Ozawa to chair Council Budget Committee

Honolulu City Councilman Trevor Ozawa takes over as chairman of the critical Budget Committee under the leadership team headed by newly reinstalled Council Chairman Ernie Martin.

Ozawa takes over from Councilman Joey Manahan, who assumed the Budget Committee reins last year. Manahan will now head the Transportation Committee.

Councilman Brandon Elefante, who had headed Transportation, will now take over the Public Health, Safety and Welfare Committee. The Public Health, Safety and Economic Development Committee was previously headed by Ozawa.

The heads of five other committees will remain the same: Councilwoman Kymberly Pine leads the Zoning Committee; Councilman Ikaika Anderson chairs the Planning Committee; Councilman Ron Menor heads the Executive Matters and Legal Affairs Committee; Councilwoman Ann Koba­yashi chairs the Parks, Community and Customer Service Committee; and Councilwoman Carol Fuku­naga leads the Public Works, Infrastructure and Sustainability Committee.

The changes take effect after Thursday’s last committee meeting.

Martin unseated Menor by a 5-4 vote Monday. Backing Martin were Fukunaga, Kobayashi, Ozawa and Pine. Voting against the change were Anderson, Elefante, Manahan and Menor.

Due to the impending leadership shake-up, the traditional, weeklong series of agency-by-agency budget briefings that had been scheduled for last week were canceled abruptly March 12. Ozawa, in a memo Tuesday, said he will have one overall budget briefing day on Tuesday.