A Honolulu City Council member who recently received a 64% pay raise says key amendments need to be made to the city’s constitution to ensure future pay hikes for top elected and appointed officials cannot be rejected by an overwhelming vote of the Council or the mayor.
On Aug. 9, Val Okimoto — who, along with five others on the Council, saw her taxpayer-funded salary climb into the six-figure range for fiscal year 2024, which began July 1 — introduced Resolution 193 to initiate amendments to the Revised Charter of Honolulu.
Those amendments relate to the city Salary Commission, which approved the Council’s controversial pay raises earlier this year.
As drafted, Okimoto’s proposed resolution would cut existing language in the city’s charter that allows the Council to reject — either in whole or in part and by a three-quarters vote — the Salary Commission’s adopted pay hikes for the Council, the mayor and others in the city’s workforce of over 8,500 employees.
Moreover, Resolution 193 would replace preceding language in the same section of the charter to read: “Any action of the commission altering salaries shall be by resolution accompanied by findings of fact and is not subject to rejection or alteration by the council or mayor.”
Okimoto’s resolution would also impose term limits on individual salary commissioners, not to exceed more than two, five-year terms.
Under her resolution, Okimoto’s requested charter amendments need to go before voters during the 2024 general election. And if voters were to approve her amendments, they would take effect Jan. 1, 2025.
But this week, Okimoto announced she had a change of heart — at least as far as Resolution 193 was concerned.
“After thinking it over, I spoke with (Council) Chair (Tommy) Waters about my proposal, and we agree that this issue is best left to the people through the Charter Commission,” Okimoto told the Honolulu Star-Advertiser via email.
According to the city’s revised charter, the formation of a Charter Commission comprised of members of the public — not city officers — occurs every 10 years.
After Nov. 1 of every year ending in “4,” the mayor and Council chair shall appoint a Charter Commission consisting of 13 members to study and review the operation of the government of the city under this charter. The mayor appoints six, while the Council chair — with approval of the Council — appoints the other six. A 13th commission member is appointed by the mayor and confirmed by the Council, the charter states.
Afterward, the appointed commission may propose amendments — in the form of ballot questions — for placement on a general election ballot as established in state law of the year ending in a “6,” the charter states. The Charter Commission is “recognized as a constituent body” in the introduction of such amendments to Oahu’s local constitution.
“This means that the Charter Commission represents the people and is able to propose amendments to the Charter for submission to the public,” Okimoto wrote. “The next Charter Commission will be appointed after Nov. 1, 2024, and any proposed amendments will be on the 2026 ballot. The salaries of our elected and appointed officials are important, and I believe the Charter Commission is the best suited to address this.”
Although Resolution 193 has been withdrawn, Okimoto — whose current term on the Council runs through 2027 — confirmed she will continue to advocate for the charter amendments she’d requested.
Following the city Salary Commission’s adoption of the city’s 2024 salary schedule for its public workers, the Council’s salaries were boosted to $113,304, up from $68,904, and the Council chair’s pay to $123,288 from $76,968.
Likewise, as of July 1, Mayor Rick Blangiardi and the city’s top appointed executives received a nearly 12.6% pay bump. As adopted, the mayor’s annual pay is $209,856 from its former $186,432, while the annual salary for the managing director’s position increased to $200,712 from $178,320.
In the days leading up to the contentious start of these salary increases, Council members Augie Tulba, Andria Tupola and Radiant Cordero collectively rejected their own pay raises as elected public servants.
To do so, the three were each required to submit a memorandum to the city stating their rejection of the expected $44,400 pay bump they were to receive — the trio requesting to keep their annual Council salaries unchanged.
Submitted to the city June 30, Tupola’s rejection memo states in part: “It would be inconsistent for me to accept a raise given my strong public opinion against salary increases. Furthermore, I have co-sponsored legislation to unanimously reject raises for elected and appointed City officials, and I remain committed and accountable to my own proposals.”
If all nine Council members had taken the adopted pay raise, the total cost for Council salaries would be more than $1.02 million, which includes a salary adjustment, city staff said.
But to reflect the trio’s pay hike rejection, the cost for Council salaries totals $896,520, a $268,320 increase over the past fiscal year, city staff said.
Nola Miyasaki, the city’s Department of Human Resources director, previously told the Star-Advertiser that the Salary Commission had not raised pay for city department heads and top elected officials for the past three years.
Before the July 1 pay hikes, Miyasaki said, most of the city’s 21 department directors earned an average annual salary of $166,560.
Correction: A previous version of this article incorrectly stated the number of council members who received a salary increase.
