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Yonamine to State Rep. Noburo Yonamine says an apology isn't enough.
resign after DUI
'I want (students) to think of
legislators as role models,' he says
in explaining his decisionBy Richard Borreca
Star-BulletinYonamine announced yesterday that he will resign at the end of this legislative session to show his remorse after being arrested for driving under the influence late Wednesday night.
"My wife came down to the Pearl City Police Station and bailed me out. She was very upset, and I didn't say anything about what I was going to do," Yonamine said yesterday.
"But I was already thinking about it, and in the morning I told her ... I am determined that the resignation is the only right thing to do," he said.
Yonamine (D, Pearl City), who had been arrested for DUI once before, in 1984, has been in the Legislature since 1989, when he was appointed to replace the late Rep. Roland Kotani.
Considered a liberal, the 66-year-old former social worker and state school board member is the former executive director of the Susannah Wesley Foundation and the Atherton YMCA.
He said he will resign after the legislative session ends in May to show that public officials should be held to a higher standard. He had just been re-elected to a two-year term.
He is a member of the House Finance Committee and is the former chairman of the House Labor Committee.
"I am going to have student leaders come into my office. I want them to look up to their elected leaders, and I want them to think of legislators as role models," he said to explain why he decided to resign.
Yonamine said he was driving home Wednesday night when a police officer pulled him over on the H-1 freeway by Aloha Stadium.
"He said I was weaving, and I have no reason to contest that," Yonamine said. He had been with friends and was going home when he was stopped and arrested. "I just made a stupid decision," he said.
"There is not a lot we can say about him; we don't know him," said Judy Wilson, executive director of MADD Hawaii. "We of course say it is very disappointing when someone goes out there and does what he knows is not right."
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