The members of the Honolulu City Council who won their respective elections in 2024 were sworn into office Thursday, and council leadership has laid out some of the key issues it’ll tackle.
The nine-member council held its first meeting following the November elections. The council is actually nearly identical to what it was before the elections, except for the presence of newly elected Councilmember Scott Nishimoto, who has replaced the now-retired Councilmember Calvin Say.
The council is set to handle a variety of issues on Oʻahu.
“ We got a site on new landfill — it’s supposed to cost about $1 billion. We’ve got to upgrade the Sand Island sewage treatment plant, which is gonna cost between $1.8 billion and $2.5 billion. We got collective bargaining coming up. We have aging city facilities,” said Chair Tommy Waters during the council’s inaugural meeting.
“Where is that money going to come from? How do we pay for all this stuff without burdening working families who are struggling to survive? This is the challenge posed to all of us as elected leaders," he continued.
Waters, who will again chair the council, also highlighted affordable housing on Oʻahu. He said the Iwilei area is “ripe for development,” and urged the city, state and private stakeholders to come together to build housing in the area.
He said there’s also room to build housing around Aloha Stadium, noting both locations are along the rail line.
But Waters said that housing is connected to keeping the drinking water on the island clean, which he said is also a priority for the council.
“The fact of the matter is, if you don’t have clean drinking water, you don’t have affordable housing,” he said.
Waters praised the collaborative nature of the council, and said that’s also been the case with the City and County of Honolulu administration — and even other county councils and elected officials.
At Thursday’s meeting, Councilmember Matt Weyer was selected to be the council’s vice-chair, and Councilmember Radiant Cordero was chosen to be the council’s floor leader.
