Eileen Anderson

Infobox Politician (general)
name= Eileen Anderson


image_width=
title= Mayor of Honolulu
term_start= January 2, 1981
term_end= January 2, 1985
predecessor= Frank Fasi
successor= Frank Fasi
birth_date = Birth date and age|1928|10|18|mf=y
birth_place = Bell, California
death_date=
death_place=
party= Democrat
residence= Honolulu, Hawaii
spouse= Major Clifford F. Anderson,
Honolulu Police Department
profession=
religion= Christian
footnotes=

Eileen Anderson (born October 18, 1928 in Bell, California) is the first and so far only woman to serve as Mayor of Honolulu, Hawaii, United States. She was in office from 1981 to 1985. A Democrat, Anderson served in various positions in the city and county and the statecite book
last = Leavitt
first = Judith A.
title = American Women Managers and Administrators
publisher = Greenwood Press
date = 1985
pages = pp. 8-9
isbn = 0313237484] . She was the first Hawaii State Director of Budget and Finance.

Early life

Anderson attended the University of California in Los Angeles and, after moving to Hawaii with her family, graduated from the University of Hawaii at Manoa in 1950 with a bachelor's degree in psychology. Anderson married Clifford F. Anderson, a retired Honolulu Police Department major. She and her husband raised three children. After working for Hawaiian Telephone Company, the predecessor of the present-day Hawaiian Telcom, Anderson began public service in various state agencies. She found herself as the state's first budget and finance director under Governor George Ariyoshi [cite news
coauthors = Rosemarie Bernardo and Mary Vorsino
title = Women of Hawaii Day 6: Shameful Numbers
publisher = "Honolulu Star-Bulletin"
date = September 23, 2005
url = http://starbulletin.com/2005/09/23/news/story3.html
accessdate = 2008-01-19] .

Mayor of Honolulu

In 1980, Anderson defeated popular incumbent Frank Fasi with seventy percent of the vote. With the unpredicted surprise landslide victory against Fasi and his notoriously powerful machine, that year Anderson was named "Hawaii Business Magazine" "Woman of the Year 1980". Anderson served a single term at Honolulu Hale, taking office on January 2, 1981 [cite web
coauthors = Douglas Boswell, Editor
title = All About Hawaii: The Recognized Book of Authentic Information on Hawai`i Combined with Thrum's Hawaiian Annual and Standard Guide
publisher = "Honolulu Star-Bulletin"
date = 1957
url = http://www.hawaiihistory.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=ig.page&CategoryID=319
accessdate = 2008-01-19] and leaving office in 1985. Anderson's tenure as mayor was highlighted by her promise to continue development of the island of Oahu but with fiscal responsibility.

Anderson was a member of the United States Conference of Mayors, an organization of mayors of United States cities with populations of 30,000 people or more.

Cabinet

Prominent members of Anderson's administration included Bob Awana as administrative director and chief of staff, later chief of staff to Linda Lingle, the first Hawaii Republican governor after forty years of Democrat dominance in the state [cite news
coauthors = Richard Borreca
title = Awana’s busy political career skids to a halt
publisher = "Honolulu Star-Bulletin"
date = June 30, 2007
url = http://starbulletin.com/2007/06/30/news/story01.html
accessdate = 2008-01-20] . Awana helped run Anderson's failed re-election campaign against Fasi. Anderson appointed Andy Chang as Managing Director of Honolulu [cite news
coauthors = Gordon Y.K. Pang
title = In Awana, Democrats' loss is Lingle's gain
publisher = "Honolulu Advertiser"
date = December 11, 2002
url = http://the.honoluluadvertiser.com/article/2002/Dec/11/ln/ln09a.html
accessdate = 2008-01-20] . Chang would continue to serve the city and county in various capacities after Anderson's departure from office.

Honolulu Area Rail Rapid Transit

Anderson's vow of fiscal responsibility was maintained in her cancellation of the Honolulu Area Rail Rapid Transit project, which was planned in the 1970s and close to construction approval. Popularly known as HART, the project in its original form would have built a heavy rail system with twenty-three miles of track featuring twenty-one stations from Pearl City in central Oahu to Hawaii Kai in East Oahu.

In addition to millions to be invested by the city and county, millions of dollars in grants earmarked for HART were returned by Andersoncite news
coauthors = William D. Middleton
title = Honolulu: trains at last?
publisher = "Railway Age"
date = November, 1990
url = http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1215/is_n11_v191/ai_9205644/pg_1
accessdate = 2008-01-19] . She declined USD $5.75 million from the Federal government of the United States saying, "Why spend five million dollars on a system that won't be built? [cite news
coauthors = William D. Middleton
title = Honolulu's mayor ends proposal for rail line in downtown area
publisher = "New York Times"
date = June 28, 1981
url = http://select.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=F20612F83A5C0C7B8EDDAF0894D9484D81
accessdate = 2008-01-20] "

Achieving national attention, Anderson defended her position by arguing the long-term costs to taxpayers for such an expensive project, especially after U.S. President Ronald Reagan announced elimination of Federal public transit funding in the country and the ongoing need for more funding for Interstate H-3 construction. She rather argued in favor of smaller, incremental improvements to the bus systemcite news
coauthors = Gordon Y.K. Pang
title = Will rail fly this time?
publisher = "Honolulu Star-Bulletin"
date = December 16, 1998
url = http://starbulletin.com/98/12/16/news/story2.html
accessdate = 2008-01-20] .

With growing development leading to increased traffic congestion on Oahu, the city and county continued to make public transit a focus of public debate during Anderson and Fasi's tenures. On October 6, 1981, Anderson announced she hoped to study the San Diego Trolley, a system funded with gas taxes.

Both Anderson and Fasi continued to modernize TheBus but a rail system was never approved. It wasn't until the 2000s that Honolulu agreed to a similar, more expensive project under the leadership of the mayor, Mufi Hannemann.

Political defeats

Anderson once again stood for election as mayor and was defeated by Fasi, who had switched his political affiliation from Democrat to Republican, so as to avoid being knocked out of the Democratic primary by Anderson [cite news
coauthors = Kevin Dayton
title = Andy Anderson: Tough, practical and sassy
publisher = "Honolulu Advertiser"
date = September 5, 2002
url = http://the.honoluluadvertiser.com/article/2002/Sep/05/ln/ln09a.html
accessdate = 2008-01-19] . Anderson subsequently sought a political comeback by seeking the nomination of her party for lieutenant governor in 1986. Anderson lost the primary election to state senator Ben Cayetano, who later served alongside Hawaii Governor John Waihee before becoming governor himself.

Popular culture

Magnum, P.I.

The 1981 to 1985 seasons of the CBS television program "Magnum, P.I." were filmed in Honolulu during Anderson's mayoral leadership. The show unintentionally included background scenes that featured major construction and development projects on Oahu, promoted by Anderson as mayor.

Perry and Price

In 1983, KSSK-FM reformatted its morning programming pairing Michael W. Perry and Larry Price. To this day, "Perry and Price" continue to be two of the most popular personalities and one of the most popular radio news programs in Hawaii. Anderson was a regular listener and, a sign of Perry and Price's growing influence, was the first major person to call the show during the broadcast, in effect signaling how relevant they were to local culture and politicscite news
coauthors = Kevin Dayton
title = Perry on the left, Price on the right
publisher = "Honolulu Star-Bulletin"
date = August 27, 1998
url = http://starbulletin.com/98/08/27/features/story1.html
accessdate = 2008-01-20] .

Anderson called the radio hosts, angry about their comments over a political issue. The "Honolulu Star-Bulletin" published the account on August 27, 1998:

Since Anderson's initial call, every Mayor of Honolulu and Governor of Hawaii has appeared on the morning "Perry and Price" program via telephone to comment or discuss various cultural and political issues and current events.

Women in politics

Interested in her role as first woman to become Mayor of Honolulu, the "Hawaii Kai Sun Press" asked Anderson to comment on women in politics. Published on June 1, 1983, Anderson said, "There is no way that we're going to change some of the discriminatory activities that go on toward women unless we do get them involved".

Notes

External links

* [http://www.honolulu.gov/ City and County of Honolulu]