Mayor Caldwell announces second-term Cabinet appointments

News Release from City and County of Honolulu, February 7, 2017

Mayor Kirk Caldwell today announced the following appointments to his second-term Cabinet at the City and County of Honolulu. Department director appointments require the approval of the Honolulu City Council.

Department of Transportation Services

Wes Frysztacki, Director-designate of Transportation Services

Frysztacki is a certified civil and traffic engineer with a wide range of experience working on Honolulu’s bus system, rail project, TOD plans and the recent Complete Streets Manual. He is a strong advocate for pedestrian safety and bicycle safety, traffic engineering innovations, and public transportation improvements.

Frysztacki served as president and CEO of Weslin Consulting Services, a transportation planning consulting firm, from 1987-2016. Prior, he served the Pudget Sound Council of Governments as Director of Transportation and Regional Planning. He holds a Master of Civil Engineering with honors from Villanova University. Frysztacki begins as Director-Designate on March 1, 2017.

Jon Nouchi, Deputy Director of Transportation Services

Nouchi was appointed to this position in December 2016. He served as Deputy Director of Planning and Environment at the Honolulu Authority for Rapid Transportation (HART) from 2014-2016. His career in urban planning and public transportation began in 1998 at O‘ahu Transit Services, operator of TheBus and Handi-Van, where he served as Director of Planning and Service Development.

Nouchi is a graduate of ‘Iolani School and earned a Bachelor of Science degree in planning and development from the University of Southern California in 1996. He also earned a Hawaiian Language certificate from the University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa in 1998.

Department of Land Management

In last November’s election, voters approved a City Charter amendment mandating the creation of a new Department of Land Management. Additional staff will be hired in July 2017 at the beginning of the new fiscal year.

Sandra Pfund, Director-designate of Land Management

Pfund is currently Director of the Office of Strategic Development within the Honolulu Managing Director’s office. During her time with the city since December 2014, Pfund successfully led the purchase and conversion of several properties now being used for affordable housing, Housing First, and other initiatives to end homelessness.

Pfund previously worked as a Land Development Administrator for the Department of Hawaiian Home Lands from 2010-2014. Her division, composed of a seventeen person staff, was responsible for the planning, design, construction, and financing of homesteads for beneficiaries. Previously, she was Chief Executive Officer for the Aloha Tower Development Corporation. She worked on a number of key development projects for the State of Hawai‘i including land and housing developments at the Hawai‘i Community Development Authority and the Housing Finance and Development Corporation. She holds a Master in Public Administration from the University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa and is a graduate of Kalani High School.

Department of Community Services

Susan Fernandez, Deputy Director of Community Services

Fernandez comes to the city from the Hilo Medical Center, where she oversaw four revenue cycle departments at three facilities including the Ka‘u Hospital and Hale Ho‘ola Hāmākua. She served as Chief Budget Planning and Management Officer at the State of Hawai‘i Department of Human Services from late 2013 to early 2016. Previously, she was Budget Chief and Analyst for the Hawai‘i House of Representatives Finance Committee from 2008-2014, and prior to that operated her own business consulting firm.

Fernandez holds a Master of Business Administration from the University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa and is a graduate of Punahou School. She has been a lecturer at Kapi‘olani Community College, Hawai‘i Pacific University, and U.H. Hilo. She starts with the Caldwell Administration on February 16, 2017

Director of Community Services Gary Nakata continues to serve as director of the department.

Department of Planning and Permitting

Tim Hiu, Deputy Director of Planning and Permitting

Hiu has been with the Department of Planning and Permitting for over 28 years. He started as a Plans Examining Engineer in the Building Division in 1988 and became a supervisor in that division in 2002. From 2003-2016 he served as Acting Chief then Chief of the Building Division. He has been serving as Acting Deputy Director of the department since the beginning of this year.

Prior to starting with the city, Hiu worked for Koga Engineering in Colorado, where he saw snow for the first time. He holds a Bachelor of Science in Civil Engineering from the University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa.

Mayor Caldwell will announce his appointment of Director of Planning and Permitting at a later date. Kathy Sokugawa continues serving as Acting Director until further notice.

Office of Economic Development

Ed Hawkins, Executive Director of Economic Development

Hawkins is President Emeritus of the Japan-America Society of Hawai‘i and the Crown Prince Akihito Scholarship Foundation and President of the Ehime Maru Memorial Association. Born in Japan, son of an Air Force sergeant and a Japanese mother, Hawkins has spent a lifetime immersed in international affairs. A retired Air Force colonel, Hawkins was a career intelligence officer and Foreign Area Officer and served in Japan, Korea, Germany and Turkey.

As Director of Intelligence for a Combined Task Force, Hawkins supported combat operations in the Iraq War. Following retirement, he supported U.S. Pacific Command as an operational planner and crisis management specialist. He coordinated an effort to accept donations from the people of Hawai‘i to assist victims of the 2011 Japanese earthquake and tsunami tragedy and started the Rainbow for Japan Kids project to bring disaster-affected children to Hawai‘i for rest, recuperation, and physical and psychological relief. In spring 2015, he was presented with the Imperial Decoration, Order of the Rising Sun with Gold and Silver Rays, by the Japanese Government. Mr. Hawkins is a graduate of the U.S. Air Force Academy (B.S., East Asian Studies), Harvard University (M.A., East Asian Studies), and Japan National Institute for Defense Studies (senior military school), and is fluent in Japanese.

Office of Housing

Marc Alexander, Executive Director of Housing

Alexander has been Senior Program Officer and Program Director at the Hawai‘i Community Foundation for the past three years. He was responsible for creating and leading new initiatives to address homeless families and update programs to support the elderly; staff for private foundations and advisory committees for various programs, including medical research, human services, literacy, and arts and culture.

From 2012-2013, Alexander was Director of Community Relations and Development at the Institute for Human Services, and he served as the State of Hawai‘i Governor’s Coordinator on Homelessness from 2011-2012. He was the equivalent to a chief operating officer for the Roman Catholic Diocese of Honolulu from 2006-2011.

Alexander holds a Doctorate in Sacred Theology from the Gregorian University in Rome, Italy. He attended Damien High School before graduating on the mainland.

Photos of the new appointees are posted at facebook.com/MayorKirk

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