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Welcome to Inside Honolulu! The City Council is gathering to tie loose ends — and bid farewell to departing leadership — before the new year. Civil Beat is reporting from the inside.

3 p.m. “Todd Apo: Public Citizen”

Exactly one month to the day since he stepped down as City Council chairman, Todd Apo returned to City Council chambers to thank departing Council members for their service to the city.

Apo took to the podium where members of the public give testimony, and joked about how different the view was.

“You should try it some time,” Apo told the Council before introducing himself for the record as “Todd Apo: Public citizen.”

2:52 p.m. The “Godfather” Thanks God for Rail

After Honolulu City Council Chairman Nestor Garcia joked that he sees outgoing Council member Gary Okino as the “godfather” of rail (it was an Okino-sponsored resolution that helped secure the local funding source), Okino reminisced about his involvement in rail over the years.

“It’s been a wonderful time, my career. The ups and downs on this rail project was one of the emotional rollercoaster rides,” Okino said. “In the 70s, we knew that the only answer to regional development would be a good rail system … We thought it was a simple solution that we would do right away. Boy, I never expected it to run across so much opposition. It was just one failure after another. When I came to the City Council, I said that’s my one dream as a Council member. When I first came to the Council, we were talking about bus rapid tranist and I was the only guy opposing this. Amazingly over the years, we finally got the opportunity, and we passed the rail transit thing, and the perfect system, too.”

2:40 p.m. Tam to Spend Time with Family
Outgoing City Council member Rod Tam says he’ll spend more time with his teenaged children, and ill parents, once he leaves his post.

“Retirement of one job means taking on new opportunities,” Tam said. “I am not retired, as one would think of sitting in a rocking chair.”

Tam said he’ll also work as a consultant to private firms looking to strengthen international relations. He also cautioned remaining city leaders not to “embarrass” themselves at the November 2011 Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation by failing to give gifts to visiting dignitaries.

“We have lost the aloha spirit,” Tam warned. “(We’re) not exchanging hospitality gifts to diplomats. I have been criticized for exchanging hospitality gifts … Please do not embarrass ourselves by not exchanging reciprocal gifts.”

2:26 p.m. Chairman Garcia Thanks Departing Council Members

Chairman Nestor Garcia asked the council to “indulge” him as he remembers the four council members who are on their way off the City Council.

“I consider Council member (Gary) Okino to be the godfather of the most expensive public works project this council will ever see,” Garcia said. “It was Council member Okino’s resolution that we adopted… granting us the authority (to pursue a) local source of funding (for the city’s rail project) that got the disucssion going once again.”

Garcia pointed out that Lee Donohue helped pass a significant fireworks ban that goes into effect after New Year’s.

“Come January second, it will be safer and quieter thanks to the efforts of Council Member Donohue,” Garcia said.

“We have had an interesting time,” Garcia said of Rod Tam. “He is second to none when it comes to servicing his constituents …I think we may have learned a few things in the time that Mr. Tam has been here.”

Garcia also thanks Reed Matsuura as an “able legislator” in the short time he served.

2:30 p.m. Big Brother Is Watching

Concerns about Big Brother didn’t deter City Council members from adopting a to install more than one dozen surveillance cameras in Chinatown, Kalihi, Ala Moana, McCully, Waipahu, Ewa Beach and other designated Weed and Seed neighborhoods.

“I have a feeling 1984 is slowly creeping up on us,” one woman offering public testimony said. “I just don’t want to wake up and feel like 1984 as George Orwell told us, is upon us. Where do we stop with all this monitoring?”

2:20 p.m. City Council Members Appear to Support Three Returning Directorial Nominees

City Council committees will discuss some of the mayor’s latest leadership picks before voting to approve them, but the following Hannemann-era directors received glowing testimony in an afternoon City Council session.

• , Director of Design and Construction
• , Director of Customer Services
• , Director of Emergency Services

Council member Lee Donohue — a former police chief — made a point to dispute what anonymous complaints about Ireland he said were circulating internally at City Hall.

“He we are, fighting the ghosts again,” Donohue said. “It’s an assassination of people’s characters, good people.”

Council member Romy Cachola agreed with him.

“If it’s anonymous,” Cachola said. “They don’t have the guts to come out and let themselves known. It is not worth even looking into.”