Some on Council suggest having mayor pick police chief

Frustrated by how long it has taken the Police Commission to pick a new chief, some Honolulu City Council members are suggesting it may be time to consider changing the law to allow the mayor to make the selection.

Former Honolulu Police Chief Louis Kealoha resigned effective March 1.

Cary Okimoto, Kealoha’s senior deputy chief, has been serving as acting chief since Kealoha put himself on paid leave in mid-December after being informed that he is a target of a federal criminal conspiracy investigation.

Councilman Ernie Martin introduced a resolution — unanimously endorsed last week by the Council Public Health, Safety and Welfare Committee — urging the commission to speed up its timetable. Before approval, language was added to Martin’s original proposal asking that the commission give preference to someone currently or previously with the Honolulu Police Department.

The original resolution called for the commission to make a selection by Nov. 30. But after being told by commission Executive Director Dan Lawrence that the panel was aiming to make a pick by the end of October, committee members amended the resolution to say Oct. 31.

The commission announced in May that it has 34 eligible candidates, but the selection process has been bogged down by delays in the hiring of a consultant to assist in the pick. The consultant began work in mid-July.

Martin said most of the six members now on the commission have been there a while and should have been able to make a selection without a consultant. “Here we are in August, and they’ve made no progress,” he said at a committee meeting last week.

Commission Chairman Max Sword was out of state but submitted written testimony to the committee asking that the resolution be deferred. He took exception to language in Martin’s resolution stating the panel appeared reluctant to fulfill its responsibility to make a hire.

“To even hint that we are not conscientiously performing our duties is an insult at the very least,” Sword said, explaining the arduous work the volunteer commissioners have been undertaking. Sword said he also disagreed with the resolution’s characterization of HPD’s morale as very low.

The Council committee took out the references to low morale before giving its approval.

Left in the resolution, however, was language advising the commission to hire someone either now in the department or previously employed by HPD.

“I would just like to urge the Police Commission, as they move through this process, (to ensure) that special attention is paid to those applicants from within the Honolulu Police Department,” Councilman Ikaika Anderson said. That sentiment was also voiced by Martin and Councilman Joey Manahan.

Anderson said he wants to propose changing the City Charter to shift responsibility for hiring the chief to the mayor, who also hires other city department heads.

“I can’t believe the current situation … would have been allowed to occur under any mayor,” he said. “I think a mayor would’ve stepped in and done whatever would’ve been needed to be done.”

Martin agreed, noting that the mayor of Minneapolis hired a new chief within days of losing the old one.

Mayor Kirk Caldwell, reached for comment after the committee meeting, said he too felt frustrated by the slow progress of the chief’s selection.

But Caldwell said he likes the current setup where appointed commissioners select the police chief. “I do think it removes politics out of it,” he said. “It’s not totally gone, but it’s one step removed.”