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Cachola, Okino
will head up
Council panels

Mirikitani's duties are
diminished under a new
structure backed by
six Council members

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By Gordon Y.K. Pang
Star-Bulletin

New Honolulu City Council members Romy Cachola and Gary Okino will chair their own committees, while Councilman Andy Mirikitani's duties are diminished under a new Council structure outlined today by Chairman Jon Yoshimura.

Cachola, a former state House member, will head the Policy Committee.

Okino, a longtime city planner, will chair a new Community Services and Parks Committee.

The "community services" duties previously belonged with a committee chaired by Mirikitani, who will head a panel now called the Cultural Affairs Committee.

The two new members will be sworn in tomorrow. The resolution with the new committee assignments will be heard on Wednesday.

The resolution was signed by six of the seven "old" Council members: Yoshimura, Duke Bainum, Holmes, John Henry Felix, Rene Mansho and John DeSoto.

Mirikitani did not sign the resolution.

In recent months, Mirikitani's Community and Customer Services Committee had been critical of Mayor Jeremy Harris and his administration's handling of the Ewa Villages scandal.

"Obviously this is what happens when a Council member does his job and asks questions about Ewa Villages to determine existing mismanagement and prevent future loss," Mirikitani said in response to his reduced responsibilities.

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City & County of Honolulu