What began as an event to help East Hawaii residents file federal paperwork became an impromptu town hall with a U.S. congresswoman Wednesday.
Rep. Jill Tokuda (D-Hawaii) visited the Hilo Public Library to hold her first “Tokuda in Your Town” event, which was intended to help her constituents navigate the federal bureaucracy — attendees could receive direct one-on-one assistance with filing for Social Security benefits, veteran’s benefits and more.
But while several attendees did bring casework to the event, several others wanted to pick the Tokuda’s brain about greater policy issues.
“I want to ask her about working on legislation to keep student loan debt off of your credit report,” said Hilo resident Shana Kukila while at the event.
As she was waiting to meet with Tokuda or her staff, Kukila added that she wanted to discuss other ways Tokuda could help Big Island residents, from improvements to disability benefits and child welfare, to broader access to health care.
Resident Gerald DeMello, sitting at a table with other residents, said he wanted to discuss the possibility of better agricultural benefits and incentives for Big Island farmers.
In between assisting individuals with their paperwork, Tokuda sat down with DeMello and others to discuss her first year in office and possible projects she is exploring.
For example, Tokuda alluded to a possible plan to award microgrants to individual Big Island farmers to improve the island’s food security.
“Food security is national security,” she said, adding that she repeats that maxim on Capitol Hill to help sway other lawmakers.
She also discussed ways to work with the U.S. Department of the Interior to accelerate the Department of Hawaiian Home Lands’ progress in clearing its beneficiaries waiting list.
Tokuda also lamented the lack of waste management resources in Hawaii, noting that while the state has adopted rooftop photovoltaic systems at a rapid pace, there are currently no in-state resources for disposing of obsolete panels. She said that with so many users taking advantage of solar incentives in recent years, many solar systems will be reaching the end of their usable lives at around the same time.
Tokuda punctuated her discussions with levity, taking selfies with constituents and praising the architecture of the Hilo Public Library.
Nicole Gray, constituent advocate for Tokuda’s office, said Tokuda hopes to hold more such sessions throughout the state, but added that those events will be differentiated between individual assistance events where constituents can be helped with specific problems, and town hall events where people can talk to Tokuda about broader policy questions.
“Realistically, we can do these pretty frequently,” Gray said. “Right now, we’re just sort of trying to get the idea of constituent services out there. These sorts of events don’t really happen here. This is the first of its kind.
“But we’re looking at constituent services to be a micro-look at people’s specific problems, rather than the big macro policy stuff we can do at a town hall.”
Email Michael Brestovansky at mbrestovansky@hawaiitribune-herald.com.