Djou calls demotions
Council’s revenge

Councilman Charles Djou lashed out yesterday at the City Council reorganization plan that removes him from key committee posts, saying he is getting the "shaft job" from his colleagues as punishment for criticizing the landfill selection process.

"There is no other way to interpret the reorganization of the Council as anything but vengeance against Charles Djou," he said.

Djou said petty politics -- particularly on the part of Public Works Committee Chairman Rod Tam, who led the landfill selection process -- is to blame for his ouster from key posts.

Djou said that Tam is "probably the most cross with me regarding my opposition to his suggestions of where to locate a landfill site."

Tam said he was surprised that Djou believes he is so powerful. He said Djou is just upset that things did not go his way. "I want to embrace Charles Djou. Let's work together," Tam added.

Djou is currently the chairman of the powerful Zoning Committee and also sits on the Budget and Transportation committees. But under a reorganization plan that will likely be adopted on Jan. 2, when the new Council takes office, Djou will lose that chairmanship to Councilwoman Barbara Marshall. He also will be dropped from two other key committees.

He will take over as chairman of the Parks Committee, which he called the weakest of the Council's eight committees.

Djou scoffed at Tam's suggestions that the landfill be sited at Koko Head crater and at Campbell Industrial Park, and said his colleagues did not like some of the comments he made to the media. The Council decided on Dec. 1 to keep the landfill at Waimanalo Gulch, a decision that Djou voted against.

"I have always spoken my mind, and I am not going to change speaking my mind in what I believe is right and what I believe is wrong for people," he said.

Tam said he was not offended by Djou's criticism. He said that in his 33 years in public office, "I learned, don't take things personal because when you take things personal, it drives you crazy."