Gov. David Ige on Tuesday announced the appointment of three new members to the Hawaii Paroling Authority board, and one of them is a familiar face.

Clayton Hee, Cheryl Inouye and Max Otani have been put on the board effective immediately, although the appointments are subject to state Senate confirmation.

Hee, a Democrat, was elected to the state House of Representatives in 1982. He was first elected to the state Senate in 1984 and later served 12 years as a member of the Office of Hawaiian Affairs, where he was chairman for six years.

Hee returned to the Senate in 2004 and served until 2014. He was a longtime chairman of the Senate Committee on Judiciary and Labor and, according to the governor’s office, “is the author of more than 100 laws, many of which relate to the Hawaii Penal Code.”

Clayton Hee during his short-lived campaign for governor in 2018. Anthony Quintano/Civil Beat

Inouye has a background in criminal justice including serving “in a variety of probation officer positions.” She was “instrumental in developing the first sex offender unit” in the state, “creating and piloting an innovative domestic violence intervention strategy for felony domestic offenders.”

Otani worked at the Judiciary as a Family Court officer and Circuit Court probation officer. He also worked at the Hawaii Paroling Authority for more than two decades, including as a parole officer to the division administrator.

“During his career in corrections, Otani initiated evidence-based practices with the parole and pretrial populations in efforts to reduce recidivism,” according to the governor’s office.

In other administrative news, Ige appointed Rona Suzuki as interim director of the state Department of Taxation on Tuesday. She served as a senior executive assistant at DOTAX, “managing the $60 million Tax System Modernization program which aims to replace most of the department’s technologies to improve operational efficiency and security.”

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