A proposal to extend Hawaii County Council members’ terms in office will not be on the ballot this year after it was roundly rejected Tuesday during a council committee hearing.
A bill introduced by Kona Councilman Holeka Inaba sought to double the length of council members’ terms — from two to four years — while reducing the number of consecutive terms members could serve from four to three. The measure would therefore increase the amount of consecutive years council members could serve from eight to 12.
If passed, the bill would have created a charter amendment that would have been included on this year’s ballot.
The measure proved unpopular from the outset Tuesday, with dozens of residents urging its rejection and few offering strong support.
Matthias Kusch, who ran for a Hilo council seat in 2022 but lost to current Councilwoman Jenn Kagiwada, said he empathized with the difficulties of campaigning and understood the desire to not have to do that every two years. But he also noted that having frequent elections is one of the key tools the public has to remove bad leaders from power.
“It feels like a bit of a grab,” Kusch said. “This fall, we’ll have an important presidential election, and one of the candidates has talked about, you know, being a dictator on Day One.”
Former Kona Councilwoman Brenda Ford reiterated her long-standing disapproval of extended term limits, saying that being on the County Council is not intended to be a lifelong career. She excoriated the bill, calling it a blatant grab for power and money that should be rejected by every council member.
“I know that running every two years is burdensome and expensive for the incumbent,” Ford said. “But an election is not about the convenience or comfort of the incumbent, or about saving them money. An election is about the will of the people.”
Ford added that other means of removing ineffective or unpopular council members — namely, special elections — are difficult to initiate.
“With two-year terms, an incompetent, bad- or illegally behaving or lazy council member can cause lots of problems for the public, but they can be voted out at the next election without a recall,” Ford said, addressing the council members. “It saves a lot of time and money for the public, and we’re the ones who pay your salaries. A lot more damage can occur during a four-year term.”
Ford said that before she introduced a county ordinance that limited council members to four consecutive terms and required them to sit out at least one term before being allowed to run again, some council members held their seats for 18 years or more, “and it was difficult to determine if they did anything but vote for their side of the island.”
Former Hilo Councilman Aaron Chung also criticized the bill but went even further, warning that he would pursue legal action if the measure passed.
Chung said he didn’t disagree with all aspects of the bill — in fact, he said, he had previously proposed a measure that would permit council members to serve six consecutive two-year terms, which would similarly allow for 12 consecutive years of service. But the difference between his proposal and Inaba’s was that Chung’s bill specifically excluded incumbent council members from benefiting from the bill, while Inaba’s does not.
Inaba’s bill includes a provision stating that any incumbent council members who win reelection in 2024 will be able to serve for up to three more four-year terms regardless of how long they already have served, potentially allowing some current council members to serve for up to 18 years straight.
Chung said this is objectionable and creates a privileged class of only eight people who benefit from the bill — the current council members, minus the term-limited Hilo Councilwoman Sue Lee Loy, who has not filed for reelection.
“If something’s going to benefit you, it shouldn’t come from this body,” Chung said. “If this passes, I’m going to be filing an ethics complaint, because this is definitely unethical. And if you guys don’t see it, then I think you guys have … either become too enamored of your positions or you have lost touch with what the public feels.”
The most positive testimony regarding the bill came from residents who sympathized with the difficulties of frequent campaigning but still rejected the measure unless it was significantly altered.
“I do believe that the current two-year terms for County Council do not give elected council members the time needed to become fully oriented and able to make a contribution to altering or otherwise improving programs and services for residents of this island,” wrote Waimea resident Patti Cook. “Also … there’s compelling pressure to use the second year for fundraising and campaigning for reelection, not focusing on the critical needs of the community.”
But, Cook’s letter went on, less frequent council elections will not serve the interests of the county, and she urged that the bill either be deferred or, at the very least, amended to allow only for two consecutive four-year terms and entirely remove the language permitting current members to serve for an additional three terms.
Sitting council members were similarly dubious about the proposal. Lee Loy agreed with Chung that the council should not be making decisions controlling council members’ salaries or terms at all — those questions should be left to the county salary and charter commissions, she said.
“I think the public perception is going to be that we are trying to prioritize our own political longevity,” said Puna Councilwoman Ashley Kierkiewicz, adding that every sitting council member went into the job knowing that they would face another election in just two short years. “We gotta hustle for two years to really make an impact. I think, by having these two-year terms — even if it’s difficult — it does give our community an opportunity to make adjustments in their representation.”
Inaba explained that his motivations for drafting the bill were many. On one hand, he said, two years is insufficient time for members of the public to gaugetheir council members’ performance, and also insufficient time for those them to pursue long-term projects for their districts.
Inaba also said he wanted to strengthen the county’s legislative branch, opining that the executive branch currently is very strong. Under his bill, he said, a council member elected at the same time as the mayor could stay in office longer than the mayor, giving the legislative branch more leverage.
But in response to the widespread opposition, Inaba moved to amend the bill to allow only for two consecutive four-year terms and prohibiting current council members from running for additional terms if their total time in the seat exceeds eight consecutive years in 2028.
Despite the amendment, Inaba attempted to withdraw the bill after hearing his colleagues’ disapproval. But because of council rules prohibiting the withdrawal of a bill after it is amended, he instead moved to postpone it indefinitely, to which the council voted unanimously in support.
Email Michael Brestovansky at mbrestovansky@hawaiitribune-herald.com.
