Ross Sasamura

So much attention has been focused on the eight-man crew clearing Kakaako’s homeless encampment block by block and their boss, city Chief Engineer Ross Sasamura, that it’s become old hat — hard hat, that is — for them to be in the spotlight.

Sasamura, 55, is the bespectacled gentleman wearing khakis, a belt and tucked-in aloha shirt who dutifully answers media questions about the city’s latest sweeps, or “enforcement efforts,” in Kakaako.

The crew picking apart the encampment in Kakaako are among the 577 employees under Sasamura’s watch as head of the city Department of Facility Maintenance.

The department oversees the repair and maintenance of the city’s 2,000 vehicles and equipment; maintenance, custodial and groundskeeping services for city facilities; and the work on city streets, sidewalks and drainage infrastructure.

”We’re also responsible for the stored property ordinance and the sidewalk nuisance ordinance and all the enforcement actions that come with it,” said Sasamura, whose crew faces hazards such as “toilet buckets.”

They are undeterred by a pending lawsuit challenging those ordinances, he said.

Having worked under the Fasi, Harris and now Caldwell administrations, Sasamura is well versed in dealing with Honolulu’s homeless.

“Under Mayor (Jeremy) Harris’ administration, the issue was one of people … monopolizing bus stops to the point where riders had to stand out in the rain or out in the sun because people were lying on benches and storing all their personal property within the bus stop itself,” he said. “So the issue is not something new … we remain very much committed to addressing all of the concerns that everybody has to make sure that all of the infrastructure and public spaces are available for people to use and enjoy.”

Sasamura has a strong background in manufacturing and automotive engineering, having graduated from the General Motors Institute in Flint, Mich. He also is an alumnus of Punahou School, which also is the alma mater of his wife, Terry, and their two sons.

Sasamura manages an $85.7 million budget for his department, which has only two-thirds of its 700 positions filled due to budget constraints.

“Just like everyone else … we have to work with what we have,” Sasamura said.

QUESTION: Could you give me an overview of your department?

ANSWER: Within facility maintenance we are responsible for the management, repair and maintenance of the city vehicle fleet … there’s roughly 2,000 pieces of equipment.

Aside from that, we are responsible for the maintenance, repair and custodial services and groundskeeping for city facilities like Honolulu Hale, Kapolei Hale, the municipal building, police station, fire stations. … We’re also responsible for the repair and maintenance of city streets, sidewalks and the drainage infrastructure — the storm drains, streams and drainage canals.

We’re also responsible for enforcement of the Stored Property ordinance and the Sidewalk Nuisance ordinance and all the enforcement actions that come with it.

Q: Was the unit addressing the homeless encampments just a add-on when the ordinances were put into place?

A: It’s a recent development that came into play during the Carlisle administration, but it was formalized in Mayor (Kirk) Caldwell’s administration to a single dedicated work unit that enforces those ordinances islandwide.

Q: How many people do you have in that unit alone?

A: Eight people, and they cover the whole island.

Q: They’ve been pretty busy in Kakaako; the news media flock there to cover their sweeps.

A: Enforcement actions. Jesse (Broder Van Dyke, the mayor’s spokesman) will get mad at me if I continue to use the term “sweeps.” (Smiles)

Q: So when they’re not conducting that enforcement in Kakaako, where are they?

A: They perform enforcement actions wherever they’re needed. So it could be in Kapahulu, it could be in Ala Moana Park, it could be in Moiliili, it could be along Kapalama Canal, it could be in Iwilei, it could be anywhere we receive a complaint from.

Q: Can you tell me how many complaints you receive?

A: I couldn’t tell you how many complaints we receive, but I can tell you that every day, five work days a week, the unit is out doing enforcement somewhere.

We … are accompanied by police who are there just mainly to keep peace and order as we do our enforcement action.

It’s important to note that our enforcement actions and those two ordinances that I mentioned are not geared to homeless and homeless people. They’re actually geared toward making sure the infrastructure is safe and available for people to use.

So we have enforced against residential violators who have left things like portable basketball backboards and nets in a cul de sac. We’ve also enforced against commercial entities that have left either their equipment or items that they use in their trade on a city street or blocking a sidewalk. We treat everyone fairly.

Q: You don’t want this to be labeled the homeless-enforcement tool?

A: We sort of are already, just because that’s where the majority of the work happens. But we don’t apply it in that sense. We respond to every complaint that we receive.

Q: Has it ever gotten to the point where a police escort had to use force?

A: We from time to time receive verbal comments, people who vent their frustrations on our crew, but nothing close to any physical altercation or anything like that because the police do a very good job of maintaining peace and order.

Our greatest threat to our employees that do all of the enforcements for stored property and sidewalk nuisance is not so much the physical violence, but just the exposure to all different types of hazards, whether they be used hypodermic needles, possible chemicals, cooking fuels, gasoline and things like that or biological things like what you find in a toilet bucket. And then there’s the insects — bed bugs, fleas and lice.

Q: It’s not necessarily the most pleasant job, is it?

A: It’s not. They actually quite frequently work in the wee hours of the morning. So they start anywhere from midnight to 1 a.m. and they go around enforcing park closure rules, so if people are in the park with all of their belongings, or if they have a tent set up, then our crew goes in to enforce the park closure rules with the police. And then there are a number of calls they have during the day or scheduled enforcements such as the ones in Kakaako.

Q: How many employees do you oversee?

A: We have roughly 700 positions within our department, but only two-thirds of them are filled. So one of the challenges we have is one of funding. … The biggest challenge we have is the staffing level because we’re constrained by our operating budget. … Sometimes it’s challenging because there’s no end to the work. So as soon as you can get something done, there’s 10 things waiting for you.

Q: So a lot of what they’re responding to or trying to fix are things that are called in?

A: Yes. The other challenge we have is the fact that over the years there hasn’t been a lot funding available and there were a lot of items that were deferred for maintenance. An example of that would have been our city streets before Mayor Caldwell took office. That’s why we had such an outcry for roadwork, which is something the mayor pledged to correct.

Q: So ideally you should have one-third more staff?

A: If life were fair. But we know that life isn’t fair. And so as discouraging and disheartening as it may be, our employees report to work each day ready to take on another task.. … (There) are challenges with groundskeeping and with maintaining medians and other landscaped areas within the city right-of-way along the street.

… And, in fact, we have roughly 3 million square feet of landscaped areas associated with roadways that we are responsible to maintain.

We presently have a crew of 14 people who are charged with that responsibility. … So we’ve been asking the public for their patience and understanding because we receive a lot of complaints about tall grass (especially on) Ala Wai Boulevard, Punchbowl Street, Makakilo Drive. … Some people notice and they call often: “When are you coming back to cut the grass?” That 3 million (square feet) is islandwide. It would be one thing if it were all in one place and we just had a guy who hops on a mower and just drives around.

… With all of that we also have the responsibility … to maintain the storm drain and drainage infrastructure for the city. We have about 28,000 catch basins and storm drain inlets and 670 miles of piping.

… The bottom line is we cannot discharge pollutants from our storm drain system into what’s called the receiving waters, which are state waters. And that’s a challenge because of all the things that end up in the storm drain, from motor oils, cigarette butts, pet waste, sediments and other things that people discard in the storm drain without thought.

Q: Is there education out there?

A: There is. In fact, our outreach and education has been recognized nationally for what it does. We have a very strong outreach program to schoolchildren. We actually have coloring books and all kinds of things. And there’s a good website.

The hope is that by educating children we advance as a society because there’s no teaching an old dog new tricks. At least some old dogs. So really it’s the younger generations that represent the greatest hope in treating our environment a lot better than we all have.

Q: Lately, though, the focus has been the enforcement of the ordinances. I know you can’t talk about the specifics of the lawsuit challenging the enforcement, but you’re obviously not holding off enforcement because the day after the suit was filed you were in Kakaako. Is it going to be business as usual?

A: … Our crew will continue to operate as they have. We’ve been challenged before in federal court. We’ve been able to withstand the challenge. Our commitment is to the public at large. It is unfair for the majority to suffer for what a minority does to impede flow on sidewalks and city streets and monopolize use of public facilities.

… Just as a point of comparison or reference, having done this job 14 years ago and contrasting with today … the issue of homelessness and homeless encampments has not changed in the sense that we’ve had to deal with it back then, too.

Back then, under Mayor Harris’ administration, the issue was one of people occupying bus stops … so the issue is not something new, although I think it’s something that the public is less tolerant of and quicker to report and complain about.

So we remain very much committed to addressing all of the concerns that everybody has, to make sure again that all of the infrastructure and public spaces are available for people to use and enjoy. But the fact that the problem hasn’t resolved itself in all of those years is indicative of a larger issue.

Q: Are there times when it gets emotional out there for your crew?

A: I think there’s always that level of emotion because we are dealing with people and some people who have some serious personal issues. It’s fair to say that as compassionate or as touched as we are by the situations we’re faced with, we still have a job to do.

I commend our crews for the level of professionalism that they display each day, because we actually have a lot of children that are being born on the street and have no other life than living on the street. I think that’s the thing that is … weighing on us when we go out and do enforcements.