HONOLULU – Just a day after her last legislative day at the State Capitol, Representative Kymberly Pine pulled her papers Friday to run for the City Council District 1 seat. She currently serves as the State Representative of Ewa Beach, District 43.

“The people’s work is done. It is now time to focus full-time on applying for my next job,” Kymberly said. “I hope to prove that my leadership can improve the quality of life for the residents of the entire Leeward Coast as it has for the people of Ewa Beach.”

This legislative session was Rep. Pine’s most successful one. Many Ewa Beach schools and UH West Oahu received needed funding to expand their services, key affordable housing measures passed, and new funding to expand the zipper lane further west was approved. Key measures in her cyber crime package also gained approval of both the House and Senate.

“I am excited to oversee the implementation of the cyber crime bills by ensuring that the City Council fully funds the cyber crime divisions within the police department and the prosecutor’s office,” she said.

Kymberly has a leadership record focused on results. She was first motivated to run for office after seeing her Ewa Beach community neglected in the areas of traffic relief, school funding and crime. She pledged to ensure that Ewa Beach would no longer be left behind. During her four terms as representative, her district has received over $600 million for new roads, schools, and many other projects that benefited her community. Crime has also gone down and pro-victim laws were also passed.

“Eight years ago, our parks and beaches were dumping grounds for outsiders and no one was helping us with this problem (http://the.honoluluadvertiser.com/article/2004/Apr/18/ln/ln07a.html),” she said. “My goal was to unite our community to change this. To get the respect that we deserve. I am proud of the people of Ewa Beach who helped to make our community beautiful. I want to inspire the same movement throughout the Leeward Coast.”

As councilwoman, she will continue to focus on bringing good jobs to the Leeward Coast, as she has done in supporting the development of UH West Oahu, the Kroc Center in Ewa Beach, new shopping centers and Aulani Disney Hotel. She will also continue to work on easing traffic congestion, ensuring easy access to community healthcare and lowering the cost of living and doing business on Oahu. Recently, she has played a key role in working with existing doctors at the Hawaii Medical Center site to increase their services and work on opening an Urgent Care Center.

“The Leeward Coast has been reinventing itself for years, but I believe our best days are ahead of us,” said Kymberly. “Residents have a right to efficient progress that respects our way of life. I’ll continue to take to heart what residents tell me about everyday issues they face.”

Kymberly is the granddaughter of Filipino immigrants who worked on Hawaii’s plantations. She has 14 years of experience working for the people of Hawaii at the State Capitol. As Director of the Minority Research Office in the State House of Representatives, she ran a team focused on finding waste and mismanagement in government spending and creating new solutions to Hawaii’s problems as the author of the $600 Million Waste and Mismanagement Report. She has worked for over six years at U.S. VETS – HAWAII, a home for former homeless veterans and was a member of the State Housing Committee that implemented sweeping improvements in homeless services. Kymberly has been a victims advocate for 15 years and is now Hawaii’s leading expert in cyber crime legislation. She is the former chair of Ewa Weed and Seed’s Beautification Committee.

Additional information can be found online at Kym Pine for Honolulu City Council.

Rep. Kymberly Pine will ask the Honolulu City Council to repave Pohakupuna Road.