HOOSER: A fair and open process, or not?

It seems the rush is on to fill the seat being vacated by former council member Luke Evslin, who was recently appointed to the state House of Representatives.

Apparently, council Chair Mel Rapozo wants to do this on Feb. 22 at 11:30 a.m., seven days after the public was made aware of the vacancy.

So, if you were considering putting your name forward to be considered, or perhaps you know of others who would make a positive addition and bring new energy and new ideas to the council — sorry, but it’s too late.

I guess the idea of informing the community, inviting those who might be interested to submit an application, doing some one-on-one interviewing, then scheduling a meeting to allow the public to comment — and then and only then hold a vote to select the candidate who rose to the top — I guess this idea somehow got lost in the rush to appoint the person who already has the votes locked down?

Similarly, I’m thinking that a thoughtful evaluation of the current strengths and weakness of the existing council and attempting to find a candidate who could complement and/or fill in the gaps — this idea also has apparently been disregarded.

Actually, I agree that the council should not waste everyone’s time and act like this is an open process, that all interested people are welcome to apply, and all will be evaluated based on criteria that places only the best interests of the county first.

Because clearly that is not the case.

I’m guessing that the chair and a majority on the council are thinking that former council member Ross Kagawa has already got the votes locked up, so why bother with the process?

Kagawa finished eighth in the recent elections, and that will no doubt be the criteria used to justify his selection. He has served on the council in the past, is familiar with the process, and is thus qualified to serve.

That is all true and the former council member may very well be the best choice, especially when no other choices are given an honest, clear and open evaluation — let alone the time to actually submit a letter of interest.

To make it happen as quickly (and painlessly) as possible, Rapozo scheduled a “Special Council Meeting” seven days after Evslin’s resignation, “to appoint a successor for a vacant unexpired term on the Kaua‘i County Council.”

According to newspaper reports at the time, when now Rep. Nadine Nakamura vacated her council seat on Nov. 1, 2013, then-council Chair Jay Furfaro utilized a process that included one week “so those who are interested can apply”. The following week was then used to “look at the names of people who applied and see who can be nominated.”

Then two weeks later on Nov. 15, after reviewing several highly qualified applications from a broad cross-section of the community, the remaining six council member’s (of which I was a part of) selected now former council member Mason Chock to fill the slot.

That selection was at the time accompanied by its own bit of controversy coming in the days immediately preceding the veto override of Bill 2491.

In retrospect, most would agree this decision turned out to be an excellent one. Council member Chock was an exceptional, thoughtful and hardworking member of the council, and at election time often at the top of the vote count as well. Yet, he had never held public office before and had no experience whatsoever working in government.

Bottom line: There should be an open and fair public process that invites all who are interested in filling the open council position to apply and be honestly evaluated. Otherwise it’s #politicsasusual.

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Gary Hooser is the former vice-chair of the Democratic Party of Hawai‘i, and served eight years in the state Senate, where he was majority leader. He also served for eight years on the Kaua‘i County Council, and was the former director of the state Office of Environmental Quality Control. He serves in a volunteer capacity as board president of the Hawai‘i Alliance for Progressive Action and is executive director of the Pono Hawai‘i Initiative.