Big Island mayoral candidates Mitch Roth and Kimo Alameda meet in televised debate

In a 30-minute televised debate Thursday, Hawai‘i Island mayoral candidates Mitch Roth, the incumbent, and Dr. Kimo Alameda, a leader in healthcare and aging, shared their plans about how they would balance the needs of housing, homelessness, tourism and emergency preparedness throughout the island.

The debate that aired on KHON2 capped off the three-day 2024 Native Hawaiian Convention that was put on by the Council for Native Hawaiian Advancement at the Hilton Waikōloa Resort.

During the primary in August, Roth, 59, and Alameda, 54, were the top two vote getters in the field of seven candidates. Roth captured 18,399 votes (37.1%), with Alameda behind him with 13,419 votes (27%). The general election takes place on Nov. 5.

The debate was moderated by KHON2 anchor and investigative reporter Gina Mangieri, who asked several questions, including some submitted by the public.

The opening question was how each candidate plans to balance the different needs of Hawai‘i Island.

Alameda said the west side of the island still feels like the county’s stepchild. He will seek geographic equity, with the county providing equally balanced services and representation.

“I tell ya, I’ve got seven kids, I know how to share the pizza,” he said. “You just got to listen to the people.”

Alameda’s experience includes chief of the Hawai‘i Island Fentanyl Task Force and previously serving as the executive director for the Hawai‘i County Office of Aging under two former mayors. He also served as the CEO of Bay Clinic Health Center, helping manage its merger with West Hawai‘i Community Health Center during the COVID-19 pandemic to form the new Hawai‘i Island Community Health Center.

Roth, a former Hawai‘i County prosecuting attorney, said as mayor he travels to Kona at least once a week and that many of his administration’s department heads are based in West Hawai’i.

“Kimo mentioned a pizza. Our budget is like a pizza. A lot of funds thought to be used in Hilo have been spread out,” Roth said.

Roth, who became mayor in 2020, said his administration has been looking at how to make Hawai‘i County a sustainable place where children can afford to live and eventually raise their own families.

“Housing has been our number one priority,” he said. “The Department of Housing was looking at 1,243 units in the affordable housing pipeline. Now, the department is working with over 8,100.”

Roth said the county has two big affordable housing properties opening next month, one by Costco in West Hawai‘i and the other in Hilo across from the University of Hawai‘i campus.

Roth also boasted about his administration’s work in revamping the Hawai‘i County permitting process.

“We went from the worst permitting office in the country to the best in the state,” he said.

Alameda rebutted that the permitting process is not something to brag about. He said he has talked with contractors who say it can take 28 months before they get a permit.

Describing the Big Island as the last frontier where housing is affordable in Hawaiʻi, Alameda said there are too many building restrictions for people wanting to build an ‘ohana unit on their property.

“If you own property and want to build a home in the back you should be able to do that,” he said. “The reason we have a homeless problem is because we have a housing problem.”

Roth noted that homelessness has decreased since he’s been in office. He referred to the Homeless Point in Time Count, a federally mandated census that seeks to count anyone who slept on the street, in a car, or in other areas on Jan. 22, 2024.

According to the count, homelessness decreased from 1,003 persons in 2023 to 718 in 2024.

Roth said the county received $13 million in federal funds, which is specifically being used to set up homeless shelters on both sides of the island.

Alameda doesn’t think the census was an accurate depiction of the homeless population on Hawai‘i Island, saying: “It is not decreasing. Just look outside.”

Alameda noted there was a homeless sweep right before the count took place in Hilo, and just prior to the set up of the traveling Vietnam Memorial Wall in Hilo’s Bayfront area.

“So here’s the reality, people aren’t homeless because they ran out of money,” Alameda said. “People are homeless because they ran out of relationships because of addiction and mental health issues.”

Alameda said as mayor, his administration would be concerned about the “almost homeless,” those kūpuna living paycheck to paycheck and the foster children aging out of the system with no place to go.

The Native Hawaiian Council submitted a question to the candidates asking about their plans to build a regenerative tourism model that can support the economy and still honor native Hawaiian culture.

Alameda said the county needs to look at tourism differently. Right now, it’s extractive. “They take,” he said.

He thinks the state has taken steps in the right direction with Hawai‘i Tourism Authority’s establishment of the “Hawai‘i Pono Pledge,” that encourages visitors to commit to being responsible and respectful.

Alameda also thinks they should explore attacting different types of visitors.

“I think we should be the sports tourism capital, the health tourism capital in the United States,” he said.

Building on that, Roth said in the last four years his administration has worked closely with the state on a destination management plan. The key for the Big Island is to build tourism around the communities.

In regards to emergency preparedness, particularly wildfires, Roth said his administration has been working to address emergency access issues in Waikōloa Village, one of the driest and most vulnerable communities to wildfires.

Alameda said any place on the island that’s dry and windy is at risk for wildfires.

“We want communities to get excited about working together to avoid another Lāhainā,” he said.

If elected, he said he will set up a hotline where people can report risks in their community like overgrown brush.

In discussing military leases and the environmental impact on the U.S. Army Garrison’s Pōhakuloa Training Area, located at just over 6,000 feet above sea level between Mauna Loa and Mauna Kea along the Saddle Road region, Alameda said the military’s $1 per year lease on the land is an insult.

While he agreed that the military has been good stewards of the land, Alameda said they can do better and the public of the Big Island deserves better.

Roth said while it’s not the county’s decision on the future of those military leases, the county can express its views.

Roth said a military presence on Pōhakuloa has been beneficial to the county with its response to vehicle crashes and wildfires in the area or rescues on Mauna Kea.

Roth and Alameda also each asked one question of their opponent.

Alameda, born and raised on Hawai‘i Island, asked Roth, who moved to the South Pacific several years ago, where his ashes will be spread when he dies.

Roth, who first came to the island after dropping out of high school when he was 17, said he was taken in by a local Japanese family.

“I am what I am because of this island,” Roth said, noting his children were all born and raised here. “This is the place I want to bury my ashes.”

Roth posed a question to Alameda asking why he was sued by several former employees while he worked as CEO at the Bay Clinic.

According to a Hawai‘i News Now article in 2019, Alameda was accused of creating a hostile work environment.

“I don’t have a problem confronting my leadership team and they were leadership positions that I didn’t hire,” Alameda said in response. “When I have a vision and I have folks saying they want to be in that vision then lay out a plan. When leaders fall short of that plan, it’s not like they’re automatically fired.”

Alameda said if employees cannot address the problems they’ve been asked to correct over a long period of them, “I have to let them go. And that’s what happened at Bay Clinic and I’m proud of it.”

He added: “I would not let any person — friend, cousin, it doesn’t matter — get in the way of services for our island. I’ve always been like that and I’ll continue to be like at as your mayor.”

In conclusion, Alameda said he feels for the people of the Big Island.

“It’s such a humbling opportunity to have this experience and possibly be your leader.”

He asked the public not to be afraid of change.

“Change is good,” Alameda said. “I’m the right kind of change. We want to do better for this island because they deserve better.”

Roth ended the debate by saying the job as mayor is about problem solving: “And that’s exactly what we’re doing on this island.”