Name on ballot:

Jeffrey Lindner

Running for:

Political party:

No answer submitted

Campaign website:

LiNDNERFORKAUAICOUNCIL.COM

Current occupation:

Agricultural Land Development

Age:

72

Previous job history:

devoloping communties on agricultural land on Kauai

Previous elected office, if any:

No answer submitted

Please describe your qualifications to represent the people of your district?

As an agricultural subdivision developer for over 35 years, I know the land rights.
And some of those basic rights on land zoned agriculture are missing. The government needs to restore those.

What is the most pressing issue facing the voters you seek to represent, and how would you address the problem?

I am seeking to represent a pressing reality upon which seen will give clarity to action. The State and County governments were formed on the predominant principle there’s a special class of land development rights that exist and have to be thought of first. And that development right included the power to give certain land classifications very little rights, and the rights that were given could be taken back. Agricultural classification was just a name the plantations gave to the rest of the land they owned but didn’t have any development plans for. And that land was to be held in reserve to protect and enhance the value and power of the development rights they gave themselves. That’s how it is, and that’s not right.

The government helped take away the right to live on agricultural classified land from the very beginning. The government owes those people the opportunity they took away to serve inherent special interests. The State and County owe private residences, not public. They gave your right for residency to private interests, they can take it back from them. That’s their problem because your right is real.

What would you propose to improve traffic congestion on the island of Kauai?

It’s hard when the government has a policy to not develop agricultural land, and has removed any possibilty of development by forcing sales to billionaires who have no plan on developing. The thought is if you widen and improve roads outside urban areas, it will bring pressure from people who want to live there. And scenic roadways trump housing.

The congestion isn’t in the town cores because all the Federal funds spent for traffic
control are spent there..

What are the best ways for county government to alleviate homelessness and to increase the availability of affordable housing?

The county government has to first stop representing land owners and their special rights,
and understand how far the government has gone to disregard the person who depends on a housing market for limited income workers but saves their money. Development rights were designed to be able to hold that right at little cost. So sitting on them and waiting for the price to go up is the best thing to do. That’s where we are today. By the county not raising their values, rights have been held for 40 and 50 years. The price keeps going up, why sell? Permits should have a time limit so it forces housing opportunities to the residents during their working life.

The Additional Dwelling unit should be immediately re-instated which was taken away 15 years ago. How and at what cost have the citizens been denied basic rights from the government agricultural policy that serves another class of land by removing housing density, and increasing their market value due to scarcity.

What can the county do to help Kauai residents cope with the overall high cost of living in Hawaii?

Coping with the high cost of housing or rent is the biggest monetary challenge. The real challenge is the county doesn’t want to help with housing so what can you do? The county can increase the density on agricultural land.

How prepared is the county to deal with a major natural disaster and what would you do to improve preparedness and responsiveness?

To be prepared for natural disasters, you have to invest in the whole Island. The government is not set up that way. Some areas are not meant for investment. Dilemna’s come up.
If the water resource is developed to supply water for the whole island, the likelihood is that will bring more development to agricultural land, so the county errs in favor of no development. That is why there is not enough water supply to even take care of the Urban land. Recently, the two houses burned down in Hanalei when there was not enough flow from the fire hydrant to use it. The fire department has to rely on the water in their trucks to put out fires often.

The government has to earmark and spend the money to develop water resources that can serve the whole island, even though they have to pay for it, and it increases density in agricultural areas.

The State has to stop helping the county hold up water resource development. The State controls the water, they don’t want to run the systems. They don’t make the county provide
an adequate level of health and safety by forcing them to build it. The state should provide the funding, and give no excuse to getting it done. It’s a basic need.

What measures, if any, should county government take to regulate short-term vacation rentals?

The county has taken major measures involving vacation rentals.
First, they are highly restricted in areas. They are mostly in Visitor Designation areas.
That means when the government was planning housing development, they didn’t think about worker housing. The policy was to develop tourism. Now you can go and tax them to
to your hearts content, but that isn’t going to change the fact there is no housing because the government didn’t plan for any. And the additional tax raised is not going to come anywhere close to replace that housing market they never planned and never provided.

Vacation rental is used to regulate how little taxes hotels and resorts pay. Hotel assessments have gone up about 100% in the last 20 years. Vacation Rental assessments
have gone up 200% in the same time period, and are paying a higher tax rate.
The government needs to blame some other factor than their own zoning policies for the housing crisis, and at the same time shift the tax burden on to some other not so favored land class.

What more needs to be done to reduce crime on the Garden Island?

We need best role models and organizational models. The origin of our government, formed where a single person, in the broadest terms, can take away basic rights of people and property, is not an ideal model when trying to teach real ownership. A culture that came to acquire and possess land for themselves and create a government to ensure their special status, is not a role model. It is just a phenomena of greed and power. One only has to look at all the other rights taken from the Hawaiians, before the land, to understand, it’s an oppressive government.

Yet we are being played as if this is a “divine right of possession” we must honor.

We had a model where the native’s knowledge understood the totality of all nature
together is the divine truth, and it dwells within you.

We need to figure out how that was lost, and how we ended up with what we have.

What will be your top priority if elected?

The top priority is to seek equal protection of use of agricultural land for the people in whatever way works, political, or legal, from the State, or Federal government. The housing crisis is created from special class landowners and government who care more about increasing land values of a few, and maintaining an economy that only serves a select monetary class. The State was formed out of Territorial land owners who had mapped out what rights they have, and wanted to carry over as a state. Turns out their right of ownership
is extensive, their ownership of land can cancel your ownership, even if you legally own it. Density was determined a long time ago. It is limited. It involves the time of everyone to first allow the special class property right owners to restrict growth and enjoy all their development rights to their fullest satisfaction. The problem is they are never satisfied. That is where we are at, and it’s a bad deal for the people.

Streamlining permiting processes by appointing individuals to give the permits isn’t going to do anything for housing. It’s the land that is missing, and it was taken illegally by the government. The opportunity is owed to those from who it was taken, and to those who deserve the right. For private housing, not public.

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Is there anything more that you would like voters to know about you?

No answer submitted