Back in November, voters approved most of the proposed 20 Honolulu City Charter amendments, including two that create two new agencies.

Perhaps it was hard to say “no” to ballot questions like this: “Should the city use its powers to serve the people in a sustainable and transparent manner and to promote stewardship of natural resources for present and future generations, and should the city create an Office of Climate Change, Sustainability and Resiliency?”

Sustainability? Transparency? Surely, that sounded like the right stuff to many voters. But a new office? Growing bureaucracy now is dubious, due to unknown new-agency costs to taxpayers. Various figures had been discussed and both proposals had the backing of Mayor Kirk Caldwell’s administration, but neither ballot item mentioned money.

Last week, Caldwell put the price tag total at more than $1 million for the city to fully establish the Climate Change office and the new Department of Land Management, which will oversee all of its non-park land, including property that could be developed by the city and private entities. Caldwell said staffing for both agencies would ramp up gradually. He must be held to that, given the city’s cash-strapped status.

The Climate Change office will look at energy, coastal zones and waterways programs; food sustainability; and pursue community outreach. Yes, the city should be promoting stewardship of our natural resources — but an annual budget of $467,388?

That’s cringeworthy spending when stacked up against the city’s immediate struggles to cover costs tied to the multibillion-dollar rail project, employee pensions, federally mandated sewage and wastewater treatment upgrades and strategies addressing homelessness. It’s cause for voter remorse.

The Department of Land Management (DLM) is slated for a $730,612 budget with 22 new positions, but the administration plans to fund just nine in the upcoming 2018 budget. In addition, nine people are transferring from other agencies.

On the new jobs roster, Caldwell offered these eyebrow-raising remarks: “We’re not creating a giant bureaucracy”; and “We want to remain lean and mean and use this department to get more people into housing.” Yes, our affordable housing shortage must be corrected, but this fresh layer of bureaucracy will require taxpayer funding year after year.

Tasked with protection, development and management of city lands, DLM is supposed to replace a hodgepodge system involving several departments. It may also head a proposed initiative to entice developers to build much-needed affordable housing by providing access to city government financing tools, such as private activity bonds to be borrowed at reduced interest rates.

Time will tell whether the department is beneficial, bloat or a trouble spot. Prior to the election, opponents feared unintended consequences: that a one-stop shop could make it easier for the city to privatize public lands and push through developer-friendly projects with less public oversight, by eliminating some checks and balances commonly used to challenge projects.

When opponents of the Climate Change proposal suggested folding sustainability objectives into city policy rather than forming a new department, supporters countered that other cities confronting environmental threats, such as rising sea levels, had already established agencies and Honolulu should likewise prep for the future.

The Climate Change and Land Management agency proposals passed with 59 percent and 51 percent of the vote, respectively. The narrow margins serve as a reminder — in the state with the lowest voter turnout nationwide on Election Day — that your vote matters.

The City Charter is Honolulu’s “Constitution,” establishing the principles by which our city government operates. Creating new departments under the Charter should be done with utmost care. For the sake of Honolulu’s tapped-out taxpayers, the Caldwell administration must start these efforts by making good on its own call for efficient and effective “lean and mean” new departments.