As of early April, when Hawaii’s economy was paralyzed by orders from Governor David Ige and Honolulu Mayor Kirk Caldwell, a committee of business, politicians, and economists from the University of Hawaii began working out a plan for the reopening.
On April 6, Sumner LaCroix, a UH professor emeritus, presented the committee with a paper called the House Select Committee on COVID-19 Economic and Financial Preparedness. The paper outlined a reopening strategy based on a model developed by the American Enterprise Institute.
Then Dr. Mark Mugiishi, the chief executive of HMSA and a member of the committee, put a team together to carry out the yeoman’s work and outline the steps needed to come up with a plan for reopening the economy.
When Governor David Ige’s economic recovery tsar Alan Oshima announced the comprehensive plan for the reopening of Hawaii in late May, the document reflected many of the things Mugiishi’s team had discussed during the weekly updates before the House Special Committee. It included a color-coded matrix, which is central to administration policies and procedures for deciding when to tighten activity restrictions and when to relax them.
While Hawaii is still not fully open to out-of-state visitors, the local economy has been open since the dark days of April when most people were stuck at home. And Mugiishi’s work was a big part of it.
While the legislature is most often associated with its power to pass laws, it has a different, more general power, says MP Della Au Belatti, majority leader of the Hawaii House of Representatives who is also an active voice on the committee – “the Authority to convene ”. . “
In the case of the committee, it encompasses a broad spectrum of leaders from politics, business, and non-profit organizations. Members include Peter Ingram, CEO of Hawaiian Airlines; Lisa Maruyama, president of the Hawaii Alliance of Nonprofit Organizations, and key members of the Ige administration, including state epidemiologist Sarah Park and Oshima, the business navigator.
“The legislature’s role is to be a problem-solver,” said House Speaker Scott Saiki, who co-chairs the committee with Bank of Hawaii Chairman and CEO Peter Ho. “And this committee fits this role.”
High level forum
It has also evolved into a forum for high-level discussions on the state of the Hawaiian economy and public health. Speakers at Monday’s bimonthly Zoom meeting included US MP Ed Case, who spoke on the status of the latest round of federal stimulus funds, which Case said has stalled in the Senate, and Ige, who said about Hawaii’s 14-day Quarantine for travelers to Hawaii spoke, which, according to Ige, will now extend until August.
“COVID-19 will not go away,” Ige once said. “This is a marathon, not a sprint.”
The committee is not just a forum for updates from elected officials. Carl Bonham, executive director of the University of Hawaii’s economic research organization, typically begins committee meetings with a recent economic report from a recent UHERO report.
This often flows into the work of the committee.
For example, when the economy stagnated and tourism shut down, Bonham was one of the first people in the state to raise the alarm later this month about a fiscal cliff if unemployed workers stop raising $ 600 a week from the federal government.
This work, Saiki said, “has shown how important UHERO is for the state.”
It also prompted a subcommittee to get down to business early on looking at ways to keep people from falling off the economic cliff. Led by James Koshiba of the Hui Aloha Housing Advocacy Group, the Housing Subcommittee produced a report showing how a housing fund could help mitigate the decline for people.
That report became the basis for a statutory US $ 100 million federal aid housing fund, Saiki said. That brings in up to $ 500 a month, and the unemployed can get an additional $ 100 on top of state unemployment benefits.
All of this won’t make up for the $ 600 a week in federal funds that dried up in late July. But it is something.
“I think people are really trying to solve problems,” Saiki said.
In many ways, the Housing Fund and $ 100 a week for the unemployed fall under the purview of the legislature, which has the power to pass a budget.
Perhaps what is more notable is the House of Representatives’ ability to work with the governor without passing laws.
Mufi Hannemann, a member of the committee that now leads the Hawaii Lodging and Tourism Association, was formerly mayor of Honolulu. He said part of the committee’s influence is having a wide range of members and ensuring that everyone has a voice.
“This is a government organization or committee that has really gone out of its way to make sure we are all involved and engaged,” said Hannemann, who is running again for mayor of Honolulu.
It is useful when a broad spectrum of people from the community work on problems and come up with solutions, said Hannemann.
Saiki said part of the committee’s goal is to work out solutions to problems and show widespread support for them – something he hopes can be useful and compelling for Ige, who is known for a deliberative and consensus-based leadership style.
Saiki said he wished Ige would use the committee’s work more to cover decisions. But, he said, “It can be difficult to make decisions when circumstances sometimes change hourly.”
However, the participation of large private institutions has the advantage that they have specialist knowledge that they can bring in when problems arise.
HMSA is a case in point. As the state’s largest private health insurer, HMSA is concerned about the long-term health consequences of the COVID-19 crisis, including the economic impact of the closings, said Mugiishi, chairman of the board of directors of HMSA.
HMSA is also experienced in managing projects that require thoughtful planning and the creation of practical work plans. The HMSA assembled a team of a dozen people who began developing a work plan that looked at milestones Hawaii should reach before taking steps to stop the stay at home orders or open up the economy more generally .
“Everyone builds the plane while you fly it.” Mark Mugiishi, HMSA CEO
Criteria for opening or staying open included things like calculating the number and rate of new cases that the Hawaiian health system could handle without becoming overwhelmed.
The HMSA team also reached out to the University of Hawaii School of Nursing to find people who could be trained as contact tracers – the people tasked with quickly tracking down anyone who comes in close contact with patients, who tested positive for the virus. Identifying and containing such clusters is key to controlling the virus, Mugiishi said.
Mugiishi credited Ige with putting together a group to work out details of what ultimately became Hawaii’s plan for the reopening. This included Lt. Gov. Josh Green, a doctor who was part of the government response team; and Gen. Kenneth Hara, the chief of the Hawaii Emergency Management Agency.
Green praised Mugiishi’s work.
“DR. Mugiishi has been very thoughtful about how we deal with COVID and I really appreciate his contribution,” Green said in a text message. “He gives indispensable practical advice from the field.”
For his part, Mugiishi said he, other members of the committee and the administration are all often faced with unprecedented problems.
“Everyone builds the plane while you fly it,” he said.
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