Attorney general nominee faces the heat from Hawaii senators

Attorney general nominee Anne Lopez took a grilling Tuesday about how to best educate the public on abductions and sex trafficking.

Lopez also faced tough questions about 117 vacancies in the Attorney General’s Office in front of a joint hearing of the Senate Ways and Means and Judiciary committees.

She was the latest of Gov. Josh Green’s Cabinet nominees to face tough questions from state senators, who are responsible for confirming Green’s departments heads.

State Sen. Kurt Fevella (R, Ewa Beach-Ocean Pointe- Iroquois Point) expressed frustration to Lopez over what he called delays in law enforcement’s response in investigating sex trafficking allegations.

“It would be an act of God before you get one Honolulu Police Department officer to come try investigate a so-called sex trafficking,” Fevella told Lopez. “They don’t take sex trafficking as serious as it is in Hawaii.”

The attorney general also needs to figure out how to teach Hawaii children a universal sign to alert adults if they are being abducted or sex-trafficked, Fevella said.

“Take it more seriously — how about that? — because we was talking about schools and principals, they already know, they get programs,” Fevella said. “But you guys got to take the initiative — is going out there and educating the people how they can recognize ’em.”

Lopez said she takes concerns about sex trafficking seriously and will consider Fevella’s suggestion for a universal signal for children.

“I think it is an important idea and I certainly wouldn’t discount it,” Lopez told Fevella.

There also needs to be better collaboration between the Attorney General’s Office and HPD on sex trafficking, Fevella said.

“Do me a favor, try go talk to any HPD officer,” Fevella told Lopez. “The reason why I am bringing this up — and it’s very serious — is because when somebody calls 911 to report a sex trafficking, and this is from officers that I talk to individually, most of the times they don’t react because the abuse is coming from a household member.”

Senators also pressed Lopez and her staff on why they have 117 vacancies. Lopez responded by proposing a solution that she called “direct hire.”

“Our HR folks in our department can be trained to determine if an applicant meets the minimum qualifications and, if they can, then we don’t have to wait for a list to come from the Department of Human Resources Development,” Lopez said. “We have the applicant. We know how to assess their qualifications and then we can offer their jobs,” Lopez said.

Younger employees are less interested in jobs in the Attorney General’s Office because of state benefits, Lopez said.

“I don’t think most of the younger generation is going to work in one place for 30 years,” Lopez said. “We need to be creative. And I think doing more workforce development, to allow people to move up vertically within the department, is important. We’re doing a little bit of that right now.”