Help us improve in just 2 minutes—share your thoughts in our reader survey.
Natalie J. Iwasa
From Ballotpedia
Natalie Iwasa was a 2014 candidate for the District 4 seat on the Honolulu, Hawaii, City Council.
Biography
Email editor@ballotpedia.org to notify us of updates to this biography.
Iwasa holds a B.B.A. degree from the University of Wisconsin. Her professional experience includes working as a certified public accountant, a certified fraud examiner, and serving as the co-founder and president of a community organization called Cycle On Hawaii.[1]
Campaign themes
2014
Iwasa addressed the following issues in an interview with Civil Beat, a local Honolulu newspaper, on July 10, 2014:[1]
Urban Housing
- Excerpt: "The City Council needs to drive process improvements both in city organizations and through better collaboration with the state to make development restrictions more reasonable, and to provide incentives or requirements for developers to incorporate affordable housing into all projects. We should also consider reform of the property tax system to effectively differentiate local, multi-homeowners from foreign speculators."
Traffic
- Excerpt: "The city should continue its work improving bicycle and pedestrian infrastructure and motivating people to bike and walk more. Bus service should be restored to areas where people have found the cuts created hardships. Ride sharing and car pooling incentives have proven effective in other major cities, particularly when promoted and supported by employers and state-sponsored ride sharing tax credits. Traffic lights should be better synchronized in high-traffic and through-traffic areas. And as much as possible, we should motivate people to live where the jobs are and put jobs where people live."
City Revenues
- Excerpt: "Before increasing taxes and fees, or raising even more debt to fund capital improvement requirements, we should take a harder look at current revenue sources and the budget and find ways to improve efficiencies. For example, every year for the past few years, the FICA (federal social security) payroll tax for city employees has been overstated. Although funds are carried to the next year, overfunding means that other services are not funded during the year. This is an easy fix. We should also look at the types of revenue currently being booked and collect it to the best of our ability. For example, for the 12-month period ended March 31, the city waived $6.9 million in fines out of $7.9 million it assessed. That means that less than 15 percent of assessed fines were collected. That is both a missed revenue opportunity and a signal to those who are fined for breaking the law that our laws are not really enforced. In addition, the entire real property tax system, which generates the greatest source of revenue for the city, should be reviewed and revised to be more equitable and simple."
Elections
2014
Honolulu, Hawaii held city council elections on November 4, 2014. A primary election took place on August 9, 2014. Trevor Ozawa and Tommy Waters advanced past Natalie J. Iwasa and Carl Strouble in the primary election. Ozawa defeated Waters in the general election.[2][3][4]
| Honolulu City Council, District 4, 2014 | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Candidate | Vote % | Votes | |
 Trevor Ozawa |
44.1% | 16,371 | |
| Tommy Waters | 43.9% | 16,324 | |
| Blank or Over Votes | 12% | 4,467 | |
| Total Votes | 37,162 | ||
| Source: Hawaii Secretary of State - 2014 General Election Results | |||
| Candidate | Vote % | Votes | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
|
Tommy Waters |
32.8% | 10,110 | ||
| Trevor Ozawa |
26% | 8,012 | ||
| Natalie J. Iwasa | 22.5% | 6,937 | ||
| Carl Strouble | 1.6% | 501 | ||
| Blank or Over Votes | 17.2% | 5,300 | ||
| Total Votes | 30,860 | |||
| Source: Hawaii Secretary of State - 2014 Primary Results |
||||
Recent news
This section links to a Google news search for the term "Natalie + Iwasa + Honolulu"
See also
- Honolulu, Hawaii
- Honolulu, Hawaii city council elections, 2014
- United States municipal elections, 2014
External links
Footnotes
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 Civil Beat, "Candidate Q&A," July 10, 2014
- ↑ Hawaii Secretary of State, "Official candidate list," accessed June 19, 2014
- ↑ Honolulu Civil Beat, "Honolulu City Council: Three Districts Will Have Run-offs in November," August 9, 2014
- ↑ State of Hawaii: Office of Elections, "2014 Unofficial General Election Results," accessed November 4, 2014
| ||||||||||
