Honolulu Mayor Rick Blangiardi is formally asking to create a standalone Department of Ocean Safety on Oʻahu.
The mayor has requested a resolution to the Honolulu City Council to separate ocean safety from emergency medical services — fulfilling a goal from his latest State of the City address.
“Not only is this the surest path to the establishment of the Department of Ocean Safety, but it will give the administration finality sooner so that we may take concrete budgetary, human resources, and administrative steps in order to have the department ready to go by the start of the 2026 fiscal year,” Blangiardi said in a letter to the council.
The council has been moving along its own measure that would ask voters this year if they wanted an ocean safety department with its own oversight commission.
Blangiardi’s letter says that the council can still ask voters if they want a commission.
John Titchen, chief of the Honolulu Emergency Services Department’s Ocean Safety Division, said the division has added more than 60 lifeguard positions, replaced or added 17 towers, and has trained 37 lifeguards to be emergency medical technicians over the last five years because of an increase in demand.
"It is my professional opinion that the next Chief of Ocean Safety will be better able to build upon these achievements through the (construction) of a new department that has a commission, and the blessing of the county’s voters,” Titchen said in a written testimony supporting a separate ocean safety department.
He added, “Public safety agencies must account for changes and progress in emergency response tactics, techniques and procedures, and can best do so when the command has the ability to carefully and thoughtfully speak unhindered by the political process.”
Oʻahu voters could have a chance to vote on whether they want an ocean safety commission during this year’s election.
