Who is Hawai‘i's new second-in-command?
Last week, after Lt. Gov. Sylvia Luke announced she will take an indefinite, unpaid leave of absence, Gov. Josh Green announced that state comptroller Keith Regan will serve as acting lieutenant governor in the interim.
Even as acting lieutenant governor, however, Regan will retain his current duties as comptroller and the director of the state Department of Accounting and General Services, DAGS spokeswoman Diane Ako told Aloha State Daily.
As detailed in Hawai‘i statutes, those duties entail broad-level management of state departmental finances, such as by reviewing every transaction of funds involving the state treasury, making audits of all transactions greater than $10,000, and ensuring that the amount of money disbursed to a particular department does not exceed established funding ceilings.
Since beginning his role as state comptroller in 2022, Regan has overseen procurement and development of several significant projects throughout the state, Ako told ASD, including the New Aloha Stadium Entertainment District Project, a planned new jail on O‘ahu, the renovation of the state Capitol, DAGS’ Enterprise Financial System project, and more.
Prior to his role as comptroller, Regan served several positions throughout state and county government. His previous job was as business management officer at the state Department of Commerce and Consumer Affairs, which he began in mid-2022. However, by the end of that year, the newly elected Green named Regan as state comptroller.
Before his position at DCCA, Regan was chief administrative officer at the Hawai‘i Tourism Authority, where he worked from 2018 to 2022. Before that, he was the managing director for the County of Maui.
In 2016, Regan ran for a seat on the Maui County Council, promising to update the council’s annual budgeting process to allow for the council to make policy decisions more quickly.
However, in the primary election that year, Regan came in third out of five candidates, albeit only narrowly: he trailed the frontrunner Dain Kane by just over 400 votes. To date, this was Regan’s only political campaign.
During his campaign, Regan also touted his involvement in various community groups, such as a past president for the Japanese Cultural Society of Maui, a past president for the California-Nevada-Hawai‘i district of the Kiwanis Club, a past board member of the Maui Memorial Medical Center Foundation, and more.
Meanwhile, as Regan steps up to the Acting Lieutenant Governor position, Deputy Comptroller Meoh-Leng Silliman has also been named Acting Comptroller, in order to assist Regan with his duties at DAGS as needed.
ASD has reached out to the Lieutenant Governor's office for comment.
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