Mayor's State of the City Address 2-24-11

8/7/2019 Mayor's State of the City Address 2-24-11

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State of the City AddressMayor Peter B. Carlisle

Honolulu, HawaiìFebruary 24, 2011

Good morning and aloha. I am grateful to many of Hawaiìs most distinguished leadersfor being here this morning, including Senator Daniel Inouye, president pro tempore of theUnited States Senate, Lieutenant Governor Brian Schatz, Chief Justice Mark Recktenwald,distinguished members of our state legislature, City Council chair Nestor Garcia and the CityCouncil, and Maui Mayor Alan Arakawa. I am also grateful for the attendance of fellowemployees of the city and county of Honolulu, members of the Royal Order of Kamehameha,many friends and honored guests.

Since the election for mayor concluded in September of last year a vast number of peoplehave spoken to me. Some formally and some informally. Some who were friends and some who

were strangers. Some spoke to me at Honolulu Hale and some out on the streets. From theresults of the election and from what people were telling me a number of conclusions wereapparent. Many were not satisfied with and did not trust the leadership of government ingeneral - and in Honolulu Hale specifically. They were tired of the gridlock caused by endlessantics of partisan politics. They were tired of politicians who were more concerned with gettingre-elected or moving to higher office rather than doing the job they had been elected to do.They were tired of being given empty promises prior to the election, and after the election havingelected officials laying the blame elsewhere and making excuses.

But most of all, people wanted to be told the truth and the whole truth even if it was hardto hear. It was their feeling that government should change, and their fervent hope that

government could change, and would change. The word change can simply mean, somethingbecomes different. Like a car tire that runs over a large pothole, and becomes flat. But changecan also mean something is transformed. Transformation is an evolutionary process. Like acaterpillar becomes a butterfly. Transformation is a concept that will be discussed severaltimes today as we review the challenges facing our city.

There are many challenges facing city government - and a relatively short 2-year windowin which to overcome them. As I settle into this job, and come to understand the issues andexpectations of the city and county several jump right out and demand attention. First, therehas been a dramatic increase in borrowing by the city and county of Honolulu. This is like ourcredit card debt. The higher the amount and the higher the interest rate the more we pay out,

and the less money we have left over to meet ongoing city responsibilities. Second, there hasbeen an increasing demand on our infrastructure, and an abysmal record of repairing andmaintaining them. These are things such as roads, sidewalks and our sewer and water systems.Our increasing population has made more demands on these systems, we have failed to take careof them, and now we are paying the price. Third, there has been increasing pressure for citygovernment to stimulate and revitalize the economy, including job creation, but because of thefirst two problems, there is less money to do this with. A return to economic health on Oàhu

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has been slow to occur. Flat became the new growth. Not going backwards was judged asuccess

In discussing the state of the city and how to approach the future, there are four strategicareas where we will focus our efforts:

More Professional Management, Less Politics

The style of leadership at Honolulu Hale today has shifted from one that was shaped bypolitical expediency to one that emphasizes professional management. We believe that lesspolitics and more professional management includes utilizing and not tossing out theknowledgeable and experienced human resources who share our vision, openness andtransparency in government, and cooperating with, and not competing against, other branches ofgovernment to improve the lives of our citizens

This administration did not come into Honolulu Hale and sweep out the talented and

experienced directors running the city departments. There was pressure to do so and we havebeen criticized for not doing so. The term cleaning house might be acceptable politically oreven expected, but it is not necessarily the best way to run a government or a business in theprivate sector. We wanted experienced and professional city leadership, so we prevailed uponthose talented and knowledgeable individuals who shared our philosophy of change to remain onthe city team. Among them and Im not going to name everyone were InformationTechnology Director Gordon Bruce, Human Resources Director Noel Ono, EnvironmentalServices Director Tim Steinberger, Planning and Permitting Director David Tanoue, andTransportation Services Director Wayne Yoshioka. In addition, several new directors havejoined us from outside city government, including Sam Moku, director of Community Services,Westley Chun, director of Facility Maintenance, and Clarke Bright, director of the RoyalHawaiian Band.

We also promoted several experienced public servants to become department directors ordeputies, including Budget and Fiscal Services Director Mike Hansen with 20 years ofexperience in his department, Parks and Recreation Director Gary Cabato with 20 years in hisdepartment, Design and Construction Director Collins Lam, 15 years experience, 2 of those inhis department, Design and Construction Deputy Lori Kahikina-Moniz with 17 years ofexperience, 6 of those with the city, and Emergency Services Deputy Mark Rigg with 27 years inhis department. Retaining good people and promoting the best from within the ranks ensurescontinuity of operations within the city, increases employee morale, improves city services, andin my view, is the right thing to do.

We also want to promote transparency and public trust in this administration. Opennessin government operations and decision-making goes hand in hand with more professionalism andless politics. For the first time the financial disclosures of all city cabinet members that arerequired by the ethics commission will be placed online. We have also redesigned the citywebsite to be more user-friendly and to provide you with more information. We welcome allsuggestions to improve the site even more.

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Just as when we were at the prosecutors office, we have an open-door policy with themedia and we are streamlining and expediting requests for city documents and records. Wesubscribe to the principle that that information should be shared as much as possible and weintend to share it. If we are asking you to help shoulder the recovery of city government, thenyou should understand and appreciate what the city is facing, why it is in the shape it is in, and

how we intend to fix it.

Along with professionalism and transparency, we are striving for cooperation with allother branches of government. Working together is the need of the hour. In the past fewmonths, Honolulu Hale has been transformed by new faces, not just in the executive branch, butby five newly elected council members. Joining with the experience and strong institutionalknowledge of council chair Nestor Garcia and council members Ikaika Anderson, Romy Cacholaand Ann Kobayashi, it has been a pleasure to welcome council members Tom Berg, StanleyChang, Breene Harimoto, Ernie Martin and Tulsi Gabbard Tamayo to the legislative team. Whathas been most encouraging so far is the professional approach and tone to managing the city the feeling of lets work together to get things done. The Mayors Office and the City Council

seats are all non-partisan positions. And while the council members have been elected toadvocate for their district constituents, in the end both the council and the mayor answer to allcitizens of the City and County of Honolulu. Therefore, we have no excuse not to set aside ourown agendas and work together in the pursuit of savings, synergy and serving all of the public.

The need for cooperation holds true as well for the relationship between the city and thestate governments. The taxpayers on the island of O`ahu are the same people, and the city andstate need to work with each other and not against each other to collectively make their livesbetter. I believe we are off to a great start in this direction. All of us learned that importantlesson this past Tuesday when hundreds of leaders, both private and public, formeradministrations and current, stood together in East Kapolei to break ground on the Honolulurapid transit rail project. Getting big tasks done clearly requires a united effort.

The city will do its part to balance the interests of the City and County of Honolulu withthe need to work with the interests of U.S. Senators Inouye and Akaka, and CongresswomenHirono and Hanabusa, Governor Abercrombie, Lieutenant Governor Schatz, State SenatePresident Shan Tsutsui and House Speaker Calvin Say and their legislative colleagues during thedifficult challenges ahead. If one part of the community suffers, we all suffer. Similarly, if eachpart helps, the community benefits.

A great example happening right now where agencies are putting aside political agendasto cooperate on a common problem comes in the area of addressing homelessness and affordablehousing. This is a big problem that has faced O`ahu for a very long time. Prior administrationshave struggled to come up with viable solutions to this complex, difficult, and long-standingproblem. I acknowledge Governor Abercrombie for his leadership in this area and for hisappointment of Father Marc Alexander to specifically address the serious problem ofhomelessness in the state. In addition, the hard work of the legislators across the street to comeup with public-private housing solutions has not gone unnoticed by us. There will be 2.5 milliondollars in our executive budget from the citys affordable housing fund to create an affordablehousing partnership with the state. A new office of housing in the city, scheduled to start in July,

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will work closely with the state and the private sector to streamline and coordinate help to thosein need. In anticipation of the new office of housing, the city will also be launching aninformational website on homelessness. This one-stop-site will provide information on cityprograms, answers to frequently asked questions regarding homelessness on O`ahu, and contactinformation for service providers and available shelters.

Whether the issue is affordable housing, maintaining infrastructure, providing jobs, orpreparing for major events such as hosting the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation conferencelater this year, it has been made perfectly clear that the last thing most people want to see ispolitics as usual. In short, the framework of this administrations message is professionalism.Many are sick and tired of politics. They want to see the professional management of theirgovernment, by talented and experienced experts in their fields, a transparent process, and theirgovernment leaders moving away from finger-pointing, and moving towards collaboration overhard and difficult solutions.

Tackling the Citys Financial Health

Within that framework of professionalism, the second strategic area of focus for thisadministration is tackling the citys financial health, the greatest problem facing the city today.The financial problems include the dramatic increase in borrowing by the city and resultantdecrease in resources to run the city, the increase in demand on our sorely neglected and poorlymaintained infrastructure, such as our roads, sidewalks, and sewer and water systems; and thecitys need to stimulate and revitalize the economy, including job creation.

To understand how we will restore the citys financial health, you first need to be told thetruth about where the city is right now. It is not pretty. What you need to know is that the mostserious financial crisis of our generation is not simply happening at the federal and state levels ofgovernment. It has enormous impact on the city and county of Honolulu as well. A close look atthe citys financial house has revealed the citys debt service is going up each year. Like yourcredit card, the more you have to pay in principal and interest, the less you have available tospend. Over the past seven years, the amount of cash the city must come up with each year topay off its long term debt plus interest, has increased 74 percent, from $193 million to $335million. This number is expected to rise further to $383 million in fiscal year 2012. This graphshows what has taken place since 2005. The graph does not include the Honolulu rail project,because the rail project will be funded by the half percent surcharge to the general excise taxthrough 2022. This graph shows you that in fiscal year 2012, nearly one out of every five ofyour tax dollars will go to paying off the credit card principal and interest. To say the least, thisover-dependence on the citys credit card is financially unhealthy. It must be slowed.

In addition, as you heard in the news, pension fund and health benefit fund paymentsacross the nation are projected to skyrocket over the next several years. This is true for Honoluluas well. The latest projections show the citys contribution to the employees retirement fund, orthe pension fund, increasing in the next five years from $97 million this year to $124 million in2016. The employee retirement systems future liabilities now exceed the assets set aside to payfor them by $7.1 billion. Thats nearly $5,500 for every man, woman and child in the state.

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One of the most remarkable aspects of the current shortfall is how quickly it has grown.As recently as 2000, the pension system covering government workers for the state andHawai`is four counties was 94 percent funded. This year, by some measures, the funding ratiohas declined to less than 60 percent, and the prospects for paying down the deficit appear moreand more remote as reported in Hawai`i Business Magazine.

Separate and apart from the employees retirement fund is the citys health benefits trustfund. The latest projections show the citys contribution to the health benefits trust fundincreasing from $103 million this year to $162 million in 2016. Equally concerning is theamount currently in the citys fiscal stability or rainy day fund: $29 million. That is onlyenough to keep the city operating for five days.

Ladies and gentlemen, this is the State of the City. How, you ask, do we get out of thismess? There are no easy ways out. The easy choices have already been made and now thehard decisions remain. Debt service will not go down overnight. Pension and health fundpayments will not go away. We all know that the state government is struggling financially as

well. Decisions made both across the street at the state capitol and here at city hall will impactpeoples lives. This news cant be easy for anyone to hear, and particularly difficult if you havebeen in the private sector without a job for any period of time, but the time has come for all of usto have a mature and honest conversation about these painful truths. Ultimately, the solution willcall upon everyone to share in the sacrifice. There can be no sacred cows.

Next week on March 2, this administration will present its first executive budget. We

will have the opportunity to share more details at that time, but for now, here are some fiscalpriorities we all need to face. First and foremost, the City must sharply reduce its long-termborrowing for long-term projects. If we borrow, we have long-term debt. Long term debtpayments subtract from the total dollars available to the City Council and the Mayor to keep thecity running. By reducing the citys borrowing we can bend the debt curve over time and stop itfrom increasing. Second, the executive budget will propose increases to certain user fees, manyof which have not been raised in over a decade or more. This was something wisely suggestedby Council chair Nestor Garcia during his opening day speech at the start of the year, and itmakes tons of sense. In particular except for The Bus we are looking closely at whethertaxpayers should continue to subsidize a number of city services, where the current fee structurehas remained the same but does not actually pay for the service. This is not a sensible way tomanage these services during these times. It must change.

The most dangerous people, but more accurately, the most vocal people to deal withon the planet Earth are golfers over the age of 60! Joking aside, they pay a weekday rate of$4.50 for a round of golf. The public pays the rest. There is nothing wrong with this. If there isa cheap round of golf to be had, golfers would want to take advantage of the service. But therichest people on this island have the same opportunity to buy a round of taxpayer subsidizedgolf on a public golf course as the poorest people on this island. In fact, we should be taking theexact opposite approach. Fees should pay for the services that the city is providing in a fair andequitable manner. And there is a foundation for this. City Council Resolution 06-222 states,Whenever the City charges user fees, those fees shall be phased toward covering 100 percent of

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the cost of service deliveryunless such amount prevents an individual from obtaining anessential service.

To divest ourselves of functions beyond our core services, we are developing plans tooffer the 12 affordable housing properties to qualified parties who would continue to operate

those properties under existing terms of affordability. Doing so will enable us to retire a numberof financial obligations, eliminate significant liabilities and free up resources in severaldepartments. That effort is being spearheaded by the mayors project management office, andthe property management branch of the Department of Facility Maintenance.

We are also looking into selling off a significant number of remnant parcels and othernon-productive pieces of real estate. These properties require money and manpower to maintain,and represent potential liabilities to the city. I have asked the purchasing division of theDepartment of Budget and Fiscal services to compile an inventory of those properties, and todevelop realistic pricing policies that will enable us to offer these properties for public sale. Thiswill enhance the financial position of the city. We will also be looking at some pilot projects to

streamline and maximize city parking spaces. The current approach to parking is primitive andinefficient. To increase efficiency and revenues, the city should begin with a single-sourceresponsibility center with a highly qualified parking manager who can coordinate on-street andoff-street parking.

There are several opportunities to upgrade existing parking technology to make facilitiesmore user-friendly and to raise the existing system to state-of-the art standards. One of theoptions being explored is replacing the existing parking meters with a new, state-of-the artparking system that includes credit card acceptance. The benefits of this action includeimproved revenues, controls, management, and added user convenience. A study of seven citiesthat accept credit cards for on-street parking demonstrated that without a rate increase, theintroduction of credit cards has increased parking revenues by anywhere from 17 percent to 93percent with the typical increase being a 32 percent increase in parking revenues. We havealready begun the process of utilizing sophisticated parking techniques at the Honolulu Zoo. Ithas been largely successful and we will continue to implement these changes on a coordinated,city-wide basis.

Third, one of the bright stars in our goal to diversify the economy and improve ourfinancial health has been the film industry. Here are a few impressive statistics. At any giventime on Oàhu approximately nine projects are shooting simultaneously. In fiscal year 2009 to2010 over 500 different projects were shot on Oàhu, including major films and television showslike Pirates of the Caribbean, On Stranger Tides, Lost Hawaiì Five-O and the new ABCtelevision series of Off the Map. A standard measurement of success in the industry is to seehow many production days an area has, the total number of days that each project was inproduction throughout the year. More than 365, one a day, is considered respectable. In fiscalyear 2009 to 2010 Oàhu hosted over 3,300 production days. To give some context to thisnumber, think of the film industry as one company. A traditional company has 260 days of workper year. Our film industry on Oàhu did the equivalent of more than 12.5 years of work in oneyear.

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The film business is good business for our island because to actually make the film, theyhave to spend the money out in the community, at dry cleaners, lumber yards, grocery stores,local farmers markets, and of course at hotels, restaurants, rental cars the list goes on and on.And then there are the invaluable exposure and free advertising we get from having O`ahu seenaround the world. To make sure major players in the film industry know Honolulu values

production in our town, I went to Los Angeles in January.

I met with studio executives at Walt Disney Pictures, ABC, NBC, CBS and a host ofothers to let them know we appreciate their business and want more of it, and if there werebarriers to their coming to do production in Honolulu, we wanted to know what those were so wecould see if we could attack any issues and overcome them.

Fourth, vital to our citys financial health, we must continue to urge the state legislaturenot to divert the city and countys share of various revenues into its own state funds. Thisincludes the transient accommodation tax, the public service company tax and of course, thegeneral excise tax surcharge designated for rail. Taking from Peter literally, I might add

to pay Paul might seem tempting as a quick fix, but to the taxpayers who are responsible toboth the county and the state, it is a zero sum game that does nothing to help them.Fifth, certainly not the least of the fixes to the citys financial health is having the citys

outstanding employee work force share in the sacrifice as well. This means continued leanoperating budgets from each city department with a careful eye towards the bottom line: savingmoney. Since taking office in October, most city agencies have made extraordinary efforts toconserve and reduce spending right now rather than simply waiting until the new fiscal year tocut back. The directors and individual leaders who have done so are to be commended for theirefforts. And even more will be asked of them in the days, months, and years to come.

In response to the call to save money over the long term, the city has made efforts in

finding ways to streamline government and make it more nimble and responsive to the public.

For example, to facilitate the work order process and recordkeeping for sidewalk androadway repairs, the Department of Facility Maintenance worked with the Department ofInformation Technology and the Department of Planning and Permitting to pilot a computer-based work-order management system. The new system uses GIS mapping and our financialreporting system to track repair requests, repair work and repair costs for roads and sidewalks.The Department of Customer Services now produces the annual calendar of city events on line,in order to save printing costs. It has also put city publications on line and has closed the citybookstore, saving an impressive amount in printing costs and overhead expenses.

With respect to the never-ending problem of potholes, the city continues to look at waysto preserve our existing pavement. The departments of Facility Maintenance and Design andConstruction have a small scale program in Kailua and Kapahulu to test the use of slurry seal asa pavement protector. During recent rain events this winter, there were no potholes reported onthe streets where slurry seal was applied. We intend to continue to evaluate this promisingproduct that we hope will extend the life of our pavement. With respect to city permittingoperations, this year, the Department of Planning and Permitting will begin a digital plan review

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program. The project will reduce time to perform reviews of plans through automated checkingof plan revisions and eliminate the need for paper copies. These are just some of the ways thecity is saving money and speeding up its processes. There are more to come.

Todays Investment In Our Future

The third strategic area of focus for this administration isinvesting in major infrastructureto stimulate jobs and the economy and to improve the quality of life for Honolulu residents todayand tomorrow.

One investment is the Honolulu Rail Transit System. The construction of the rail project,

will not only have benefits for our struggling construction industry and infuse our economy withthe benefits of added jobs, it will also improve our city for generations to come.

Two days ago many of us here today enjoyed the long awaited groundbreaking ceremonyof the Honolulu Rail Transit Project. The project represents a shining example of multi-

dimensional teamwork. Transportation experts, designers, engineers, residents, businesses,labor, community groups, and neighborhoods represent some of the many involved. I amgrateful to our federal state and local authorities, including our congressional delegation,Senators Dan Inouye and Dan Akaka, Congresswoman Mazie Hirono and CongresswomanColleen Hanabusa as well as former Congressman now Governor Neil Abercrombie, for theirsteadfast advocacy and continuous support of the Honolulu Rail Transit Project. Rail will notonly increase mobility, but it will also provide us with the opportunity for neighborhoodrevitalization and investment.

I was recently invited at no cost to our taxpayers to participate at the Mayors Institute ofCity Design in Santa Fe, New Mexico. They discussed our rail project and stressed the lastingbenefits of transit oriented development to develop smart growth and reshape neighborhoods.By using a community-based planning process, the concepts of transit oriented development, orTOD, will create more livable communities where residents have greater access to basic servicesthrough walking, biking, or taking a short ride on the rail. Those living near transit will be ableto reduce dependence on their car and therefore reduce the portion of a familys budget that paysfor transportation. TOD provides access to services in communities and along the rail line. Thiswill allow our older residents, who may not be able to drive, a level of independence they do notcurrently have.

Another crucial infrastructure investment in our future is implementing major upgrades tothe citys sewage and water systems. Wastewater is a fundamental public health andenvironmental responsibility. For far too long, Honolulus wastewater program has beenneglected and necessary maintenance has not been a priority. But now, for the first time in 17years, there are no pending lawsuits against the wastewater program by the EnvironmentalProtection Agency, state agencies, or environmental groups. We are no longer entangled in amultitude of enforcement actions and court orders which drained our coffers and distracted ourattention. We can now focus our resources and our attention on the work required by a single,global wastewater consent decree, which will directly and cost-effectively benefit ourenvironment and our residents for years to come. The global consent decree sets out a plan of

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systematic improvements to protect the health and safety of our residents. To execute this planwe must spend money, a lot of money. However, the long-range plan negotiated in the globalconsent decree will allow us to spend far less money and spread the expense over a longer periodof time than would have been possible without the agreement. Our sewer rates will be increased incrementally over time but it will not be as bad as it could have been. And our money will

go to actually improve our wastewater program, rather than to fines for non-compliance.

We will also continue to invest in and promote energy efficiency. Another infrastructureinvestment, the construction of the H-Power third boiler will be complete by the end of the year.This will allow us to convert an additional 300,000 tons of waste, for a total of 900,000 tons ofwaste annually into 461 million kilowatt hours of energy per year. This diverts hundreds ofthousands of tons of waste from the landfill and reduces our islands dependence on fossil fuelfor electricity production. We are also developing co-generation facilities at our Honouliuli andKailua Wastewater treatment plants. This will allow us to generate our own power and reducethe citys electricity costs.

We are undertaking several photovoltaic and lighting projects to optimize our energyusage including systems already installed at the Fasi Municipal Building and HalawaCorporation Yard. Both have received the 2009 Energy Star Awards, and together have resultedin a fiscal year 2010 savings of almost $700,000. Upcoming photovoltaic and lighting projectswill include Kapolei Hale, Neil Blaisdell Center parking structure, Kalihi Palama busmaintenance facility, and Pearl City bus maintenance facility.

We are also about to launch an on-line process to allow a resident to apply for andreceive a permit for installation of a residential electric vehicle charger as electric cars becomeavailable to the public. Thanks to a grant from the federal government through the state, we areplanning to install electric vehicle charging stations in our largest parking lots to make it moreconvenient for our residents with electric cars.

Another expenditure but one with a tremendous opportunity on the horizon is theAsia Pacific Economic Cooperation, or APEC, summit which Honolulu will be hosting inNovember. The future of the worlds economy will be debated in the Hawaiì ConventionCenter. The APEC meetings include 21 member economies such as China, Russia and Japan, asdetailed in the current slide. The organization is dedicated to reducing trade barriers andincreasing economic cooperation among its members who collectively account for more thanhalf the worlds gross domestic product and more than 44 percent of its trade. Under theimpressive guidance of Peter Ho, the Hawaiì host committee has raised money and developed aplan to infuse the delegates APEC experience with a sense of Hawaiì and to highlight our localbusinesses and technical expertise. We will continue to participate and contribute to these effortswith all of our partners. Although we will be spending a substantial amount of money forhosting and securing the conference this year, there is a greater long-term goal. We hope toshowcase Honolulu and position our city as the premiere place to do business in the Pacific.This will reap far greater rewards than the one-week expenditure of funds by APEC delegations.

Maintaining Public Safety

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Another very important focus of this administration is public safety. Simply because mytitle has transformed to mayor from prosecutor does not mean that crime and public safety is lesscritical than it has always been. The mayor is responsible for the safety of our citizens andvisitors. Honolulu has held the distinction of being the safest big city, defined as a city with apopulation exceeding 500,000, in the country. It must remain so. Domestic violence, violence in

the home, violence perpetrated on or in front of children creates a cycle of criminality that passesfrom generation to generation. To combat this social evil Honolulu is well on the way towardscreating its own family justice center. Victims are often required to travel from agency toagency to seek services that are scattered through a community or region. The criminal justicesystem unintentionally makes it easy for victims to become frustrated and ultimately stopseeking help. A family justice center is the co-location of a team of professionals who worktogether, under one roof, to provide coordinated services to victims of family violence.

Of equal concern is meeting our communities responsibilities to veterans who often facespecial challenges. Research links substance abuse and combat related mental illness tounprecedented number of veterans appearing in our courts to face charges stemming directly

from these issues. The U.S. Department of Justice estimates that 1.16 million of all adultsarrested last year, or nearly 10 percent, served in the military. Today, an estimated 60 percent ofthe 140,000 veterans in prison have a substance abuse problem. On any given night roughly130,000 veterans will be homeless, 70 percent of whom suffer from substance abuse and/ormental illness.

There is a bright spot on the bleak terrain for the too often abandoned and damagedmilitary veterans who return home and fall into addiction, mental illness and crime, VeteransCourt Judge Robert Russell, Jr., created the nations first veterans court in Buffalo, New York.As a direct result of his work, state criminal courts devoted to U.S. war veterans are emergingacross the country as increasing numbers of soldiers returning from the wars in Iraq andAfghanistan are showing up as criminal defendants with a special set of problems. Veteranscourts put the bonds of military service to good use. They enlist other veterans as volunteermentors to help overcome participants resistance to treatment and to point them in the rightdirection. Volunteer veteran mentors and veterans affairs staff are often present during courtproceedings to support the defendants and guide them in accessing military benefits that mighthelp solve substance abuse, health, marriage, employment and financial problems.

Veterans courts are a recent addition to the criminal justice system. It is too early forextensive analysis of their effectiveness but the results from the first court under the guidance ofpresiding judge Russell, are striking. Of the more than 100 veterans who have passed through,only two had to be returned to the traditional criminal court system because they could not shakenarcotics or criminal behavior. This administration will be advocating for the establishment of aveterans court here in the City and County of Honolulu.

On a personal note, I would like to share with you something that I had not anticipatedwhen I became Mayor of Honolulu. I was aware that in these uncertain times prayers are beingoffered by many different faiths and denominations for peace in the world, enlightened effort andpurpose in the United States, the State of Hawai`i and the City and County of Honolulu. I havebecome aware that many are offering prayers for me personally as well as in my role as mayor.

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Included in those prayers are hopes for sound judgment, maturity, insight and ultimatelytransformation professionally and personally. I am thankful for and will benefit from everyprayer generously offered. The city is poised for transformation. It is my opportunity andobligation to attempt to move that effort forward. I hope those of you who will be part of thiseffort and those of you who were instrumental in giving me this opportunity by getting me

elected will accept my heartfelt thanks for what you have given to me and to my first lady Judy.

In conclusion, I would like to talk to you about Honolulus recognized place in thisworld. By doing this, it will be my pleasure to share with you some very good news about ourcity and its future. In the international publication, Monocle, a briefing on global affairs,business, culture, and design, there was a quality of life survey of the worlds best cities to livepunctually and peacefully, or on the edge. The highest ranked American city was Honolulu,Hawai`i: A cozy city thats perfectly poised between Asia and the Americas Obamashometown is having a tropical renaissance. Tourism is on the rise and new flights to Japanstarting this autumn will mean more travelers from the East who will further boost the alreadyrobust retail economy. Entrepreneurs from the US, South Korea and Europe are also here starting

Internet companies, opening restaurants and shooting films. The influx of creative outsidersliving and working here is bringing new life to the galleries and bars of Chinatown. And areassuch as Palolo and Kaimuki, with their 1960s bungalows, are ripe for renovation. Once theurban rail network is up and running (construction starts soon), quality of life will improvefurther. It would be good to get more people out of their cars and on their bikes.

Honolulu is recognized as one of the most livable cities on the planet earth with thepotential to get better and better and better. Every person on this island and every member of thecity and county of Honolulu should do everything in our power to realize the almost limitlesspotential of this place at this time. Mahalo and aloha.

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Mayor's State of the City Address 2-24-11

Documents

Transcript of Mayor's State of the City Address 2-24-11