Senate Standing Committee on Labor and Technology

Aloha and great afternoon, everyone. Welcome to the Senate Committee on Labor and Technology. Before we begin, if we can just have a moment of silence to honor the late Congresswoman Colleen Hanabusa, who was also our state Senate foreign former state Senate President for many years. Moment of silence, please.

Thank you and our thoughts and prayers to the Hanabusa family. Today is March 62026. We're in conference room 225. This hearing is also being streamed on the Hawaii State Senate's YouTube channel. Just a few housekeeping announcements in the unlikely case of technical failures.

This meeting will reconvene here in Conference Room 225 on March 112026 at 3:00pm for all testifiers, including those on Zoom. We ask that you stand on your written testimony. If your all testimony is different from your written testimony, the time limit for each testifier will be one minute.

The content, including the hearing notice and copies of the measures and testimony can be found on the legislature's website. If time permits, decision making will occur after you hear from those offering testimony. And I'd like to welcome our vice chair, Senator Lamosao and Senator Morikawa for joining us today. Senator Ihara and Fevela are excused.

First up on our agenda today is GM690. This is submitting in consideration and confirmation to the Hawaii Retirement Savings Board gubernatorial nominee Jessie Dean for a term to expire on June 30 2030.

And so for the purposes of how we proceed in our hearings, what I'll do is I'll call on testifiers first that have register to sign up and then we'll call on the nominee.

And then for the last two measures on our agenda Members and for the public for GM627 and GM726 for Gina, we will take both of that together. And so testimony can be submitted for both if you wanted to testify on that. So with that, we'll start off.

First up is Alani Keoki, Executive Director for the Retirement Savings Board.

Good afternoon, Chair, Vice chair, Member. The board will stand on its written testimony in strong support of Mr. Dean's reappointment to the board. Okay, thank you.

Thank you so much. Director Butai Dlir.

Aloha chairman, Vice chair and Senator Moriwaki, we stand on our Testimony in sponsors. Mr. Dean knows the program backwards and forwards as he was an original member.

Do you want to. Sorry, do you want to come up? If you're. If it's just more than just saying support, you might as well just come up and explain. Sir.

Welcome in Aloha if you can identify yourself, Jade Butai for the Director of the Department of Labor and Industrial Relations. We stand on our testimony and strong support. Mr. Dean is an original Member of the board, so he knows the program forwards and backwards. And he's been instrumental in advancing the implementation of the program.

Thank you for the opportunity to testify.

Thank you so much. That completes our list of registered testifiers Members. Any questions for the testifiers? If not, we'll call on the nominee. Kyola Dean. Aloha and welcome and congratulations on your nomination.

Mahalo, Chair and Aloha, Vice Chair and Senator, nice seeing you again. I'm Keola Michelani Dean or Jessie Dean. Keola Michelini is my given Hawaiian name. And I am the CEO of the King Lunalilo Trust and Home. And I've served in this role for almost four years. Before this, I practiced law on the continent.

I also was a public accountant, a CPA that I actually did achieve here in Hawaii. And I also worked for nine years in the Washington State Medicaid Agency, eight of those in the Executive branch or Executive office.

I am excited to continue serving in this role because I took on this Kuleana to help the program get off the ground. And we are just now starting to get off the ground, having just at our last meeting approved the Connecticut State Consortium to join. The implementation is now in motion.

And so I would like to see the efforts that we had made during the first term, my first term, actually result in implementation. Thank you, Members.

Any questions?

Senator Moriwaki, nice to see you again. I thank you for carrying on the work that you have been doing. And I'm just wondering what have been the challenges? Challenges as in the last three years, four years, almost four years. And what do you see as exciting going forward?

I know the consortium, being part of the consortium you see as the challenges because now people are opting out instead of opting in. And if you can kind of give us more of a flavor of what you've been doing on the program.

Absolutely. So the two challenges have been one, finding an Executive Director, that's. That proved to be very difficult. And we were very lucky to have Alani on board, but that took a long time. The second issue was that the original legislation was an opt in legislation. And it was unique in that no other state had done this.

All of the state consortia, the two state consortia that exist are all opt out. And that's a huge difference for both participation level, projected participation level, and also streamlining the process. And so if you. You can't really join a state consortium if you have a different program, state consortia require you to align with their programs. So there's.

It was going to be very difficult to implement this program under the original legislation, but luckily the Legislature did enact the amendments that allowed this program to conform to what the other states have done.

And so now we're able to participate in a state consortium which will reduce our costs and enable us to more quickly implement the program than otherwise.

So how does that work? If these are employers who don't have insurance for their employees and how do you know who they are to be able to have them opt out?

So this is an investment vehicle for employees, similar to a 401k but different. And so it's meant to create a system for everyone to have access to retirement investment. And the agency will be working.

Has actually already started working with different other state agencies to draw data so that we can then do outreach to employers and also employees to help them understand this program. Because it's like a 401k, but it's not. And there are key differences. So the next.

This implementation phase will involve a lot of outreach to help employers understand the program and then help them participate in the program as required, but also then enable the employees to opt out if they so desire.

So there is a penalty for an employer not allowing this. Right? I mean, how are you folks working through that part of it?

So the key is to really make sure that people understand the program first so that, you know, they. If we can help people understand it and the benefits, then the. Hopefully the carrot is much better than the stick later.

Thank you chair.

Any further questions? Just one question that I have for you. I know that recently the board voted on going with a model state. I think you mentioned that in your testimony. Connecticut, could you provide us with what that timeline or implementation would look like? Does. Do we have an idea of when that will take place? Yes.

Yes, Senator. So the. We just selected the Connecticut alliance and the. So the. The Department is now in the midst of contract review. My understanding is that the anticipated implementation or start date for implementation is in December of this year. December this year. Great.

Thank you. Thank you. Any further questions, Members? If not, thank you so much.

Thank you.

And anyone else that wishes to testify on GM690. If not, we'll move on to our next Item, which is GM634. This is submitting for consideration and confirmation to the board of Trustees of the Employees Retirement System gubernatorial nominee Darlene Blackini for a term to expire on January 1st, 2032.

We'll first start up with Calbert Young, Executive Director for ERS. In support or representative? Yes.

Good afternoon, Chair, Vice Chair and Senator Moriwaki.

ERS stands in support of this candidate.

Okay, thank you. ERS and support. Thank you. And then we also. That's all that have registered to testify in person or online. And I'll just read the rest. All in support, Earl Kim from Le Jardine Academy. Mark Miguchi, CEO for hmsa. Lance Mizumoto, Vincent Barfield, Robert Harrison, Noriko Namiki. All in support.

Anyone else that wishes to testify on GM634? If not, we'll call on the nominee. Darlene. Aloha and welcome and congratulations.

Thank you. Thank you for allowing me to testify. Chair, Vice Chair and Senator Moriwakee. My name is Darlene Blakeney. I am the Executive Vice President and Chief Lending Officer at First Wine Bank.

I've been with the bank for about 11 years and prior to that I had a long history of career of banking and finance in the state of Hawaii. I'll take questions if you have any Members.

Questions?

zero, could you tell us.

Thank you.

Can you just tell us about how your background might be very useful for the ERs and why you're wanting to be a Member?

Sure. I'll start with the why first. It's a personal and professional reason that I am seeking this appointment personally. My mother, who's 98 in two weeks, is a beneficiary of the ERS. She's a retiree from the Department of Education, so I've seen firsthand how she's benefited from this trust.

And secondly, professionally, I have actually overseen a retirement plan much, much smaller than this one in my time that I served at a private school here in Hawaii. And. And during that time.

One of the accomplishments I felt most pride about during my time with that school was that I was successful in encouraging participation and greater contribution by the teachers and the faculty and staff and walked away feeling like people are going to have a more secure retirement.

That was something I felt I could contribute as somebody with a background in finance, working in the field of education. So I look forward to doing whatever I can to contribute at the ERS. On the board.

I know when we spoke, you said you were at a couple of meetings for the ERs, correct? And you spoke of some of the possible improvements that could be made that you know at least what you're seeing.

And I'd like to hear, or at least the board to hear or the Committee to hear maybe some of your thoughts.

I Wouldn't. I don't have the hubris to feel like I can. Feel like I can improve anything at this point. I'm learning more than I'm contributing at the moment. To be very honest, as I serve on an interim basis. I've attended one investment Committee meeting and one board meeting.

But in my time there, I feel like I can ask questions. And the questions I've focused on is the retirees access to their information and some of the education that maybe could be provided. Some of it around things like kupuna exploitation and fraud and. And their ability to do some tools or planning around retirement.

As they get closer to retirement, are they able to come up with a retirement budget, for example? People in finance, this is pretty second nature to us. People like teachers that I worked with at the school I was at, not so much second nature.

And so that was something I focused on a lot there is helping them plan for that future date.

I was most interested in the information that you're giving to the pre. Pre retirement as well as the retirees in terms of the kinds of services that might be available for them instead of just, you know, you're getting this benefit. So I appreciate that and hope that you can see more of what can be done at eras.

Thank you.

Any further questions? Okay, the only question that I have is in your questionnaire. Thank you for responding back to the Committee in terms of if there would be conflicts of interest. You did mention this in one of your answers.

If First Hawaiian Bank had any type of investment funds in the ers, how would you proceed if there were a conflict there?

There is a conflict. And that First Wine Bank does do business with the ERS. It's a very small portion of the ERS corpus. It's less than 1%. Nonetheless, that is a conflict. So the approach I would have would be diligent about watching for any kind of conversation around that or voting or discuss.

And I would recuse myself from the discussion as well as the vote.

Okay, thank you. Thank you for your willingness to serve.

Thank you.

Okay, if there are no further questions, one Last call for GM634. Anyone else? If not, we'll move on to our next two items. And the only difference for this Members is the terms. So first off is GM627, which is submitting for consideration and confirmation to the Hawaii Workforce Development Council Gubernatorial nominee Gina Anu Nuevo. Is that correct?

Okay. And then also for that, that's for a term to expire on June 302026. And then also we'll be taking up GM 726, which is submitting for consideration and confirmation to the Hawaii Workforce Development Council gubernatorial nominee Gina On a Nuevo for a term to expire on June 302030.

So for the Members of the public, if you want to testify, you may testify on both. The time limit will still be at one minute. First up is Director Wutai Dlir. Okay. Testimony support. Okay, thank you. I was the only person that registered to wanting to testify.

But we do have a list of folks that have submitted testimony support. But is there anyone else that wants to testify here in the room or on zoom on these two measures? If not, then I'll just read. I'll read it first. For GM627. This is all in support.

Leah Nakamura, Sherry Okinaga, Carol Ono, Lane Yoshida, Trisha Fujikawa Lee, John Henning, Ross Fuji Kawilani, Pedigree, Brandon Davidson, Brian Carley, Matt Kusman, Scott Miyake, Alyssa S.N. hosteli, James Odon, Paul Chin, Jolie Chung, Steve Miranda Dean Do Ki, Lisa Tomihama, Marcy Tsuchiyama, and Laura Murakuni. That's all for GM627 and for GM726.

I'm not sure if these are identical names, but I'll just go through it again. Leah Nakamura, Sherry Okina, Lane Yoshida, John Henning, Ross, Fuji. Kawi Vailani, Pedigree, Brandon Davidson, Brian Carley, Matt Kusman, Scott Miyake, Alyssa S.N.

Hostelli, James Odon, Paul Chin, Jolie Chung, Steve Miranda, Carol Ono, Dean Duki, Trisha Fujikawa Lee, Lisa Tomohama, Marcy Tsujiyama, and Laura Morakuni, all in support. Anyone else that wishes to testify on these two measures? If not, we'll call on the nominee. Gina Aloha. Welcome and congratulations on your nomination.

Thank you. Chair and Vice Chair and Senator. Thank you. Gina Ananuevo. I have lived in Hawaii for 20 years. Also working for first Hawaiian for 20 years. I originally am from San Francisco, California. I was a FDIC examiner for 10 years prior, but most of my career recently has been here.

I started off as the audit Director at First Hawaiian for five years. I was brought in to rebuild it, basically. And at the time, that was 2006, there weren't very many bank auditors walking around. And so I really had to find a different way to recruit, develop individuals to fill these positions.

After that, I was asked to build the compliance terrorist financing, money laundering fraud area. So that was built from scratch. We started out with three individuals and today it probably amounts to 20, I mean 5050 employees in that area. I managed that for 12 years, which also includes our Community Reinvestment act. So.

So that is a regulatory requirement for the bank to invest into the community and so manage that program. We have gotten the highest ratings we can receive for over 20 years. So very proud of that. And then two years ago I was asked to take over human resources, which is very different than what I've been doing.

But I think I finally found truly what my passion is. It's not truly finance, it's more people, It's a people purpose. So I actually am really enjoying that. And then last year I was asked to take over technology, data and analytics, digital banking, call center and atm. So got quite a lot on my plate. Very proud.

I was promoted to vice chair. So I'm first woman to be vice chair at First Wine.

So that means a lot to me and I feel like I have a lot on my shoulders to be a very good role model and also to help a lot of other women because in the finance world that has been very heavily male dominated Members.

Questions?

Wow. Yes. Pretty impressive, Senator Milwaukee. So I'm glad you're, you're joining the, want to join the Workforce Development Council and I noticed in your, your letter that you're looking at career pathways and that's been very important to the Legislature in terms of how we do it and especially in the finance area where you are.

So what do you see as what you could bring to the workforce development console? It is important.

Yeah. So I think that goes back to when I came here to Hawaii and realizing in Hawaii, because we're so geographically limited, it's hard to find resources and at the time, remote work was not, you know, that wasn't really what we were doing here. It was more physical in person.

So I found a way where I built a career development program which outlined the different steps that you would need to be an auditor and to also exceed and become a senior auditor, an officer.

And you had to do that because when you bring in individuals who do do not have any experience and a lot of the younger generation really wants to know what the expectations are and you also want them to see that even though you're coming in at a very low position, low pay, because you don't have experience, that at some point if you dedicate to yourself and invest in yourself as well as I invest in you, there are these career steps that you can move and you can actually have a career that will afford you to live in Hawaii.

And to also have a family and all of those other things. But you have to actually build that and you have to actually put out the expectations that you need to move. And you also have to honor that, that if people really do do that, you will be willing to promote them and increase in pay and whatever.

So I actually built that and it worked because I did have to rebuild the entire division. So it was about 2025 then I took over compliance. Same thing, had three individuals needed to get to about 50. And again we brought in people from other areas hired off the street.

And I do believe that looking at skills, like trying to define what skills you need for jobs, you don't necessarily have to be experienced and do the job necessarily, but you have to have the skills. And there are certain skills to be an auditor. Right.

And if you can find individuals that have those skills and are willing to learn, you can teach them the other part. So when I went to compliance, we did the same thing. We built career paths for each of the positions we had. And we brought in people who usually started lower.

We didn't actually bring in higher level officers off the street, which I'm very proud of. We actually did a lot of internal promotions and we worked with them and I built training programs to help them. So it's not just saying, well this is what you need to do.

I'm also going to give you the tools and the knowledge and the training and support to get there. That area now is run very well, very well staffed, not easy again to find those type of individuals to do that job.

And then now in HR and he's actually sitting here, Scott, I hired him to help me build the career pathing program at First Hawaiian. And we actually launched it enterprise wide. And so that's something we're working on. And we have the same challenges that everyone else has.

It's not really the college graduate level jobs that we have trouble filling. It's a lot of lower level jobs where you don't need a college degree and the pay is not really up there where college students will even wanna do the job.

And that's a big part of we have 800 people in our retail, in the branches, and where do you find those individuals? And because it's so expensive now to live here, we do have vacancies that are very hard to fill or we're losing individuals to fast food hotels.

A lot of different industries that are fighting for the same bodies. And so you got to start thinking about what are you going to do different and so difference is we actually have been working with WDC on internship programs and things like that. And that's kind of how I got introduced.

And I don't think that employers know what type of services that WDC actually can offer. And so part of why I'm passionate about doing this is because I'm not your typical person. I actually was on my own at 16.

I put myself through high school and college, and I was fortunate enough to have individuals who kind of guided me. And so I look at where I am today, and I feel like I have to give back. So it's not just something I want to do.

It's an inside passion that I feel is I have to do it. And I feel like a lot of our youth today are a little lost, and the programs aren't really there to support them as much as when I was younger.

And so my passion is to help not just the financial sector, because I did look at the composition of the board, and we don't really have very many people from the financial sector. And we do employ about 5,000 employees, if you add it all up.

But, you know, I really do want to start reaching out to the younger generation. The high school kids who aren't. Who aren't going to go to college, cannot afford it, or for whatever reason, you know, they don't have the means, but they still need to work, they still need to provide, they need to take care of themselves.

And I think that we could do a better job reaching out to them. So that's why I'm here today. That's very good.

I'm looking forward to what you can do. I don't know.

I feel like I have a lot of stuff on my shoulders.

But we'll see. The other part of it, Gina, is the retention part. So once you have this kind of mentorship, I guess, and you involve the student that now becomes an employee and then becomes, you know, gets promoted, how do you retain them? And that's always the salary, right?

Yeah, it's not. And that is probably one thing that I've said a lot of times. It's not always about the money. We're going through a huge culture refresh at First Hawaiian. And it's to do exactly that. It's to make sure that our employees are happy and that they feel fulfilled with what they do.

And I can tell you that the areas that I've managed have always been lower level because it's compliance, right? It's audit. And back then, they weren't really the highest paid employees. But despite that they still stayed with us.

And I think it's because they had passion about their job, they felt cared for and they really enjoy and appreciate the environment, the culture that FHP gives them. So I think, you know, money is always a part of it.

You can't say it's not, but you always got to make sure that you're fulfilling all of the other needs. And so in the career pathing we've built in stay interviews, individual development plans, and this gives managers opportunities to reach out to their employees prior to them being disengaged and then looking for other employment. Right.

Because usually by the time they tell you they're resigning, it was months ago that they actually felt that way. So if you can get in there early and kind of talk to your employees and see what it is that you could do, a lot of times it's not just the money. Most of the time.

Yeah.

Thank you, Chu.

Any further follow up questions? The only question that I have is you mentioned in your answer of how you got involved with WDC with the DOE moving to financial literacy as a course, as part of the curriculum.

How do you see your role in the WDC with bridging that gap with the Department of Education to continue that pipeline, especially for a lot of our youth?

Yep. So, I mean, we have already been doing that as a bank. Right. Going out to the schools and doing financial literacy and working with them. You know, I haven't been involved enough to, to know exactly how I can do that, but that is a big part of it.

We haven't talked about it and it's probably a whole nother discussion to have. But AI does bring a lot of challenges that maybe we have to even revisit how schools even educate at this point. Because what I look at AI as being a tool and if I give you that tool today, it will enhance your knowledge.

There's a lot of people now who, who either cannot afford to go to college. Right. Or for whatever reason, they have many tools now. Technology has provided a lot of tools that actually have educated them to be able to compete in a lot of these markets. Right. And like, of course, you're not a surgeon. Right.

So I mean, I still think financial literacy is very important. And you know, any way that we can make sure that we continue that. I do believe that education is going to have to kind of take a step, step back and look at what are we going to have to teach our kids in the future.

I kind of joked with you and I talked to you, but you know, like Just having analytical skills, knowing how to carry yourself in a professional environment, knowing how to communicate with others. Right.

We're so stuck on the phones now and being behind that that a lot of times people don't even know how to communicate with each other in person. Person. These are skills that we're going to have to teach people because that doesn't go away. So same thing with financial literacy.

Thank you. Any further follow up questions? Okay. If not, thank you so much. Okay, Members, I'm ready to move into decision making. We'll go—so, first up is GM 690. This is submitting for consideration and confirmation to the Hawaii Retirement Savings Board gubernatorial nominee, Jesse Dean, for term to expire on June 30th, 2030. Chair's recommendation.

Before, I want to say, I want to say thank you to all the nominees for being here and on a point of personal privilege. I was very impressed by your experience and your willingness to serve. So, thank you so much. So, with that, GM 690, Chair's recommendation is to advise and consent. Any further discussion?

If not, Vice Chair Lamosao for the vote. Chair votes aye.

[Roll Call]

Thank you. Next item is GM 634. This is submitting—oh, congratulations. I should say. Sorry. Next item is GM 634. This is submitting for consideration and confirmation to the Board of Trustees of the Employees Retirement System gubernatorial nominee, Darlene Blakeney—sorry for mispronouncing your name earlier—for a term to expire on January 1st, 2032.

Chair's recommendation is to advise and consent. Any further discussion? If not, Vice Chair Lamosao for the vote. Chair votes aye.

[Roll Call]

Thank you so much. Congratulations, Darlene. And then, for, we'll take the next two items. We'll take it separately. So, first is GM 627, submitting for consideration and confirmation to the Hawaii Workforce Development Council gubernatorial nominee, Gina Anu Nuevo for a term to expire on June 30th, 2026. Chair's recommendation is to advise and consent. Any further discussion?

If not, Vice Chair Lamosao for the vote. Chair votes aye.

[Roll Call]

Congratulations, Gina. And then, our last item is GM 726, submitting for consideration and confirmation to the Hawaii Workforce Development Council gubernatorial nominee, Gina Anu Nuevo for a term to expire on June 30th, 2030. Chair's recommendation is to advise and consent. Any further discussion? If not, Vice Chair Lamosao for the vote. Chair votes aye.

[Roll Call]

Thank you so much. Congratulations, again. This concludes our business for today. Have a great weekend, everyone. We're adjourned.