I couldn’t disagree more with several recent columns supporting Mayor Rick Blangiardi’s position that he should have more authority to hire and fire the chief of police for the Honolulu Police Department.
These same commentators applaud Blangiardi for being a strong mayor. There is nothing wrong with being a strong mayor, however, a strong mayor is different from being a strongman mayor.
While I wholeheartedly agree that the Police Commission is dysfunctional, the solution is not to politicize the process even further by giving that authority over to the mayor, but rather to fix the problems with the Police Commission itself. This can only be accomplished by passing Honolulu City Charter amendments which ensure that the commission has the power to fulfill its mission and to function free from political influence…