Inside Honolulu: Jan. 4
It’s a new year, and Honolulu Hale is welcoming five new City Council members. The city’s new mayor has eight weeks to go before he has to present his first budget, and a new round of rail hearings start this week. Civil Beat is reporting from the inside.
Carlisle Abstaining From Booze, Soda
12:32 p.m.
It’s a tradition Mayor Peter Carlisle says he despises, but it’s the same new year’s resolution he makes each year: No alcohol and no soda throughout the month of January.
While he was campaigning for mayor over the summer, the former prosecutor told Civil Beat he was trying to drink wine instead of beer, because drinking brew made him want to snack on unhealthy food.
The mayor now warns — with a smile — that this annual restraint means he’ll be in a bad mood until February.
Honolulu’s First Mayor Sworn in 102 Years Ago Today
10:35 a.m.
Honolulu’s first mayor, Joseph Fern, was sworn into office on Jan. 4, 1909. There was a ceremony at the McIntyre building at Fort and King streets (the beginnings of Honolulu Hale as we know it today would not be built until 1928). The Royal Hawaiian Band — then temporarily called the City and County band — played a march composed for the occasion, and dedicated to Fern.
Honolulu’s first mayor eked out an incredibly narrow victory. The race was so close that the Honolulu Advertiser first reported falsely that Fern’s opponent, Republican John Lane, had won.
According to Donald Johnson’s 1991 account of municipal history, “The City and County of Honolulu,” the Advertiser’s headline was “Lane Mayor of Honolulu” the morning after the election, when late returns had tipped the race in Fern’s favor. The next day, the headline read “Final Count Shows Majority for Fern.”
On inauguration day, 102 years ago, the Advertiser mocked the new mayor. Johnson wrote that the newspaper called it “A Day of Official Burlesque,” and ridiculed Fern’s inaugural address. The paper had opposed the creation of city government in the first place.
Fern earned $250 per month as mayor, and was prohibited from having another paying job. He ended up serving the City and County of Honolulu as mayor from 1909 – 1915, and again from 1917 until his death in 1920.
Berg Wants Council to Reconsider Committee Assignments
Incoming City Council member Tom Berg is upset with the committee assignments he’s inherited.
The Honolulu City Council organized in November, after four other new council members were elected but before Berg won the Dec. 29 special election to represent District 1. Council members appointed the then-unknown representative to become chairman of the Parks & Human Services Committee, and vice chair of the Planning Committee.
“I’m hoping to change it,” Berg said. “I’m kind of saddened, as a newcomer, I’ve been left off the Transportation Committee. District 1 is in a transportation crisis, and no one will say it but me. For them to not put me on the Transportation Committee? We plan our lives around traffic in District 1, and it’s no way to live.”
But City Council Vice Chairman Breene Harimoto, who was elected in November, told Civil Beat it’s not likely the council will scrap its organization on Berg’s account.
“Everybody has their choice and you can’t get everything you wanted,” City Council Vice Chair Breene Harimoto told Civil Beat. “We just settled in. I’m not sure we’re, at this point, willing to redo everything.”
Berg is a vocal skeptic of the city’s rail project. His position starkly contrasts that of his predecessor, former City Council Chairman Todd Apo. One of the reasons Apo waited until after November to resign was to present a united front to federal officials with the power to approve funding for rail during a time of enormous transition at the city.
Rail plans aside, the City Council member who Harimoto replaced as vice chair, Ikaika Anderson, said he believes Berg’s disappointment is founded.
“I can’t speak to (whether the council will consider reorganizing) because I did not retain my leadership position on this council,” Anderson told Civil Beat. “I’m sad that Council Member Berg was not afforded the opportunity to vote on this resolution (to organize the council). He should have been afforded an opportunity to vote.”
Anderson dispelled questions about whether his position might be rooted in frustration about leadership changes he did not initiate.
“I’m still able to be effective and represent my district, and at the end of the day, that’s what matters,” Anderson said. “I’ve got no hard feelings at all. That’s the way the council organized. I’ve got no problems with that.”
Berg says he hasn’t yet had “two seconds” to talk to council leadership about his desire to reorganize committees, but said he plans to approach City Council Chairman Nestor Garcia as soon as possible.
