Big Isle councilwoman was class act with vision

With today’s poisonous politics, it’s worth noting the passing at 87 last month of Josephine Regala Yadao DeLuz, a former Hawaii island councilwoman who exemplified civility and class in public office.

Jo was thrust into politics in 1966 when appointed to the Hawaii Island County Council to fill the seat of her late husband, Elias Yadao.

She won two terms in her own right and served 10 years — leading the powerful Public Works Committee while devoting herself to her primary job as the single mother of four children.

One of the few women in office, she treated others with respect and expected the same from them, serving as a steady presence in the rough-and-tumble world of island politics.

She intelligently grilled builders and engineers who came before her committee as she made sure the county’s building program served the future and was fairly allocated among the island’s sprawling districts.

What made Jo stand out most was a broad worldview that was rare in local government at the time — and remains somewhat so even today.

As a kid who grew up in Kilauea, Kauai, she was local to her core and a fighter for rural sugar workers, but she had an adventurous spirit and strong desire to see the world.

As a teen, she toured the mainland with her church choir. She gave up college music studies to accompany her husband to Washington, D.C., for his law degree.

The travels taught her it’s a big world and there’s more than one way to skin a cat, a point she constantly made on the Council when confronted with arguments that “this is the way we’ve always done it.”

Forward thinking was ironically her political undoing in 1976 when the Council passed a controversial measure to fluoridate the island’s water supply to improve children’s dental health.

Voters weren’t ready for it and passed a referendum overturning fluoridation; while they were at it, they ousted six of the nine Council members, including Jo.

She took amusement when the chaotic new Council soon caused cries to “bring the rascals back.”

After politics, she completed studies at the University of Hawaii at Hilo in business, traveled widely and involved herself in the ranching life of her second husband, businessman David DeLuz.

Covering news on a neighbor island is different from the big city; you don’t just see elected officials at meetings and on TV, but also at KTA, Cafe 100 and potlucks at Wailoa State Park.

It requires a personal relationship as well as a professional one that can be awkward when stories are critical.

But with Jo, she understood my job and I understood hers, and we could always talk out differences civilly and constructively.

Then we’d head for the potluck line and move the conversation to more pleasant topics.

Reach David Shapiro at volcanicash@gmail.com.