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<br />Merit Appeals Board January 16, 2026 <br /> <br /> <br /> <br />the new Administrator in place—and working with the new Administrator, helping them to get <br />familiar with all of our processes, and then helping them to really put forth that effort to fill. <br /> <br />MR. THOMAS: So, I think I heard you say that someone has been selected but the positions not <br />been announced of who it is and so forth? <br /> <br />MS. TOKIHIRO: I have not been notified of a selection. I just know that the interviews <br />occurred, I believe, earlier this week—and I believe that there were several qualified candidates, <br />and so I’m hopeful that they were able to make a selection. <br /> <br />MR. THOMAS: Who makes that decision? <br /> <br />MS. TOKIHIRO: So, in the absence of an agency head, it would be the Managing Director— <br /> <br />MR. THOMAS: Uh-huh. <br /> <br />MS. TOKIHIRO: —that would make the—is the appointing authority for the agency. <br /> <br />MR. THOMAS: The Police Department have a role in that decision? <br /> <br />MS. TOKIHIRO: I—it will depend on who was on the interview panel. And so, the Managing <br />Director—the Mayor’s Office—selected the interview panel for that position. I’m not aware of <br />anyone from the Police Department being on the panel. <br /> <br />MR. THOMAS: It’s such a sensitive position, right. I hope that whoever is the director has a <br />good working relationship in terms of, not only the Administration, but the public, too. <br /> <br />And I’m speaking from the perspective of a mediator with West Hawaiʻi Mediation where <br />animal control cases come up all the time because, I guess, the DA’s Office really has a problem <br />with the existing legal structure of how to handle bad dogs and that sort of thing. <br /> <br />So, this new animal control operation is going to have to really work with the DA’s Office and <br />with the public to build support for an agency that’s a lot more than just caring for the abandoned <br />animals. <br /> <br />MS. TOKIHIRO: Yeah, there is, definitely, a lot of public interest in the agency, in the <br />Administrator, and how those duties are carried out. So, yeah, I’m hopeful. I know that we’re <br />all hopeful that an Administrator that will be selected—that can really move the agency forward <br />and bridge some of those gaps and those relationships, so that it can be a partnership with the <br />public. <br /> <br />MR. THOMAS: Those are all union positions, right? <br /> <br />MS. TOKIHIRO: Yeah. <br /> <br />Page 8 <br /> <br /> <br />