The close race for Big Island mayor, pitting incumbent Mitch Roth against challenger Kimo Alameda, is one of Hawaii’s most highly watched political contests this election season.

In the Aug. 10 primary, Roth received 36.5% of vote and Alameda — a clinical psychologist and self-described local Hilo boy — took 26%. Neither of the two top vote-getters reached the 50% needed to avoid the Nov. 5 run-off.

Roth, Hawaii County’s former prosecuting attorney, and Alameda have been holding debates across the island.

The two candidates could hardly be more different in style.

What Sets Them Apart

Alameda, who is of Hawaiian and Portuguese ancestry, grew up in a blue-collar family on a 25-acre cattle and horse ranch in Waiakea-Uka. He cracks jokes and peppers his speech with Hawaiian Pidgin. Alameda seems comfortable talking with anyone, including reporters, and has family spread across the island.

The former head of the Hawaii Island Fentanyl Task Force, Alameda has an extensive health care background. He’s the former chief executive of Bay Clinic, now Hawaii Island Community Health Center after a 2022 merger with West Hawaii Community Health Center. He served as vice president of business development at Hawaii Island Community Health Center until stepping down to run for mayor.

Early in his career, Alameda worked as a school counselor and special education teacher. He’s also led the Hawaii County Office of Aging, the state Department of Health Child and Adolescent Mental Health Division and the Adult Mental Health Division‘s Office of Multicultural Services, according to his bio.

The father of seven became widowed in May when his wife Star passed away unexpectedly.

California-born Roth appears to be more of an introvert. He’s a high school dropout who later earned a GED diploma at Kaimuki High School in Honolulu, graduated from the University of Hawaii Manoa and law school in California, and taught English for two years in Japan where he met his wife, Noriko, who works for Subaru Telescope.

After serving as a deputy prosecutor in Honolulu, Roth moved to the Big Island in 1998 for a similar job and rose through the ranks to become the county’s prosecuting attorney, a job he held for eight years before winning the mayor’s seat four years ago.

Far from a natural-born politician, Roth has a less-than-smooth speaking style, often stumbling over words or struggling to make his points succinctly. But Roth is strong with facts and statistics, and often sprinkles them effectively to underscore his points. He describes himself as a “problem solver” who pays meticulous attention to details.

Roth said in an interview that’s what sets him apart from his opponent.

“I haven’t heard a lot of specifics” from Alameda, Roth said.

Alameda counters by saying Roth hasn’t accomplished much in the three-plus years he’s held office and is only now stepping up because there’s an election at stake.

“You can’t starting playing the game in the fourth quarter,” Alameda said during a debate at the Hilton Waikoloa Village Resort on Thursday evening at the conclusion of the Council for Native Hawaiian Advancement convention.

Trading Barbs

The two sparred at a Civil Beat forum the Old Kona Airport State Recreation Area on Sept. 13, trading barbs over key issues like hazard pay, wastewater treatment plants, building permits, affordable housing, telescopes on Mauna Kea, Pohakuloa Training Area and homelessness.

One of the points Alameda often makes is that West Hawaii contributes some 70% of the county’s tax revenue but only receives about 30% of the services.

The Kona side isn’t “feeling the love,” he often says, something Alameda pledges to fix if elected.

Both he and Roth agree that the leeward side’s main hospital, located in South Kona, isn’t adequate to address public needs.

Roth mentioned in the Sept. 13 debate that he almost died of a heart attack in 2021 while in South Kohala. He had to be transported to Waimea’s North Hawaii Community Hospital, then taken to Hilo’s medical center where he eventually had a stent implanted.

“There’s no cath lab on this side of the island,” he said.

Roth said he’s talking with The Queen’s Health Systems, Kaiser Permanente and others, including philanthropists, about building a new hospital and predicts that one will open in the next six years.

Alameda said that his long history and relationships in the health care field would give him a better shot at getting a new hospital built.

Sewage Woes

The island’s dilapidated wastewater treatment plants are another prominent issue.

Alameda said Hilo’s sewage plant is “the worst in the nation” and that the Roth administration has no plans to fix it, despite repeated accidents when wastewater was discharged with minimal treatment into Hilo Bay.

Roth strongly disputes that.

“We started working on it since day one,” when he took office in December 2020, Roth said.

In fact, bids were unsealed on Sept.13 for the first two phases of overhauling the Hilo wastewater plant. The lowest bid of $337 million was submitted by Nan Inc., according to public records.

The county plans to begin the overhaul, expected to take five to seven years, by the end of this year.

In the meantime, the plant remains under an administrative consent order with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

Hazard Pay And Grievances

Alameda blames Roth for failing to distribute hazard pay to county employees who came to work during the pandemic. He said that’s why three of the main unions representing blue- and white-collar county workers have endorsed him over the incumbent.

Hawaii County was one of the safest places to be during the pandemic, Roth said. Hazard pay was used instead to keep mom-and-pop companies open and for rental assistance to prevent people from being evicted, he said.

“We gave funds to help people stay afloat,” Roth said. “Would you not have done that?”

Taking care of county employees should have come first, Alameda responded.

Some $70 million in hazard pay is at stake, according to Roth’s estimates. The matter is under arbitration.

Alameda says county employees are demoralized, as evidenced by the high number of formal grievances they’ve filed. Roth says the number of grievances is on par with previous administrations.

In fact, grievances have risen under Roth’s administration. In fiscal year 2024, there were 52, according to the county Department of Human Resources. The year Roth took office, 29 grievances were filed. That jumped to 50 in fiscal year 2021. In 2022, employees and unions filed 41 grievances followed by 37 in 2023.

By comparison, from 2015 to 2019, grievances never topped 30 in any given year, according to county data. It’s uncertain what role the pandemic played in the numbers.

Hot Button Issues

Both men said they would support the Thirty Meter Telescope atop Mauna Kea, although Alameda said he has only recently come around to that viewpoint. In 2019 he took part in demonstrations to oppose TMT.

As a Native Hawaiian and a psychologist, Alameda said he’s well-suited to resolve some of the heartache the TMT project has caused among the Hawaiian community, many of whom view the telescopes on the mauna as a desecration.

The two candidates also are not far apart on the contentious issue of a lease renewal for about 22,750 acres of state land at the Army’s Pohakuloa Training Area, located along the Saddle Road between Mauna Kea and Mauna Loa.

The public has expressed overwhelming opposition to renewing the lease, scheduled to expire in 2029. The Army released a draft environmental impact statement in April with five options. The military’s preferred option is to retain some 19,700 acres. The draft EIS noted that some alternatives in the planning documents could adversely affect Hawaiian cultural practices and raise environmental justice issues.

People at the training area often act as first responders when wildfires break out or car accidents happen on the Saddle Road, Roth said. It plays a vital role in the Pacific, where the threat of “World War III” breaking out is greater than most people realize, in his view.

“Being prepared is really important,” the mayor said.

Alameda said the lease needs to change if it’s going to be renewed, noting that the Army paid $1 for its use of the area. The land was once part of the Hawaiian Kingdom but was ceded to the United States in 1898.

Roth agreed that the lease terms need to change to make them equitable to the public.

Decrease In Homelessness?

Roth has taken credit for getting building permits issued much faster and for reducing the numbers of homeless people by 28% in the last federally mandated survey.

But Roth is throwing out misleading statistics that can’t be trusted, Alameda said.

“It’s just verbiage,” he said.

But the mayor said the homeless numbers were generated by the Point In Time Count, an annual survey of people living on the street, or sleeping in cars, parks or elsewhere. It’s conducted across the country in January every year as a requirement for federal funding by the Department of Housing and Urban Development.

“The 28% decrease didn’t come from us. It comes from the agencies that Kimo has been working with,” Roth said.  

The 2023 PIT Count on Hawaii Island showed a decrease of 285 people, which represents a 28% year-over-year decline, according to Bridging the Gap, a coalition of agencies working to end homelessness on the neighbor islands.

When the numbers came out in June, Bridging the Gap’s Big Island representative Paul Norman attributed the decline to “unprecedented funding” Hawaii County has allocated to homelessness and affordable housing.

“When donors and funders see our local government has skin in the game, it gives us leverage to attract even more funding for compassionate and effective programs,” said Norman, chair of Community Alliance Partners.