Honolulu City Council Chair barred from seeking third term

The Hawaii Supreme Court ruled Friday that Honolulu City Council Chair Tommy Waters cannot seek a third consecutive term, rejecting his argument that a delayed 2019 swearing-in should have shortened his first term below the charter's four-year threshold.

The 3-2 majority, filled out by two temporarily assigned circuit judges due to recusals and a vacancy, held that time actually served is irrelevant to the term-limit clock. Two dissenting justices countered that Waters' 2019 win filled a vacancy created by an invalidated 2018 election and shouldn't count as a full term at all.

The case traces back to a 2018 race decided by 22 votes, later thrown out over improperly received absentee ballots, and a chaotic 2025 special election cycle where a court ruled Waters ineligible just ten days before ballots — already printed and mailed with his name on them — went out. He still pulled 8,654 votes anyway, finishing second.

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