Our choices for City Council

There are places around the country where a city or town council office is considered a good starting point for a political career, but this isn’t one of them. Far from being an entry-level posting, each of the nine seats on the Honolulu City Council is considered a power brokerage, and experience counts in a big way.

Council members influence the use of land prized for its profit potential and for its role in sustaining the city’s population. Development is crucial to the tax base, but farm land and parks make Oahu liveable. Homelessness and other urban ills need the attention of those in control of city resources.

Most consequential of all, the future of the planned 20-mile elevated rail system — connecting East Kapolei with Ala Moana and points in between — hangs in the balance of this election.

Some of the Council’s six contested seats were settled in the primary election, but three races remain: Districts 1, 5 and 6. Here are the Star-Advertiser’s recommendations in these races:

District 1:

This district encompasses the Leeward Coast, the burgeoning communities of Kapolei and Makakilo, and some of the long-established Ewa Beach neighborhoods. It’s an area at the center of the debate over the rail system, and one with a great deal of former military lands, as well as agricultural acreage, being repurposed as Oahu’s "second city."

Of the two remaining candidates for the full four-year term, state Rep. Kymberly Pine is the best choice to represent such a dynamic region, preferable to the incumbent. Tom Berg won a special election in 2010 to finish the term of Todd Apo, who resigned to take a private-sector job.

Berg — who had worked as an aide to several lawmakers, including Pine, before his Council election — has been accessible to his constituents, a fixture at community meetings.

But there have been several upheavals swirling around him, including disputes with other Council members and an allegation that a staffer was doing campaign-related work on city time, a charge Berg wholly denies. It’s entirely possible that when the dust settles it will turn out to be interpersonal drama, but there’s been an awful lot of that. The district would be better served by someone who can be in the spotlight more for advancing basic improvements to roads and other city services.

Pine deserves a chance in that role, and because the Council is nonpartisan, she will be on a level playing field. As a Republican in the state House she had to contend with a Democratic majority that has been indifferent to GOP initiatives. Still, she did serve as an effective advocate for funds benefiting schools, roads and other projects for the Ewa area — and that’s what a growing district needs.

District 5:

Ann Kobayashi, the veteran Council representative for Kaimuki, Manoa and Makiki, should be returned to that role. Chairing the powerful budget committee for the Council has put her in a leadership post that can be advantageous for her constituents, with whom she has maintained strong links. She has been a vigorous opponent to the rail system and, while the Star-Advertiser disagrees with her on that point, it’s important to have a critic’s voice in the discussion of the project.

Kobayashi, 75, had contemplated retiring from the Council before this election but given the immediacy of several municipal projects — rail and the sale of city-owned subsidized housing among them — it’s reasonable that she would want to return for another term, and that her constituents would want her there.

Her opponent, James Hayes, offers thoughtful and intelligent views on everything from taxation to bus services. We hope that this newcomer to elective politics will find an entry point in a coming election season.

District 6:

The vacancy left by Tulsi Gabbard, who resigned to run for Congress, drew a jaw-dropping 16 candidates in a special election to fill out her term. From this diverse field, outgoing state Sen. Carol Fukunaga rises to the top.

Her leading competitor, former Councilman Jon Yoshimura, contends that he has Council experience and can most easily step in. But it’s tough to forget that he left that office under a cloud, having left the scene after hitting a parked car in 1999. Such mistakes shouldn’t be indelible marks, but when there are other candidates who are at least as qualified, it makes sense to give them a shot.

Fukunaga, who has long represented the Makiki, Punchbowl, McCully and Ala Moana areas, has an impressive resume listing community work, and her experience heading key legislative committees over the course of her 20 years at the Capitol should serve her in good stead in Honolulu Hale, as well.