Hawaii County’s hiring criteria for directors of the departments of Public Works and Environmental Management could be loosened by a pair of bills to be discussed at County Council committee meetings this week.
The county charter currently requires Public Works directors to have a minimum of five years of administrative experience in a related field and be a registered professional engineer. Environmental Management directors, meanwhile, must have the same administrative experience and have an engineering degree or a degree in a related field.
But under the measures to be introduced this week, those requirements would be reduced, with both positions only requiring a bachelor’s degree in a range of pertinent fields. For Public Works, a degree in engineering, architecture, public administration or law would suffice, while candidates for Environmental Management director could have an engineering, public administration, environmental management, environmental policy, environmental economics or law degree.
Hilo Councilman Aaron Chung, who will introduce both bills, said the intent is simply to expand the field of candidates for these positions.
“I think if more people can qualify for these positions, that’s better for the county,” Chung said. “It can still be an engineer. If the mayor or the council wants the position to be an engineer, they can still pick those candidates. But I think what any county director needs more than anything is strong managerial and people skills.”
Chung said that including law degrees in the list of acceptable qualifications comes down to his own experiences as a lawyer.
“It’s not for me. I’m not doing it to benefit me; I don’t have the administrative experience,” Chung said. “But law is a versatile discipline, where you’re trained to think.”
He added that people with legal backgrounds have been hired to fill deputy director positions in both DEM and DPW, and concluded that if a law degree is a sufficient qualification for the No. 2 job, then it should be good enough for No. 1.
Both Ramzi Mansour and Steve Pause, respectively the current Environmental Management and Public Works directors, have engineering degrees and are licensed engineers in Hawaii, and both had lengthy careers in their fields before working for the county.
The previous Public Works director, however, was Ikaika Rodenhurst, who abruptly left the department in June with no public explanation for his departure ever provided. While Rodenhurst was a licensed engineer when he was hired in 2020, council members confirming his appointment were skeptical of his qualifications at the time, and he barely passed those confirmation hearings with a 5-4 vote in his favor.
Rodenhurst’s first deputy, Merrick Nishimoto, left the department within four months of being appointed, with other officials citing “a difference in management style” between Nishimoto and Rodenhurst as the cause for the former’s departure.
Despite this, Chung said the bills he is proposing have nothing to do with Rodehurst’s tenure and are based on years-old discussions about how to get more candidates to apply for certain positions.
“It’s just an idea whose time has come,” Chung said.
As for why Chung is only recommending changes to the Public Works and Environmental Management positions, he said he has run out of time.
“I only have so much vitality,” said Chung, who is term-limted and will be replaced in December by Jenn Kagiwada, who was elected to Chung’s seat last week. “If the rest of the council wants to do the rest, that’s up to them.”
Email Michael Brestovansky at mbrestovansky@hawaiitribune-herald.com.