Mayor and City Council Announce HART Members
(Mon., April 18, 2011)–Mayor Peter Carlisle and the Honolulu
City Council today introduced the mayor’s appointees and the
Council’s nominees to the Honolulu Authority for Rapid
Transportation (HART), which will oversee the rail transit project
connecting East Kapolei with Ala Moana Center.
Oahu voters decided via a charter amendment to create HART,
which will take effect on July 1, 2011. HART will be comprised of
three members appointed by the council and three others by the
mayor. The city and state transportation directors will also serve
on the authority, which will then choose its ninth member. The
director of the Department of Planning and Permitting is an
ex-officio non-voting tenth member of HART.
Mayor Carlisle appointed retired union representative William
Hong, current Corporation Counsel Carrie Okinaga, and First
Hawaiian Bank Chairman Don Horner.
“These three highly-qualified individuals, with years of
valuable experience in their respective fields, will keep politics
out of the rail project,” said Carlisle. “I am grateful they agreed
to serve the public by being part of HART, to ensure the project
stays on course to be completed on time and on budget.”
- William “Buzz” Hong retired last year after serving the Hawaii
Building and Construction Trades Council as its executive director
since 1990. The Hawaii Building and Construction Trades Council is
a chapter of the National Building Trades Council headquartered in
Washington, D.C. His education includes an undergraduate degree in
psychology from the University of Hawaii and an associate’s degree
in police science from Chaminade University. - Carrie Okinaga was appointed Corporation Counsel in 2005 and is
the chief in-house legal counsel for the City and its approximately
10,000 employees. Her education includes an undergraduate degree in
government/public policy from Pomona College and a juris doctorate
from Stanford Law School. She took a primary role in the
negotiation of the global consent decree with the Environmental
Protection Agency, the Department of Justice, the State Department
of Health, the State Attorney General’s office, Sierra Club,
Hawaii’s Thousand Friends, and Our Children’s Earth Foundation
regarding the City’s wastewater system. She will resign as
Corporation Counsel on June 30, 2011. - Don Horner is chairman and chief executive officer of First
Hawaiian Bank, the 60th largest U.S. deposit bank with over $15.0
billion in assets. His education includes an undergraduate degree
in business from the University of North Carolina, an MBA from the
University of Southern California, and he is also an honors
graduate of the Pacific Coast Banking School at the University of
Washington. He served in the United States Navy from 1972 to
1976. His current activities include board chair of the First
Hawaiian Bank Foundation, Hawaii Visitors & Convention Bureau,
and Hawaii’s Board of Education; board member and treasurer of
Iolani School and board member emeritus of Mid-Pacific Institute,
as well as board member of The Nature Conservancy of Hawaii, Crown
Prince Akihito Scholarship Foundation, Hawaii Asia Pacific
Association, Foundation for the Asia Pacific Center for Security
Studies, Filipino Community Center, and Honolulu Festival
Foundation. He also serves on the advisory committees for the
National Financial Services Roundtable and the National Pearl
Harbor Memorial Fund.
Council Vice-Chair and Transportation Committee Chair Breene
Harimoto introduced the following nominees, subject to a Council
vote: attorney Ivan Lui-Kwan, strategic planner Keslie Hui, and
Damien Kim of the International Brotherhood of Electrical
Workers.
- Ivan Lui-Kwan is an attorney and director with Starn O’Toole
Marcus & Fisher. He is thoroughly familiar with City operations
and finances, as he served as the director of the Department of
Budget and Fiscal Services from 2003 to 2005. His wealth of
business management and finance experience includes: executive vice
president and COO of The Queen’s Health Systems; chairman and CEO
of the Queen’s Development Corporation; and director of St. Francis
Residential Care Community and St. Francis Development Corporation.
Lui-Kwan serves the Hawaiian community as director and principal of
Palau Grouper Farms, Inc., chairman of the Commission on Energy and
Self-Sustainability for Sovereign Councils of Hawaiian Homelands
Assembly, and managing member, Hokukahu, LLC, for-profit subsidiary
of Hokupili Foundation, a Native Hawaiian not-for-profit, which
serves the residents of the Hawaiian Home Lands Communities in
Hawaii. Lui-Kwan served as a volunteer on the boards of numerous
organizations. - Keslie Hui is experienced in strategic planning and
construction. He is currently the development manager of Forest
City Enterprises, where he is responsible for planning and
development of a large master-planned community. - Damien Kim has 30 years of experience in electrical design and
operation. He is the business manager and financial secretary of
the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local 1186,
where he manages over a half-billion dollars in trust fund moneys
for the IBEW. Kim serves on the boards of several organizations,
including Aloha United Way and Hawaii Dental Association.