Ige still considering HCDA picks

A deadline has passed, but Gov. David Ige still could fill two upcoming vacancies on a state board regulating development in Kakaako using a controversial list of candidates from the Honolulu City Council.

Ige had a March 31 deadline to submit his picks for the Hawaii Community Development Authority board to the Senate for approval.

Jodi Leong, Ige’s deputy communications director, said Tuesday that the governor is in the process of interviewing six candidates presented to him by the Council.

It’s possible that Ige could seek and receive an extension to the deadline that would allow the Senate to consider confirming picks by the governor before the Legislature adjourns May 4, though Senate President Ron Kouchi said such a request has not been made or discussed.

Ige also has two other options: holding over the board members whose terms are expiring or making interim appointments that the Senate could consider for confirmation next year or in a special session this year if one is called.

Mike McCartney, Ige’s chief of staff, said in a statement March 31: “Gov. Ige will take the time he needs to effectively vet the applicants and make thoughtful decisions.”

Ige has not publicly commented on the Council’s candidate selection process that was marked by confusion and conflicting statements by participants last month. It’s possible that he has no issues with how the Council produced two lists, each one containing three candidates for one board seat, and that he simply didn’t have time to make informed selections by March 31, given that the Council sent Ige the lists on March 24.

But how the Council created its lists was muddled.

Under a 2014 amendment to state law, the Council became responsible for providing the governor with choices for three of HCDA’s nine board seats as a way to reduce the governor’s control over shaping the board that oversees development in an area of concentrated high-rise construction.

Ige made his initial appointments to the board in 2015. Now two of these seats are up for refilling because the terms of Steve Scott and Jason Okuhama expire June 30. By law, one seat must be filled by the owner of a small business in Kakaako, and one must be filled by a Kakaako resident.

Councilwoman Kymberly Pine was in charge of taking nominations as chairwoman of the Zoning and Housing Committee.

At a March 22 Council meeting at which three candidates for each seat were selected, Pine recommended that Scott, who owns slipper maker Scott Hawaii, not be selected because he was nominated by only one Council member while three other candidates were nominated by two Council members.

Pine later said there were other factors including not hearing from fellow Council members that Scott was an important candidate. Pine also said Scott didn’t meet with her in person, though Scott said he tried to arrange a meeting.

Council members voted 5-4 to accept Pine’s recommended list. During the meeting, two Council members who voted with Pine, Ikaika Anderson and Brandon Elefante, called the process fair. Yet two others, Trevor Ozawa and Ernest Martin, said they weren’t clear on how Pine was treating nominations. The two Council members representing Kakaako, Carol Fukunaga and Ann Kobayashi, said they were disappointed by Pine’s handling of the nominating process.

More than 100 individuals and organizations, including HCDA board Chairman John Whalen, signed a petition sent to Ige on March 28 asking him to reject what the group called a flawed and arbitrary Council list.

One allegation in the petition was that Pine “switched” one nominee, Phillip Hasha, from being considered for the resident seat to the small-business-owner seat. Hasha lives in Kakaako and owns the Kakaako-based real estate development firm The Redmont Group.

Pine, in an interview, said she didn’t do that. She said Hasha was nominated for the small-business-owner seat.

Yet in response to that, Ozawa senior adviser Francis Choe said Ozawa nominated Hasha for either seat as indicated by “resident/business owner” written on Ozawa’s nomination form.

The two others selected for the small-business-owner seat are general contractor Jay Kadowaki and Nani Medeiros, executive director of nonprofit HomeAid Hawaii, which is guided by a board that includes executives of major Kakaako development firms.

For the resident seat, Diane Georgene Fujio was proposed as an additional candidate by Pine on March 22 before the Council vote because Pine said that list was one person short. The other two are Okuhama and Jonathan L.W. Ching.

Fujio is founder of the Master Sha Tao Healing Center, based in Kakaako. Okuhama is a self-employed mortgage broker. Ching is a government relations specialist with Kaiser Foundation Health Plan.