Honolulu Councilmember Tyler Dos Santos-Tam is vying to be Honolulu City Council's next chair — setting up for more major changes at the council.
Current Chair Tommy Waters was recently disqualified from a potential third term, meaning the council will lose a member and its presiding officer.
Dos Santos-Tam has introduced a resolution that would make him chair, Councilmember Esther Kiaʻāina vice chair and Councilmember Scott Nishimoto floor leader. The measure will be discussed on Thursday.
While many of the powers of the council chair are administrative, they can give the chair significant influence over what kinds of legislation make it to and through the council.
“The chair is the leader of the council, and there is a lot of administrative work that comes with that, but there's also the ability to set forward a clear agenda to steer and guide the council toward taking on particular issues," Dos Santos-Tam told HPR. "Especially now with the way the cost of living is, the way the cost of housing is, the cost of simply getting around on the island, I think the public wants us to tackle these issues.”
The chair, according to council rules, has the authority to decide which bills and resolutions appear on meeting agendas, call for special meetings, establish and determine the makeup of the council's committees, and in some cases serve as a tiebreaking vote for legislation.
The recent changes and proposed changes at the council have been messy so far.
Waters' disqualification comes after an intense legal battle that marred the primary election in August for the council's District 4 seat, which led to wide voter confusion. Waters received the second-most voters in the primary, which would have made him eligible for the general election had he been qualified to run. Instead, those votes didn't count in the election.
Dos Santos-Tam's vision for the council's reorganization has led to complaints because of a meeting he had on the council's leadership changes with four other council members at a Waipahu Zippy's restaurant on Oct. 5.
Two anonymous complaints sent to by the state Office of Information Practices identified the other members at the meeting as Councilmembers Esther Kiaʻāina, Radiant Cordero, Augie Tulba and Matt Weyer.
The complaints argue the meeting violated the state's Sunshine Law, which ensures that the public has access to government meetings.
"At this private gathering, the members discussed and took a vote on the selection of council leadership for the upcoming term, including the positions of Chair and Vice Chair," one of the complaints said. "They also discussed and assigned duties and responsibilities. The members reportedly agreed among themselves that this private vote would constitute their vote on these matters."
Official business can be discussed by members privately, but open meetings rules prohibit private meetings by a quorum of members. The five-member meeting constituted a quorum for the nine-member council.
The City and County of Honolulu Department of the Corporation Counsel responded to the complaint, noting that the state's Sunshine Law does allow for a quorum of members to meet privately if "concerning the selection of the board's officers."
Dos Santos-Tam did regret the meeting's appearance of untrustworthiness to the public, and said discussing leadership roles privately before a vote in a council meeting isn't a precedent he wants to set. He mentioned, however, that the remedy to that is the public discussion that will take place on Thursday on the proposed leadership structure.
He also said Waters' sudden disqualification means that a quick reorganization at the council is required to allow it to hit the ground running once the elections are over.
"The reorganization is not just about the chair, but it's about a whole team, and it's about a team who is on the same page on various issues. It's also building a team (where) the members respect one another, they can work together productively," he said.
Dos Santos-Tam was part of a leadership shakeup at the council last year following a contentious vote over sewer fees. He was removed as chair from the council's influential Budget committee after opposing Waters over proposed sewer fees rates.
Specific legislation Dos Santos-Tam wants to tackle include bus fares for low-income households and policies that create more affordable housing in Oʻahu's urban core.
