background. But,
• 10:26
  Deb is I,
• 10:29
  she's special and I'm excited to have people of that, you know?
• 10:33
  In fact, I've said this, I said it.
• 10:35
  You in the room last week
• 10:36
  we had our cabinet meeting this is the strongest and best our team
• 10:39
  has been this four and a half years later, and we've had a lot of good people.
• 10:42
  But some of the adjustments we've made and the way things have evolved
• 10:46
  and the fact we've kept 85% of our team together from the beginning,
• 10:50
  that seasoning is good, but the way we've been able to complement it,
• 10:53
  if you will, if this was football, how we've been able to draft and augment
• 10:57
  where we had some areas where we knew we could improve,
• 11:00
  we've done that really well.
• 11:01
  And I'm it's testimony because, you know, we used to always say recruiting
• 11:05
  our football the best recruiters were the players, right?
• 11:08
  I think people see the capability of our team,
• 11:11
  the competency, the stuff that's getting done, the momentum.
• 11:14
  Good people like Zissman,
• 11:16
  who had a lot of different options, said, I want to go be part of that.
• 11:19
  I find that I find that tremendous, tremendously gratifying to me as the mayor
• 11:25
  to have people of that caliber say, I want to be on this team
• 11:28
  and make a difference at this moment in time for Oahu.
• 11:31
  From a leadership standpoint, it doesn't get any better than that.
• 11:35
  So I hope
• 11:35
  that, you know, that's I I'm very excited about her.
• 11:39
  This is an exciting week.
• 11:40
  But also it can be a little scary as well.
• 11:43
  Kids are heading back to school.
• 11:44
  A lot more kids are heading back to back than week before.
• 11:48
  But it's been a terrible year on our roads so far, and I know you see it firsthand.
• 11:51
  You get a good start. Well, we had a lot of.
• 11:53
  People know you drive yourself.
• 11:54
  Everywhere.
• 11:54
  Yeah, I do, driver and I see people doing crazy things on the road all the time.
• 11:58
  And sometimes I wish I had, you know, I was a cop.
• 12:00
  I could just flip on something and pull them over.
• 12:03
  You know, I've even, you know, because you go,
• 12:05
  you can't do that, you know, and that's when you know, you.
• 12:08
  And so yeah, I'm concerned we're at 55 fatalities that that was, you know,
• 12:13
  we're recording this today.
• 12:14
  But even this morning there was a it was a real harrowing moped accident
• 12:19
  where I think the the person is going to be okay.
• 12:23
  But could have died in that didn't, didn't have a helmet on either.
• 12:27
  And, just, you know, it seems like more and more,
• 12:32
  well, we're we're more than double.
• 12:34
  We're more than double what we were year ago.
• 12:36
  I think this as of this recording, 55 to 26.
• 12:40
  Not good.
• 12:41
  You know, not good on on our roadways.
• 12:43
  And as you mentioned, especially now the kids are going back to school.
• 12:47
  Just this morning, I was out there talking to the guys.
• 12:50
  I asked what they were doing. They were delivering stuff.
• 12:52
  They were delivering the Halloween books for,
• 12:56
  they were picking up the
• 12:56
  Halloween books, rather for distribution from our print shop downstairs.
• 13:00
  You know,
• 13:01
  we're back in that time of the year and our kids are going to be
• 13:04
  on the roadways, going to school and everything else and just ask people
• 13:07
  to, just be you got to be responsible.
• 13:11
  I don't I keep trying to find the words.
• 13:13
  What what can you do you you want to school people with.
• 13:16
  That doesn't work.
• 13:17
  You want to encourage them, ask them beg them, plead with them.
• 13:20
  You know, to be responsible.
• 13:22
  That's the best we can do.
• 13:23
  I just people have to understand that speeding kills
• 13:27
  and that when you're behind the wheel of a car, even if you're not speeding,
• 13:30
  it doesn't take much to hurt somebody very badly.
• 13:33
  If it's not, in fact, kill them, you know?
• 13:35
  So we all have to just be more aware and,
• 13:39
  it's not it's not really even a police matter.
• 13:41
  We're going to try to police
• 13:42
  for speeding vehicles as best we can, but it's just people.
• 13:45
  You get behind a car,
• 13:46
  you get to realize when you drive, that's a big responsibility.
• 13:50
  It is.
• 13:50
  Don't drive drunk, don't drive high, drive, drive, drive carefully
• 13:55
  and certainly be aware of where you are.
• 13:57
  Don't be speeding through neighborhoods.
• 13:58
  I talked about that on a on a show you this one in Sky one.
• 14:02
  Understand why they couldn't drive
• 14:03
  through the neighborhood to take to get to school.
• 14:05
  And so because a lot of people drive
• 14:07
  to those neighborhoods to do that, don't drive the speed limit.
• 14:09
  You know, in most neighborhoods of 25 or oftentimes 15,
• 14:13
  and people whipping through 35, 40 don't feel like they're going very fast.
• 14:16
  But that's really fast,
• 14:17
  especially for break time, especially if somebody is about in the street.
• 14:21
  So we just go, we got to be careful.
• 14:23
  We don't want 56.
• 14:25
  And you know, and it's only August and we know it's coming up in the holidays
• 14:28
  and anything else.
• 14:29
  So you know I don't want to predict anything because
• 14:32
  I don't have that predictive index.
• 14:34
  But typically in the in the fourth quarter, with all the activities that go
• 14:37
  on, the opportunity for people to get hurt, if not get killed
• 14:41
  is even greater during the rest of the year.
• 14:43
  So we just got to be really careful.
• 14:45
  I don't know, I, I wish I could say something better.
• 14:47
  Yeah, no, it's definitely hard to influence behavior.
• 14:50
  I want to get to some other topics
• 14:52
  that have been making its way through the news cycle recently.
• 14:54
  Our Waikiki Natatorium.
• 14:56
  Yeah. Where is that project still feasible?
• 14:58
  No, it's really not.
• 14:59
  Not to the extent that we thought it would be.
• 15:01
  And I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but we want to be honest with the public
• 15:04
  and the friends of the Natatorium and everybody else.
• 15:06
  You know, he's for 2.5 million to get to do some plans that I find out
• 15:10
  that there's legal cases involved
• 15:12
  that's been going on for quite some time about liability.
• 15:15
  And even the people who are counting on to raise the money.
• 15:18
  So we got to figure this out.
• 15:20
  We're going to figure it out on our watch.
• 15:21
  I mean, clearly I'm committed to having a memorial there to honor World War One.
• 15:28
  There were 10,000 people from Hawaii that fought in World War One, 100 died.
• 15:33
  And that is something in respect along the lines of
• 15:36
  we just became a purple hot city along the lines.
• 15:38
  The military had such a strong presence in place.
• 15:41
  We have so many retired military here and wanted to be respectful.
• 15:44
  The last thing we're going to do is, well, if we can't get the natatorium done in
• 15:48
  the way people had hoped,
• 15:50
  it would be done,
• 15:52
  that we this in that area, in that park,
• 15:56
  have a monument that's classy, that's respectful, that honors it.
• 16:01
  And we'll see it with the rest of the facility.
• 16:02
  I got to figure out where the money would come from, even to demolish it.
• 16:06
  The price tag initially, at one point in time,
• 16:09
  admittedly even a few years ago, was added around 35 to 40 million.
• 16:13
  I've now been told of late.
• 16:15
  It's a lot more than that.
• 16:16
  And so we're going to have to figure out what we do.
• 16:19
  I said this recently, you know, I used to go to Cincinnati all the time.
• 16:22
  My kids were small.
• 16:24
  My daughter just turned 40 yesterday.
• 16:26
  My middle son is 45.
• 16:28
  My oldest is 48.
• 16:30
  I remember when they were little kids on that beach and it was boarded up.
• 16:33
  Then how many years ago is that?
• 16:35
  And it was not, you know, and we got to address that.
• 16:38
  And, you know,
• 16:39
  we just have to get that address because first of all, it's incredible.
• 16:42
  Piece of shoreline.
• 16:44
  We had all good intentions.
• 16:46
  I even went last year, Memorial Day, and spoke to them and said, we really want
• 16:50
  we really intended, we really intended to restore that and bring it back to its.
• 16:55
  But if we can't get that done financially from a liability
• 16:58
  standpoint, practicality standpoint, then we need to be honest.
• 17:02
  We need to do something about it because it's almost 100 years old.
• 17:05
  This thing in 1927 is when it started. So,
• 17:10
  sometimes I have
• 17:11
  some things, especially that because it was so unique,
• 17:14
  they have a certain shelf life and they don't last forever.
• 17:17
  But that doesn't mean that what we honor can't last forever
• 17:20
  in order to recognize the past, our present, but the future.
• 17:24
  So we're going to have to rethink the natatorium or what that monument stood for
• 17:30
  and put it in a different place,
• 17:31
  and then we'll deal with the rest of it on the ocean.
• 17:34
  Earlier this week, you met
• 17:36
  with the firefighters union, mainly its members.
• 17:39
  Really? And something kind of unusual.
• 17:40
  You don't usually meet with union members to talk about.
• 17:43
  The firefighters, right?
• 17:45
  I we we've been meeting. What union?
• 17:47
  Bobby leaves ahead the firefighters union.
• 17:49
  But, you know, we're coming up on a situation
• 17:51
  where we have to pay hazard pay.
• 17:53
  And, and that's just it. You know, we,
• 17:57
  city is about to spend $157 million.
• 18:00
  You know, we had three unions that were entitled,
• 18:03
  contractually, none of the entitlements, though.
• 18:06
  None of the contracts ever called for a two year pandemic.
• 18:09
  I mean, this kind of everybody surprise and candidly speaking,
• 18:12
  was even before we were in office, there were attempts,
• 18:16
  to get the government to kind of do a whole of government thing,
• 18:20
  come up with something
• 18:22
  they could have done, given by the hour that there were different things you could
• 18:25
  all that got rejected.
• 18:27
  So then what happened is that the whole deal ended up occurring, if you will.
• 18:32
  And we try to do a whole of government,
• 18:35
  which means we get everybody together and just kind of come to an agreement.
• 18:38
  Everybody, everybody would get a flat that didn't work because the people
• 18:41
  who had entitlements in their contract for hazard pay,
• 18:47
  they wanted theirs.
• 18:48
  And so by law and this thing went to court
• 18:51
  and arbitration and, you know, things got determined and decided.
• 18:55
  And then on top of that, to make matters even more challenging,
• 18:58
  the neighbor islands, which have much smaller operations,
• 19:02
  made deals at higher percentages that just made it
• 19:04
  out of the range of affordability for us to do on Oahu, given our numbers.
• 19:08
  Firefighters alone were 1100 members and police departments 2800, and so on.
• 19:14
  So so the long and the short of it is money is finite.
• 19:19
  And and we would to come up with 157 million, in part federal funds.
• 19:24
  But a small part of that is also from our operating
• 19:27
  and in, you know, in the city, you just can't take operating capital.
• 19:31
  So we want to do the best we could.
• 19:34
  The amazing thing about is our firefighters,
• 19:36
  all of our first responders were front line during Covid.
• 19:39
  They put themselves at great risk.
• 19:40
  We acknowledge that. We respect that.
• 19:42
  Now. Firefighters were time and again above and beyond the call of duty.
• 19:46
  I remember they had so much to do with setting up
• 19:48
  vaccine distributions and helping and just really putting themselves out there.
• 19:52
  And so they actually contractually didn't did have any eligibility
• 19:57
  because they already have hazard pay kind of factored into their contract
• 20:00
  is very different than the police department had.
• 20:03
  This is all stuff that I learned,
• 20:04
  not just because I was new mayor, but in these circumstances.
• 20:07
  So we were determined in our negotiations with the unions, HCA up to
• 20:14
  and show Poe that
• 20:17
  we were going to hold the line on what we paid.
• 20:21
  So we would have, at the end of the day, enough money to pay a give money
• 20:25
  to our firefighters.
• 20:26
  And at the same time, even though they're not city employees,
• 20:28
  are Teamsters, because the bus drivers actually is a leading category of
• 20:33
  of Covid cases
• 20:36
  and people who died from Covid in the city.
• 20:39
  And so we wanted to acknowledge that even though not a place
• 20:41
  we want to be able to pay them.
• 20:43
  So negotiations took place.
• 20:46
  And in the particular case of the police department, they got 15%.
• 20:50
  They weren't happy about the 15%.
• 20:52
  They came in asking for 20, 25%
• 20:55
  predicated on things that happened on the neighbor islands.
• 20:58
  We held our ground. We did everything we could.
• 21:00
  We were successful in our negotiations at.
• 21:03
  That still means we're going to get a lot of money.
• 21:07
  But really what it kind of created was this imbalance on who got what.
• 21:11
  So let's just say,
• 21:14
  that at
• 21:15
  15% and everybody's different because 15% has to do with their earnings,
• 21:19
  you know, on how much they're going to get.
• 21:21
  And so the firefighters we allocated, each one will get $7,500.
• 21:27
  Well, you fight, you struggle, you negotiate.
• 21:29
  You have good intentions.
• 21:30
  You want to reward, you want to acknowledge, you know, you don't have to.
• 21:34
  Which is this particular case.
• 21:36
  And somehow because of the other grants, if you will, the money that was awarded
• 21:41
  to the unions, these guys felt like we didn't value them at $7,500.
• 21:47
  And we actually were just the opposite.
• 21:49
  And that's why we met with them to convey that.
• 21:51
  So I don't know what else we could do in the future.
• 21:54
  We did promise and we will continue to work with them
• 21:56
  and look where the 26 budget I told last night is a no deal.
• 21:59
  We're done.
• 22:01
  If maybe when we look at 27, if we could come up with something,
• 22:04
  you know, to me, as I told them at the, at the meeting, to me, this is money
• 22:09
  that as I look at it, we're just investing in the future of the department.
• 22:12
  We definitely want to be able to do that.
• 22:14
  But money is finite. We just can't move stuff around.
• 22:17
  Can't take from operating lines the way you might do in a private sector.
• 22:21
  So we'll try to figure it out
• 22:22
  in this in good faith, because the last thing we wanted to do,
• 22:26
  was do anything that would alienate, especially a fire department.
• 22:30
  The search button down is such a great department.
• 22:32
  You know, you want to
• 22:33
  you don't want to do anything that's going to
• 22:34
  unintentionally, if you will, because of the circumstances, hurt morale.
• 22:38
  We were really concerned about that, you know, and
• 22:42
  and so, you know, our intentions were really good.
• 22:45
  It's like giving somebody a gift as they go.
• 22:47
  Is this all you got? Me? It's sort of like that.
• 22:49
  But we want that to be in a that dynamic.
• 22:52
  But I knew understood why they would feel that way.
• 22:54
  And we tried to negotiate
• 22:57
  with the other unions for a whole.
• 23:00
  We wanted what we wanted to do after we got in and all this stuff had been
• 23:03
  rejected by the state before we ever got in, or what was it in place?
• 23:08
  We try to put together a whole of government from the city.
• 23:11
  We knew how much money we could accrue, and if we had been able to do that,
• 23:15
  we would basically give everybody a check.
• 23:17
  Everybody was unhappy.
• 23:18
  Everybody would on an equal playing field, okay.
• 23:21
  But instead the unions who had the entitlements argued in
• 23:25
  and prevailed that the contracts call for a different treatment. And
• 23:31
  and so that's what happened.
• 23:32
  So prevented us from doing it.
• 23:33
  So at the end of the day, we just as I just think I said,
• 23:36
  I know I said it last night, there's not another city in America that's done this.
• 23:40
  And the last thing I want to do is have our guys even hurt.
• 23:43
  Seven feel bad over the fact that they they're getting the short end of it.
• 23:47
  It's 7500 because of what somebody else is getting,
• 23:50
  you know, and a lot of people didn't get that.
• 23:53
  This is just but again, it's our first responders.
• 23:57
  They're incredibly valuable as we record this today,
• 24:00
  officer O's funeral services are happening on Maui.
• 24:03
  As a woman, you know, we've talked about the bravery
• 24:05
  and the and the danger for first responders.
• 24:08
  I recognize that that's the last group I want to have feeling
• 24:12
  somehow they got screwed is they're not being valued properly.
• 24:15
  It's unfortunate that money seems to be the thing that
• 24:19
  that wins out in this, in this discussion.
• 24:21
  I want to be respectful of that. Just go figure out how we can do that.
• 24:25
  Mayor.
• 24:25
  Another Bill seven project.
• 24:27
  Yep. Broken ground this time.
• 24:28
  Yeah. University of.
• 24:30
  Really excited about. That calling. Yeah. Well can you tell us about.
• 24:32
  Well I can tell you that my last meeting with Paul, them just a few weeks ago is
• 24:36
  we might be doing 5 or 6 of these before the end of the year,
• 24:39
  before the end of the year. That's what they have in the pipeline.
• 24:41
  Paul has been a great leader.
• 24:42
  His team as well, and embracing, the Bill seven concept.
• 24:47
  They've been able to work through with DPP.
• 24:49
  We've had meetings with them.
• 24:51
  And, you know,
• 24:53
  they're taking advantage of what that bill affords.
• 24:56
  They they've got great vision.
• 24:58
  They have they have good financial capacity as well,
• 25:02
  you know, and and they're making projects happen
• 25:04
  around the city and helping us create, you know, better housing.
• 25:08
  One of the things that's great about Bill seven
• 25:09
  is they're knocking down places that have just sort of fallen
• 25:12
  on hard times, and they're rebuilding with today's,
• 25:16
  you know, building more space, more bedroom, more more units.
• 25:21
  And doing it
• 25:22
  while kind of gentrifying the city, removing kind of a ghetto like building,
• 25:26
  knocking it down, building something back that's bigger and better affordable, too,
• 25:30
  which is the other aspect of that in great location. So,
• 25:35
  that's what we want to see happen.
• 25:36
  I wish to take nothing away from Paul and his efforts.
• 25:39
  In fact, I praise him all the time.
• 25:41
  I wish we had like 20 guys like Paul.
• 25:43
  I wish we were doing a lot of that because there's within within the city
• 25:47
  core alone of these cinderblock units that were built in the 50s,
• 25:53
  that have just, you know, four at a time, hard times.
• 25:56
  But the, you know, the building's deteriorated.
• 25:58
  But the good news is they're in great locations.
• 26:00
  They have all the access to electricity, water, sewer,
• 26:04
  all that infrastructure in place.
• 26:06
  Just redoing the building and making it new and nice
• 26:09
  and and especially because of the way it's set up, they could do it.
• 26:12
  It's affordable where not only have the good locations, but access
• 26:16
  to schools, access to bus lines, retail outlets, whatever.
• 26:20
  This is just a kind of a rebirth, if you will.
• 26:22
  And we we want to do that.
• 26:24
  So I started to say this.
• 26:26
  There's more than 5000 lots in the city
• 26:28
  that are 5000ft² like that is about 6500 lots,
• 26:32
  some of which are bigger than 5000ft², some of which are being looked at.
• 26:37
  Did you know, at the end of the day, if we even did half of them, 3000,
• 26:41
  let's say, just to pick a number, why it would be such
• 26:45
  an enhancement to the city would be such, such a great,
• 26:50
  housing solution as
• 26:52
  part of our overall housing solutions.
• 26:55
  We would, but we need people like Paul.
• 26:58
  Paul deserves a lot of credit.
• 26:59
  His team, the guys behind them, they're visionary.
• 27:03
  They're they're persistent.
• 27:05
  They know what they're doing, and what we're trying to promote.
• 27:08
  So the fact that he's out there leading the way and showing people
• 27:11
  what's possible, I can't say enough good about it
• 27:14
  because his success is actually helping spur on.
• 27:18
  We're starting to get more and more in the pipeline.
• 27:20
  Once I think we get, we're almost there.
• 27:22
  I think with DPP, as we go through the changing it, we can streamline that.
• 27:26
  I think we could we can anticipate a lot more happening.
• 27:30
  And quite honestly, that's what we saw right in the
• 27:32
  in the beginning and the genius of the bill,
• 27:34
  we had to go through a couple of iterations. It wasn't
• 27:38
  written perfectly at first.
• 27:40
  I think we're there. And,
• 27:43
  and this is one of those things that I feel that goes beyond that term
• 27:46
  that I've talked a lot about with respect to what we're getting done in housing
• 27:50
  that's given a new and different capability to the city
• 27:53
  to be a player in the creation of housing, because this is the first time the city
• 27:58
  has provided a financial incentive to private developers to do this.
• 28:03
  And, and, and, you know, with that comes certain provisions that really help
• 28:07
  facilitate matters for them.
• 28:09
  This concept is a great one.
• 28:10
  And this catches on.
• 28:11
  It'll be huge in the future of much needed affordable housing in the urban core.
• 28:17
  It's it's just a great deal.
• 28:20
  Well mayor this is the one Oahu podcast.
• 28:22
  So for yeah final thought.
• 28:24
  Well let's finish the way we we that's the way we started.
• 28:27
  If you just talk about for a little bit, let's just hope that this team,
• 28:31
  does find a way to have some great success this year, especially now with wahine
• 28:35
  volleyball kicking off,
• 28:36
  there's a lot of buzz about wahine volleyball this year too,
• 28:39
  because as I said earlier, it's not just the teams up at U-H
• 28:42
  that when it's a affiliated Hawai'i wins it.
• 28:44
  It's such a great, thing in a community which we constantly
• 28:49
  want to build hope and create good things to happen for it.
• 28:53
  And, you know, it's
• 28:54
  so this just adds to it's a creative because I could tell you Sunday
• 28:58
  there was a real buzz over that when everywhere I went
• 29:01
  and just as we talked about it today, this is just good for us.
• 29:04
  So I wish Timmy and the team really great success.
• 29:07
  Wish Robin her wahine, which are always incredible.
• 29:10
  Her team's, great success as far.
• 29:14
  Mayor, thank you for your time.
• 29:15
  You're welcome and mahalo to you for listening.
• 29:18
  And until next time, Aloha.