OF GREAT DANES AND CHIHUAHUAS: Our continuing serialization of Tony Sommer’s book KPD Blue this weekend elicited a comment purportedly by one KPD officer that is worthy of note. Even if it is not from an officer it certainly mirrors some of the comments we’ve heard from officers we’ve spoken to recently as well as those we’ve known for many years
Calling him or herself “One” the writer said in part
I've read the book and Tony is, for the most part, spot on. I have a few issues about some of it. I don't think he went far enough to allow readers knowledge that there are cops in K.P.D. who are well trained and competent. We do have them, a lot of them.
There were parts of the book where Tony does sound like someone harping over the sting of racism. I don't believe it's so much that as much as a problem of being an outsider from the decrepit circle of Kauai old timers. A lot of us locals, (Outer Island,) have felt the slap of discrimination. Not racial, but discrimination none the less.
Tony's right on most of it but wrong on some. Right about the Mayors office in the last decade. Wrong On Chief Perry. He's a great man and there is promise here.
Tony would probably be surprised at just how much a lot of us agree with most of his view points....
What ever you all do, don't cover all of us in blue with the same blanket of putrid disgust that you reserve for most of those cast of characters in Tony's book. Believe it or not, the vast majority of the people in the department are good, solid Americans who care deeply about the community, the whole community, not just the local ethnic blend, everyone.
Journalist Joan Conrow of KauaiEclectic, who has every reason in the world to be critical of some at KPD after her wrongful arrest for covering a news story agreed and was glad to hear someone from the department say so.
She wrote
Good to hear from someone clad in blue, especially that "the vast majority of the people in the department are good, solid Americans who care deeply about the community, the whole community, not just the local ethnic blend, everyone."
I feel better already. :)
And we couldn’t agree more with both. Individually almost all of the officers we know are among some of the best cops around.
It’s a really hard if not impossible job of balancing protection of people’s rights and providing for the security of those being protected and served.
And the best thing we can do to aid those who do that job well is to expose those who don’t do the job the right way so that the ones who do can force the others to either reform or resign.
More than anything else what is called for is professionalism.
We have political prisoners right here on Kaua`i. And they were abused in the process of their arrests.
We have cultural practitioners non-violently performing civil disobedience to stop their ancestors from being encased in concrete and somehow KPD can’t be happy just putting them trough the court system. Instead they treat the like they’re violent ice-heads for a petty misdemeanor simple trespassing charge.
Let’s not forget the facts of just this most recent incident here.
The Naue protesters showed up at the graveyard and said “we are here- come and arrest us”. They spent all day trying to get arrested and were refused. The police were there taking pictures and refused to arrest them there so the protesters left at sundown.
Then, after the chief’s announcement in the papers that they would be getting warrants for their arrest, it was asked that they or their attorneys be contacted so they could turn themselves in if they were charged.
But instead someone obtained a secret warrant and KPD officers handcuffed and arrested them at their homes at 5 p.m. on a Friday night, a tactic usually employed to try to make sure someone has to spend the whole night- or in this case the weekend- in jail.
How this is not pure and utter harassment escapes us.
Then they charged a sympathetic reporter who was covering the story for being there reporting it.
The cops are swarming around the seven guys locked together. Three members of the press are there and none are told to stay away by anyone... not the owner, not the cops and certainly not the iwi kupuna who really “own” that property.
Then the sympathetic journalist writes the best article in the state about what happened and she alone is summoned, locked in a room with three officers and interrogated.
But instead of allowing the intended intimidation, she writes about the intimidation and so they try to arrest her too.
It’s hard to imagine how all this happens without the chief’s prior knowledge but apparently it did because he quashes the warrant when he is informed by her lawyer.
Somehow this is allowed to happen. Not because all the guys on the force are bad cops but because they most likely turn a blind eye to the abuses and intentional harassment.
And this is not the only case this year where KPD officers abused their position by using unnecessary force in arresting a non-violent Hawaiian practitioner who was performing civil disobedience.
If there was political pressure from above did it say “and go in and harass them when you arrest them- as a matter of fact, go after that reporter too”?.
Maybe. We may never know but more than likely, not. If there were politicians “putting on the pressure” they more than likely told them they wanted them charged and brought to court.
It may not have been up to KPD to determine whether or not they were arrested but it was KPD that was responsible for how they are processed.
When the mayor or other mucky-mucks get arrested for stealing millions or some other fraud and corruption they don’t drag them down to the station house in handcuffs, They let their lawyers know and they turn themselves in.
But when people perform non-violent civil disobedience to stop the desecration of a graveyard they’re considered hardened criminals to be grabbed off the street..
Yes, most of the officers at KPD are among the best cops we’ve ever seen anywhere. We need to create an atmosphere where they can come forward and ensure that those who are not doing their job professionally don’t taint the rest.
This kind of abuse during essentially political arrests doesn’t happen without the implicit blind eye of those professional officers.
And if this kind of harassment is standard operating procedure at KPD there is systemically something wrong. And if there’s something systemically wrong it starts with leadership.
In this case the chief may not be part of the problem but the honeymoon is over and it’s time for him to be part of the solution.
Tuesday, September 23, 2008
Monday, September 22, 2008
CHALLENGING THE CHOKE CHAIN
CHALLENGING THE CHOKE CHAIN: Ho-hum.
Saturday’s election results were anything but surprising although you wouldn’t know it from listening to the shocked malahinis and young progressives who, like their past brethren, learned a lesson that many of us are slow to learn- Kaua`i is an extremely conservative community when it comes to change.
Amidst all the talk of “new demographics”- the same talk we’ve heard for 40 years- most of the predictions of change a’comin’ are wishful thinking.
Though we hit the bulls-eye in our Wednesday prediction of the percentages of all four candidates in the mayor’s race, the council race wasn’t much of a shock either with one notable pleasant exception- Lani Kawahara’s encouraging 8th place showing.
The Kapa`a librarian and political protégé of Kauai State Senator Gary Hooser is the one bright spots in the council results for those searching for an alternative to the entrenched machine and their younger wannabes.
Her platform statements on transportation, sustainability, infrastructure improvements, environmental protection, growth management, alternative energy, economic diversification, ag lands ad open spaces, beach and trail access, and solid waste and recycling all provide detailed solutions no other candidates can come close to.
But Kawahara will have to fight her way into a mix of five incumbents and two new big-money, old-boy-connected, pro-unbridled-development, anti-sustainability candidates, Derik Kawakami and Dickie Chang.
Although she is positioned only a thousand votes out of 7th place and 1200 votes more than the 9th place candidate, Kawahara is also only 1200 votes out of third place.
Her biggest difficulty will be that she is without the big money support of the super-wealthy Kawakami, the media megaphone of ambiguous TV personality Chang- the personification pro-big-business over-development- or the incumbents’ weekly promotional video known as the cablecast of the council meetings
Generally progressives across the state took a bath Saturday, especially on the neighbor islands.
In the Big Island vote although Councilperson Angel Pilago made the cut in their mayoral race he has a 22% margin to make up when he squares off against old- boy, first-time candidate Administrative Assistant Billy Kanoi.
He’s got a long way and a much tougher fight than Councilperson JoAnn Yukimura will have against a similar foe in Bernard Carvalho.
Yukimura seems primed to pick up a huge chunk of loser Mel Rapozo’s 25% since much of it was an anti-Baptiste vote and therefore anti self-proclaimed, heir-apparent Carvalho.
Rapozo was arguably Baptiste’s biggest critic and it’s hard to imagine any but the fully uninformed voters or those who voted for Rapozo through family or community ties voting for Carvalho, who may have approached his peak vote in the primaries.
But on the Big Island Pilago barely beat out third place finisher former State Rep Lorraine Inouye, a well connected female-old-boy seeking her old mayoral chair. And Big Island polls show Kanoi picking up 40% of Inouye’s vote..
Even long time Puna Green Bob Jacobson lost to a pro-development adversary. With Pilago gone Big Island journalist and political blogger Hunter Bishop calls it the “dissolv(ing of)... the current five-member Sierra Club majority” that passed a ban on plastic grocery bags and put a measure on the ballot to make marijuana the lowest priority for HPD enforcement while rejecting federal pot eradication funding
We can forget about a plastic bag ban or any sustainability and environmental protection measures passing if Kawakami makes the November cut on Kaua`i
As the son of former state representatives (yes, both of them) Richard and Bertha Kawakami and owner and GM of Big Save Markets he hasn’t met development that he doesn’t like especially when it benefits Big Save
And, although for some reason he seems reluctant to mention his lineage the old boy network knows exactly who he is even if the voters don’t. .
We know it won’t be him that’s crying after we heard his radio ad proclaiming how he has nothing to offer but his “blood sweat and tears”..
“D-E-R-I-K and Derik is so lame-o”- as many mis-phrase his advertising slogan song- is the dim-bulb of the Kawakami dynasty but given the support for nothing-upstairs candidates like Carvalho it’s obvious that the electorate self-identifies with that
Some might think- and we’re among them- that the starkness of the presence of the worst of the worst land pimps and hotel whores in the top seven is related to a perception of bad economic times ahead.
On Kaua`i, those whose economic fortunes rise and fall with the numbers of visitors are seeing 20-30% declines in their paychecks, especially if they work by the piece or for tips or commission.
Fear is a great motivator and when it comes down to the level of food and shelter people will respond by ditching concerns about lifestyle, environmental protection and future sustainability in favor of the lower echelon of Maslow’s hierarchy needs.
Fear drives out calls for change- when fear is the chief motivating factor incumbents are happy. And top five finishes for the five “incumbents” indicates that may well be the case here.
But though that make explain the extent of rejection of the new ideas of more progressive candidates something one retired pillar of the community said to us Saturday night has the ring of truth that all those hope-mongers need to hear- something we’ve been fighting against hearing again and again each election for many decades.
“Did you ever think that maybe people are happy with things the way they are?” he said.
Sometimes it’s hard to imagine how, but things could be worse. Lani Kawahara could have come in lower than Republican stalwart Ron Agor.
Kawahara’s supporters have their work cut out for them. A thousand votes is a lot to make up and the turnout on Kaua`i was the highest in the state at 46%, similar to general election turnouts in the recent past and even if it hasn’t peaked no higher turnout alone will make up for that margin.
If Kaua`i fails to put Lani over the top we won’t just be losing two years of service of an extremely bright and akamai, controlled growth advocate but won’t have any voice on the council to combat the money-driven developers who will own all seven councilmembers.
One voice may not be able to stop the full mainland-ization of Kaua`i that many call inevitable. But it’s always better to have a foot in the door than have it shut, locked and barred trying to kick it down.
Saturday’s election results were anything but surprising although you wouldn’t know it from listening to the shocked malahinis and young progressives who, like their past brethren, learned a lesson that many of us are slow to learn- Kaua`i is an extremely conservative community when it comes to change.
Amidst all the talk of “new demographics”- the same talk we’ve heard for 40 years- most of the predictions of change a’comin’ are wishful thinking.
Though we hit the bulls-eye in our Wednesday prediction of the percentages of all four candidates in the mayor’s race, the council race wasn’t much of a shock either with one notable pleasant exception- Lani Kawahara’s encouraging 8th place showing.
The Kapa`a librarian and political protégé of Kauai State Senator Gary Hooser is the one bright spots in the council results for those searching for an alternative to the entrenched machine and their younger wannabes.
Her platform statements on transportation, sustainability, infrastructure improvements, environmental protection, growth management, alternative energy, economic diversification, ag lands ad open spaces, beach and trail access, and solid waste and recycling all provide detailed solutions no other candidates can come close to.
But Kawahara will have to fight her way into a mix of five incumbents and two new big-money, old-boy-connected, pro-unbridled-development, anti-sustainability candidates, Derik Kawakami and Dickie Chang.
Although she is positioned only a thousand votes out of 7th place and 1200 votes more than the 9th place candidate, Kawahara is also only 1200 votes out of third place.
Her biggest difficulty will be that she is without the big money support of the super-wealthy Kawakami, the media megaphone of ambiguous TV personality Chang- the personification pro-big-business over-development- or the incumbents’ weekly promotional video known as the cablecast of the council meetings
Generally progressives across the state took a bath Saturday, especially on the neighbor islands.
In the Big Island vote although Councilperson Angel Pilago made the cut in their mayoral race he has a 22% margin to make up when he squares off against old- boy, first-time candidate Administrative Assistant Billy Kanoi.
He’s got a long way and a much tougher fight than Councilperson JoAnn Yukimura will have against a similar foe in Bernard Carvalho.
Yukimura seems primed to pick up a huge chunk of loser Mel Rapozo’s 25% since much of it was an anti-Baptiste vote and therefore anti self-proclaimed, heir-apparent Carvalho.
Rapozo was arguably Baptiste’s biggest critic and it’s hard to imagine any but the fully uninformed voters or those who voted for Rapozo through family or community ties voting for Carvalho, who may have approached his peak vote in the primaries.
But on the Big Island Pilago barely beat out third place finisher former State Rep Lorraine Inouye, a well connected female-old-boy seeking her old mayoral chair. And Big Island polls show Kanoi picking up 40% of Inouye’s vote..
Even long time Puna Green Bob Jacobson lost to a pro-development adversary. With Pilago gone Big Island journalist and political blogger Hunter Bishop calls it the “dissolv(ing of)... the current five-member Sierra Club majority” that passed a ban on plastic grocery bags and put a measure on the ballot to make marijuana the lowest priority for HPD enforcement while rejecting federal pot eradication funding
We can forget about a plastic bag ban or any sustainability and environmental protection measures passing if Kawakami makes the November cut on Kaua`i
As the son of former state representatives (yes, both of them) Richard and Bertha Kawakami and owner and GM of Big Save Markets he hasn’t met development that he doesn’t like especially when it benefits Big Save
And, although for some reason he seems reluctant to mention his lineage the old boy network knows exactly who he is even if the voters don’t. .
We know it won’t be him that’s crying after we heard his radio ad proclaiming how he has nothing to offer but his “blood sweat and tears”..
“D-E-R-I-K and Derik is so lame-o”- as many mis-phrase his advertising slogan song- is the dim-bulb of the Kawakami dynasty but given the support for nothing-upstairs candidates like Carvalho it’s obvious that the electorate self-identifies with that
Some might think- and we’re among them- that the starkness of the presence of the worst of the worst land pimps and hotel whores in the top seven is related to a perception of bad economic times ahead.
On Kaua`i, those whose economic fortunes rise and fall with the numbers of visitors are seeing 20-30% declines in their paychecks, especially if they work by the piece or for tips or commission.
Fear is a great motivator and when it comes down to the level of food and shelter people will respond by ditching concerns about lifestyle, environmental protection and future sustainability in favor of the lower echelon of Maslow’s hierarchy needs.
Fear drives out calls for change- when fear is the chief motivating factor incumbents are happy. And top five finishes for the five “incumbents” indicates that may well be the case here.
But though that make explain the extent of rejection of the new ideas of more progressive candidates something one retired pillar of the community said to us Saturday night has the ring of truth that all those hope-mongers need to hear- something we’ve been fighting against hearing again and again each election for many decades.
“Did you ever think that maybe people are happy with things the way they are?” he said.
Sometimes it’s hard to imagine how, but things could be worse. Lani Kawahara could have come in lower than Republican stalwart Ron Agor.
Kawahara’s supporters have their work cut out for them. A thousand votes is a lot to make up and the turnout on Kaua`i was the highest in the state at 46%, similar to general election turnouts in the recent past and even if it hasn’t peaked no higher turnout alone will make up for that margin.
If Kaua`i fails to put Lani over the top we won’t just be losing two years of service of an extremely bright and akamai, controlled growth advocate but won’t have any voice on the council to combat the money-driven developers who will own all seven councilmembers.
One voice may not be able to stop the full mainland-ization of Kaua`i that many call inevitable. But it’s always better to have a foot in the door than have it shut, locked and barred trying to kick it down.
Saturday, September 20, 2008
KPD Blue Chapters 6 & 7
KPD Blue
by Anthony Sommer
Chapter 6 : Lisa Fisher
After being bludgeoned by the police union and local politicians in his first attempt at imposing discipline in the Monica Alves case, KPD Chief Freitas flinched quite visibly when it next came to dealing with sexual harassment. Freitas’s actions hardly reflected a profile in courage.
When a woman KPD officer was sexually abused by male KPD officers at a KPD station, Freitas punished the victim instead of the perpetrators.
As of last count, KPD has five women officers. That’s 3.6 percent of the total force of 140 sworn officers.
The national average for all police departments is 15 percent women, according to Police Chief Magazine. In Albuquerque, N.M. and Tucson, Ariz., women officers comprise one-third of the force and in San Jose, Calif., half of the city’s police officers are women.
One of the reasons the KPD receives so few applications from women is because of what happened to Lisa Fisher.
Fisher, a Kauai High School alum who grew up dreaming only of being a Kauai police officer, resigned in 1997 because of what she termed “a hostile work environment.”
In a lawsuit she filed the following year, Fisher claimed her supervisor at the KPD Hanalei Substation on Kauai’s north shore, Sgt. Cecil Baliaris, had repeatedly made suggestions about her body and his genitals, leading other officers to do the same.
Ultimately, Fisher alleged, Officer Michael Kiyabu grabbed her breasts in the police station in front of the other officers.
When she filed a complaint with Freitas, she was taken off the road and given a desk job.
The charges never were investigated, her lawsuit claimed. Although her lawsuit never went to trial, it’s quite obvious Fisher was correct.
In 2000, Kauai County paid $425,000 to Fisher to settle the case, not counting the considerable but undisclosed amount it cost the county attorney to hire outside counsel to help the county lose the case.
It was the highest settlement in Kauai history, by far eclipsing Monica Aves’s $250,000 settlement and pushing the taxpayer’s tab for KPD misconduct even higher.
It also was the first time a woman Kauai County employee ever had sued the county for sexual harassment and discrimination.
It is instructive to note that, even before she won her settlement, Fisher moved permanently to the mainland. She saw no future for herself on the Garden Island.
“As far as I know, no one was ever disciplined in this case,” said Richard Wilson, Fisher’s Kauai-born Honolulu lawyer.
A lack of oversight that permits questionable racial and gender attitudes is compounded, Wilson asserted, by Kauai’s detachment from the rest of Hawaii.
“Kauai is 560 square miles of island located 100 miles from any outside authority,” he said. “Kauai is very much the ‘Separate Kingdom’ it prides itself on, just as its police force is the best example.”
----------------
Chapter 7 : Elaine Schaefer
In another highly-publicized case involving a woman victim, Freitas again sat on his hands while his department did nothing.
Freitas’s role as a reformer and his credibility was being rapidly diminished by his own inaction in blatantly obvious cases of police discrimination.
Elaine Schaefer was not a Kauai cop but she was a cop. She was a white retired Oakland police sergeant who had moved to Kauai.
Oakland is a tough town and Schaefer was a tough cop. But the sexist and racist culture within the KPD was even tougher.
One day in May 2000, Schaefer was riding her horse on a secluded North Shore trail with a spectacular view of the open ocean that stretches all the way to Alaska.
Three pit bulls attacked the horse. Schaefer was thrown, and the terrified riderless horse plunged over a cliff and was killed.
Another white woman saw the attack on Schaefer and her horse and spotted a local man who had been hunting with the dogs. Wild pig hunting with dogs is popular with Kauai locals.
As the man ran past her carrying a rifle, he told the witness, “I’m not going to take the blame for this.”
The witness provided a KPD artist a description that was turned into a sketch that was published in the Garden Island newspaper.
The KPD was flooded with phone calls from north shore residents, all naming the same individual.
The police report categorized the attack—which should have been written up as reckless endangerment and criminal property damage—as a leash law violation, a petty misdemeanor.
The suspect—who apparently had killed the dogs and hidden their bodies—never was arrested.
There never was a lineup so the witness could try to identify the suspect in person while her memory was fresh.
Eventually, the witness moved back to the mainland.
Three months after the incident, the KPD mailed a driver’s license photo of the suspect to the witness. She was unable to pick him out of the photo lineup.
In September 2000, Detective Lt. Glenn Morita, who had been assigned to investigate the case, called Schaefer and told her he had done all he could do and the case was closed. No one would be charged.
Also in September 2000, Detective Lt. Glenn Morita was named “Officer of the Month” by the Kauai Police Commission.
“The minute the sketch of the suspect appeared in the newspaper, everyone on the North Shore knew exactly who it was, but he hasn’t been arrested and probably never will be,” said a third-generation resident of Kauai.
“Here’s a local guy with very close ties to the Kauai Police Department. The victim is a haole from the mainland. That’s how it is with KPD. That’s how it is on Kauai.”
by Anthony Sommer
Chapter 6 : Lisa Fisher
After being bludgeoned by the police union and local politicians in his first attempt at imposing discipline in the Monica Alves case, KPD Chief Freitas flinched quite visibly when it next came to dealing with sexual harassment. Freitas’s actions hardly reflected a profile in courage.
When a woman KPD officer was sexually abused by male KPD officers at a KPD station, Freitas punished the victim instead of the perpetrators.
As of last count, KPD has five women officers. That’s 3.6 percent of the total force of 140 sworn officers.
The national average for all police departments is 15 percent women, according to Police Chief Magazine. In Albuquerque, N.M. and Tucson, Ariz., women officers comprise one-third of the force and in San Jose, Calif., half of the city’s police officers are women.
One of the reasons the KPD receives so few applications from women is because of what happened to Lisa Fisher.
Fisher, a Kauai High School alum who grew up dreaming only of being a Kauai police officer, resigned in 1997 because of what she termed “a hostile work environment.”
In a lawsuit she filed the following year, Fisher claimed her supervisor at the KPD Hanalei Substation on Kauai’s north shore, Sgt. Cecil Baliaris, had repeatedly made suggestions about her body and his genitals, leading other officers to do the same.
Ultimately, Fisher alleged, Officer Michael Kiyabu grabbed her breasts in the police station in front of the other officers.
When she filed a complaint with Freitas, she was taken off the road and given a desk job.
The charges never were investigated, her lawsuit claimed. Although her lawsuit never went to trial, it’s quite obvious Fisher was correct.
In 2000, Kauai County paid $425,000 to Fisher to settle the case, not counting the considerable but undisclosed amount it cost the county attorney to hire outside counsel to help the county lose the case.
It was the highest settlement in Kauai history, by far eclipsing Monica Aves’s $250,000 settlement and pushing the taxpayer’s tab for KPD misconduct even higher.
It also was the first time a woman Kauai County employee ever had sued the county for sexual harassment and discrimination.
It is instructive to note that, even before she won her settlement, Fisher moved permanently to the mainland. She saw no future for herself on the Garden Island.
“As far as I know, no one was ever disciplined in this case,” said Richard Wilson, Fisher’s Kauai-born Honolulu lawyer.
A lack of oversight that permits questionable racial and gender attitudes is compounded, Wilson asserted, by Kauai’s detachment from the rest of Hawaii.
“Kauai is 560 square miles of island located 100 miles from any outside authority,” he said. “Kauai is very much the ‘Separate Kingdom’ it prides itself on, just as its police force is the best example.”
----------------
Chapter 7 : Elaine Schaefer
In another highly-publicized case involving a woman victim, Freitas again sat on his hands while his department did nothing.
Freitas’s role as a reformer and his credibility was being rapidly diminished by his own inaction in blatantly obvious cases of police discrimination.
Elaine Schaefer was not a Kauai cop but she was a cop. She was a white retired Oakland police sergeant who had moved to Kauai.
Oakland is a tough town and Schaefer was a tough cop. But the sexist and racist culture within the KPD was even tougher.
One day in May 2000, Schaefer was riding her horse on a secluded North Shore trail with a spectacular view of the open ocean that stretches all the way to Alaska.
Three pit bulls attacked the horse. Schaefer was thrown, and the terrified riderless horse plunged over a cliff and was killed.
Another white woman saw the attack on Schaefer and her horse and spotted a local man who had been hunting with the dogs. Wild pig hunting with dogs is popular with Kauai locals.
As the man ran past her carrying a rifle, he told the witness, “I’m not going to take the blame for this.”
The witness provided a KPD artist a description that was turned into a sketch that was published in the Garden Island newspaper.
The KPD was flooded with phone calls from north shore residents, all naming the same individual.
The police report categorized the attack—which should have been written up as reckless endangerment and criminal property damage—as a leash law violation, a petty misdemeanor.
The suspect—who apparently had killed the dogs and hidden their bodies—never was arrested.
There never was a lineup so the witness could try to identify the suspect in person while her memory was fresh.
Eventually, the witness moved back to the mainland.
Three months after the incident, the KPD mailed a driver’s license photo of the suspect to the witness. She was unable to pick him out of the photo lineup.
In September 2000, Detective Lt. Glenn Morita, who had been assigned to investigate the case, called Schaefer and told her he had done all he could do and the case was closed. No one would be charged.
Also in September 2000, Detective Lt. Glenn Morita was named “Officer of the Month” by the Kauai Police Commission.
“The minute the sketch of the suspect appeared in the newspaper, everyone on the North Shore knew exactly who it was, but he hasn’t been arrested and probably never will be,” said a third-generation resident of Kauai.
“Here’s a local guy with very close ties to the Kauai Police Department. The victim is a haole from the mainland. That’s how it is with KPD. That’s how it is on Kauai.”
Friday, September 19, 2008
STILL IN THE DOG HOUSE?
(Coming this weekend- Chapters 6 and 7 of KPD Blue)
STILL IN THE DOG HOUSE?: Our prognosticating post on Wednesday has kicked up a hornets nest of disagreement and more importantly uncovered a constituency we might have ignored.
We said
(T)his Saturday’s Special Mayoral Election appears to be a two way race between Bernard Carvalho ad JoAnn Yukimura for first place with Mel Rapozo trailing badly according to the PNN’s coconut-wireless totally-not-based-on-anything-but-a-hunch poll.
Our guess is that Carvalho will come in with about 40% with Yukimura coming in at about 35%, Rapozo around 20% and Rolf Bieber pulling in about 5%....
Yukimura... has received a boost in recent days and weeks as more and more local grassroots and community organizations have endorsed her.The question is if she can turn out the vote, especially the “I’m not voting for any of those creeps” crowd.Her spurt has seemingly whip-sawed her past Rapozo as many of her disappointed old friends and supporters found nowhere else to go if they hope to dislodge denizens of the recesses of the county-insiders’ bunker.
But in talking to folks since then we realize now we forgot one essential factor- among the “I’m not voting for any of those creeps” crowd there is a significant “especially JoAnn” constituency.
As always, history is an important indicator of how thing will probably go tomorrow.
In 2002 Ron Kouchi and Bryan Baptiste squared off for mayor. Kouchi had been much reviled by many for years for having never met development he didn’t like, especially hotels and resorts.
And he had been on and later in charge of the council when it was busy approving most of the re-zonings that are now the bane of residents as they are constructed all a once without the infrastructure to support them.
But in ’02 Kouchi not only admitted he had done all this but claimed to be a reborn smart growth and controlled development advocate. His “mea culpa” pulled in many of those who had despised him for years and in fact he depended on their votes.
Kouchi courted them using slow-growth slogans stolen directly from ex-mayor Yukimura’s 1988 campaign when she trounced the establishment pro-development Mayor “Uncle” Tony Kunimura during the campaign that malahini- who didn’t know the candidates and history- referred to as the “vote for the ‘-imura’ of your choice” election.
Baptiste ran a lackluster campaign on ’02 and had hardly a word to say on any of the issues, preferring to run a “he’s one of us” campaign with his “leadership from the heart” slogan... an axiom completed by many with “only because he doesn’t have a brain”..
With a growing “settler” constituency who would vote based on the issues rather than community ties Kouchi seemed to be headed for a victory with his new-found, almost religious, conversion
But he- and we- forgot about the “there is no way in hell I’d ever vote for Ron Kouchi” vote.
We kept hearing it throughout the campaign from those who remembered all too well the literally hundreds of 6-1 council votes with Kouchi and the old boys (and a girl or two along the way) pushing through any project that came before them leaving poor Kaipo Asing in a minority of one in almost every vote.
But we didn’t believe it. Surely they would come to their senses since Bryan was such a obnoxious boob, recent eulogies notwithstanding. (What? Too soon?)
But of course Ron didn’t win and, well, guess what? We’re hearing the same about JoAnn.
Though you would think that with her endorsements and the way Rapozo’s stock has fallen recently she was going to pick up enough votes for second place and a place in the November runoff .
But her negatives, like Kouchi’s, may just be too high.
Many still remember how she pissed off just about everybody on one thing or another during her six years as mayor, something we got an earful of in the past three days.
And even some of her former supporters have gotten thoroughly disgusted with how she’s gotten chummy with developers and given away the store lately to the point that they have also vowed never to vote for her again.
The council election is not the mayoral election. Despite her high vote totals in the last two council elections- which paled in comparison to her traditional first place totals before she became mayor- everyone gets seven votes.
And when the candidates say “save one vote for me” it isn’t just a quaint Kauai-ism. It’s the way you get elected here
Kaipo Asing found that out we he ran in 1998 against then Mayor Marianne Kusaka, The day after his last minute filing we overheard two Democratic Party bosses talking (down by the copy store, hint hint) about how the election was his based on his first place finish in every election since 1988.
But Asing stunningly didn’t even make the primary cut, revising the thinking of every councilperson considering the mayor’s seat ever since.
Perhaps Yukimura didn’t take notice because she was living in Honolulu at the time. And perhaps she didn’t get the significance of Kouchi’s loss in ’02.
In these days of duopolisitc, diminished, almost non-existent democracy and the usual choices between tweedledum and tweedledumber it may not be as important to be liked as it is to not be disliked.
If the un-scientific poll in the local paper is any indication Yukimura will be enjoying at least a two year vacation from public service with nothing but time to think about it all..
STILL IN THE DOG HOUSE?: Our prognosticating post on Wednesday has kicked up a hornets nest of disagreement and more importantly uncovered a constituency we might have ignored.
We said
(T)his Saturday’s Special Mayoral Election appears to be a two way race between Bernard Carvalho ad JoAnn Yukimura for first place with Mel Rapozo trailing badly according to the PNN’s coconut-wireless totally-not-based-on-anything-but-a-hunch poll.
Our guess is that Carvalho will come in with about 40% with Yukimura coming in at about 35%, Rapozo around 20% and Rolf Bieber pulling in about 5%....
Yukimura... has received a boost in recent days and weeks as more and more local grassroots and community organizations have endorsed her.The question is if she can turn out the vote, especially the “I’m not voting for any of those creeps” crowd.Her spurt has seemingly whip-sawed her past Rapozo as many of her disappointed old friends and supporters found nowhere else to go if they hope to dislodge denizens of the recesses of the county-insiders’ bunker.
But in talking to folks since then we realize now we forgot one essential factor- among the “I’m not voting for any of those creeps” crowd there is a significant “especially JoAnn” constituency.
As always, history is an important indicator of how thing will probably go tomorrow.
In 2002 Ron Kouchi and Bryan Baptiste squared off for mayor. Kouchi had been much reviled by many for years for having never met development he didn’t like, especially hotels and resorts.
And he had been on and later in charge of the council when it was busy approving most of the re-zonings that are now the bane of residents as they are constructed all a once without the infrastructure to support them.
But in ’02 Kouchi not only admitted he had done all this but claimed to be a reborn smart growth and controlled development advocate. His “mea culpa” pulled in many of those who had despised him for years and in fact he depended on their votes.
Kouchi courted them using slow-growth slogans stolen directly from ex-mayor Yukimura’s 1988 campaign when she trounced the establishment pro-development Mayor “Uncle” Tony Kunimura during the campaign that malahini- who didn’t know the candidates and history- referred to as the “vote for the ‘-imura’ of your choice” election.
Baptiste ran a lackluster campaign on ’02 and had hardly a word to say on any of the issues, preferring to run a “he’s one of us” campaign with his “leadership from the heart” slogan... an axiom completed by many with “only because he doesn’t have a brain”..
With a growing “settler” constituency who would vote based on the issues rather than community ties Kouchi seemed to be headed for a victory with his new-found, almost religious, conversion
But he- and we- forgot about the “there is no way in hell I’d ever vote for Ron Kouchi” vote.
We kept hearing it throughout the campaign from those who remembered all too well the literally hundreds of 6-1 council votes with Kouchi and the old boys (and a girl or two along the way) pushing through any project that came before them leaving poor Kaipo Asing in a minority of one in almost every vote.
But we didn’t believe it. Surely they would come to their senses since Bryan was such a obnoxious boob, recent eulogies notwithstanding. (What? Too soon?)
But of course Ron didn’t win and, well, guess what? We’re hearing the same about JoAnn.
Though you would think that with her endorsements and the way Rapozo’s stock has fallen recently she was going to pick up enough votes for second place and a place in the November runoff .
But her negatives, like Kouchi’s, may just be too high.
Many still remember how she pissed off just about everybody on one thing or another during her six years as mayor, something we got an earful of in the past three days.
And even some of her former supporters have gotten thoroughly disgusted with how she’s gotten chummy with developers and given away the store lately to the point that they have also vowed never to vote for her again.
The council election is not the mayoral election. Despite her high vote totals in the last two council elections- which paled in comparison to her traditional first place totals before she became mayor- everyone gets seven votes.
And when the candidates say “save one vote for me” it isn’t just a quaint Kauai-ism. It’s the way you get elected here
Kaipo Asing found that out we he ran in 1998 against then Mayor Marianne Kusaka, The day after his last minute filing we overheard two Democratic Party bosses talking (down by the copy store, hint hint) about how the election was his based on his first place finish in every election since 1988.
But Asing stunningly didn’t even make the primary cut, revising the thinking of every councilperson considering the mayor’s seat ever since.
Perhaps Yukimura didn’t take notice because she was living in Honolulu at the time. And perhaps she didn’t get the significance of Kouchi’s loss in ’02.
In these days of duopolisitc, diminished, almost non-existent democracy and the usual choices between tweedledum and tweedledumber it may not be as important to be liked as it is to not be disliked.
If the un-scientific poll in the local paper is any indication Yukimura will be enjoying at least a two year vacation from public service with nothing but time to think about it all..
Wednesday, September 17, 2008
DO YOU SMELL THAT?:
DO YOU SMELL THAT?: We’re just back from voting and it was every bit the appalling experience we thought it would be- and then some.
First off, early voting this year on Kaua`i is being conducted in a construction zone having moved from the Historic County Building– where people were told to come- to the “Annex” next door where the newly and apparently hastily readied basement room reeked of fresh paint- not just an OSHA violation for the workers but a nauseating experience for all involved.
But what the heck- you have to be dizzy in the first place to vote for most of those on the ballot this year- what’s a little huffing on the way into the voting booth?
Then we were handed a paper ballot shunning the electronic machine, as if it really matters. We and others were not told of the new procedure of having to check the little box picking a party instead of just voting in one party’s primary.
The new check box is there for no particular reason other than our new idiotic State Elections Chief Kevin "King" Cronin decreed it- without checking with anyone as was required by law.
And, in another bit of stupidity that could have been solved if he had bothered to follow the law and let someone check his new ballot, although the instructions still say to fill in the oval completely, there are no ovals or even circles next to each name but rectangles, insuring not just more confusion but using twice as much effort and ink to mark the ballot this year.
Cheesehead Cronin obviously decide that too many people had finally figured out the color-coded method over the last 10 years it’s been in use so he’d change it to insure another 10 years of confusion and ruined and invalid ballots.
Then- surprise number 17 gazillion this year- instead of, as has been the practice in the past, leaving off the names of those unchallenged in their party's partisan primaries for those running for state or federal office, they were included this time for no particular reason... probably because that’s the way they do it in Wisconsin.
Studies show that the worst years for mistakes in balloting occur when the balloting methods change- whether changing from things like punch cards to optical scans to using new instructions and ways to mark the ballots.
And so you’d think any schmuck who runs elections knows the best way to insure people understand the ballot is to not change the methodology from election to election unless you really have to..
But Cronin obviously isn’t just any ordinary schmuck- he got a unique, arrogant schmuck-osity about him as we’ve detailed over the past few months.
The worst part is that we aren’t alone in thinking that no matter what we did, there was a good chance that our vote will not be counted because no one is checking the infamous “paper trail” that is supposed to reassure everyone that the result will reflect the vote.
Everyone assumes that some kind of paper record- such as the printer contained in the electronic machines or the ones that we mark in ink and feed into the optical scan counting machine- are an assurance of lack of fraud because they can be counted later after the machines are done doing their “magic”.
But,. as we reported yesterday- and as is listed as a bone of contention in the lawsuit filed by Maui voting observer Bob Babson- the “paper trail” is rarely if ever seen again once the voter leaves the booth.
Because, as Babson’s attorney Lance Collins told us,. trying to see them again is an exercise in futility.
We were surprised to find out yesterday that electronic transmission to Honolulu of the vote with no one on-site verifying the totals had been the case for years and was not, as widely reported by the mainstream media and so by us, a new arbitrary invention of Cronin’s..
But when we asked Collins about it he added the following
I don't know how its been done on Kauai but tabulation has occurred previously on Maui then sent to Honolulu (without telling anyone on Maui what the results are) and then the results are sent back from Honolulu. This is what made Bob Babson initially suspicious in 2006.
Because the Maui final count was not made available before the tabulator was hooked up to the internet/telephone, there would be no way to verify that tampering had not occurred unless you manually recounted all the ballots (except the absentee ballots are never audited-recounted in the first place). However, there are no recounts unless a candidate or 30 voters have concrete evidence that there was fraud or error and that the fraud/error changed the result.
A very high standard for very low election security.
In other words the only way the “paper” is ever seen again - or even a first time- is if 30 people can prove there was something wrong with the totals. And that, if that’s true it would have changed the winner
Many people think it’s futile to vote because good people don’t become candidates- almost by definition- and many can’t even get on the ballot in many states.
And if they do manage to run, only those with lots of money from dubious sources – as well as those who don’t just represent but actually ARE the special interests- can get the media recognition to tell people they are “viable” or “ electable”.
But the with the privatized elections systems used in every state these days- which results in the proprietary nature of the counting software- and other ridiculously convoluted rules for ever actually checking the results, the supposed confidence-building “paper trails” do nothing to negate, and in fact facilitate, the opportunities for election fraud. .
So, that said, don’t forget to vote Saturday kiddies... It’s apparently a sucker’s game but it’s probably the only “right” you have left.
First off, early voting this year on Kaua`i is being conducted in a construction zone having moved from the Historic County Building– where people were told to come- to the “Annex” next door where the newly and apparently hastily readied basement room reeked of fresh paint- not just an OSHA violation for the workers but a nauseating experience for all involved.
But what the heck- you have to be dizzy in the first place to vote for most of those on the ballot this year- what’s a little huffing on the way into the voting booth?
Then we were handed a paper ballot shunning the electronic machine, as if it really matters. We and others were not told of the new procedure of having to check the little box picking a party instead of just voting in one party’s primary.
The new check box is there for no particular reason other than our new idiotic State Elections Chief Kevin "King" Cronin decreed it- without checking with anyone as was required by law.
And, in another bit of stupidity that could have been solved if he had bothered to follow the law and let someone check his new ballot, although the instructions still say to fill in the oval completely, there are no ovals or even circles next to each name but rectangles, insuring not just more confusion but using twice as much effort and ink to mark the ballot this year.
Cheesehead Cronin obviously decide that too many people had finally figured out the color-coded method over the last 10 years it’s been in use so he’d change it to insure another 10 years of confusion and ruined and invalid ballots.
Then- surprise number 17 gazillion this year- instead of, as has been the practice in the past, leaving off the names of those unchallenged in their party's partisan primaries for those running for state or federal office, they were included this time for no particular reason... probably because that’s the way they do it in Wisconsin.
Studies show that the worst years for mistakes in balloting occur when the balloting methods change- whether changing from things like punch cards to optical scans to using new instructions and ways to mark the ballots.
And so you’d think any schmuck who runs elections knows the best way to insure people understand the ballot is to not change the methodology from election to election unless you really have to..
But Cronin obviously isn’t just any ordinary schmuck- he got a unique, arrogant schmuck-osity about him as we’ve detailed over the past few months.
The worst part is that we aren’t alone in thinking that no matter what we did, there was a good chance that our vote will not be counted because no one is checking the infamous “paper trail” that is supposed to reassure everyone that the result will reflect the vote.
Everyone assumes that some kind of paper record- such as the printer contained in the electronic machines or the ones that we mark in ink and feed into the optical scan counting machine- are an assurance of lack of fraud because they can be counted later after the machines are done doing their “magic”.
But,. as we reported yesterday- and as is listed as a bone of contention in the lawsuit filed by Maui voting observer Bob Babson- the “paper trail” is rarely if ever seen again once the voter leaves the booth.
Because, as Babson’s attorney Lance Collins told us,. trying to see them again is an exercise in futility.
We were surprised to find out yesterday that electronic transmission to Honolulu of the vote with no one on-site verifying the totals had been the case for years and was not, as widely reported by the mainstream media and so by us, a new arbitrary invention of Cronin’s..
But when we asked Collins about it he added the following
I don't know how its been done on Kauai but tabulation has occurred previously on Maui then sent to Honolulu (without telling anyone on Maui what the results are) and then the results are sent back from Honolulu. This is what made Bob Babson initially suspicious in 2006.
Because the Maui final count was not made available before the tabulator was hooked up to the internet/telephone, there would be no way to verify that tampering had not occurred unless you manually recounted all the ballots (except the absentee ballots are never audited-recounted in the first place). However, there are no recounts unless a candidate or 30 voters have concrete evidence that there was fraud or error and that the fraud/error changed the result.
A very high standard for very low election security.
In other words the only way the “paper” is ever seen again - or even a first time- is if 30 people can prove there was something wrong with the totals. And that, if that’s true it would have changed the winner
Many people think it’s futile to vote because good people don’t become candidates- almost by definition- and many can’t even get on the ballot in many states.
And if they do manage to run, only those with lots of money from dubious sources – as well as those who don’t just represent but actually ARE the special interests- can get the media recognition to tell people they are “viable” or “ electable”.
But the with the privatized elections systems used in every state these days- which results in the proprietary nature of the counting software- and other ridiculously convoluted rules for ever actually checking the results, the supposed confidence-building “paper trails” do nothing to negate, and in fact facilitate, the opportunities for election fraud. .
So, that said, don’t forget to vote Saturday kiddies... It’s apparently a sucker’s game but it’s probably the only “right” you have left.
AND DOWN THE STRETCH THEY COME
AND DOWN THE STRETCH THEY COME: As detailed here twice recently- as well as in other Hawai`i blogs and even (gasp) to some extent in the mainstream press- it appears that vote totals this Saturday will not even be recorded much less counted at the precincts or anywhere else on the neighbor islands.
A lawsuit on Maui has been filed but judges have been consistently ruling against anything that will change this year’s un-official, official election procedures no matter how arbitrary and capricious... although the case is on appeal.
And so, as has been ubiquitously reported, one potential screwup-waiting-to-happen is that the votes will go directly via phone lines from the electronic voting equipment “cards” to the State Capitol for counting without even being recorded first, leaving room for all sorts of mischief.
But PNN has learned today that Kaua`i votes haven’t been tabulated or even recorded on island in the last 10 years and have rather been electronically transmitted to Honolulu for tabulation and first release.
In answer to PNN’s queries as to whether, as usual, the county would hand out the totals to the gaggle of reporters and campaign operatives that usually gathers at the county building on election eve, Deputy County Clerk Ernie Passion said they haven’t done the tabulations here at least since he got here in 1998.
Rather they’ve let the machines send them to Honolulu where they were electronically shipped back here and printed out for the gathered.
This doesn’t mean they ever had the required Chapter 91 Administrative Rules for the procedures, as attorney Lance Collins states in the Maui lawsuit. It just means they’ve been doing it illegally for a long time now.
Those who want to be among the very first to get the vote totals on Saturday can click here and bookmark the site. Then on Saturday around 7 p.m. you can go there and keep hitting “refresh” to get the up to the minute results.
And speaking of telling people where to go, this Saturday’s Special Mayoral Election appears to be a two way race between Bernard Carvalho ad JoAnn Yukimura for first place with Mel Rapozo trailing badly according to the PNN’s coconut-wireless totally-not-based-on-anything-but-a-hunch poll.
Our guess is that Carvalho will come in with about 40% with Yukimura coming in at about 35%, Rapozo around 20% and Rolf Bieber pulling in about 5%.
It doesn’t take a genius to see where most of the old boy support is because Carvalho’s first campaign spending report is in and he leads the cash race collecting a whopping $132 562.41 from July 8 through September 5 of which he still has $46,877. 36
And his list of contributors contains the names of virtually every Kaua`i county department head and a slew of county employees indicating that the old boys know who will put shoyu on their rice.
Click on the contributors list for an eyeful especially the fact that the identification of the people giving him money for the most part is sorely lacking... not that the others have any more details.
Carvalho has taken the Rose Garden approach so far and seemingly successfully when you look at his list of supporters which includes many Democratic Party stalwarts that supported Yukimura 20 years ago as well as the big business biggies that Ron Kouchi drew in his losing campaign against Bryan Baptiste in 2002.
With Baptiste’s Republican machine still in place and working side by side with the entrenched Democratic operatives Carvalho will be hard to beat and a low turnout Saturday could even put him over the required 50% needed to avoid the November runoff.
Yukimura’s report indicates the campaign is struggling financially but has received a boost in recent days and weeks as more and more local grassroots and community organizations have endorsed her.
The question is if she can turn out the vote,, especially the “I’m not voting for any of those creeps” crowd.
Her spurt has seemingly whip-sawed her past Rapozo as many of her disappointed old friends and supporters found nowhere else to go if they hope to dislodge denizens of the recesses of the county-insiders’ bunker.
But she is in serious money trouble if she keeps Carvalho under a majority with a slightly negative case flow after somehow spending $73,616.65 already.
Yukimura’s list of contributors from 7/17- 9/5 – like Carvalho’s and Rapozo’s 7/16- 9/4 list have a dearth of the required employer and industry information the campaign filing laws require if possible.
But for those who recognize the names the trends are pretty indicative of Rapozo and Carvalho’s old boy network support vs. Yukimura’s comparatively grassroots support
The bright spot money-wise for Yukimura might be that the listed donations were received before the Sept. 4 filing deadline which preceded many of the endorsements from the likes of the Sierra Club, the Kaua`i Museletter and even surprisingly enough PNN. And many of her contributors have not “maxed out” at the $2000 limit as many of Carvalho’s developer,. government and real estate contributors.
As to Rapozo’s filing Rapozo he’s sitting flush having collected 67,106.45 with 27,460.24 in cash left.
The question is, what is he saving it for.
He’s been hurt by various factors including the Yukimura surge and the publication of the book KPD Blue where voters were reminded- or in some cases first informed- of his involvement in the infamous “lap dancing at the station house” incident in 1995 which led to Rapozo’s ousting from the Kaua`i Police Department.
As a frequent administration critic Rapozo has relied on his image as a fighter and crusader to clean up county government and this strikes at his core. It’s what has distinguished him from both Carvalho who IS the embodiment of the Batiste reign and Yukimura whose compromising “no talk stink” persona has emerged in her six-year-council-seat stint and political comeback after being ousted from the mayor’s seat in 1994.
But when all is said and done Rapozo probably lost the election with his high profile blogging fight against the “dog path”.
By the time he came to his senses and stopped his blog not only had he lost votes but, because Carvalho was the administration official who actually banned the dogs on the bike path, the hurt was doubled because all his votes went to Yukimura who was careful not to get too involved in the issue too much except in her typical “make everyone happy” manner.
For many dog enthusiasts this is a one issue election now and they didn’t just turn to Yukimura but did so, well, enthusiastically.
And in the final analysis since Rapozo and Yukimura are essentially sharing the anti Baptiste/anti-Carvalho vote, JoAnn is picking up virtually every vote he loses. That may even be enough to push her into a virtual tie with Carvalho assuming Rapozo’s support is, as it appears, in free fall.
We urge anyone undecided to click on and check out the list of contributors for each candidate if you want to know who the candidate “represents”. It’s far more informative than things like the local newspaper’s regurgitation of old articles, fluff questions, useless information and splashy advertising that tried to pass itself off as an voters’ election guide this past Sunday.
All in all it’s been quite a boring race with all four candidates’ platitudes and stump-rhetoric replacing hard stands on the issue. That and a distinct lack of the usual sign-stealing charges smear campaigns and the like is disappointing to any political junkie.
But if it turns out as we predict there should be a pretty good two-way race to November 4.
A lawsuit on Maui has been filed but judges have been consistently ruling against anything that will change this year’s un-official, official election procedures no matter how arbitrary and capricious... although the case is on appeal.
And so, as has been ubiquitously reported, one potential screwup-waiting-to-happen is that the votes will go directly via phone lines from the electronic voting equipment “cards” to the State Capitol for counting without even being recorded first, leaving room for all sorts of mischief.
But PNN has learned today that Kaua`i votes haven’t been tabulated or even recorded on island in the last 10 years and have rather been electronically transmitted to Honolulu for tabulation and first release.
In answer to PNN’s queries as to whether, as usual, the county would hand out the totals to the gaggle of reporters and campaign operatives that usually gathers at the county building on election eve, Deputy County Clerk Ernie Passion said they haven’t done the tabulations here at least since he got here in 1998.
Rather they’ve let the machines send them to Honolulu where they were electronically shipped back here and printed out for the gathered.
This doesn’t mean they ever had the required Chapter 91 Administrative Rules for the procedures, as attorney Lance Collins states in the Maui lawsuit. It just means they’ve been doing it illegally for a long time now.
Those who want to be among the very first to get the vote totals on Saturday can click here and bookmark the site. Then on Saturday around 7 p.m. you can go there and keep hitting “refresh” to get the up to the minute results.
And speaking of telling people where to go, this Saturday’s Special Mayoral Election appears to be a two way race between Bernard Carvalho ad JoAnn Yukimura for first place with Mel Rapozo trailing badly according to the PNN’s coconut-wireless totally-not-based-on-anything-but-a-hunch poll.
Our guess is that Carvalho will come in with about 40% with Yukimura coming in at about 35%, Rapozo around 20% and Rolf Bieber pulling in about 5%.
It doesn’t take a genius to see where most of the old boy support is because Carvalho’s first campaign spending report is in and he leads the cash race collecting a whopping $132 562.41 from July 8 through September 5 of which he still has $46,877. 36
And his list of contributors contains the names of virtually every Kaua`i county department head and a slew of county employees indicating that the old boys know who will put shoyu on their rice.
Click on the contributors list for an eyeful especially the fact that the identification of the people giving him money for the most part is sorely lacking... not that the others have any more details.
Carvalho has taken the Rose Garden approach so far and seemingly successfully when you look at his list of supporters which includes many Democratic Party stalwarts that supported Yukimura 20 years ago as well as the big business biggies that Ron Kouchi drew in his losing campaign against Bryan Baptiste in 2002.
With Baptiste’s Republican machine still in place and working side by side with the entrenched Democratic operatives Carvalho will be hard to beat and a low turnout Saturday could even put him over the required 50% needed to avoid the November runoff.
Yukimura’s report indicates the campaign is struggling financially but has received a boost in recent days and weeks as more and more local grassroots and community organizations have endorsed her.
The question is if she can turn out the vote,, especially the “I’m not voting for any of those creeps” crowd.
Her spurt has seemingly whip-sawed her past Rapozo as many of her disappointed old friends and supporters found nowhere else to go if they hope to dislodge denizens of the recesses of the county-insiders’ bunker.
But she is in serious money trouble if she keeps Carvalho under a majority with a slightly negative case flow after somehow spending $73,616.65 already.
Yukimura’s list of contributors from 7/17- 9/5 – like Carvalho’s and Rapozo’s 7/16- 9/4 list have a dearth of the required employer and industry information the campaign filing laws require if possible.
But for those who recognize the names the trends are pretty indicative of Rapozo and Carvalho’s old boy network support vs. Yukimura’s comparatively grassroots support
The bright spot money-wise for Yukimura might be that the listed donations were received before the Sept. 4 filing deadline which preceded many of the endorsements from the likes of the Sierra Club, the Kaua`i Museletter and even surprisingly enough PNN. And many of her contributors have not “maxed out” at the $2000 limit as many of Carvalho’s developer,. government and real estate contributors.
As to Rapozo’s filing Rapozo he’s sitting flush having collected 67,106.45 with 27,460.24 in cash left.
The question is, what is he saving it for.
He’s been hurt by various factors including the Yukimura surge and the publication of the book KPD Blue where voters were reminded- or in some cases first informed- of his involvement in the infamous “lap dancing at the station house” incident in 1995 which led to Rapozo’s ousting from the Kaua`i Police Department.
As a frequent administration critic Rapozo has relied on his image as a fighter and crusader to clean up county government and this strikes at his core. It’s what has distinguished him from both Carvalho who IS the embodiment of the Batiste reign and Yukimura whose compromising “no talk stink” persona has emerged in her six-year-council-seat stint and political comeback after being ousted from the mayor’s seat in 1994.
But when all is said and done Rapozo probably lost the election with his high profile blogging fight against the “dog path”.
By the time he came to his senses and stopped his blog not only had he lost votes but, because Carvalho was the administration official who actually banned the dogs on the bike path, the hurt was doubled because all his votes went to Yukimura who was careful not to get too involved in the issue too much except in her typical “make everyone happy” manner.
For many dog enthusiasts this is a one issue election now and they didn’t just turn to Yukimura but did so, well, enthusiastically.
And in the final analysis since Rapozo and Yukimura are essentially sharing the anti Baptiste/anti-Carvalho vote, JoAnn is picking up virtually every vote he loses. That may even be enough to push her into a virtual tie with Carvalho assuming Rapozo’s support is, as it appears, in free fall.
We urge anyone undecided to click on and check out the list of contributors for each candidate if you want to know who the candidate “represents”. It’s far more informative than things like the local newspaper’s regurgitation of old articles, fluff questions, useless information and splashy advertising that tried to pass itself off as an voters’ election guide this past Sunday.
All in all it’s been quite a boring race with all four candidates’ platitudes and stump-rhetoric replacing hard stands on the issue. That and a distinct lack of the usual sign-stealing charges smear campaigns and the like is disappointing to any political junkie.
But if it turns out as we predict there should be a pretty good two-way race to November 4.
Tuesday, September 16, 2008
HARDENED BONEHEADS
HARDENED BONEHEADS: It’s nani-nani-boo-boo time for us today as the Naue cemetery desecration case came to fruition in court yesterday.
As we reported first by delineating a letter from OHA on July 10, the shenanigans of developer Joe Brescia and his henchwoman Nancy “Igor” McMahon violated various provisions of rules and laws.
As Joan Conrow said this morning in referring to the property rights nutsos who have been defending and singing the praises of Brescia and McMahon::
“OK, get out your chili pepper water, your A-1 sauce or your other favorite condiment. Because it’s time to eat some crow — and not the Alala kine, since it’s almost extinct.
Although the ruling was vintage, archetypical Judge Kathleen Wantanabe in it’s equivocations in favor of bureaucratic deference, the ruling confirmed that the desecration of the cemetery at Naue was never legal even according to the administrative procedures much less the state law and constitution.
Because she was a typical gutless government attorney throughout her career, by predilection it seems it never occurred to Judge Wantanabe that she could strike down the “ad rules” that she instead said should be changed legislatively in part because they violate the laws and constitutional provisions.
The ruling is well reported by others today so we won’t detail it here but we can’t wait for the spectacle of next Kaua`i Burial Council meeting, which if they’re smart they’ll hold at the convention hall or stadium.
And of course we anticipate quite the crowd at the planning commission whose discussion of the legitimacy of the construction permits has been on hold pending the ruling that invalidates an essential component- a valid burial plan..
And we’re pretty sure there are prohibitive odds against State Archeologist Nancy McMahon coming in anywhere but last in this Saturday’s council election after the full blame for the mess was deposited at her doorstep.
The only question left is whether her negligence and malfeasance rose to a level that she doesn’t have any immunity against a lawsuit by all sides.
Perhaps we’ll see a civil case with plaintiffs Jeff Chandler and Joe Brescia vs. respondent Nancy McMahon in the near future. Only a complete twit like McMahon could bring those two together on something.
But even though the desecration and destruction is essentially halted for now- though in a typical Wantanabe-istic non-ruling ruling- what strikes us through all of this is the antiseptic way the press, even our friend Joan (although just quoting Wantanabe), has fallen into a pattern of describing the actual desecratory construction last month.
Here’s some snippets from Joan’s post.
Wantanbe also said that doesn’t mean he was authorized to start pouring his foundation, effectively capping some seven iwi in concrete so he could erect pilings for his house...
“While the burials were preserved, they were not authorized according to law and it could be argued that construction of jackets constitutes alteration,” Watanabe said...
The Council could take any number of steps, she said, such as having the jackets taken off the iwi and removing the seven burials that are now under the house and reinterring them elsewhere.
Blogger Charley Foster, who despite his protestations has decidedly sided with the developer, used the words “after jackets and footings were already poured” in a comment although that can be expected.
But here’s a description from the article in the local paper today:
...a Burial Treatment Plan featuring vertical buffers for the house and protective concrete jackets for the iwi.
“Capping some seven iwi in concrete”? “Construction of jackets”? “Having the jackets taken off the iwi”? “Vertical buffers for the house and protective concrete jackets for the iwi”.?
What is with these antiseptic descriptions?. What Brescia apparently did was dig a freakin’ hole and pour concrete all over the bones- “coincidentally” right where they were pouring the concrete for the concrete foundation poles.
They all make it sound like anything but what it is.
There are no stupid “jackets”. Nothing was “capped”. And there were no “preservation measures”.
If we were to suggest the Arizona Memorial be “preserved” by slathering it in concrete we’d be strung up by the short and curlies.
At least malahini Advertiser reporter Diana Leong put the words "concrete jackets" and "buffer" in quotes in her piece this morning.
The news stories made clear that there was no order to stop but the proviso was that construction could continue only as long as there’s “no irreparable damage to the burials”
No one is pointing out the obvious- there was already irreparable harm because the way it’s described with “caps” and “jackets” and “buffers” and “pilings” it doesn’t let people know that they just poured cement over the bones.
This is a certainly a new idea in physical anthropology. Why we could “preserve” all artifacts forever by throwing them in a pit and sealing them in cement. Mayan ruins? Dinosaur bones? George Washington’s wooden teeth? Seal ‘um all in concrete. .
Since McMahon is going to be out of a job we may well be looking forward to the new Joe Brescia Memorial School of Wacko Anthropology... built of concrete.
And as for Brescia, well no one can say he hasn’t cemented relations between north shore developers and Kanaka community.
As we reported first by delineating a letter from OHA on July 10, the shenanigans of developer Joe Brescia and his henchwoman Nancy “Igor” McMahon violated various provisions of rules and laws.
As Joan Conrow said this morning in referring to the property rights nutsos who have been defending and singing the praises of Brescia and McMahon::
“OK, get out your chili pepper water, your A-1 sauce or your other favorite condiment. Because it’s time to eat some crow — and not the Alala kine, since it’s almost extinct.
Although the ruling was vintage, archetypical Judge Kathleen Wantanabe in it’s equivocations in favor of bureaucratic deference, the ruling confirmed that the desecration of the cemetery at Naue was never legal even according to the administrative procedures much less the state law and constitution.
Because she was a typical gutless government attorney throughout her career, by predilection it seems it never occurred to Judge Wantanabe that she could strike down the “ad rules” that she instead said should be changed legislatively in part because they violate the laws and constitutional provisions.
The ruling is well reported by others today so we won’t detail it here but we can’t wait for the spectacle of next Kaua`i Burial Council meeting, which if they’re smart they’ll hold at the convention hall or stadium.
And of course we anticipate quite the crowd at the planning commission whose discussion of the legitimacy of the construction permits has been on hold pending the ruling that invalidates an essential component- a valid burial plan..
And we’re pretty sure there are prohibitive odds against State Archeologist Nancy McMahon coming in anywhere but last in this Saturday’s council election after the full blame for the mess was deposited at her doorstep.
The only question left is whether her negligence and malfeasance rose to a level that she doesn’t have any immunity against a lawsuit by all sides.
Perhaps we’ll see a civil case with plaintiffs Jeff Chandler and Joe Brescia vs. respondent Nancy McMahon in the near future. Only a complete twit like McMahon could bring those two together on something.
But even though the desecration and destruction is essentially halted for now- though in a typical Wantanabe-istic non-ruling ruling- what strikes us through all of this is the antiseptic way the press, even our friend Joan (although just quoting Wantanabe), has fallen into a pattern of describing the actual desecratory construction last month.
Here’s some snippets from Joan’s post.
Wantanbe also said that doesn’t mean he was authorized to start pouring his foundation, effectively capping some seven iwi in concrete so he could erect pilings for his house...
“While the burials were preserved, they were not authorized according to law and it could be argued that construction of jackets constitutes alteration,” Watanabe said...
The Council could take any number of steps, she said, such as having the jackets taken off the iwi and removing the seven burials that are now under the house and reinterring them elsewhere.
Blogger Charley Foster, who despite his protestations has decidedly sided with the developer, used the words “after jackets and footings were already poured” in a comment although that can be expected.
But here’s a description from the article in the local paper today:
...a Burial Treatment Plan featuring vertical buffers for the house and protective concrete jackets for the iwi.
“Capping some seven iwi in concrete”? “Construction of jackets”? “Having the jackets taken off the iwi”? “Vertical buffers for the house and protective concrete jackets for the iwi”.?
What is with these antiseptic descriptions?. What Brescia apparently did was dig a freakin’ hole and pour concrete all over the bones- “coincidentally” right where they were pouring the concrete for the concrete foundation poles.
They all make it sound like anything but what it is.
There are no stupid “jackets”. Nothing was “capped”. And there were no “preservation measures”.
If we were to suggest the Arizona Memorial be “preserved” by slathering it in concrete we’d be strung up by the short and curlies.
At least malahini Advertiser reporter Diana Leong put the words "concrete jackets" and "buffer" in quotes in her piece this morning.
The news stories made clear that there was no order to stop but the proviso was that construction could continue only as long as there’s “no irreparable damage to the burials”
No one is pointing out the obvious- there was already irreparable harm because the way it’s described with “caps” and “jackets” and “buffers” and “pilings” it doesn’t let people know that they just poured cement over the bones.
This is a certainly a new idea in physical anthropology. Why we could “preserve” all artifacts forever by throwing them in a pit and sealing them in cement. Mayan ruins? Dinosaur bones? George Washington’s wooden teeth? Seal ‘um all in concrete. .
Since McMahon is going to be out of a job we may well be looking forward to the new Joe Brescia Memorial School of Wacko Anthropology... built of concrete.
And as for Brescia, well no one can say he hasn’t cemented relations between north shore developers and Kanaka community.
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