Honolulu City Council Moving to Oust Nestor Garcia as Chairman

Adrienne LaFrance/Civil Beat

Honolulu City Council members are moving to oust their chairman, Nestor Garcia, and replace him with council Budget Chairman Ernie Martin. Council member Ikaika Anderson would replace Breene Harimoto as vice chair.

A council reorganization can take place at any time, and would have to be outlined in a resolution approved by at least five of the nine council members. Staffers in the City Clerk's office say they have not yet received such a resolution.

Garcia said he would have comments about the situation "later this afternoon," but would not explicitly confirm his colleagues push to remove him. He just said, "You're on to something today."

City Council member Romy Cachola told Civil Beat Wednesday morning that neither Martin nor Anderson approached him, but that he's aware of the move to reorganize.

"I have to see the resolution, and most likely I'll support it," Cachola said. "I don't know why, with the timing. There is support for a reorganization." Cachola said he hasn't talked to Garcia about the situation.

Along with Martin and Anderson, the group supporting reorganization appears to be Cachola, Ann Kobayashi, Stanley Chang and Tulsi Gabbard. Of the six, only Kobayashi and Cachola could be reached Wednesday morning.

"It hasn't happened yet, and I never want to say until something actually happens," Kobayashi said. "Ernie did really well as budget chair, so I would support him in either role, chairman or budget chair. You know how reorgs go. It just kind of happens."

The shake-up comes just seven months after the election and special election that brought five new City Council members into office. At the time, the newcomers — including Martin — stood behind Garcia as chair. Since then Garcia had to acknowledge that while on the council he had been paid by a group advocating rail without verbally disclosing the possible conflict in public hearings. The council is heading toward a legal battle with the administration of Mayor Peter Carlisle, and Martin has been a leader in pushing for litigation.

It's unclear how committee leadership on the council would change as a result of a reorganization. Martin is already chair of the powerful Budget Committee, which oversaw the council's handling of the city spending plans that passed June 3.

Current council leadership is as follows:

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