Djou Unveils Plan for First 100 Days as Mayor

News Release from www.Djou.com

(November 1, 2016, Honolulu, Hawaii) - Today, Mayoral candidate Charles Djou discussed his plan for his first 100 Days in office at a press conference held at his campaign headquarters. Full plan below and attached.

First 100 Days as Mayor of the City & County of Honolulu

In my first 100 days in office, I will:

RAIL

• Order a financial audit of the rail project. The people deserve to know how their hard-earned money was spent and how much it will cost to finish the project. In just the five months since I announced my candidacy for mayor, the price tag for the rail project has increased several times from the original $5.2 billion to $6.9 billion to now $8.6 billion and may go as high as $10.8 billion.

• Request the Legislature reverse the State skim of rail funds. The State government unfairly takes the first 10% of all rail money for itself. This amounts to nearly $500 million in funds over 10 years. The reason the State today enjoys a $1 billion surplus is largely because of its skim of rail funds. I will work to reverse this unfair skim.

• Meet with the FTA and Congress to request additional Federal funds. I will meet with Federal officials to obtain additional funds for rail. The current administration has asked for more Federal funds three separate times and each time received the exact same response—no.  Although I can’t promise that I will automatically get a different response, a new administration with connections to members of Congress gives our community the chance to obtain new Federal funds.

• Appoint a homeless czar. So many non-profits want to do good, but are often stymied by the byzantine government regulations and approval process. I will name a non-profit homeless czar from my administration to coordinate and handle all necessary government approvals to allow non-profits to do what they do best, instead of spending their time trying to navigate the city bureaucracy. 

• Restore the Community EMS Program. 99% of all people use the 911 system once every several years. But a tiny minority, disproportionately homeless, have taken to using 911 as a taxi service. I will restore the community EMS program, eliminated by the Caldwell administration, to dedicate paramedics to take care of this minority of habitual 911 callers, freeing the rest of the 911 system for real emergencies for the rest of the community.

• Begin with “Boots on the Ground” assessment to find real and lasting solutions to our homeless crisis. I will work with our current employees and bring them together with everyone—homeless, service providers, all levels of government, business and committed citizens who want to help—to find real and lasting solutions to help our homeless find shelter, jobs, and services. I pledge that my administration and I will be "boots on the ground" until we find workable and sustained solutions for solving our homeless crisis.

• Build housing that our residents—especially young families and seniors—can afford. I will introduce a plan to use the $30 million in unspent affordable housing funds to develop more affordable housing in our community.  And along with solving the homeless problem is the bigger source of the problem: Building housing that our residents can afford. AFFORDABLE HOUSING is not affordable for most of Honolulu. We need to find real solutions for Honolulu's people. I will work with everyone to find those solutions and ways we can build 10,000-12,000 new rentals for low income families, use the unspent current $30 million in the affordable housing fund and use tax-increment financing and other incentives to build housing for those with moderate incomes.

• Appoint a first rate cabinet based on merit. I will fill my cabinet with people who have subject matter expertise, who know city issues, and who can listen and make decisions with the affected communities. All of my appointments will be based on merit. In all areas. I will charge my directors and deputies to work with their department employees to better serve the people of Honolulu—all of us. I will listen to and work with my cabinet and city employees who are doing the work of the people.

• Ensure my administration will do the people’s business with honesty, transparency and accountability. And I will ensure that the ethics commission will have the independence to guide us to a government that is just and equal for us all. I will direct the Corporation Counsel to no longer exercise budget control over the Ethics Commission and allow the Ethics Commission to submit their budgets directly to the City Council without interference by the mayor’s office.

• Introduce legislation to preclude the mayor from working a lucrative second job at a private company. Our governor and lieutenant governor are currently prohibited by state law from working a second job at a private company. The same should apply to our mayor.  I will introduce legislation to prohibit any future mayor from holding any job or position with a fiduciary responsibility to a for-profit entity.

• Direct funding to maintenance of all City parks, not just those in urban Honolulu. The current administration’s practice of favoring select urban parks to the detriment of many parks in the rural areas of Oahu must end. Resources should be distributed fairly across Oahu.

• Open discussion with the Humane Society for a dog park in urban Honolulu. We have several dog parks on Oahu, but none in our community’s urban core. I will work with the Hawaii Humane Society to create a public-private partnership for a dog park adjacent to their property.

• Explore a public-private partnership with the Honolulu Zoo Society for the Honolulu Zoo. Our beloved Honolulu Zoo has lost accreditation. To put our zoo back on the path to stability, I will work with the Honolulu Zoo Society to create a public-private partnership for the zoo, modeled on the City of San Diego’s zoo and the San Diego Zoological Society. This proposal was originally initiated in the final year of then Mayor Jeremy Harris and is worth exploring again to end the needless bureaucratic failures at our local zoo.

• Initiate a race track task force. The time has come for the return of an automotive race track for Honolulu. I will start a task force to begin the process of identifying an appropriate location for a race track on Oahu.

• Drop the Residential Class A litigation. The current administration supports legislation to double property taxes on all homes valued at over $1 million and lack a homeowner’s exemption. A state circuit court has ruled this ordinance unconstitutional. Rather than waste more money on further litigation, I will instruct the Corporation Counsel to drop all further appeals of this matter. A $1 million home on the mainland may be a luxury mansion, but many modest Oahu homes are valued at $1 million.

• Initiate a real property tax reform commission. In 2003, I successfully worked with then Mayor Jeremy Harris to simplify Honolulu’s complex tax code to just two rates. I will start a tax reform commission to once again look at reforming and simplifying our tax code by 2018. I will name a reform commission to come up with a simplified code that is revenue neutral and doesn’t trigger any additional taxes for the average homeowner.

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