Honolulu Mayor Rick Blangiardi's State of the City address on Thursday largely focused on housing, public safety, and the building permitting system.
He urged the state Legislature to approve a measure to allow the city to build affordable mixed-use property.
“If the city broke ground on an affordable TOD community today, we could not build one with a supermarket so residents could buy groceries on their way home from work,” he said, referring to a transit-oriented development community.
“We could not build one with a drug store, or with a child care center, or even a post office, because the current law prohibits mixed-use development using city municipal bonds for affordable housing. That is wrong.”
When it came to improving the building permitting system, Blangiardi vowed that in one year, residential building permits would only take two to four weeks.
The Honolulu Department of Planning and Permitting will also begin using a new technology program to track and manage people’s permits.
“Right now we are replacing a permitting system that is older than the iPhone you all have in your pockets,” Blangiardi said.
“No longer will you need to call DPP for an answer to the single most-asked question in all of city government: 'Where is my permit?'”
The mayor took time to champion first responders, including supporting aggressive recruitment tactics for police officers.
At a press conference after the speech, Honolulu Police Department Chief Joe Logan said that a new bonus structure for recruits will be a step toward attracting more officers to fill the department’s 400 vacancies.
After three and a half months, recruits who pass the main benchmark at the police academy will get $2,500. Then after graduation, they will receive $5,000. After passing probation, about a year and a half, that bonus bumps up to $7,500.
To also incentivize retention, after three years, officers will receive a $10,000 bonus.
Blangiardi also threw his commitment behind separating Emergency Medical Services and the Ocean Safety Division to make them two separate departments.
It will cost about $1.4 million to fund 11 new positions in the new ocean safety department.
The transition is expected to take about 16 to 18 months after the decision to separate is finalized. It is not yet clear if the separation requires a charter amendment posed to voters on the ballot, or if the mayor can do it on his own.
This is the last State of the City speech of his first term as mayor. He announced his reelection campaign this year.
Read the full State of City address here.
