Council shakeup: Anderson expected to lose leadership positions
STAR-ADVERTISER
Ikaika Anderson:
He nominated Kymberly Pine to replace him as vice chairman
STAR-ADVERTISER
Joey Manahan (shown left):
Agenda lists only his appointment as being formally up for review
———
Trevor Ozawa:
Tension between him and Anderson seems to have risen in recent weeks
Honolulu City Councilman Ikaika Anderson is being stripped of his positions as the Council’s second-in-command and chairman of the influential Zoning and Planning Committee following a shake-up at Honolulu Hale.
Anderson is expected to relinquish the title of Council vice chairman to Councilman Joey Manahan at Wednesday’s Council meeting in West Oahu. On the agenda is a resolution that names Manahan the Council’s vice chairman.
Meanwhile, Anderson said to the Honolulu Star-Advertiser Friday, Council Chairman Ernie Martin has told him Councilman Trevor Ozawa will replace him as Zoning chairman. Committee assignments are the purview of the Council chairman.
Anderson has been second-in-command at the Council since he and Martin took over from then-Chairman Nestor Garcia and Vice Chairman Breene Harimoto in June 2011. He has been chairman of the Zoning and Planning Committee since it was created, merging the former Zoning and Planning committees, also in mid-2011. Before that, Anderson had served as either Zoning or Planning committee chairman since arriving on the Council in mid-2009.
Two separate resolutions were introduced Thursday to name the next vice chairman of the Council. And while the role of a vice chairman is largely ceremonial, the dueling resolutions signaled a behind-the-scenes conflict among Council members.
On Thursday morning, Anderson introduced Resolution 16-165, calling for Councilwoman Kymberly Pine to replace him. A few hours later, Councilman Trevor Ozawa introduced Resolution 16-167, calling for Manahan to be vice chairman. In both resolutions, Martin remains as the chairman while Ron Menor retains his title as floor leader.
“I understand that some members of the Council support a change in leadership in the vice chairman’s position, which I’m OK with,” Anderson said Thursday. “I’m unsure about the reasoning, but I’m OK with it.”
Several hours after Ozawa’s resolution was made public, the chairman’s office released the agenda for July’s monthly meeting, which takes place Wednesday at the University of Hawaii-West Oahu campus.
The agenda includes Ozawa’s proposal, but not Anderson’s, leaving only Manahan’s appointment formally under consideration.
Martin declined to be interviewed or answer specific questions about the shuffling, but issued a statement late Thursday that said: “Council member Anderson is a valuable, experienced member of this body and he will continue to be an important part of the work we do for the city. We appreciate all of his hard work and commitment to his constituents.”
Anderson said that he introduced his resolution because “Kymberly Pine is one of the most senior members of our Council, and she attends meetings of committees she’s not even a member of.”
Additionally, he said, it’s been a while since a woman has held one of the top two positions at the Council. He acknowledged that he did not consult Pine before placing her name up for consideration.
Ozawa did not respond to requests for comment.
Manahan declined to answer specific questions but said he is grateful to be considered as Council vice chairman. He referred other questions to Martin.
Pine also declined to answer questions, but, in an email, confirmed that she was not consulted before Anderson introduced his resolution. “I’ll wait till the boys at the Council figure out who has what title,” she said. “Right now, I’m focused on making sure the Council does everything we can to build the entire rail system without raising taxes and making sure that we continue to take care of the people first.”
On Friday, Anderson said he met with Martin and was told that he was being replaced as Zoning and Planning chairman by Ozawa. Martin suggested that other committees might be in need of a chairman, but he was not offered any job and he did not promise anything to Martin, Anderson said.
There appears to have been growing tension between Anderson and Ozawa, both Kamehameha Schools graduates, in recent weeks.
At the June 16 meeting of the Zoning and Planning Committee, a meeting that Anderson led, Ozawa was questioning a testifier about a controversial Waikiki project in which people from both sides were giving their views.
When Ozawa, the committee vice chairman, said he wanted to ask “another question,” Anderson quickly said “Brief, please.” Ozawa paused, turned to look at Anderson, said “I’ll pass,” and got up to leave. As he walked behind Anderson to leave the committee room, the television microphone picked him up stating he was “going to use the restroom.”
When he did not return, the committee did not have a quorum of three members to continue the meeting. The meeting was then recessed until midafternoon when Anderson, Ozawa and others joined in to make quorum.
Several Council sources pointed to the meeting as the flashpoint that led to the rift between Anderson and Ozawa.
Anderson said he had followed Ozawa out of the committee room and asked him to return to meet quorum but Ozawa refused. “The man hasn’t talked to me since then,” he said.
“I’ve never had a personality conflict with Trevor,” Anderson said, adding that he suggested to Martin that Ozawa be his vice chairman of Zoning and Planning. “There’s no animosity from me toward him. If he has any animosity toward me, I’m unaware of it.”
Anderson said he was not trying to be rude or insulting to Ozawa. “I was just trying to end a very contentious discussion. … It didn’t seem to me that they were going to come up to any agreement other than to agree to disagree.”
54 responses to “Council shakeup: Anderson expected to lose leadership positions”
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I was at that meeting and Ozawa was belittling and berating a constituent of his who dared to come and express an opinion about a project that was not held by Ozawa. I have never seen an elected official attack one of his own constituents like that before and essential talk down to and bully a constituent. Then he got up like a spoiled brat and stormed out when the other adults in the room tried to move on with some sense of dignity and respect for the people present. All of this while arriving late to the meeting in the first place and publicly explaining that he was late because he was hungover from partying with Martin the night before. This is a really pathetic reflection on Martin, Ozawa, and Manahan. Three of the most petty, small-minded bullies I’ve ever seen in government in many many many years. God help us.
They all hold the public in total distain. Time for tar and feathers.
No show Pine shows more disdain than all of them combined; unless you’ve donated 4 figures of more to her campaign or cheer-lead her incompetence. Why is she called “no show Pine”? Never attends community meetings, always has an excuse to not be with her constituents unless there’s a photo op or money handout opportunity.
That baloney. She does plenty. Furthermore, this isn’t some “their all crooks” sort of cynicism I’m expressing here. It’s specific to these council members. There are actually plenty of quality people in office – unfortunately it is the petty ones who are in charge. So now we have a petty whinny bully with zero government experience and who’s never really even had a an actual job before going to be in charge of the planning and permitting for the 11th largest municipality in the country. This is not ok.
Pine is doing an outstanding job.
Thanks for the info! So, pretty much Ozawa and Martin have a couple of drinks and decide to buddy up against Anderson. But it backfires when Ozawa walks out. What does Martin do now? Ozawa has shown contempt to the process knowing he is a shoe in!What a punk!
O U T with G-D incumbents, already!!!
HNL – world class in incompetence, ineffectiveness and intransigence
My observation of Councilmen Ozawa and Anderson are that they are kind of moke-like in demeanor. I mean, they come across more bully or boorish in their mannerisms. I may have seen both in person a couple of times, and see them on the local news in spots, but that is what I thought.
agree
Way to be racist, “Crackers’. What a fitting name.
Anderson isn’t ‘moke-like’ – he’s Hawaiian.
Check yourself.
I have to agree with Kriya and say I attend the council meetings and it seems that Ozawa is always scolding or belittling anybody that opposes something in his district. He is always rude and belligerant to them. Now, he is becoming zoning chair? Yikes, what is he going to do belittle everyone that opposes a zoning project that comes before his committee?
agree..all three are really dolts. They are an embarrassment to Hawaii.
Disturbing.
I watched the whole video tape–Pt 1,2,3 and Ozawa didn’t do what you said. Pt 1 yes the conversation was going no where so Anderson said brief to Ozawa. Then left and said he was going to the bathroom. No way did he “storm out” look at the begining of tape 2 and Anderson followed him out. Did YOU follow them too? Otherwise how could you know what they said???
Sounds like Ozawa got his feelings hurt. Boo hoo, you look like a fool, Martin looks just as foolish for siding with the childish councilman. Such a short time on the council and already walking out on meetings to prevent a quorum when things don’t go his way.
What a bunch of clowns.
Playing games while the city goes down the tubes.
There needs to be an open discussion regarding this sudden change in leadership. It appears that there is more to this story than what is being given. The fact that there is a sudden change of leadership due to some of the representatives seconding the motion is bothersome and we, the people, need to know why. It seems like there is no checks and balances in place. Kriya’s post is quite disturbing if in fact that a representative has been behaving erratically and not professionally. Everyone has their day. I get that. But these are the people that lead our city. It seems that our council has been deteriorating as of late and we need to have a system in place whereby representatives are not simply thrown on the wayside just because of some silly misunderstanding. We are all adults here. And we expect the same of our leaders. I am also disturbed by Pine’s use of the word “boys” of our leaders. I find her use of that word disturbing also. These are men and women. If on the psychological level our leaders think like “boys” or are called such, there is a problem. And to be “hung over” from a party (if in fact true) is just not acceptable of our leadership. What has happened to our standards? What happened to decorum and professional conduct?
Start with handsome Martin not doing his job.
Here’s the video of the meeting. http://www.honolulu.gov/rep/site/ccl/Zoning_June_16_2016_1_of_5.mp4. You might want to start about half way through.
What are we looking at? It doesn’t show the part where Crybaby Ozawa storms off. The video shows Councilman Ozawa commenting that he celebrated Chair Martin’s birthday last night too hard..LOL.
You had asked about the party. Also, shortly after that is the discussion I think Kriya is referring to.
NO SHOW PINE IS A HORRIBLE CHOICE BUT SO IS MANAHAN!!!! We need a totally new Council from top to bottom. LETS VOTE THEM OUT. All of the sitting council has been accepting large sums of cash from the Unions and PRP is the worst rea
I also revised the material to reflect recent discoveries. We found that the nefarious Pacific Resource Partnership supported Carol Fukunaga with $86,000 in advertising for her 2012 election. AND under a different name, they gave Brandon Elefante $105,000 in advertising support. With this money, the percentage of Elefante’s support from the Ho’opili and Rail construction community jumped to 91%. Pretty amazing! He sure wasn’t going to vote against them! It is interesting, though, and it really is an education on these issues.
Here’s The Friends of Makakilo breakdown on City Council campaign contributions:
Council Member Total Contributions Amount from Hoopili/Rail Interests
Percent
Kymberly Pine
$160,879
$116,801
72%
Ernie Martin
$451,240
$268,017
59%
Ikaika Anderson
$139,518
$100,668
72%
Trevor Ozawa
$183,320
$104,550
57%
Ann Kobayashi
$57,136
$24,450
43%
Carol Fukunaga
$258,321
$104,565
40%
Joey Manahan
$182,215
$83,512
46%
Brandon Elefante
$37,322
$24,292
65%
Ron Menor
$48,405
$34,650
72%
d below and weep as they are now puppets on a string:
It is obvious you are just a troll who works for a campaign for one of her opponents who runs the website to which you refer.
Kriya, it is easy to call others a troll when their post does not work for you. Where are is your data to counter wondermn1? Your comment is just as troll-like as you are calling another one just because it does not agree with your beliefs.
hardly… as I’m neither “countering” the troll and nor am I even disagreeing with their expressed beliefs or statements. Rather, someone campaigning against one of the council members in the comments section of a story that isn’t even about that person with data from that council members opponent’s website lacks credulity and ads nothing to the conversation. Your comment makes even little sense than the original one which is a completely different topic than anything that the news story is even about. My goodness. Bye bye trolls.
Could Andy’s short cuts in Haleiwa have damaged the Anderson name?
Is Ikaika related to Andy?
Time to vote these Fools out of office. New ideas are needed !
squirmy wormies.
Anderson & Pine. The worst of the worst on the council.
nope the worst are martin, ozawa, Manahan and kobayashi.
I agree.
Changing of the guard. Sellouts are getting purged. Just the beginning.
agreed
Agree, the worst on the City Council are Martin, Ozawa, and Kobayashi. They have been doing their best to sabotage and undermine the rail Metro project from day one. The trolls who are attacking and Anderson, are the same trolls who have been attacking PRP, the unions, the costruction industry and workers, the Mayor, Hart, Gambruskas, and anyone who is in favor of rail.
sounds like any citizen that has been damaged and speaks out against the RUSTING OVERPRICED RAIL IS A troll. The City has destroyed my business and has lied at every turn. sure we will help the businesses that were destroyed (like when is that going to happen maybe in a thousand years????) We tried to reason with the city back in 2006 and we were hushed and led out of the community meetings. all of the things we said have now come true. over budget, wrong route, wrong technology, wrong timing, wrong, wrong and yet the pro-railers still persist in more & more lies so vector, wiliki, ukuleleboo, nankuliboo have all now been proven as liars. Sooooooo lets stop the RAIL AND STOP THE GRAFF. nuff already.
ozawa is acting like a child, when he did not get his way he runs to martin (his mom) and complain. and because ozawa is one of martin’s stooges, martin will favor him and punish Anderson. do we need such babies on the city council. hey, you supposed to be a big boy, and able to deal with adversity. if you cannot stand the heat then get out of the kitchen. with martin and his henchmen, the council is truly dysfunctional. we need new leadership, one that does not bully and play favoritism.
Let me guess. You miss Nestor Garcia.
Not taking sides in this, but Anderson should have talked to Ozawa quietly on the side instead of cutting him off in front of everyone. It disrepected Ozawa. I think that is what happened.
Sort of like never correcting or disciplining an employee or peer in front of everyone else.
no… when someone is acting like a child in a room full of adults, you address it like an adult and move on. Ozawa lacks basic maturity (as well as a long list of other things) and he’s the kind of guy who wouldn’t even move beyond an entry level position.
There are Sunshine laws now and you can’t discuss Council business outside of Council meetings. Anderson did the best he could under the worst of circumstances.
City Council is a train wreck. Total confusion, and full of indecision.
Martin declined to be interviewed or answer specific questions about the shuffling, but issued a statement late Thursday that said: “Council member Anderson is a valuable, experienced member of this body and he will continue to be an important part of the work we do for the city. We appreciate all of his hard work and commitment to his constituents.”
Then he appoints Joey ‘Manahan’ ??
PEOPLE SEEM TO FORGET THE SKELETON’S IN jOEY’S CLOSET:
http://www.hawaiinewsnow.com/story/19078635/council-candidate-spends-29k-on-food-and-drink-prompting-probe-by-state
joey Manahan’s whole campaign is based solely on a smorgasbord.
Can you imagine if he becomes Council vice chairman ? OMG!
We need to vote these incompetents out of office.
All this BS warrants removal from the council. Voters need to do their duty and get rid of the current members. They all want to be in charge but the operations of the city is messed up. Time for new members and new ideas to keep from going bankrupt !!
From the comments presented here, it appears that Ozawa suffers from low self-esteem with Martin enabling him. Preserving their egos appears to be job one, government work is secondary.
I see that!
Is Trevor Ozawa the new Tom Berg? Being drunk to meetings and hung over???
Probably got new found power and can’t handle it!
When was Tom Berg ever drunk at a City Council meeting?
Berg reminds me of Trump, if nothing else they’re entertaining to watch
both TRUMP & BERG are to honest for Hawaii’s good old boy system and it scares the heck out of the people running the islands. Like das demo’s
Thanks District 4 voters for choosing Trevor instead of Natalie Iwasa who would have worked harder, has more brainpower and been a better councilmember. I hope you like whatever Chair Martin has in store for the city because your current councilmember is just going to be a lapdog from here on out.
New face, same nonsense. Need qualified people that actually listen and back the majority public. Getting old, people are much more akamai after being taken many times over.
Fire Ernie.