Office of the City Clerk

HISTORY OF THE

MEMBERS OF THE HONOLULU CITY COUNCIL

In 1905, the territorial legislature passed the County Act, establishing the County of Oahu, to be headed by a board of seven county supervisors, serving two-year terms, with six supervisors representing various districts and one serving at-large. George W. Smith, a Republican and President of a local drug company, was elected by his peers as the Chair of the county’s first board of supervisors. The County Act did not provide for a Mayor of the County, but did provide for several elected department heads, including an elected City Clerk and City Attorney. The initial supervisors took up offices in the McIntyre Building at the corner of Fort and King Streets.

The territorial legislature enacted the City and County Act of 1907, which established the City and County of Honolulu, governed by a board of seven supervisors, all elected at-large for two-year terms, and a Mayor, who would preside over the meetings of the board.

Joseph Fern, a Democrat who had served as a supervisor for Oahu County was elected Mayor, but six of the seven supervisors elected in 1908 were Republican. Honolulu’s current city hall, Honolulu Hale, officially opened on December 17, 1929, when the Board of Supervisors conducted its first meeting in the new building.

In 1955, the Territorial Legislature directed the Mayor, with the approval of the board of supervisors, to appoint a nine-member commission to draft a new Charter for the City and County of Honolulu. The Charter Commission proposed to rename the “Board of Supervisors’ as the “City Council,” and to increase the body’s membership to nine (beginning with the 1960 election), with three Councilmembers to represent urban districts, three to represent rural districts, and three to serve at-large. The Councilmembers would continue to be elected on a partisan basis, but would now serve four-year terms.

The new Charter was approved by the voters at the 1958 general election, and then submitted to the legislature for its required review. The legislature modified the Charter provision on representation so that three Councilmembers would represent the various rural districts, but six Councilmembers would be elected at-large.

Following the 1960 election, Democrat Masato Doi was selected by his fellow Councilmembers as the first Council Chair in over 50 years, the Mayor having presided over the Council since the establishment of the City and County of Honolulu. Also in 1960, following the death of veteran Councilmember Noble Kauhane (Democrat), his daughter, Eileen Lota, who later became the City Clerk, was appointed to serve as the first woman on the Honolulu City Council.

In 1969, Mary George, a Windward Republican, became the first woman elected to the Council.

At the 1972 general election, the 1971-72 Charter Commission gave the voters the opportunity to choose between two methods of electing Councilmembers: 1) Having all nine Councilmembers elected by Council districts; or 2) Having five Councilmembers elected by district, and four elected at-large. The voters opted to have all Councilmembers elected by district and Councilmembers have been elected on this basis ever since.

In 1977, Marilyn Bornhorst became the first woman to Chair the Council. In 1985, Councilmembers George Akahane, Toraki Matsumoto, and Rudy Pacarro switched parties from Democrat to Republican. The three were replaced (after a recall and special vacancy election) on October 5, 1985, by Councilmembers Donna Mercado Kim, Arnold Morgado, Jr. and Randall Iwase.

The 1991-1992 Charter Commission proposed, and in 1992 the voters approved, two significant Charter amendments affecting the Council. First, seats on the Council (as well as all other elective City offices) were made nonpartisan. Second, Councilmembers were limited to serving no more than two consecutive full terms on the Council.

In 1998, in order to address the potential lack of experienced leadership a Council could face if term limits were to force all Councilmembers to leave the Council simultaneously, the Council proposed, and the voters approved, a Charter amendment to stagger the terms of Councilmembers so that four are elected at one general election, and five are elected at the next.

In 2002, to implement the staggering of terms, the Councilmembers for odd numbered Council districts were elected to two-year terms and those for even numbered districts to four-year terms.

Also in 2002, a Charter amendment was passed authorizing the creation of the Office of the City Auditor. The office was officially established on July 1, 2003.

In 2006, residents voted against proposed Charter amendments that would have eliminated staggered terms or increased the maximum number of consecutive terms a Councilmember may serve from two to three.

The Charter directs reapportionment years to occur every ten years after 1991. During reapportionment years, a Council appointed Reapportionment Commission files a Reapportionment Plan with the City Clerk on or before January 2 of the following year to be applicable to the next succeeding election at which Councilmembers are elected to regular terms. Council district maps were reviewed and reapportioned by the commission in 1991, 2001, and 2011.

Since 1905, the longest serving member of the Council or Board of Supervisors was Clesson Chikasuye, who served two terms on the Board of Supervisors and four terms on the Honolulu City Council from 1957 to 1975.  A number of former Councilmembers have also held other elected offices. At least four former Councilmembers have gone on to serve in the Hawaii State Legislature, two have served as Mayor of the City and County of Honolulu, one has served as Governor, and four have served in the United States Congress.

1991, The City and County of Honolulu, a Government Chronicle by Donald D. Johnson.