Latest / The One Oʻahu Podcast with Mayor Rick Blangiardi / 2024 City Employee of the Year Rebecca Choquette, a zookeeper at the Honolulu Zoo

Transcript

2024 City Employee of the Year Rebecca Choquette, a zookeeper at the Honolulu Zoo · The One Oʻahu Podcast with Mayor Rick Blangiardi

• 0:15
  Welcome to the One O'ahu Podcast.
• 0:17
  I'm your host, Brandi Higa, and this week we're sitting down with Rebecca Choquette.
• 0:22
  Becky or Rebecca? What are you go by?
• 0:24
  I go by whatever people want to call me.
• 0:26
  But Becky, to my friends, usually.
• 0:28
  Okay, I'm going to call you Becky.
• 0:30
  Of course.
• 0:31
  So, Mike, you tell us, what is your title?
• 0:34
  My title is Zoo Animal Keeper two.
• 0:37
  And what that means is I am a working supervisor
• 0:40
  within the Reptile and Keiki Zoo sections of the zoo.
• 0:45
  That's awesome.
• 0:46
  And you know the reason why we're sitting there.
• 0:47
  And one of the reasons,
• 0:49
  is because you were recently selected as the city's employee of the year.
• 0:52
  What was going. We were at that ceremony.
• 0:54
  What was going through your head when you heard your name called?
• 0:59
  Honestly, I was thinking how cool it was
• 1:02
  to be up there with all of those wonderful, accomplished people.
• 1:05
  And I didn't think for a minute that my name was going to be called.
• 1:09
  So when I heard it, there was that moment of shock and disbelief.
• 1:14
  And did I really just hear what they said?
• 1:18
  But yes, it was real.
• 1:21
  What are the with you?
• 1:22
  Many, many complex emotions.
• 1:25
  And a lot to unpack.
• 1:28
  It meant,
• 1:31
  a huge amount.
• 1:32
  I am so very honored to be the employee of the year,
• 1:36
  but also a little bit of,
• 1:40
  I'm not worthy.
• 1:41
  I'm not worthy.
• 1:42
  Sort of feelings.
• 1:44
  Yeah, I know that.
• 1:46
  Mayor, had a moment with you. One on one.
• 1:48
  After it was done, he was on stage with you.
• 1:51
  He said a few words to you. Do you remember what he said?
• 1:54
  This is like my wedding.
• 1:55
  I don't remember what I pledged to do at my wedding.
• 2:00
  Yeah, I just remember it was very light,
• 2:03
  and we were just chatting, but I don't remember exactly what it was.
• 2:06
  And, Becky, how long have you been with the Honolulu Zoo?
• 2:09
  31 years now.
• 2:11
  Where were you before?
• 2:13
  In college, actually.
• 2:15
  Oh, so you came to the zoo straight out of college?
• 2:16
  Yes. Yeah.
• 2:18
  And tell us a little bit about yourself.
• 2:20
  Where did you grow up?
• 2:21
  Where did you go to school?
• 2:23
  So I grew up Kona side of the Big Island and went to high school at Konawaena High.
• 2:28
  And then I moved to Oahu
• 2:30
  to go to U-H and studied zoology,
• 2:34
  which is no longer a major that you can study at UWA now.
• 2:39
  It kind of got shifted into Biology and College of Tropical Agriculture.
• 2:44
  But yes, I got my degree in zoology and
• 2:49
  it was kismet or serendipity.
• 2:52
  Right out of school I saw the ad for Zoo Animal Keeper one and I qualified.
• 2:56
  So I applied and I got the job.
• 2:59
  It was amazing.
• 3:00
  It was an opportunity I never thought I would be able to to be offered.
• 3:05
  I had always wanted to work with reptiles and amphibians,
• 3:09
  and this was a chance to do it.
• 3:11
  And to stay here in Hawaii, too, because, as you probably know,
• 3:16
  there aren't a lot of places
• 3:17
  where you can actually work with reptiles and amphibians here in Hawaii.
• 3:21
  So obviously, you kind of knew what you wanted to do early on in life.
• 3:25
  Were you that little kid like playing with frogs and like, was that you?
• 3:30
  Yes, that was me.
• 3:32
  My mother was terrified of snakes.
• 3:36
  She was
• 3:37
  raised in Connecticut, on the mainland,
• 3:40
  and she was sure that she did not want to pass that fear down to her children.
• 3:45
  So she always encouraged my sister and I to play with
• 3:49
  reptiles and amphibians and insects and all the creepy crawly things
• 3:53
  that most people would, would consider frightening or even intimidating.
• 3:58
  And so when she was teaching you this early on, you weren't afraid at any point.
• 4:02
  You were just animal lover.
• 4:04
  You always loved them.
• 4:06
  I have always loved them all sorts of animals.
• 4:08
  But I will tell you a secret.
• 4:11
  For a while I was a little bit nervous about handling photos.
• 4:17
  The ones you see that is.
• 4:18
  Oh, if you're from Manoa or Waimanalo
• 4:22
  or anywhere where it's rainy, you'll see those big brown lumpy
• 4:26
  toads hopping about on the roads at night, especially when it's raining.
• 4:30
  I was a little bit nervous about those guys.
• 4:33
  But working here at the zoo, I quickly got over that nervousness
• 4:36
  and learned to love them as much as all the other animals.
• 4:40
  Well, you said working here at the zoo.
• 4:42
  So, Becky, for you, what does your day to day look like?
• 4:45
  My day to day right now.
• 4:47
  So I spent 26 years of my career as an animal keeper one.
• 4:53
  I was my day as an animal keeper.
• 4:56
  One involved taking care of the animals.
• 4:59
  I would come in and I would get my keys.
• 5:00
  I would do my rounds. I would check on them all.
• 5:03
  I would make sure that they had had a good night, that nothing went wrong,
• 5:07
  that no one was sick and no one was injured.
• 5:09
  I would go around and I would give them all their food
• 5:12
  and their fresh water and clean up after them
• 5:15
  and do any maintenance that was necessary in their exhibits.
• 5:20
  About five years ago, I moved up to the working
• 5:23
  supervisor position, which still includes all of that.
• 5:26
  But, honestly, there's a little bit more paperwork involved now.
• 5:30
  Tell us about you mentioned the reptiles and the animals that you take care of.
• 5:34
  Can you tell us about them or maybe even some of the natives you work with?
• 5:36
  And are there characteristics are there fun facts, mannerisms,
• 5:39
  maybe that, you know, the normal person doesn't know?
• 5:42
  Oh, absolutely.
• 5:44
  People think reptiles don't have personality.
• 5:47
  They absolutely have personality.
• 5:49
  They all have different personalities.
• 5:51
  One of the ones I will tell you about a little bit is our Burmese python, George.
• 5:57
  So a lot of the animals that we have here at the,
• 6:00
  in the reptile area, at the Honolulu's, we call it the ectoderm exhibit.
• 6:05
  We're amnesty animals, which means
• 6:08
  that somebody brought them here illegally to Hawaii.
• 6:11
  The State of Hawai'i doesn't want these animals
• 6:13
  loose in the environment because they could harm our native species.
• 6:17
  So if people bring them here illegally, they can turn them in.
• 6:22
  No questions asked and no penalties.
• 6:25
  And so some of those animals find their way here to the Honolulu Zoo
• 6:28
  and spend the rest of their lives here.
• 6:30
  George, the Burmese python is one of those animals.
• 6:34
  He is a gorgeous 10.5ft long.
• 6:38
  I know Burmese python,
• 6:41
  and most people see him lying in his exhibit.
• 6:44
  And like most snakes, he sleeps a lot.
• 6:46
  They like to conserve energy.
• 6:49
  But when he hands, the most active is when we give him piles of leaves.
• 6:55
  He loves to explore and investigate piles of leaves.
• 6:59
  So if you come and you see a pile of leaves by the window,
• 7:03
  you are likely to see George, the Burmese python poking around in a tongue,
• 7:08
  flicking it to pick up all the sense that are in those leaves.
• 7:12
  Or when he's finished with that, he'll curl up
• 7:14
  and he'll sleep on top of his leaf pile.
• 7:16
  It's very cute.
• 7:18
  Yeah, I see, I didn't even know that that snake's name was George.
• 7:22
  Are there any other animals that you know?
• 7:24
  You have these incredible stories that you want folks to know about?
• 7:27
  So another thing that I'd really like people to know about
• 7:30
  is the work we're doing with native Hawaiian invertebrates.
• 7:34
  We are working with Kamehameha butterflies,
• 7:37
  and right now this is one of the only places where you can see Kamehameha
• 7:41
  butterflies on display.
• 7:44
  They are in the ectoderm complex, and they have their own
• 7:47
  exhibit, and people can come down and take a look at them.
• 7:50
  They look a little bit like monarch.
• 7:52
  Yeah, but they're also a little different.
• 7:55
  And it would be very rare for you to get a chance to see them in the wild.
• 7:59
  So this is a chance for people to see something really cool.
• 8:03
  They are the state butterfly,
• 8:06
  and we breed them both to provide
• 8:09
  butterflies for the exhibit and also for some of the work dlnR does.
• 8:13
  We have had butterflies released at various places on Oahu.
• 8:18
  And we also work
• 8:20
  with native Hawaiian snails.
• 8:24
  Now, most people do not think snails and go, whoa!
• 8:28
  I mean, if you're putting a fennec fox in front of me or a snail, I mean, that's.
• 8:33
  Yeah, I get it.
• 8:34
  And the ones that we have right now are not the beautifully colored snails.
• 8:41
  To be honest, the ones we're working with right now are small and brown,
• 8:45
  but they are probably the most endangered animals here at the Honolulu Zoo.
• 8:49
  They were considered extinct in the wild, several years ago.
• 8:54
  And dlnR has started a reintroduction program.
• 8:57
  So the snails that we breed at the zoo go to dlnR
• 9:00
  and are reintroduced back into the wild, which is really cool.
• 9:04
  Why are they important?
• 9:06
  This particular species of snail is important because it,
• 9:12
  it lives in the leaf litter.
• 9:14
  It lives on the ground.
• 9:15
  And all those little creepy crawly things that you see living in
• 9:18
  the leaf litter are important decomposers.
• 9:21
  So when leaves die on a tree and they fall to the ground,
• 9:26
  these little creepy crawlies will eat them.
• 9:29
  Digest the nutrients, poop out the nutrients,
• 9:32
  and that becomes part of the soil.
• 9:34
  So all the little things
• 9:35
  on the forest floor are both creating and enriching the soil.
• 9:39
  So that the trees can grow.
• 9:41
  It's a wonderful cycle.
• 9:42
  Becky mentioned some three decades and in this work, if not for this,
• 9:46
  what do you think you'd be doing?
• 9:50
  That is a really good, good question.
• 9:52
  I never pictured myself doing anything other than working with animals.
• 9:59
  If I wasn't here at the zoo,
• 10:02
  I might be working with fish at the aquarium,
• 10:06
  working in rescue with native birds.
• 10:11
  Or maybe I'd just be on my own ranch, riding horses
• 10:14
  and raising cattle and goats and things like that.
• 10:18
  Well, now that you are here, you mentioned that, you know,
• 10:20
  you loved it from the start, but what do you love most about this job?
• 10:25
  The ability to work with incredible creatures
• 10:28
  that most people don't even have a chance to see in person.
• 10:33
  Let alone interact with.
• 10:36
  One of my bucket list animals that we got by
• 10:40
  chance turned out to be a coconut crab.
• 10:44
  She was found in early December in 2014,
• 10:49
  in Salt Lake, stopping traffic on the road.
• 10:54
  People scooped her into a cooler.
• 10:56
  She was turned over to the Hawaii State Department of Agriculture.
• 11:00
  And when we saw that, we asked if we could have that animal
• 11:04
  as part of our collection.
• 11:06
  And they kindly said yes.
• 11:07
  We cooperate often with the Department of Agriculture.
• 11:11
  So she lived here with us for ten years, and our keiki zoo,
• 11:16
  she was 5 pounds of giant, amazing crab.
• 11:23
  It was not an animal that I ever thought I'd get to work with.
• 11:26
  It was not an animal that I ever expected to become attached to,
• 11:31
  but she was really an amazing and unique animal.
• 11:35
  Yeah, for someone that isn't familiar with this crab
• 11:38
  or animals that look like that in general, you know, usually when you say,
• 11:41
  oh, what's the one animal you want?
• 11:42
  You here, I know this two here is that red panda.
• 11:45
  Kids love sloths, the softer animals.
• 11:48
  But what was it that attracted you to this hard shell
• 11:53
  kind of ugly looking crab?
• 11:56
  She had personality. Okay.
• 11:59
  She had her own individual personality.
• 12:02
  And she also had two things called s.
• 12:04
  The tasks, which are sensory organs that are unique to crabs.
• 12:11
  They act as, sort of like a snake's tongue.
• 12:14
  They take chemicals out of the air.
• 12:17
  And when she was interested in something, these two little things,
• 12:20
  they looked like weird bent antenna would come out
• 12:24
  and they would start bouncing and and quivering.
• 12:28
  And they do this little dance.
• 12:29
  And it was just really fun to watch.
• 12:33
  So would you say that's your favorite animal or do you have a favorite animal?
• 12:36
  I don't have a favorite animal.
• 12:38
  My favorite animal is whatever animal is in front of me at the moment.
• 12:43
  Okay.
• 12:45
  And if, let's say
• 12:47
  George, if George could understand English for an hour,
• 12:51
  truly understand what you're telling him, what would you say and why?
• 12:57
  I would
• 12:57
  want to know about his life before he came to the zoo.
• 13:01
  We would talk story about that.
• 13:04
  So when somebody turns in an animal
• 13:06
  and it's an end to see turn in, we don't get any history on that animal.
• 13:10
  So one of the things the public often asks is, how old is this animal?
• 13:16
  And for the amnesty animals, we really don't know.
• 13:19
  We can make an educated guess, but we don't know for sure
• 13:23
  because we don't know where they came from or what their life was like before
• 13:27
  they came to us. That's what we would chat about.
• 13:29
  But to speak to your soft and fluffy animal question.
• 13:35
  I also supervised the Keiki Zoo, and one of my favorite,
• 13:40
  and some of my favorite animals in the Keiki Zoo are the goats
• 13:44
  and the goats are the unsung heroes at the Honolulu Zoo.
• 13:49
  It is the one exhibit where people can actually go in
• 13:52
  with the animals and have a chance to pet them and love them,
• 13:57
  and talk to them and tell them their secrets.
• 14:00
  And we do have that happen.
• 14:01
  Small children have their favorite goats,
• 14:04
  and they'll come in and they'll have whole conversations
• 14:06
  with their favorite goats telling them about what they did that week,
• 14:10
  or maybe even something that happened in school, either happy or sad.
• 14:16
  And sometimes
• 14:17
  if I'm having a rough day, I'll go in and I'll sit with the goats, too, and go.
• 14:21
  Therapy with them. Yeah.
• 14:22
  Yeah, it's a real thing.
• 14:24
  I know for me, you know, I kind of.
• 14:27
  I get prideful.
• 14:28
  I'm not sure what the feeling is when, dogs like me.
• 14:31
  So, like, if you go, you know, some someone else's dog comes up to you.
• 14:33
  It's kind of like,
• 14:34
  all right, you know, I'm a good person, and this dog likes me, and I'm.
• 14:38
  I kind of assume that, like, reptiles are the same way.
• 14:40
  They trust you.
• 14:41
  They let you hold them.
• 14:42
  They let you do whatever. Yes, absolutely.
• 14:45
  And that must make you feel like on top of the world like this.
• 14:49
  Yeah. Was there a problem with it. Didn't like you.
• 14:53
  I have had love hate relationships
• 14:56
  with several animals within the zoo over the years.
• 15:01
  We had way back when a miniature donkey
• 15:04
  she was, she was a difficult animal.
• 15:07
  I don't know that she really liked anybody.
• 15:10
  She had a tendency to bite.
• 15:14
  Sometimes it's the difficult ones and the spunky ones that you love the most.
• 15:19
  And then when you win them over, that must be like the ultimate feeling.
• 15:22
  Yes. Yeah.
• 15:23
  We've had a number of baby monitor lizards, so
• 15:27
  mammals are born needing their mother.
• 15:31
  They want to bond with another individual because it's important
• 15:34
  for their survival.
• 15:36
  Reptiles come out of the egg knowing that the entire world is against them,
• 15:40
  and they have to fight the entire world in order to survive.
• 15:44
  So whenever we have baby monitor lizards hatch,
• 15:49
  they come out wanting to take on the world.
• 15:53
  They tend to be very bitey.
• 15:54
  They can be very flighty and difficult to handle,
• 15:57
  but it really is something special when they start to get older and
• 16:01
  they start to trust you, and they realize that you're not going to hurt them
• 16:05
  and eventually get to the point where they'll hang out on your hand.
• 16:10
  And knowing that the reptiles act like that.
• 16:14
  What's the camaraderie like?
• 16:15
  You know, I've talked to Okie, who's who's often with the tortoises.
• 16:19
  I've talked to Carly, who's like, amazing with the butterflies.
• 16:22
  Now that you guys have all, you know, done this for a very long time together.
• 16:26
  Can you talk about that? The team here.
• 16:29
  We have a marvelous team.
• 16:31
  I am so happy and proud
• 16:34
  to be part of this team.
• 16:37
  We have a number of people who have been with the reptile.
• 16:39
  And Kiki's a section for many, many years.
• 16:42
  Like myself, like Carly, like Okie.
• 16:45
  And we have a number of bright, fresh faces who have come on recently
• 16:49
  after Covid.
• 16:51
  And, everybody is
• 16:54
  just doing a fantastic job.
• 16:56
  I could not be happier.
• 16:58
  Becky, you you mentioned the mannerisms of these reptiles.
• 17:02
  So have you gotten bit have you had any close calls?
• 17:09
  Many, many, many years ago.
• 17:11
  Many, many, many years ago.
• 17:13
  We had baby Komodo dragons, and I
• 17:16
  did get nipped by a baby Komodo dragon.
• 17:20
  There is a lot of talk nowadays about whether or not
• 17:23
  they're venomous, whether there's bacteria in their mouth.
• 17:27
  But for the most part, with babies,
• 17:30
  their mouths are tiny, their teeth are tiny,
• 17:32
  and they're not going to do too much damage.
• 17:35
  You just get a little nick.
• 17:37
  Kind of like being bitten by an unknown,
• 17:41
  if you know what that. I know what that is.
• 17:42
  What is that?
• 17:43
  Those are those, very feisty brown
• 17:46
  lizards that everybody has in their garden nowadays.
• 17:49
  Okay. They'll come right up to you.
• 17:50
  They've got to do lap, which is like a colored thing under their throat.
• 17:55
  They'll do push ups at you.
• 17:56
  They're they're very feisty.
• 17:57
  They'll bite if you grab them or get too close.
• 18:00
  Are there any other, you know, any stories you can think of?
• 18:03
  Like you said, you have many, many. We'd love to hear.
• 18:04
  Maybe 1 or 2 more. I'll go with
• 18:08
  our female Komodo
• 18:09
  dragon and doc, our male Komodo dragon.
• 18:13
  So we got this pair of Komodo dragons from the National Zoo.
• 18:16
  They arrived in 1992, and they were the parents of the six babies
• 18:21
  that we had here.
• 18:24
  As an animal keepers, starting off in 1994.
• 18:29
  I grew up with these animals.
• 18:31
  T.W., sadly, has since passed.
• 18:34
  But doc, the male Komodo dragon, is still with us.
• 18:39
  He is 32 years old.
• 18:40
  He is, to our knowledge, the oldest Komodo in captivity
• 18:44
  right now in North America.
• 18:47
  He is showing his age a little bit.
• 18:49
  He's got a little bit of arthritis, but we manage that.
• 18:52
  We work with the vets.
• 18:54
  And one thing that we have started to do with him, and this is really fun
• 18:58
  and really unique, and I love it when I get a chance to take part
• 19:02
  is do laser therapy for his arthritic joints.
• 19:08
  That's better than some humans.
• 19:09
  Yeah. Yeah.
• 19:11
  So we go in there.
• 19:13
  We have a net for safety, just in case.
• 19:16
  And, the vet and I will sit with him,
• 19:20
  and she will apply the laser, and,
• 19:23
  hopefully, it does seem to be helping with his arthritic joints.
• 19:27
  Yeah.
• 19:27
  When you see him out of pain like that, I know that there's a lot of hard days.
• 19:30
  You said you clean.
• 19:31
  You know, you have to clean exhibits.
• 19:33
  You have to do a lot of really tough, sometimes dirty work.
• 19:37
  But are there any good stories
• 19:39
  that you kind of fall back on on tough days like that?
• 19:42
  On tough days like that?
• 19:44
  I don't fall into the past.
• 19:46
  I look to the future.
• 19:48
  And if it's a really bad day, I pick out an animal
• 19:52
  that I want to just hang out with and I go and say hi.
• 19:56
  I make time and my schedule to just go and spend ten,
• 20:01
  15 minutes hanging out with that animal and unwinding a bit.
• 20:05
  Sometimes it's the goats.
• 20:07
  Sometimes it's George the snake.
• 20:09
  Sometimes it's the Komodo dragons.
• 20:12
  Sometimes it's Lonnie Moo, or the donkeys, or the cattle in Keiki Zoo.
• 20:18
  Or the giant tortoises.
• 20:21
  But yeah, that is that's what I do when I'm having a hard day.
• 20:25
  That brings everything full circle and helps me to remember why I'm here.
• 20:29
  It's all about the animals in the end.
• 20:31
  But what would you say is kind of the coolest thing you've seen here?
• 20:34
  You know?
• 20:34
  Is there like, I know reptiles don't always need.
• 20:37
  Do they always need a partner? Like, do we have.
• 20:38
  We had any that have, you know, like been able to miraculously,
• 20:41
  I guess not miraculous that nature does this sometimes, but like,
• 20:44
  you know, lay eggs on their own when we weren't expecting it
• 20:47
  or survive something that maybe we weren't expecting it or anything like that.
• 20:50
  Oh my goodness.
• 20:52
  I actually have video of a cat, a tortoise.
• 20:56
  She had laid eggs in the past.
• 20:57
  She had not laid eggs for 20 years,
• 21:01
  and all of a sudden she decided to start laying eggs again.
• 21:04
  Now she hasn't been with a male.
• 21:06
  So those eggs aren't fertile.
• 21:08
  But I was actually under the hunt
• 21:12
  monitoring her when she began to lay eggs.
• 21:16
  So I was right there, nose to tail with her as she was
• 21:20
  popping these eggs out.
• 21:21
  And I have some fantastic video.
• 21:24
  But seeing something like that is is really, truly amazing.
• 21:30
  Very few people get a chance to do that.
• 21:31
  Oh I. Bet.
• 21:33
  After all these years, some three decades, plus working with animals,
• 21:36
  what has that taught you about human nature?
• 21:39
  It's taught me that we are
• 21:40
  an amazingly adaptable species.
• 21:45
  We have adapted to so many environments and so many different things,
• 21:50
  and to leave the animals for a bit.
• 21:54
  I went through Covid working here at the zoo.
• 21:59
  There were adjustments and adaptations
• 22:02
  required every single day.
• 22:05
  Yeah.
• 22:06
  But we are strong and we are resilient.
• 22:10
  And as a species, we can come through anything.
• 22:14
  And as city and county employees, we are some of the toughest around.
• 22:19
  Well, so Vicki, you know, and then kind of,
• 22:21
  you know, flipping it around, you always look at the animals.
• 22:23
  But have you looked at the other animals,
• 22:25
  the kids that come to visit the zoo and kind of see their faces light up?
• 22:28
  And what is that experience like? Oh, yes.
• 22:31
  Especially in the Keiki zoo.
• 22:33
  But even with the reptiles, I still do a lot of encounters,
• 22:37
  both with the animals.
• 22:38
  Or I help the keepers who are doing the encounters.
• 22:42
  And we do
• 22:43
  encounters both for the general public and sometimes for special zoo events.
• 22:48
  Both are a lot of fun.
• 22:50
  But yes, getting to see the kids faces light up
• 22:53
  and getting to see people's opinions on the animals change.
• 22:58
  Especially when we have George out or bounce.
• 23:01
  Who's our smaller ball python?
• 23:03
  And you have somebody who is terrified of snakes
• 23:07
  and you talk to them and you coax them a little bit and eventually
• 23:11
  they'll come up and you see that fear melt away
• 23:14
  and be replaced by wonder.
• 23:17
  That's an amazing thing.
• 23:20
  Well, I've actually I used the word amazing a lot and.
• 23:23
  It is amazing.
• 23:24
  This is truly what you're doing is truly amazing.
• 23:27
  Well, Vicki, is there anything that we missed?
• 23:29
  Not that I can think of.
• 23:32
  Well, thank you so much for your time.
• 23:34
  You're welcome.
• 23:35
  Thanks for having me on the podcast.
• 23:37
  And it is a big week for us here in the City and County of Honolulu,
• 23:40
  specifically in the mayor's office
• 23:41
  as mayor, Blangiardi prepares to deliver his state of the city address.
• 23:44
  Following the mayor's speech,
• 23:46
  we'll be posting the full version right here on the One Oahu Podcast.
• 23:49
  So if you can't listen in, you can search for it right here.
• 23:52
  Mahalo for listening. And until next time, Aloha.