A proposed resolution urging that Honolulu’s lifeguard and ambulance services be broken up in order to create a brand new city department is expected to be reviewed today by the City Council’s budget committee.

If adopted, the legislation could initiate a voter-approved City Charter amendment, an action that follows Mayor Rick Blangiardi’s stated plans to reorganize the city Emergency Serv­ices Department.

During his 2023 State of the City address, the mayor announced his desire to study whether the city’s Ocean Safety and Lifeguard Services Division could be separated from the rest of the department, which includes the city’s ambulance service within Emergency Medical Services.

Since the mayor’s March 2023 declaration, Council member Andria Tupola introduced Resolution 50, which, so far, received unanimous Council approval during the first of three readings Feb. 28.

As drafted, Tupola’s resolution requests language be placed on the Nov. 5 general election ballot, offering this question: “Shall the Revised City Charter be amended to establish a Department of Ocean Safety and remove ocean safety responsibilities from the Department of Emergency Services?”

If approved, civil service officers and employees holding permanent appointments at Ocean Safety, as of Dec. 31, 2024, “shall continue with the Department of Ocean Safety from Jan. 1, 2025,” and “shall suffer no loss of vacation allowance, sick leave, service credits, retirement benefits, or other rights and privileges because of the charter amendments to this resolution.”

Resolution 50 further reads that the head of Ocean Safety on Dec. 31, 2024 “shall serve as the chief of the Department of Ocean Safety from Jan. 1, 2025.”

If adopted, the resolution also calls for a “board, creating accountability and oversight similar to that provided by the city’s Fire Commission and Police Commission over the city’s other public safety departments, the Honolulu Fire Department and Honolulu Police Department.”

Meantime, the city says an Ocean Safety Task Force was formed in 2023 to review and study the feasibility of having Ocean Safety as a stand-alone first-responder department. The task force, composed of about a dozen current and former ocean safety division lifeguards and community members, met 11 times between July and January.

The group’s final executive summary is pending, the city says.

Currently, the ocean safety division comprises 242 employees, including 36 contract positions. Out of its over $23 million budget, more than $20.7 million is dedicated to salaries, the city says.

Prior to today’s budget meeting, over 100 people submitted written testimony largely in support of the proposed city department.

Among them, Hawaiian Lifeguard Association President Kalani Vierra stated that Resolution 50 “correctly puts to the electorate and the ballot the issue of creating separate EMS and Ocean Safety Departments.”

Moreover, having a “structure involving an Ocean Safety Commission encourages improved transparency, allows for expanded public input with respect to the expenditures of taxpayer dollars, and will vastly improve the prioritization of ocean safety related operations and program,” Vierra wrote.

But Oahu resident Natalie Iwasa said creating a new city department would be too costly for taxpayers.

“Many residents on Oahu continue to have a difficult time making ends meet, and more people have been moving out of Hawaii than in, for the past few years. A new department, along with a related commission and staff, will add to the cost of government and thereby add pressure to the budget,” she wrote. “Please vote ‘no’ on this proposed charter amendment and instead work toward making government more efficient and less costly.”

Meanwhile, the budget panel is also expected to review Resolution 52, introduced Feb. 27 by committee chair Radiant Cordero, which seeks to find out how much the Blangiardi administration has spent in Council-approved funding over the past two years to address affordable housing and homelessness on Oahu.

Cordero’s resolution states, “The Council appropriated $17,688,060 in the FY 23 Executive Capital Budget ordinance and $314,472,882 in the FY 24 Executive Capital Budget ordinance for the purpose of supporting affordable housing and homeless service providers, providing facilities and services for the homeless, and planning and developing infrastructure to support affordable housing.”

The budget meeting begins at 9 a.m. inside the City Council Chamber, 530 S. King St.