hunterbishop.com

Recently I was handed a  hard copy of this Hawaii Business magazine article about Harry Kim. It covers much familiar ground for most Kim followers but there was this startling piece on how Bruce McClure was hired as Public Works Director in 2000:

 Newly elected Mayor Harry Kim, 61, calls up Bruce McClure and asks the engineer if he would like to join his administration as the head of the county’s Department of Public Works. Kim knows that McClure is a hard worker and is trustworthy, just the kind of person he needs on his team.
McClure comes in the next day and tells the mayor-elect that he spoke with his wife the night before, and they agreed that he couldn’t devote the amount of hours required to do the job well. He has a 10-year-old daughter and he doesn’t want to miss her growing up.
Kim looks McClure in the eye. “F*#k you, Bruce,” he says. “I’m asking you to take the job for your daughter, so don’t give me that s*#t! I’m giving you a chance to make things better for your daughter, not for you!”
He asks McClure to go home and think about the offer again. McClure agrees. He returns the next day and accepts the job."

-- Hawaii Business

The article's not clear where that anecdote comes from, Kim, McClure or someone else. But it is revealing and would be even more so if the source were known. Who after all was touting that particular piece of the mayor's management style?

And what kind of example is that for school kids being taught anti-bullying?

Less startling in the article but still a little surprising was speculation that Kim will be eyed for the state gubernatorial race in 2010 -- at age 71. Though unlikely, I wouldn't rule it out. By then he'll be tanned and rested.

But in truth, I really think he's angling to get his old Civil Defense job back. That's the way it looks, anyway. Sometimes it seems he never left it. Heard him again tonight on the radio telling me it's going to be windy.