A plan to break up the city Emergency Serv­ices Department was formally announced in March 2023 during Honolulu Mayor Rick Blangiardi’s 2023 State of the City address.

As the executive officer with the authority to reorganize city departments, the mayor said he wanted to study whether the city Ocean Safety and Lifeguard Services Division could be separated from the rest of the department, which mainly includes ambulance services of the city’s Emergency Medical Services.

If that separation did occur, two distinct, individual city departments would be created.

Since then the City Council advanced legislation toward that end, voting unanimously Wednesday to approve the first of three readings for Resolution 50. Questions were raised, however, about whether the move would put the city at its maximum number of departments and block a potential Department of Housing or any other new city department.

Introduced by Council member Andria Tupola, the resolution, if adopted, could initiate a voter-­approved City Charter amendment. As drafted, language would be placed on the Nov. 5 general election ballot, offering this question: “Shall the Revised City Charter be amended to establish a Department of Ocean Safety and remove ocean safety responsibilities from the Department of Emergency Services?”

Tupola’s resolution notes, “The need for the City to have a dedicated ocean safety department has been a topic of discussion for several years, but with the State of Hawaii’s recent complete transfer of all emergency medical services functions on Oahu to the City, the need for a separate department of ocean safety has become more urgent.”

Currently, the ocean safety division has 271 water safety officers, eight rescue ski teams and 42 lifeguard towers in operation from 8 a.m. to 6:30 p.m., the legislation states.

“The Division is responsible for monitoring 227 miles of coastline around the island of Oahu,” the resolution reads, noting the agency annually “performs approximately 3,000 rescues and 1.4 million preventative actions, and responds to approximately 40 drownings.”

If approved, civil service officers and employees holding permanent appointments at Ocean Safety, as of Dec. 31, 2024, “shall continue with the Department of Ocean Safety from Jan. 1, 2015,” and “shall suffer no loss of vacation allowance, sick leave, service credits, retirement benefits, or other rights and privileges because of the charter amendments to this resolution.”

Resolution 50 asserts the head of Ocean Safety on Dec. 31, 2024, “shall serve as the chief of the Department of Ocean Safety from Jan. 1, 2025.”

Prior to the vote, Tupola acknowledged that in 2021 former Council member Heidi Tsuneyoshi introduced a similar resolution to put on the ballot, which would make Ocean Safety its own department. But Tupola noted changes had occurred in the past three years.

“In 2021 (the state) passed HB 1281, which actually gave us the full discretion of the state and city portions of EMS, and prior that wasn’t the case,” she said. “So we want to thank EMS because honestly, they were given a $15 million operation that was actually running a huge deficit and they’re trying to still overcome that and fill positions and do everything that our county needs.”

Meantime, the city updated its plan to reorganize.

In a Tuesday notice to the Council, city Managing Director Mike Formby wrote, “Mayor Blangiardi and I stood up an Ocean Safety Task Force in 2023 to review and study the feasibility of having Ocean Safety as a stand-alone first-responder department from the Honolulu Emergency Services Department.”

The task force — composed of about a dozen current and former ocean safety division lifeguards and community members — met 11 times between July 25 and Jan. 9, Formby noted.

“Our understanding is the task force has reached a general consensus but has yet to finalize their executive summary,” he wrote. “Upon receiving the executive summary, the Mayor and I would also like the opportunity to discuss their recommendation(s) with members of the task force.”

Currently, he noted, the ocean safety division comprises 242 employees, including 36 contract positions. In fiscal year 2024, which began July 1, the division’s approved budget was over $23.01 million, of which more than $20.7 million is dedicated to salaries, he said.

Meanwhile, Formby told the Council that until the task force executive summary is reviewed, he and the mayor will “withhold comment” on Resolution 50.

At the meeting, Honolulu EMS Director Jim Ireland told the panel that although he wanted “what’s best for our whole department,” he also declined to comment until after the task force releases its report.

But John Titchen, the ocean safety division chief, told the Council that splitting the department was a good idea.

“Obviously, I stand in strong support of this resolution, and on behalf of all the lifeguards in the City and County of Honolulu, we thank Council member Tupola for introducing this,” he said, adding, “We’re very confident that our mayor is going to carefully study what we’ve discussed as a task force.”

Still, Council Vice Chair Esther Kia‘aina wanted information on any “cap” to the number of city departments that can be had within “the overall executive branch.”

“I know many of us have asked for a Department of Housing,” she said. “Given that, I do believe this bill should move forward to have that continuing dialogue, but we need to know that, because we need to ensure that as you reorganize or create new departments … that one move is not going to be detrimental to other objectives.”

In response, Deputy Managing Director Krishna Jayaram said, “My understanding is right now we have room for one more department, but I’ll confirm that and get back to you.”

Kia‘aina then asked what other potential departments the city was considering “or that you have been asked to look into, apart from the Department of Housing.”

“During last year’s State of the City, the mayor also did ask (the Department of Planning and Permitting) to look at itself,” Jayaram said. “But otherwise, we have no other new departments on the horizon.”

To that, Council Chair Tommy Waters asked if the city were to divide DPP into two departments, whether that would meet the city’s cap on such actions.

“If we were to split any department into two at this point, that would hit our cap,” Jayaram replied.

After the meeting, Scott Humber, the mayor’s communications director, told the Honolulu Star-Advertiser that “the city is not planning to split” DPP.

For his part, Waters said putting a charter amendment on the 2024 election ballot will take time.

“It requires three readings, each of which must pass a supermajority of six votes,” Waters told his Council colleagues. “And then the mayor has the ability to put it on the ballot or not because we’re within one year of the Charter Commission. Otherwise, it would automatically go on the ballot. So, the mayor actually gets the last say.”

He’d also note that for voters to pass this proposed charter amendment, “it must be approved by 50% plus one” — a simple majority vote.

“So there’s many, many steps that need to happen before this actually occurs,” he said. “But, as mentioned, this is the first step.”