Kaneshiro and Holland prepare to join Kaua’i County Council

The next Kaua’i County Council will have two new members, with the election last week of former council member Arryl Kaneshiro, who works for Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s Kauaʻi compound, and first-time office holder Fern Ānuenue Holland, the fair and sustainable food systems director for the Hawaiʻi Alliance for Progressive Action. 

Incumbents Ross Kagawa and Billy DeCosta were voted off the 7-member council. Of the 14 candidates vying for seats, Kaneshiro finished third and Holland secured the seventh and final spot.

“You can never tell how an election is gonna go,” Kaneshiro said. “I think it’s just those people that know me from the start and still know me and know who I am. I’d like to think that’s why I still get the votes I get.”

Holland said: “I was very excited, humbled, blown away, and obviously nervous because in the first printout, I was only ahead by 9 votes.”

In final results from the Office of Elections, Holland secured 108 more votes than 8th-place Kagawa.  

Holland and Kaneshiro will officially join current council members Bernard Carvalho, Mel Rapozo, Felicia Cowden, Addison Bulosan, and KipuKai Kuali’i in a swearing in ceremony on Dec. 2. 

Kaneshiro, who served as a Kauai County Council member from 2014 to 2022, the year he termed out, has a strong family history in local politics. His father, Daryl Kaneshiro, served on the council for more than a decade, beginning in 1998.  

“When he ran, I told myself I would never run for politics,” said Kaneshiro, who previously worked as an accountant in Oregon. “And then just your things change, your priorities change, responsibilities change.”

The Kaneshiros are deeply involved in local agriculture on the island, with Arryl helping his father operate a 400-sheep working ranch. 

It was his work on his family’s ranch and later position managing 38,000 acres of land at Grove Farm that led to Kaneshiro being hired as an agricultural consultant for Zuckerberg’s 1,400-acre private compound on the North Shore of Kaua’i in 2021.

“I guess with that experience, they thought I would be a good fit,” he said. 

Kaneshiro says the job entails coming up with a master agriculture plan for the property, including pre-propagating native plants and a coastline restoration project with Hawaiʻi Island Land Trust.  

Kaneshiro will continue to work this job during his term as council member, as he did during his previous term in office.

He has faced criticism for working for Zuckerberg, who Forbes said in October had a networth of more than $200 billion, while simultaneously serving in local government. 

“I don’t think it’s that big of a deal as everyone makes it out to be,” he said.

Kaneshiro said he has seen social media posts that describe him as “a sellout,” but he has gotten used to it. His integrity also was questioned when he managed land at Grove Farm. 

“They questioned it from the very start,” he said. But “nothing came of it” during his 8 years as a council member, including 4 years as the council chair.

“I don’t think anybody could bring up anything that said I did something that was ethically wrong,” he said. 

Kaneshiro declined to share how much he is paid to work for Zuckerberg but says there was only one instance during his prior terms as a council member where the ethics office asked him to recuse himself. That was during the South Kauai Community Plan, when he was working for Grove Farm.

He said the Zuckerberg compound is doing less land development than Grove Farm, so he expects conflicts to come up even more infrequently. 

“This property is way smaller,” he said. “It’s only like 1,400 acres. I don’t see them ever having much to come up to council.” 

While working for the Zuckerberg property as a council member in 2021, Kaneshiro said the only time the property came up in council was when a donation was made to the lifeguard association.

Kaneshiro emphasized that he would recuse himself if anything relating to the property is considered by the council:  “Accountability is really high for me … I think a lot of people that criticize probably don’t know me.” 

Kaneshiro says he’s most looking forward to the annual budget to try to put money where itʻs needed, which “has always been the most important thing.” This includes housing, the landfill and “anything that will help the quality of life of residents.”

Holland has similar priorities of housing, drug rehabilitation, landfill infrastructure and agriculture.

During a phone interview last week while she was in Oʻahu for the Hawaiʻi Agriculture Conference for her work, she said she hoped the conference also would be an opportunity to gather resources to help local farmers and the community on Kauaʻi in her new role on the council. 

“There’s so much great work happening around the state to advance regenerative agriculture,” she said. 

Holland was not sure how she would manage her current nonprofit position with her role as a council member, but said she could see herself going to part-time and giving up all direct lobbying work “because that just seems weird if I’m on the council.”

Holland expected to be fighting for a bottom seat against more experienced candidates on election night on Nov. 5 but described feeling overwhelmed with emotion as initial election results came in showing she had made it into the top 7. 

Holland, who has never held political office, says she has “so much to learn” in her first term as a council member, with a “huge learning curve in front of me.”

“I’m gonna definitely be working hard for the people of Kauaʻi over the next few years,” she said. “I want to show them my commitment and get some stuff done.”