The Honolulu Police Commission is expected to whittle its list of police chief candidates down to a handful when it meets Thursday.
Earlier this month, consulting firm EB Jacobs trimmed the list of hopefuls to nine semifinalists from among 24 candidates who had taken an eight-question written test designed and administered by the Pennsylvania-based company.
After the nine undergo additional testing Tuesday and Wednesday, they will be scored and ranked by Jacobs officials who will then hand those results to the commission.
The semifinalist list has not been made public, and commission Chairman Max Sword insisted that neither he nor any of his fellow commissioners know who’s on the list.
The Honolulu Star-Advertiser has confirmed the names of six of the nine semifinalists: retired Drug Enforcement Agency agent Thomas Aiu, current HPD Maj. Susan Ballard, retired HPD Maj. Kurt Kendro, retired Assistant Chief Kevin Lima, current Kauai Police Chief Darryl Perry and former Chicago Police Department Commander Gary Yamashiroya.
Neither Acting Police Chief Cary Okimoto, who applied for the post after taking over in an interim capacity in December, nor any current deputy or acting chief made the cut.
The commission received applications from 34 qualified candidates, but only 24 took the essay test late last month.
The candidates are to take part Tuesday and Wednesday in what is described as an assessment center, where they will encounter another written test and undergo face-to-face interviews with Jacobs officials as well as a locally based psychologist.
Thursday’s agenda includes the item “decision making on finalists.” Sword said that when the finalist list is agreed to, the public will have the chance to offer testimony to the commission in person at its Oct. 4 meeting.
A chief will then likely be picked from the finalist list by the end of October, Sword said.
Several of the commissioners voiced displeasure with the search process, which was delayed for several months after the first consultant backed out.
Commissioner Luella Costales, at Wednesday’s commission meeting, reiterated her concerns about the makeup of those selected by Jacobs to score the semifinalist test. Costales said she was “concerned and disturbed” that scoring of the test was done by four Caucasian men from the mainland, three of whom are from Pennsylvania. All four were also described as former police chiefs.
Some of the questions, which were formulated with the help of Oahu community members, asked about how policing in Honolulu is unique and how the candidates would go about improving HPD’s relations with the community, Costales said. Given their backgrounds, “what gives them the qualifications, the credibility to score that? And that’s where I have a real problem,” she said.
Costales, however, was unsuccessful in her attempt to get her colleagues to reconsider the testing process.
Commissioner Loretta Sheehan said she was bothered that the initial elimination process relied solely on the test scores without giving weight to other factors. Sheehan said she has two brothers, one with dyslexia and the other dysgraphia, both of whom are bright and successful men but have difficulty taking written tests as a result of their disorders.
Sheehan and Commissioner Steven Levinson asked to see the questions and then the answers turned in by the candidates. While they’ve been given the questions, they’ve not yet been given the answers.
Sheehan said despite her reservations, the commissioners had previously agreed to trust the process.
Several commissioners said they did not want to delay the hiring any more than necessary.
The seven-member commission has had only six members since Marc Tilker resigned earlier this year for personal reasons. Costales’ term ran out at the end of last year, but Mayor Kirk Caldwell asked her to stay on until a replacement can be found.
Former Chief Louis Kealoha retired amid controversy at the end of February. In mid-December he had placed himself on paid leave after he received a letter from federal authorities informing him that he is a target in a federal conspiracy investigation.
The case, at least in part, stems from allegations that he, other HPD officers and wife Katherine Puana Kealoha, a deputy city prosecutor, conspired to frame her uncle Gerard Puana for stealing the couple’s mailbox from their then Kahala home.
Star-Advertiser reporter Leila Fujimori contributed to this story.
Correction: Thomas Aiu is a retired Drug Enforcement Agency agent. An earlier version of this story said he was a retired FBI agent.
