The announcement came on the eve of Hannemann’s inaugural address, set for today, Wed., Jan. 5, 2005, at 1 p.m. at Honolulu Hale, where he will lay out his short-term and long-term vision for Honolulu, including his plans to fix the city’s more challenging maintenance problems.

John Reed, the former chief executive officer and founder of BriteSmile Inc. and former head of the duty free retail giant DFS, accepted the position as managing director. A long time associate of Hannemann, Reed, who has worked with Hannemann on various community projects over the years, says he will run the city like a business and implement Hannemann’s vision.

Mary Pat Waterhouse, who was most recently the vice president of finance for Catholic Charities, and before that, the state deputy comptroller and Y2K coordinator, will be the director of Budget and Fiscal Services. She personally was recruited by Hannemann after he was not satisfied with the 12 other candidates who applied for that position.

Retired Air Force Col. Lester K.C. Chang will become the Parks and Recreation Department director for the city. He says he will work with Hannemann to not only better maintain the parks, restrooms and other facilities across the island, but to create educational programs for kids, in line with Hannemann’s plan to get the city involved in improving Hawaii’s public education system, which the state operates.

Still not appointed in Hannemann’s cabinet are the director of the Department of Design and Construction and the Department of Transportation Services. Hannemann temporarily recruited the current Design and Construction director to stay on for 30 more days while he looks for the right engineer to fill the position. He says that is a challenging position to fill because professionals in the engineering field make three to four times the money as his director would.

In the Department of Transportation Services, Hannemann asked Ed Hirata to fill the director position for six months while he continues the search in Hawaii and on the mainland. Hirata, the Department of Transportation director under former Gov. John Waihee, was recruited out of retirement, until he can find a permanent replacement.

Other people appointed by Hannemann last week include:

• Dr. Elizabeth Char, named director of the Department of Emergency Services, will manage ambulances and life guard services. Char was an emergency room physician at the Queen's Medical Center and has been director of the state's Oahu Emergency Medical Services.

• Laverne Toyo Higa Nance, a civil engineer, was named chief engineer of the Department of Facility Maintenance. Nance currently is the acting assistant chief of Department of Design and Construction's civil division.

• Debbie Morikawa will head the troubled Department of Community Services, now under investigation by the federal government. Morikawa is the former executive director of the Institute for Human Services and Ponds at Punaluu assisted-living community.

• Kenneth Nakamatsu, who will be the director of the Department of Human Resources, was the personnel director for the state Judiciary for the past 17 years.

• Sidney A. Quintal will take over as the director of the Department of Enterprise Services, the agency that oversees management of all city concessions, the city golf courses, the Blaisdell Arena complex, the Waikiki Shell and the Honolulu Zoo. Quintal recently sold his company SUN Industries to Grace Pacific Corp. and stayed on to work as a vice president.

The deputy directors for all the departments will be announced at a future press conference, Hannemann says. The cabinet, which met yesterday for the first time at city hall, will be formally introduced to the public at the mayor’s inaugural address today. Hannemann also will be sworn into office again today for the benefit of the public.

Per the city charter, Hannemann was sworn in during a small private ceremony on Jan. 2, 2005, at Honolulu Kapolei. A second ceremony was necessary because of logistical problems at Honolulu Hale -- the Christmas display was still consuming the majority of Honolulu Hale where the ceremony was to take place. Chief Justice William Richardson will oversee the swearing in today, which will be followed by Hannemann’s state of the city address and a mayor’s ball at the Royal Hawaiian Hotel.

Hannemann says about his speech and his plans: "There's going to be a lot of passion for wanting this city, the place of my birth, to be the best place in the world to live, work and raise our families."

Reach Malia Zimmerman, editor and president of Hawaii Reporter, via email atmailto:Malia@hawaiireporter.com

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