House Speaker Scott Saiki appoints members of Hawaii coronavirus committee
BRUCE ASATO / JULY 9
House Speaker Scott Saiki and Bank of Hawaii President Peter Ho will be co-chairmen of the panel.
House Speaker Scott Saiki has appointed 26 members of the Select House Committee on COVID-19 Economic and Financial Preparedness, which is scheduled to hold its first meeting this week.
Saiki and Bank of Hawaii President Peter Ho will be co-chairmen of the panel, which will be tasked with developing short-term and long-term mitigation plans to try to deal with the economic fallout from the coronavirus scare.
The first meeting of the panel is scheduled for Thursday at 10 a.m. in Room 329 at the state Capitol, and the meeting is open to the public.
Democratic lawmakers on the panel will include House Majority Leader Della Au Belatti; House Tourism Chairman Richard Onishi; and House Finance Committee Member Kyle Yamashita, who oversees construction spending for the House. Republican Assistant Minority Leader Bob McDermott was also named to the committee.
Also included were University of Hawaii Economist Carl Bonham; Chief State Economist Eugene Tian; Sarah Park of the state Department of Health’s Disease Outbreak Control Division; Robert Yu, deputy director of the state Department of Budget and Finance; and Department of Labor and Industrial Relations Director Scott Murakami.
The panel will also include former Honolulu Mayor Mufi Hannemann, who is now president of the Hawaii Lodging and Tourism Association; Peter R. Ingram, president of Hawaiian Airlines, and Kuuhaku Park, who is vice president for government and commercial relations for Matson, Inc.
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Saiki also appointed Hawaii Construction Alliance Executive Director Nathaniel Kinney; Hawaii Alliance of Nonprofit Organizations President Lisa Maruyama; Hawaii Restaurant Association Executive Director Sheryl Matsuoka; and Hawaii Chamber of Commerce President Sherry Menor-McNamara.
Other members include Mark Perrieilo, president of the Kauai Chamber of Commerce; Noelani Schilling-Wheeler, the executive director of Oahu Visitors Bureau; Gino Soquena, executive director of the Hawaii Building & Construction Trades Council; and Chris Tatum, president of the Hawaii Tourism Authority.
Also appointed to the panel were Pamela Tumpap , who is president of the Maui Chamber of Commerce; Tina Yamaki, president of the Retail Merchants of Hawaii; Miles Yoshioka, executive director of the Big Island Chamber of Commerce; and Lauren Zirbel, executive director of the Hawaii Food Industry Association.
