Virtually nothing was off-limits during Joe Kent’s recent podcast appearance on “The Aloha Hour with Johny and Steezy.”
Kent, executive vice president of the Grassroot Institute of Hawaii, discussed financial boondoggles such as Honolulu’s rail project and the state’s new Aloha Stadium; the high cost of housing and living in Hawaii; the slow pace of construction permitting; and laws, rules and regulations in general that generally make no sense.
Kent and the two hosts agreed that keeping up with myriad government actions is challenging, if not impossible.
But Kent offered hope for those who would like to keep better tabs on their community leaders, administrators and decision-makers.
He said Grassroot has developed a groundbreaking, free online tool that can help citizens hold their governments accountable.
Called Open Hearings, the tool can record and transcribe government proceedings, provide artificial-intelligence generated summaries of the meetings, customize email newsletters about the hearings, and offer chatbot answers about the most important parts of each hearing.
“I’m talking about the state Land Use Commission, all of the neighborhood boards, the Water Commission, you know, the state Legislature, the county councils, the [Honolulu] Liquor Commission,” Kent explained.
“Let’s go! I love this,” Steezy said.
Johny added: “That’s a real good filter to put on top of all those talks, to really figure out what is good, what is bad, and what we should pay more attention to.”
To watch all or part of the 1 hour, 33-minute podcast, click the video below.
