Trevor Ozawa · City Council District 4

The Journey

Rooted Here. Ready for You.

Trevor Ozawa was born and raised in Hawaiʻi Kai, part of a third-generation East Honolulu family. He went to Kamehameha Schools, earned his degree at USC, and his law degree at Suffolk University Law School. Today he runs his own law firm here and is raising his family in the same community he grew up in, coaching, showing up at school events, and living the everyday life of an East Honolulu parent. This isn't a district he represents from a distance. It's home.

Trevor served East Honolulu on the Honolulu City Council before, and as chair of the Council's Budget Committee he learned exactly how City Hall works and where it wastes your money. He's seen what happens when leaders stop listening, and he's seen how much can change for families when someone is willing to do the work. After 2019 he stepped back, raised his girls, coached, and listened. Now he's ready to put that experience back to work for you, with the humility that comes from understanding this seat belongs to you, not to whoever happens to be sitting in it.

"Your Councilmember should be working for you. Not for themselves, and not for the insiders. That's the standard I'll hold myself to every single day."— Trevor

Priorities

A Plan Built Around You.

These priorities come from the same conversations everyone in East Honolulu is having: at the grocery store, in the school pickup line, stuck in town traffic. Government should be solving the problems you actually live with. Here's where I'll start, and here's what I've already done.

Local families are working harder than ever and still feeling squeezed. The Council's biggest lever is property taxes, so I'll push real relief for resident homeowners and kupuna on fixed incomes, and dig through the budget for waste. As Budget chair, I treated every city dollar like it came out of your pocket. Because it did.

Too many of our kids grow up here and can't afford to come home. I don't just talk about affordable housing, I've delivered it. I pushed the Lilia Waikīkī developer to keep its rentals affordable for 30 years, double the 15 they first offered. Going forward I'll cut slow, costly permitting, build smart around rail, and keep new homes for local residents, not out-of-state investors.

Hawaiʻi Kai is not the place for more high-rises. Major projects on our largest parcels should be planned with the community, not pushed over our heads. I'll insist on intentional, well-thought-out planning instead of hasty deals, and I'll make sure residents have a real seat at the table on the decisions that shape our neighborhoods. I'll also fix the permitting process so a homeowner doing an honest project isn't punished with years of delay.

Public safety is the foundation everything else rests on. I'll back our first responders and take property crime seriously. On homelessness, I'll pair real outreach and shelter through programs like HONU and CORE with consistent enforcement once a bed is offered. Beaches are not campgrounds, and families deserve safe parks. Compassion and accountability are not opposites. We need both.

Parks are where our keiki play and our families gather, and the basics have been neglected too long. I've fixed this before: I got Ala Moana's irrigation working so the grass came back green, replaced unsafe playgrounds at ʻĀina Koa and Hāhāʻione, and helped build the island's first city-park pickleball court at Koko Head District Park. I'll keep courts paved, fields watered, and restrooms clean, and I'll take on the everyday nuisances that wear on a neighborhood, like the feral chicken problem, with humane, sensible management.

The most basic part of this job is being present, listening, and answering the call. I attended neighborhood board meetings in person, in our valleys and in Hawaiʻi Kai, because that's where residents tell you what they actually need. After our 2018 floods I funded year-round stream and culvert cleaning in ʻĀina Haina and Niu Valley so families weren't left to clean up alone. And accountability means getting the priorities right. While our first responders and city workers fight for raises in the low single digits, and the city still struggles to fill thousands of vacant positions, the Council took a 64% raise for itself, and voters were so frustrated they amended the Charter to rein it in. We should take care of the people doing the work before anyone takes care of themselves. Our voters also set a two-term limit to keep power accountable. I believe in that, I'll serve the full term you elect me to, and I'll never forget who this seat belongs to.

Putting You First.

Rooted Here. Ready for You.

A Plan Built Around You.

Let's Do This Together.

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Mahalo!