Marisa Yamane joined KITV4 in January 2022 as an anchor and executive producer. She is an award-winning veteran journalist, who’s spent most of her career in Hawaii. She’s a proud graduate of Iolani School and UCLA.
With just six months left as Governor of Hawaii, David Ige sat down with KITV4 to talk about his remaining months, the legislative agenda, crime, homelessness, and more.
HONOLULU (KITV4) -- Gov. David Ige has just over six months left in office. December 5 is his last day as governor. One of his biggest tasks left is to make a decision on the bills that were passed by the Legislature.
One of those bills is House Bill 1567 -- the bail reform bill. The suspects in smash and grab burglaries and many other Class C felonies, misdemeanors, and petty misdemeanors would be released without having to post bail if that bill becomes law. But supporters of the bill say it will reduce overcrowding in Hawaii's jails.
In response to whether he will sign or veto HB 1567, Ige replied: "I haven't really had any chance to look at it. So I don't know. I don't have a real clear position at this point in time.
"We go through this process at the end of session where all of the agencies are reviewing the legislation and they do make recommendations to me. We also get input from various stakeholders around the community and then you know, we do meet and go through all of those things, and then I'll make a decision about signing, vetoing or allowing a bill to become law. So I haven't really looked carefully at the bond reform or bail reform bill.
"I look forward to to conducting the review and really trying to understand what the bill tries to accomplish and how it tries to accomplish it, and then I'll make a decision."
Ige is more certain though about House Bill 2171 -- the bill that would create a new state Department of Law Enforcement by consolidating the law enforcement and investigative functions of the Department of Transportation, the Department of the Attorney General, and the Department of Public Safety, which includes the Sheriff Division.
"It is something that we initiated, so unless it really got turned around or changed during the legislative process, you know, I'd be inclined to support it," Ige said.
HB 2171 would also require the state to establish a training center and a law enforcement complex for the Department of Law Enforcement.
When asked if something like that is logistically and financially possible, Ige replied: "Well, I think that that's the question, right? I mean, how it's easy to talk about that in the state Legislature has talked about that for a while, but there really hasn't been significant resources applied to it.
"And clearly, I know what has been talked about in the past is really a training facility for county, state and federal agencies, and clearly a facility that is that would involve training for all of those entities would take a lot of coordination and, you know, significant resources."
A controversial issue during the governor's term is the Thirty Meter Telescope (TMT) project. Ige said he is pretty certain that construction will not begin on the TMT during his term.
Another issue that has the community divided is whether students should be required to wear masks in public schools. The Hawaii Department of Education announced that students must wear masks not only for the rest of this school year but also during summer school.
Gov. David Ige sat down with KITV4 for a 1-on-1 interview on several hot-button issues facing Hawaii, including a controversial bail reform bill, masking in schools, the Muana Kea telescope, and more.
"I do support kids wearing masks, but it really comes back to you know, what is the primary objective? You know, I think that the superintendent and I've had several discussions with them. You know, we both agree that our primary focus is to make sure that kids can be in school for person to person learning, we know that that is the most effective you know, and having all the children wear mask indoors especially reduces the number of days that students would miss class," Ige said.
As far as other things on the governor's to-do list while still in office, they include sustainability initiatives plus infrastructure projects.
Ige said: "The airport modernization and the harbors modernization is more than halfway through. We definitely want to see those projects finished, you know, and just kind of like a general trying to keep them or regain the momentum on homelessness. As you know, the pandemic has impact impacted our homelessness program. We do want to get restarted with the ohana zones and really make a commitment to continue the reduction in homelessness.
"And then affordable housing, you know, we have developed one of the best affordable rental projects in the world in the United States anyway. And there are a number of affordable rental projects that we have in process that we certainly want to see completed."
The governor went to Japan on business last week to meet with Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, along with other top government officials and travel industry partners.
Japan Hawaii Legislators' Friendship Association
Courtesy: Governor's office
Ige said, "We did engage the federal government and talked about wanting to see more travel between Hawaii and Japan. And they did provide for 1,000 leisure travelers on group tours to come to Hawaii during Golden Week.
"In our discussions when we were there last week, they appreciated it and express their appreciation for being able to have travelers come from Japan for Golden Week. They wanted to see what the impact of that would be on the virus case. They want to see more travel between Japan and Hawaii and they will be slowly increasing the numbers."
Ige said he did not have an overall letter grade that he would give himself for his time as governor: "Well, I mean, I do think that you know, you kind of it's hard to like do an overall grade."
Looking ahead, Ige said he plans to do things he has wanted to do but never had the chance to such as going back to school, and traveling to places like Europe and Southeast Asia.
In the near future the governor's big task ahead is sorting through the legislative bills on his desk.
Ige has until June 27 to submit his intent to veto list to the Legislature, and until July 12 to either approve or veto any bills, or let them become law without his signature.
Marisa Yamane joined KITV4 in January 2022 as an anchor and executive producer. She is an award-winning veteran journalist, who’s spent most of her career in Hawaii. She’s a proud graduate of Iolani School and UCLA.
