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Council approves $5,000 Thales gift for Poland trip to review driver‑license production; managing director, DCS director defend the trip
Summary
The council approved Resolution 25‑94 FD1 accepting a $5,000 gift from Thales DIS USA Inc. to cover travel and related expenses for the Department of Customer Services director to attend a card production review in Poland. Managing Director Mike Formby and DCS Director Kim Hashiro explained the trip and pushed back on media coverage.
The Honolulu City Council adopted Resolution 25‑94 FD1, accepting a gift of travel and related expenses valued at $5,000 from Thales DIS USA Inc. for the director of the Department of Customer Services to attend a driver‑license and identification card production and design review in Poland in May 2025.
Vice Chair Weier moved to adopt the resolution and later moved to amend it to the posted FD1; the council recorded no objections or reservations to the amendment and then adopted the FD1 version. The clerk recorded adoption of Resolution 25‑94 FD1 with no recorded testifiers and no recorded objections.
Managing Director Mike Formby spoke to the council in support of the resolution. He said the trip is needed because "you can't look at a computer screen and see security features in the way that you can when you look at a card," and he described the visit as part of the production‑standards inspection at the manufacturing plant. Formby criticized recent reporting about the trip, saying, "I think there was a lot of, inappropriate and improper, presentation of material in the article." He added, "If Civil Beat wants to pawn up pony up $5,000 to the city, we'll take their money."
Kim Hashiro, Director of the Department of Customer Services, said the trip is part of a 12‑month project to upgrade hardware and software at driver's license locations statewide and to update the card design so the state can produce a single polycarbonate card with integrated security features. Hashiro told the council the new cards will be harder to tamper with or counterfeit and that the in‑person factory inspection is necessary to review color, holograms and other security features that cannot be evaluated remotely. "This trip is part of the production of the cards," she said.
The council took no additional formal direction to staff on the item beyond adoption of the FD1; no testifiers opposed the resolution in the recorded proceedings. The item was adopted following committee recommendation and the posted FD1 amendment.
