Honolulu Managing Director Mike Formby texted council members Val Okimoto and Radiant Cordero in September that he would withhold funding to their districts if they voted against the mayor’s choice for housing director. 

Formby says the message was meant to start a conversation, but the leader of a government watchdog group in Hawaiʻi described the political play as immoral and unethical.

The texts’ existence remained private for months until Okimoto mentioned the interaction last week as the council voted to approve Kevin Auger as director of the Department of Housing and Land Management. 

“A written message from a senior administration official indicated that the release of my district appropriations will be contingent on the outcome of this vote,” Okimoto said during the meeting. She noted that the council’s ability to confirm mayoral appointees needs to remain independent from outside executive branch influence. 

“If the executive branch can threaten to withhold funds to secure a confirmation, the independence of this body is diminished,” she said. “If we confirm a nominee under these conditions, we establish a dangerous precedent that public resources are bargaining chips.”

Okimoto declined to disclose which senior administration official sent her the message, saying after the meeting that she didn’t want to escalate the situation. 

Civil Beat submitted a public records request to both her office and the mayor’s office. Formby, who as city managing director essentially serves as Mayor Rick Blangiardi’s right-hand man, responded by providing the texts. 

“Kevin is the best qualified housing director in the state and if there are things we can do better, we will,” Formby said in his text to Okimoto, “but if you are going to vote ‘no’ on Kevin, you should know that between now and the time I serve as MD, I will not release any of your council adds,” referring to community projects council members add to the budget each spring.

Formby sent the same message to council member Radiant Cordero. He said he heard the two of them gave Auger “a very difficult time” during a Sept. 3 public hearing on Auger’s nomination, and he subsequently thanked them over text last week when they voted to confirm Auger, telling Okimoto, “Well said. We will work with you 150% to improve relations and our work with you and your community.”

“It’s not a threat, and it’s not extortion,” Formby told Civil Beat of the September texts, adding that he was confused about why Auger’s confirmation process dragged on for so long. “It’s an opportunity for us to say, ‘What is going on?'”

Camron Hurt, who leads the government watchdog group Common Cause Hawaiʻi, disagrees.

“It is completely disgusting for a member of the mayor’s body to try to coerce members of the legislative branch of the city in that way,” Hurt said. “Not only is it disgusting, it’s unethical, immoral, and the mayor should reevaluate who he has around him if he doesn’t want to be seen as immoral.”

Hurt said he’s not surprised somebody would try to use coercion in politics, “but to do it that blatantly, that bold, that sloppy, that mistrusting?” He called Formby’s behavior “extremely unbecoming,” and said the mayor and residents of Honolulu deserve better.

‘We Reached Our Limit’

The two council members handled the situation differently. While Cordero texted Formby back and set up a meeting with him to discuss her issues with Auger, Okimoto did not respond. After they met, Cordero thanked Formby for his time, and Formby said his door and the mayor’s door are always open for her, the texts shared by Formby show.

In an interview, Okimoto said her apprehension with Auger was largely based on him not communicating well with council members when he proposed projects in their districts. 

She also said he talked over her and talked down to her at a private meeting between the two of them in January. Formby said that impression could be created because Auger is passionate about delivering housing. He said Auger had sent Okimoto a letter of apology. 

Okimoto and two of the three other women on the council – Cordero and council member Andria Tupola – expressed the most concerns with Auger at September’s public hearing, specifically with regard to maintaining good communication with council members.

In the end, eight of the nine council members voted to confirm Auger. Council member Matt Weyer was absent, while Cordero and Okimoto voted yes with reservations, which counts as a yes, but communicates lingering concerns. 

The texts came after months of being frustrated that the council had not scheduled votes on the mayor’s housing director nominees, Formby and Blangiardi told Civil Beat in an interview at Honolulu Hale this week, during which Formby shared the texts.

“For four and a half years, mayor and I never once said to any council member, ‘If you don’t vote a certain way, we’re going to withhold money from your district,’” he said. “Never once. But in this case, we reached our limit.”

‘Council Has The Right To Say No’

Auger was not the administration’s first choice for housing director. When Blangiardi started his second term in January, he submitted Catherine Taschner for reappointment to continue leading the Department of Land Management.

The council did not schedule Taschner’s confirmation for a vote for several months. In the meantime, the mayor merged Taschner’s department with his Office of Housing in the spring. He then switched out Taschner and appointed Auger to lead the new department on an interim basis starting May 1. 

The council did not schedule a hearing for Auger until September, frustrating the mayor’s office. 

“Council has the right to say no, they don’t want to confirm somebody,” Formby said. “But what they don’t – in our mind, professionally – have the right to do is string the department along for an inordinate amount of time.” 

The mayor went further: “I don’t think it’s council’s place to judge these cabinet decisions that we make when it comes to operating the city. I don’t believe that they can evaluate the competency of the people that we’re putting there.” 

Formby jumped in to say the council has that power under the city charter. But he and Blangiardi said the votes should be based on competency rather than personality. 

In a written statement, Council Chair Tommy Waters said council members take their confirmation duties seriously, and the drawn-out confirmation process was because there were longstanding questions that needed to be answered.

“Political tension is normal,” he said. “Still, it never justifies intimidation or unethical pressure. The Council’s job is to protect the public’s interest, and we will not waver from that.”

Cordero made a similar point in a written statement. “I was disappointed with the text message that tried to undermine my role as a Councilmember and disenfranchise the 120,000 neighbors I serve,” she said. “The message was unwarranted and unprofessional, and required my immediate attention.”

Okimoto said she evaluates mayoral appointees holistically, looking at their competencies on paper as well as their personality and communication styles.

In a different city department, members of the city’s new Ocean Safety Commission are currently weighing a similar decision: whether to rehire former Ocean Safety Chief John Titchen, who many testifiers in the ocean safety community say is well-qualified and experienced at the job but who had a falling out last year with the mayor.

“I understand that not one person will have strengths in every area,” Okimoto said. “But if you’re putting up somebody to be the head of a department or an office, that’s basically the CEO. There’s a lot that comes with it.”