Mayor of Hawaii County

The Mayor of Hawaii is the chief executive officer of the County of Hawaii in the state of Hawaii. The mayor has municipal jurisdiction over the Big Island of Hawaii. The current mayor is Mitch Roth.^[1] The Mayor of Hawaii County is the successor of the Royal Governors of Hawaii Island of the Kingdom of Hawaii.

Mayor of Hawaii County
Incumbent Mitch Roth since December 7, 2020
Inaugural holder	Shunichi Kimura
Formation	1968

History

Hawaii County began electing a mayor in 1968 when the present form of charter government was instituted. For most of the 20th century elected members of the Board of Supervisors, precursor to the Hawaii County Council, chose the chairman, and that chairman was essentially the chief operating officer of Hawaii County. That changed in 1964 a year after Act 73 of the 1963 Legislature which enabled counties to draft their own charters. Former Honolulu deputy County Corporation Counsel Shunichi Kimura was elected the last County Chairman in 1964 and the County elected its first mayor in 1968. Bruce McCall (1976), Megumi Kon (1984) and Larry Tanimoto (1990) all filled out the last few months of their predecessor's terms, in the case of Tanimoto, for Bernard Akana, who died of cancer less than two years into his term. Lorraine Inouye then won a special election to serve out Akana's last two years.

Past Mayors

Term in Office	Name	Party	Other notes
1968–May 1974	Shunichi Kimura	Democrat	Resigned to become a 3rd Circuit Court judge.[2]
May 1974 - 1974	Bruce McCall	Democrat	Kimura's managing director; became mayor after his resignation.[2]
1974–1984	Herbert Matayoshi	Democrat	Resigned to run for Hawaii State Senate[2]
1984	Megumi Kon	Democrat	Matayoshi's managing director; became mayor after his resignation[2]
1984–1988	Dante Keala Carpenter	Democrat	Lost reelection to Akana in 1989[3]
1988–April 12, 1990	Bernard Akana	Republican	Died of cancer while in office[4]
April 12, 1990 - 1990	Larry Tanimoto	Republican	Bernard Akana's managing director after Susan Labrenz left the post earlier; became mayor after Akana's death for eight months until the special election to fill Akana's term.[5]
1990–December 7, 1992	Lorraine Inouye	Democrat	Won special election held eight months after Akana's death.[6]
December 7, 1992 – December 2000	Stephen Kei Yamashiro	Democrat
December 2000 – December 1, 2008	Harry Kim	Republican and unaffiliated	In the 2004 elections, local laws were changed so mayoral candidates were without party affiliations.
December 1, 2008 – December 5, 2016	Billy Kenoi	Unaffiliated
December 5, 2016 - December 7, 2020	Harry Kim	Unaffiliated
December 7, 2020 - Incumbent	Mitch Roth	Unaffiliated

References

1. County of Hawaii — Mayor, Hawaii County, 2005. Accessed 2007-08-05.
2. "Last Isle mayoral vacancy was in 1990". Honolulu Advertiser. 2008-06-24. Retrieved 2011-07-28.
3. Honolulu Star-Bulletin Editorial Column
4. "Other Hawai'i mayors who died in office". Honolulu Advertiser. 2018-08-25. Archived from the original on 25 August 2018. Retrieved 2022-03-03.
5. County of Hawaii 1996 – 1997 Annual Report: Department of Parks and Recreation Archived 2008-07-06 at the Wayback Machine
6. Lorraine Rodero Inouye – Candidate For Mayor of the County of Hawai'i Archived 2008-11-20 at the Wayback Machine