Former state lawmaker to seek City Council seat

Former state representative and Hawaii Democratic Party chairman Alex Santiago said Saturday that he intends to run for the District 1 seat held by embattled City Councilman Tom Berg.

Santiago emphasized that his decision to return to political life came after months of consideration and was not motivated by Berg’s recent troubles involving an confrontation with Secret Service agents at an Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation function at the Hale Koa Hotel.

"This was not recently decided upon," Santiago said. "I’d been thinking about it and talking about it with my family and I felt that with all the skills I have amassed in the Legislature and in the community in the private and nonprofit sectors, I wanted to use those skills for the community.

"I want to stay away from any negative comments about the incumbent so that they will vote for me and not against him," he said.

Santiago represented the North Shore in the state House of Representatives between 1990 and 2000. He also led the Hawaii Democratic Party from 2003 to 2004. Since leaving political office, Santiago has worked as executive director of PHOCUSED, a nonprofit health and human services organization, and as a private consultant.

Santiago said his priorities are to improve infrastructure in his district, prioritize the city budget, promote economic development and diversity, develop a strategy for sustainable and balanced growth, and empower the community.

"Leeward Oahu and the Ewa region have literally become the dumping ground for our island," he said, referring the Waimanalo Gulch Landfill.

Santiago, who has lived in Makaha for the past seven years, also identified the Honolulu rail transit project as a key concern.

"I make the commute from Makaha every day and I sit in traffic with thousands of others," Santiago said. "I believe we need to do this (rail) and do it right. If I’m elected I’ll make sure that when the city embarks on this tremendously big project — the biggest project we have ever embarked upon — we will hold the people in oversight positions responsible for it."

Meanwhile, Berg is facing additional pressure from those seeking to have him impeached. A letter sent this weekend to news media and posted on social media sites by the "Committee to Impeach Tom Berg" is calling for West Oahu residents to sign a petition seeking Berg’s removal on the basis of his "unethical behavior and his repeated violations of the City’s code of conduct," among other things.

The letter refers readers to an anti-Berg website and promises that evidence of Berg’s supposed misdeeds will be posted on Monday.

The contact address listed on the letter is the same used by former Berg aide Eric Ryan, who launched similar media campaign against state Rep. Kymberly Marcos Pine, another former employer, earlier this year.