All in the family: The Democratic Party of Hawaiʻi on Saturday was poised to send the names of three candidates to Gov. Josh Green to fill the vacant state House District 36 seat, formerly held by Rachele Lamosao, who was just appointed to fill Henry Aquino’s District 19 Senate seat.

But The Sunshine Blog is unable to say definitively who the three nominees are because as of Saturday internal intrigue was mucking things up a bit at the last minute.

The Blog can report that one name that won’t be on the list is that of Justin Cadiz. He is married to Lamosao and under the kind of strange nominating process used by the party had made the final list on Friday. Cadiz himself and Lamosao were among the five Democrats submitting nomination signatures on his behalf.

But Cadiz, a civil engineer and community volunteer, withdrew from the nominating process “to focus on his family and personal responsibilities,” Oʻahu County Committee Chair Lynn Robinson-Onderko told The Blog.

It’s one thing if voters decide to select a husband and wife to represent them. But The Blog hears that some Democrats were troubled by the appointment process that seemed to give some candidates an inside track over others, particularly Cadiz.

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Meantime, as of Saturday morning, the three remaining finalists for the House seat, all of them from Waipahu, were:

• Daisy Hartsfield, an attorney and a social justice advocate focused on health care, education and stable wages. 
• Maurice T. Morita, a former public school teacher and active community member serving on the Waipahu Neighborhood Board.
• Inam Rahman, a physician and small business owner dedicated to community health and public service.

Rahman and Hartsfield also applied for the Senate vacancy. Sean Michael Monte, a party official, environmental researcher and community advocate, was initially short-listed for the House vacancy but did not make the final cut.

Late Saturday, there appeared to be a change to the list in the works and party officials told The Blog they would be working things out later this weekend.

Both the House and the Senate seat will still be on the ballot in 2026 since the vacancies are being filled in time for candidates to actually run. Lamosao is already raising funds to keep her new Senate gig.

Gag disorder: The Honolulu Police Commission continues to stumble its way through the process of hiring a new police chief. At its meeting last week, commission vice chair Laurie Foster, who is directly involved in trying to hire an executive search firm to finally begin the search for a new chief, told her fellow commissioners that something was in the works but she’d been told not to talk about it.

Told by who? She couldn’t say.

“I can’t discuss the hiring process,” she flatly stated. “It’s been delayed again.”

She wouldn’t say why.

“I’ve never heard of such a thing,” responded Commissioner Chris Magnus, a veteran police chief who has dealt with local police oversight boards in at least three cities (four if you count Honolulu). “I’ve never heard of a limitation of this nature.”

Magnus and Blake Parsons, the newest member of the commission, were clearly flabbergasted that they were being shut out of what is arguably the most important thing the commission does — hiring the police chief. They pointed out that an update on the hiring was on the agenda and, well, they wanted an update.

No can do, Foster continued to insist.

That led to a spirited discussion of how long it has taken so far to replace former Chief Joe Logan, who announced his retirement in June, why the process continues to drag on and, The Blog’s favorite part, how the police commission is going to be blamed for taking so long no matter what.

“It’s going to be a painful process and everybody’s going to think it’s your fault,” Commissioner Ann Botticelli told her fellow commissioners. Botticelli was around for the last chief selection — when Logan replaced Susan Ballard in 2022 — and it took the commission about a year to fill the job.

The commission was widely criticized for the length of time it took to get a new chief in place and vowed to do better this time.

But, alas, it’s playing out much the same way and for much the same reason. The commission again decided it wanted to hire a search firm to handle recruiting applicants and screening them, then at some point presenting the commission with a short list of finalists. The search firm, if and when one ever comes on board, would also handle any community input and public participation in the process.

But first … that meant that the city procurement office needed to issue a request for proposals from search companies and then pick a lucky winner. Foster and commission chair Ken Silva are the only two commissioners working with the city agency and the others are being kept in the dark.

Foster and Botticelli placed the blame for the slow going on the city procurement office — Foster because she apparently knows what’s up and isn’t saying, Botticelli because the same thing happened last time.

“This shouldn’t take this long to get us to where we can move forward,” Magnus said. “What is the holdup?”

Eventually, Botticelli blabbed to the commissioners that that she’d been told three firms had submitted proposals and one has been selected.

Foster then finally acknowledged that the procurement office has indeed selected a “No. 1 firm but there’s a technical issue we’re waiting on.”

“We’re at 98%, it’s the 2%” that is the holdup, she said.

Now see, was that so hard?

Educational shortfall: The state Senate no longer has a standing committee dedicated to higher education. Effective this month, the Higher Education Committee (HRE) is now part of the Senate Education Committee (EDU).

“With current and impending federal budgetary cuts to the Department of Education and the University of Hawaiʻi, the Senate has returned to combining the higher education and education committees to allow the Senate to address educational shortfalls across the educational spectrum, in the same manner that the Senate has done with its health and human services committees,” the Senate said in a press release Monday.

Sen. Donna Kim, who chaired HRE with a critical eye toward UH finances, housing and hiring, will now chair EDU. Sen. Michelle Kidani, the former chair of EDU and vice chair of HRE, will be the new EDU vice.

Put another way, Donna Kim is officially the leading voice on all public education in the Senate, something that many folks at the Capitol have known for some time. She did most of the talking in both committees last session, after all. And Kim will also continue to serve on the Senate Ways and Means Committee, where all the power resides.

The committee consolidation should make for some interesting legislative hearings beginning next month, no? The House, by the way, has retained separate committees for higher ed and K-12.

Spending deficit: Tony Baldomero, who spent 33 years with the Hawaiʻi Campaign Spending Commission, most recently as its associate director, retired Dec. 1. His departure leaves a big puka to fill just as the commission is gearing up for the 2026 legislative session and the August primary and November general election.

Kristin Izumi-Nitao, the commission’s director, said that Baldermo’s retirement was unexpected. But she left open the possibility he might be able to still do work for the commission as a part-time contractor.

“We wish him well,” Izumi-Nitao told commissioners at a meeting Friday.

A hunt for his replacement is already under way, as is a push to get better salaries for staff.

Meanwhile, Gov. Josh Green is looking to find a replacement for Neal Herbert, the commission’s vice chair, who also recently moved on.

Surf and turf: Kurt Lager, who was selected Friday by the Honolulu Ocean Safety Commission to become the City and County of Honolulu’s first commission-appointed chief of ocean safety, will be sworn in by Mayor Rick Blangiardi during a ceremony at Honolulu Hale on Monday.  

Lager bested another candidate for the job, former ocean safety chief John Titchen, who had previously clashed with the mayor. Blangiardi supported Lager for the job.