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The Honolulu Advertiser

Posted on: Friday, December 13, 2002

2 more Lingle appointees named

By Gordon Y.K. Pang
Advertiser Capitol Bureau

Nelson B. Befitel, left, and Mark Recktenwald were appointed department directors by Gov. Linda Lingle.

Eugene Tanner • The Honolulu Advertiser

Gov. Linda Lingle has appointed two Honolulu attorneys to join her Cabinet as department directors.

Mark Recktenwald, an assistant U.S. attorney based in Honolulu for most of the last decade, was named director of the Department of Commerce and Consumer Affairs.

Nelson B. Befitel, a labor attorney and family friend to Lingle, was named director of the Department of Labor and Industrial Relations.

Both appointments require confirmation from the state Senate.

To date, Lingle has chosen five of 16 directors. Earlier, she announced her choice of Mark Bennett as attorney general, Georgina Kawamura as director of budget and finance, and Micah Kane as director of Hawaiian home lands.

Lingle said she expects to name at least two appointments sometime next week.

 •  Commerce, labor to be their purview

• Mark Recktenwald

• Post: director, Department of Commerce and Consumer Affairs

• Age: 44

• Family: Married, two children

• Previous jobs: Assistant U.S. attorney, 1999-2002 and 1991-1997; partner, Marr Hipp Jones & Pepper, 1997-1999; associate, Goodsill Anderson Quinn & Stifel, 1988-1991

• Education: juris doctorate,

University of Chicago Law School; bachelor of arts in anthropology, Harvard University

• Nelson B. Befitel

• Post: director, Department of Labor and Industrial Relations

• Age: 37

• Family: Single

• Previous jobs: attorney, Damon Key Leong Kupchak Hastert; deputy corporation counsel, Maui County

• Education: juris doctorate,

Arizona State University; bachelor of arts in journalism, University of Hawai'i-Manoa

Recktenwald and Befitel will each earn $85,300 annually.

Recktenwald, 47, is a prosecutor in the white-collar crime section of the U.S. attorney's office and was one of the lead prosecutors in the federal case against real estate developer Sukamto Sia. He also negotiated healthcare fraud settlements including a $3.4 million settlement with Kapi'olani Health, $1.5 million with Wilcox Memorial Hospital and $2.1 million with physician Dr. Sze Ming Suen.

"Gov. Lingle's election gives us a historic opportunity to encourage the growth and diversification of Hawai'i's economy," he said. "The eyes of the business community in the world will be on Hawai'i over the next few years to see if we can make the changes that we need to make in order to make Hawai'i a place where business can prosper and not just get by."

Recktenwald said he will ensure that the agency's enforcement actions are "firm, swift, but also fair."

Recktenwald also was a prosecutor in the criminal division, including the smuggling of illegal aliens via fishing boats to Hawai'i from China.

He is the only one of Lingle's Cabinet, to date, to have been chosen from an advisory transition team designed to make recommendations on leadership posts to the governor. Attorney Shelton Jim On, who headed a committee that reviewed applications for the commerce and consumer affairs post, said more than 100 people submitted resumés. Befitel, 37, unlike Recktenwald, is a known entity to Lingle. The governor, as a new resident of Moloka'i 27 years ago, rented a room from Befitel's family for 10 years. He also served as her campaign's attorney.

A former deputy corporation counsel for Maui County, Befitel has spent the last few years as a litigation attorney with the law firm Damon Key Leong Kupchak Hastert practicing mainly in labor and employment law.

"We need to make Hawai'i more business-friendly, we need eliminate our antibusiness reputation," Befitel said. "And at the same time, we need to ensure that the rights and the interests of our working families are protected. I can assure you that both the labor unions and the business community will be heard in this administration. Both will have a voice."

Reach Gordon Y.K. Pang at gpang@honoluluadvertiser.com or 525-8070.