Advertisement - Click to support our sponsors.
Hawaii’s World
If he decides to run for governor next year -- as he will -- Jeremy Harris has just over 17 months left as mayor of Honolulu. Harris has fine
record as mayorA resign-to-run constitutional amendment, originally aimed at his predecessor, Frank Fasi, now will hit him.
Unaffected will be his two probable opponents -- Lt. Gov. Mazie Hirono and former Maui Mayor Linda Lingle. Hirono is completing her term anyway next year. Lingle now is out of public office and chairwoman of the Republican Party.
Overall, Harris will have had eight years as mayor by the July 26, 2002, date when he must quit to run. He has the best record of accomplishment of any mayor since I started watching Hawaii politics in 1946.
He's far from the most likable (Neal Blaisdell was) but has a clear sense of direction and persists until he gets things done.
Some people consider him duplicitous. He hates to say no. Fasi still is livid that Harris didn't give him all-out support for governor in 1994. That's when Fasi had to resign to run.
As Fasi's managing director, Harris moved up to acting mayor from that No. 2 spot, then kept the job via a special election. Mayoral elections are nonpartisan, but Harris announced he is a Democrat. Fasi ran as a Republican.
Harris boasted in his re-inaugural Jan. 2 of success in three crusades -- first, to improve the quality of life on Oahu; second, to provide smarter government; and, third, to protect and enhance our environment.
He has taken long strides in those directions with the help of the City Council, community vision teams and neighborhood boards. They have boosted recreational opportunities, beautified Waikiki, automated trash collection, kept crime down, run a transparent government and done the job with less revenue from the real property tax than when Harris became mayor.
Harris now sees a need to diversify our economy away from over-dependence on tourism. Hi-tech is the wave of the future, he says, and Hawaii is a good place to base more of it.
He promises a 50-acre high-tech park in Pearl City to lure companies here and joins with Campbell Estate in hoping they also will base in Kapolei.
He is confronting our strong government unions to get them out of areas that traditionally belong to management.
Here a clear line can be drawn between Harris and Mazie Hirono. She wants to be the darling of the unions -- even to the point of a public policy break with Governor Cayetano on one issue.
HARRIS has asked the Legislature to allow more use of cost-cutting technology, to allow drug and alcohol testing for emergency medical service personnel, to permit managers to deal more firmly with employees' sick leave when it seems excessive and to eliminate a rule that can require 12 hours' pay for a single hour of work in some situations.
He wants the right to turn some city operations over to private enterprise when it can be more efficient. He wants more working partnerships with the private sector, nonprofits and community groups.
He is inviting any and all to be part of a 21st-century "visioning process" that can be pretty good politics and also effective in planning. The City Council has cooperated by using earlier "visions" in its budget process.
Harris will use his time remaining as mayor to conduct monthly televised cabinet meetings online via the Internet with call-in opportunities.
He must boost real property taxes this year, but says they still will be lower than in 1994.
No mayor has yet succeeded in moving from Honolulu Hale across the street to the governor's office. Will he?
A.A. Smyser is the contributing editor
and former editor of the the Star-Bulletin
His column runs Tuesday and Thursday.