Fight rises
over mayor’s City
Charter proposals

What opponents lack financially
they are trying to match
with numbers

By Gordon Y.K. Pang
Star-Bulletin

The fight is intensifying over City Charter amendments connected to Mayor Jeremy Harris' government reorganization plan.

Harris is appearing in television ads, paid for with his campaign funds, urging the electorate to vote "yes" on five proposed amendments Tuesday.

City employees opposed to the reorganization were to take to the streets downtown at lunch today to urge people to vote "no."

Robert Watada, executive director of the state Campaign Spending Commission, said he determined that Harris could use his campaign funds to promote the amendments.

"His argument is that it's important for him to get the ads out," Watada said. "He'll be up for re-election in two years and be able to say he's made government more efficient."

Campaign spending rules state that contributions can be used "for any ordinary and necessary expenses incurred in connection with the candidate's duties as a holder of an elected ... office."

Watada's ruling doesn't sit well with Grace Furukawa, president of the League of Women Voters of Honolulu, whose organization opposes the reorganization amendments.

Furukawa noted that Harris won't be up for re-election for more than two years.

"Within what framework of time does the Campaign Spending Commission use? Is campaigning continuing perpetually throughout one's term?"

Harris should have been required to set up a noncandidate committee to lobby for the amendments, Furukawa said.

The league will petition the commission after the election to change the rules, she said.

Neither Harris nor campaign coordinator Roger Liu could be reached for comment on how much is being spent on the ads.

Furukawa said opponents of the reorganization don't have the money to wage an ad campaign.

The league is embroiled in a lawsuit fighting the legality of covening a Charter Commission before 2001, the year the Charter specifies.

What opponents lack financially they are trying to match with numbers, said city employee Gary Okino of the Planning Department.

He said employees will spend their lunch hour handing out several thousand leaflets that argue the reorganization has been ineffectual and damaging and asking voters to vote "no" on the amendments.

"This is our last push," Okino said. "We're going to try to cover all of downtown."

Council members Donna Mercado Kim and Duke Bainum, who oppose the five amendments, will also take part.

Of the eight proposed Charter amendments, the most debated are No. 1, which would merge the Department of Planning and Permitting (formerly Department of Land Utilization) with the Department of Planning, and No. 2, which would merge the Budget Department into the Department of Budget and Fiscal Services (formerly the Department of Land Utilization).

Harris said there is duplication of services and that the merger would provide more efficiency and reduce duplication in functions.

Bainum said there is no duplication in functions among the departments.