Latest / The One Oʻahu Podcast with Mayor Rick Blangiardi / Mayor Blangiardi on a new Police Chief, a new Zoo Director, and the demolition of Aloha Stadium

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Mayor Blangiardi on a new Police Chief, a new Zoo Director, and the demolition of Aloha Stadium · The One Oʻahu Podcast with Mayor Rick Blangiardi

• 0:14
  welcome to the One O'ahu Podcast.
• 0:16
  I'm your host, Brandi Higa, and today is Thursday, June 11th, 2026.
• 0:21
  We're back this week with mayor Blangiardi and mayor.
• 0:25
  Since we last sat down with you, a lot has happened.
• 0:28
  You held your Mayors Memorial Day ceremony,
• 0:30
  a new zoo director was named more of aloha stadium came down.
• 0:34
  We broke ground and welcomed residents at a couple housing projects.
• 0:38
  But I want to start first with our new chief of police.
• 0:41
  Okay.
• 0:42
  What have your interactions been like so far with Chief Lazar?
• 0:45
  And what do you like about him?
• 0:47
  Well, we've, we've had several text exchanges.
• 0:50
  He'll be here next week.
• 0:51
  And I'll be meeting with him.
• 0:53
  I think I'll have his for his first meeting.
• 0:55
  He's going to be with me. And I'm really pleased.
• 0:56
  A great way to start off, you know, and he is also participate in a zoom call
• 1:00
  and, by at our weekly homeless meetings and, you know, and I think,
• 1:04
  David's been very, very gracious and he's, I think very excited that, you know,
• 1:09
  even though he had a long, distinguished career at the San
• 1:11
  Francisco Police Department, he's a young enough man.
• 1:13
  He's 55 years old that he really feels like it.
• 1:16
  Maybe in some ways, the way I did coming into this job at 74,
• 1:20
  that sort of all roads,
• 1:21
  no matter what you've done in the past, has sort of led to this moment in time.
• 1:24
  And he said everything right about this leadership challenge,
• 1:26
  what he wants to bring, in the way of not only what he's learned
• 1:29
  in all those years, but his desire to really do a great job.
• 1:33
  You know what I mean?
• 1:34
  It's been great.
• 1:35
  You know, I recommended, Mike Lambert after the interviews.
• 1:39
  But I certainly can promise you that after I interview David Lazar
• 1:43
  who was the second interview, I spent around the same exact
• 1:45
  amount of time with all three, when he left the office,
• 1:49
  not knowing because Mike was the last one that I interviewed.
• 1:52
  I'd love to have a second wife.
• 1:53
  You really work with this guy? This guy is a great selection.
• 1:55
  So hats off to Gary Peterson, the consulting firm that the commission
• 1:58
  hired, to develop the, if you will, the list that we had to interview.
• 2:03
  I'm grateful that I had a chance to meet all of them
• 2:05
  ahead of time and have discussions.
• 2:08
  And, you know,
• 2:09
  and now that David's got the job, we go forward.
• 2:12
  Honestly, all my interactions with him right now, I've been spot on.
• 2:15
  I mean, it's I'm really excited to be able to work with him.
• 2:18
  Yeah.
• 2:18
  He talked about, you know, the path that he wants to set for.
• 2:20
  But have you
• 2:21
  you know, on the flip side told him what kind of expectations you have
• 2:25
  that's going to be the meeting face to face or something.
• 2:27
  Things you do face to face I don't want to do via text
• 2:30
  or over a phone or even for that matter, a zoom call.
• 2:33
  There's a dynamic when, from a leadership standpoint, I've said throughout, look,
• 2:38
  this job, the leader of our police department,
• 2:41
  you know, some jobs are more equal than others.
• 2:45
  Everybody holds big responsibilities.
• 2:47
  I'm not denying that this particular role is really at the top of the list.
• 2:52
  And so, I want to start off with him on a face to face.
• 2:57
  That's just how I'd like to work.
• 2:59
  And I'm saving some of that for that first meeting.
• 3:01
  But there's been enough said back and forth, that I think
• 3:05
  we're going to be able to slip into a, that's a much agreement,
• 3:08
  but an understanding of each other on expectations.
• 3:13
  Another new member to a
• 3:14
  leadership position here at the city is in your zoo, director John Berry.
• 3:18
  Yeah. Why was he the right man for that job?
• 3:20
  You know, it's incredible sometimes, you know, you go through some things,
• 3:24
  you try to create possibilities, you stay open to possibilities,
• 3:27
  and you hope for the best in that scenario.
• 3:29
  Sure enough, that's exactly what happened here.
• 3:31
  You know, we had a change in our leadership at the zoo.
• 3:34
  Not easy to find. The zoo director.
• 3:36
  At least with the expectations we had, because we're looking at an entirely new
• 3:40
  chapter and, you know, for the zoo on a going forward basis
• 3:43
  and what it really means to our community. So,
• 3:47
  we did a national search.
• 3:48
  There were a number of people who were really good candidates.
• 3:52
  John Barry is just extraordinary off the charts,
• 3:54
  having had incredible experience, not just in in zoos.
• 3:58
  He ran the Smithsonian in Washington, which is the National
• 4:01
  Zoo, is a very big deal. It did it for a number of years.
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  And he would tell you, by his own admission,
• 4:06
  that was his favorite job, whatever.
• 4:07
  But he had other big, big jobs, both, for President Clinton, President Biden,
• 4:12
  he was a he was a, you know, the consulate for Australia for a number of years,
• 4:16
  really, smart man, knowledgeable, deep.
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  We had a very soulful discussion here about animals and how he feels about them.
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  And, I think we just got really lucky here.
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  We wanted to create something good.
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  And every now and then, lady luck shines or light on you, you know? And.
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  And we found the candidate who had moved to Hawaii a year ago, who was here,
• 4:45
  I think maybe somewhat enjoying retirement, but I can tell you
• 4:48
  is somebody who's for retirement for brief moments in my past,
• 4:52
  you sit there thinking, wow, I want to do something else I could be doing.
• 4:55
  Right.
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  And, and so, we're lucky John Barry is going to be a great zoo director.
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  He's just gotten started.
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  But I can tell you that, I'm excited about the future of the zoo.
• 5:08
  I truly am excited because, as you've said here, we say it over and over again.
• 5:12
  I'll always say this.
• 5:12
  I put a premium on leadership, I really do.
• 5:15
  And if you have the right leaders, magical things happen.
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  And that's what we've tried to assemble over the course of time
• 5:20
  and bring to the city, was leaders who understood what it meant
• 5:24
  to get results, drive, performance, collaborate, work together, have vision,
• 5:30
  who aren't afraid to take risk, all that stuff, it can
• 5:34
  look at things that, you know and different ways and say,
• 5:37
  you know, I talk a lot about intellectual capital.
• 5:39
  That's sort of like ideas. Ideas at work.
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  And that's what you look for in people in this position.
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  So John is going to be a great any.
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  And not only that, he's really affable.
• 5:47
  I mean he's a really like he's one of those people you meet like
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  in two minutes you feel like, wow, I like this guy. Yeah.
• 5:52
  He just has that style and that skill and really trained professional.
• 5:57
  A little bit behind the scenes.
• 5:59
  Mayor, you walked in this morning as we're getting ready to record this
• 6:02
  podcast, with, your pandas.
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  What? What's the latest on that?
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  And, you know, it's kind of appropriate, because what
• 6:09
  if your conversations been like with John Barry?
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  Because DC does have their own.
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  And John was involved
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  going back to Chengdu, which is when I was with Hetty.
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  We do this and this to Washington knows a lot about them.
• 6:22
  Agrees with our our pursuit, if you will, actually offered me
• 6:27
  an idea about red pandas, which are, you know, they're they're smaller.
• 6:30
  They're not the giant pandas.
• 6:33
  But they're so cute.
• 6:33
  They're incredible. Yeah.
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  And and they're really, they're much more interactive with people than the giant.
• 6:37
  Yeah.
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  There's a giant pandas awake, like, six hours a day.
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  It's sleep 18, eat 100 people.
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  They're awake long enough to eat.
• 6:44
  But anyway, we're gonna look at all of this.
• 6:46
  I think having.
• 6:47
  And I've already, notified China.
• 6:49
  That's how you happen to have the stuffed panda?
• 6:51
  In response, I, notified them of our hi of John.
• 6:56
  I did it through, Consul General Gao in Los Angeles, who's kind of my champion.
• 7:01
  Just, you know, touting his experience because that is serendipitous.
• 7:05
  It's another leg up in our pursuit here that even when I was in China recently,
• 7:10
  having the conversations with the leadership there
• 7:13
  and, and now having it on the desk of President XI because that's
• 7:16
  who makes the decision, to hire a guy with the experience.
• 7:22
  And actually, quite honestly.
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  And what I also learned is they, that was watching was the first time
• 7:28
  they let pandas come to the United States.
• 7:30
  So there's a lot to that, too, and creating the precedent
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  for them coming here.
• 7:34
  But we have a lot of work left to do.
• 7:36
  But we're making progress.
• 7:39
  I would just say for anybody who's eager, it's not an overnight thing.
• 7:43
  We have to go through a bit of a courtship here.
• 7:45
  Some other things, then have to also raise money once we get the final go.
• 7:50
  But we're moving closer to getting that authorization where we could then
• 7:54
  go into a different level of operation with respect to funding things.
• 7:58
  We're going to do it to, to make it a reality.
• 8:00
  I'm excited about this.
• 8:03
  Mayor from a ribbon cutting ceremony is Paul Lam
• 8:05
  to a groundbreaking ceremony with the Self-Help Housing Corporation.
• 8:09
  Strides continue to be made
• 8:11
  when it comes to creating truly affordable housing here on the wall.
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  What do you like about these most recent projects?
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  They're big.
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  They're real. They're going to make a substantive difference.
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  And they continue to be that way.
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  We have a number of things in the pipeline right now.
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  I've told both Kevin, OJ and Catalina, who are respective
• 8:30
  leaders of Department of Housing and Land Management,
• 8:35
  they've actually exceeded my expectations here at bringing things to the fore.
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  And they're really aggressive.
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  And so now we've got to be able to show we can execute,
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  but if we execute everything that we have
• 8:46
  in the works, I mean, in the works, this is not just some cerebral endeavor.
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  I'm talking about deals, all that stuff.
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  And we will execute that because there's so much at stake.
• 8:56
  We will have really made a tremendous difference.
• 8:58
  I, we already have.
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  I think we well, we've obviously just an establishing
• 9:03
  and giving the city the capability that it now has in development
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  and financing is really is a playmaker, if you will, with the private sector
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  as well.
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  For a creation of housing, and all the other things that we're doing.
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  This is a game changer here.
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  So that's what I really like about it.
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  It's the reality. It's the it's the momentum.
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  It's the credibility, if you will, of what we said
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  at one point was, you know, what we had to create.
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  So it needed to be done.
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  And now we have that creation and it's beginning to manifest.
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  It's like that.
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  The reality is very exciting because we had no capabilities.
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  You know, I talked about it in the state of the city
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  and I've tried to be really clear every time,
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  I'm not here to denigrate anybody before us. But
• 9:43
  the city wasn't in the housing business since 1998, had not been a player.
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  City needs to be a player in that for so many reasons
• 9:50
  that we know, and so that's going to make a big difference.
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  Can't do it fast enough.
• 9:55
  So much of what is in this job sometimes is about future generations or whatever.
• 10:00
  But we're making things happen to happen
• 10:01
  now, but they will definitely impact the future.
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  And that's part of our responsibility to be able to do that kind of a partner
• 10:07
  issue with that, this year's point in time count numbers were released.
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  What did you like about this year's what was a big win?
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  You know, and I've never really been somebody
• 10:16
  to hang on the point in time count, per se.
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  But it is one of those criteria.
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  One of those metrics is out there.
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  And so, you know, we're up by 34 people.
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  And that's despite the fact that we knew for a fact
• 10:29
  from Partners in Care alone that some 590 people came in here
• 10:32
  last year from the mainland, you know, but it was really up,
• 10:36
  it really encourages two numbers, 135% more homeless people sheltered
• 10:42
  and 20% of the, up, 20% are chronic homeless.
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  Is is is is down.
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  It's up 20% down as well, you know, so we've improved by 20%.
• 10:53
  So that's important that, you know, we're making strides.
• 10:57
  What I really don't feel confident about this when the two hung up on the point
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  in time count is that we now have a capability between core,
• 11:05
  you know, and what they can do with respect to MH.
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  The people that we can pick up voluntarily
• 11:12
  or involuntarily the, the, the hardest cases out there.
• 11:15
  But we now have established places to take them.
• 11:18
  We now have a very good collaboration with the state on wraparound services.
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  Despite the legislative cuts.
• 11:24
  We're finding a way to be able to heal that financially.
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  We now have.
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  In fact, it was just debut last week on the, Kokua Command Center now.
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  So we can really facilitate.
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  If police pick up somebody, they know where to go.
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  We're getting a getting out of that old model.
• 11:40
  Somebody calls the police, calls this the dispatch
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  EMS very closely, and now they pick up somebody.
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  They take them to Queens, if you will, to the emergency room.
• 11:50
  2 or 3 hours later, through no fault the queens, they treat that person,
• 11:53
  they put them back where out of that cycle went to a psycho right now of
• 11:56
  of dealing with is a whole new situation is getting better and better.
• 12:02
  At being able to take people and place them.
• 12:06
  We're just, we're having some real success.
• 12:09
  We're not pounding our chest about it.
• 12:11
  But I said all along,
• 12:12
  we want to be able to get functional control of this
• 12:15
  so we don't feel like we're being victimized or overrun by it,
• 12:19
  or for that matter, desperation in the minds of the community.
• 12:21
  Because nobody seems to do with this.
• 12:23
  We're not totally there yet, but we have all the right pieces in place
• 12:27
  to to do this.
• 12:28
  And we are doing it, and it's only going to get better over time.
• 12:31
  And what I'm really encouraged by is that we're doing a really good job
• 12:35
  of getting people now into longer term care and housing
• 12:39
  and not just short turnarounds, you know?
• 12:41
  And so that's why I'm encouraged by the fact.
• 12:43
  And that's I want to give credit to Governor Green.
• 12:46
  The calls alone have had a lot to do with that
• 12:48
  35% increase in sheltered housing.
• 12:52
  But we've done some other remarkable things.
• 12:53
  You know, the Kate Lagoon cleanup was amazing.
• 12:56
  A big contribution.
• 12:58
  We've got some characters still left up at Diamondhead.
• 13:00
  But cleaning up Diamondhead, we had a headline a couple of weeks ago.
• 13:04
  Reduction in Waikiki, up 91%.
• 13:08
  I should say that I got a little confused why we're doing the right thing.
• 13:10
  Sounds absurd.
• 13:11
  This is all poisonous.
• 13:12
  Yeah, yeah, but I mean, you know, it's a, Yeah, it's the numbers.
• 13:17
  I'm usually pretty good with numbers, but it's, it's having positive numbers.
• 13:21
  It gets a negative situation.
• 13:23
  I got to figure out how to articulate that. But.
• 13:25
  But you know what? We're doing real stuff.
• 13:27
  I mean, I was a week ago, I was at the hotel owners and
• 13:31
  had them on a room, and I brought the newspaper
• 13:33
  just to make sure, because in fact, it was interesting
• 13:35
  the way it all worked out because, like, they hadn't even seen it.
• 13:37
  And, I said, you know, a headline like this doesn't happen by accident.
• 13:41
  It's been a real concerted effort.
• 13:42
  But HPD with the bid in Waikiki, we really like Trevor up reservoir,
• 13:46
  who, has worked really well as a partner with us.
• 13:49
  But the focus that we have, I see improvements
• 13:53
  constantly as we'll continue to make in Chinatown.
• 13:56
  It's an uphill.
• 13:57
  Yeah, but we're getting there.
• 14:00
  We are.
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  We're doing things
• 14:01
  that haven't been done before, and it's manifesting in real changes.
• 14:05
  And sometimes, you know, things are more evolutionary than revolutionary.
• 14:09
  And I'm not one for sitting by and rationalizing.
• 14:13
  But I also respect the fact it's a very complicated problem.
• 14:16
  So I think we've broken down now,
• 14:18
  I've sorted out on how we want to attack it, and we're doing it well,
• 14:23
  Mary, you were there last week
• 14:24
  as another massive section of all of the stadium came down.
• 14:28
  What did that do for you mentally, emotionally,
• 14:32
  maybe even strategically as a matter?
• 14:34
  I was amazed they interviewed me and I got really choked up.
• 14:38
  I, I couldn't believe it because I had so many incredible memories,
• 14:42
  in that stadium, from the standpoint of my early coaching
• 14:46
  is were there and we opened it up to, for several years as a coach there.
• 14:51
  And then for all the magical years I had with the late, great Jim Leahy,
• 14:54
  what had said for the University
• 14:56
  White Games during the heyday, back when we saw that stadium out
• 14:59
  and everybody would be on headsets, too, and it was such a vibrant,
• 15:03
  vital part of our community. It's such a source of pride. Right?
• 15:05
  So a lot of emotion came up, and I even heralded back
• 15:08
  to when I first came at the old stadium in my day.
• 15:11
  And when I played there in the 60s, and I also coached there
• 15:14
  and what stadiums mean.
• 15:16
  And so the reality now, finally, of the stadium coming down
• 15:20
  and the fact that we're going
• 15:21
  to build something for this, for this community to have, you know,
• 15:25
  there's no other place once this is built, 31,000 people, we can put them together.
• 15:29
  You know, it becomes a special venue.
• 15:31
  And, well, maybe we forced the issue a Capellini park.
• 15:35
  We did the service, but that's not the ideal model, you know?
• 15:39
  I mean, you want to have something that, is is is precisely that.
• 15:43
  So I think I got emotional and book and looking back at the past,
• 15:46
  but also about the fact that you can see the future now
• 15:49
  getting created and what that will mean.
• 15:51
  And, and so, I like that this
• 15:54
  we you to me, stadiums are sort of spiritual places
• 15:57
  because people come and they share such great emotion.
• 16:01
  I've joked it. I don't mean to be sacrilegious.
• 16:03
  Did this probably more praying that goes on in stadiums
• 16:06
  doesn't some of the churches.
• 16:07
  But just all that, all of that, you know, to quote the old ABC thing, the
• 16:11
  the joy of victory, the agony of defeat and how people go to look at,
• 16:15
  you know, contests and competitions that are done there
• 16:18
  and that anticipation and all that that conjures up.
• 16:21
  It's just it's great to that.
• 16:23
  We'll have a venue like that, that hopefully will be something
• 16:27
  everybody's really proud of. And I saw there was a pride of Aloha Stadium.
• 16:29
  I go back to Governor Burns days when we talked about that in the early 70s,
• 16:33
  and then we were opening it up in 75 and what that meant.
• 16:37
  And through all that time, I can honestly remember a time
• 16:40
  when the late, great Stan Sheriff as well,
• 16:43
  he and I became close friends because of what we do
• 16:45
  with the television contracts and stuff and really were partners.
• 16:49
  And in many ways, we really became the US television station.
• 16:53
  And, in those years and what that afforded everybody to see the teams.
• 16:58
  But we also were having sellouts, were sellouts,
• 17:00
  and baseball were selling out still shirts and it wasn't built a club, Jim.
• 17:04
  I mean, you know, and we were just then, you know, being able to showcase it
• 17:08
  throughout the state, known for a while that was so unique.
• 17:10
  It's an island state, right.
• 17:11
  And so all of that stuff was to me was always wonderful.
• 17:15
  You know, just the teams were playing well and we were showcases everybody.
• 17:19
  And we used to say in those years it wasn't
• 17:20
  the team that won, it was Hawaii won and that kind of pride.
• 17:23
  I want to see that come back and I think we're starting to see some snippets.
• 17:26
  Met Lee, who's just about 21, and his job is yeah, what if he's done a great job.
• 17:31
  You know Stephen size article is tremendous economically.
• 17:34
  All he's done
• 17:35
  I was really pleased to see the headline about the getting the 5 million for nil.
• 17:39
  We've been all over that because the game itself has changed.
• 17:42
  But it's not just football, it's all sports.
• 17:44
  So we look we just want a national championship in volleyball.
• 17:46
  Since you and I talk, three of them, people,
• 17:50
  places go on for decades, played the sport or even come close to one
• 17:54
  and always had them, I think in the final four like nine times, you know, I mean it
• 17:58
  playing at a high low, this is about excellence at the highest level
• 18:02
  and going back to the pride of our people in the incredible place
• 18:05
  that we live in that produces so many incredible athletes
• 18:08
  and also at the same time, have
• 18:09
  athletes come to compete here because of how they perceive Hawaii.
• 18:13
  Our ability to capitalize on that and showcase
• 18:15
  that is a very important and vital part of the fabric of this community.
• 18:19
  So I'm all for, you know, I'm all for this stuff.
• 18:22
  I just because I think it's good for people's soul.
• 18:24
  It's good for the psyche.
• 18:25
  I mean, I know that I've lived long enough to understand what it means,
• 18:29
  and why shouldn't we have those experiences
• 18:32
  when so many of these other cities, as we watch on television,
• 18:35
  have their franchises and, you know, and all that that represents
• 18:38
  and what it means to be a fan, etc., that's what we're doing here.
• 18:42
  And,
• 18:44
  it's all good.
• 18:44
  It's going to get better.
• 18:47
  Well, we're this is the one Oahu podcast.
• 18:49
  So for one final.
• 18:50
  Well, look, I hope that come on camera, I'm feeling really positive.
• 18:53
  You know, I, I really am I mean, I see good things happening.
• 18:56
  As I said a couple times, I, I don't know if it can happen fast enough,
• 18:59
  but we know we're doing good things.
• 19:00
  We're doing good work is administration.
• 19:02
  I'm proud of it. Will collaborating well with the state?
• 19:04
  We're trying to be a collaborator with anybody and everybody.
• 19:07
  I see other people doing good work as well.
• 19:09
  I'm really excited about the university.
• 19:10
  I think President Hensel has done
• 19:12
  a really good job in her tenure since she's been there.
• 19:14
  Matt Elliott, as we just said, that combination of what that represents,
• 19:18
  and, and, you know, it's it's about not accepting defeat.
• 19:23
  It's not about reading the gloomy headlines
• 19:26
  and sitting there going, okay, this is our destiny.
• 19:28
  You know, we understand we've been challenged offices.
• 19:30
  We know full well what's going on with Japan for a number of different reasons.
• 19:34
  As far as the this is from that place.
• 19:36
  And what are we doing to be proactive,
• 19:37
  to take care of ourselves, to fulfill our own destiny,
• 19:40
  to create our own futures.
• 19:41
  And I see that manifesting now in a number of places
• 19:44
  with different people going, you know what?
• 19:45
  Okay, we get it, but we're going to buck the trend.
• 19:48
  We're going to we're going to do something about that.
• 19:49
  And I said recently a speech there was kind of three kinds of people,
• 19:53
  you know,
• 19:54
  there's a person who walks outside their front door
• 19:55
  and they just sort of look around and they watch what happens.
• 19:59
  And then the other person walks out, says Dawn.
• 20:01
  And they say, what happened?
• 20:03
  But there's that person who walks outside the door who makes things happen.
• 20:07
  And that's all we need to be as a people.
• 20:09
  So thank you for
• 20:12
  who? And just a reminder, it is hurricane season here in Hawaii.
• 20:16
  The time to prepare is now.
• 20:18
  You can head over to honolulu.gov MTM
• 20:21
  for more information on how to keep you and your ohana safe.
• 20:24
  Mahalo for listening. And until next time, Aloha!