City Councilman Ikaika Anderson called for collaboration Saturday between the Council and the mayor’s office on the city budget, which is poised to take effect July 1 without Mayor Kirk Caldwell’s signature.
Caldwell returned the 2014 operating and capital improvements budgets to the City Council on Friday without his signature, saying several changes made by Council members will hamper his ability to quickly fill critical job openings.
Anderson said the mayor’s concerns are misguided and that he hopes Caldwell can sit down with the Council soon to clear the air.
"I would hope that the mayor, in the spirit of collaboration, would look to work with the Council in a collaborative effort on behalf of all of our taxpayers rather than needlessly bringing D.C.-style politics to Honolulu, which our people don’t need nor do they deserve," Anderson said Saturday afternoon on the steps outside Honolulu Hale.
By neither signing nor vetoing Bill 11 or Bill 12, Caldwell ensured the city’s $2.16 billion operating budget and $635 million capital improvements package would take effect next month. He said at a news conference Friday that he contemplated vetoing the bills, "but at the end of the day, I believe that wouldn’t be in the best interest of the taxpayer."
The mayor said in a letter to the Council that he objects to a part of the budget bill that would restrict how the administration can use about $65 million in a so-called vacant and funded positions account, because it "could seriously impact the hiring of temporary personnel who are needed to support the critical city operations."
Anderson, on the other hand, asserts, "There will be no interruption of city services; there will be absolutely no negative impact on city hiring" as a result of the provision.
Caldwell also takes issue with two bills that appear to try to exert Council authority over the semiautonomous Honolulu Authority for Rapid Transit, which oversees the city’s $5.26 billion rail project.
Anderson said, "The City Charter grants HART the duty to prepare an annual operating budget and an annual capital budget, but nowhere in the charter does it say that the HART board shall enact their own budget."
Anderson said he’s confident the mayor and the Council can iron out their differences. "There’s no time to amend the budget, but there certainly is time for the mayor and the Council to sit down and talk story and see exactly how we can come to a consensus," he said.
