Bainum, Holmes lose
key Council posts

Hannemann and Felix replace
them on the budget committee

By Pat Omandam
Star-Bulletin

The City Council apparently will reorganize for the third time since the 1994 elections.

Councilmen Mufi Hannemann and John Henry Felix are on top in the latest Council shift at the expense of Budget chairman Duke Bainum and Public Works chairman Steve Holmes.

"There is nothing new here," Felix said. "History shows that the budget chairmanship has rotated among Council members."

Felix and Hannemann said two resolutions filed yesterday would "fine-tune" Council members' strengths by installing Felix as chairman of the Budget Committee while giving Hannemann's Economic Planning Committee short-term transportation duties. The plan also reshuffles some committee memberships.

The resolutions -- up for Council vote Oct. 15 -- would remove Bainum from the Budget Committee and place him in charge of Felix's Health and Safety Committee. A stunned Bainum called the changes unfortunate, especially since he said he hasn't heard of any complaints about his job performance.

"I took the Budget Committee three years ago because no one else wanted it . . . ," Bainum said. "After three years, I can now say I have a very clear understanding of the budget. And given the dire financial situation Honolulu is in, this degree of understanding is certainly needed."

Bainum said the only thing he has been told is that people were dissatisfied about the tough budget questions he has asked so close to city elections.

His committee has raised public awareness of problems with Ewa Villages, personal services contracts, the Chinatown Community Center and cost overruns of city construction projects.

Holmes said he could see the changes coming: "There's been a lot of 'make nice-nice' today, and trying to make it appear like this is much ado about nothing. But when you look at the actual break out of the committees, what you'll see is a consolidation of power by Councilman Hannemann and his support group.

"People who did not have important committees before suddenly have taken the place of others on the council to fill those committees," he said.

Hannemann, Felix, and Council members Jon Yoshimura, Rene Mansho and Andy Mirikitani introduced the measures. Councilman John DeSoto stays on as Council chairman. Councilwoman Donna Mercado Kim's influential Zoning Committee remains untouched.

Both Felix and Hannemann cited instances of reorganization that left them wanting. In 1994, Felix recalled he was slated to be budget chairman and to continue as vice chairman on the Council.

But when he returned from a mainland trip, he didn't have either.

Hannemann said after winning his September 1994 election, he began discussions with others on his preferred committee chairmanship. But the Council reorganized while he was in San Francisco. "And the committee given to me then was transportation, which was not what I had been discussing," Hannemann said. "So these things do happen."