Latest / The One Oʻahu Podcast with Mayor Rick Blangiardi / Ocean Safety Chief Lager on his vision for the department and plans to support and retain personnel

Transcript

Ocean Safety Chief Lager on his vision for the department and plans to support and retain personnel · The One Oʻahu Podcast with Mayor Rick Blangiardi

• 0:15
  Welcome to the One O'ahu Podcast.
• 0:16
  I'm your host, Brandi Higa, and today is Thursday, February 5th, 2026.
• 0:21
  And we're joined this week
• 0:22
  by the Chief of the Honolulu Ocean Safety Department, Kurt Lager.
• 0:27
  Chief, thanks for making some time for us.
• 0:28
  Yeah. Hi, Brandi. Thanks. Have you gotten used to hearing that?
• 0:31
  No, I have not.
• 0:33
  But you are the department's first chief,
• 0:36
  approved and appointed by the commission that you commission sworn in.
• 0:39
  That's right.
• 0:40
  A little over a month ago now.
• 0:42
  What did that mean to you?
• 0:44
  Wow. That's hard to put into words.
• 0:45
  What it meant to me.
• 0:46
  Because it's something, you know, maybe not too long ago
• 0:50
  I didn't know if it was possible or maybe, like, wasn't in my.
• 0:54
  Maybe not so possible so soon. Right.
• 0:56
  Yeah.
• 0:56
  It's something I've always aspired to be in, running a department,
• 1:00
  but I thought maybe you'd come a little bit later down the line.
• 1:02
  But, it's just really,
• 1:05
  it's really gratifying.
• 1:06
  And humble.
• 1:07
  I've used those words before, but to me, it's just it's
• 1:10
  it's, it's like kind of a lifetime goal.
• 1:13
  I've always had some from day one when I started lifeguarding in California
• 1:17
  30 years ago, I always wanted to learn more, move up in the department.
• 1:21
  Just get to places where I could do
• 1:23
  more for the department and for the people that work for the department.
• 1:27
  And, just to be in a position now
• 1:29
  where I can represent and advocate and support everyone that works for us.
• 1:33
  It's just a really special feeling.
• 1:34
  Yeah.
• 1:35
  You know, we've had you on this podcast before, but for those maybe who did it,
• 1:38
  who missed it, I don't know how they would miss it, but take us back.
• 1:41
  Right.
• 1:42
  You said growing up you had all those surfer magazines.
• 1:45
  I mean, Hawaii was something that was kind of a dream job for you.
• 1:49
  Sure. So I'm from San Diego.
• 1:52
  I grew up surfing in San Diego, and, yeah, I read the magazines
• 1:55
  and read through all the articles. Look at the pictures.
• 1:58
  And I, you know, I remembered all the names.
• 1:59
  And then,
• 2:00
  you know, now, being out here, you know, Hawaii is the epicenter of surfing
• 2:05
  and getting to, you know, not that this job is about surfing, but
• 2:09
  a lot of those people are also waterman and and some of our lifeguards.
• 2:12
  And so just being able to to work within that kind of that world
• 2:16
  of, of of Waterman, is it just it's.
• 2:20
  Yeah, it's really kind of special.
• 2:22
  Yeah.
• 2:23
  And you know, you mentioned this community embraced you.
• 2:26
  And, you know, if I told you that
• 2:28
  as a 14 year old kid growing up in California,
• 2:31
  that that was going to be, you know, where you stood at this point in your life,
• 2:34
  you know, what do you think you would've told me?
• 2:36
  I probably be excited.
• 2:37
  Yeah, I probably like yeah, I want to get that.
• 2:39
  Yeah. And another exciting announcement.
• 2:42
  Your deputy chief was recently sworn in in Jimmy Rouse.
• 2:45
  What is it about Jimmy that makes him the right guy for this job?
• 2:49
  I can't say enough about Jimmy.
• 2:51
  I've been working with him for the last 20 years
• 2:54
  since I've been in the department.
• 2:55
  And, you know, Jimmy is been the backbone
• 2:58
  of this department without getting any recognition or credit.
• 3:02
  He is the guy that comes in early, stays late.
• 3:05
  He works on the special projects.
• 3:07
  He's always trying to make our what we do as lifeguards.
• 3:11
  He tries to make things better.
• 3:13
  And so he's always putting in the long hours and work, and you know, to help
• 3:17
  support the department and the people that were in the various positions.
• 3:20
  And, you know, so Jimmy's just, he's a really hard worker.
• 3:23
  He's extremely smart.
• 3:25
  He's also got this drive to just, to want to get things done,
• 3:29
  which makes me excited, as you know, having him by my side now because we
• 3:34
  we talk about execution, and I'm really focused on actually
• 3:39
  taking, steps forward
• 3:41
  and getting things done this year and in the future.
• 3:44
  Right.
• 3:44
  And I know that you kind of mentioned that in previous interviews,
• 3:47
  but can you talk about that, your vision and your priority for this department
• 3:50
  moving forward?
• 3:50
  Yeah.
• 3:51
  You know, so
• 3:51
  my number one
• 3:52
  priority is always going to be staffing
• 3:53
  and the people that work for our department.
• 3:56
  I believe that we got to support all the lifeguards and everyone that works for us.
• 4:00
  You know, from the front line, the guys in the tower all the way
• 4:03
  up to the people in the offices that are doing the work behind the scenes.
• 4:07
  It's just really important that we are supplying them with the
• 4:11
  the resources that they need to do their jobs effectively.
• 4:14
  And sometimes that's making sure a lifeguard tower has an extra person,
• 4:18
  extra lifeguard there when the waves are big or that they,
• 4:23
  you know, a beach that maybe gets neglected
• 4:25
  or has been neglected over the years,
• 4:26
  that they're getting a new rescue board or even a new lifeguard tower.
• 4:30
  So just really, that's probably my main priority is just focusing on the
• 4:35
  the job itself and the people that are working
• 4:37
  the job and trying to create a, a better place for them to be working.
• 4:41
  You know.
• 4:41
  Yeah.
• 4:42
  And actually, you know, chief, something stood out to me.
• 4:44
  I went to the 175th celebration for the fire department recently,
• 4:48
  and I saw someone there that was one of your former members.
• 4:52
  And so I wonder, you know, I wanted to ask you handful of lifeguards
• 4:56
  joined the fire department every year. Even EMS Amr,
• 5:00
  but what
• 5:00
  is it going to take to keep those ocean safety officers, even lieutenants,
• 5:04
  really, those men and women super talented in your department?
• 5:08
  Yeah. And that's a that's a big challenge, right?
• 5:10
  We, you know, some people come into our department
• 5:13
  and they know when they come in that they're already going to move on
• 5:16
  to the fire department or wherever that their next step is.
• 5:19
  But sometimes we have people that want to go to these other jobs just because
• 5:23
  they love ocean safety, but it's just not they're not able to pay the bills, right.
• 5:27
  So, you know, I'm really excited to work with Jimmy.
• 5:29
  And one of our big priorities
• 5:30
  in supporting our staff is to create a better career path,
• 5:34
  if you will, or try to, create opportunity
• 5:39
  to increase wages or whatever, just make it a better career
• 5:42
  where people are wanting to stay there and they see opportunity
• 5:46
  and they don't have to go,
• 5:48
  maybe get a second job or move on to a different job.
• 5:51
  Yeah.
• 5:52
  And I know that, you know, because your your own department
• 5:55
  budget is probably something that you've never had to deal with before.
• 5:58
  But it doesn't take too much, I think, to convince, the council administration
• 6:03
  about the work that goes on from your department beyond the water.
• 6:06
  Right.
• 6:07
  So we obviously know you're talented water men and women, but in the parking
• 6:10
  lots, the messages over the bullhorns, all the work that goes on the medicals.
• 6:14
  Beyond the water.
• 6:16
  Yeah.
• 6:16
  Majority of the work we do is outside of the water.
• 6:20
  We always say the best rescue is the one you never had to make.
• 6:23
  Right. So we're in the business of prevention.
• 6:24
  So what often gets overlooked is, is not us doing our job, but
• 6:29
  is because we're not making rescues
• 6:31
  or we don't have the drowning stats, but it's really the preventative actions.
• 6:35
  You know, we're out there on various different ways.
• 6:38
  We're talking, like you said, on the blow horn or a PA system.
• 6:42
  We're often getting out of the towers and walking down the beach, or
• 6:46
  jumping on an ATV and talking to people personally, personally, and educating them
• 6:50
  about what they're about to get into, what the hazards are that may exist.
• 6:55
  You know, there is a the lifeguards are well perceived.
• 6:59
  Our department, I think, is, well perceived in the community.
• 7:02
  And there's a lot of,
• 7:04
  encouraging support for our department.
• 7:07
  But, I think I try to emphasize the work,
• 7:11
  like you said, that happens before they have to go out and make a rescue.
• 7:14
  That's really the bulk of what we do is in the preventative world.
• 7:18
  Yeah.
• 7:19
  Some of the things that have helped this department recently.
• 7:23
  Dusk to dawn.
• 7:24
  What makes that model so successful?
• 7:26
  And we just talked about personnel.
• 7:27
  But really, what's it going to take to sustain something like that?
• 7:30
  Yeah.
• 7:30
  So we we're doing quote unquote dusk and Dawn or extended hours.
• 7:34
  Right now we are doing ten hour shifts, which is 830 to 630, which is fine.
• 7:38
  It's it's January right now.
• 7:40
  And so we're basically covering daylight hours.
• 7:43
  I think it's working out so well because we extended coverage.
• 7:46
  So there's more time out there where we're making those preventative actions,
• 7:50
  which has resulted in a decrease in drownings, you know.
• 7:54
  But we do know, and we're fully aware that from April through October
• 8:00
  the days get longer. Right.
• 8:01
  And so we're working right now, without jeopardizing, our lifeguards safety.
• 8:07
  And then in our any, any of our coverage, how we can extend those hours in various
• 8:11
  different ways to make sure that we're starting earlier in late
• 8:14
  in the summer months as well.
• 8:15
  In what ways do you hope to use maybe technology, maybe even I, I,
• 8:20
  I'm not sure what when it comes to ocean safety.
• 8:25
  What kind of technology you folks use or if there's like features that tell you,
• 8:27
  you know, this is going to be really successful
• 8:29
  in the years to come, but but how do you hope to use
• 8:31
  what's out there now to help take your department forward?
• 8:35
  Yeah. I'm a fan of technology.
• 8:38
  One of the ways that we're in the middle of right now
• 8:41
  is modernizing the way we do data collection and incident reporting.
• 8:45
  Every lifeguard tower has a piece of paper, and you take someone's
• 8:50
  writing something down.
• 8:50
  And 43 lifeguard towers and other 21 vehicles every single day, 365 days
• 8:56
  a year.
• 8:56
  That then has to be manually and put it into a spreadsheet.
• 9:00
  And then all that data has got to be compiled somewhere.
• 9:02
  So we're moving over to a platform called Watchtower.
• 9:05
  And the other counties in the state, as well as many agencies in the continent
• 9:08
  are also using.
• 9:09
  So we're we're going to go paperless is basically.
• 9:12
  And that will allow us real time, access to our data, our stats, the incident
• 9:18
  reporting and the processing of paperwork and stuff will speed up.
• 9:22
  You mentioned I, I can definitely help ocean safety
• 9:26
  in the way of AI, artificial intelligence cameras.
• 9:29
  You know, maybe there's a, area that's just not accessible or doesn't
• 9:32
  make sense for a lifeguard tower, but we might be able to put a camera,
• 9:36
  that can recognize if someone's in trouble in the water
• 9:39
  or what activity they're doing in the water.
• 9:40
  And we can dispatch our lifeguards much sooner than waiting for A911 call.
• 9:45
  Yeah.
• 9:46
  You know, and then,
• 9:47
  the one that's been around for a while and we're getting a drone program
• 9:50
  started up and, you know, and there's a lot of different uses for drones.
• 9:55
  Just having that advantage of, the eye in the sky over the water.
• 9:58
  I think we're going to start seeing more of that in the future.
• 10:02
  Yeah.
• 10:02
  You kind of mentioned when the where there's a beach where there isn't a tower.
• 10:05
  So what is the process now?
• 10:07
  Like how many rescue units do you have and how do you take care of the coverage.
• 10:10
  What's the what's the strategy there?
• 10:11
  Yeah, we have any given day about
• 10:15
  21 vehicles that are patrolling the island.
• 10:19
  Most of those are
• 10:21
  supervisory, vehicles are lieutenants, but they respond to nine one calls.
• 10:25
  And then we have nine rescue units that are stationed around the island
• 10:29
  with a jet ski attached to it.
• 10:31
  And so,
• 10:33
  they are responsible for responding to 911
• 10:36
  calls for those, emergencies that happen where we do not have a lifeguard tower,
• 10:39
  as well as backing up our lifeguard towers when an incident happened. So.
• 10:44
  There was an article in the paper recently about a permanent ocean
• 10:47
  safety headquarters. A new one, at least.
• 10:50
  What's the latest there?
• 10:52
  The latest is is that we need a new headquarters.
• 10:55
  And, You know, for those unfamiliar, where where do you work on it.
• 10:58
  Right now?
• 10:58
  Yeah, right now we are in an old daycare or, elementary school type building.
• 11:03
  It's, small overall layout.
• 11:05
  Yeah, by Diamondhead.
• 11:06
  And we've outgrown it's some number of years ago.
• 11:09
  We outgrew it, but we're we're making do right now.
• 11:11
  And so we're in the hunt for, where our new headquarters might be.
• 11:16
  And there's talks about,
• 11:17
  it being down on the water somewhere, maybe Carlo Basin or, elsewhere,
• 11:21
  but also looking inland somewhere,
• 11:23
  you know, because there is a lot of concern about,
• 11:26
  the environmental things that happen with facilities these days.
• 11:29
  So maybe we can be better off being a little bit off the water,
• 11:32
  at least from an administrative standpoint.
• 11:35
  And I know that construction out in Kailua was going well.
• 11:38
  What's the latest on your Kailua facility?
• 11:39
  Kailua is moving along.
• 11:40
  We're excited about that.
• 11:41
  It's, we had a little bit of setbacks because we had to,
• 11:45
  push a retaining wall back to get our jet skis and properly into the garage.
• 11:49
  But right now, we're,
• 11:51
  hopeful that we'll be in the building sometime this summer operating out of it.
• 11:54
  And we've heard you mentioned this before,
• 11:56
  but the very popular junior lifeguard program.
• 12:00
  What are your plans when it comes to that program?
• 12:02
  My favorite topic. Yeah. Junior lifeguards.
• 12:04
  It's going to be a big year for us junior lifeguards.
• 12:08
  I like to expand on the program year after year to see how we can do better.
• 12:13
  Mostly by reaching new areas where we haven't done,
• 12:17
  a junior guard program before.
• 12:18
  And so this year, we're last year we added code Lena, which was wildly successful.
• 12:23
  And so we've never done anything in the ever beach Kapolei like proper area.
• 12:27
  So we're going to try and add that to our list of beaches
• 12:30
  that we go to to service that community over there.
• 12:33
  But what's really exciting about junior guards
• 12:35
  this year is we're going to be hosting the state championships,
• 12:38
  which is where the neighbor islands come with their 30 kids,
• 12:42
  and then all the islands come together and we have a big championship.
• 12:45
  And, last year, Oahu were the state champs.
• 12:48
  So we have a title defend this year.
• 12:50
  So it's exciting.
• 12:51
  And how many from that program go on to join your department after?
• 12:55
  I don't have an exact, number, but it's it's high.
• 12:58
  If you talk to a majority of our lifeguards,
• 13:00
  they've all, participated in a junior guard program at some time or another.
• 13:04
  Yeah. And this isn't like a learn to swim program.
• 13:06
  This is if you've seen them out there, you know, they're sprinting.
• 13:11
  I've seen kids work so hard, they're like throwing up on the side.
• 13:14
  This is a pretty intense program that offers some really, really valuable
• 13:17
  skills. Yeah.
• 13:18
  You know, and like, I don't want to scare kids away because.
• 13:21
  Yeah.
• 13:21
  It is intense and there is a lot of physical activity.
• 13:24
  But there's a
• 13:25
  we cater to the people that are maybe not so much in that path as well.
• 13:29
  But, it's not a learn to swim program, but they're going to learn all the
• 13:33
  the skills that you need to go out into the water,
• 13:35
  feel confident in your ability to handle waves,
• 13:38
  rocks or currents and then know what to do if you need to help
• 13:42
  someone that's in trouble.
• 13:44
  And kids that have done this program have gone on
• 13:47
  to do some pretty incredible things, too, whether they join ocean safety or not.
• 13:50
  I mean, they can do their own preventative measures.
• 13:52
  They can even do their own, you know, initially, like what looks like a rescue,
• 13:56
  you know, incident or even know who to call or what to do
• 14:00
  in the case of an emergency.
• 14:01
  Yeah, 100%.
• 14:02
  And, we hear stories about it all the time
• 14:05
  because these kids that are in the junior guard programs,
• 14:07
  they're the kids that are at the beach every single day.
• 14:09
  And what better place to have someone that has that kind of experience
• 14:13
  out in the water, where something's going to happen?
• 14:15
  There was a story just not long ago where one of our kids,
• 14:19
  junior guards, was on a jet ski patrol in the area outside Hingham.
• 14:23
  A band came across,
• 14:25
  someone that was in distress because their boat had sank,
• 14:27
  and he was able to safely help that person back in.
• 14:30
  So, yeah, just they're an extension of of our lifeguard family, you know,
• 14:35
  and that's not just junior guards, but when we educate people in water safety
• 14:38
  and some of those techniques even just as basic as CPR, that's
• 14:42
  that's the we just community
• 14:45
  stepping in to help each other, it really will make a difference.
• 14:48
  Yeah.
• 14:50
  There was another rescue story that made the news recently,
• 14:52
  and we actually honored him here, not far from where we're sitting now.
• 14:55
  But one of your guys in, Ryan, when he is on his and his son,
• 14:59
  kind of left right place at the right time kind of incident.
• 15:02
  Yeah.
• 15:03
  Ryan Mooney's, he's a lifeguard.
• 15:04
  He's a lieutenant, and I'm a been.
• 15:06
  He goes out on his jet ski with his son, Hunter.
• 15:08
  They're out in Kaneohe Bay.
• 15:10
  It's an area that they go quite frequently on the jet ski.
• 15:12
  They go take him around because it's calm out there and stuff.
• 15:15
  And Ryan just had this kind of, lifeguards sense
• 15:18
  that something wasn't right as he was going by some boats that he saw.
• 15:21
  And sure enough, he went over and there was, bystander CPR happening on.
• 15:26
  And so he was able to get on board the boat and leave his son on the jetski
• 15:30
  with someone else.
• 15:31
  He didn't drive the jetski by himself, but,
• 15:33
  and then in this continue CPR, but from a professional level
• 15:37
  because Ryan's, you know,
• 15:39
  trained in that way and remain calm, give directions to everyone in the boat,
• 15:43
  pass information on to 911 where lifeguards were then able to to come
• 15:47
  put them on, put the person on a jet ski, which she was breathing.
• 15:50
  By that point, she had already regained consciousness
• 15:52
  and then hand off to, emergency services for further support.
• 15:56
  Yeah, and then to here.
• 15:57
  I mean, you obviously are in charge now of who joins us department.
• 16:01
  Right. Hiring and firing.
• 16:02
  But the men and women that make up this department,
• 16:04
  there's something in there that you can't teach.
• 16:06
  And when Ryan is off duty with something like this
• 16:09
  and then does something like that, when you hear about that,
• 16:12
  what was your initial reaction?
• 16:13
  I wasn't surprised.
• 16:15
  I think I think you could any you put any one of our lifeguards
• 16:18
  in that situation and they would have done the same thing.
• 16:20
  Right.
• 16:21
  But four year old Hunter, I mean, knew to try to flag down EMS,
• 16:26
  you know, to stay calm.
• 16:27
  I mean, that's also a calm.
• 16:28
  You can't teach when you hear about that. Like you said, an extension.
• 16:31
  This is an extension of your ocean safety family.
• 16:33
  Yeah. And it's so cool.
• 16:35
  I know Ryan teaches his son a lot of stuff, and his son was super proud of him.
• 16:39
  What happened? Maybe.
• 16:40
  I don't know how much he understood what was actually going on, but,
• 16:44
  yeah, it's just really cool to see.
• 16:46
  And we're lifeguards for life, right?
• 16:48
  You know?
• 16:50
  Yeah.
• 16:50
  And for those interested in becoming one of these lifeguards for life,
• 16:54
  how can they join the department or learn more?
• 16:56
  Yeah.
• 16:56
  So we typically do two recruit classes
• 16:58
  or two recruitments a year at one in the spring and one in the fall.
• 17:01
  You need to be 18 years of age.
• 17:03
  And most of this information, actually, all the information is on our website
• 17:07
  at Ocean Safety dot Honolulu gov.
• 17:09
  But high school graduate you need to have had a CPR course,
• 17:14
  CPR certificate and a basic lifeguard certificate
• 17:17
  from Red cross or equivalent.
• 17:21
  And increasing these numbers. I mean, that could only mean good things.
• 17:23
  But I know that this is something
• 17:25
  that you have talked about before, but when it comes to drownings, right?
• 17:29
  So water deaths here on Oahu, why is it so frequent
• 17:33
  and what's going to be the steps now to kind of get those numbers down?
• 17:38
  Yeah. Why is it so frequent?
• 17:40
  That's that's kind of the scary part of it.
• 17:42
  We're second in the nation for, for for deaths being the,
• 17:46
  drowning being the cause of deaths.
• 17:47
  And so I think it's just going to take a real, community based.
• 17:51
  I don't think any one organization can, can change things.
• 17:55
  Like, we're certainly going to be on the beaches
• 17:56
  making as many preventative actions, but we really need to, I think one
• 18:00
  teach our kids how to how to swim, all the learn to swim program.
• 18:03
  So working with all the nonprofits out there
• 18:05
  and hopefully get Learn to Swim program into, the d.o.e.
• 18:09
  and and are some form of that. Yeah.
• 18:11
  And just also public messaging, you know, educating the public
• 18:15
  as much as we can before some someone even leaves a hotel room
• 18:19
  or leaves the house that they are making smart decisions
• 18:22
  on what they're about to go do, what beach they're going to go to,
• 18:24
  and what activity they're going to partake in.
• 18:28
  Well, chief, is there
• 18:29
  anything that we missed?
• 18:33
  No. I'm just super grateful to be here.
• 18:34
  I'm excited.
• 18:36
  I think check back with with us, later this year.
• 18:39
  In the coming years, there's going to be some big changes for us, hopefully.
• 18:43
  And it's only fair.
• 18:44
  I did ask the mayor this the police chief and the fire chief,
• 18:48
  but we did start a new year in 2026.
• 18:51
  Do you have any New Year's resolutions?
• 18:53
  My New Year's resolution every year is to make it better than the year before.
• 18:57
  I say go on. How are you doing so far?
• 18:58
  So far, so good.
• 18:59
  Yeah, I'm doing it with a smile. Hopefully.
• 19:02
  Well, Chief Logger, thank you for your time.
• 19:04
  Thank you very much.
• 19:05
  And next week,
• 19:05
  we'll be back with Mayor Blangiardi right here on the One Oahu Podcast.
• 19:09
  Be sure to send in any questions that you have for the mayor.
• 19:11
  Mahalo for listening.
• 19:12
  And until next time, Aloha.