Elizabeth Kim, part of a senior leadership team that advises the U.S. secretary of labor, has been named state labor director, Gov. David Ige’s office announced Monday.
The governor also announced the hiring of Honolulu public relations professional Cindy McMillan as his administration’s director of communications.
Kim serves the U.S. Labor Department as the director of the Office of the Executive Secretariat in Washington, D.C.
Kim is a graduate of Kaiser High School, Pomona College and the University of Arizona College of Law. She also was president of the Asian Pacific American Bar Association of Greater Washington, D.C., and chairwoman of the D.C. Commission on Asian and Pacific Islander Affairs.
"Elizabeth brings executive management experience in federal, state and local level policy formation," Ige said in a news release. "She is a proven leader that has demonstrated success in managing a large staff as well as implementing major programs and initiatives at a high level."
Kim succeeds Dwight Takamine, a former state senator from Hilo.
McMillan most recently has directed communications for the Pacific Resource Partnership, known as PRP, a consortium of union carpenters and private contractors known for its negative advertising against former Gov. Ben Cayetano during his unsuccessful campaign for mayor in 2012. She previously served as executive vice president at Communications Pacific and has served as a legislative aide to members of the Honolulu City Council.
She is married to state Rep. Karl Rhoads (D, Chinatown-Iwilei-Kalihi).
"Cindy brings superior organizational skills along with a wealth of experience in strategic communication planning and implementation," Ige said.
McMillan’s name surfaced among those on hundreds of pages of private organizational emails, poll memos, advertising scripts and opposition research that came to light last year in media reports detailing PRP’s strategy to portray Cayetano as corrupt. PRP last year apologized to Cayetano and donated $125,000 to two of his handpicked charities to settle a defamation lawsuit filed by the former governor.
McMillan said she is excited to work with the governor but declined to comment on her work with PRP.
"You guys have the public record, and I’ll just let it stand," she said.
The state Campaign Spending Commission in November referred two complaints related to the 2012 mayoral campaign activities of the PRP political action committee to the attorney general to determine whether criminal charges should be filed. Those cases are pending.
McMillan also was a key witness in the corruption trial of former Honolulu City Councilman Andy Mirikitani. A former aide to Mirikitani, she testified against him that the councilman approached her and another aide with the bonus-for-kickback scheme for which he was convicted in 2001.
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CORRECTION: A previous version of this story mentioned complaints about PRP going to the city prosecutor.
