Honolulu Mayor Rick Blangiardi’s candidates to fill the city’s new Ocean Safety Commission say their priorities are to learn more about the department’s needs and properly choose its chief.
The five candidates for the newly formed commission were able to field questions from the Honolulu City Council on Thursday.
Kanani Oury, operations manager for Stonefish Grill in Haleʻiwa, said one of her top three priorities is setting guidelines for selecting an Ocean Safety chief. The others are about improving the department.
“The second thing is to evaluate where the department currently is, because how do you assist anyone or support them if you don’t know where they’re currently at? And I think thirdly is, where do we take this? Because there’s a new department that we’ve created in Hawaiʻi that is amazing … and I think it can be one of the groundbreaking things that we do here,” Oury said.
The other nominated commissioners are Richard Kebo, Racquel Achiu, Steven Jenness and William Pratt. They would serve staggered terms ranging from one to five years.
Kebo is an organizational development consultant with Hawaiian Airlines; Achiu is a farmer; Jenness is a retired Honolulu Fire Department captain; and Pratt works in commercial real estate.
Blangiardi said his office received 30 to 40 applications for the commission, and then interviewed about a dozen people.
The city's Ocean Safety Department and its commission were formed last year. Kurt Lager has been the department's acting director.
