Keani Rawlins-Fernandez
Photographer: Mickey Pauole
We’ve all heard it said, if the barges stop coming, we only have a few days worth of food. I don't necessarily agree with that. We have a lot of food. Our shelves might go bare, but what COVID has shown us is that we have a lot of food, but our distribution infrastructure needs investment.
Keani Rawlins-Fernandez is a kupa of Molokai. She and her husband, Makena Fernandez, reside on Molokai with their two children Iʻa and Kaʻikena. She is the current Maui County Council Member for Molokai, representing all of Maui County. Member Rawlins-Fernandez has a law degree specializing in Native Hawaiian Law and Environmental law, and master’s degree in business administration. She is the Maui County Council Vice-Chair, chair of the Economic Development and Budget Committee and was Chair of the Council’s Tax Reform Temporary Investigative Group. We caught up with the Maui County Councilmember on May 13, 2020.
How are you, what's it like to be elected official during a pandemic?
I think like most of us, I’m working really hard to find balance in an extremely challenging situation. I wanted to be a public servant because I am a problem solver by nature and I like to face challenges head-on. This pandemic has taken leadership under pressure to new heights for sure, but I can honestly say that I am grateful to be an elected official at a time when I can use my solutions-oriented skills to really help our community.
Overall, this has been an absolutely devastating time for our community. Especially our families that are just trying to figure out how they're gonna feed their kids next week. At the same time, we are being presented so many opportunities.
I am grateful to be an elected official at a time when I can use my solutions-oriented skills to really help our community.
One of the more obvious opportunities was finally getting the council to meet 100% online. When I ran for office in 2018, I said I wanted the Council to accept testimony from wherever a person is, not make the public take off from work and travel to central to share their mana’o. I pushed for that and I got a lot of resistance before COVID. With the pandemic, it forced us to move our meetings online, and with that, I was able to find a way for us to also accept both oral and video testimony online as well.
After a month of successful meetings, I was able to provide advice, guidance, and consultation to other agencies in moving their meetings online. I've become the go-to in trying to get other entities online because of all the budget meetings we held and accepted testimony.
Before this happened, there was a fear that if we opened up remote public testimony to anyone from where they are, that we would end up hearing testimony all day long and never get to deliberate and vote. Having three months of budget meetings every day has disproven and dispelled that fear. We took public testimony at nine o'clock every day and we would get on average, between 10 to 15 testifiers
Was the transition to online meetings, accepting public testimony, hard from a technical perspective? Was it momentous?
So I think with anything, whether you're planning a child's birthday party or getting the full council online, planning is key. Planning, preparing and delegating. Overthinking everything, every possible scenario of what could go wrong, that's what I did with my team. We practiced and practiced different scenarios, and that's what I did with the council as well.
I had just gotten back from a conference in DC and that was when things started to get real because there was an outbreak in Washington and we were starting to realize that it was going to make its way to Hawai’i and that things here would shut down, including the County building.
I was asked if I would cancel the district budget hearings, which are really important to our community. Historically, the district budget meetings have been the only guaranteed time that the community gets to meet with all of the council, in person, in their district. As a Molokai resident, I recognize how important that is. I held off as long as I could in canceling that until I knew for sure that it was inevitable. Eventually, I agreed to cancel the budget and district budget hearings, with the understanding that we were going to move everything online.
Historically, the district budget meetings have been the only guaranteed time that the community gets to meet with all of the council, in person, in their district. As a Molokai resident, I recognize how important that is.
Conducting a public hearing where you take testimony and then have deliberations, requires a lot of structure and organization. It also requires the software to have all the features necessary to maintain control and decorum.
I had a meeting set for March 20th, before the emergency proclamation came down from the governor and I had planned to do a practice run with the council. So on March 20th, if you go in and look at that EDB meeting, it's kind of fun to see us during the dry run of learning how to work with Blue Jeans. You push this button here, you push the microphone icon to mute yourself, you click on the video icon to turn off your camera or turn it on- step by step, we went through it all together. Helping to make it accessible for our council members and staff who felt less comfortable with the technology.
Was Maui County ahead of the curve? Have the other counties started doing the same? The State Legislature just came back into session for a little bit, but they're not taking testimony, correct?
No, they're not taking testimony. All the other councils are still meeting in person, and only accepting written testimony. We’re the only ones that have made the full transition, so we’re totally leading the way.
We understand you were able to secure a lot of funding for food security in the budget, based on what we're experiencing now and what we're expecting in the future.
Every year we put funding in the budget for farmer support organizations. Hawaii Farm Bureau gets about $350,000 and HFUU gets around $270,000, and then we put in funding for ag promotion, at around $100,000. This year there’s a couple of new line items. The way that the budget worked this year was I asked each council member to identify their top five district priorities and five County wide priorities.
Each council member submitted these and a number of the council members put in money for food. I put in around $100,000 for food security for the houseless and I put in the $2.5 million for micro-grants for farmers. Member King put in $75,000 for ‘Ohana Gardens and Member Paltin put in funding for a West Maui farmer training program, Member Sinenci put in money to support Common Ground Collective.
We received testimony from people who were out of work, brought to tears describing their hardships in figuring out how to feed their family next week. And you know, that's true for a lot of people, especially for the income generators that work in the tourism industry.
Food security seemed to get more attention this year than before. Was that motivated by COVID in the political minds of the members?
I think food security was already at front of mind for many of the members. It's a shared vision similar to affordable housing. But COVID pushed food security to the front of the line, as we are facing the sobering need not only to feed our people, but also to diversify our economy.
We received testimony from people who were out of work, brought to tears describing their hardships in figuring out how to feed their family next week. And you know, that's true for a lot of people, especially for the income generators that work in the tourism industry. Many school children were impacted because mommy and daddy lost their jobs when tourists stopped coming. These families have no money and unemployment totally dropped the ball. The checks weren’t coming in and the stimulus checks are still making their way. Even after the stimulus checks come in, that will only hold people over for so long before they're back to trying to figure out how to feed their family.
The noticeable changes are being led by the people who come from circles that are really struggling with what's happening right now.
Photographer: Mickey Pauole
Are there pivots happening now that you want to see continue post-COVID? Is there the political will to continue this movement to withdraw dependence on tourism and support our local agricultural economy?
As long as there are champions doing the work, it's harder to dispute the direction that those champions are taking. I believe that we have those champions on the council right now to continue the momentum in that direction even after the pandemic comes to an end.
What's happening right now with COVID-19, will likely not end with COVID-19. There will likely be another virus and we have to be prepared for that. The over-reliance on the tourism industry, even before this has been coming to a head. I think the pandemic, the shutdown, and the quarantines, have brought it further into the light that what we're doing is not sustainable.
Have you witnessed that shift in your colleagues who are considered to be more conservative, or do they think, ‘Oh, we're just going to hang on through COVID and then it's back to normal?’
I believe that they're totally willing to make that shift, but they won’t be the ones to lead that shift. I think that's a really important distinction because they're open to it, but they're not the ones that will come up with the tangible policy recommendations to move us in that direction. The system in place, works for them and their circles, so as far as they're concerned is fine. The noticeable changes are being led by the people who come from circles that are really struggling with what's happening right now.
From your perspective, what's needed from advocates and community at large, to help those legislators want to hop onto that shift.
I think right now because we’re in such unprecedented times, community advocates should consider coming to policymakers with shovel-ready ideas- that's key.
If community advocates could present policies and programs that have been vetted by the community and already have the support to hit the ground running. If they're ready to go, then those projects will have an easier time getting funded; a better chance of passing.
We're looking at having a more streamlined, easier application and reporting process, and providing the funding upfront. That's huge for farmers. Especially because if they had the money to buy a tractor, they would just buy the tractor.
With the $2.5 million micro-grant concept, we thought through all the criteria of what would make someone eligible for the grant, and settled on $25,000 or less, which came from statistics and research. You have to be a resident in our economy, you have to be a locally-owned and run agricultural business on twelve acres or less. Preference would go to minorities and women so that we're really helping the people who need the most help.
As a policymaker, you're in such a unique position to being able to witness the vulnerabilities of the community. Are there any outstanding vulnerabilities in the food system that have become even more apparent?
One of the policies that has presented a hurdle for individuals and small organizations in getting grants is that our policy requires the individual organization to front the money. So you have to already have resources and capital to buy the equipment or to pay for the supplies, and then you have to have the capital to be able to wait on the County to give you a reimbursement. So that's one of the policies that we’re working on, I hope to get that passed before the end of the fiscal year. [UPDATE: Bill 74 (2020) was signed into law 06/24/20: https://www.mauicounty.gov/DocumentCenter/View/122545/Ord-5105]
We're looking at doing it for grants under $50,000, which would affect most of our grants. 60% of our grants fall under $25,000. So for these smaller grants, we're looking at having a more streamlined, easier application and reporting process, and providing the funding upfront. That's huge for farmers. Especially because if they had the money to buy a tractor, they would just buy the tractor or refrigerated truck, or retrofitting a truck to become a refrigerator truck, in the case of Sustainable Molokai.
Through our interviews, we’ve realized that the COVID experience differs island to island. Keani, can you wear your Molokai district hat and give us a peek into how Molokai is feeding their community?
Absolutely. So when this first happened, the immediate concern was for our kūpuna and making sure that they have food. So our office called all the different kūpuna organizations, to see how they could use our help. Everyone's concern was “Don’t let the kūpuna starve!” It reflects our island's values that our kūpuna are our cherished and valuable resource. That was number one, and then the Dept. of Education launched their grab-n-go meals, which took care of the kids.
Then the homesteaders that have farms, Sust’ainable Molokai, fishermen, hunters, everyone who practices gathering or farming,- they volunteered their catch, their produce, or their deer. We had a lot of sharing for those that needed food.
Are you feeling the pressure on the food system from Young Brothers having cut back their schedule on shipments?
Well, they just did that. This week is the first week. I submitted testimony against it. The normal Young Brother’s sail schedule is that they arrive at Molokai on Sunday and Wednesday nights. On Monday and Thursday, they take freight from Molokai to Oahu.
My understanding is by cutting it down to only Monday, for those that raise and ship ungulates, (cattle and goats) their animals would have to sit on the pier for the weekend. We would have chosen Thursday, but unfortunately for our community, we weren't given the courtesy of choice.
Okay, so Molokai is shipping out live animals to be processed? Is there no slaughterhouse?
We have a slaughterhouse, but it costs so much, to have the USDA staff. It’s sufficient for local use, to break down animals for your own ‘ohana, but not for sale. Our slaughterhouse purchases cattle and provides fresh, USDA certified meat though Sustainable Molokai. For example, my family raised cattle and then we sold it to the slaughterhouse, and then they processed it and sold it themselves. For some people, that can be a good supplemental business.
In the ideal scenario, we're feeding Molokai from Molokai. and at the same time we're infusing money into Molokai’s community. Making sure that our community also has money to buy other essential needs like toilet paper.
The cost of processing and USDA certification has certainly been a obstacle for local, non-profit hunger relief efforts, rendering them unable to take venison from community members.
Additionally, there are also so many hurdles to USDA certification. In order to take the deer to the slaughter-house, you have to pack out the full animal and bring it in within four hours of the hunt. Oftentimes hunters are going for multiple deer and most of the places that you hunt are not vehicle accessible. The timing is really hard.
It may be possible to accept donated venison, but there was also the hope to also get money to the community.
This has revealed another obstacle to donating local protein to the community for non-profits that wanted to utilize hunger relief grant money, as a means to support our local hunters. In the ideal scenario, we're feeding Molokai from Molokai. and at the same time we're infusing money into Molokai’s community. Making sure that our community also has money to buy other essential needs like toilet paper.
As far as the cost of inspectors, I think we need to identify exactly what the problem is. I don't think it's because we lack inspectors. I think hiring the inspector is what costs money. So if that was less, I’ve always wondered about having certified volunteer inspectors willing to donate their time in the case of hunger relief efforts.
The protein bottleneck at the slaughterhouses has been revealed as a big vulnerability all across Hawai’i during this period, if somebody brought you a shovel ready policy or something thereabouts that it could get streamlined a little bit?
In the budget session through a joint effort between Councilmembers Sugimura and Molina, they provisioned $75,000 out of the Maui Farm Bureau’s funding to give money to Maui’s Decoite slaughterhouse for upgrades, based on rancher testimony, to aid in the processing of local beef.
I would love for this to be the moment, and I think it's already starting to unfold this way, that Maui County breaks from an overreliance on the unsustainable and destructive aspects of the tourism industry and pivots to real food security, food independence, and the development of new industries.
One of our favorite questions is how do you think this moment will be described in the history books of the future?
I would love for this to be the moment, and I think it's already starting to unfold this way, that Maui County breaks from an overreliance on the unsustainable and destructive aspects of the tourism industry and pivots to real food security, food independence, and the development of new industries.
What kind of industries would that be in your vision?
I have so many ideas, but specifically, regarding the food system, there are several things.
The question should be: what do we need to do to feed our children our locally grown food? But instead, during council testimony, you had farmers saying ‘we need the hotel industry because they buy our produce’.
So we feed the tourists all the best food that Maui County produces, right? And yet we send our children to public school and they get fed imported, nutritionally deficient food. It’s not even real chicken nuggets, it’s not even real beef. It's disgusting, factory-farmed, basically the grossest that they have to offer.
Institutional purchasing by the school system also represents a huge economic opportunity for those farmers that think that they can only get paid by selling to the tourist economy. I believe we should pay our farmers the money that they rightfully deserve, to feed our children.
That's all part of nourishment and investment in our next generation. If we feed them nutritionally deficient food, then their brain is not going to develop as well as it could. So that's one.
In terms of food security, I am worried most when I look at Oahu, with people waiting in line for four or more hours for boxes of food.
We’ve all heard it said, if the barges stop coming, we only have a few days worth of food. I don't necessarily agree with that. We have a lot of food. Our shelves might go bare, but what COVID has shown us is that we have a lot of food, but our distribution infrastructure needs investment.
Hotels shut down, now we have all this food and we were not able to sell all this food that's being produced. So even if the barges don't come, we already are producing all this food. It's not a system that we have to invent and wait months for it to mature. We already have the system going.
If schools are going to increase their local purchasing, it's likely going to be more than what is already allotted their food budget. Another factor in funding school lunch programs is the deal that the federal Department of Education has with the different factory farms and mass producers like Tyson's meat. Mass production not specifically for Hawaii, but for the entire US Continent. We’re up against this centralized, industrial food system and all these schools that sign onto the DOE program, which insures that everyone's kids are getting fed this nutritionally deficient food.
Who is inspiring you right now in the efforts to feed our communities?
Right now, my hero is Sust’ainable Molokai because they’ve really stepped up in coordinating the other non-profits, both on- and off-island, to orchestrate the supply chain - from immediately accessing federal, private, and state funding to pay our farmers and fishermen to get food into the hands of our community members. So many of our community organizations and individuals have volunteered or shifted time toward collectively maintaining the well-being of everyone, from keiki to kupuna, but it really was Sustainable Molokai who spearheaded many of the efforts on the ground. Like with many funding efforts, without someone being willing to apply for, manage, monitor, and report on the grants to ensure accountability, funding would get stuck at the top and never make it to actually helping those that need it.
Mahalo Councilmember Rawlins-Fernandez for taking the time to share your experience with us.
Photographer: Mickey Pauole