LOOK OUT KID, THEY KEEP IT ALL HID

LOOK OUT KID, THEY KEEP IT ALL HID: The patently illegal transient vacation rental bill passed out of the council planning committee at Wednesday’s Whine-a-Thon, as Joan Conrow so aptly put it today, our brain fut yesterday in saying it was up for final passage this week notwithstanding.

We’ll leave it to Joan’s hilarious-if-it-weren’t-so-pathetic, first-hand reporting to describe the chain of fools who paraded their self-interest before the council because for one brief shining moment we thought the council might actually discuss the blatant illegality- based on state law which they can only dream of changing- of not just ag land TVRs but all those not in proscribed visitor destination areas (VDAs).

Before the procession of TVR-owning snivelers filed up to the hot seat to ignore the law former councilperson and candidate this year Mel Rapozo’s laid out the various regulations in simple terms pointing out a new wrinkle in the Kobayashi opinion and how it applied to state land use laws.

Mel pointed out that Kobayashi essentially said that because TVRs weren’t listed in the county’s comprehensive zoning ordinance (CZO) among the unpermitted uses, they were permitted. But it also warned that it applied to only otherwise legal uses.

But, Rapozo said, HRS 205 does list permitted uses on ag land and not only don’t TVRs appear on the list one sections says that overnight accommodations are forbidden.

He went on to discuss many of the other legalities that don’t take an attorney to read and comprehend and he was so clear that councilmembers actually started to discuss them in open session for the first time rather than sweeping them under the executive session rug as County Attorney Al Castillo has insisted.

When Chair Kaipo Asing started to get into the meat of the legal issues, that was too much for Castillo who, as he is wont to do, unceremoniously interrupted him seeking to take the public policy discussion behind closed doors.

That was when Asing essentially told Castillo to fu*k off saying he was going to discuss his opinion in open session.

It was kind of astonishing especially in that Asing has duplicitously used Castillo’s through-the-looking-glass interpretation of the sunshine law for the last year and a half to halt discussion whenever it’s politically expedient.

But alas that discussion was short lived and once again the council went back to ignoring the law, with Planning Committee Chair Jay Furfaro parrying with anyone who tried to bring it up with his usual misinformation, misrepresentations and misdirections making sure that the message was clear- this is Kaua`i and we only acknowledge state and federal law when it suits us... and we’ve got the circuit court judges these days to back us up.

The bill passed out of committee by a 4-1 vote with Councilperson Derrick Kawakami in opposition and bill author Tim Bynum joining Darryl Kaneshiro and Furfaro in voting to approve it and Lani Kawahara remaining silent and so having her vote count as a “yes” due to council rules that say a silent vote is counted with the majority.

This bill will no doubt pass next Wednesday, most likely by a vote of 4-2 with Asing joining Kawakami and Dickie Chang and, yes, Lani Kawahara supporting Bynum Furfaro and Kaneshiro.

Which means of course that by rushing the measure into passage before November it will insure the two “lame ducks” on the council, Kaneshiro and Kawahara- who are likely to be replaced by two opponent former Councilmembers Rapozo and JoAnn Yukimura- will cast the deciding votes.

If that ain’t reason to sweep all the bums out this year, it’d be hard to know what is.