Kirk Caldwell said the political unpopularity that led to his exit from the governor’s race was the result of “tough decisions” he made as Honolulu mayor on thorny issues such as COVID-19, homelessness and rail transit.
Yes and no. He did take heat from some genuinely tough decisions, but it was more the bad decisions that did him in.
It was inevitable that the COVID-19 restrictions Caldwell had little choice but to impose for public safety would draw the ire of constituents who were scared, confused and angry.
But he did a decent job of managing the unprecedented emergency and vast unknowns he faced, and had debate points to make against Lt. Gov. Josh Green, the Democratic front-runner for governor, who had his own gaffes on COVID-19.
On homelessness, Caldwell’s “compassionate disruption” policy was of questionable value, but he increased the city’s inventory of housing and services for the homeless and deserved credit for taking ownership of Oahu homelessness after predecessors tried to pass it off as a state problem.
Rail was where bad decisions started to get him.
Caldwell was elected on a promise to “build rail better,” but made surprisingly little effort to do so until the end of his term, when he shot down an overpriced public- private partnership proposed by the Honolulu Authority for Rapid Transportation and began criticizing HART directors — many of whom he’d appointed — for their mismanagement and loose finances.
His fortunes, and the community’s, would be far better today if he’d made a tough decision to hold HART to account at the start of his term instead of the end.
Instead, he made the expedient decision to please politically powerful rail interests by leading the push for two state rail bailouts totaling more than $3 billion — without demanding corrections in HART’s fumbling management that could have prevented ongoing crises to this day.
Caldwell also paid for his bad decision to try to gentrify Ala Moana Beach Park to the liking of luxury condo owners across the street, ignoring objections of longtime park users who just wanted it better maintained the way it was.
And for stubbornly bulldozing a Waimanalo forest for a ball field and parking lot against the vehement protests of neighboring residents.
Caldwell was tone-deaf to public concerns about his side job as a bank director that some years paid him fees and stock incentives totaling more than his mayoral salary. He failed to see — or didn’t care — that it was a massive conflict of interest even if not a technical violation of the city’s anemic ethics laws.
Finally, he was running under the cloud of a federal criminal investigation that has three of his former key appointees under indictment for a questionable $250,000 retirement payout to corrupt former Police Chief Louis Kealoha. The feds are still poking around, with further charges possible.
Former Honolulu Mayor Jeremy Harris found it similarly untenable and had to drop out when he tried to run for governor in 2002 with an unresolved campaign finance probe hanging over him.
Reach David Shapiro at volcanicash@gmail.com.
