Water Board taps engineer-consultant
The Honolulu Board of Water Supply has chosen the president of a Honolulu engineering consulting firm to be manager and chief engineer.
Clifford Lum, a principal of the Limtiaco Consulting Group, won unanimous approval from board members yesterday at their monthly meeting.
Lum will take office on Jan. 3, succeeding Clifford Jamile, who retired earlier this year.
He has had more than 20 years of experience in water and waste-water engineering projects in the public and private sectors, said board Chairman Randall Chung. Lum brings "visionary leadership and personal integrity" to the post, Chung said.
Lum was chosen after a search process was begun in August by a committee of board and private-sector representatives. The chairman said Lum and other candidates were interviewed earlier by the board.
James Anthony of Hawaii-Laieikawai Association, a nonprofit group that monitors water management, criticized the board for not bringing Lum forward for public questions before he was approved. Anthony said he wants to ask Lum about the Limtiaco firm's city contract to develop an integrated resource planning process that ended in 1999 without a plan but with a $1 million cost to the city.
Lum was not present at yesterday's meeting. He was to be introduced at a City Hall news conference today.
Limtiaco has several current contracts with the city, including water and waste-water planning for the Haseko (Ewa) Inc. Ocean Pointe development of nearly 5,000 housing units in Ewa, according to the company Web page. One contract calls for a nonpotable water master plan to use recycled water from the Honolulu Board of Water Supply's Honouliuli water recycling facility. Another is a contract to evaluate various alignments for a waste-water force main from the Ewa Marina development to the Honouliuli waste-water treatment plant.