Veteran television news reporter Andrew Pereira joins Honolulu Mayor Kirk Caldwell’s three-member communications team effective today, the Mayor’s Office announced Monday.
The official title for Pereira is information officer. He will report to both Caldwell Communications Director Jesse Broder Van Dyke and Deputy Managing Director Georgette Deemer. His main duties will be writing, media relations and working with other public information officers across city departments.
The appointed job will pay him $95,004 annually. That’s commensurate with the base pay of what he made as a senior reporter for KITV4, less if overtime is factored in, Pereira told the Honolulu Star-Advertiser on Monday.
“I just turned 46 recently, and I’ve always been interested in politics so I figured if I’m going to be kicking off a second career, there’s no better time than now,” Pereira said. “And I’ve always been impressed by the mayor’s heartfelt aloha for the city and county, so when he offered me the position, I thought it was a good fit for me to leave journalism after 20 years and begin that second career.”
Layoffs have occurred at KITV since new management took place recently. However, “my departure had more to do with me looking at my situation and beginning a second career than anything else,” he said.
“I have the utmost respect for the folks that continue on at KITV and wish them the best of luck and continued success,” he said.
Joe McNamara, KITV president and general manager since September, could not be reached for comment Monday afternoon.
A Florida native, Pereira was encouraged by friends to quench his lifelong thirst for surfing by joining them in Hawaii, he said. He began his journalism career at KHNL News 8, where he started as an intern and rose to the rank of executive producer for the station’s morning news show. He was a reporter for KHON2 News from August 2004 to April 2012, when he joined KITV. He has won both national and local awards for his reporting.
Going from a reporter who asks questions to part of a team expected to give answers “is definitely a role reversal,” Pereira said. “But I look forward to using all of my skills and retaining all of the principles that I’ve always utilized during my 20-plus years in journalism.”
“In my opinion, Andrew has always been one of the top investigative journalists in Honolulu and I’ve admired his writing, his drive to get a good story, and his dedication to accuracy and fairness,” Caldwell said in a release.
Pereira replaces Jay
Parasco on the mayor’s communications team. Parasco is taking a contractual job with the city Department of Community Services, where he will work on homeless initiatives, Deemer said. The third member of the team is Adam LeFebvre.
