Trevor Ozawa for Honolulu City Council, District 4 — Putting you first.

Local families are working harder than ever and still feeling squeezed. The Council's biggest lever is property taxes, so I'll push real relief for resident homeowners and kupuna on fixed incomes, and dig through the budget for waste. As Budget chair, I treated every city dollar like it came out of your pocket. Because it did. I don't just talk about watching your money. On the Council I stood up against higher costs on working families, even when that meant taking on the special interests pushing them, because that's what I was elected to do.

Showing up is the job. I went to neighborhood board meetings in person, in our valleys, on our ridges, from Waikiki to Hawaiʻi Kai and everywhere in between. I didn't ignore any corner of this district, because every neighborhood deserves someone who actually shows up and listens. That's where residents tell you what they really need, and that's where the work starts.

I've seen how this city works from more than one level, not just from the Council dais, and that perspective keeps me grounded. I'd rather be out with people than behind a desk, because that's where the real work happens. After our 2018 floods I funded year-round stream and culvert cleaning in ʻĀina Haina and Niu Valley so families weren't left to clean up alone, and I stayed focused on the basics you feel every day, like road repaving and sidewalk maintenance.

Accountability also means getting the priorities right. While our first responders and city workers fought for raises in the low single digits, and the city still struggles to fill thousands of vacant positions, Council pay jumped 64% in a single year, pushing salaries past six figures, and today sits roughly 86% higher than it did four years ago. We should take care of the people doing the work before anyone takes care of themselves.

Voters were so frustrated they amended the City Charter to cap these raises and take the decision out of the Council's hands. Our voters also set a two-term limit to keep power accountable. I believe in that. I'll serve the full term you elect me to, and I'll never forget who this seat belongs to.

Too many of our kids grow up here and can't afford to come home. I don't just talk about affordable housing, I've delivered it. I pushed the Lilia Waikīkī developer to keep its rentals affordable for 30 years, double the 15 they first offered. Going forward I'll cut slow, costly permitting, build smart around rail, and keep new homes for local residents, not out-of-state investors.

Hawaiʻi Kai is not the place for more high-rises. Major projects on our largest parcels should be planned with the community, not pushed over our heads. I'll insist on intentional, well-thought-out planning instead of hasty deals, and I'll make sure residents have a real seat at the table on the decisions that shape our neighborhoods. I'll also fix the permitting process so a homeowner doing an honest project isn't punished with years of delay.

Public safety is the foundation everything else rests on. I'll back our first responders and take property crime seriously. On homelessness, I'll pair real outreach and shelter through programs like HONU and CORE with consistent enforcement once a bed is offered. Beaches are not campgrounds, and families deserve safe parks. Compassion and accountability are not opposites. We need both.

Parks are where our keiki play and our families gather, and the basics have been neglected too long. I've fixed this before: I got Ala Moana's irrigation working so the grass came back green, replaced unsafe playgrounds at ʻĀina Koa and Hāhāʻione, and helped build the island's first city-park pickleball court at Koko Head District Park. The Kaimuki Municipal Parking Lot was the very first item I put in my capital budget, I got it into the pipeline, and it was completed shortly after I left office. I made municipal golf free for our keiki and did it revenue-neutral, smart solutions instead of new costs to taxpayers. And one of the first laws I passed required baby changing stations in public restrooms, men's and women's both, so every parent has them, not just moms.

Going forward I'll stand up and press for real upgrades, not patched-up versions of the same buildings I used as a kid. That means renovated rec centers and refreshed bathrooms, modern energy-efficient materials, safe playgrounds and courts, plus shade, trees, irrigation, and parking. These are shared places, and we take better care of what we understand. When we honor the history of these lands and the culture that was here long before any of us, we treat our parks and public spaces with real pride. Our parks and rec centers are where this community lives, and they deserve better.