(PNN) GARY HOOSER WILL RUN FOR OFFICE THIS YEAR; LEANING TOWARD COUNCIL THOUGH SENATE STILL A POSSIBILITY

GARY HOOSER WILL RUN FOR OFFICE THIS YEAR; LEANING TOWARD COUNCIL THOUGH SENATE STILL A POSSIBILITY

(PNN) -- Former Kaua`i County Councilmember and State Senator Gary Hooser will run for office this year according to a credible source with direct knowledge of Hooser's plans.

Hooser is strongly leaning toward running for council although a senate run is still a possibility. He is expected to "pull papers" Monday morning and file them later in the day.

Hooser currently serves as the appointed Director Office of Environmental Quality Control in the Abercrombie administration where he successfully fought off this year's legislative attempts to dramatically weaken HRS Chapter 343 environmental review laws regarding Environmental Assessments (EA) and Environmental Impact Statements (EIS).

If he decides on running for council he will be seeking to reclaim his old seat where he served from 1998 through 2002. As a councilmember he helped blow the lid off of Papa`a Bay mud slide in the original "Developers Gone Wild" grubbing and grading hearings, sponsored a charter amendment giving the council audit power and was instrumental in keeping access to Kealia Kai open 24 hours a day seven days a week without security guards.

He also led efforts to uncover and reveal the facts in the "Red Chrysler-gate" scandal during the Kusaka administration, when it was revealed that Kusaka had, at county expense, secretly leased an expensive luxury car from her former campaign manager.

Hooser served as Kaua`i senator from 2002 until 2010, the last four years as Senate Majority Leader.

As Senator, Hooser was the primary introducer and mover in the Senate to pass a first-in-nation mandate for solar hot water heaters. He was instrumental in passing legislation protecting farm lands from onerous "gentleman farms'" restrictive covenants and "brought home the bacon" leading to improvements to Na Pali trail, Kilauea School and Wailua Bridge. He also helped resolve the Koke`e lease issue enabling local residents to get first rights to the leases of state cabins there.

Hooser was the first to speak out against school furloughs, led the fight in the Senate for civil unions, and is a former Chair of the Democratic Party Environmental Caucus.

According to the source, Hooser has grown weary of the Honolulu climate and is looking forward to re-connecting to his island home and his friends here on Kaua`i. Hooser lives in Wailua Homesteads with his wife Claudette, two dogs, (Roxie and Hina), one cat, (Socks) and 5 chickens (Dolly and 4 unnamed Rhode Island Reds). He has two adult children, Dylan and Kelli-Rose.

For more information on Hooser go to http://www.garyhooser.com/ .

YOU REALLY GOTTA ASK

YOU REALLY GOTTA ASK?: Yeah, yeah, we know- hope springs eternal and all that stuff. But to tell you the truth it doesn't look good.

This year we just may find out what would happen if they had an election and nobody ran.

It's really hard to find anyone who isn't ready to throw the bums out this November, but usually there are plenty of new bums standing in line to replace them. Except, as the June 5 deadline for candidates to file approaches, other than incumbents, there is nary a Kaua`i legislative candidate who has even "pulled papers" much less filed them.

Despite the fact that all of of our legislators on Kaua`i voted for the dreaded bill that would have more or less repealed parts of HRS 343- the Hawai`i Environmental Protect Act (HEPA)- by exempting projects from local review, permitting, and of course public hearings, all thus far are running unopposed.

In State Senator District 8 Ronald D Kouchi, and in the House, State Representatives in District 14, 15 and 16, Derek S K Kawakami, James K Tokioka and Daynette S Morikawa (respectively) will get free passes if nothing changes, although we hear there may be a surprise announcement from a familiar name as the filing deadline approaches.

And while both incumbent Shaylene C Iseri-Carvalho and challenger Justin F Kollar have filed to run for Kauai Prosecuting Attorney, no one has filed to challenge any of the incumbent council members.

Six of the current seven- Dick S Chang, Joseph J Furfaro, Kipukai L Kuali'i, Nadine K Nakamura, Melvin Rapozo and Joann A Yukimura- have pulled papers with Rapozo and Kuali`i having actually filed them. But only three challengers- all pretty much unknown and with little chance of garnering enough support to oust any of the incumbents- have pulled papers and none of those has yet filed.

According to a Facebook page under that name, the first challenger, Christina Gutierrez-More of Kapa`a

is a Northern San Joaquin Valley, California native residing on Kauai for the past 9 years. She has been a dedicated mother of two and hardworking entrepreneur for the past 6 years. Her goal is to represent the Kauai people in issues that matter most to our island community. She is focused on positive growth, sustainability, renewable energy, affordable living and finding the means to support our ailing public school system and salvaging it's fundamental art programs. The natural beauty of Kauai and its residences' are dear to her heart and in her best interest. Please support her campaign and enable her to represent your community and make a stand for Kauai as a council member.

At a page called "Keikilane" a profile of someone named Leialoha L Sanchez- also of Kapa`a according to her filing- says

I was born in the Philippines to a Navy Captain, William Flores of Kailua and a domestic engineer, Debra Naihe of Waimanalo. I have 2 older brothers, Kalani and Kaipo and a younger sister, Ka’ohu. After the death of our father, our family relocated to Kaua’i. We spent the remainder of our childhood there and like most ‘ohana’s living in rural Hawai’i; we are “thick as thieves”. I am happily married to my best friend, Robin, who weird enough shares the same middle name as me. We have 2 beautiful flowers (girls) who add to our arrangement, Ka’uolani who's 7 years old and Kaumakakaihuia who will be 3 years old in December. The day I became a teacher was the day I became a mother.

In 1997, I moved to Hilo to further my education. I attended Ka Haka Ula o Ke’elikolani Hawaiian Language College at the University of Hawai’i at Hilo. I graduated with my Bachelors of Arts degree in Hawaiian Language with a minor in Pacific Island History. My Bachelor’s degree has allowed me to work in several Hawaiian immersion schools and other charter schools that serve Native Hawaiian students and or provides a Native Hawaiian perspective to its students.

Reflection

As a teacher, I found it to be true that education is the one constant in many children’s lives and has an immense influence in shaping the person they become. My work experiences have made more appreciative of education as a way of life rather than a career.

Assuming it is the same person who filed, Elizabeth K Toulon of Koloa is a scion of the kama`aina Knudsen/Toulon clan. According to "campaignmoney.com," she has given money to right wing PACS such as "Minuteman PAC Inc," an anti-immigration, "secure borders" organization and "Eagle Forum PAC," an anti-abortion PAC apparently under the control of Republican activist Phyllis Schlafly as well as to the brief 2008 presidential campaign of Elizabeth Dole, former Secretary of Transportation under President George W Bush.

And that it. Of course the deadline could be extended depending on a ruling from the federal courts- expected any day now- on the Hawai`i reapportionment plan. But that doesn't change the fact that no one seems interested in serving in office.

And who can blame them. As jobs go it's a real stinker and can be a career killer. The salary sucks for both legislator and council and, although each is considered a part time job, they take up most of your time and limit your employment choices because an "understanding boss" is a necessity.

Job security is a real conundrum. If you do keep getting reelected you then get pegged in the public's eye as one of those "professional politicians" that no one likes. As soon as you're an incumbent you're automatically just the latest bum to be thrown out.

Who needs it? Just to get started, as anyone who knows the drill will tell you, the first thing you need to do is get out your extensive address book and call 100 friends and ask them each for $100. If you can't do that successfully you better just forget it. And if you get that done then it's time to cold-call a list of another 1000 people and ask each of them for $100.

If you do happen to get elected- usually not because the voters especially like you but because they really dislike the other guy- every one of those people who gave you money is going to call you and ask you for something... usually something you'd rather not do. And if you want to get reelected you have to either do what they ask or figure out how to turn them down without pissing them off.

Of course that's not to mention spending every waking moment you're not at work at the high school girls' water polo games, Tutu's baby lu`au or Uncle's birthday and every other boring vacuous event you'd never in your right mind attend... oh- and walk up to and schmooze everyone there, even those assholes you'd never otherwise talk to.

Do you really need to ask why no one is running? We're surprised that anyone ever does.

THE CONTADINA CONSPIRACY

THE CONTADINA CONSPIRACY: This week is commonly known as "are you insane?" week. Okay no it's not... we made that up. So sue us.

But it's a different March Madness that is driving us batty, not the one that has been- and will be- absorbing all of our time and keeping the care and feeding of this beast to a minimum.

It's "Crossover" week at the state legislature when, every year, there are a number of Frankensteinian, "what could you possibly be thinking" bills that have actually passed either the house or senate and are "still alive"... and about to be considered by the power-drunk, disconnected-from-reality officials on the other side (certainly not "our" side) of the lege.

But this year the sheer number if not the content of a passel of piss-poor provisions- ones seemingly designed to eliminate all environmental and land use protections in the name of "economic development"- can only be the product of a group of truly warped, if not criminally corrupted, minds.

We were going nuts over which was more important- this week's conference tournaments or compiling a list of these bills and giving a brief explanation of each... maybe even come up with an algorithm of the precise angle and number of times we should bang our head against the wall.

It was looking like the latter was losing out to that soothing sound of sneakers screeching on gym floors.

But wouldn't you know darn it- you're in luck.

Eleven term State Representative Cynthia Thielen- a Republican of all things and the ranking member of the House Energy and Environmental Protection, Water, Land and Ocean Resources and Judiciary Committees- has penned a handy-dandy guide to what she calls the "Dirty 8 (that) Erode Three Decades Of Landmark Environmental Law," as published in yesterday's "Civil Beat."

In her tome she lists the bills that have "crossed over," describing each and prefaced by the history of how the Hawai`i Environmental Protect Act (HRS § 343) and Shoreline Management Area legislation (HRS § 205A) came to be law.

She writes that :

our State Legislature is ignoring what this body established over three decades ago by now passing legislation that exempts government projects from this public environmental review process. This includes exemptions for government departments and agencies with long track records of being in violation of this landmark law, such as the Department of Transportation (think back to the lawsuit against DOT's H-3). This is a sad day for our public, and it brings shame to our Legislature.

Uh, we might have mentioned the SuperFerry instead but why quibble.

Thielen goes into greater detail and for how diabolical these eight pieces of crap really are and we urge you to read it in full... if you really want to get infuriated that is.

But, somewhat truncated, here they are:

1) HB530 is perhaps the worst of the Dirty 8 as it gives the Office of Planning the ability to grant or deny Special Management Area permits and shoreline setback variances for State structures and activities in shoreline areas. HB530 essentially exempts DOT and the Department of Land and Natural Resources (DLNR) from the Coastal Zone Management Act. More specifically, HB530 has the potential to exempt an undersea cable from environmental review.

2) HB2145 is simply titled "Relating to Economic Development" yet it states it is the policy of the State to complete certain key projects by December 31, 2023, such as the undersea, interisland cable and fixed rail.

3) HB2154 endangers Hawaii's shorelines by adding a temporary exemption from the Special Management Area Use and Minor Permit requirements for certain airport development.

4) HB2324 exempts the upgrading and new construction of broadband facilities on State and County property from State and County permitting processes.

5) HB2325 requires the State and Counties to approve, approve with modification, or disapprove all broadband related permits within 45 days. If no action is taken, the application will be approved on the 46th day. This bill allows for automatic approval of projects without first considering their impact.

6) HB2611 (and its Senate companion SB2873) temporarily amends Chapter 343, HRS, to clarify current EIS exemptions for certain secondary actions. The Department of Transportation sought the exemptions instead of seeking the Environmental Council's approval for secondary action exemptions on highway projects.

7) HB2613 exempts the Department of Transportation, Harbors Division from the permit and site plan approval requirements relating to submerged lands within the State land use conservation district, which contains important natural resources essential to the preservation of the State's fragile natural ecosystems and sustainability of the State's water supply.

8) HB2690 streamlines the geothermal development process by exempting all exploration and drilling from any environmental review, allowing such activity in all State land use districts and conservation district zones and repealing geothermal resource subzone provisions under State land use law.

She concludes by saying

As the Dirty 8 bills move swiftly through the Legislature, we are in danger of rewriting our legacy of environmental law by exempting projects from the specific environmental review processes which protect our vital natural and cultural resources and ensure our economic stability. These bills ignore decades of law introduced by Hawaii's esteemed leaders and environmental pioneers, and threaten the integrity of Hawaii's environment and the prosperity of its people. Instead of tearing down environmental protections and reversing laudable statutes, we should be heeding the wisdom of our predecessors and ensuring a viable future for generations.

If you want to help kill the beast where it lives, tracking bills is easier than ever. Have you pitchfork and torch at hand and go to the Capitol web site Once there enter the house bill (HB) number at the top on the left where it says "Bill Status/Measure Status." That will let you know what the number of the senate version (SB) is- once it is given one.

Then, when it says (at the bottom of the status page) that a hearing has been scheduled you can click on the "Submit Testimony" button which takes you to a page where you can do just that.

If you can't wait you can email all the senators at sens@capitol.hawaii.gov or all representatives at reps@capitol.hawaii.gov . Although tracking the bill and submitting testimony when it is scheduled is said to be more effective it's incredibly difficult and time consuming especially when you're opposing things like eight lousy tomatoes shoved up our little bitty cans- and especially since hearings only have 48 hour notices, even less if they don't feel like it.

Be back Monday.

Go 'Cuse.

PRAISE THE SPEAKER AND PASS THE COMPAZINE

PRAISE THE SPEAKER AND PASS THE COMPAZINE: As we enter our fifth year of "daily" whatever-the-heck-it-is-we-do in this space (changing the definition of "daily" on the fly, first to "week"days and later to whenever-the-heck we feel like it), we noticed that, while some years we tend to bang our head against the wall of the annual state legislative session more than others, this year?.. not so much.

Now don't get us wrong- we usually have little or no trouble getting our boxers in a bunch for the next big fight. The trouble is we're so damn tired of fighting the last one again and again.

Our legislative system has to be one of the most "corrupt" in the country. By that we mean that it's essentially based on a politically-motivated, mutual hand-washing type of cronyism and legalized bribery. This year there was a bill floating around that would have literally legalized "gifts" meant to influence legislators.

It's like a bento that comes with a heaping portion of our absurd "committee-chair-as-God" bill-referral system and two scoops of an "it's-always-this-way-unless-it's-not" rules and procedures, all slathered in the gravy of a hurry-up-and-wait, fake-you-out-of-your-Nikes slew of often-unannounced hearings culminating in a series of conference committees at session's end that make the previous four months of kabuki a bad and expensive joke on those picking up the check.

So the past week or so, as yet another effort to remove all environmental protections from the Hawai`i Environmental Protection Act (HRS 343) moved forward- this time in a measure to arbitrarily allow the governor and/or mayors to exempt anything their black little hearts desire from, not just environmental protection, but from any and all permitting that might trigger public hearings or even add conditions- we just couldn't whip up the outrage of past years' efforts at similar mahttp://www.blogger.com/img/blank.giflfeasance.

Thankfully this morning we awoke to a Facebook posting from former Kaua`i State Senator and current state Director of the Office of Environmental Quality Control, Gary Hooser. Fortunately Hooser is now in a position where it is his job to read through stacks of bills, many of which the environmental watchdogs might miss because of course they're not titled "Related to Rape of the Environment" but rather, as in this case, "Relating To Economic Revitalization."

After sending out an alarm last week as to the scheduling of a hearing yesterday, today Hooser wrote that:

HB1893 was "deferred" in the House Finance Committee which means it is most likely dead for this session! This of course is great news for those who care about the environment and preserving public participation in the development process.

Of course another bill, HB2324, which would exempt "the upgrading and new construction of broadband facilities on state and county property from state and county permitting processes" did pass with still-unknown amendments which, the ever optimistic Hooser hopes, "will result in a Bill that is far better than the version that arrived in Finance."

Every year there's another attack. We'd seen them come and go over the year with the worst of the worst, like "automatic approvals," creating havoc and leaving communities with monstrous projects and developments that no one wants because, in the case of automatic approvals, some bureaucrat was asleep at the wheel.

But a special place in the legislative Hall of Shame has to go to these outright HRS 343 exemptions for certain department or division projects.

We became aware of these relatively recently when the SuperFerry was triggering pre barf-o-meter nausea.

As word of the Linda Lingle Administration's corrupt little exemption from 343 began to be challenged, we noticed the absence of any county permitting- even a Shoreline Management Area (SMA) permit which always accompanies any project on or near the shore and is required under the federal Coastal Zone Management (CZM) Act.

But after our usual runaround at the planning department (PD)- which, as with all county departments, usually consists of a "click" on the phone whenever we identify ourselves- we finally received a semi-anonymous email from a lower echelon PD cog from sector "R," referring us to an HRS provision that, like one of those pockets in your colon that contain five year old potato skins, contained a particularly disgusting little turd of a law that exempted the entire Harbor Division of the Department of Land and Natural Resources (DLNR) from any and all county permitting.

Upon further review we learned from then-Kaua`i Representative Mina Morita that, though this provision pre-dated her tenure and had little chance of repeal, she had spent a decade or more fighting the same battle, year after year, to defeat bills that would make others, like the Airports Division, similarly exempted.

Of course now people are becoming more aware of these measures and sometimes, miraculously, as with today's "defeat" of HB1893, the bill is at least temporarily squelched until it rears its ugly head at next year's session.

We have no idea whether we'll be able to stomach much coverage of the legislature this year. Oh we may re-rant about the idiotic Council on Revenues (COR) system where they have to prepare the budget not once, not twice but three times as the economic projections change from one pulled from the COR's sleeve to another pulled from their butts at various points before, during or after the session.

Or maybe we'll get our hackles raised by some last minute "plate-lunch" bill with a heaping portion of gut-and-replace and a side order of conference-committee-shenanigans that yields a final day vote on bill that, although it never even got a hearing and was declared dead in January, has now been slipped into a stack of 20 bills that are passed in a matter of 25 seconds.

But don't expect much. We're nauseous enough from the vog blowing though these days, and food is too expensive to lose our lunch over an entrenched legislative process which stands zero chance of getting a gut-and replace treatment of its own.

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YOU CAN'T GET THERE FROM HERE

YOU CAN'T GET THERE FROM HERE: "Math is hard" as the talking Barbie told us a decade or so ago to maker Mattel’s chagrin after the backlash by those concerned that the message that it sent to young girls was that it's okay to throw their math homework under the bus if they found it a little difficult- that and the fact that it's expected they would find it too arduous because, well, they are "only girls."

But when it comes to not following the law because it is "too hard" it's not usually an excuse for non-compliance. The defendant who claims it was tough not to kill his next-door neighbor because "he needed killin'" doesn't usually stand much of a chance in court.

But then those who think difficulty in following the law makes flouting it a bad idea have probably never been to Hawai`i where, more often than not, even the judges find degree of difficulty an excuse for being lenient.

So it was that, baffling to almost everyone, the Hawai`i state Reapportionment Commission came back with a plan last year that said that, despite the fact the Article IV Sect 4 of the Hawai`i State Constitution explicitly banned the use of non-residents in setting the boundaries of state legislative districts, they would include them because to exclude them was just way too hard.

When the Hawai`i Supreme Court ruled unanimously yesterday that the commission needed to redraw the districts with the constitution in mind it was indeed stunning when, according to the pay-walled Honolulu Star Advertiser "former state Judge Victoria Marks, the commission's chairwoman, said the panel will come up with a new plan, but said it is unclear how many non-permanent residents will be excluded."

Uh Virginia, apparently the number is... um, carry the seven... er, divide by negative eleven...ALL OF THEM.

But the quote that followed was, if possible more "in your face, Supreme Court." The article says that:

(Marks) said if the commission follows two proposals eliminating about 73,000 and 80,000 non-permanent residents, it could come up with a new plan quickly.

But if the commission cannot adopt those numbers or must consider the figure of 120,000 non-permanent residents the challengers request, it would be like "starting completely anew" and could pose problems meeting deadlines for this year's election.

Stunning indeed. Not only has the former judge decided that it would take a supreme court ruling to get her to follow the law but that she still apparently will be taking on the disgraced Barbie persona by trying to finagle non-compliance with a "math is hard" excuse.

For those who have failed to follow the issue, it's not a differentiation without a difference. O`ahu has enough military and students to give them an extra senate district that, if the constitution were to be respected, would otherwise go to the Big Island.

The deadline for commission action is February 1 when, by law, pols are supposed to be able to "pull papers" for office... assuming there is a list of offices for which they may run.

Sometime you've got to wonder. Unless you've lived in the islands long enough to just throw up your hands and decide that wondering itself is just too damn hard.

CHOKE ON IT

CHOKE ON IT: If those who treat terminal illnesses with humor really want to get some belly laughs, they might do well to bring in tapes of the last two Kaua`i County Council sessions.

No, this time it wasn't the council itself that provided the guffaws but some of the Genetically Modified Organism (GMO) industry lobbyists and their poor, confused sycophants who traipsed up to testify.

One of our favorite bit of professed balderdash is that we don't need labeling because "no one has gotten sick from GMOs," which would be a neat trick since it might just make it difficult to know of something made you sick if you didn't know you were eating it.

Actually there have been very few studies of heath effects- zero independently conducted ones that we can find- with the oft quoted numbers of studies of GMOs being primarily on the growing of them and far less than 10% on any health effects.

But perhaps the most side-splitting of all absurdities is from those who tried to intimidate the council into rejecting support for a measure to ask the state legislature to initiate labeling of GMO products, as we mentioned a week or so back.

You could see the actual fear on Kauai and Hawai`i state Farm Bureau stalwart Jerry Ornellas's face as he described the scenario that he had been convinced was the future under a Hawai`i law requiring labeling. He described how soon, farmers would be sitting around, first presumably with test tubes and centrifuges to determine if their food contained GMOs and then whipping out the stickers and laundry marking pen and writing out their own labels.

People such as Scott MacFarlaine of the Chamber of Commerce and others had convinced poor "Farmer Jerry" that it would be up to him and perhaps retailers to do this, turning the issue into not one of health but one of "get the government off the backs of small business."

Even though recently states like California have started petition efforts to get their legislature to pass labeling laws and others have begun to consider introducing such legislation, the local produce defilers are apparently going to rely on a divide and conquer strategy that presumes the internet was never invented.

The council didn’t help much with this with every one of them questioning whether the state could really do this in the first place. Doesn't the FDA have jurisdiction and haven't they banned states and local jurisdictions from passing labeling laws?

Well the bad news used to be yes. Until this past July, the FDA has said they were solely responsible for any move toward labeling and when the chief lobbyist from Monsanto was appointed head of the FDA it didn't look good.

But the recent good news is that, according to Consumers International, the world federation of consumer groups,

In a striking reversal of their previous position, on Tuesday, during the annual Codex (Alimentarius) summit in Geneva, the US delegation dropped its opposition to the GM labeling guidance document, allowing it to move forward and become an official Codex text.

The new Codex agreement means that any country wishing to adopt GM food labeling will no longer face the threat of a legal challenge from the World Trade Organization (WTO). This is because national measures based on Codex guidance or standards cannot be challenged as a barrier to trade.

What that means in the US is that, as a signatory of the Codex and member of the World Trade Organization, the federal FDA can no longer ban labeling.

The article cites examples like Peru where

recent introduction of GM food labeling faced the threat of a legal challenge from the WTO. This new Codex agreement now means that this threat has gone and the consumer right to be informed has been secured.

...and in Africa where

Samuel Ochieng, President Emeritus of Consumers International and CEO of the Consumer Information Network of Kenya said:

"While the agreement falls short of the consumer movement's long-held demand for endorsement of mandatory GM food labeling, this is still a significant milestone for consumer rights. We congratulate Codex on agreeing on this guidance, which has been sought by consumers and regulators in African countries for nearly twenty years. This guidance is extremely good news for the worlds' consumers who want to know what is in the foods on their plates". (sic)

Now we don't expect all the conspiracy nutcases- who have tried to turn the Codex Alimentarius into a satanic field manual instead of an international standard for safety and efficacy of drugs and things like vitamins- to give up. You'll recognize them by their "don't take away our vitamins" mantra having been duped into not realizing that their little movement is funded and directed by the evil "Big Pharma" itself so they don't have to test their now unregulated vitamins and supplements.

But this does "solve" the mystery of what exactly happened this summer to allow the states to pass their own legislation regarding GMO labeling.

As to the Hawai`i effort, even though apparently the Kaua`i County Council will join Maui in their support for a state-wide labeling bill, since the measure is part of the Hawai`i State Association of Counties' (HSAC) legislative package, all county councils must sign off on it and, if the Honolulu committee vote is any indication, it's not going to pass there.

That means that the Hawai`i GMO labeling movement will most likely be moving on to the next phase- finding support in the legislature.

The first thing is to find two legislators- one in the house and one in the senate- to introduce the bills. And then the fun begins.

It is never too early to start soliciting support for the measure among legislators. The earlier the support the more likely the bill will get a kind ear from the leadership of the two bodies and get referrals to committees that have supportive chairs and, conversely, not get referred to those committees that have chairs who are close to the industry.

For those on Kaua`i who might have the attention of our four legislators- Senator Ron Kouchi, Representatives Derek Kawaikami, Jimmy Tokioka or Dee Morikawa- it can't hurt to try to pin them down on their public positions on GMO labeling now.

The council will be taking a final vote on Wednesday and the stronger the showing of support the more likely it is to get noticed by state legislators... in an election year. If people can't sit around all day and wait for it to come up on the agenda the council now allows people to speak right at 9 a.m. on any agenda topic. And written testimony can be submitted via email at counciltestimony@kauai.gov .

The Codex Alimentarius Commission decision means nothing if those who have thrown up their hands in frustrated despair for the past decade or so don't act, whether here in Hawai`i or in other states.

We'll miss the non-sequiturs and ridiculously convoluted scare tactics of the GMO industry but we'll always have Marx Brothers movies.

ALL AROUND THE MULBERRY BUSH

ALL AROUND THE MULBERRY BUSH: Sometime you've gotta wonder what's up when it comes to our state judiciary.

No, we're not talking about the scandal plagued sheriff’s division or the "we be's" who populate the offices and act as if they own the process, if not the judges themselves. No, it's not the probation department that thinks that "field work" is going hunting and fishing on weekends.

If you want to know what plaguing our state's courts just look at the actual rulings of some of the men and women wearing the robes.

Today's decision by the newly reinvigorated Hawai`i Intermediate Court of Appeals (ICA) overturning 5th Circuit Court Judge Randall Valenciano's ruling that allowed the Republican party to "replace" a candidate for the 14th House District who intentionally filed and withdrew just before the deadline, is a case in point detailing how politics often rules the courthouse roost.

The problem is that rather than sort out what the law really is trying to say, they simply shirked that responsibility and disqualified the original candidate for not completing his application.

As Mina Morita- the one who then held the 14th district seat at the time and eventually won reelection- said at the time:

Simply put, Hamman did not file nomination papers for the District 14 House race by the close of the filing deadline because he withdrew on July 19. And, there was no way he could because he filed his nomination papers for the Senate race and a person cannot run in more than one race. The Republicans did not have a candidate qualified for the ballot for the District 14 House race at the close of the filing deadline, therefore, no candidate vacancy exists to allow Harry R. Williams to run as a legitimate candidate.

We went a little further in explaining the way the law leaves room for interpretation, citing Hawai`i Revised Statutes (HRS) 11-117 and 118 as well as Hawai`i Administrative Rule (HAR) Chapter 3-173-1 to explain the mess and in addition mentioned that it wasn't the first time the ambiguity in the law had caused a musical chairs brouhaha at the filing deadline. Two years previously, in the case of Kirk Caldwell, the same lack of clarity squeezed him out of candidacy in any election as the "resign to run" law did its dirty work.

We won't bore you by repeating the technical explanation here again, but we will say that in between the Caldwell and Morita fiascoes, the legislature sat around with their thumbs up their butts, kow-towing to the churches, who had their noses in proximate climes over civil unions.

And as if to reiterate that inaction isn't just a mistake at the Capitol but is a carefully planned result of the Hawai`i legislative committee system, remedial bills weren't even scheduled for a hearing during the session following the Morita-Hamman mess.

Now we haven't seen the decision yet, but if the press reports are correct, the ICA didn't bother to tell the legislature to get its act together and clarify the law - as the appellate courts are wont to do on occasion- so we don't have to go through this again in 2012. Instead they decided the case based on a lack of sufficiency in the application itself, virtually saying "we won't touch this political football" even to say the law is unclear on process thus leaving the matter flapping in the wind.

So when the legislature fails to act again this January and the filing deadline comes around next year, expect yet another debacle consisting of candidates waving competing sections of law at each other and the chief elections officer. And don't worry- we'll be here with the distinctly unsatisfying chance to once again say "we told you so."

MEET THE NEW BOSS...

MEET THE NEW BOSS...: It wasn't that long ago that we all laughed at the prospect of former Governor Lingle running for senate whether Senator Dan Akaka decided to run again or not.

One debacle after another had left most of the state's voters with a distinct "don't let the door hit ya in the ass on the way out" attitude toward her future in Hawai`i politics.

And why not? In arguably the most Democratic state in the country she had cozied up to the national Republicans two years earlier, opposing our "native son" in the presidential race. Then she dissed every teacher and somehow every parent in the state too with her "Furlough Fridays" in a manner that belied her usual and notorious PR perfect pitch. She had made a show- one that no one really believed- of trying to convince people her veto of civil unions was a "tough decision." And no one had forgotten the SuperFerry debacle which left both sides blaming her for either trying to force the doomed-from-the-start "H4" down our throats or, in "entitled" Honolulu, bungling the effort.

Yet this week's archetypical Stepford Wife announcement of her candidacy caused not just the usually out-of-touch-with-Hawai`i-politics Cook Political Report to call the race a "toss-up" but had many local pundits treating her candidacy with credibility.

So assuming something changed, what was it? Still the same robotic and vaguely spooky Lingle? Check. Still the same predominately Democratic "fool me twice.. ya can't get fooled again" electorate? Check. Still the same draconian congressional Republican cabal that she cozied up to in '08? Check.

So what's the difference? It well may be the rocky row her replacement has hoed.

As Governor, Neil Abercrombie couldn't have mimicked more of her specific blunders if he tried. Suspending the state's environmental protection laws for fishy reasons? Although declaring an emergency to move Nene geese that had been causing the same problems at Lihu`e Airport for a decade isn't exactly the SuperFerry, it was the same thread of political expediency that runs through both in the minds of the electorate.

But in the one place where Abercrombie could have put a wedge between "what a Democrat in office will do" and "what the Republican did," his tin-ear handling of the teachers' union negotiations left many asking what the difference is.

Abercrombie's now infamous "I'm not your pal" statement to the unions and the viral YouTube screaming match with a nurse were followed by the same imposition of a contract and violation of the tenets of collective bargaining that caused massive protests at state capitols in Wisconsin, Michigan and Ohio after Republican governors in those states imposed similar anti-union measures.

Even though criticism of the actions of the teachers' union's tactics in fighting Abercrombie's unilaterally-imposed, force-fed contract got most of the press, the antipathy toward Abercrombie still simmers just beneath the surface among the unions whose support will be crucial if either Mazie Hirono or (god no) Ed Case is to send Lingle back out to national Republican pastures.

It's a long time between now and a year from November and it's said voters' memories are long in Hawai`i. But those memories are made not just in broad sweeping brush strokes but in the daily paint splotches and, to mix metaphors, once a crack appears in the veneer it's hard to plaster it over to keep the wood from splitting right down the middle.

Abercrombie would do well to keep, if not a low profile next January when the legislature meets, at least one that doesn't rock his own party's boat. Because if Hirono or Case loses to Lingle many Democratic fingers will be pointing his way and it will be a short two years until the '14 gubernatorial election where he'll need all the party support he can get.

THE AGE OF NEFARIOUS/LET THE SUNSHINE IN

THE AGE OF NEFARIOUS/LET THE SUNSHINE IN: When we wrote about a Kaua`i County Council discussion of a potential recommendation to the state legislature to close the loopholes in the law requiring solar hot water heaters on all new homes- loopholes that are disproportionately used to obtain variances on Kaua`i and Hawai`i Island- we thought there wouldn't be much more to say.

But with the matter appearing for final disposition at tomorrow's council meeting we just had to comment on the "funny if it wasn't so sad" session at last week's committee meeting.

It was another example of what money in politics can do to say the least, with the Gas Company and their campaign cash having apparently swayed the council to repeat the mantra of "options" and "choice" ad nauseum.

Of course with all that dough and the testimony of those who are beholden to the GasCo for their livelihood, it wasn't hard to see why councilmembers were sticking to their mantra, even if it really meant it was "dare to be stupid" time.

We knew it wasn't going to be possible to get to the meat of the matter when, during public testimony, the latest council regular, Lonnie Sykos, dared to be smart in suggesting a reason why there is a 50% variance rate on Kaua`i and the Big Island and only 5% on O`ahu and Maui.

He suggested that perhaps changing the state law might be convoluted and time consuming but finding out why Kaua`i is granting all those variances and perhaps correcting whatever we're doing just might be wise.

But much like those proverbially too busy pulling bodies out of the river to go upstream and finding out who was throwing them in, Council Chair Jay Furfaro, as if to say "stop making sense," interrupted Sykos- as he is wont to do when someone says something he doesn't want said- telling him that he was off the subject on the agenda since the matter was listed as pertaining to asking the state to change the law, not finding out why they didn't really need to change the law

But that only foreshadowed events to come that would show who was really in charge of the show.

It started with Ronald Sakoda who, although he said he was speaking only for Ronald Sakoda, is actually the proprietor of Ron's Electric and Sen. Dan Inouye's representative on Kaua`i.

Saying "excuse me if I cry a little" before plopping his sack of crocodile tears on the table, Sakoda anecdotally bemoaned how young people "making the biggest investment of their lives" couldn’t afford the extra money added to their mortgage when they could be using the money for "a new car (or) food for the baby."

So now the solar hot water heater is going to leave us with starving infants.

Now we know, as talking Barbie used to say, "math is haarrd." When we were young we were thinking of majoring in math and if it weren't for the fact that we stunk at basic arithmetic we might have.

It's not out of the realm of possibility that those on the council might have similar problems so let's try to see about this claim that installing solar water heaters on new homes will lead to famished-keiki syndrome.

A new retrofitted solar hot water system costs $8000 according to the list of building permits in Kaua`i Business Report. There are rebates galore and, according to the state Department of Business and Economic Development (DBED) it's also cheaper to install one during construction than to retrofit one.

But let's even use the 8 grand figure.

We took that $8000 and plugged it into a 30 year mortgage since we're supposedly talking not about rich people building million dollar homes, but about a family just starting out that is struggling to make the payments, so is keeping them as low as possible.

When we divide $8000 by 360 months (30 years times 12 months a year) we come up with $22.22 a month. Add another just under three bucks a month for interest (even though the credit union provides interest free loans according to Councilmember JoAnn Yukimura) and you get a final cost of about $25 a month. That's the actual amount one would additionally pay each month for the extra $8000 in cost.

It could be $20 or even lower with the savings cited above but we'll go with $25.

We wanted to know how much gas the average standard water heater uses so we called the Gas Company and asked. We were told that on average people used 3/4 of a gallon of "gas" per day. We were also told that gas- actually propane- costs $6.56 a gallon.

So when you "do the math" that comes out to a whopping $147.60 a month- we know, that seems high to us too- for a plain gas water heater.

Now the standard figure from DBED is that a solar heater on average will provide only about 80% of the hot water needed. So take 20% off the $147.60 and you wind up with a real figure of $118.12.

So the choice is between paying about $25 bucks- and don’t forget that's an inflated figure due to rebates, the savings of not having to retrofit and the interest-free loan- and paying $118.12 a month, giving baby an extra $93.12 to spend on Similac and Gerbers.

Next was a presentation from Richard Degarmel of the Gas Company who presented a totally baffling "Cost Guard study" claiming costs were much lower than a similar DBED study suggested.

The problem was the study compared a solar system supplemented by an electric water heater and one of those "on-demand" systems rather than comparing it with a solar system supplemented by a gas heater.

This wasn't just comparing apples and oranges. It wasn't even comparing oranges and tennis balls. It was more like comparing shoe horns and rocking chairs, being that neither item really mattered to someone looking for the lowest cost to heat their water.

The fact that no one on the council seemed to "get" is that no matter what kind of water heater you're using- electric, standard gas or on-demand gas- you will save money, even month by month, by supplementing it with a solar system.

Whether or not the eyes of councilmembers were clouded by the fact that the recommendation was opposed by the deep pockets at the Chamber of Commerce, the Kaua`i Developers Council, the Contractor’s Association of Kaua`i and 99 others who provided written testimony, is a matter for speculation.

But it does seem odd that the council couldn't do the basic math to determine the savings of a solar hot water installation over not having one, but when counting up the numbers of those who butter their bread, their arithmetic is apparently impeccable.

-----

Correction: The Hawai`i Tribune Herald is not "the only union shop in the islands" as we wrote yesterday. According to Ian Lind:

The Tribune-Herald is the only union newspaper on Hawaii Island, but not the only one in the state. Reporters at the Star-Advertiser and Maui News are also represented by the Pacific Media Workers Guild, which took over from the Hawaii Newspaper Guild, and printers at the S-A are also unionized. I don't know about the Maui News.

We apologize for the error.

BUT WHAT'LL WE DO FOR EGGS?

BUT WHAT'LL WE DO FOR EGGS?: There's jokes and then there's jokes. Our sometimes feeble, often offensive, attempts at humor are at least fairly innocuous in the grand scheme of things.

But, as happens all too often in Hawai`i, when those who police the ethics of politicians become the foxes guarding the hen house, the political joke is on us.

Recently though, a whirling dervish of accountability has taken up residence as the Executive Director (ED) of the State Ethics Commission (EC), and those who thought state ethics laws had been suspended under former director Dan Mollway are having conniption fits.

Some of our readers may remember Les Kondo as the head of the Office of Information Practices (OIP) who fought the good fight to bad results in the infamous ES-177 case that eventually surgically removed the incisors that the legislature had apparently given the OIP.

And now, as the new ED of the EC, Kondo has upset the cushy apple cart of one of the most repulsive of unethical practices- one that calls lobbyists "stakeholders" and appoints them to these "task forces" to essentially write legislation regarding the same subject upon which they lobby.

We've written extensively about our Kaua`i County Charter provision 20.02(D) which prevents anyone from "(a)ppear(ing) in behalf of private interests before any county board, commission or agency" if they sit on a board or commission- or presumably a "task force"- regardless of the subject matter.

The state law does the same if there is a nexus between the job of the lobbyist and the board or commission's kuleana.

But although the law is supposed to cover all bodies appointed by the governor or legislature, whereas Mollway looked the other way, Kondo has now included these "task forces" in the same category as any state appointed body- which of course they are.

And guess what? Shockingly, politicians don't like it.

According to Derrick Depledge's Political Radar blog

State Senate President Shan Tsutsui and House Speaker Calvin Say have asked state Attorney General David Louie whether the state Ethics Commission is correct in defining members of task forces as state employees subject to the ethics code.

In their letter the two wrote:

If individuals from the private sector who participate in these panels are now to be considered “employees” of the State for the purposes of the Ethics Code, we are concerned with the chilling effect on both the Legislature’s ability to gather information and on the constitutional right of these individuals (and their actual employers) to petition government.

This stupid argument has been going on for a week or so in the press and the blogs but no one can come up with the obvious and simple solution to the quandary.

On Kaua`i we had some board and commission members- as a matter of fact some members of the ethics board itself- lobbying the county council for money for their non profits while others were representing developers seeking zoning and zoning permits before the council and planning commission respectively.

And then they'd turn around and rule on the ethics of activities of those granting them their requests.

And just like with the state, they argued that their "rights" to petition the government were being violated. But that ignores the elephant in the room- that sitting on a board commission or task force is not a "right" but a privilege and you can simply step down from your position and let someone who does not lobby other government bodies take your place.

But nooooo. For some reason these pustules on the butt of democracy have been permitted to shed their crocodile tears without anyone telling them to get their asses out of government if they are coming to the government, hat in hand... especially if the subject matter of their appointment is the same as their lobbying, as is true in the case of the state ethics law.

Do we really need to give the guy who is being paid to lobby an extra boost in his efforts by allowing him to skew the actual report upon which the legislature will depend to write legislation?

What- massive campaign contributions aren't enough? Is your bundling finger broken? Did the manapua store close and now legislative staffers are stuck with crummy donuts?

It's simply amazing in this state how politicians, who've been getting away with murder for years, react when a new sheriff that is apparently not on the take actually tries to enforce the law. Why you should have seen them (if you missed it) when Kondo told them they couldn't keep accepting expensive tickets to events if the event didn't have a nexus to their legislative jobs. You'd have thought he was ripping the lollypops out of their lyin' pie holes.

It's bad enough when, as is the case, corporate America has placed its greedy boot heel on the throat of the democratic process. We don't have to have to actually open wide- or bend over- and allow them to place the whole boot where they can do their damage from the inside out.

NOW YOU'RE COOKIN' WITH SUNLIGHT

NOW YOU'RE COOKIN' WITH SUNLIGHT: When Gary Hooser was the Kaua`i State Senator he used to spend the time between sessions asking constituents to help him come up with a "big idea"- some legislation for which he could use his position to really make a difference.

So in 2004 he managed to spend his political capital to pass a bill requiring all new homes to have solar hot water heaters.

It's of course a no brainer- it's without dispute known far and wide as the "low hanging fruit" that pays for itself quickly to provide carbon-free hot water- the most expensive part of a family's energy bill- resulting in free hot water for many years.

But of course nothing worth doing comes easy and the gas company is a huge campaign contributor with lobbyists 'o plenty. So when the bill was finally passed it contained the possibility of a "variance" which turned into a loophole that has been used in about half of all new homes on Kaua`i and the Big Island- and a quarter state wide- to thumb their noses at the law and the environment and use a gas hot water heater instead.

So when the Kaua`i County Council took up a measure to join the rest of the counties in asking the legislature to close the loophole it too sounded like a no brainer.

But for some reason, other than Councilperson JoAnn Yukimura who had introduced the request, when testimony started the others were talking about "eliminating choices" and "options." Kipukai Kuali`i kept pounding on a representative from the alternative energy proponents at Apollo Kaua`i trying to get him to admit that maybe in the future there will be some kind of magical solar electric generation that would be more efficient- an absurd notion since the efficiency of using electricity no matter where it comes from will never be able to match the efficiency of directly heating water with the sun.

It doesn’t matter where the electricity comes from. Using it is still never going to be more economically efficient than direct heat.

So what was going on here. Where was this coming from?

Well it all became clear once the real lobbying began.

First it was the Kaua`i Gas Company GM Glen Takinoshi who came forward to stumble through a prepared text using now familiar terms like "options" and "providing choices" and essentially saying that if the loophole were to be closed The Gas Company could- gasp, perish the thought- go out of business.

When Yukimura basically left Takinoshi a babbling idiot after questioning him about the Gas Company's attitudes toward renewable carbon free energy and global warming- after which he finally said he'd have to check with someone else- they brought in the big gun...the state Vice President of Government Affairs and Communications Stephanie Ackerman whose "are you gonna believe me or your lyin' eyes" testimony was quite effective on the council bumpkins.

Just as Yukimura had run circles around Takinoshi, Ackerman ducked, danced and jabbed trying to make the debate about "personal freedoms" and the big, bad government that wants to take them away from us.

Finally Councilmember Tim Bynum stepped forward to say that sometimes it's the job of government- especially one in a place set to be inundated by the ocean in the not so distant future and one who pays the highest energy prices in the country- to step in and take control from the business lobbyists. He also explained how the more ubiquitous solar hot water heaters are, the less the electric co-op would be required to spend on excess generation capacity to accommodate "peak demand"- a major component of our bills on a "closed grid" island system.

Of course there was no identification of the two as "lobbyists" as council rules explicitly require and Chair Jay Furfaro- whose hair ignites every time a rule limiting public testimony is even stretched- said nothing.

But you gotta admire the nerve of the Gas Company for trying to move people to pity them because they may go out of business.

No, it's not just that they are sole purveyors of propane in the islands and the elimination of companies who sell fossil fuels because there is no longer a demand would bring glee to the hearts of all but the staunchest of climate change deniers. No, it's not even that the claim that they'd go bust is absurd on the face of it since people will still use propane for cooking, clothes drying and even as the back-up system of choice for solar water heater owners.

It's that, more so than any business in the islands- even other monopolies- every customer has a deep and abiding hatred for the Gas Company.

It's not just the way, unlike say the electric, phone and cable companies, they will never ever give you a break on the due date of your bill. It's not just that their prices are marked up outrageously, even when compared to gasoline providers.

No, it's the fact that every single person who works there treats their customers like dirt and with a "what do we care- you've got to buy from us" attitude- an affectation for which every customer seems to have an anecdotal horror story.

When local people talk story about asshole businesses on Kaua`i, the topic always turns to the Gas Company- which not only won't ever deliver gas unless and until your bill is paid in full but will come to your house and remove your remaining gas if you don't pay on time.

And they're uniformly nasty about it to boot.

We've heard people suggest that they must have to pass some kind of anti-customer relations test or attend classes teaching them how to snarl and be generally grumpy and uncooperative.

And these are the guys who are now asking us to have pity on them because closing the loophole in the law requiring solar hot water heaters on new homes will hurt their business.

Even if they were the nicest, most pleasant people in on the island and bent over backward to allow long-time customers an extra day or two to pay their bills, there'd be little sympathy for a fossil fuel company that cried crocodile tears over the possibility that cheap alternative, carbon-free energy would put them out of business.

But when it comes to the Gas Company, we suspect there would be a long line for the opportunity to dance on its grave.

INFORMATION TAR-TAR

INFORMATION TAR-TAR: Ever since the Office of Information Practices (OIP) lost the infamous ES-177 case- wherein the County of Kaua`i went to court to avoid releasing the minutes of an executive session despite apparent legislative intent to give OIP ultimate authority and ban such court action- we've kind of felt like the guy in the movies screaming in futility while spinning through the vacuum of space.

But recent attention has been paid by Civil Beat Editor John Temple prompting the OIP to defend itself- in a letter from the current director entitled "The Raw Truth"- for refusing to, as they see it, waste their time trying to claim their "teeth" that the court took away.

We're not going to try to rehash the long and winding road of ES-177 and CofK vs OIP again here but today Temple does point out a new wrinkle that puts OIP's finger-pointing at the legislature in a new light saying that under:

sections 92F-15.5 and 92F-28 of Hawaii Revised Statutes that the OIP has authority to hear and make binding decisions in appeals if it exercises its rule-making authority.

Apparently OIP has never bothered to promulgate Chapter 91 Administrative Rules to set up an appeals process for agencies who disagree with their Uniform Information Practices Act (UIPA) rulings to follow- one of Kaua`i County's major gripes in their suit having been the denial of "due process."

In addition today, another open records and meetings junkie, blogger/journalist Ian Lind takes a shot at OIP's defense by noting that in CofK vs OIP the court actually distinguished it from another case where OIP's authority was upheld, noting that "board meeting minutes are specifically covered by HRS Chapter 92, whereas development proposals, such as the ones at issue" in the other case, are not.

Of course the only reason the ES-177 case is finally getting statewide attention is that Governor Neil Abercrombie refused to adhere to an OIP decision on releasing the names of candidates for the Hawaii Supreme Court and then refused to reappoint the OIP director who made the decision.

But one thing that again occurs to us today, has bothered us since the first day the CofK decided to file suit.

Why exactly did the county bother to sue and not just ignore the OIP?

By filing suit they risked losing but by ignoring the OIP- as many are doing today, they apparently would have risked nothing. That's because of something that neither Temple nor Lind nor OIP itself has mentioned- something that really exposed the weak link in all of this.

According to the Sunshine Law under §92-12 Enforcement,

(a) The attorney general and the prosecuting attorney shall enforce this part.

The fact is that, because the law also says that anyone who doesn't agree with an OIP directive can sue in circuit court, attorneys general have consistently said that one must go to court first and so, they have refused to enforce OIP's opinions.

Thus the root of the claim that OIP is a "toothless tiger" is that the AG refuses to enforce its decisions.

That is why Abercrombie can get away with thumbing his nose at the OIP- not because the legislature hasn't been clear enough, as Temple points out today in citing the 1989 conference committee report for the sunshine law, as the OIP did in it's arguments in CofK vs. OIP.

Seems that "The Raw Truth" is that OIP does have options- options that you can bet the always-reticent-to-act legislature will be sure to iterate next year when they consider the OIP's request for tooth sharpening.

SEE HOW THEY RUN

SEE HOW THEY RUN: Try to pull a con-job on a New Yorker and it's likely his- or her- response will be a sneering "what am I- a freakin' idiot?".

But when one examines the ingestion and regurgitation of mindless claptrap that passes for the cranial contents of some of these vapid tea-party-addled denizens of the fly-over states, you just know that an honest response to that same query, would be "indubitably."

But mainlanders have no monopoly on helpfully doling out "two tens for a five" upon request if a story in this morning's Honolulu newspaper is any indication.

The headline "State may sell buildings, then pay developers rent" doesn't even tell the whole story.

Apparently the Brainiacs at the capitol have passed legislation allowing the fiscally-challenged gang at state Department of Accounting and General Services (DAGS) to "sell buildings under its ownership to developers with an agreement by which the developer pays for upgrades and the state pays to rent the improved facilities."

Of course as long as you don't think too much- or at all- about it it sounds like a great deal. But, as the article notes in one of those passive-aggressive passages reporters have designed to give credence to even the most harebrained of ideas:

Concerns have been raised that the law... could end up making it more expensive in the long range to own and maintain buildings, given that developers will need to earn a return on their investment through charging the state rent.

Gee, ya think?

Where exactly do we find one of these saps who think that instead of fixing his broken-down car it would be cheaper to sell it to you and then buy it back for the price you paid plus the amount of the repair bill and then throw in 10% for YOUR trouble?

Well apparently you find at least 49 of these Lady Madonnas in the state house and 25 of them in the senate- and of course one more on the fifth floor- who do indeed think that money is heaven sent.

So who's the real idiot? Well, in New York they say to look all around the room and if you can't find the mark it's because you don't have a mirror handy.

LOOKIN' LIKE A FOOL WITH YOUR BRAINS ON THE GROUND

LOOKIN' LIKE A FOOL WITH YOUR BRAINS ON THE GROUND: Mom always said that the only reason to keep banging your head against the wall is that it feels so good when you stop.

But sometimes it feels a little better when someone comes along and and joins in by banging theirs.

We've concussed more times than we care to remember over the "paper tiger" status of the state's Office of Information Practices (OIP) that resulted from the infamous "ES-177" case in which the County of Kaua`i sued the OIP rather than give up the minutes to an "executive session (ES)" in 2005.

But today we gained a banging-mate in the person of John Temple of the on-line news source Civil Beat who, in bemoaning the fact that new OIP chief Cheryl Kakazu Park called "futile," any effort to force either Governor Neil Abercrombie or the Honolulu Police Department to release records that, despite OIP orders to "give 'em up," remain ferreted away in some filing cabinet.

Temple actually figured out why, despite a clear law backed up by legislative intent documents, OIP lost it's sole authority to determine when documents must be made public by the state and its political subdivisions, actually citing the ES-177 case, albeit through a link.

In County of Kaua`i vs Office of Information Practices the Intermediate Court of Appeals ruled that the county could in fact go to circuit court to overturn an OIP directive.

According to the decision:

OIP maintained that HRS § 92F-15.5(b) (1993) did not provide County "the right to appeal or otherwise contest an OIP determination that a record must be disclosed under the [Uniform Information Practices Act (UIPA)]." OIP cited to Conference Committee Report No. 17 on Senate Bill No. 1799, in 1989 Senate Journal, at 763-64, which stated that "a government agency dissatisfied with an administrative ruling by the OIP does not have the right to bring an action in circuit court to contest the OIP ruling." OIP also cited to HRS § 632-1, which provided, inter alia, that "[w]here . . . a statute provides a special form of remedy for a specific type of case, that statutory remedy shall be followed."

But despite the fact that the original request was for the minutes- clearly a document- the court ruled that the real intent somehow dealt with HRS 92, the open meetings or Sunshine law, over which OIP does not have sole discretion.

We're certainly gratified to have someone with a bigger megaphone take up the cause and couldn't agree more with Temple who concluded today's first of two columns by saying that the language in HRS 92F-15.5:

clearly gives the OIP the power to order government agencies to make records available. Yet, that power isn't being wielded today, at least in part because of a 2009 Hawaii Intermediate Court of Appeals decision. That case involved not just the UIPA but also the open meetings law, known as the Sunshine law, which doesn't give the OIP the same strong powers as the open records law.

The result of the appeals court decision appears to be confusion — and a weakened OIP.

Cheryl Kakazu Park, OIP's director, defends her office, but says she's going to seek clarification of its powers from the Legislature next year. She says she sees agencies voluntarily comply with OIP advice.

"For the most part, they have wanted to comply," she told me.

Maybe.

But it was Park who wrote that it would be "futile" for her to rule on an appeal of the governor's rejection of requests for the names of judicial nominees.

Futile. Even though the language of the statute clearly says what should happen when OIP rules on appeal that a document should be public: "The agency shall make the record available."

Something is terribly wrong with this picture.

It's a two edged sword. Even though the open meetings and records laws in Hawai`i are broken, anyone who has seen the legislature in action know that they are just as libel to make things worse as they are to remedy the situation once they get a bill on the table.

But perhaps the sound of other headbangers will force the legislature to give the OIP the authority that they were supposedly given when the law was passed.

IT'S OVER WELL BEFORE IT'S OVER

IT'S OVER WELL BEFORE IT'S OVER: For those of us on the neighbor islands, the state legislature- which will mercifully cease to function after tomorrow's "Sine Die"- might as well be on Jupiter.

So it used to be that, for us personally, it was like going to a really long movie and falling asleep during the credits while telling our companion to wake us when it's over and tell us what happened.

After many years of local political wrangling it became apparent about 20 years ago that there are some wacky things that go on at the county level that can be traced right back to the lege and if we wanted to effect any change it would take a change of venue.

Now after two decades of long-distance code-deciphering it's become painfully obvious that we'd be better off- at least as far as our doctor is concerned- going back to a "wake me when it's over and show me the damage" attitude.

Even- or maybe especially- when we had two "allies" in the legislature- Mina Morita in the house and Gray Hooser in the senate- tackling individual bills has been a fool's errand. For the good bills, we had guides in both houses to maneuver them up the hills and out of the valleys.

But for the rest, nothing seems to matter and we only get our hopes up each time a bill moves out of a committee or reaches crossover or clears committee assignments on the other side or makes it to a conference committee.

We know we'll eventually be getting that old queasy feeling that it was all in vain.

We couldn't have agreed more when we opened an email from State Sierra Club E.D. Robert D. Harris yesterday and he wrote:

If I had to summarize this session in one word, it would be: disappointing.

Well actually we would have used a choice adjective or two not found in children's dictionaries, but why quibble?

Now young Mr. Harris is fairly new at this, taking over the SC helm a couple of years ago, so he can be excused for this starry-eyed assessment of how it's supposed to work.

Conference committees are supposed to be the stage at which the House and Senate resolve nagging differences between two different drafts of the same bill. While sometimes the differences are too great to resolve, the expectation is that most bills that reach conference committee can and should pass. Considerable work has already been done to get the bills to this point and open minds can usually figure out how to hammer out a final piece of legislation.

But sometime it takes a less jaded observer- and one who actually sat through this year's debacle- to cut through the crap in the newspapers, whose reporters and analysts have apparently failed to see the forest for the trees.

Harris gave this explanation- one that makes sense to us- as to why every god-damned bill we tracked this year either died or was made toothless, saying:

This year was different. House leaders desperately wanted to pass a tax on high-income pensioners. Presumably under the direction of the House leadership, the House Committee on Finance refused to sign off on a number of environmental bills (this might have been true across the board, but I can only speak on behalf of the bills I was tracking). Most observers concluded this was intended to force the Senate to agree to the pension tax.

The Senate refused to go along. And to increase the pressure, the Senate announced all bills needed to be finished before 6:00 pm on Friday, May 6th or the Senate would stop negotiating.

This type of grandstanding has occurred before. When the 6:00 pm deadline passed, most observers assumed that one side or the other, (House or Senate) would blink and a bulk of the bills in conference committee would then be passed.

To the shock of many, when the two budget committees came back at 9:30 pm they had only passed four or five revenue bills (not including the tax on pensions) and promptly declared the session over. Numerous bills that had been held up by the House leadership simply died.

This result was simply stunning. Critical bills died without so much as a whimper. Bills like the one that would have reallocated income from the barrel tax to fund clean energy programs and a bill to charge small fees to fund the Office of Environmental Quality Control, a chronically underfunded and understaffed agency. Bills like the popular proposed fee on paper/plastic bags, which would have provided a big new revenue source as well as create a big environmental benefit. Hordes of lobbyists were seen walking around the capitol in a daze.

But does it really matter HOW it happened this year? Surely they'll come up with another unbelievably corrupt- if not obscure and arcane- way to do it in 2012.

We'll probably forget about all this by the time next January rolls around again and once more ask around for some legislative packages and optimistically pull a few bills for support only to have ulcers and chest pains by the beginning of May; at least this year we probably won't have to sweat out the long list of vetoes and non-releases of authorized funding that marked the Ding-a-Lingle years... which of course includes the really bad bills that creeped though.

And when we do forget, please- hit us in the head with a frying pan and knock us out until it's over.

Pass the Prozac please.

FEED YOUR HEAD

FEED YOUR HEAD: It never fails to amaze how may ways the Hawai`i state legislative system stinks.

It's bad enough when a great bill gets to a conference committee and collapses because no one can agree on a version. But it happens. And it's worse when the rules allow one graft-addled schmuck to kill it.

But of course the ultimate stomach-churner is the poison pill that comes out of nowhere to take a fine piece of legislation that has waited years for its day in the sun and turns it into a revolting piece of crap.

This years toxin-toting villainous vexation comes courteshttp://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gify of Senator "Dr." Josh Green who has stolen the pilot program to establish medical marijuana distribution centers and is using it to kill virtually the whole medical marijuana program.

According to yesterday's Honolulu Star-Advertiser when Green got done with the bill:


(u)nder the pilot program proposed in Senate Bill 1458, medical marijuana prescriptions would be limited to patients suffering from multiple sclerosis, cancer, HIV, AIDS and/or glaucoma. It would establish a “compassion center” for distribution on an island where the Department of Health determines there is the greatest need, based on the number of prescriptions.

This bonehead Green thinks because he is an emergency room physician he can say who does and who doesn't need the medicine provided through marijuana despite the fact that he doesn't see chronic patients and has no idea what the medical value of marijuana is.

Admittedly there are only volumes of anecdotal evidence that marijuana treats pain better than opiates- which recently have been called out as the most abused drug in the country- and have allowed many to actually throw away their pills.

That's because research has been squelched by anachronistic, reefer-madness, anti-drug zealots who are way too afraid of allowing marijuana's medical value to be proven.

Green has taken it upon himself to alter the bill at this stage of the game after actually passing it out of his own committee without any restrictions on conditions for which a patient can receive a doctor's recommendation.

It would make Hawai`i the first state to restrict doctors from using their own medical judgment in cases of recommendations for medical marijuana.

We'd gotten spoiled the last few years with former Kaua`i Senator Gary Hooser serving as the Senate Majority Leader where he could make sure these types of bills got a fair shot. Same with former Kaua`i North Shore and Kapa`a Rep. Mina Morita in the house where energy and environmental bills were her kuleana.

If indeed the bill does get to the floor in its current form, the only thing left for proponents is to ask senators and representatives to kill the bill or attempt a rare almost unheard of amendment removing Green's amendment from the bill.

You can write all senators at sens@capitol.hawaii.gov and reps at reps@capitol.hawaii.gov and ask them to maintain the pilot program without stripping the medical marijuana program and restricting physicians' ability to make medical decisions for their patients.

AND WE WERE GOING TO TAKE THE DAY OFF

AND WE WERE GOING TO TAKE THE DAY OFF: When is news not news? When it's in our local newspaper in an article penned by journalism’s worst enemy, Leo Azumbuja.

Yes we're tired of criticizing his "work" (note the quotes)- it's too easy.

But today’s article proclaiming that the SuperFerry bill that has been hanging around the legislature is still alive is so disturbingly inaccurate that it constitutes journalistic malpractice.

If you're going to cover the legislature the first rule is to know something about the process and then look at the legislative calendar.

Because despite Azumbuja's lede proclamation that "(t)he economic crisis that refuses to leave the Hawaiian Islands has not been sufficient to sink the idea of a state-run interisland ferry system" the fact is that today is what is known as "Second Decking Deadline" when as "Civil Beat" put it today

The House and Senate must get their respective bills in final form today in order for the measures to be voted on next week and make second crossover April 14.

The deadline to get bills to the House Clerk is 10 p.m., but the Senate Clerk had not announced its deadline as of late yesterday.

Next up: conference committee, which will pretty much consume the last two weeks of the month.

If Azumbuja had bothered to look at the status he'd have noticed that on March 23 it was referred to the Senate Ways and Means (WAM) Committee where it died after failing to be scheduled for a hearing. And since hearings must be noticed 48 hours in advance the bill will not receive an okay from WAM.

He would have also noticed had HE had read the bill, as he accused 16th District Representative Dee Morikawa of failing to do- he'd have noticed that the current bill was amended by the house with a "defective date" of July 1, 2030.

Of course like any bill it can be pulled by the full body for a vote. But that virtually never happens, with last year's civil unions bill being an exception that had even long time legislative correspondents scrambling to find the last time it had happened.

Of course most anyone who really cared about the SuperFerry Bill had, most likely, received a notice from anti-SuperFerry Activist supreme Dick Meyer of Maui last week that the bill was apparently dead after not showing up on the final WAM hearing notice. But for those who rely on the Kaua`i "newspaper of record" to record the actual record it's the same sad story written by a man seemingly incapable of telling one accurately.

SPILL YOUR GUTS

SPILL YOUR GUTS: Like the clockwork of a broken timepiece the legislative session reaches one of its more absurd dances-of-the-headless-chicken, usually once each session when the Council on Revenues (COR) causes all the budget work done to that point to be chucked in the circular file when they apparently use the poor dead poultry's entrails to divine the economic future of the state.

But, as is the case with many broken political systems, the Hawai`i solution is to repeat the screwed-up process until the whole damn thing collapses.

For the uninitiated, the Hawaii legislative budget system is designed to create a balanced budget but it relies on economists- you know those guys who never agree on anything, basing their opinions on what they had for breakfast that day- to predict the revenues the state will pull in during the budget period.

And as if to prove how unreliable it is, they change their projections every time they meet with wild swings based on current events.

And are always- yes always- wrong.

That they meet at all is objectionable. That they schedule a meeting in the middle of the brief four month legislative session- after the governor presents a budget and the lege works on it- is ridiculous. But when they meet a second time- as they did yesterday at the behest of the governor due to the supposed economic effect of the Libyan war and the Japanese earthquake and tsunami- is disgustingly short sighted... although so is the whole process.

So when the COR lowered projected revenues yesterday no one really questioned why because we'd been told in advance by various pinheaded pundits what the cause was.

But the real foolishness was never more apparent than after reading Honolulu Star-Advertiser Capitol Correspondent Derrick DePledge's blog post today where he reveals what may be the real reason for the lowered projections.

After listing the conventional wisdom he notes that the actual amount collected last month was, shockingly, lower than the last projection predicted he writes that:

While the drop could be an anomaly, it could also mean the economy is not recovering as fast as economists believed.

Pearl Iboshi, an economist, and others on the council found the February figure hard to believe. She had a theory for the state Department of Taxation. “Is there a chance that there’s, uh, you know, lots of …”

“A drawer there with a bunch of checks in it?” University of Hawaii-Manoa economist Carl Bonham said.

“Yes, lots of checks,” Iboshi said.

“That somebody forgot to open because everything slowed down?” Bonham said.

A state Department of Taxation staffer slowly nodded her head.

“There is a chance of that?” Jack Suyderhoud, a University of Hawaii-Manoa business economics professor, asked the staffer. “Is that why you’re going like that?”

“That’s not saying yes, but …” Bonham said.

Of course the end of that sentence is "I'm not saying no".

So we suggest gathering up all your spare tea leaves, tarot cards and crystal balls putting them in a box and shipping them off to the COR. They just may be more valuable tools than the ones they're using now.

THE THIRD ONE IS THE HARM

THE THIRD ONE IS THE HARM: Yesterday morning we received a couple of cryptic comments that were quickly deleted by the poster, "Belisa," saying

What do you think about a voter board member being subjected to position (1 of the 3 to be appointed to Abercrombie)? Aka-Foster Ducker

Not being able to make heads or tails out of the text- and wondering if Aka-Foster Ducker was some kind of bass-ackwards, Chuck you Farley, Fuzzy-Duck signature- we went about our day until a source close to the Democratic Party dropped the news on us that the three selections being submitted to Governor Neil Abercrombie to replace Mina Morita as the North Shore- Kapa`a District 14 State House representative are North Shore physician Dr. Neil Clendeninn, Kaua`i County Councilmember Derek Kawakami and one Foster Ducker.

As did our source, a later post from Belisa made it clearer- if not clear-what the question was, asking

How do you feel about a voting board member being subjected to position (1 of the 3 appointed to Abercrombie for district 14 rep) Aka- Foster Ducker

Seems Ducker is one of the three Democratic Party board members who, as required by law, searched and searched and, like Dick Cheney's vice presidential search committee did in 2000 when searching for a veep for The Shrub, found the best candidate- what a coincidence- sitting right there at the table.

Though our source framed the choice as being a matter of "should we exclude people just because they are board members" it would seem that if you're going to toss your chapeau in the cesspool you ought to at least stay far enough away to to avoid picking up the stank.

The other problem is that, although the names of Clendeninn and Kawakami were expected the other name being bandied about, Joel Guy- a Morita staff member who was rumored to be her choice and therefore presumed by many to be the "favorite"- was nowhere to be seen.

Well isn't that just Duckie, er Ducker... we're asking because we have no idea who Foster Ducker is.

A quick search shows- surprise surprise- Ducker is a North Shore real estate agent. But, according to his profile at realtor.com,

Foster J Ducker is not just any real estate agent. To be called a Realtor, Foster J Ducker has shown that they carry a higher level of knowledge and experience than legally required. Additionally, Realtors like Foster J Ducker are bound to adhere to the best professional practices when dealing with your real estate needs. Although not every real estate agent is a Realtor, you can trust that Foster J Ducker is a Realtor, and that a Realtor is your best choice when selling or buying a property.

He also- according to meetup. com's Kaua`i Community Math Club page-

ran windsurfing school (and) was raised in Denver. I moved to Kauai in 1985. I live in Kilauea... I am a MOP student, member of Phi Theta Kappa, and the environment club. I am a lib arts declared ntred (sic) planning to transfer to UH Manoa to study engineering and economics. I tutor math, english (sic) and physics in the LC and I teach ABE math at KCC for KCSFA.

Which is why we urge you to call (808-586-0034) fax (808-586-0006) or contact (http://hawaii.gov/gov/contact/contact-gov) Governor Neil Abercrombie and ask him to appoint Hanalei internist Dr. Neil Clendeninn to the open 14th House District seat.

Clendeninn has shown himself to be a brilliant and progressive thinker with whom we have rarely if ever disagreed on major issues and the fact that he is willing to serve speaks even more about his commitment to the community.

The choice is as easy as... well you get the idea.

----

Our beautiful and talented editor-supreme got herself one of those new fancy schmancy I-phones and can now edit on the run so as of today we're going to try to move up our "press time" from 3-4 p.m. to Noon-1 p.m.

LIKE A VIRGIN

LIKE A VIRGIN: Like the butcher who backed into the meat slicer we've been getting a little behind in our work (okay they all can't be gems... or even non eye-rollers) so we were catching up on the March 16 Council Committee of the Whole meeting last night and perusing the discussion of the new council rules that have been proposed by the Rules Subcommittee with Chair Councilperson JoAnn Yukimura going over some of the proposals.

And to no one's surprise, instead of increasing transparency and public participation the proposal goes in quite the opposite direction.

There is no provision for a much discussed period at each meeting for the public to bring non-agenda items to the council's attention- something that other island councils routinely do ever since the practice was okayed by the Office of Information Practices (OIP) with the provision that councilmembers themselves may not talk about any topics the public may introduce.

And of course instead of considering our suggestion that all agenda items be read aloud- including those informational communications usually coming from the administration that are simply "for receipt"- they are hell bent on further opaqueness in creating a "consent calendar" whereby those items are lumped together for one big vote on all of them, leaving the TV and on-line viewing public in the dark and those that do come to the meeting having to wave frantically and beg to speak on those agenda items.

But a strange little item pressed for by non-subcommittee member Councilperson Tim Bynum- who was the one who pushed for rule revisions in the first place- was what caught our ear.

It involves one of the two provisions related to the release of county attorney (CA) opinions which were not okayed by the subcommittee. The first would have set up a process for releasing county attorney opinions on subjects of law by a 2/3 vote, finally providing a process for CA opinion releases after the council has used the excuse of not having any official procedure to refuse to release any county attorney opinions at all.

But the one that left us shaking our head concerned opinions of law that are requested by individual councilmembers before legislation comes before the body and called for them to be automatically released to all other councilmembers when the matter hits the council table.

At first the talk centered around who the "client" was and other seemingly extraneous issues with Councilperson Mel Rapozo saying that if he was the client asking for the opinion why should his confidentiality be automatically violated, adding that he didn't even think it was legal to do so.

But when emerging political climber Councilmember Derek Kawakami spoke the real core of the matter- and the reason why, as a subcommittee member, he had vehemently opposed it- suddenly emerged.

Kawakami is known among his associates as the kind of politician's politician whose first response to an issue is not "how does this effect the public?" but "how does this effect my political career?" And after echoing Rapozo's apprehensions he ended his comment with a rather telling interjection saying "This IS politics."

And suddenly it became crystal clear what Kawakami had against letting other councilmembers in on a county attorney opinion on the law after he had requested it.

If you're asking about the legalities of an upcoming bill or resolution it usually means you are planning how and whether you can do whatever it is you're planning to do. But what if you get an answer that you didn't want- one that would make it difficult or even impossible to get your way on the legislation?

Naturally if you had the interest of the public in mind you'd want to alert the other councilmembers- and the public- to the legal ramification. But if your own political machination were of prime concern you might want to hide that legal opinion and go ahead with your plans for whatever it is you have up your sleeve.

In other words, if other councilmember- or member of the public- aren't smart enough or unable to articulate or even ask, the right legal questions- well, screw 'em.

And that is sooooo Kawakami.... all except for slipping up and saying it out loud.

Imagine that- the legislative scion who can't even hide from the public his covetousness of the now open north shore state representative seat made a sophomore mistake.

Our advice? Brush up on your Machiavelli, Derek- you'll need it some day when you join all the other hacks in Honolulu.