JOY SAN BUENAVENTURA is running for state Senate District 2, giving up her seat as state House of Representatives for District 4, Puna. If elected, she would represent East Kaʻū and Volcano, into Puna and Hilo. Incumbent Russell Ruderman is not seeking re-election — see May 20 Kaʻū News Briefs.
A 30-year resident of East Hawaiʻi, San Buenaventura holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Mathematics from the University of Nevada Las Vegas. In Las Vegas, she worked at the Environmental Protection Agency as a computer programmer and with Reynolds Electrical Engineering as a law clerk. Joy went on to receive her Juris Doctorate from the University of California, Hastings College of the Law.
San Buenaventura was a lecturer of business law at University of Hawaiʻi Hilo. In 1991, she was appointed Per Diem District Court Judge, making her the youngest judge in Hawaiʻi at the age of 32. In one of her early court-appointed cases, she represented the first geothermal protesters opposing the proposed geothermal well at Wao Kele O Puna. In 1992 she was the first attorney to prosecute/settle a breast implant case in the State of Hawaiʻi. In 2013-2014 she took two of her clients’ cases to the highest court in the state, the Hawaiʻi Supreme Court.
San Buenaventura volunteers her time by helping the public access the courts through the Self-Help Center, and helping the public resolve their disputes amicably through Kuʻikahi Mediation Center.
She resides in a photo-voltaic powered home in Hawaiian Paradise Park with her husband, “Weldin” Sheldon Lehman.
San Buenaventura told The Kaʻū Calendar she intended to run for re-election when she received a call from Ruderman, of his intent to not seek re-election. She says she believes that, in this tough economic time, “experienced, proven leadership is needed.”
Her first run for office unseated Faye Hanohano, “whose many publicized remarks in 2013-2014 divided Puna needlessly among racial lines.” San Buenaventura says Hanohano’s “divisiveness prevented Puna from getting the attention and funding it needed. In order for funding or bills to pass, the majority of both the House and Senate need to vote to pass these bills. Someone who is unable to work with the majority of the 51 members in the house and the 25 members of the Senate cannot get anything done.”
San Buenaventura says she believed that her strength as a trial attorney for 30 years would help Puna get the attention it needed. She lists some of her accomplishments as helping alleviate stand-still traffic during the afternoon rush-hour on Highway 130; advocating for funding, receiving over $50 million, for construction, including a Pāhoa roundabout “that transformed the deadliest intersection in the State highway system into the safest, with no fatalities since its creation” and helping get rid of standstill traffic in front of Keaʻau High School. She says she wants to focus on Highway 11 and alternates to Highway 11.
When the 2018 lava crisis occurred, her campaign information sys San Buenaventura “was a constant presence at non-profit meetings, volunteering at the county then FEMA disaster centers. and pleading with the Governor and federal housing authorities to provide immediate housing for the displaced residents.” She says her efforts led to opening senior housing placements in Pāhala and renovating abandoned Keaʻau public housing units. “She brought House leadership to see the damage being done and brought House, Senate, and County leadership to a conference at her law office in August to hash out the needs of the County; and continued negotiations which led to her acquiring $60 million in state funds in the 2019 session for the county to use and to grow by using it as matching funds for federal aid.
Her campaign information cites her “ability to bring people together” leading House Speaker Scott Saiki to appoint her in 2019-2020 as Chair of Human Services and Homelessness. In that capacity, she says she found that, to fix chronic homelessness, “public behavioral health treatment centers are needed because the only state public mental hospital was admitting only those who are criminally insane.” During her one term as Chair, she introduced, advocated for, and passed a series of bills “that reform our criminal justice system to immediately examine and treat those who are mentally ill” and passed funding procedures to reuse the vacant buildings on Oʻahu, at the old Kona Courthouse, and the old Hilo Hospital as behavioral treatment centers.
San Buenaventura says she hopes to work with Aunty Jessie, Executive Director of Kaʻū Rural Health, “in supporting and extending the kūpuna telehealth project with Department of Labor; and work toward an infrastructure plan to bring a dialysis center to Kaʻū and Puna.”
San Buenaventura says she is running for senate because, with a longer-term, “she can do more and be able to represent east Kaʻū and Puna mauka — some issues are intertwined with the needs of Puna makai, whom she represented.” She says her experience in the legislature, especially in a leadership position of Majority Whip and House Chair, has given her the stature to deal with other department heads in speaking to them of Puna and Kaʻū issues.
She also says, “COVID-19 will require a new look as to how Hawaiʻi can be self-sustaining. The 2020 legislative session recently passed a bill legalizing hemp which may help bring Kaʻū and Puna out of economic distress because of the worldwide demand for hemp in the creation of CBD and hemp oil. That is just one example of a new industry that the state should consider in moving forward. In the meantime, while we have Federal monies, infrastructure like fixing/expanding roads needs to be done so that people can still pay bills and the roads will be ready when full commuter traffic comes back.
“With Young Brothers in economic distress, the issue of whether the state will subsidize or deregulate interisland shipment of goods will need to be addressed soon by experienced legislators — because no matter how many crops we grow or products we make for worldwide consumption, high shipment costs will prevent economic recovery.”
If elected, says San Buenaventura, she hopes “to be the voice of all of Puna and east Kaʻū in the legislature as the State navigates a path forward beyond this economic crisis.”