"If at first you don’t succeed, try, try again. Then quit. There’s no use being a damn fool about it," advised W.C. Fields.

This just may be the operative description to Gov. Neil Abercrombie’s approach to team building.

In the 14 months since taking the oath of office, Abercrombie has seen a staggering number of directors, deputy directors, agency heads, senior advisers and even commissioners resign.

For those hoping for a steady hand, or at least a fortnight without rumors of another shuffling of the deck chairs, the Abercrombie administration makes rumbling Kilauea look like stable ground.

Last week’s announcement of Alapaki Nahale-a’s departure as Hawaiian Home Lands director marks the third state director to go.

According to my calculations, Abercrombie has lost 14 top state executives, including three state department directors. Dr. Neal Palafox resigned as health director before he was even confirmed. Sunshine Topping quit as human resources director, and Nahale-a leaves in May.

Also gone is Denise Wise, Hawaii Public Housing Authority director.

There has been a precipitous loss even among Abercrombie’s own staff members. Losing Amy Asselbaye as chief of staff was a costly blow, because Abercrombie allies say Asselbaye was one of the few who could bring order to Abercrombie’s administration.

Along with Asselbaye, Abercrombie’s deputy chief of staff, Andrew Aoki, his communications director, Josh Levinson, and deputy communications director Laurie Au all saw in Asselbaye’s exit their own signal to reach for the door.

After a much ballyhooed entrance, Abercrombie also watched Marc Alexander leave as homelessness coordinator.

Wait, that’s not all who left. There was also Cathy Takase, who as acting head of the state Office of Information Practices was asked to leave by Abercrombie shortly after she had ruled against Abercrombie’s decision to not release the names of judicial nominees.

Courts later ruled that Abercrombie’s refusal was not proper.

Along the way, three deputy directors also walked.

Abercrombie waved good bye to Ed Teixeira, the much-respected vice director of state Civil Defense; Robert Hall, deputy chairman of Hawaiian Home Lands and Dean Hirata, deputy budget and finance director.

Carlito Caliboso resigned from the Public Utilities Commission, shortly after Abercrombie named someone else to the chairman’s post, which originally belonged to Caliboso.

Finally, shortly after being appointed by Abercrombie to fill a state House vacancy, Rep. Tom Okamura resigned. That departure, however, was because of health, not political reasons.

On the surface, the many exits are for different reasons and even then there has been little public discussion of the various trigger points.

After losing his senior advisers, questions were raised about Abercrombie’s ability to manage effectively.

"I don’t know what’s going on upstairs, but for those of us who are looking at it, it is a concern particularly at this critical time for the state," Linda Smith, former Gov. Linda Lingle’s senior adviser, said at the time.

When Lingle lost her long-time confidant Bob Awana, who was her chief of staff, the Lingle administration was jolted.

With Abercrombie, the instability has become a constant of his administration.

During his first year in office, Abercrombie stumbled badly by demanding the resignation of members of the Stadium Authority, the Land Use Commission, Board of Land and Natural Resources plus the PUC. The appointees, all holdovers from the Lingle administration, for the most part refused Abercrombie’s call. But the pattern of heavy-handed attempts to control semi-autonomous boards and commissions was set.

Today, the public is watching an administration that is less about progress or accomplishment and more about just churning.

———

Richard Borreca writes on politics on Sundays, Tuesdays and Fridays. Reach him at rborreca@staradvertiser.com.