I got up late this morning and saw the announcement of Frank Fasi’s death in the Advertiser’s Breaking News section.
A friend of ours once observed that you can judge a person by the stature of their enemies. If that’s true, then Frank Fasi was a great politician. He shook the party establishments from the populist outside. We can thank Fasi for the “resign to run” law, which was meant to take his city hall base away if he wanted to run for governor. We have Fasi to thank for the green space that surrounds the city complex of buildings downtown. I vividly remember the news photos of Fasi taking part in the midnight raid to execute his plan to dig up the parking lot behind city hall and replace it with grass. He took direct action while the city council debated, green before its time. We can thank Fasi for putting the “shaka” into campaigns. And if Honolulu’s all evevated rail system is eventually built, part of the credit will have to go to Fasi, since the current plans are little changed from those developed during his administration. The train will be considered either Fasi’s triumph or Fasi’s revenge, depending on how the public reacts to it.
Frank Fasi was part of my life. During the fall of 1960, I had my first taste of political excitment with JFK’s run for president. That excitement trickled down the political chain, and I asked my parents to put up a sign for then-Democrat Fasi in front of our house in heavily Republican Kahala. I can’t even remember if that was a run for mayor or what may have still been the Board of Supervisors. He lost, but he kept trying until he became mayor.
Then there was the lesson I got while working for Neil Abercrombie when Neil was on the City Council. I recall sitting in on a meeting between Neil, Fasi, and corporation counsel Richard Wurdeman. I think the meeting was to discuss Neil’s attempt to find a way to fund a senior housing project in Manoa. There was resistance from some other council members and community groups, and at some point Neil asked Fasi if they could produce a legal opinion. Fasi turned to Wurdeman, who said something along these lines. “Sure. What do you want it to say?”
Aha. A lesson in how things really work. Legal opinions on request. It’s something I think about every time someone holds up a handful of papers and announces, “but we’ve got a legal opinion.”
I was sued by the mayor in 1991 over comments about the appearance of corruption that were broadcast by a local news station. He withdrew the lawsuit later under pressure from the Republican Party.
Fasi was old school in some ways. He wasn’t shy to describe his approach. Reward your friends and punish your enemies. Other pols tend to believe that but not say it out loud. Fasi wasn’t shy.
But while rewarding his friend, Frank was a master of the small stuff. Voters might not understand city contracting and how it could be used to reward political friends, but Fasi knew voters remember the small stuff. Fill the pothole on their street, or send a crew to clean their neighborhood park, just respond directly to their minor, everyday complaints, and the votes would follow.
Fasi also knew something about image and action. Flooding? Hurricane? Fasi would be there on a truck, or in a civil defense jeep, hard hat and slicker, rain pouring, inspecting the scene. Not behind a desk back downtown waiting for reports to come in, not in a helicopter flying over days later. You’ve got to admire the guy for that impulse.
And there was Fasi the accessible. Remember those early mornings at Heidi’s, the little bakery and coffee place in Bishop Square where Fasi and his cronies used to gather every morning?
Several years ago, a reader submitted this classic Fasi story dating from 1989:
I will never forget a moment from Fasi: I’d lived in Hawaii only a month or so, and I was walking up Alapai Street where it meets Kinau. As I approached the top of the street, I could see a guy sweeping the street. Someone had smashed beer bottles on the street and a man in a white jumpsuit was sweeping it up, broom and dustpan in hand. No press. No truck. No anything.
Just me and Fasi. I said, Mayor Fasi, cleaning up a little? And he said, Yeah, there’s glass all over the street. Someone needs to clean it up. Why not me?
Apparently, he had gone down to the Board of Water Supply, grabbed a broom and dust pan and came back up to sweep.
He had my vote, right there.
Vintage.
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Yes, Frank was a great person. I used to socialize a lot with his eldest daughter, Toni, back in the 1970s. I recall attending her baby shower at her sister’s home, and there was Frank, his wife, and other adult children. He told me the lasagna his daughter had made didn’t have enough cheese.
Funny how that party stands out in my mind right now.
Hopefully everyone who lived on Oahu inthe 60s-90s has a Fasi story. I would go into the old bakery (name forgotten, auwe–Leonards?) at King and Keeamoku and there would be Mr. Fasi at the corner table with some buddies. No body guards or entourage, kind of amazing in today’s climate of fear.
I also remember how he went to Texas and bought a fleet of old buses in 1970, the start of “daBus” city bus service. That was not a trivial idea or project. Gutsy, and it actually solved a real problem–a rarity in today’s “all talk/shibai” political theater.
In my senior year at UH, I was an intern at C & C . I was getting a degree in economic history and thinking about grad school after being told, in effect by big business and others that my BA was essentially worthless. I had worked on a couple of projects that had gotten results and met the mayor in the process. I got summoned to his office one day and asked “what are you gonna do with your life” having heard I had some options on the Mainland and couldnt make a choice. He listened for 5 minutes then gave me some of the best advice I ever got, in effect, “law, business, doesnt matter…both will get you opportunities. Its what you do after that matters. Just remember people count, hard work gets results and most problems can be solved with common sense. Get out of Hawaii and challenge yourself”. I left about 1 month later and stayed gone for 10+ years. Despite an MBA, consulting and Fortune 100 experience etc, I realized in that time that he had summed up leadership far more effectively than many classes or textbooks ever did. He focused on results , getting things done and solving the problems of his constituents/customers. I often felt during years in Detroit that he, Lee Iacocca and others from that generation really were cut from the same cloth. They didnt waste too much time talking the talk but instead walked the walk.
I got off the boat here in Hawaii back in 1962 … no job, with a small family, and just a couple of local contacts to help me get started. Frank was one. I called him, introduced myself and asked if he would give me a letter of recommendation before I began my job hunting. “I can’t do that,” he said, “I don’t know you.” Then he said, “So why don’t you and your wife and baby come up to the house and have dinner with us tomorrow night?”
We did and had a wonderful time. Frank was engaging and funny and Joyce, of course, was welcoming and sweet and stunningly beautiful.
The following morning, the phone in our little hotel room rang. It was Frank, who gave me the names of two local business people he had called and who had agreed to meet me … because Frank had asked it of them. Almost every day for the next two weeks, Frank would call with one or two more names.
You wonder why those of us who worked for him were loyal to the man? It’s because almost every one of us has a story like that to tell.
Yes, he was a great mayor, probably be best Honolulu has ever had, but he was also a great friend. From Day One.
I used to sit on a Neighbrohood Board — an institutution Frank created — and once a year he would come to a meeting, supposedly to hear our concerns and take them back to Honolulu Hale with him.
Well, when he showed up in that white jump suit, he made it clear that he was not there to hear us, we were there to hear and pay obeissance to him. It was irritating at first, but then quite entertaining. What a showman, even without tails, a top hat, and a whip, he performed like the master of a three-ring circus.
I once remarked to him that I, too, was born in Hartford, CT. He was unimpressed, saying something like “if either of us liked it, we’d still be there!”
Guys like Fasi, make the mealy-mouthed
politicians of today look like weasely midgets.
Those left-handed compliments by Fasi’s
opponents on TV now show how pathetic
they are. Even in his death, they try to glorify
themselves. Weak.
“Fasi’s triumph or Fasi’s revenge, depending on how the public reacts to it.” hahahaaa. great!