LIHU'E, Kaua'i — Most of the 15 candidates vying for Kaua'i County Council's seven seats agree that island's trouble spots include: traffic, housing, development, plans for a new landfill, and property tax issues.

But candidate platforms differ on how to address the issues. And among the nine non-incumbents there's some "throw them out" language when referring to the six council members seeking re-election.

All Kaua'i's council members run non-partisan and at-large, with the field cut to the 14 candidates who pick up the most votes in the primary. A single candidate will be dropped in the Sept. 23 primary election.

The candidates are of a community that was hit by devastating hurricanes in 1982 and 1992, and then by a rolling real estate boom 10 years after that. The boom has driven property prices and property taxes sky high and attracted wealthy, off-island buyers.

The 2000 census puts the resident population at 62,640, of which 9 percent list themselves as Hawaiian, 22 percent as racially mixed, 34 percent as Caucasian and 36 percent as Asian. Twenty percent speak something other than English at home. The island's median household income was $43,000.

In 2000, census figures listed the median value of owner-occupied household units at $216,000 — or five times the median household income.

Times have changed. By this year, the median single-family home sold for $650,000 to $850,000 — or 15 times to 20 times the 2000 median household income.

As properties sell for those prices, many are also taxed at those values — a punishing cost to wage-earning local families who aren't buying and selling.

Candidate George Anderson said the county is itself partly to blame because it lets people conduct lucrative vacation rental tourism operations in residential neighborhoods, which increases property values and taxes, and makes the homes unavailable for residents.

Ming Fang, who is running on a slate with K.C. Lum and Monroe Richman, is calling for an immediate rollback of property taxes on longtime owner-occupied homes.

There is a consistent theme among challengers that the council is out of touch with longtime residents.

Candidate Bill DeCosta said, "We're not doing right for the common man."

The council has been in a battle for nearly the entire two-year term with the state Office of Information Practices, which has repeatedly warned against holding many meetings behind closed doors, and has contended that minutes of many such meetings should be made public. The council has gone to court to keep its records closed, and that case is still pending.

Richman said, "They've forgotten that a governing body derives its power from the governed."

Candidate Tim Bynum said that a county task force of citizens developed a new approach to property taxes, but the council never voted on the plan. "The council needs to listen to the community and honor their work," Bynum said.

Incumbent Shayene Iseri-Carvalho said the council spent a considerable amount of time during the expiring term monitoring problems at the Kaua'i Police Department. However, she said, it also accomplished significant work in areas such as housing, in which it urged buyback provisions on affordable residential projects and supported including lower-cost housing within the same projects as higher-end units.

Several candidates are talking about the need for a new county landfill, but none has identified a place for it. A couple of candidates — notably Iseri-Carvalho and Mel Rapozo — are stressing the issue of fighting drugs. Others — particularly Bynum and Bob Cariffe — are arguing for protecting public access to beaches and mountains.

Councilman Daryl Kaneshiro wants to protect agricultural lands for agricultural uses, and Councilman Jay Furfaro would like to establish visitor education centers around the island.

Reach Jan TenBruggencate at jant@honoluluadvertiser.com.