Governor likely to delay
nominations for boards
Gov. Linda Lingle is hinting she might postpone naming members to key state boards until after the Legislature adjourns May 6. Such a delay would allow Republican Lingle to avoid possibly unsuccessful confirmation fights in the Democratic-controlled Senate.
The delay, however, is trying the patience of Senate President Robert Bunda, who said Lingle needs to get serious about her job.
"The law says that these people must come to this body for confirmation; we take the confirmation process seriously," Bunda said. "I think she is circumventing the law and making up excuses for not sending the names down.
"To me, that is irresponsible and unacceptable," Bunda charged.
Yesterday, the Senate extended the deadline until today for submitting nominations, but Lingle said that will not be enough time to persuade reluctant potential nominees.
"As you know, I have the ability to make interim appointments after the session," Lingle said when asked about the delayed appointments.
If Lingle makes appointments after the session, then the appointees can serve on an interim basis until the next time the Legislature convenes. There are vacancies on the University of Hawaii Board of Regents and the Hawaii Tourism Authority.
"It does take us quite a while to talk with people and encourage them to serve after ... what happened to some of my nominees who did step forward," Lingle said.
Last year, the Senate spiked the appointments of attorney Shelton Jim On and businessman Edward Sultan, who were nominated to the Board of Regents. This year, Lingle lost another high-profile appointment when the Senate downed the nomination of state chief negotiator Ted Hong to Hilo Circuit Court.
Two of Lingle's nominations to the UH regents, Jane Tatibouet and James Haynes, were put in as interim appointments after last year's session, and Lingle complained that the Senate has yet to act on their permanent nominations.
The two are still awaiting action by Sen. Norman Sakamoto's Education Committee.
"Sen. Sakamoto has some nominees, so he needs to take some action as well," Lingle said.
Sakamoto said he wanted to give senators time to look over the nominees' written answers to questions from the committee.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.