‘Professional troll’ crashes virtual meeting on road closure
By Tom George
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HONOLULU (KITV) — For years, the popular Waipio Valley Road has become a problem area, prompting safety concerns to due safety concerns over the steep grade and potential for landslides.
It’s why Hawaii County Mayor Mitch Roth made the decision to restrict access to residents and farmers only. The issue was discussed as a Wednesday public meeting via Zoom.
While supporters of the closure, those who live or farm along the road argue it’s become overused, opponents are mostly locals who enjoy be able to access to the beach, and don’t believe the risk level should outweigh their ability to use the road as well.
But it was one speaker in particular that’s getting a lot of attention.
Alex Stein, a “professional troll,” said he was calling into the meeting from Dallas and claimed that the road caused him a string of back luck – a rockslide on his honeymoon led to a DUI and then his wife ruining their marriage by cheating on him with a Big Island tow truck driver.
It was at the point when the moderator, Hawaii County Public Information officer Cyrus Johnasen reminded him to stay on topic. It was that that point Stein went off the rails, culminating in calling local officials “a bunch of dumb Hawaiians” and “idiots” before finally being muted and kicked out of meeting.
Stein is known to troll other government meetings around the country. Johansen says he and the others on the call took it all in stride, understanding it was a joke. “I don’t want to give him any more clout because he is a nuisance and certainly disrupted our meeting but I will say this, he really brought the meeting together because we’re a bunch of local people that care about Waipio Valley and his actions and way he came off made us realize that regardless of our differences of opinion on this particular road closure.. that we really are an ohana,” Johansen says.
As for the issue at hand, Johnasen says the county is working on a more permanent solution to address the safety issues of the road, but in the meantime, the decision to only allow residents and farmers could last years.
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