Tag Archives: Honolulu Salary Commission

Honolulu City Council – 64% Pay Increase for FY 2024

There are lots of twists and turns, machinations, and colouring to this pay increase controversy.

The fundamental question is whether the Council Chair Tommy Waters would place Resolutions 23-81 and Resolutions 23-82 on the June 7, 2023 Public Hearing Agenda to address the 64% pay increase.

Resolutions 81 & 82 continue to be ignored and time is quickly running out.

If no actions are taken against the Salary Commission‘s recommended increase, these 64% pay raises automatically become effective as of July 1, 2023.

Also, Tommy Waters and Mayor Blangiardi’s rationale for salary raises can be read in their testimonies to the Salary Commission. Salary Commission members are nominated by Mayor and approved by City Council.

The public’s most awaited meeting was June 7, 2023 – – to see whether the Council would reject the huge leap in pay raise for themselves. Scroll to 6:59 thereabouts to hear Bill10 on Page 27 Agenda.

Honolulu City Council Chair Tommy Waters presided at the June 7. The 10 AM Hearing started at 10:45 AM and finished about nine hours later. Chair Waters did not place Resolutions 23-81 and 23-82 relating to the 64% salary increases on the Agenda.

Bill 10 was the most appropriate agenda item to opine on this 64% raise. Bill 10 was a comprehensive legislative packet to approve the County Budget for the Fiscal Year July 1, 2023 to June 20, 2024. Bill 10 would be where the funds for these pay raises needed to be penciled in. You can look at the June 7 Agenda and click Bill 10 (Page 27) to watch the video proceedings.

Residents were unhappy that Bill 10 was pushed to the back of the agenda. The opportunity for the public to testify began at about 7:00 p.m. Some residents had to leave. The marathon 10:00 AM Council Hearing began at 10:45 AM.

Written testimonies were also submitted earlier by the public. There was also an online petition – “Don’t hide, let the people decide your 64% pay raise”.

Despite the public uproar, Chair Waters dug in his heels and denied public participation by ignoring Resolutions 81 and 82.

Here is brief chronology for this 64% pay raise issue:

January 19, 2023: The nomination of Rebecca Soon through Resolution 23-7 to the Honolulu Salary Commission was submitted by Chair Tommy Waters.

Rebecca Soon is the daughter of Ray Soon (Former Chief of Staff to Mayor Kirk Caldwell) and Cheryl Soon.

January 25, 2023: Listen to the conversation beginning at 4:00 between Salary Commission nominee Rebecca Soon with Waters, Kia’aina, and Cordero.

Listen to the conversation between Chair Tommy Waters, Esther Kia’aina and Radiant Cordero about “full-time” or “part-time” and what salary compensation should be. Beginning at 4:00 pm with this Video

March 21. 2023: Local news media like KITV were following this issue. KHON2 also covered the Proposed Salary for City Council and Administration. The Salary Commission Meeting Agenda included FOR ACTION for deliberation and decision-making relating to the City pay raises:

April 25, 2023: Honolulu Salary Commission’s Press Release adopting its FY24 Salary Schedule and Calls For Action To Attract Public Servants To The City.

The Pearl City Neighborhood Board, a citizen grassroots advisory board, voted to oppose the proposed Salary Increases.

April 27, 2023: Two Resolutions responding to the Salary increases were introduced By City Council members Augie Tulba and Andria Tupola – – Resolutions 23-81 and Resolutions 23-82 to partially or impartially reject the increases.

But City Council Chair Tommy Waters refused to allow these two resolutions a public hearing. Doing nothing about the Salary Commission recommended increases would automatically triggers the increases on July 1, 2023.

May 15, 2023: Chair Tommy Waters signed REQUEST FOR SEALED BIDS ( “RFB”) to perform a salary analysis and comparison study for the Honolulu Salary Commission. Closed Date May 30m 2023. Cost was supposedly $100,000.00 A curious person would ask who received this very seemingly short-noticed request and turn-around report.

May 19, 2023: Maikiki Neighborhood Board also opposed the salary hikes. Makiki Board Chair wrote its opposing resolution due to unprecedented negative reactions to the pay raises.

May 25, 2023: With a horse before the cart action, Chair Waters and Vice-Chair Esther Kia’aina introduced Bill 33 and Resolution 23-109 to prohibit outside empolyment for city council members. Written testimonies on his two similar actions point to “distractions” intentions.

Resolutions 81 and 82 to reject the 64% increase continued to be denied a public hearing by Chair Waters.

June 7, 2023: City Council approves salary increase through inaction in Bill 10. Scroll to 6:57 to watch proceedings. Only Augie Tulba and Andria Tupola voted “NO” in addressing the pay raises. Bill 33 to Prohibit Outside Employment was rescinded and cancelled. Companion Resolution 12-109 passed First Reading. No funds were penciled into the Budget to address the 64% salary increases at this hearing. (However, keep it mind that there is an allowed shell game of moving funds without public votes.)

The two potent Resolutions 23-81 and Resolutions 23-82 to partially or impartially reject the increases remain ignored.

However, the D-Day is June 25 for Chair Tommy Waters to reverse this decision. Waters can still call a Special Hearing. Funds for these 64% pay increases have to be penciled in. The next question is: Where will these salary funds be taken from?

During the entire course of this 64% pay increase controversy, Chair Tommy Waters offered many contradicting rationale, including Conflicts of Interests and why the City Council should not vote for its own salary increases.

However, the Director of the Honolulu Ethics Commission Jan Yamane, who was invited to the June 7 Hearing, also clarified that City Council members could vote on these salary issues by filing a Conflict of Interest Disclosure. A flurry of Conflict of Interests was filed subsequently by the council members.

Contrary to what current Council Chair Waters is insisting about not being able to vote against the Honolulu Salary Commission, here is an example of another City Council Chair Ernie Martin who rejected pay raises in 2013 by introducing Resolution 13-88 himself.

The City Council 64% Pay Raise will go into effect on July 1, 2023 unless the City Council rejects it

Two city council members have introduced two Resolutions to reject the 2023 Salary Commission’s recommendations for the pay raises.

  1. Resolution 23-81 REJECTS the ENTIRE Salary Commission’s recommendation. This will freeze the salaries as is.

BE IT RESOLVED by the Council of the City and County of Honolulu that this
body, by at least a three-quarters affirmative vote of its entire membership, rejects the
entire resolution of the 2023 Salary Commission
submitted to the City Council under
Council Communication 111(2023) and the salary and salary schedule increases
recommended therein; and
. . .”

2. Resolution 23-82 REJECTS IN PART Salary Commission’s recommendation.

WHEREAS, the Council wishes to express its appreciation for the work of the
2023 Salary Commission, but concludes that the salary increases and salary schedule
adjustments recommended by the 2023 Salary Commission for Fiscal Year 2023-24
should be rejected in part;

Some facts for clarifications:

  1. If the city council does not adopt a resolution to reject the pay raise now, the recommendations of the Salary Commission will automatically become in effect on July 1, 2023.
  2. Chair Tommy Waters has to put the above two resolutions in the Honolulu city Council Agenda pretty quickly. Will Waters promptly allow these two Resolutions or others to be on the Council agenda? Will he come up with his own resolution or let the clock run out?
  3. Chair Tommy Waters publicly states that he’s “totally open to that idea” for the public to determine whether the city council position is a full-time or part-time job through a Honolulu City Charter amendment. Chair Tommy Waters, Vice-Chair Esther Kia’aina, and Budget Chair Radiant Cordera have publicly determined their position as “full-time”.
  4. Through the decades, the position has always been respected as part-time and no council has asked for a huge salary raise based on the platform that it’s a “full-time” position. Former City Council member Ann Kobayashi, amongst others, has publicly said, “You run for public office, you know what the salary is, you know what the hours are, and you do the best you can and the public service. The point is not to get in there and try to change the salary.”
  5. The public participation opportunity to approve the increase salary to “full-time” scale or not is obviously backward.
  6. The City Charter amendment procedure as to whether the Council deserves “full-time” salary cannot be decided before the default date of July 1, 2023. The earliest the city charter amendment process can happen is at next year’s 2024 election ballot. Keep in mind again that this suggested amendment action is separate from #1 timeline.
  7. It has always been the expectation that the city council position is a part-time salary. The council members have health benefits and other benefits. Each council member has 5 full-time staff, the Council Services, and the city departments to assist upon request.

The most recent confirmation of Rebecca Soon to the Honolulu Salary Commission can be viewed at the 4:03 video mark during the Council Hearing on January 25, 2023. The video shows the interactions between the council members and the nominee Soon about pay raises.

Rebecca aka Becky Soon has a lot of experience with Honolulu Hale as the latest addition to the Salary commission. Her father Ray Soon was Mayor Kirk Caldwell’s Chief of Staff. Her mother Cheryl Soon held many positions, including Director of Department of Transportation Services and member of the 2018 Honolulu City Charter Review Commission.

The Honolulu Salary Commission:

The current Honolulu Salary Commission Chair is Malia Espinda. The Salary Commission is made up of commissioners nominated by the Mayor and the City Council in this arrangement: 3 members appointed by mayor, 3 members appointed by council, 1 member appointed by mayor & confirmed by council.