One day after Honolulu Mayor Peter Carlisle pledged to bring change to Honolulu Hale, his official nominations for cabinet-level positions show he hasn’t tapped many new names.

Carlisle filed his nominations with the city clerk on Tuesday but declined to give comment about his picks when asked that same afternoon at Honolulu Hale.

A day earlier, Carlisle said at his swearing in: “I was put here because I promised change and I plan to deliver. That will not necessarily be something comfortable. It may not necessarily be something popular. But it’s something that was asked for by the citizens of this city and they are going to get it. Change is going to come and change is now.”

He has yet to tap a new director of Budget and Fiscal Services — one of the most pressing vacancies he has to fill following the recent resignations of the department’s director and deputy director. For now, Michael Hansen is serving as acting budget director, and Carlisle said it’s one of his top priorities to confirm a full-time director in that department.

Other changes in leadership are coming, but perhaps not until the new year.

In paperwork filed to the city clerk’s office Tuesday, Carlisle extended “temporary commissions” to a handful of former Mayor Mufi Hannemann‘s appointees, including Department of Transportation Services Director Wayne Yoshioka.

“We’ve been invited to extend our contracts until January 31,” Yoshioka said on Tuesday.

In a letter requesting Yoshioka’s temporary commission, Carlisle wrote: “I intend to make a permanent appointment by January 31, 2011. Upon my appointment to the Director of the Department of Transportation Services, this temporary commission will terminate.” Yoshioka said he would consider staying in his position after Jan. 31 if asked to do so.

In the Department of Design and Construction, Collins Lam — now deputy director and awaiting confirmation from the City Council — will serve as that department’s director during an interim period through January 2011. Carlisle also requested a temporary commission for Baybee Hufana-Ablan as executive secretary of the Neighborhood Commission Office following the departure of the commission’s former executive secretary Rae Gee.

The new mayor requested the following temporary commissions — also through Jan. 31 — for directors already in the following positions:

• Department of Parks and Recreation Director Les Chang
• Department of Emergency Services Director James Ireland
• Department of Enterprise Services Director Sidney Quintal
• Department of Customer Services Director Gail Haraguchi
• Honolulu Corporation Counsel Carrie Okinaga

Carlisle extended nominations to directors already in place, writing “the individuals who have accepted my call to join the City government are all experienced, capable, and dedicated leaders, and I would deeply appreciate your confirmation of their nominations.”

Carlisle has requested Timothy Steinberger to remain in his post as director of the Department of Environmental Services; Noel Ono to continue as director of the Department of Human Resources; David Tanoue to stay on as director of the Department of Planning and Permitting; Gordon Bruce to remain as director of the Department of Information Technology.

The approach at Honolulu Hale is in stark contrast to sweeping changes at the Department of the Prosecuting Attorney, where Carlisle served as city prosecutor for 14 years before becoming mayor.

Nearly one dozen deputy prosecutors were fired as Keith Kaneshiro resumed his role as prosecutor.

“I think it’s something from which the office may never recover,” Carlisle said of the prosecutor’s office. “It certainly won’t recover in the next two years because it has essentially a snowball effect. People who are staying now are afraid for their jobs, so they start looking for other jobs.”

But Carlisle said he won’t go out of his way to help former — and now jobless — colleagues from the prosecutor’s office.

“My job is to make sure we’ve got the very best people for the right reasons in the city,” Carlisle said. “Not to take care of friends.”

He did, however, tap a “very close friend” as his managing director, former deputy prosecutor Doug Chin. Carlisle says Chin earned the nomination because he was uniquely qualified for it. Chin’s official nomination to Carlisle’s cabinet was among the paperwork filed to the city clerk Tuesday.

“The types of interactions that he and I have now that take four or five minutes, it would take people who don’t know each other and are trying to figure out the system, it would take them hours and hours,” Carlisle said of Chin. “With Doug, I understand his authorities and he understands mine.”

In the two weeks between Carlisle’s election and his swearing-in, many city workers said they didn’t know what to expect from the new mayor. For many of them, that period of uncertainty has given way to a period of stability at least until January, when they’ll again wonder about their professional futures.