Discover Hawaii 
While we await the details of Hawaii’s pre-travel testing program, we thought it would be a good idea to explain a little bit who the key decision makers are and their area of influence.
State Level
Let’s start at the state level where it’s straightforward. Hawaii’s top elected-officials who are developing policies to limit the spread of COVID-19 are as follows:
Governor – David Ige
Director of Health – Dr. Bruce Anderson
Director of Hawaii Emergency Management – Major General Kenneth Hara
Lieutenant Governor – Dr. Josh Green
In addition to these top officials, there are also Hawaii house of representatives as well as Hawaii senators that are elected by districts.
County Level
Quite often, Governor Ige states that he’s making decisions along with the county mayors. So, let’s address who they are and the county organization.
Hawaii has four counties. The names and organization of the counties might not be as you expect. At least they weren’t to me when I first looked into the structure many years ago.
The four counties and their mayors are organized as follows:
Hawaii County is composed of the entire island of Hawaii, which is also known as the Big Island. The county mayor is Harry Kim. The website for Hawaii County is hawaiicounty.gov.
Maui County is composed of the islands of Maui, Lanai and Molokai. The county mayor is Michael Victorino. The website for Maui County is mauicounty.gov.
City and County of Honolulu is composed of the entire island of Oahu. The county mayor is Kirk Caldwell. The website for the City and County of Honolulu is honolulu.gov.
Kauai County is composed of the entire island of Kauai. (We’re unclear if the island of Ni’ihau is included in Kauai County or not. Ni’ihau is sparsely populated, privately owned and visitors aren’t allowed to freely visit.) The county mayor is Derek Kawakami. The website for the County of Kauai is kauai.gov.
The county mayors are the top elected officials at the county level. They make more specific decisions for their county with the permission of Governor Ige. For example, the mayor of the City and County of Honolulu recently ordered the closure of bars for three weeks for his county. Another example is at the start of the virus spread, the mayor of Kauai ordered curfews.
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While it might be easy to second guess some of the mandates that have been made, we do not envy the difficult decisions that they’ve had to make in recent months.
The post The who’s who of Hawaii’s COVID-related decision makers appeared first on Go Visit Hawaii.
