Chairman Ikaika Anderson officially leaves City Council

Honolulu City Council members gave retiring colleague and Chairman Ikaika Anderson a couple of fist bumps, a hug, maile lei and an elbow touch along with praise and well wishes Wednesday on his last workday at Honolulu Hale.

Mayor Kirk Caldwell started the sendoff during Anderson’s last Council meeting after serving much of Windward Oahu on the Council since 2009.

“I come here with mixed emotions on behalf of the million people of the island of Oahu to say aloha to a warrior,” Caldwell said, giving Anderson a maile lei. “I know that as the mayor we’ve benefited from his leadership. And so it’s with some sadness I come to say goodbye on his last day.”

Anderson also received a lei and a framed document from Council colleagues Ann Kobayashi, who added a hug, and Carol Fukunaga, who delivered a soft fist bump.

Along with Kobayashi, Council members Ron Menor, Brandon Elefante and Tommy Waters offered words of respect and aloha to Anderson.

“Chair, it’s been a beautiful ride and journey with you, and it’s sad to see you leave these wonderful beautiful chambers,” Elefante said after presenting Anderson with a maile lei. “But I know that in your heart that you’re at peace with the decision that you’ve made. I just want to thank you for your leadership as chair, your time here on the Council and for all your years of service — I think 17, if I’m not mistaken — serving as a staffer and elected official to serve your community very proudly.”

Alan Texeira, a staffer for Anderson, will fill the Council vacancy until January, after a vote by the remaining Council members following Anderson’s resignation.

Texeira now represents District 3, which covers Ahuimanu, Heeia, Haiku, Kaneohe, Maunawili, Kailua, Olomana, Enchanted Lake and Waimanalo.

Newly appointed Council chairwoman Ann Kobayashi was chosen to replace Anderson as the Council’s chair, and Councilman Tommy Waters will be vice chair, taking over Kobayashi’s former role.

The changes came after the City Council voted on a pair of resolutions Wednesday.

Kobayashi said Texeira could hit the ground running, which she — and most of the Council agreed with — described as a necessity during the COVID-19 outbreak on Oahu.

“Because of the timing, because of the dire need to solve these many other problems facing us today, we decided to accept the nominee as proposed by the person leaving, because we needed someone who can step in, as I say, tomorrow,” Kobayashi said.

A vote for Anderson’s replacement was the subject of criticism last week, as Councilwoman Heidi Tsuneyoshi filed two complaints with the Honolulu Ethics Commission.

One involved Anderson’s new job at Local Union 630, Plasterers and Cement Masons, which he started earlier this month. Tsuneyoshi said Anderson had supported legislation that would fund the city’s controversial rail project, and that its construction would profit the union.

Tsuneyoshi and Councilwoman Kym Pine asked Anderson to pause the selection process for his replacement.

Tsuneyoshi hand-carried an amended draft of Resolution 20-236 on Wednesday to nominate Kalani Kalima to replace Anderson after it failed to appear on the agenda. Kalima ran for the District 3 seat this year but lost in the primary election.

But the Council voted against hearing her draft, leaving Texeira as the only nominee.

Just prior to the Council voting on the resolution, Tsuneyoshi said other Council members were not given an opportunity to discuss alternate nominees for the seat because an agenda to replace Anderson was put in place within hours of Anderson announcing his resignation.

Waters noted that having either Texeira or Kalima fill the vacancy would be, in a sense, community choices. They received over 17% and 11% of the primary election votes for District 3.

“These two were the … third and fourth place. If you look at the amount of votes each of them got, we would really be following what the community wants if we look at the amount of votes that each of those candidates got,” he said.

Pine, who voiced her support for Texeira, said she wanted to pause his filling the seat for the sake of democracy.

“I understand that we have a lot of issues that we have to tend to, and that we are in crisis situations, but we should never let democracy, and open and transparent government, go to the wayside because we’re busy,” she said.

Kobayashi noted that it’s not necessary to open up a vacant Council seat to public discussion, and said that if the City Council did not pick someone to fill it, the mayor would.