East Oahu voters are fortunate to have two viable candidates to fill the City Council District 4 seat. However, when push gets to shove, my vote definitely goes to Trevor Ozawa.

Ozawa has already proven to be a highly effective City Council member: intelligent, articulate and so respected that he was slated to lead the Council. We need Ozawa to continue to be a strong voice on the Council, and especially someone to maintain the balance of power between the mayor and the Council.

Badly needed is a watchdog who will challenge the mayor’s many attempts to raise property taxes and runaway rail costs, and to vet other tax-raising measures. We already are excessively overtaxed.

I have been a lifelong advocate of rail as a needed transportation alternative for already congested Oahu. However, I am terribly disappointed that the mayor and the city have demonstrated extremely poor management and oversight of the rail system.

We cannot have a Council that will blindly approve everything that the mayor wants. Someone has to stop him, and that man is Trevor Ozawa.

Ed Uchida

Hawaii Kai

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