Hawaii Gov. Josh Green used a state holiday to announce that he had named community and business leaders to top state agencies.

They include Michael Miyahira to the University of Hawaii Board of Regents, and Bruce U‘u, Ken Hayashida and Myles Miyasato to the Land Use Commission.

Colin Yost, who has served on the Public Utilities Commission since 2022, was reappointed to his position. The governor also named former state legislator Roy Takumi to lead the Board of Education along with five new board members.

“We are proud to appoint a wide breadth of leaders with diverse backgrounds of experience to take leadership positions to guide our state on these important issues,” Green said in a press release issued late afternoon on Tuesday, Prince Kuhio Day which is a state holiday.

Many of the appointments require state Senate confirmation, but it will be a challenge for so many nominations to be confirmed before the Legislature adjourns May 3.

Asked about the holiday announcement, the governor’s office said in an email that the Senate’s internal deadlines set Thursday as the final day to submit appointments.

“Our office followed that deadline,” the email said. “The law does not allow interim appointments to seats during session, so any appointees made during session are only effective once confirmed.”

Some of the names announced are already poised to be confirmed as early as Wednesday, as they have already cleared the designated Senate committee. They include U’u to the LUC, who received a lot of testimony in support of his nomination but at least one in opposition from an environmental lawyer who expressed concerns about his ties to developers.

Much attention will probably be focused on the naming of Miyahira to the UH board. The owner of Business Strategies, a business consulting firm on the Big Island, would fill the Hawaii County position that was vacated earlier this month when Alapaki Nahale-a was rejected in a close Senate vote.

The regents are embarking on a major search for a new UH president this year amid much political scrutiny by some senators, particularly Sen. Donna Mercado Kim who chairs the Senate Higher Education Committee.

Prior to 2000, Miyahira spent more than 24 years with one of Hawaii’s largest commercial banks “and spent the bulk of his banking career as a senior credit officer and manager of several of the bank’s business,” according to the administration.

If confirmed, Miyahira would be seated immediately as the holdover member.

Because it is the top agency for land-use management and regulation in the state, the three nominations to the nine-member LUC will also likely be scrutinized carefully by the Senate.

U’u is described in the press release as “a proud Native Hawaiian” and generational descendant of Maui who has served as the vice-chair of the Maui Planning Commission, as a member of the Cultural Resource Commission, as chair of both the Maui Liquor Adjudication Board and Maui Liquor Commission, and the University of Hawaii Maui College Advisory Board. He’s also a former a field representative for the Hawaii Regional Council of Carpenters, representing the interests of carpenters at the regional level.

Ken Hayashida “has been an active contributor” to the engineering community in Hawaii “for many years,” according to the administration. He has served as the chair of the Research Corporation of the University of Hawaii and as a member of the City and County of Honolulu Planning Commission.

And Myles Miyasato worked for 17 years with the Hawaii Operating Engineers Stabilization Fund where he retired as the executive director.

Green also named nine people to the Early Learning Board, four to the Mauna Kea Stewardship and Oversight Authority, three to the Hawaii Community Development Authority and two each to the Hawaii Housing Finance and Development Corp., the Hawaii Public Housing Authority, the Hawaii Paroling Authority and the Electricians and Plumbers Licensing Board.

And the governor appointed or reappointed one person each to the Hawaii Labor Relations Board, the Hawaii Labor Appeals Board and the Board of Agriculture.

The governor said in the announcement that he is also considering a list of names for appointment to the Commission on Water Resources Management.