Matthew Dvonch, who has worked as a deputy attorney general for the past nine years, will be appointed to be Hawaiʻi’s next attorney general.

It’s one of perhaps a half-dozen or more changes coming to Gov. Josh Green’s Cabinet as he begins his second four-year term.

Attorney General Anne Lopez disclosed her pending departure last week. Her last day is Dec. 7. Sharon Hurd, the chair of the Department of Agriculture and Biosecurity, previously announced that she was stepping down.

“There’s going to be change at the Cabinet level, and it’s going to be my responsibility to bring fresh energy to it,” Green said Monday morning. “About half of the Cabinet will turn over, and that’s natural. What you will see is there’s a very clear pattern that’s emerging for me and my executive team, which is that a lot of deputies earn their stripes” and then graduate to the top job.

The appointments include Dvonch, who previously served as special counsel to the prosecuting attorney at the City and County of Honolulu. Another is Ryan Kanaka‘ole, who will continue to lead the Department of Land and Natural Resources. A former deputy to the DLNR chair and a deputy attorney general, Kanaka‘ole took over the top DLNR post after Dawn Chang went on medical leave in late December.

“Dawn did an incredible job, but you know, these things can almost take your life, and so there is some change,” Green said. “And Ryan has picked up right where she left off and has been incredible.”

Similar praise was offered for the new attorney general pick, Dvonch.

“He’s her protege, and it’s a great feather in Anne’s cap,” said Green, who reportedly was not happy with Lopez. “She had a brutal job to deal with the current administration, the wildfires, the corruption challenges. It grinds you to the bone sometimes.”

Having Dvonch stay on, Green said, shows that he has “full confidence” in the AG’s office.

“It’s continuity,” he said. “I did not want to disrupt what they already have going, which is a lot of hard work. But it is a balance, and it’s actually, at the end of the day, kind of the main consideration I have, which is: Is it going to be healthy for my directors and healthy for the state, and what new team has to come together to really help people.”

The governor also plans to retain his chief of staff, Brooke Wilson, his communications director, Makana McClellan and senior adviser Will Kane.

In other Cabinet news, Joe Campos will stay on as director of the Department of Human Services, where he previously served as deputy since 2020.

“He has lots of chops,” said the governor, adding that Campos has been doing a great job “whether it was building housing on Maui when we had the fire, to starting to right the ship on some of the challenges we have like child welfare services.”

“These are hard problems to fix, right?” he added. “These are deeply rooted societal challenges. But some of these guys have graduated into that.”

Campos took over the helm at DHS after Ryan Yamane resigned in May amid Lopez’s high-profile investigation into reports that $35,000 was handed to a state lawmaker in 2022. In July, a grand jury indicted Yamane, Lt. Gov. Sylvia Luke and three others in a major corruption scandal.

Green will also keep Ed Sniffen, director of the Department of Transportation, and Jade Butay, director of the Department of Labor and Industrial Relations.

“Some of the jobs that are very technical, like the Department of Transportation or Department of Labor, those directors are absolutely staying because I don’t want to have to reinvent the wheel,” said Green.

Another new Cabinet member will be the director of the Department of Health. Green said he would soon announce a replacement for Dr. Kenneth Fink, who Green said planned to move into the private sector.

The governor declined to identify the new DOH boss except to say the person is “a terrific, well-known” person, “someone that’s kind of cut from my cloth. That’ll be a clue, okay?”

Keith Regan, the state comptroller, will return full time to his day job, now that Derek Kawakami has been elected lieutenant governor. Regan has been acting LG since Luke went on unpaid leave in April. That’s when Luke was identified as a target in the bribery scandal.

And Jimmy Tokioka, one of the more high-profile Cabinet members — director of the Department of Business, Economic Development and Tourism — will stay in his post.

“Jimmy’s had an up or down moment occasionally, and we’ve had to both have a hug and sometimes a moment,” said Green. “But I appreciate him.”

Still to be announced is the status of the directors of the Department of Law Enforcement, the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, the Department of Commerce and Consumer Affairs, the Department of Budget and Finance, the Department of Taxation, the Department of Human Resources Development, the Department of Hawaiian Home Lands and the Department of Defense.

The Cabinet posts require Senate confirmation. Green will be sworn in Dec. 7 and the Legislature will convene beginning Jan. 20.