COMMENTARY
Reorganized Council will test Harris vision teams

By Bob Dye
Kailua-based writer and historian

Mayors fashion political careers from public programs bearing their personal imprint. Prime examples are: TheBus and former Mayor Frank Fasi, and community vision teams and Mayor Jeremy Harris.

With its new chairman, John DeSoto, and its newest member, budget chair Ann Kobayashi, spirited debate likely will replace toadyism at hearings of the reorganized City Council. Advertiser library photo • Feb. 19, 2002

Both Fasi and Harris, once mentor and protégé, displayed political genius in their Honolulu mayoral tenures. But there is a difference of the angle of focus. Where Fasi ran political ads saying "Thank you, Mr. Mayor," for the buses, the parks, the markets, the gardens, the neighborhood boards and other accomplishments, Harris publicly thanks the neighborhood folks for thinking up ways to make their communities better places to raise their kids.

Because they were astute, TheBus and vision teams are sacrosanct. Recall that in his "State of the City" speech, Harris said the vision teams will prevail because once people are brought into the process of defining their own neighborhoods, no one can close the door. He is right.

The City Council knows that the "vision process" is this mayor's signature program. And which one of them dares to diminish by a single penny that popular program's budget?

As the council's new Budget Committee chairwoman, Ann Kobayashi is the O'ahu taxpayer's chief guardian of the public purse. Over lunch recently, she questioned whether those who pay the bills can continue to afford to bankroll some or all of those visionary programs. Island-wide infrastructure and services — crumbling sewers and police and fire services — need help. She worries that elderly people on fixed incomes will be increasingly taxed.

I wondered whether she could be the grinch who blurs the vision.

She is no firebrand. But she does have the same attention to financial detail and the quiet intensity of members of the Walter Heen council during a halcyon period in the early years of the Fasi administration. Under its scrutiny, TheMayor accomplished much. A former state senator and, later aide to Harris and to Gov. Ben Cayetano, Kobayashi knows well the roles of legislator and government executive. She knows budgets from both sides. Her work as head of the state Senate ways and means committee was praiseworthy.

Councilman John Henry Felix, who watches the city budget with the eye of a successful businessman, says: "I have every confidence in Ann. She has budget experience. She's a quick learner and quick to seek advice."

Councilman Duke Bainum says: "She is bright and will do very well. But I intend to play a major role in the hearings." He says he is especially concerned about cost overruns and procurement practices.

Tax Foundation executive Lowell Kalapa says: "She is an up-front person, certainly better than what we've seen in the recent past."

When perusing the mayor's budget, Kalapa urges the council and taxpayers to look carefully at overhead expenses and debt-service funds, and weigh how much money goes to popular programs such as parks and recreation in comparison with essential programs such as police, fire and sanitation. Service areas where there is duplication with state functions — roads and parks, for example — require special scrutiny, he advises.

Kalapa wonders, "Will Ann be able to withstand political pressure?"

Of the nine council members, Kobayashi and two others will be running for re-election this year. And three members aspire to higher office — Bainum for mayor, and John DeSoto and Jon Yoshimura for lieutenant governor. Can any of the six candidates afford to tamper in any way with the vision process?

Not Yoshimura. He already has said he wants to install the Harris vision-team concept at the state level if he becomes lieutenant governor.

Not Bainum. He's a fan. In fact, he'll be asking why some projects have lagged. And he has ideas to improve the process by encouraging regional cooperation, and by introducing thematic planning. "Conception of some ideas is too haphazard," he says.

Despite major agreement on the vision process, there are clear signs that with the addition of Kobayashi to the mix of council members, and that with the council's reorganization under John DeSoto, toadyism is out.

For example: In short order, the "new" council put the Harris administration on notice that lax and lazy performance will not be tolerated, and that ethical conduct will be enforced.

But the biggest test of this City Council will come in the Friday hearings on the proposed Harris budget. With the mayor campaigning for governor and most council members on the ballot this year, political posturing and positioning is inevitable. But if that leads to spirited debate between mayor and council, so much the better for taxpayers and voters.

In the end, city councils generally go along with most of what a mayor wants in the annual budget. Although there will be constant tension between council and executive, the sheer weight of expertise at the command of a mayor usually carries the day. If not, a mayor has the pulpit to muster public support.

Be assured, whether the council forces him to do it or not, Harris will promote the vision process with voters. Vision is the centerpiece of his campaign for governor, as it has been since the day he announced it four years ago.