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By Dennis Oda, Star-Bulletin
Tina Kaneshiro, the mayor's receptionist, left, and Sharon Ishii,
protocol and international affairs officer, in Mayor Jeremy Harris'
new reception area, which leads to a private reception room.

Mayor’s new room
within a room

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By Gordon Y.K. Pang
Star-Bulletin

Third-floor offices at Honolulu Hale have been rearranged, spurred in large part by security concerns and functionality.

More and more frequently, members of the public have disrupted Mayor Jeremy Harris in the middle of meetings, said city Managing Director Ben Lee.

"People just walk in, demand to see the mayor, and go right up and open the door," Lee said.

As a result, executive secretary Myra Ono's office, which is adjacent to Harris' corner office, has been closed off to the general public.

Instead, the public can only enter Harris' office through Ono's via a new reception room in what was previously the mayor's conference room. They will be greeted there by receptionist Tina Kaneshiro.

Across the way, on the Diamond Head side of the third floor, an area that once housed two staff offices has been converted to a new conference room.

Additionally, the makai section that separates the offices of the mayor and managing director has been refurbished to allow for more staff to be housed there, including chief of staff Abelina Shaw.

Lee said work was done in-house by the Department of Design and Construction with computer hook-ups by the Department of Information Technology. Nearly all the furniture and equipment is old, he said, with the exception of new carpet in the most public areas.

In a somewhat related move, the Honolulu Police Department last week began posting two of its plainclothes officers from the Specialized Services Division along the halls of the third floor during daytime hours to augment the existing Freeman Guards staff that covers the City Hall grounds.

Lee said he thought they were just there last week as a precaution over fears that City Council debate on security funding for May's Asian Development Bank conference would turn heated.

But HPD spokeswoman Jean Motoyama said "they're there because of general, overall security concerns that we had and not specifically or because of ADB."

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City & County of Honolulu