Mayor Billy Kenoi nominated former Hilo County Councilman Donald Ikeda to the Windward Planning Commission.
Mayor Billy Kenoi nominated former Hilo County Councilman Donald Ikeda to the Windward Planning Commission.
Ikeda, 73, is unabashedly pro-growth, a stance he explained to the County Council Planning Committee during his confirmation hearing Tuesday.
“If we don’t have growth in the county, we will die,” Ikeda said.
Ikeda will represent South Hilo on the commission, a seat that expires in 2019. He replaces former Commissioner Wallace Ishibashi.
The Planning Committee endorsed him with a 9-0 vote. Several council members, former colleagues, praised him as a good choice for the commission.
Hilo Councilman Dennis Onishi pointed out that Ikeda served four years as chairman of the Planning Committee, which votes on many of the applications forwarded by the Windward Planning Commission.
“Being there and seeing how government works, he has a lot of knowledge,” Onishi said.
“This is an area that he’s always been interested in,” added Council Chairman J Yoshimoto, also representing Hilo.
Ikeda served four terms representing Hilo on the County Council until term-limited in 2012. He ran unsuccessfully for state Senate that year, losing in the Democratic primary to Sen. Gil Kahele, a nominee of Gov. Neil Abercrombie.
Since then, he’s been traveling and enjoying retirement, he said. Outside the meeting, he told Stephens Media Hawaii he has no plans to run for political office, such as the mayor’s office when it becomes vacant in 2016.
“I enjoy being retired. It’s the best life ever,” Ikeda said. “It took me about two years to get used to it. … Now that I have, I want to give back.”
Email Nancy Cook Lauer at ncook-lauer@westhawaiitoday.com.