Council should use professional search process to choose clerk

The Kaua‘i County Council should hire professionals to help them find the best candidate to be county clerk, whose critical job responsibilities include conducting elections, managing a vast array of public documents and authenticating legislation.

At an organizational council caucus meeting Monday, Councilwoman-elect JoAnn Yukimura rightly recommended the council secure the assistance of an executive search firm for the process of choosing the county clerk. The firm would solicit applications and evaluate the candidates for ultimate selection by the council.

We agree with her rationale that implementing this business best practice here would minimize the politics and focus on the qualifications.

In recent years, publicly at least, Peter Nakamura has simply received a rubber-stamp from the council to continue serving as the current county clerk. His sister-in-law, Councilwoman-elect Nadine Nakamura, has appropriately recused herself from voting on the matter when the council takes it up after being sworn in Dec. 1.

We underscore that the newspaper’s support for the council to do an executive search is not a knock against Nakamura. To the contrary, we agree with Yukimura that this process would be fair to the current county clerk and bring greater clarity as to expectations and goals.

As she stated in her proposal Monday — which at that meeting only drew support from Councilman Tim Bynum — the process will still allow Nakamura to apply for the position. Indeed, he will have an advantage by having served in previous years and he will be able to highlight all his experience has to offer the county.

The Police Commission utilized a similar process to hire Chief Darryl Perry, who has received broad public support and high marks in job performance over the past few years.

We urge the newly elected council members to vote in favor of choosing the county clerk through an executive search process and leave the politics out of the decision.