GEORGE F. LEE / GLEE@STARBULLETIN.COM
Mayor-elect Mufi Hannemann, right, announced six Cabinet members in a press conference yesterday. He spoke with members of his staff, including Carrie Okinaga, Dr. William Walter Goodhue Jr. and Dr. Kanthi De Alwis.

New Cabinet
taking shape

By Crystal Kua
ckua@starbulletin.com

Mayor-elect Mufi Hannemann began assembling his Cabinet yesterday, filling the first spots with officials from both the private and public sectors.

"I'm very grateful that these individuals have decided to respond to the call of being in public service," Hannemann said at a news conference announcing his first appointments. "I want to commend ... not only the Cabinet folks that I have appointed today but everyone who applied, because they did go through a selection process that I think was fair, was above board."

Among the appointments are two former Campbell Estate officials. Hannemann chose:

» Attorney Carrie K.S. Okinaga, a partner with the firm McCorriston Miller Mukai Mackinnon, to be the next corporation counsel, the city's chief legal counsel. Okinaga is a graduate of Punahou School, Pomona College and Stanford Law School.

» Land-use consultant and former city official Henry Eng as director of the Department of Planning and Permitting. Eng worked for the city's departments of General Planning and Land Utilization from 1969 to 1984, and the City Council's Office of Council Services from 1984 to 1988. He then worked for Campbell Estate until 2003.

» Deputy Corporation Counsel David Tanoue is being named deputy director of the Department of Planning and Permitting, to be in charge of coming up with ways to streamline the city's much-criticized building-permit process. Tanoue has concentrated on land-use issues in his current position, providing legal counsel to the department for the past three years.

» Information technology consultant Gordon J. Bruce is being tapped as director of the Department of Information Technology, which oversees the city's computer and technology needs and the city's Web site. Bruce was information services director with the Queen's Medical Center before becoming Campbell Estate's information services manager and then its director of administration and information services.

Hannemann also decided to keep Chief Medical Examiner Kanthi De Alwis and her deputy, William Walter Goodhue, in their current positions, saying, "If it ain't broken, then you don't need fix it."

Okinaga said there are several pressing legal issues that she will look at immediately.

"We have a lot of work. We're going to be taking a look at the Natatorium situation, the contracts there. We want to stop construction there. We're going to be looking at (Bus Rapid Transit) and the E-transit improvements that are scheduled, and try to address those issues as well," she said.

Hannemann said those are among the issues that will be taken up in the first 30 days of his administration.

City & County of Honolulu
www.co.honolulu.hi.us

New Cabinet taking shape

New Cabinet
taking shape