Representative Sylvia Luke

MM Okay. Hello. Today is August 19th, 2020. This is an interview with the Center for Oral History at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa for our Hawaiʻi Life in the Time of COVID-19 project. The time is 10:04 a.m. and this interview is being conducted via Zoom. I am in Honolulu on Zoom, and we are here today with Representative Sylvia Luke. So thank you for your time today, Representative. I guess to start things off, can you can you state your name for the record and say where you are calling in from?

SL Sure. Aloha, this is Sylvia Luke. I'm in my office in downtown Honolulu, Hawaiʻi.

MM Thank you. And can you tell us when and where you were born?

SL Sure. I was born in Seoul, Korea, in 1967. I immigrated to Hawaiʻi with my family in 1977 when I was nine years old.

MM And can you tell me a little bit about what your parents did and why they decided to come to Hawaiʻi?

SL Sure. My father was a export-importer salesperson, and so he, in Korea, did a lot of business and work with Hawaiʻi, and so he traveled a lot when we were growing up. I'm one of three kids and I'm the eldest. We rarely saw our dad because he traveled a lot. And so at some point in time, we were told that because he did a lot of work in Hawaiʻi, it was better for us to all move to Hawaiʻi, relocate to Hawaiʻi so that he can continue his business from Hawaiʻi as opposed to flying back and forth.

MM Thank you. And so besides South Korea, Seoul and here in Hawaiʻi, what other places have you lived?

SL That's it. So from when I was born to immigration to Hawaiʻi, I just lived either in Seoul, South Korea, or in Hawaiʻi. And that's background about my father. My mother was a housewife. So when she came to Hawaiʻi, you know, she did different work, but primarily, prior to retirement, she was a secretary administrative assistant for her church.

MM Thank you. And when you came to Hawaiʻi, what schools did you attend: elementary, middle and high school?

SL So when I first came I was nine years old. The interesting thing about the school system in Korea versus Hawaiʻi is that Korean school system starts in the spring, so it starts around March and it ends in December or shortly thereafter. So it follows a calendar year as opposed to kind of a similar to a fiscal year as in the United States. So because I was late-born, so, for instance, well, I am a December-born, and because of that I started school one year late because, you know, instead of being the youngest one, they admitted me. . . . I think they held me back a year. So I remember starting school in the third grade when I was in Korea. And then we just barely started school because we started in March and then we uprooted and we came to Hawaiʻi. As you know, in May is pretty much the end of the school year. So what had happened is because I was enrolled in third grade, it didn't make sense because of my age. It didn't make sense. They calculated and technically I was supposed to be in the fourth grade, but it didn't make sense for me to go to school for just three weeks or just finish up that school year. So I didn't attend school right away. So imagine the shock when I actually enrolled in fifth grade a few months after. So I started in the beginning of third grade and then I actually ended up in the fifth grade. So sometimes when I look back on my childhood, I think there's this big void in what happened, because it's kind of a shock between, you know, just kind of a lower elementary to kind of the, you know, fifth grade was almost like leaving elementary school.

So that was kind of a, I think, a challenging and interesting time for both me and my siblings. I'm the eldest of three, so my brother is two years younger than me--or three years younger than me--and my sister is five years younger than me. So I was nine. So my sister was four at that point. She already had her birthday, so she was five at that point. So, you know, I mean, she was barely in preschool and then, you know, come to find that now she has to go to school. So I think it was kind of a big adjustment for all of us. But, you know, I mean, looking back, I went to---So the first year, the fifth grade, I went to [Queen] Kaʻahumanu Elementary School, and then because we lived in the Makiki area, we attended [President Abraham] Lincoln Elementary [School], and then we moved to Paoa. So we always lived in the urban Honolulu area.

And I remember just in Kaʻahumanu, the teachers I had were just so very caring and thoughtful. And they refused to send me to ESL classes, and they just took time off after school to spend extra time with me and help me learn English. And that was just amazing experience just looking back. And so you know that just made me have just such fond memories of teachers and just appreciation because you know the teachers in Korea--in South Korea--are very, very strict. And, you know, it was a different experience. And I just, I just remember being so overwhelmed that you know these teachers were so thoughtful and caring. So you know for all of us, we didn't learn---We didn't know a single English word when we moved and so on through the summer from when we came to Hawaiʻi to before we enrolled in our schools. And at that point in time it was September as opposed to, you know, late July now, right.

My dad taped, for instance, alphabets all around the house. So it will be in the bathroom and there will be a picture of the apple and it would say "A - Apple". So I remember having all these, like, taped up sheets all over the house, wherever you go. And then, you know, we had to watch a lot of Sesame Street. So I think, okay, so I think that caused a lot of confusion between whether certain words were English or Spanish because, you know, Sesame Street had a lot of Spanish word. So I was like okay, is "agua" (laughs), you know, water? So I think that kind of added to some confusion in early years. But, you know, just thinking back, I mean, kids are so resilient because just thinking about not knowing a single language, to just learning a new language and coping and you know adjusting, you know, I just can't believe that we struggle through it.

I remember the first thing that came into my mind when I went to school in fifth grade. My biggest fear was how am I going to find the bathroom because it didn't have those stick figure figurines back then. It spelled out girls, because, you know, nowadays we have come so far that we are much more, I guess, kind of open to making sure that, you know, people have easier time with either reading or writing or understanding and understanding even the struggles of English learners. So you know the bathroom actually spilled out G-I-R-L-S and then the boys B-O-Y-S. The whole, the whole, morning, I was thinking, "Okay, how am I going to find a bathroom because (laughs) so I think I just waited until some bunch of girls went into some room and I just like followed them along (laughs).

So those are like the memories. All the, all the other pictures around the house, even in the restrooms, and the struggle with finding a restroom. So clearly in my childhood restrooms had a significant part (laughs), whether at home or at school.

MM Well, thank you for sharing that (laughs) Those are such wonderful, vivid memories. How about, did your parents speak any English?

SL Yeah. So they both attended college in Korea. And I think my father also did some schooling in the States. I'm not quite sure which one, but they were, they spoke English pretty well. My father more so than my mom.

MM So at home, did they also help, like trying to get you adjusted to school and using, learning English?

SL Right. So they tried to speak English, too, in addition to Korean. The unfortunate thing is language is such that you have to continue, otherwise you're going to lose it. So, for instance, my brother doesn't speak any Korean now because he has not, because I think our parents tried so hard to get us to learn English in a very short amount of time, that resulted in my brother not being able to speak Korean at all or understand Korean at all. My sister, who came here when she was five, she actually had to attend Korean school to learn back some of the Korean words. And so even for me, I can speak just very little because, you know, it was pretty much elementary school education. But unless you continue to practice, you know, you tend to lose a lot.

MM Yeah, thank you. And then, so you went to Kaʻahumanu and then Lincoln and then what about high school?

SL Right. So and then I went to [Prince David] Kawānanakoa Middle School and I had really fun memories at Kawānanakoa Middle School. And then I went to [President Theodore] Roosevelt High School. Kawānanakoa Middle School, there was this biology teacher who I found really inspiring, and he studied, he, he had, he grew different types of orchids because he was into genetics and that got me interested in genetics. And so what I wanted to do, I continued to be interested in genetics when I went to high school. And so specifically, I was interested in a strain of fruit flies called Drosophila flies because they had simple gene structure. So it was easy to manipulate the genes through cross breeding. And so that was kind of the--from what I understand--it was a simple form of genetics and I thought that was really interesting, and I really enjoyed science. So the teacher, the biology teacher, inspired me to continue studying genetics or, you know, that type of hereditary field. And when I was at Roosevelt High School, I did--I think it could have been more than a year--but I did study one of the things you can take the morning and study at UH [University of Hawaiʻi] and do some research projects at UH. So I did that at UH and got credit for it because I had enough credits to graduate. And so I did you konw scientific studies at the College of Tropical Agriculture because they had different type of Drosophila flies research. So even back then, you know, I'm 52 now, but even back then, which was 30 something years ago, you know, the school system was very flexible, allowing kids who wanted to do different things to venture into things because, I mean, with my interest in genetics I mean you know I would have been, I wouldn't have had the experience doing college type research if the school wasn't open. So throughout my life, you know I mean can see how educators and the public school system really helped to shape people and provide significant amount of support and influence, and it's to the credit of all those individual inspiring educators, and that's why you know even in my current, current role as a State Representative, I remember the significant impact on those educators on young kids' lives.

MM Well, thank you. That's great. And can you explain---So you were just talking about your interest in genetics from like middle school into high school, and that's a very different trajectory from where you are today. So when did you start to develop your interest in politics and civil service?

SL Right. So I was at graduated from high school in 1985 from Roosevelt and with all, with the goal of doing genetic research and continuation of that type of work at University of Hawaiʻi. So I enrolled at University of Hawaiʻi and the only way I could study Drosophila flies was through the College of Tropical Agriculture. So the College of Tropical Agriculture, the focus of Drosophila flies at that point was really on agriculture because Drosophila flies and fruit flies had a significant impact on the papaya industry. And so there was a lot of focus on, okay, how do you eradicate certain types of Drosophila flies and fruit flies from damaging our papaya industry? Because so much focus was on that, I felt that that wasn't really for me. And if that was the only way I could study Drosophila flies, I thought, okay, you know, I didn't really want to go into specific microbiology or chemistry field. I wanted to do much more genetics work with fruit flies. So that was kind of. . . . So at that point in time, I looked at what type of courses that I take and what would I want to do.

The other thing I was always interested in was, you know, student government and civic participation. And so while I was struggling through my major, I participated as a senator for the, what's known as ASUH, which is the Associated Students of University of Hawaiʻi, which is the student government arm for student body at UH. So I was elected senator and I got to meet a lot of---I made a lot of good friends. I actually met my husband because he was a fellow senator and then in one year or half a year, I guess one-and-a-half, in 1988 I believe, I was elected president of the student body. At that point in time apparently there was, the last time they had a female student body president was over 10 years ago. I didn't really understand the implication of that because I just ran because I believe I would do a good job. But, you know, I mean even back then after I got elected and someone said, "okay, you know, the last time there was a female president was over 10 years ago." And I thought, okay, that's pretty significant. And so I tried to continue to remember that. And even as my role now, even if you yourself don't think that you serve as a role model, you're going to be a role model to somebody. And somebody is going to look at you and say, okay, you know, "Is she the kind of person I want to be or try to become?" And so I think as a State Representative, you have a duty not to just do your job good, but, you have a responsibility to be a role model for others to come. So that was pretty significant.

Some key, interesting individuals I served with: So when I was president, the other individual who ran against me, or I ran against him, was Mark Takai. And we became very, very good friends. And until his death know I was the emcee at his funeral and we remained good friends, you know, throughout his life. So Mark Takai and I served at ASUH at the same time. Scott Saiki, who is the current speaker, was either an officer or affiliated with what's known as campus center board. So campus center board did a lot of activities. They were the activity portion as opposed to ASUH, which was the student government portion. So Scott Saiki, I knew him while I was at UH and he was very close to Mark at that time as well. Mark Nakashima, who is the current vice speaker, was also an officer of CCB, campus center board. So as you can see, just from my short time at UH I was able to meet a lot of individuals who I consider them as my very good friends till now, and I consider them as mentors and peers. Scott and Mark ran for public office in '94. And those two individuals are the ones who encouraged me to run in '98. So we kept close contact from college and it's amazing. I mean, the people you meet along your lifetime and the impact they have and the relationship that comes out of it is just, you know, it's just kind of, kind of awesome, right? I don't know what the word is, and I'm sure you also, along your life, met with some close friends and, you know, 20 years from now, you remember back and go, "Hey, you know what? That person was my friend from back then." And so it's comforting because, you know, individuals, you want to meet individuals before they get into office because you have a deeper appreciation of their true character and true values. And so I consider them my very close friends.

MM Thank you. And then just a quick follow up, I guess for the record, you mentioned meeting your husband while serving in the associated student body at UH. Can you say what his name is for the record and what was he doing for ASUH?

SL So my husband's name is Michael, and his name is Michael Luke. I took his last name and he was a senator, I believe, for the College of Engineering. And so he and I met while serving as senator, senators for ASUH. And we got to be very good friends first. And I graduated in '89, he graduated in 1990 from UH, and we started dating when we were at UH and we continued to date and now we're happily married and we have one son. My son's name is Logan, Logan Luke. But then we waited a long time before we had our son, only so that, I mean, we could do things as a couple and then we could devote our life to our son.

MM Yeah, I have more follow up questions later about your family. So after you graduated from UH, you went to law school, but I think you had a short, like, gap year or two before that.

SL Right.

MM Can you, can you tell me about that time?

SL I graduated from UH in 1989, December 1989. And. . .

MM What was your degree in from UH?

SL It was Bachelor of Arts in English, because I wanted to go to law school. At that point in time because I graduated in December and schools don't start until the fall, so I had a semester that I could do something. And at that point in time, I remember somebody telling me, okay, you know, "If you have a semester, you know, from January to May, I found you this job, and it will be hard, but, I think you'll fit right in." And guess what it was it was working for the Finance Committee with the State House of Representatives.

But the other thing was, I also had an opportunity to go attend university in Korea to refine my Korean language and go back again, you know, have a better appreciation of the culture and the people. So I opted to do that. And so it would have been interesting if I took that Finance Committee job knowing that, you know, it's full circle and now I'm the chair of finance. But, you know, I mean, it's kind of a not a once in a lifetime, but it was an opportunity I didn't want to pass up. So I studied in this international program at the Yonsei University in Korea and it was the international program had different Korean American students from around the US who wanted to go back, similar to me, wanted to go back and re-learn the language, have better appreciation for the culture, and it was, you know, they had a really good program. And I got to meet with people who, I remember having this one guy who was from Kansas and he was adopted and he said he hasn't seen another Asian person ever. And so he thought, you know, he just looked, he was just different and so to come to Korea and just see, like, a whole country full of people who look like him. And he said, you know, he couldn't even put in words what that felt like. Going through your whole life, not having the experience to see another Asian individual, I think it has different types of issues. And so I think the parents, that's really thoughtful for the parents. But the parents, I think, had a significant amount of sympathy and empathy for the child and sent him back to spend a semester in Korea. And he just appreciated and loved the experience so much. And so that was my one semester of international studies. And just from one semester, some of the words that I forgot, it comes back quickly. And then sometimes, you know, you say certain phrases and you just don't understand why you say it. But then, you know, you're learning the grammar, you could you could see, okay, why you are saying it the way that it's being said, right. So before I was just going by feel. But then now, just learning the language, re-learning the language, I got to see, okay, why you have to say it a certain way. So it was a really good six months.

After that, through that experience, I thought, okay, you know, before I dive into law school, I'm just going to make sure that this is what I really wanted to do. So I took two years off and worked at a law office just to see if that's what I wanted to do. So I worked as a paralegal or legal assistant for one of the downtown firms. And that was that was fulfilling because, you know, law is not what you see on TV where, you know, people go and, you know, all of a sudden you go, oh, I object. And then, you know, there's a smoking gun. And that's not how it is. You know, it's a lot of reading and researching and writing. And, you know, you have a different appreciation for what the law and the legal system is all about. So, you know, and then and then I decided, okay, this is it. I mean, I told myself I'm going to go to law school so I am. So in 1993--‘92? ’92, maybe--I enrolled at the University of San Francisco School of Law because I went to UH undergrad. In order to have a better appreciation of the nation and the world, and I thought it was important for me to go away, so I did.

And a lot of local kids, you know, if you lived in Hawaiʻi all your life, you don't really completely understand all the struggles and all the racial dynamics and all of the different type of prejudice if you just stay here. But to have an appreciation of the special place that Hawaiʻi is and to have an appreciation of how to deal with conflict and how do you deal with adversity. I do recommend that people go and experience what life is beyond the islands. And that was a completely different experience in San Francisco is clearly not anything like the Midwest or the South. Right. So it's still it's still, you know, diverse enough. But even then, just even with Chinese food, here we go get Chinese food. But in San Francisco, it's like Hunan, Sichuan, you know, Mandarin. So they have a myriad of different type. And it seems like the ethnic lines are much more. Much more divided and separated and defined, right? So it's kind of an unfortunate thing, whereas, here, it still amazes me that people in Hawaiʻi have found a way to deal with each other's differences and accept them and the various differences and various. Whether it's ethnicity or views or, you know, it's it's not like around the nation or internationally where people would just go to war and bomb facilities or, you know, get enraged about it. So, you know, I think we have a lot of, a lot to be thankful for.

MM Yeah, definitely, those are great insights. Thank you. So then in your third year of law school, I believe your final year, you spent that back at UH.

SL Right. Right.

MM Can you tell me about that? I believe you've also met a lot of other people you're still friends with today or while there as well.

SL So in your third year in law school, you have an opportunity to be an exchange or visiting student somewhere else. So at that point in time, I opted to spend a year at University of Hawaiʻi Richardson School of Law and finish out the last year here and then still get a degree from San Francisco and, and at law school here. I got to meet a lot of people, who surprisingly, I still deal with it. So, for instance, former Representative Blake Oshiro, he, after he represented the Aiea, I think for ten years, Aiea Halawa area for ten years. He also served as the deputy chief of staff for Governor Abercrombie. And now he is doing private lobbying. But he was in law school at the same time I was there. Billy Kenoi, former mayor of the Big Island, was also, also one year below me in law school in the, in my class, former attorney general and Lieutenant Governor Doug Chin was also a classmate. And so, you know, you just meet a lot of people at UH are all walks of life who you can call on, who you can count on, and I still go to Blake for because, you know, he's one of the smartest people I know. So I always go to him for certain issues and for advice or consultation. So, you know, it's really nice to have a community where you can deal. You can depend on them for advice and counsel.

MM Thank you. So after graduating, can you tell me where you started to work?

SL Right. So right after I graduated, I was employed by Cronin, Fried, Sekiya, Kekina, and Fairbanks. It's personal injury law firm. They were looking for an associate at that point. I continue to be employed with them. They are the largest personal injury law firm in the state and they don't advertise a lot of their cases come from referrals because they do a good job. And even when I decided to run for office, they gave me flexibility to go on part-time status. And now they have never tried to interfere or delve into my work as a state representative, so I really appreciate that the relationship and the work dynamic.

MM And so I believe you said in ‘98 is when you first ran for the house. And can you tell me about what that was like, like balancing work and then this campaign to get elected?

SL So in 98, I was living in Nuʻuanu, and my husband and I started living in Nuʻuanu because his grandfather passed away and that was his grandfather's house and because of that, his parents already live in Aiea then his brother had a place in Pearl City, so we decided to go and live at his grandfather's house, so we were already living in Nuʻuanu and that district was represented by Quentin Kawānanakoa. In that year, Kawānanakoa decided to run for Congress and vacated---decided to vacate the seat. So I received a call from Scott Saiki, who was already a representative, and he encouraged me to run. And after some reflection and talking to my employer and talking to my family, I decided to run. And, you know, I took a leave of absence or significantly reduce my hours so that I can campaign.

So because I got started on my campaign late because I didn't decide until late and it was almost a full-time campaigning because, you know, you sign wave in the morning and then you canvass and walk door to door at the other campaign activities, and then you have to go back out and sign wave in the afternoon. So it was an all-day thing. So at that point in time, you know, my sister helped me a lot, so, you know, she sometimes walked door to door with me and then she signed with my mom also was out there, my husband.

So we were lucky to get a lot of community support. And I think it helps that I went to school in the area. So I you know, I went to Lincoln Elementary School, Kawānanakoa, Roosevelt High School, and that's the district that I'm representing now because of that. Even when I was walking door to door, I got to reconnect with some of my classmates and some people I were friends with, went to school with, did activities with. So that was that was very....I think it's kind of an important thing, important part of my campaign, because I felt that I'm representing the people I grew up with and the community I represent is going to be the one that is special to me because I went to school with some of these residents who I'm planning to represent. And it was a very special connection to the district. And I think, thankfully, I was able to win the primary I think at that point in time because it was an open seat, a lot of people ran, so I was able to kind of squeak by and my first race and then. And then won, the general as well, and then now I'm starting my or finishing my 11th term, which is 22 years in office.

MM Wow, thank you. And can you, I guess, go over what committees you have served on and currently serve being on and chairing?

SL Yeah, so when I first got elected, I was vice chair of the Committee on Business and Economic Development. I focused a lot on the development of high tech and that was back in 1998/99 - 2000, so we even have a team that went to a site visit in Silicon Valley just to see if it's something that was doable in Hawaiʻi. I think at that point in time, Governor Cayetano had a significant amount of interest in the growth of high tech and he invested a lot of time and resources to get this done. And we even had a high tech czar at that point. But you know with change in administration a lot of times the vision of the old governor doesn't continue, and I think I don't think Governor Lingle had the same type of commitment to high tech as Governor Cayetano. It is unfortunate because, you know, if we had invested significantly in high tech as Governor Cayetano vision, we would have seen, you know, I mean, 20 years later, it would have been a different economy, I believe. But we did make a lot of strides. And we have some successful high-tech company now. At that point in time it was really exciting because, you know, we had companies like Square USA, which made some video games and they had a different mentality. And it is true that we didn't find a way to support the high-tech industry in much more significant way back then when it was kind of an inception stage. Then we did as a state, so that is kind of unfortunate.

So after that, I also served as vice speaker under speaker Calvin Say. I served as vice speaker I believe, I don't remember if it was two years or four years, but I did a short stint as vice speaker. I also was chair of the Judiciary Committee. And when I was chair of the Judiciary Committee, one of the things that I helped make law was the enhancing the sex offender registry just to make sure that sex offenders register. And our monitored through a registry.

And as judiciary chair, we started the--even back then--we started the discussion on some of the civil rights issues. So even before same sex marriage, and even before civil unions, we passed what's known as public accommodations. So if it's a public accommodation open to the public, you cannot discriminate against same sex individuals. So, you know, that whole movement actually started 20 years ago, and which is now, which ended with same sex marriage. And then, you know, additional protections still need to be made. But, you know, that was just in the career in the legislature. I just feel fortunate that I was a part of that entire movement to bring to end discrimination and to treat people equally. I think that's kind of been my underlying model because of my immigrant background and because of, you know, learning a new language is one of the things that I have always focused on is ending oppression and making sure that people are treated fairly. And the rights of same sex couples and discrimination has always been something that, you know, this current leadership has always fought for. So I just feel very thankful that I was part of that entire movement.

And then so after the judiciary chair of the Judiciary Committee, I did different things, and it was it wasn't until about eight years ago when I became finance chair that I also had a significant role. And the focus after as my role as finance chair has always been, budget transparency and. . . . Transparency and accountability and, I tried to make sure that it was true budgeting and what we call true-op, which is if you're going to spend money on certain things, we should know, okay, "what are some of the productivity and the results?" And it doesn't really make sense for us to use taxpayer dollars in this way.

MM Thank you. And I think that's a good transition point into talking about COVID-19, because there are a lot of things going on with the budget right now with the closing of tourism, a huge, I guess, like budget deficit and things. So I guess in your role, has anything prepared you for, for something like this, like thinking back to maybe some of the more recent natural disasters or public emergencies that have occurred on some of the neighbor islands? Like were you able to draw upon those experiences for this current covid-19 pandemic?

SL I don't think there's anything in our lifetime that could have ever prepared us for what's going on now. When I looked at some of our research and data, the last time we had a negative personal income growth was in 2009. And the projection in 2009 was that people would see.... People would see a reduction in personal income by -0.9% . And then that's 0.9% and 2009 was considered The Great Recession and even pre-COVID in 2020 pre-COVID, we still did not fund certain programs to the level that we have in 2008 because the state had to make drastic cuts. Fast forward now, compared to now, what's known as a council on revenues, which does projection for revenues and income growth. They made a recent projection that the income loss per individual would be -7. So that means next year, on average, individual would have -7% less in income. And so that's because that's average. You know, that just means people who are fortunately employed will be employed, but that shows a significant amount of job loss. So if you compare that to what happened at the last recession was 0.9 versus straight out -7, you can see how devastating the current impact is in 2009 because of the significant amount of budget reduction. Governor Lingle at that point had to make the painful decision of shutting down certain programs and shutting down schools. And that's what people can people still call it furlough Fridays where every Friday government services and schools were shut down. She had to make a lot of painful decisions because, you know, at that point in time, the state was chasing about 1.2 billion dollars in revenue loss, but the 1.2 billion dollars was over 2 or 3 years. So compared to now, we're already seeing 1.5 billion dollar loss in just one year.

The difference is after 2009, one of the decisions that I made when I became finance chair was that I wanted to make sure that if there was a significant economic downturn, we could tap into a rainy day fund so that cuts in programs would not be as devastating. At that point in time, I had no idea that the economic downturn that we would be looking at would be this significant. But luckily, when I took over as chair of finance, the rainy day fund at that point had maybe about 30 million dollars or so just as lawmakers just put in nominal amounts in there because there was so much other needs, right. But I made a I made a call to put significant amount of money into a rainy day fund. So currently we have over we have about 400 million dollars in rainy day fund, which we allow the governor to tap into. 400 million dollars is a significant amount. And because of that, as the governor still struggles to figure out how to balance the budget he is not making huge cuts right now, it may happen in the future, but at least he didn't have to shut down government and that's because we had the foresight in putting a lot of money into a rainy day fund. The other thing is we made a lot of cash investments. So, for instance, Rental Housing Trust Fund, we put in a cash investment, which in a downturn like this, we could quickly swap bond funding with the cash. So that's what we did. So that was 250 million dollars that we were able to exchange so we could pay bills. As you can see quickly, we were able to cobble together 650 million dollars of cash, which back in 2009, the legislature did not have that capacity because they didn't have this kind of, in their rainy day fund, or didn't set aside cash payments into things that needed to be done.

Going forward, because Hawaiʻi is so significantly reliant on tourism, we will continue to have struggles, I think, for the next at least two years. Prior to COVID-19, Hawaiʻi was looking at a record breaking tourism numbers every year. The numbers continue to beat last year's figures and we hit 10 million tourists. But looking back, I felt uncomfortable with 10 million tourists. Because with that many tourists, you lose some, right, you lose the ability to take care of your resources, including natural resources, including resources and infrastructure. So I think this is an opportunity for us to reset and think about, okay, what does the tourism industry look like and how does it play alongside play a role in really vamping our state industry and our economy? And what kind of tourism industry do we see, and that conversation needs to happen now for us to do a good job for the future generation, not for us, but for 10, 20, 30 years from now and beyond.

MM Yes, thank you. And then can you talk a little bit about your response to the Hawaiʻi island lava flows and the flooding on Kauaʻi and what your role in and responding to those disasters were?

SL All right. We have been very fortunate that in the last few years we have seen significant amount of surpluses in our revenues, though, because of that when the lava disaster hit.... Well, first of all, the Kauaʻi flood hit, that was not something that was expected. And we were in session and we quickly appropriated 100 million dollars to do cleanup, rebuild, and allocate resources very quickly. Kauaʻi flood resulted in some positive changes that we can use as a model, and I'll go back and talk about that a little bit. And so because we had the money resources, we were able to quickly allocate 100 million dollars to deal with the Kauaʻi flood. We even now still utilize some of those funds to do final no rebuilding and fixes.

So as you can see, even after three years, we are still dealing with that. And, and then the lava on the Big Island hit, and the families who lost their homes and who were devastated by, by the lava, there's no words to say how you can ever get their lives back. Insurance may or may not cover the loss of their homes or properties, but the resiliency that you saw on the Big Island from the community and the residents was just so heroic because, you know, they the community came together and, you know, provided the resources and provided the help to people who needed places to stay and food to eat. It was a whole area that was just impacted by the lava flow. And the legislature, again, at that point in time, provided money, resources both to the county and through our State Emergency Response Department to address some of those needs. In this situation, it's a different responsibility compared to the flood. The flood was. . . . Because of mudslides and significant amount of damage, the State had to go and clean up and take out the debris and open roads and open access to communities. In the Big Island lava situation, it was not really significantly about clean up because we would not clear the pathway of the lava flow and then reopen the freeway or the roadway, right. Because those lava tracks were 30 feet up in the air and there's no amount of money that we could spend to clean that up and put a road through a lava track. So in that situation, it was not so much the cleanup, although cleanup had to happen. But figuring out a way to create a new access road to provide access into communities cut off by the lava flow. So it was a different type of needs and different type of resources that needed to be given.

You know, I mean, when you look at 30, 40 years from now, when you look back in this period of time, I think people would just be amazed how they survived this, because just in the short stint, the state had to deal with floods, we had to deal with lava and now COVID in a very, very short amount of time. So, you know, if you look at people in Kauaʻi, they are still recovering from floods and they were still recovering from.... In either hurricane or missed hurricane and the Big Island, they also had flooding as well, and they had lava and some people lost their homes and they would never get their lives back. And they were still struggling with that.

And then and then the COVID hit. It just exacerbated the struggles in some communities. So I think even 20 years from now or even 10 years from now, I think we will look back and go, wow, you know, how do we get through this together? Because there's been so much disaster. And just in this time period, I mean, look at Hurricane Lane that almost hit Hawaiʻi. And just recently we had another hurricane that almost hit Oʻahu as well. And every single time people take it seriously and go to the stores and stock up and it seems like it's always been just in the last 5 years, even more so, there's been one disaster or another. So I'm looking forward to a dull year one year because, you know, I mean, I think the state and the residents deserve it. They've been through a lot and they've been through a lot together. And it's just amazing the resilience and sense of community.

And even now, you see in other states how different people are struggling through all this, and I just think that it's, it's unfortunate because instead of trying to take care of each other and find ways to get food out or, you know, do the best you can, whether it's from government or nonprofit or individually, to see how we can stop the spread and get the economy going. And all other states still continue to struggle with either challenging what is the safety and health protocol and disobeying what is the right thing to do.

So it is really unfortunate what's going on around the nation. And I think Hawaiʻi continues to serve as an example. And even now, you know, there's criticism of both the governor and, you know, sometimes the mayor and the director of health, but for the most part, people are compliant. And the fact that we had a leg, you know, when we were preparing for this interview and, you know, we were celebrating the fact that we were at single digits and we were the model. And then now, you know, just in the last two weeks, we've seen triple digit numbers regularly. But even with that, people are taking it seriously. Even at my law office yesterday, people were glued to the TV listening to the instructions from both the governor and the mayor. And I think that say something about the people and they see it, say something about our responsibility and our responsibility to each other. And when people talk about the Aloha Spirit, it really is about the spirit. And people continue to remind each other that wearing a mask and social distancing is not for your own benefit, but it's for the benefit of others because you actually might be carrying the virus and is asymptomatic. And it's it's just out of good manners and your respect for others that you are wearing the mask, the mask is not for your protection, it's for the protection of everybody else around you. And it's that understanding and it's that that responsibility that each individual takes, which I think is significant and terrific that we don't see sometimes in other communities around the nation.

MM Yeah, thank you. And so when did your committee start really focusing on COVID-19 and the impact it would have on Hawaiʻi?

SL We actually started the discussion while we were still in session back in March. As we were, we became cognizant of what's going on around the world. We thought, okay, you know, it is inevitable that the virus will come to Hawaiʻi. So we already started some discussion about health insurance back in, I believe, February, March.

And then, unfortunately, one individual that was really early on in the stage and unfortunately, somebody at the Capitol tested positive, which led both the speaker and the president to shut down the Capitol right away. That was the right decision because, as you know, the Capitol had three instances of individual positive cases, but it never led to a community spread because we've been very careful while protecting the public and protecting our staff and each other as well.

So as soon as we hear of a positive case, we shut down completely and, and we have been fortunate that unlike certain areas and certain departments, we have not seen that type of community spread. But in spite of the Capitol being shut down, it didn't mean that the legislature and our functions shut down. So during the meantime, while we were shut down, we had a significant amount of discussions about what are the needs right away. We understood that the federal government at that point in time was already working on a relief package, and it's called CARES [Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act]. And we knew how much was coming to the various states. So we were already planning and were in discussion with the counties and the mayors about. How to best allocate these funds so that we can get monies out to the people and how do we navigate the budget problems and how do we ensure that health and safety of the public is not compromised at the same time? So all these discussions we're having in parallel, while we were monitoring the the numbers, the positive cases.

MM And then, can you talk about, I guess, really key issues that you yourself worked on personally regarding COVID.

SL Right. So one of the things that we became aware of right away was the Department of Labor was not equipped to deal with the one hundred sixty thousand plus claims that came in prior to the state shutting down and the state shut down, I believe, towards mid-April timeframe. Right. So when that happened and even before that, there were significant amount of people who continue to file for unemployment and compared to before we had maybe 1600, we saw 160,000 plus claims that came in. And for a small agency, clearly, they struggle and they.... Just to process claims, seasoned employee could only process maybe 50 to 60 claims when they do it right. If we sloppy about it, you can do hundreds, but, you know, I mean, that's not the point, right? You want it to make sure that these individuals could get paid and they needed to get paid right away. So we continue to hear from residents who could not get in touch with the department. They had difficulty filing even their initial claim, making a claim. They had difficulty getting a response and their claim was held up. So we were hearing that so many people struggle to get any unemployment checks. So we were in discussion with the department and the governor's office and we stress the importance of getting the department more help to the governor, and I don't think he completely understood the magnitude of the problem. And so at some point in time, we, the legislature, out of just sheer frustration and for sympathy and empathy for the unemployed population, we spearheaded the move to exponentially set up a claims center at the convention center. That's kind of an unusual move by the legislature because the legislature in a three-branch separation of government, our role is the appropriation of funds and the making of laws, and you leave the execution of laws and implementation to the executive branch. But during this time, we had to cross separation of powers and different roles, and if we can go in and just help the department then and if that meant that, you know, a 100,000 people would get their unemployment check, then we're not going to let that type of division of roles stop us from doing what we needed to do.

So it was myself and chair Johanson, Chair Aaron Johanson and speaker Scott Saiki informed the governor that that we're going to go in and help the department. And basically we said we're not going to take no for an answer. We're just going to do it because it's not right that tens of thousands of people are not getting their unemployment checks. And so we helped set up a claims center at the convention center. And we work with the department heads and the various different entities and state employees. And just in three days, we set up over 200 computer stations at the convention center. And in order to accomplish that, that was just mind boggling because, you know, we were just so impressed that Office of Elections came in very quickly to provide us monitors and computers. Legislative offices, let us use computers and monitors, DAGS [Department of Accounting and General Services], Department of Transportation, when departments and state employees are called to do a certain thing for the purpose of doing achieving a result, they will do it. All they needed was direction, and all they needed was guidance on the time frame and what needed to be done. And very quickly, we were able to ramp up from just dozens of volunteers to over 200 volunteers. And in the early stages of assisting unemployment claims processing, the convention center stations and the Convention Center ballroom was filled with volunteers, all processing claims. And just in a few weeks, we were able to at least do the initial claims processing just so that individual information was correctly inputted in the computer.

And then we saw the numbers dropping. We saw the claims going on. We saw payments were going on. And you could kind of tell because, you know, the amount of complaints were decreasing and it was a different type of complaints. It was that now their claim was being investigated, which means which meant that it wasn't in the processing stage. It was at the investigation stage. So just in a short period of time, we were able to deal with the needs of over 150,000 unemployed population. The interesting thing we found was that every state struggle with this because as you can imagine, this was not something that was just happening in the state of Hawaiʻi. And other states response was different. So some governors chastised the unemployed and said, you know, we can't deal with this, you got to just wait. That's not what we did. We wanted to make sure that, you know, these individuals are suffering. Some of these individuals were hotel workers or restaurant workers who've been there for 20, 30 years and all of a sudden they find themselves with no job or Hawaiian Air flight attendant, and they don't know how they're going to get their rent paid or they don't know how they're going to get their mortgage paid, so it's a significant disruption to their lifestyle and the needs of them and their families.

So unemployment issues continue to be a struggle because, you know, I mean, as you know, the state is faced with triple digit positive cases. We are going to continue to see businesses shut down and closed. So it is important that we have sympathy and empathy for these individuals and make sure that their weekly checks are cut.

MM Yeah, that's an amazing initiative. Can you shed light a little bit on the I guess behind the scenes communication pathways that go on like what departments or....

SL Do you wanna know what the number is today?

MM Oh, what is the number?

SL 261.

MM 261? Oh, it was in the hundreds the past few days.

SL I know, but I think it was delay. Wait let me I just got this that's why. I think it was delay and some of the test results. Oh, no it wasn't. It was. We're still testing at about 15. So this is the bad part. So we so our number is 234 out of 261. But then 234 is only out of 1500 test. That means the rate of positive cases is 15%. That's really bad.

MM 15 percent. Oh my God. Yeah.

SL That's really bad.

MM Yeah. It's so different from when we had our initial talk but yeah. Can you, can you shed light on that about all the communication that goes on behind the scenes. Like who are you like in talks with to make these decisions. Like what parties are involved.

SL Right. So we have we have a lot of discussion internally with the speaker and the various legislative leaders, including the majority leader, Della Au Belatti, and vice speaker and other legislature legislative members. We also have a significant amount of discussion with the Senate, including my counterpart, Senator Donovan Dela Cruz, because UI [unemployment insurance] was one thing we we spent a lot of time crafting the allocation of the CARES funding. So as you know, we provided 100 million dollars for rent subsidy, 230 million dollars for unemployment. We provided a significant amount of money for PPE [personal protective equipment] for, you know, like child care and schools and hospitals as well. So we had to do a lot of.... We had a lot of discussions both offline and through the public. Just have to get a better sense and better gauge on the various needs of the community. We use the information out of the speakers COVID committee as a guy. His committee had, um, people from different sectors, including businesses and nonprofits. And, you know, they were, they worked hard to get some of the information about rent subsidy. So we use that as a guide. And in addition to that and all those hearings that the speaker had was in public. So I was open to individuals who wanted to view what's going on. And I think there was a lot of interest. And it's to continue to have a lot of interest in the discussion because, you know, I mean, the economic recovery and health and safety assurance are top of mind issues for individuals right now. So, you know, I think a lot of people are tuning in and finding out what's going on and what are some of the discussion points. And we also, of course, had a lot of discussion with the governor and the different departments as well.

During this time, we constantly went directly to the departments as opposed to going through different chains because, you know, I mean, if they're urgent matters, we need to deal with some of these things right away as opposed to funneling it through the governor's office.

MM And I guess, so you mentioned the shutdown of the Capitol when there was that positive case, but how have the different social distancing policies impacted, like how your office is operating?

SL Right. So when we were able to come back very briefly to finish up session, we couldn't have public testimony where it was in the traditional way where people came to the Capitol and testified orally. Everything had to be through written testimony. That was kind of unfortunate part because some of the decisions that we make depend on dialog between testifiers and the legislators. And a lot of times we can't answer all of these questions. And, you know, if we had questions from the departments, they weren't there to answer and if we had a question from a public member who brought up a really good point, you know, that individual wasn't there to provide additional information. So not having public dialog, we still had public input because we gather public testimony through written testimony. But the lack of dialog had a significant impact on our ability to do decision making.

Looking forward, I don't think the state will be in the same state or same place. Even in January when we reopen session, and I think we will continue to have a hybrid system where we will discourage public from having mass gatherings, and I think that will continue on until there is a reliable vaccine. I don't think you can really say that the first vaccine that comes out of the market is going to be acceptable alternative for everybody. There will be a population that will not want to be vaccinated. There will also be a portion of the population that will not want to be part of the first round of trials. So in order for the population to guard itself against the virus, it is going to take time. And until that time, the responsibility for the state and the legislature is to ensure the health and safety of not just our employees, but the public especially. And so I think even when we open session in January, it will be a hybrid situation and we will have probably a limited amount of seating and not close by. And we will encourage written testimony. So we, we need to figure out a better way to have public dialog without jeopardizing health and safety and still be mindful of the time frame and the process that we have.

MM Yeah, and I know, like we're still in the middle of everything, but do you have any, like, key lessons or takeaways for next time if there is a next time?

SL I think the difficult thing is because we are so part of the United States, I think, you know, in hindsight, if the entire nation shut down for a significant amount of time, then we could have created a bubble around the entire nation. And so domestic travel and economic activities and opportunities can happen within the United States. And so that we can protect our citizens, unfortunately, we are connected. And unless the the federal government and the president dictate to do certain things drastic like that, we will continue to have different policies and different results. You know, I mean, this is a good lesson, but it's also a good lesson about humanity and kindness, and I mean, you don't see the mass chaos that you see nationwide and the people in Hawaiʻi are resilient. I mean, just as we discussed just in the last few years, we went through floods, we went through lava, we went through hurricane. And, you know, something like this will make us stronger--have the community come together, opportunity for us to have a dialog of how we want Hawaiʻi to look like for the next 50 to 100 years. It's a terrific beginning to have to reshape and see how the state can do a better job. I do think that there has to be better ways to address some of these issues. For instance, you know, I think whether it's COVID, we had a dengue scare and we also had SARS. I think we need to ramp up our epidemiology sections and working with the University of Hawaiʻi or other research institutions. We need to ramp up our testing and research section. We need to really have a true conversation about what type of economy do we want and because we're so heavily dependent on tourism, should we just say, okay, you know, if something like this were to happen, can we have a different type of economy that will continue us along without being dependent on tourism and how Hawaiʻi looks now is significantly different from even 30 years ago, because even 30 years ago we had HC&S [Hawaiian Commercial & Sugar], which is the sugar on Maui, and we had different type of ag lands that is now being freed up to do different diversified ags. So we've been talking about sustainability and agriculture and food security. I think, you know, we really need to do something much more aggressive in making sure that we grow our own and we make sure that we grow our own food. We take advantage of our farming industry to feed our kids as opposed to importing our food resources. You're substantially younger than I am, but when I was growing up, you know, if we needed to eat something, everything came in a can. And one of the things I hate it more than anything else, especially when I went to school was peaches, because the only time I had a peach was some sugary, gelatinous thing that came from a can. But imagine peaches now. I mean, you go to the store and it's fresh and the type of peach is so different from that orangey, yellowy thing that I had when I was going to school. So the things we're feeding our children are different now and we should take advantage and we should say, you know what, there is an opportunity for us to grow our own food because before we thought, okay, it cannot be possible, but we can. Certain areas in Hawaiʻi they have peaches and we grow strawberries and we grow vegetables and we grow greens. And, you know, we got to be more aggressive in supporting our agriculture because the next pandemic, who knows when that is, but if we're cut off from the world, we better make sure that we take care of our own people.

MM Yes, I agree. And I guess kind of in that vein, how is your office like your committee preparing for the next stages, whether short term or long term, like short term reopening or long term like thinking about like the future keiki of Hawaiʻi.

SL Right. So already we're getting ready for the next session and or at least for the next two years, our focus will be on having a balanced budget, but not at the expense of cutting significant programs that will hurt some of the crucial services that state provides. We still need. . . . We cannot cut the unemployment office because these are the individuals who provide unemployment. We cannot cut the Medicaid office because, you know, this is the section that provides needs for the safety net. And, you know, we really need to look at the university and our school system and how they can work together to do you career pathway or workforce development so that when people graduate from college or with a associate degree or even high school, we need to make sure that these people, these young adults have places to work and have opportunities. And we should not look at Kauaʻi as lacking opportunities. And I think that's where we really need to focus and improve on.

MM And I guess also what have you or your committee been doing to kind of support the communities in Hawaiʻi that are most at need or at risk? Like I know recently there have been reports about how Pacific Islanders are are more negatively affected by COVID. But how are you working to ensure these communities are protected?

SL Right. So we have to do a better job in education and outreach. And one of the things that contact tracers can do, they can serve a dual purpose because these individuals are actually going out and contacting individuals who have been impacted, they can actually tell individuals if they need help with rent or if they need resources or they can find out if, you know, if a family has 12 in the family and its extended family and one person is infected, should we have a conversation with a hotel that it's not being used or a facility that is not being used to house these individuals as opposed to them and infecting the entire household and whoever comes in contact with them. And I think those are some of the things that we need to do a better job. But contact tracing is the key because through contact tracers, we can provide so many services through the people who these tracers can reach. So I don't think we should look at certain things in a box. We shouldn't say, okay, contact tracers, you just contact them to figure out the origination of the initial contact. But they should be like the resource case managers for all these type of things so that we have a better idea of what the needs are. So those are the conversations that we will continue to have.

MM Yeah, that's that's great. And I just wanted to point out, we're at about an hour, 45 minutes, and I want to respect your time, so I didn't get to any of the personal lifestyle questions. I just wanted to ask really quickly, like, would you be open to a follow up interview of....

SL Yeah, sure.

MM A shorter, shorter, definitely shorter than this one to go over more of how COVID has affected your life more personally than work related? Okay, so I guess to wrap up this one, though, is there are there any particular stories related to your work and COVID that you wanted to share?

SL I mean, I think not one specifically that comes to mind, but maybe if something comes to mind, we can catch it at the next one.

MM Yeah, and then, is there anything else like about your role in government that you wanted to add to this conversation related to COVID?

SL It's really important for government officials and elected to be sympathetic and empathetic to people who are impacted. I think during this time it's so easy to just get caught up with the numbers and everybody become a number. Right. So there's 160,000 people unemployed or there's, you know, 200 something cases today. But we have to see them as individuals and we have to feel their pain and suffering and even the businesses that go out of business, some of these businesses will never come back. And and we have to really take a serious look at how that's going to impact the state, because you know that as more and more small business and mom and pop stores close, it's going to get replaced, but it's going to get replaced by the big box stores. And I don't think that's really what Hawaiʻi should be like. There's a cultural value in keeping our small businesses alive. So I think we got to do more for them.

MM And then as like a final kind of wrap up question for this session, I guess, you mentioned your time at your age and then at the Richardson School of Law, like all of these connections you made with people who are pretty prominent officials even today. But like who else has influenced you? Like, do you have any people you looked up to when you were younger getting into politics and to kind of help you develop this, I guess, these views that you've just stated about being a good legislator.

SL So I got, I always get my inspiration from my mom because, you know, my dad actually passed away when I was 16. And so she's been a single mom pretty much all throughout my adult life. And, you know, I was 16, so my sister and brother were significantly younger. And so she went through a lot of struggle. But, you know, she complain. You know, she worked hard and put us all through school. And, you know, she just was very kind and so I draw my inspiration from her because I can't imagine losing my husband when I'm 40 something and, you know, so I'm, so I have a significant amount of empathy and sympathy for other single family and single mothers and who have to go through the struggles. But at the same time, you know, I mean, they have a lot of strength because they they do what they need to do for the benefit of their children.

MM Yes. Yeah. Thank you for sharing that, and I guess is there anything else you wanted to add? Any final thoughts?

SL No, I think that's . . .

MM Okay.

SL You didn't get bored after hour (laughs).

MM No (laughs). So interesting. Thank you for sharing so much (laughs). So like I said, the next step will be getting you a transcript for your review. And then I guess in the meantime, I can be in contact with your staff about scheduling a follow up maybe . . .

SL Definitely can.

MM an hour long. Yeah.

SL Okay.

MM Thank you.

SL Alright.

MM And thank you for all of the amazing work you're doing and are continuing to do for the people of Hawaiʻi, and take care with all of the 200 something cases.

SL I know. Stay safe.

MM Yeah, you too. Thank you very much.

SL Bye.

MM Bye bye.