Kobayashi doing her job or playing politics?
By Robbie Dingeman
Advertiser City Hall Writer
City Councilwoman Ann Kobayashi mixes the experience of a veteran politician with the sometimes naive demeanor of a City Hall newcomer as she pores through Honolulu's $1.1 billion operating budget, earning both praise and protest for her questions.
Advertiser library photo
Since taking office in a special election in January, the 65-year-old former state senator has been lauded for raising legitimate questions about the city's financial status, while others have accused her of playing politics with taxpayer money. Last week, she convened marathon meetings of the City Council Budget Committee, trying to determine where to cut and where to restore.
"They always say you can't fight city hall," said City Councilwoman Ann Kobayashi.
When the budget was nudged into nearly final form, she had helped cut $5 million from the $1.1 billion operating budget and about $20 million from the $475.5 million construction budget sent down by Mayor Jeremy Harris.
The council is scheduled to take a final vote May 29.
Common Cause Hawai'i spokesman Larry Meacham said Kobayashi has a long reputation as someone who asks good questions and does her homework.
"I'm glad someone's carefully scrutinizing the budget," Meacham said. "I think the questions she's been asking are legitimate."
But Ben Lee, city managing director, sees other motivation.
"It's an election year," Lee said. "I think she is playing politics with the budget."
Lee said Kobayashi and the two other new council members — Gary Okino and Romy Cachola — may be confused about the budget, which is similar to spending plans passed in recent years.
Okino, who retired from the city after 30 years as a planner, has complained that the Harris administration is leaving the city with few options for balancing the budget next year and has postponed many problems until after Harris leaves office.
The budget problem
Okino estimates that next year the city will be left with a $159 million shortfall and forced to consider double-digit increases in real property taxes.
Former council budget chairman Steve Holmes shrugged over the changes that Kobayashi ended up making, seeing them as mostly superficial. He said he thought the bitter budget battle was fueled by politics.
Holmes thinks that some critics of Harris, who plans to leave in mid-term this year to run for governor, want to see someone else become governor. "They want to hurt the mayor; they want to create chaos on the council."
Kobayashi said she has heard the rumors, and dismisses them.
"I heard that it's political, I'm doing it because I'm supporting another candidate for governor. (That) I'm a political neophyte and I don't know what I'm doing." Kobayashi ticks through the list and shakes her head. "That's crazy."
She says she is just doing her job.
"They always say you can't fight city hall." She said the easier path would be to let the budget pass with few questions. "They say that the city's in such good shape. They can't even show me how the budget's going to be balanced next year."
Kobayashi criticized Harris for sending to the council a budget that was balanced by tapping special funds, debt restructuring and other short-term financial fixes.
Common Cause Hawai'i noted that Kobayashi stepped on some toes by persisting in her questioning on the Harris administration's budget proposal.
"I'm just doing it to learn and get information," she said.
Kobayashi, 65, represented the Manoa area in the state Senate from 1981 to 1994. She developed a reputation as a caring Republican, then switched to the Democratic Party in 1988. She sat for seven years on the Senate's powerful Ways and Means Committee, serving as chairwoman from 1992 to 1993. She ran for mayor in 1994, finishing third to Harris with 19 percent of the vote.
She is a mother of three and grandmother of six who likes to spend time cooking and traveling.
Kobayashi comes across as a savvy politician, comfortable in the spotlight. Despite her new council budget duties, she remains on the board of 12 non-profit organizations, an experience that she says shapes her view that "you don't spend frivolously."
Her links to non-profits brought her some criticism this year when it came to light that the Fresh Start structured living facility for prison parolees and others — an organization she once did volunteer work for — is under criminal investigation by the state attorney general's office for allegedly pressuring their clients and families for money and threatening to have them returned to prison or jail.
When Kobayashi was campaigning late last year for the City Council seat vacated by Andy Mirikitani, as many as 50 Fresh Start residents were transported in the program's vehicles from Waipahu to the Manoa-Makiki area to wave political signs for her.
She had lobbied the council for money for programs in the past but said that this year the organization did not receive additional city money.
Making headway
After asking the questions about the budget, Kobayashi said she's received some answers and believes the effort has been worthwhile.
She learned that popular programs such as the beachfront breakfast fairs and movies debuted by Harris last year as "Brunch on the Beach" and "Sunset on the Beach" cost at least $1 million.
Councilman Duke Bainum said he believes the truth lies somewhere in between Kobayashi's statement that if the city were a business, it would have declared bankruptcy, and the administration's bragging about municipal management.
"The sky is not falling, and we're not bankrupt. Neither is the situation all rosy," Bainum said. He would like to see the city look toward a five-year budget that emphasizes more long-term planning versus treating the budget as an annual crisis.
Kobayashi has criticized the Harris administration for proposing to balance the budget with the help of $60 million taken from the sewer fund, which gets its money from charges that people pay for city sewer services.
She predicts that property taxes and sewer fees will go up next year.
Lowell Kalapa, president of the Tax Foundation of Hawai'i, said Kobayashi was able to carry off the role because she knows government but hasn't been embroiled in city politics. "She can come in with kind of the naiveté and innocence that allows her to raise questions that would otherwise be politically sensitive."
Kalapa, who has offered informal advice to Kobayashi, said she does not have the political aspirations of many council members who are vying for a higher office or an appointed job. "They're more interested in aspiring than perspiring," Kalapa said.
Reach Robbie Dingeman at rdingeman@honoluluadvertiser.com or 525-8070.
