(BIVN) – Hawaiʻi County Mayor Harry Kim will undergo surgery on Friday, but that didn’t stop him from testifying in Hilo today.

County officials say the mayor needs to have the surgery to clear a blockage in an artery in his lower extremities. The procedure should alleviate the claudication, or too little blood flow to the legs, caused by the narrowing of arteries.

The surgery will be done at the Straub Medical Center on Oʻahu.

Mayor Kim still had the fortitude to support on Bill 108 – the vacation rental regulation bill – at the Hawaiʻi County Council meeting on Tuesday.

“From the very beginning, the goal was to make Hawaiʻi Island a nice place to live,” Mayor Kim said of the effort to enact the bill.

The Mayor could be released from the hospital the same day as the surgery, which normally is an out-patient procedure, his administration says.

“I have to be home because I want to be in the Christmas Parade with my granddaughter on Saturday,” Kim said.