City Council Chair Tommy Waters hasn’t exactly led major progress on Honolulu’s pressing problems: rampant homelessness, crushing living costs, capricious property taxes, rail dysfunction, dilapidated parks, rutted roads.
But in engineering unprecedented 64% pay raises for himself and his colleagues at a time of economic hardship for many constituents, he’s displayed political wizardry — or deviousness, depending how you see it.
Though not specifically addressed in the City Charter, Council members have traditionally been considered part time. Monthly meetings are relatively few, they have generous staff support and can hold often lucrative outside jobs, which the majority do.
Nonetheless, Waters pressed this year’s Salary Commission, to which the Council appoints three of the seven members and confirms one of the mayor’s four appointees, to pay Council members as full time because of hours they devote to community events, which are sometimes difficult to distinguish between Council outreach and reelection campaigning.
When Salary Commission appointee Rebecca Soon was confirmed, she was squeezed on the point by Waters, Vice Chair Esther Kia‘aina and Finance Chair Radiant Cordero until she indicated agreement.
The commission voted to raise Council pay to $113,300 from $68,904, with the chairman getting $10,000 more. Only Coralee Kubo, a Caldwell administration holdover, opposed, arguing, “Seventy- thousand dollars for a part-time job is not a drop in the bucket.”
Commissioners voted for 12.5% raises for the mayor and his Cabinet.
The raises automatically take effect July 1 unless seven of the nine Council members vote to reject, and Waters appears to be maneuvering to duck a politically painful public hearing and Council vote.
Members Augie Tulba and Andria Tupola introduced resolutions to stop the raises, with Tulba asking, “When was the last time you heard of anybody getting a 64% raise? Never.”
But Waters has yet to schedule a Council hearing or refer the measures to a committee for action, indicating on the Honolulu Star-Advertiser’s “Spotlight Hawaii” livestream program that he prefers to avoid a vote that puts members on the record.
“People are running for reelection,” he said. “They don’t want to stick their neck out.”
Waters said he’s open to placing a charter amendment before voters to decide whether they want the Council full time or part time, but that couldn’t happen until 2024 and putting cart before horse is a cynical win-win for Council members.
If voters say part time, they’ll be part-timers with $113,000 salaries the commission would unlikely roll back. If voters say full time, commissioners could go even higher; they considered as much as $185,017 this year before public outcry.
With this precedent, our part-time state legislators are drooling over their next salary review.
While members claim Council work is full time, a majority finds time for well-paying outside work. Of the six members who served in 2022, only Cordero reported no outside income on her financial disclosure.
Waters earned between $50,000 and $99,999 as an attorney, while Kia‘aina and Tupola made similar amounts from consulting. Calvin Say collected between $20,000 and $49,998 from business ventures, and Tulba earned in the same range as a radio personality.
Tyler Dos Santos-Tam, Val Okimoto and Matt Weyer were newly elected in November.
Reach David Shapiro at volcanicash@gmail.com.
