In his first formal news conference since he was inaugurated, Gov. David Ige reaffirmed there is little money available for discretionary spending, responded confidently to questions about his low-key leadership style and made it clear that buzzwords for his fledgling administration are "efficient" and "effective."
Ige said outside of paying state employees for negotiated collective bargaining contracts, his revised budget submittal to the Legislature stresses "moving forward on safety net services" and "making selective investments in programs that can help grow our economy."
The state is in active negotiations with government worker unions about upcoming contracts.
"We have programmed (into the budget) all of the agreements that have been made to date, and we are ensuring that we can pay for any future contractual obligations," he said. "That’s why I’m not making big pronouncements about spending a whole ton more money, because I believe we have already been obligated and I’m committed to making sure that the budget can meet those obligations."
The Department of Taxation is focused on finding ways of collecting more revenue, he said, but the administration was careful not to insert too many new initiatives into its revised budget for the coming biennium given that the state general fund budget allows a mere $40 million to be added for discretionary funding.
"That’s why I’ve challenged the departments to be more efficient and effective — every single day," he said.
Asked why he has not taken advantage of any momentum he may have gained from his election victory to go out in public to stump for his positions, Ige said, "I’ve learned during my time at the Capitol that it really is about cooperation and working together. I don’t believe that it’s about posturing."
For instance, "you won’t hear big pronouncements about how I’m going to save the public hospitals, but I can assure you that there are many meetings to talk about what needs to get done to make the public hospitals more sustainable. At some point in time we’ll have an announcement to make because we would have put together the pieces that need to happen to make it."
The governor said he is "about 95 percent done" on Cabinet appointments, noting that he still needs to find a labor director and several deputies.
He stood by his decisions to appoint Castle & Cooke Vice President Carleton Ching as chairman of the Board of Land and Natural Resources and longtime prison warden Nolan Espinda as public safety director.
Ige said he’s not surprised by the furor from the environmental community over the Ching appointment. However, "I think anybody appointed to that position would be controversial," Ige said. "I believe it’s the nature of the job."
Ching has the management experience and "the heart" to handle one of the state’s largest agencies and its wide range of responsibilities, he said.
As for Ching’s long history with Castle & Cooke, "if there’s a direct conflict with his former position, then he would declare and recuse himself as appropriate," the governor said.
He did not keep former Land Board Chairman William Aila, now his designee as deputy director for the Department of Hawaiian Home Lands, because "I decided early on that I wanted to make a change in that department."
Ige also reaffirmed his support for Espinda. "That department is another challenging department, pretty much like DLNR where I’m certain no matter who I nominated for that position, there would be supporters and detractors," he said.
The governor said he’s not surprised he’s having difficulty finding appointees, noting that the University of Hawaii, the Judiciary, the Department of Education and the City and County of Honolulu pay their directors more than he can. "It’s been a challenge." He also acknowledged that some people he approached to join his team declined to do so because of the public scrutiny they would need to face.
The governor touched on a number of other topics during his 48-minute availability session:
» Ige said his administration is continuing to explore a public-private partnership to keep Maui’s state hospitals open. He cautioned, however, that "we can’t just focus on what the needs of Maui (are) in isolation of what the impact that any solution for Maui would have on the entire system."
Besides speaking to parties interested in a partnership, Ige said he is talking to other stakeholders about "how we can operate the hospitals more effectively and efficiently as state entities."
» Randall Iwase, Ige’s nominee to head the Public Utilities Commission, has been told of the governor’s concern that too many dockets have been left unresolved. A restructuring of the agency, including the hiring of a full-time executive director, is designed to make the job of commissioners easier as they prepare to tackle the proposed sale of Hawaiian Electric Industries to NextEra Energy.
» Since his inauguration in early December, Ige said the thing that has surprised him most about the governor’s office is the amount of papers he must sign. "We definitely are working to understand why so much of that comes through the governor’s desk," he said.
