Committee forwards charter amendment to ease professional-engineer requirement for public works director

The Hawaii County council committee voted 5-3 on Sept. 8 to forward to the full council a proposed charter amendment (Bill 64, draft 2) that would remove the current requirement that the director of public works be a registered professional engineer and instead require a bachelor’s degree in engineering, architecture, business, public administration or a related discipline — or that the director be a licensed attorney — plus five years of administrative or managerial experience, at least two years of which must be in public works, construction or a related field.

That provision would also require the deputy director to be a registered professional engineer and give the deputy authority over engineering responsibilities when the director lacks licensure. The amendment, introduced by Council Member Inaba, must still clear the full council and then go to voters as a charter change.

The vote followed public testimony from three licensed professional engineers who urged the committee to preserve the PE requirement. Polanyi Greenwell, a licensed civil professional engineer, told the committee that removing the PE requirement would "open the county to a…