Mayor Harry Kim’s first Cabinet appointee was easily confirmed Wednesday by the County Council, but at least one future nominee might find the going a little more difficult.
The council unanimously approved Wil Okabe as managing director, the mayor’s right-hand man.
Okabe, most recently Gov. David Ige’s East Hawaii representative, has almost 20 years of education experience and six years as president of the Hawaii State Teachers Association. He has a master’s degree in education from Heritage College in Toppenish, Wash., and a bachelor’s degree in health and physical education from Willamette University in Salem, Ore.
Responding to questions from council members, Okabe said his experience and relationships at the state level are among his strengths, while his major weakness is his inexperience in county government. That shouldn’t be a problem, he said, because Kim is very hands-on and a good teacher.
“It’s like I’m learning from Yoda,” Okabe said. “He’s the Yoda and I’m the guy who’s learning from the Yoda.”
Puna Councilwoman Eileen O’Hara said Okabe’s lack of county-level experience could be a positive, as Kim, who had decades of experience in Civil Defense before his previous eight years as mayor, re-enters the top executive position.
“You bring fresh eyes to topics Mayor Kim has been handling for years,” O’Hara said.
Hilo Councilman Aaron Chung characterized Okabe as “a real good guy, an honest man, always been a real straight shooter.”
Chung, looking around the council chambers at the West Hawaii Civic Center, praised Kim for planning the 85,000-square-foot complex and putting funding in place. The $53 million facility opened in 2011, when former Mayor Billy Kenoi was in office.
“It was Harry’s vision to start the West Hawaii Civic Center,” Chung said, adding others might have tried to take credit. “The building was completed after Harry left. But it was all Harry Kim.”
Kim, addressing the 2016-18 council that has four new members, said, “I have a good feeling, I really do, about all of us.”
But Kim’s request to also have Corporation Counsel-nominee Joe Kamelamela’s confirmation go directly to the council Wednesday rather than first to a council committee was denied by Council Chairwoman Valerie Poindexter.
She wanted a full discussion of Kamelamela’s nomination by the Governmental Relations and Economic Development Committee after council concerns about Kamelamela’s earlier actions notifying some deputy corporation counsel attorneys they would lose their jobs. The committee is scheduled to meet Jan. 4; council confirmation would then take place at a subsequent council meeting.
Unlike other top staff who took office immediately upon the mayor’s inauguration pending council confirmation, the corporation counsel doesn’t take office until he or she is confirmed. In the meantime, Corporation Counsel Molly Stebbins continues as the county’s top civil lawyer, working for the mayor and the council.
Email Nancy Cook Lauer at ncook-lauer@westhawaiitoday.com.
