Michael Formby to lead Pacific Resource Partnership

Former Honolulu City Councilman Michael Formby has been named Pacific Resource Partnership’s new executive director.

Formby, 61, previously served as chief of staff to U.S. Rep. Colleen Hanabusa and was director of the Honolulu Department of Transportation Services under Honolulu Mayor Kirk Caldwell. He also served as a member of the board of the Honolulu Authority for Rapid Transportation that oversees construction of the Honolulu rail project.

Earlier this year Formby served briefly as an interim Honolulu city councilman representing Council District 4, which includes Waikiki and East Honolulu. He held that post from February to April while a do-over election was held between Trevor Ozawa and Tommy Waters after the state Supreme Court invalidated the November election results.

PRP is a partnership of the Hawaii Regional Council of Carpenters and more than 240 of the state’s contractors.

“PRP is a natural fit for me,” Formby said in a written statement. “In my new role, I’ll be able to focus on the two things most important to me: Advocating for sound public policies and implementing those policies in a way that positively impacts the state of Hawaii and its residents.”

Formby, who is a lawyer, also served as deputy director of the state Harbors Division under former Gov. Linda Lingle and was acting director of the state Department of Transportation, which has responsibility for state highways, airports and harbors.

“Mike steps into his role at PRP at a critical time,” said Dale Sakamoto-Yoneda, president of S & M Sakamoto, Inc. and a member of the committee formed to select PRP’s executive director. “The state is facing a number of challenges and it’ll be up to organizations like PRP to help lead discussions around issues such as affordable housing, the cost of living, homelessness, and education.”

PRP and the carpenters have taken on increasingly intense and controversial roles in state and county elections in recent years, with political action committees funded by the carpenters injecting millions of dollars into campaign advertising for their favorite candidates.

Last year the carpenters spent many hundreds of thousands of dollars in support of Hanabusa’s ultimately unsuccessful bid to unseat Gov. David Ige and in support of Josh Green’s successful campaign for lieutenant governor.

The pro-Hanabusa, pro-Green and anti-Ige advertising fielded by a carpenters’ political action committee called Be Change Now dominated the local on-air political advertising for weeks leading up to the 2018 elections.

The Pacific Resources PAC in 2012 spent $3.6 million on advertising trying to persuade voters to reject former Gov. Ben Cayetano’s mayoral campaign. PRP has been a staunch supporter of the city rail project, which Cayetano opposed.

Cayetano later filed a defamation lawsuit against the PRP PAC, which was settled when PRP agreed to issue a public apology and donate $125,000 to two charities.