The Honolulu Police Commission will aim to speed up the hiring process of a new chief this time around after taking a full year to hire current police Chief Joe Logan three years ago.

Commission Chair Ken Silva said commissioners will meet Tuesday with the city’s human resources department to discuss the hiring of an interim chief after Logan announced his retirement Monday. Before Logan was picked for chief in 2022, it took commissioners six months just to hire a consultant to help with the search.

Silva said he could not specify how long the process will take this time around but said the goal is to get the hiring done “as quickly as possible.”

Commission members planned to go to Kauaʻi this week to attend a statewide conference for police commissions. They want applicants interested in the interim job to send a cover letter and resume to the commission by June 13.

Two Applications Received

Two candidates have submitted applications so far — Hawaiʻi County Police Chief Ben Moszkowicz and Thomas Aiu, a former security chief for the state’s Department of Transportation Services.

Honolulu Mayor Rick Blangiardi recommended Moszkowicz for the job when he announced Logan’s retirement at a press conference Monday.

Moszkowicz declined a request for an interview on Wednesday but sent out a memo to his staff Monday saying he would be leaving the department in July to take the interim job with HPD, according to a letter obtained by Hawaii News Now.

Aiu, who also formerly served as a special agent for the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, was a finalist to become Honolulu’s police chief in both 2009 and 2017.

Silva began Wednesday’s police commission meeting by saying commissioners would not discuss the hiring process because it was not on the agenda. The state’s Sunshine Law requires topics be listed on the agenda if they’re going to be discussed at a public meeting.

Silva did answer reporters’ questions about the hiring process before going into executive session.

No Discussion Of DUI Arrests

Also absent from Wednesday’s agenda was discussion of a class action lawsuit filed against Honolulu police over the false drunken driving arrests of more than 100 sober drivers.

Silva said that although the commission had received a letter from the American Civil Liberties Union of Hawaiʻi, which filed the lawsuit, it could not discuss the matter until its next meeting, scheduled for June 18.

Commissioners did say during the meeting that they still plan to issue a performance evaluation for Logan despite the fact that he will retire at the end of the month.

An audit of the commission last year noted commissioners failed to evaluate Deputy Chief Rade Vanic when he served as interim chief between 2021 and 2022.

Commissioner Doug Chin said he did not want the commission to run into the same issue by failing to complete an evaluation for Logan. He said the commission should evaluate Logan’s performance while still focusing on the hiring of an interim chief.

Chin also thanked Logan for showing up to the meeting despite all of the “drama” of recent days.

“This sends a really strong message to the department that you’re still here, you’re still briefing the commission,” he said. “What this actually tells the department and the public is that, despite all that’s going on outside, we’re still functioning, and you are showing up.”

“It shows my love for this department,” Logan said.

Search For A New Commissioner

Meanwhile, Blangiardi has decided to keep looking for a new commissioner to replace Chin, who’s been holding over since his term ended in December.

Blangiardi had initially put forward Landon Kaneshiro, an attorney and business executive, but Kaneshiro withdrew earlier this week after he struggled to explain to a City Council committee why he wanted to be on the commission and his understanding of public safety and policing issues. Public safety committee members openly expressed concern about his answers.

Council member Andria Tupola had started off by asking him what his interest was in being on the panel.

“To be quite honest in the very beginning I was quite against joining this commission because it’s so public and there’s a lot of eyes on the commission,” he said and then never really articulated why he did want to do it other than the mayor had asked him to.

Kaneshiro also conceded he didn’t know much about what the commission did or what significant issues the police faced, in answer to another question by Tupola.

Council member Esther Kiaʻāina said she had met with him separately before the committee meeting and was “a little bit worried” about his nomination. She told the committee she was concerned that he didn’t have an understanding of social issues faced by HPD.

“I would expect a little interest or passion from you about certain challenges that HPD is facing,” she told him.

She was particularly interested in whether he thought HPD had improved in its handling of racial discrimination issues. He didn’t answer that directly.

Kaneshiro was supposed to go before the full City Council Wednesday for confirmation.

Andy Sugg, Blangiardi’s chief of staff, said Tuesday that Kaneshiro decided to withdraw.

“Landon decided after the committee meeting that this was not the right time for him to serve on the commission,” he said.

The mayor’s staff is going through a list of names and hopes to be able to put forward someone else in time for the council’s full meeting in July. Chin will stay on and will be involved in picking an interim chief, but Blangiardi is hoping to have a new commissioner in place to participate in the search for the permanent chief.

“We know the importance of this role and want to get somebody on board as quickly as possible and it’s got to be somebody that’s qualified,” Sugg said.

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