transcript of mayor caldwell's state of the city speech

7/28/2019 Transcript of Mayor Caldwell's State of the City speech

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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Wednesday, April 3, 2013

MAYOR CALDWELL DELIVERS INAUGURAL STATE OF THE CITY

ADDRESS

Mayor Caldwell referred to his newly appointed cabinet as poi pounders, meaning they

are steadfast, they continue to pound the poi and get the job done. (Photo by: Bob Rock,C&C of Honolulu)

Honolulu Civic Center Today, Mayor Kirk Caldwell delivered his first State of the Cityaddress to a crowd of hundreds of dignitaries and invited guests at the Mission Memorial

Auditorium.

The mayors remarks as prepared for delivery:

Aloha Kakou!

Friends, family and distinguished guests - welcome and thank you for joining us on this

beautiful day for my first State of the City Address. I appreciate your coming out so

early this morning. I also want to say good morning and welcome to the folks who are

either watching at home or starting their workday. After all, the State of the City is areport to all of you who live on Oahu and are impacted every day by what we are doing at

the City.

That is why this job is so important to me. I know that when you get up in the morning,

its the city that makes sure that your toilets are flushing and your water is running.When you go to work, its the city that is responsible for the roads, the traffic lights and

the bus rides. The city picks up the trash and responds to emergencies. When you want

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to take your family to the beach park, visit the Zoo or catch a show at the Blaisdell, thats

the city too.

The people of Honolulu count on us to make things work. When I was building my

cabinet, I knew that I did not want a team who would be satisfied with just keeping the

lights on. I wanted a team that would keep the lights on and move the needle.

Im here to shake um up! When I ruffle feathers or rock the boat, its only because Im

determined to make things better for all of us.

We are approaching the first 100 days of this new administration. Im proud to say that

weve built an extraordinary cabinet. We are a team that includes the first woman to

serve as the Managing Director of the City & County of Honolulu, Ember Shinn. For thefirst time, we have a City department that has two women at the helm as Director and

Deputy Director, and that is Toni Robinson and Jeanne Ishikawa respectively, at the

Department of Parks and Recreation.

Strong women play a key role throughout this administration. In fact, women make up

over one-third of the directors and deputies running our city. The men and women whoserve in my cabinet are already demonstrating their experience and competence.

This is a cabinet full of integrity, loyalty, energy and entrepreneurial spirit. As we werebuilding this cabinet, someone in our transition team called them poi pounders,

meaning they are steadfast, they continue to pound the poi and get the job done.

I want to give you an example of a poi pounder.

On January 2nd, our first day on the job, there were enormous long lines at the DMV. Our

Director of Customer Services, Sheri Kajiwara, literally hit the ground running andworked with her staff to make changes and set up a hotline immediately. Within a matter

of days, I was at the Satellite City Hall on Dillingham apologizing for the delays and

announcing those changes. Thats the stuff our cabinet is made of.

In the next four years, this is the team that is going to accomplish great things for

Honolulu and I want them to stand and be recognized.

Every day at the City, there are literally hundreds of issues and situations to manage. It

would be easy to spend our entire time putting out fires and attending to the problems at

hand. We must do all of that, of course, but at the end of this term, I want to show youconcrete examples of how we made things better, and how we laid a strong foundation

for the Citys future.

Thats why I have elevated five priorities. I announced them on my first day on the job,

and they have been the focal point of my first 100 days as your Mayor. We also have

what I call the rule of hand. We focus on five priorities at a time, and when one is

managed and ready to come off, we add another. Here are the first five:

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Priority #1: Restoring Bus Service

By now, most people are aware of the serious impact of the cuts to bus routes last year.

We need to balance the budget, but I would not have cut the bus routes. So many people

rely on bus service, and the key word is RELY.

People rely on the bus to get to and from work and school. They rely on the bus to take

care of their daily needs, to get to their doctors appointments and buy their food. Theyrely on the bus service to come when it is supposed to come.

I also think that when riders buy a ticket, they should expect to find a seat in a safe and

clean vehicle and not have to sit in the dark worried that the bus will pass them by if it isfull. Thats why restoring this service is a priority, and it is one of the first things that we

started to address.

Director of Transportation Services, Mike Formby, and his team looked at where it wasmost critical to restore service and presented me with a phased plan. The first round

started in March. We plan to restore service to five more routes in May, and completethe restoration in August.

Ive dedicated 3.5 million dollars in my budget to cover this priority, and we are going tobetter integrate TheBus into the overall City plan for transportation services.

Mike Formby is another poi pounder.

Remember all the complaints about not having public restrooms open at the Alapai

Transit Center? Given how many people go through the transit center every day, I think

its critical that we provide public bathroom facilities. They said it would take half ayear, but Mike teamed up with Ross Sasamura, Director of Facility Maintenance, and

they got those restrooms open within two months.

Priority #2: Repaving Roads

Here is a statistic that will not surprise you: 43% of City & County roads are in poor

condition. Simply put, we need to fix this. And we need to commit to a maintenanceprogram that will keep the roads in good driving condition. I propose to spend 150

million dollars a year, re-paving 300 lane miles per year, over the next five years.

On this schedule, we will fix the majority of Honolulu city roads that are in bad

condition, and I will start a re-pavement preservation program of the roads that are in

good condition starting in July. In the last seven years, the city paved about 1000 lanemiles. Those roads will last five to 10 more years with proper maintenance, which I am

committed to do.

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I want to thank Director Ross Sasamura of the Department of Facility Maintenance and

Director Chris Takashige from the Department of Design and Construction for their

dedication and focus on improving our city roads.

Every day in the newspaper and on TV, there are stories about the poor road conditions

across Oahu. I welcome the coverage because it shines a bright light on a problem thatwas neglected too long, and thats why we must take extraordinary effort to get our roads

back in good shape, starting now.

My road repaving plan is an ambitious goal, but the taxpayers of Honolulu have spoken

loud and clear they want our roads fixed now. While bond rates remain low, now is the

time to borrow money, put it into our infrastructure, and create work for our construction

industry.

Thats why I proposed to increase the fuel tax a nickel/gallon which would have

generated 15 million dollars to pay for bus service restoration and debt service for the

road repaving projects. The city has not raised its portion of the fuel tax in 24 years, andit would have cost the average driver about 20 dollars more a year.

I am disappointed that the fuel tax did not even get a hearing this year, but I remain

committed to finding the resources to fix our roads, and Ill work with the City Council to

do so. We are going forward and getting work out to the businesses and creating jobs.

Priority #3: Improving our Sewer System

Sewer capacity is a critical part of our Citys infrastructure. If we dont have enoughsewer capacity, the city cannot approve new development projects, large or small, across

the island, which will have a negative impact on our growing construction industry.

For the near-term, we are actively addressing recent capacity issues through upgrades at

the Waipahu Wastewater Pumping Station, including an additional force main pipeline.

Mahalo to the City Council for approving, in January, the Second Digester at the Sand

Island Wastewater Treatment Plant. This will insure that we have sufficient capacity and

redundancy until we upgrade the plant to secondary treatment as part of Honolulus

Consent Decree under the E.P.A.

Heres an update on the Consent Decree:

The City agreed to complete 477 projects to comply with the consent decree, which we

entered in December 2010. So far, we have completed 297 or 57% of those projects, and

we have met every single project due date. Recently, we completed construction on theimportant Beachwalk Force Main project which upgrades the aging infrastructure in the

Waikiki and Ala Wai areas that is critical to that community and to the tourism industry.

That pipeline should start to flow this month. Not the most glamorous project, but Im

sure glad this is going to happen.

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We have 180 projects remaining, including the Kaneohe/Kailua Gravity Tunnel and the

Secondary Treatment Facilities at Honouliuli and Sand Island.

I want to thank Lori Kahikina, the Director of Environmental Services and her team for

keeping this important commitment on track. Lori is the first woman to head theDepartment of Environmental Services, and I know she is a role model for other young

women who want to go into fields like engineering and construction that have

traditionally been dominated by men.

Priority #4 Re-establishing Pride in our City Parks, our Crown Jewels

Honolulu has become one of the largest metropolitan areas in the United States. As ourcity becomes more urban, its even more important that we maintain our parks as clean

and safe recreation areas for our children and our families, and to provide beautiful,

green, open space for our residents and visitors to enjoy.

Recently, some of our parks have become places where residents dont want to go they

are unsafe and unclean. Thats sad and not acceptable to me. Our parks staff works veryhard, but they need more support.

I have proposed 11.8 million dollars to repair and improve public facilities at our parks,with special attention to restrooms, aging playground and lighting equipment, and run-

down recreational facilities. I also want to dedicate 1.3 million dollars for maintenance

equipment to help our staff on a daily basis. They are the ones who get the job done

every day.

Whenever I travel to another city, I notice their public parks. Im sure you do, too. To

me, all of the great cities of the world have great parks Central Park in New York City,Hyde Park in London, Stanley Park in Vancouver, Luxembourg Gardens in Paris, Ueno

Park in Tokyo to name just a few. I want Honolulu to have that distinction, too.

I believe Ala Moana Beach Park has that potential, with its beautiful stretch of beachfront

between two great boat harbors Kewalo Basin and the Ala Wai Boat Harbor, and

mauka, we have one of the most successful shopping centers in the world, Ala Moana

Center. I am proposing 3 million dollars to improve Ala Moana Park and develop arevitalization plan.

In the heart of Honolulu lies Thomas Square. Many people dont realize the historicalsignificance of Thomas Square, which, by the way, will celebrate its 170 th anniversary

this July. Admiral Thomas restored Hawaii to her sovereignty under King Kamehameha

III, in the park square.

In a service that followed at Kawaihao Church, the King praised the restoration by saying

the words, Ua mau ke ea o ka aina i ka pono, the life of the land is perpetuated in

righteousness. These words became our state motto.

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In honor of this event, we are in the process of beautifying this park and I have proposed

1 million dollars towards its restoration.

In addition, my vision for Thomas Square is that it will sparkle as the crown jewel in the

center of a new Culture and Arts District in Honolulu, bordered by other arts andentertainment venues such as the Blaisdell Concert Hall, the Honolulu Museum of Art,

and Linekona School. We are talking to the neighbors of Thomas Square and want to

explore the possibilities.

Priority #5 Build Rail Better

Of the five priorities, Build Rail Better is perhaps the hardest to define. So much of therail project is driven within the boundaries of engineering requirements, budgetary

realities, city contracts, and federal and state regulations. But in short, it is based on three

principles: 1)Reducing Visual Impacts, 2)Community Input, and 3)Fiscal Transparency.

Build Rail Better speaks to the way I want my administration and city government to

operate. Just in the past several months, the rail project has passed some significantmilestones, all very positive.

HART, signed an agreement with the Federal Transit Administration for 1.55 billiondollars to build rail in Honolulu, thanks in large part to our late Senator Daniel K. Inouye.

HART completed its Archaeological Inventory Survey two months ahead of schedule,

and is ready to start construction in West Oahu later this year.

If we want to maintain public confidence in this project, we need to make improvements

based on community concerns, and demonstrate fiscal responsibility, and transparency, atevery phase.

I meet weekly with HART CEO and Executive Director Dan Grabauskas and a teamcomprised of city and HART leaders to ensure that we are working collaboratively, as

well as with agencies at the state and federal levels.

I want to thank our congressional delegation, Governor Abercrombie and UH PresidentMRC Greenwood for their leadership roles related to rail. I am also assembling a pair of

Build Rail Better work groups, one to focus on visual impacts and the other to focus on

community input.

Rail is the largest public works project in the history of Honolulu. I remain confident that

rail is needed to improve traffic along our urban corridor from Kapolei to Ala Moana.From there, we will look at creating feeder systems to the University of Hawaii at Manoa

and other locations.

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Together, rail and bus will serve as critical components of our transportation system for

generations to come. Its not rail vs. bus. Its rail and bus.

The Next Priority Homelessness

I am committed to these five priorities, but there is one issue that also needs ourimmediate attention, and it is Homelessness. For years, the private sector, not-for-profits,

and City, State and Federal governments have operated in silos. Oahus homeless

population today has grown to about 4,500 people.

While many are already in shelters, more are visible in Waikiki and throughout urban

Honolulu, in places like Chinatown. For the near-term, we need to find a temporary

solution to get people off of the streets, out of the parks, and to places where they willreceive safe shelter and social services.

We need to expand our Housing First initiative and find other innovative alternatives that

can serve our needs until we are able to provide more low-income and work forcehousing for our people.

We dont need another study. We need to take action as soon as we can.

I announce today that the City will be undertaking a new demonstration project focusedon helping the chronic homeless in urban Honolulu. Our approach will be based on

doing what ispono, what is right for 1) our homeless citizens struggling with addictions

and disabilities, 2)our residents and merchants who are sometimes affected by

homelessness, and 3)the aina, as we have all seen the impact on our land from thehomeless camps.

Our approach will be based on the Housing First model this focuses on housing thechronically homeless as quickly as possible as a first step toward their recovery.

Can you imagine how hard it must be to get better, to get some stability in your life, ifyou dont have the basic need of housing first? By focusing on housing first, we can get

the homeless off our streets, parks, bus stops, and doorways, and return these areas to the

public.

The task of addressing homelessness now and in the future is daunting. Im proud to have

Jun Yang as my newly appointed Director of Housing to be our agent of change. Jun

has been working closely with our Director of Department of Community Services, PamWitty-Oakland and her staff, and with Hawaiis State Coordinator on Homelessness

Colin Kippen, to develop immediate, mid-range and long-term plans for combating

homelessness.

As you know, Bill 7, a bill addressing nuisances on public sidewalks, is progressing

through the City Council.

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If this bill passes, I will sign it.

The law we are working with today, the Stored Property Ordinance, is a first step. But,the public should know that every time the Department of Facility Maintenance removes

property from the sidewalks, it costs around 15,000 dollars for two days of work one

day to tag and the next day to remove. In the last SPO round, the city picked up 3.1 tonsof property from the sidewalks in areas including Kalakaua Avenue and Thomas Square.

We need to approach this serious and growing problem with compassion, and I am

making it a top priority.

Age-Friendly City

Another upcoming priority is caring for our elderly population. The oldest of the babyboomers are now seniors, and cities around the world are addressing this rapid rise in our

senior population. I want Honolulu to be better prepared and we need to start now.

About two weeks ago, I sent a letter of commitment to the AARP HAWAII requestingmembership in their Network of Age-Friendly Cities. This program is affiliated with the

World Health Organization, which currently has over 500 participating communities cities and towns around the world, which are preparing for aging populations.

As part of that commitment, the City & County of Honolulu will be required to develop aplan of action, and to implement that plan during the following three years. Honolulu is

already age-friendly in many ways, but we need to devote more resources to serve our

kupuna, and going forward, we need to make sure that our planning, our infrastructure,

our transportation services, our roads and streets, are all age-friendly.

There are so many ways that we can make things easier for seniors. I want to improve

the HandiVan service, and I want to look at the way we approve permits for homeimprovements to help aging-in-place.

We owe a debt of gratitude to our senior generation. Recently, I went to the eventhonoring the 442nd Regimental Combat Team on the 70th anniversary. As we were

leaving, my wife and I noticed an elderly man who looked lost. We helped him find the

way back to his car, and it took us awhile because he had gotten quite disoriented.

We had a chance to talk story and I was so touched by his service to his country when he

was probably just 18 years old at the time, the age of our daughter today.

This unassuming man sacrificed to make a better life for my generation, and I want to

help make life better for them now.

The point I want to make is that we are all connected, and we can and should help each

other. This is how we follow their example. We give it our all and we make Hawaii a

better place than it was before.

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Conclusion

On January 2nd, after I gave my inaugural speech in this very building, I entered HonoluluHale with my wife Donna, who is here today, and our daughter Maya. As I stepped into

the Mayors Office, the ceremonial office, which has seen so much of the citys history, I

was a deeply struck by the responsibility that now lay upon my shoulders.

I take this job very seriously because I care so much about this city.

We are still a young administration, but we are not daunted by the job. In less than 100

days, we have demonstrated that we are not afraid to look big problems in the eye and

know what we need to do to get the job done.

We are the administration that wants to pave more roads than ever before. We are the

administration that has a grander vision for our parks. We are the administration that is

responsible for two of the largest public works projects in the citys history upgrading

our sewer system and building rail.

Critics have called our plans too ambitious, but I say give us a chance to show what wecan do. Others have argued that we cant afford it, but I say we cant afford not to invest

in our future. When others say no can!, we say how can?

At every cabinet meeting, our wonderful director of the Mayors Office of Culture and

the Arts, Misty Kelai, shares a Hawaiian saying that inspires us for the week. There is

one that I would like to share with you this morning:

Hele no ka ala, hele no ka lima.

Remember when I told you that we have a cabinet of poi pounders? Literally, this phrasemeans the rock goes, the hand goes. It means, in order to make good poi, the free hand

must work in unison with the poi pounder. Keep both hands going to do good work.

As your Mayor, we are going to make good poi. We are going to work hard, we are

going to work smart and in unison, every day, to take care of this city.

MAHALO!

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The audience gave Mayor Caldwell a standing ovation at the conclusion of his speech.(Photo by: Bob Rock, C&C of Honolulu)

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transcript of mayor caldwell's state of the city speech

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