The Cost Of Keeping Hawaii Safe: State Defense Department Salaries

Editor’s Note: Our popular public employees salaries database is back. This year, we’ve combined all agencies in a single database; but we are still breaking out stories on state and city departments individually. Today: the Department of Defense.

Hawaii spends roughly $17 million a year on the salaries of state employees whose main mission is to keep the islands safe from natural- and human-caused disasters.

The state Department of Defense — which includes the Hawaii Army and Air National Guards, Hawaii Emergency Management Agency (formerly Hawaii State Civil Defense) and the Youth Challenge Academy, a program for at-risk teens — is almost entirely funded by the federal government.

Hawaii Adjutant Gen. Arthur Logan was the top-paid employee in the state Department of Defense as of July 1.

Courtesy: Department of Defense

But there are a few hundred positions that come out of state coffers.

Topping that list is the adjutant general. Gov. David Ige appointed Major Gen. Arthur “Joe” Logan in January 2015 to fill the department’s top post, which receives a salary of $221,672.

Logan oversees the training and readiness of 5,500 soldiers and airmen of the Hawaii National Guard, according to the department’s annual report. He also serves as the director of the Hawaii Emergency Management Agency, provides direct support to the Office of Veterans Services, and is the homeland security adviser to the governor.

The No. 2 in command, Deputy Adjutant Gen. Kenneth Hara, earned $203,281, according to the latest salary data Civil Beat requested.

Rounding out the top five are Douglas Mayne, vice director of Civil Defense, at $118,500; Neal Mitsuyoshi, chief engineering officer, $111,504; and Paul Putzulu, anti-terrorism planner II, $99,507.

Hawaii Deputy Adjutant Gen.l Kenneth Hara was the second-highest paid employee in the state Department of Defense, as of July 1.

Courtesy: Department of Defense

Hawaii, like many other states, has a defense department. In Oregon, for instance, it’s called the Military Department, while Arizona has a Department of Homeland Security.

In the Aloha State, the department helps authorities with the safety, welfare and defense of the people. The department maintains its readiness to respond in the event of disasters, according to its annual report.

The department also oversees the Office of Veterans Services, the single point of contact in the state government for veterans’ services, policies and programs, the report says. The office is in charge of the Hawaii State Veterans Cemetery.

There were 367 state-funded positions in the department in 2015, according to the salary data. The salaries collectively cost from $16.4 million to $18.4 million based on the salary ranges for each position. The state portion makes up just a small percentage of the department’s overall budget.

Only four salaries were in six figures. The vast majority of employees earn less than $60,000 a year, be it $53,364 for the “siren warning system manager” or $27,768 for the “terrorism clerk.”

OHA was one of many government agencies that provided specific salaries or pay ranges for tens of thousands of public employees in response to Civil Beat’s request. Previous articles focused on the City and County of Honolulu, state government, the University of Hawaii system, the Department of Education and the Office of Hawaiian Affairs.

The massive database at the bottom of this article can be searched by department, name, job title or salary range. (Department of Education salaries are also searchable by district or location.)

To find the highest-paid employees, type in a starting salary figure of, say, $100,000 for a given department. But to understand the big picture of public employee compensation, you might want to look at the lower-end salaries as well.

Here are the top 10 highest-paid state Department of Defense employees as of last July 1:

Civil Beat Database of Public Employee Salaries