Roth’s nominee raises concerns
We have recently become aware of the fact that Mayor-elect Mitch Roth has nominated Zendo Kern to serve as Hawaii County Planning Director. We are writing to express our strong reservations about this nomination for several reasons:
1) Kern is a consultant for KV3, which is promoting the development of Royal Kona Village. This matter is to be brought to the Hawaii County Council next month and his nomination would result in an obvious and serious conflict of interest.
2) Kern, together with the principals from the development firm KV3 (Richard Wheelock, Robert Williams and Roland Higashi) have donated over $10,000 to Mitch Roth’s campaign. This also presents an obvious conflict of interest for Kern and the entire incoming administration.
3) Kern’s professional website has been deactivated and there is no way to establish his credentials online.
The council should already be aware of the fact that the proposed development of Royal Kona Village has already received negative input from the community, primarily focused on increased area traffic and inadequate schools, water supply, etc. There is also the concern about archaeological findings on the property.
We urge the council to reject this nomination and urge the mayor-elect to nominate a person who has the community’s interests, rather than his own gain, at heart. We supported Roth and sincerely expected more concern for the community and transparency from the incoming administration.
Arthur and Maureen Felix
Kailua-Kona
Help keep Hawaii safe
Not sure why we are not hearing more about the Aloha Safe App? It should be mentioned on every Civil Defense update, required for all incoming visitors, (a front-page West Hawaii Today article might help), and be an active part of our response to the COVID-19 crisis. It simply works in the background and informs you if you have been near someone that has tested positive for the virus. It is expected to decrease the number of needed contact tracers, especially when you have a high adoption rate. It will notify people faster if they might be infected, so they can be tested and take steps to keep others safe. The app is free on iTunes and the Google App store. Please install it today to help keep Hawaii safe.
Robert McAllister
Mauna Lani
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