Why Panos

(mirrored from http://www.leihai.com/)

Dr. Panos Prevedouros is an Engineer, and more importantly not a politician. He is not a member of the political elite that has been running Hawaii into the ground for generations, and he is not a well funded voice representing the deep pockets that have been bleeding Hawaii dry for nearly a hundred years.

I have long had a distaste for Mayor Hannemann. It all started with the dumping of sewage into the Ala Wai Canal, then came the stories of his heavy handed intimidation of the City Council, followed by the largest municipal tax increase in the state's history, and finally his wasteful use of taxpayer money to fund an advertising campaign to try to convince the public his rail initiative was a good idea. The long and short of it is I, like many others on Oahu, are tired of high taxes, horrible traffic, and a terrible quality of living.

Dr. Prevedouros is primarily running on a Anti-Rail platform, but beneath the Anti-Rail message comes a thread of common sense and competency I rarely see among elected officials in Hawaii. At the opening of his campaign office, Dr. Prevedouros gave us a glimpse of what his candidacy represents. Below is my list of what I took away from Dr. Prevedouros's message (fully aware that my take on what he represents is based on my personal political opinions and priorities):

1) Cost effective solutions to issues: Sometimes the amount of money a solution costs the public causes a larger problem than the issue the solution is addressing.

2) No more politicians: Career politicians have decades of cronies and favors they have to make good on as well as a political career to watch out for. This puts the needs of the people second to the needs of the politician. A professional, like Dr. Prevedouros, who is putting his career on hold to serve the public has nothing to gain from doing anything but improving the lives of the people.

3) Real knowledge, real experience: Being an experienced politician means you have experience listening to “experts” and making decisions. If you are the expert (like a civil engineer), you are much more capable of making informed decisions.

4) Knowing if the price is right: Anyone who has worked for the government in any way knows that government contracts are ridiculously inflated. Politicians and government employees just don’t have the technical know-how to know if they are getting ripped off or where to look to find the best resources. A world renowned civil engineer, on the other hand, cannot be ripped off or caught unawares on any price point or resource availability.

Now you all know why I am supporting Panos, but the question is why are you supporting Panos?