HILO — After years of struggling to fill county boards and commissions, Mayor Billy Kenoi’s administration this week has sent 10 nominees to the County Council for confirmation.
The last-minute flurry of nominations by the term-limited Kenoi, less than two months before he leaves office, is raising concerns from Mayor-elect Harry Kim, who thinks the incoming administration and four new council members should have some say in who will be serving for the next three to five years.
Kim sent a letter Thursday to Council Chairman Dru Kanuha, with copies to the other council members.
“It is humbly requested that the Hawaii County Council file all present and future requests to fill vacancies of boards and commissions as a courtesy to the incoming administration and County Council members,” Kim’s letter said. “This would allow the new administration and council members to vet the nominees.”
“File” in council parlance means setting the nominations aside with no action. The requested move is reminiscent of the current battle going on at the national level, where the Republican-controlled Congress is balking at confirming President Barrack Obama’s nominee to the U.S. Supreme Court.
The council has long been pushing for the mayor to fill the boards — some of which haven’t had a full complement of members in years. One board, the Arborist Advisory Committee, has had no nominations and has been inactive since Kenoi took office in 2008.
Kanuha said Monday he’ll take the request “under careful consideration.”
“We take nominations seriously and have been advocating to the mayor the need to have these boards and commissions filled,” Kanuha said in a text response. “We will continue the council’s process of vetting each and every nomination thoroughly whether it’s this term or next term.”
Kim said he’d let the letter speak for itself. A Kenoi spokesman did not respond by press time Monday.
Hilo Councilman Aaron Chung hoped for a compromise. Rather than toss the nominations outright, why not delay their confirmations until the incoming and outgoing administration can meet and discuss them, he asked.
“I can certainly understand the incoming mayor’s concerns,” Chung said. “But at the same time, to file them en masse might be going a bit too far.”
Three key commissions, the Board of Ethics, Environmental Management Commission and Transportation Commission, have canceled a number of meetings over the past two years as they were unable to field a quorum, enough members to legally vote, because of a lack of nominations. The cancellations have caused issues to linger for months, if not years.
Last December, there were 35 vacancies in 154 positions listed on the county’s boards and commissions website. The administration disputed that number, saying the website hadn’t been updated. The administration said recently it had placed more than 475 people on 32 county boards and commissions during Kenoi’s eight-year term.
