NO, SEE YOU THROW THE STICK AND I GO GET IT

NO, SEE YOU THROW THE STICK AND I GO GET IT: In 1962 veteran NY Yankees Manager Casey Stengel took over the brand new NY Mets, a collection of washed up old stars and players plucked from the minors.

They were arguably the most awful team in any sport, any time, any where.

Stengel finally threw up his hands and uttered the now famous words “Can’t anyone here play this game?”

Never have those words been more applicable than in the case of Kauai County government.

Today’s regular column from Walter Lewis is a somber, sober, erudite and detailed assessment of our Ethics Board’s inability to do their job or even know what it is. And though Walter meant no humor it had us laughing out loud like one of those Tom Wolfe descriptive passages that, while they contain no real jokes and go on forever, eventually evoke an image that’s side-splitting.

This week in the name of professionalism and community relations the top people in the police department wrote tomes that sounded more like wise guys than wise men. And then we learned that it was part of some plan.

This week we also saw the Council approve a budget including 20 more employees to take care of problems the Council perceives with the administration without any guarantee the positions will be filled. And rather than actually pass laws to require the positions be filled then included money to hire someone to insure they fill the other positions.

This week we saw the Planning Commission zero-in on passing yet another resort and commercial center because they have somehow decided that they have to approve everything before them, not because the County lost a lawsuit but because someone who cannot be identified in the County refused to fight a lawsuit to maintain our right to make traditionally legal local planning decisions. We now apparently have no ability to reject any project even if we want to.

This week we saw a Councilman complaining to the papers that he has to keep secret County Attorneys’ opinions given to him despite his position as “client” – the one who has the privilege in any attorney-client privilege.

This week we saw our electric “co-op”- where members are supposed to vote on the rules- make up a policy in opposition to their bylaws to thwart the community’s vote for directors. .

This week we saw blatant TV electioneering on the taxpayer nickel and no one filing any complaints- because they would have to complain to the dysfunctional ethics board.

We now see that the cream of the crop of candidates to enter the race for council is a perennial candidate who picks up trash along the road, has as his top priority wants to rid the island of mosquitoes and once said he was running so his wife would come back to him. He’s joined by a man of the people- a political bosses’ skein who owns the biggest supermarket chain on the island campaigning as a man of the people... and people expect him to win.

And we've reelected the town idiot Mayor a couple of years ago, because he hadn’t done enough damage yet and his best quality is his lack of involvement in any of this.

And it isn’t just government. We have activists circulating a ballot measure that is guaranteed to monkey wrench the process but doesn’t really even accomplish their own goals- which could have been addressed if they had understood the laws and governance set-up before going to a land-use lawyer in Georgia to draft the petitions and measures for them.

We have citizens spending hours days weeks ad months bitterly criticizing the way the Council acts who have never bothered to attend a Council meeting much less investigate how things got so bad to begin with.

And of course we’ve got the silent majority who see all the above all too clearly, want it to change, but tell themselves and us they would like to go to a government meeting but they’re too busy watching TV and surfing in their off time.

Can’t anyone here play this game? Maybe if it were pinball we’d all see the big “tilt”.