Council committee approves Alameda’s department heads

A County Council committee gave a thumbs up to the new heads of Hawaii County’s various departments Tuesday.

At a meeting of the council’s Committee on Governmental Operations and External Affairs, the panel reviewed Mayor Kimo Alameda’s appointments of nine department heads and ultimately decided to confirm each one.

While previous administrations have drawn some controversy for their choices of department heads, the committee on Tuesday was largely positive about each candidate and did not sharply question any of them about their qualifications.

Those appointments approved on Tuesday included:

— Corey Stone as director of Information Technology;

— Wesley Segawa as director of Environmental Management;

— Clayton Honma as director of Parks and Recreation;

— Jeff Darrow as planning director;

— Renee N. C. Schoen as corporation counsel;

— William Brilhante, Jr. as county managing director;

— Diane Nakagawa as finance director;

— Benson Medina as director of Research and Development;

— Hugh Ono as Public Works director.

With the committee’s approval on Tuesday, the appointments will again be discussed at a meeting of the full council on Jan. 22.