An uncomfortable tension has persisted for decades between the state’s need for qualified candidates to fill top positions in the public sector and the impulse to manage the influx of new residents to the state. It has played out in recent months with the frustration over appointments to department-head positions in state and city government, and this ought to compel a move to jettison the biased hiring policy, once and for all.
Gov. David Ige had to withdraw his appointee to the top Department of Labor and Industrial Relations post, Janice Kim, because she was a nonresident, though she grew up in Hawaii. And two city appointments cleared their respective residency hurdles only because an exemption was invoked.
At issue is the requirement, in the state Constitution and fortified in law, that officers appointed to head a "principal department" must be appointed by the governor with advice and consent of the Senate, provided that he or she has been a Hawaii resident for at least one year at the time of appointment.
The one constitutional carve-out is for the president of the University of Hawaii, and there is language in Hawaii Revised Statutes Chapter 78.1 specifying other exceptions to the rule.
This barrier has caused far more trouble than it’s worth. Lawmakers must put an amendment on the ballot to delete this particular residency requirement from the state Constitution, and repeal the statutory provision as well.
At this point this is likely a project to be completed in the next legislative session, but it must happen in time for placement of an amendment on the 2016 ballot.
The statute, which covers appointments to state and county positions, asserts that the residency requirement doesn’t apply in cases "when services essential to the public interest require highly specialized technical and scientific skills or knowledge for critical-to-fill and labor shortage positions."
This was what enabled Mayor Kirk Caldwell to hire city Parks Director Michele Nekota, and Design and Construction Director Robert Kroning.
Nekota had directed parks in Salt Lake City between 2008 and when she arrived a year ago to take the equivalent post in Honolulu. Kroning, a former Army engineering supervisor, met the minimum experience in an architectural or engineering job, including three years in a responsible administrative capacity. Both had Hawaii ties, too — which bolstered their case but shouldn’t be mandatory.
Similarly, Kim was a Kalani High School graduate. She had not lived in the islands since that time, but she was serving as a presidential appointee when she was tapped for the state labor position.
There is no good reason that hiring these qualified individuals should have forced the mayor and governor to jump through hoops or, in Kim’s case, to withdraw their pick for a top job.
Top candidates must think long and hard about relocating to Hawaii, where the higher cost of living is not generally offset by an increase in compensation. Adding a residency requirement could clinch the deal — for some other state to hire them instead.
Further, the problem of a "brain drain" in this state, with Hawaii graduates compelled to move away to start their careers, creates another Catch-22. Even if they want to stay at home, and many of them do, graduates have to live elsewhere to build a resume. And once they move, their absence raises another hurdle for the eventual homecoming. Who can afford to quit a decent job and move back if they have to log a year in Hawaii before they qualify for a top public service post?
The drive to hire locally rather than import all Hawaii’s talent has been a persistent one. Hawaii courts have rejected laws setting hiring policy to deter in-migration, knocking down earlier statutes and administrative requirements that all public employees be either residents or former residents.
The current legal and constitutional language is less restrictive than that, but it still doesn’t serve the public interest. It should be stricken from the books, too.
