Hawaii’s Mayor Billy Kenoi ’93, met his wife, Takako Culhane, while they were students at UMass Amherst.
Big Man on the Big Island
Billy Kenoi ’93 is Mayor of Hawaii
Like Barack Obama, Billy Kenoi ’93 is a native Hawaiian who ran against an older, more experienced candidate for office. And, like Obama, Kenoi triumphed. “Seeing the newspaper with the headlines ‘Obama Wins; Kenoi Wins’,” he says, “gave me goose bumps.”
Kenoi, elected at 39, is the youngest-ever mayor of the ‘Big Island’ of Hawaii, a county with 150,000 inhabitants spread over 4,000 square miles. He has made a commitment to take the government to the people. He visits both sides of the island weekly and periodically brings his cabinet out to Hawaii’s rural towns. “Hawaii is a big place, but a close community,” he says. “I believe that by speaking honestly with people, we can get the job done. You have to keep things simple.”
The economic downturn hit Hawaii hard, and Kenoi’s proudest accomplishment in office so far was balancing the island’s $386 million budget last year. However, the island economy faces shortfalls this year and next. “It’s going to be a bumpy ride, but at the end of day it will be okay,” Kenoi said. One of his main goals as mayor is to expand the island’s public transportation. “We want to get cars off the roads,” he says. “We’re bringing in Hawaii’s first double-decker bus. Our free bus service was inspired by the UMass Amherst transit system.”
Kenoi calls coming to UMass Amherst in 1990 “one of the best decisions I ever made.” On campus he met his wife, fellow student Takako Culhane, a volleyball player from Japan. He also met a valuable mentor, political science professor John Brigham. Brigham recommended Kenoi for an internship with United States Senator Daniel K. Inouye, which put him on the path to law school, work as a trial attorney, and then politics.
“I keep Professor Brigham’s recommendation letter to this day,” Kenoi says. “When I have a challenge as mayor, I’ll reread it and tell myself, ‘I can do this’.”