New laws that go into effect with the new year include capping future Honolulu City Council raises at 5% annually, after the Council in 2023 was approved for a whopping 64% pay hike.
Oahu voters in the November general election overwhelmingly approved amending the city charter to effect the change with 90.6% of the vote.
The change also requires any future Council pay increases to equal the average of the most recent annual salary raises for the city’s various collective bargaining units.
The amendment came after six of the nine Council members in 2023 accepted $44,000 annual pay raises that increased their salaries to $113,304 from $68,904.
Council members Andria Tupola, Radiant Cordero and Augie Tulba refused their raises.
The charter amendment also strips Council members’ authority to vote on their own raises.
The city Salary Commission, whose members are appointed by the mayor and Council, establishes wages for municipal positions, including for the Council.
In March the commission recommended a 3% pay raise for the mayor, managing director, Council members and other elected and appointed high-level city officials. But in April, faced with a new round of community outrage over the possibility of a second consecutive raise, all nine Council members rejected bumping their salaries.
Before today the Council could accept or reject any portion of the Salary Commission’s resolution, including increasing their own salaries. Now, because of the will of voters, the commission must issue one resolution establishing Council salaries and a separate resolution setting salaries for other city employees.
The charter amendment was one of four that Honolulu voters approved in November.
The three other changes also go into effect today.
Some 58.1% of Oahu voters approved the creation of a new climate fund to be underwritten by 0.5% of the city’s estimated annual real property tax revenues. The fund will finance preventive, restorative and educational measures relating to climate change.
Another charter amendment approved by voters reorganized the city’s Department of Emergency Management and updated the duties of its director, who’s now required to have a minimum of five years of administrative emergency management experience, disaster planning or public safety services management, among other qualifications.
The fourth charter amendment created a commission to oversee the city’s new Department of Ocean Safety, which previously was part of the Department of Emergency Services, which remains responsible for paramedic and emergency medical technician services.
A five-member panel within Ocean Safety will have the authority to make budget recommendations, review operations, recommend improvements and appoint or remove the ocean safety chief, among other responsibilities.
New statewide laws going into effect today include a crackdown on “abusive litigation” by an intimate partner who uses court proceedings “to control, harass, intimidate, coerce, and impoverish the abused partner, even after a relationship has ended,” according to the legislation.
“Abusive litigation arises in a variety of contexts, often in family law cases, and it is not uncommon for abusers to file civil lawsuits against survivors. Even if a lawsuit is meritless, forcing a survivor to spend time, money, and emotional resources responding to the action provides a means for the abuser to assert power and control over the survivor.”
Hawaii now joins Tennessee and Washington in trying to protect targets of abusive litigation.
State judges can deny court cases that appear abusive and make the plaintiff pay the other party’s attorneys’ fees and litigation costs. Judges may now also bar future litigation by abusive plaintiffs for six years.
Another new law requires public-meeting notices to alert the public how they can provide remote testimony that allows them to be visible to others in the meeting, if they want, while also recognizing a board’s authority to remove and block people who disrupt meetings.
Other new legislation allows pharmacists to order and administer vaccines to children as young as 3, and permits pharmacy interns and pharmacy technicians to do the same under their supervision.
On Monday, Gov. Josh Green signed an executive order extending protections to caregivers of medical cannabis patients.
He urged the Legislature to ensure the protections become permanent in order “to provide services to those patients who are in the greatest need,” Green said in a statement accompanying his emergency proclamation.
