DOGGIE SEE DOGGIE DO: In these times of idiotic penny-wise pound-foolish cut-off-your-nose-to-spite-your-face decision-making designed to avoid the politically distasteful raising of taxes to pay for the state services that we all need and expect, Kaua`i County has managed to somehow avoid similar slash-and-burn cuts in services despite the 10% across-the-board departmental diminutions ordered by Mayor Bernard Carvalho.
But apparently there’s enough lack of forethought to go around as evidenced by yesterday’s county press release announcing “County to end subsidy of online payment user fees”.
It says:
Due to budget constraints, the County will soon stop subsidizing online payment user fees for county services.
Starting January 1, 2010 anyone opting to pay their sewer bill, real property taxes or motor vehicle registration fee online will also have to pay user fees as they do in all other Hawai`i counties.
“Unfortunately, in these difficult economic times we aren’t able to continue to subsidize this cost and feel it’s appropriate to bring our policies in line with the rest of the state,” said Finance Director Wallace Rezentes, Jr.
When someone makes an e-payment with an electronic check, the user fee will be $1 plus an additional $2.50 transaction fee.
Those paying with a credit card will be charged 2.2 percent of the transaction amount and an additional $2.50 per transaction.
Well, all things being equal and assuming it’s all true and has been well thought out, who can argue with that?
The problem is that the release goes on to say:
In addition to online payments, residents and businesses can also pay their sewer bills, real property taxes, and motor vehicle registration fees by mailing a check or going to the appropriate county office to pay. No user fees are charged for these forms of payment. For more information, please call 241-4269 or 241-4271.
So let’s get this straight. The presumably automatic computer-driven method of payment that needs little or no additional actual work by the county to process is now going to cost customers but they can either go down to the office and take up the time of a county worker to process the payment and forward it to the bank- or mail their payment in where an employee has to open the envelope and do the same- is going to be free while we’re going to be nickeled and dimed to use the easy. cost-free method.
Now we’re not ones to demand that government work more like a business. Government, by definition, is there to take on collective tasks for the common good- ones that business cannot accommodate. That’s why by it’s nature, government cannot really be run like a business.
But in this case we’re simply dealing with a time and energy saving, ubiquitous technology that virtually all money-transacting ventures can and do use in a most contrary manner.
Have you tried to buy an airplane ticket or order items from a business lately? Invariably you’ll find a fee for picking up a telephone and talking to an customer service rep who will instruct you that if you want to save on the processing fee instituted for taking up the employee’s time you can go on-line and complete the same transaction for free.
So what’s the deal? Who thought this one up? Is it because everyone else- i.e. the other counties- are doing it?
At the risk of sounding like mom we have to ask “if the other counties jumped off a bridge- or for that matter spent $12 million on it instead of $1 million as was mentioned in this space Wednesday- would you do the same?”
Another day another answer to the question of whether anyone here can play this game.
Friday, November 13, 2009
Thursday, November 12, 2009
HANGIN’ LOOSE
HANGIN’ LOOSE: We have the utmost respect for the journalistic skills of our friend Joan Conrow but today we’ve gotta take exception and question the source of her attack on another friend, Juan Wilson’s and his recent article on Larsen’s beach.
Quoting Wilson, Conrow wrote
I also chuckled just a little bit when I read the closing paragraph in Juan Wilson’s screed about the Larsen’s Beach access issue on his website, Island Breath:
“These attitudes and strategies are typical of property owners that see the land as a commodity with which to make money, and not the very source of our lives. It's time to take that attitude about "private property" behind the barn and put it down."
Funny, I distinctly remember interviewing Juan in the house he owns — and uses for his business — in Hanapepe. So how come Waioli Corp.’s private property is “the very source of our lives,” but his isn’t?
It’s really amazing how out of context the quote and comment are taken. Juan’s article specifically details the practices of Moloa`a area big landowners Bruce Laymon, Tom McCloskey and Peter Gruber who have sought to clear the area of those pesky citizens and deny them beach access, much of it with a thinly veiled hatred for perceived “hippies” and moreover naked people who frequent the isolated beaches in the area.
The beginning of Wilson’s sentence- his concluding though on the details of how the three and other large landowners abuse the power of that ownership- specially calls out “(t)hese attitudes and strategies” he detailed. Any reader cannot come away with the notion that Joan is condemning private property ownership in general- something that, as a matter of fact, we’ve been able to read into some of Joan’s postings on pre-western-contact Hawaiian culture without having to fill in too many blanks.
Could it be that there’s something behind Joan’s misdirectional quote? Well Conrow’s previous day’s post is certainly indicative (no pun intended) of something.
She wrote
Yesterday it was Larsen’s Beach, where I went to take some photographs and refresh my mind on the trails before writing another story about the access issue today.
The presence of nude sunbathers is a recurring complaint about that beach, and while I don’t mind if people swim or sun in the buff, there seems to be a fine line between naturism and exhibitionism. I’m thinking in particular of one old tourist, his face smeared with zinc oxide, who was dressed in an unbuttoned short-sleeved shirt, socks and shoes, but no pants.
Come on, buddy. Who are you trying to kid?
I guess what it comes down to is I don’t care if guys want to lie around with their dicks out, but it’s a different story when they seem intent on showing their members to me, which so often seems to be the case at clothing optional beaches.
Now we weren’t there but we can certainly remember times camping at Kalalau or Kaupea (aka Secret) Beach when it was a bit chilly or the sun was too much for our shoulders when we wore a shirt and no pants. And we can remember prudish individuals calling us out for it trying to intimidate us into kow-towing to their beliefs- religious or otherwise- despite our cultural penchant for going to a secluded place and not having to bend to the restrictive, straitlaced social norms of society.
Even more telling is Joan’s swallowing whole of the myth of the Na Pali pot growers- of which there are few or none these days- after talking to long time anti-camper, anti-nudity crusader, another friend, Sabra Kauka.
In the section just before her criticism of Wilson, Conrow wrote
It seems growers living in Kalalau and elsewhere along Na Pali Coast are responsible for a lot of the opala that piles up there, and according to some of the folks who malama that region, they also damage ancient rock walls when creating their plots and steal irrigation intended to nurture native plant seedlings.
When I interviewed Sabra Kauka of Na Pali Coast `Ohana the other day, she said the group had given up on Kalalau because the problems there were so overwhelming, and each time they returned, all their work had been undone. So now they focus on Nualolo Kai, which has a chance to recover because it can only be accessed by boat.
I find it ironic that so many of those who choose to live outside “the system” and are dismissive of its private property rights think nothing of exploiting and mistreating public lands for their own economic purposes.
The fact is that Kauka and her friends have had a fifteen-year history through the DLNR created and controlled Na Pali Ohana (as PNN detailed in a Parxist Conspiracy TV newsmagazine in the mid-90’s) of overstating the presence of any problem with the “outlaws” in Kalalau who, if anything, actually benefit the valley and cultural vestiges by trying to encourage tourists and newcomers to respect the valley, using the characterization of “opala that piles up there” to describe the DOCARE’s destruction of the camp sites of the outlaws.
While the perennial campers in Kalalau are certainly there “illegally”- not by law but by DLNR rule- the actions of the state and the Na Pali Ohana are an over the top reaction to those who live simply and in fact do respect the valley, trying to make sure others do the same- especially after many of them tried to join the “`Ohana” during it nescient days and obtain permission to join in the stewardship programs but were rejected, many still claim, due to their “different” culture... and some say skin color.
While we respect the true host culture we’ve got to ask if in this instance whether the sans-attire culture is truly an insult to the Hawaiian culture- something we might project is at least partially behind Joan’s apparent attitude? Or is it more likely offensive to those who have either internalized- or actually become part of- the well-known 200% christian culture in the islands due to early post-contact missionary influences?
We figured out early on in life that clothes are simply something that, barring inclement weather, you wear so the cops don’t arrest you when you go outside
Nude is not lewd unless others have been somehow indoctrinated to overreact to it.
Quoting Wilson, Conrow wrote
I also chuckled just a little bit when I read the closing paragraph in Juan Wilson’s screed about the Larsen’s Beach access issue on his website, Island Breath:
“These attitudes and strategies are typical of property owners that see the land as a commodity with which to make money, and not the very source of our lives. It's time to take that attitude about "private property" behind the barn and put it down."
Funny, I distinctly remember interviewing Juan in the house he owns — and uses for his business — in Hanapepe. So how come Waioli Corp.’s private property is “the very source of our lives,” but his isn’t?
It’s really amazing how out of context the quote and comment are taken. Juan’s article specifically details the practices of Moloa`a area big landowners Bruce Laymon, Tom McCloskey and Peter Gruber who have sought to clear the area of those pesky citizens and deny them beach access, much of it with a thinly veiled hatred for perceived “hippies” and moreover naked people who frequent the isolated beaches in the area.
The beginning of Wilson’s sentence- his concluding though on the details of how the three and other large landowners abuse the power of that ownership- specially calls out “(t)hese attitudes and strategies” he detailed. Any reader cannot come away with the notion that Joan is condemning private property ownership in general- something that, as a matter of fact, we’ve been able to read into some of Joan’s postings on pre-western-contact Hawaiian culture without having to fill in too many blanks.
Could it be that there’s something behind Joan’s misdirectional quote? Well Conrow’s previous day’s post is certainly indicative (no pun intended) of something.
She wrote
Yesterday it was Larsen’s Beach, where I went to take some photographs and refresh my mind on the trails before writing another story about the access issue today.
The presence of nude sunbathers is a recurring complaint about that beach, and while I don’t mind if people swim or sun in the buff, there seems to be a fine line between naturism and exhibitionism. I’m thinking in particular of one old tourist, his face smeared with zinc oxide, who was dressed in an unbuttoned short-sleeved shirt, socks and shoes, but no pants.
Come on, buddy. Who are you trying to kid?
I guess what it comes down to is I don’t care if guys want to lie around with their dicks out, but it’s a different story when they seem intent on showing their members to me, which so often seems to be the case at clothing optional beaches.
Now we weren’t there but we can certainly remember times camping at Kalalau or Kaupea (aka Secret) Beach when it was a bit chilly or the sun was too much for our shoulders when we wore a shirt and no pants. And we can remember prudish individuals calling us out for it trying to intimidate us into kow-towing to their beliefs- religious or otherwise- despite our cultural penchant for going to a secluded place and not having to bend to the restrictive, straitlaced social norms of society.
Even more telling is Joan’s swallowing whole of the myth of the Na Pali pot growers- of which there are few or none these days- after talking to long time anti-camper, anti-nudity crusader, another friend, Sabra Kauka.
In the section just before her criticism of Wilson, Conrow wrote
It seems growers living in Kalalau and elsewhere along Na Pali Coast are responsible for a lot of the opala that piles up there, and according to some of the folks who malama that region, they also damage ancient rock walls when creating their plots and steal irrigation intended to nurture native plant seedlings.
When I interviewed Sabra Kauka of Na Pali Coast `Ohana the other day, she said the group had given up on Kalalau because the problems there were so overwhelming, and each time they returned, all their work had been undone. So now they focus on Nualolo Kai, which has a chance to recover because it can only be accessed by boat.
I find it ironic that so many of those who choose to live outside “the system” and are dismissive of its private property rights think nothing of exploiting and mistreating public lands for their own economic purposes.
The fact is that Kauka and her friends have had a fifteen-year history through the DLNR created and controlled Na Pali Ohana (as PNN detailed in a Parxist Conspiracy TV newsmagazine in the mid-90’s) of overstating the presence of any problem with the “outlaws” in Kalalau who, if anything, actually benefit the valley and cultural vestiges by trying to encourage tourists and newcomers to respect the valley, using the characterization of “opala that piles up there” to describe the DOCARE’s destruction of the camp sites of the outlaws.
While the perennial campers in Kalalau are certainly there “illegally”- not by law but by DLNR rule- the actions of the state and the Na Pali Ohana are an over the top reaction to those who live simply and in fact do respect the valley, trying to make sure others do the same- especially after many of them tried to join the “`Ohana” during it nescient days and obtain permission to join in the stewardship programs but were rejected, many still claim, due to their “different” culture... and some say skin color.
While we respect the true host culture we’ve got to ask if in this instance whether the sans-attire culture is truly an insult to the Hawaiian culture- something we might project is at least partially behind Joan’s apparent attitude? Or is it more likely offensive to those who have either internalized- or actually become part of- the well-known 200% christian culture in the islands due to early post-contact missionary influences?
We figured out early on in life that clothes are simply something that, barring inclement weather, you wear so the cops don’t arrest you when you go outside
Nude is not lewd unless others have been somehow indoctrinated to overreact to it.
Wednesday, November 11, 2009
PAVLOV’S PRIDE:
PAVLOV’S PRIDE: Our post on Monday regarding the infuriating way Councilperson Jay Furfaro protects the Minotaur’s labyrinth though the use of pompous paternalism and obfuscation- preferring to see it as stewardship- drew a few emails affirming that the observation is not ours alone with one lamenting the fact that, instead of listening he gets huffy and acts “hurt” when people have the temerity to point this out to him.
Another contained an illustrative story from “nitpicker” Glenn Mickens that stood out and, with his permission, we are highlighting it here today.
For me, Jay is probably the most knowledgeable person on the council BUT as you said his "pompous, paternalistic, know it all persona" AND his sway with the political wind attitude keeps him from being a fine people's representative.
When the Olohena Bridge was being debated in the chambers---the contractor needed a money bill for $500 thousand to go ahead with the project--at 4:30AM a few years ago Jay voted to give them the money bill!!! Jay was the one to bring up the fact that the Acrow people could build the same bridge for well under $1 million whereas Unlimited got $4.8 million for building it. I picked up on this issue and got together with the Acrow people and confirmed that they could and would build this bridge for the well under $1 million dollar price. PLUS Acrow could put the bridge in place in one to two days whereas Unlimited took 3 months to build theirs and had traffic detoured for miles while construction was being done!!!
When Jay told me that he "had" to vote for the money bill I told him it would shoot down any chance for Acrow to build it but he just walked away. Obviously the political wind (or other ulterior motive???) influenced his decision and this was just another example of Jays make up. And, at vote time on that morning it was a 3 to 3 vote for the money bill and the "great" Jo Ann voted to give them the money bill and the deal was done. Even the Mayor was there till 4:30 (making sure that his buddies got what they wanted) and I lived in his back pocket telling him he was doing the wrong thing.
Maybe you remember this whole incident, Andy, but I had the entire Wailua Homesteads neighborhood fighting against this Unlimited bridge---a small bridge over a "ditch" (so designated on the map) that cost the tax payers $4.8 million dollars and not under $1 million that Acrow would have built it for.
And, Andy, the Kilauea bridge was built for a cost of over $12 million whereas I personally asked the Acrow people (when they were on Island) for an estimate and they said for under a million dollars!!!! Talk about rip offs. And remember that these Acrow bridges are built around the world and we have 4 of them on Kauai (Federal, State and County approved) plus the bridge across the Wailua River will be Acrow so you tell me what is going on???
---------
And to give true meaning to Veteran’s Day we present one veteran’s thoughts... all you have to do is just substitute Afghanistan for Viet Nam and Taliban for Viet Cong to show nothing ever changes...
And for all you FISHionados we’ve also found bit of old Bizerkley:
Another contained an illustrative story from “nitpicker” Glenn Mickens that stood out and, with his permission, we are highlighting it here today.
For me, Jay is probably the most knowledgeable person on the council BUT as you said his "pompous, paternalistic, know it all persona" AND his sway with the political wind attitude keeps him from being a fine people's representative.
When the Olohena Bridge was being debated in the chambers---the contractor needed a money bill for $500 thousand to go ahead with the project--at 4:30AM a few years ago Jay voted to give them the money bill!!! Jay was the one to bring up the fact that the Acrow people could build the same bridge for well under $1 million whereas Unlimited got $4.8 million for building it. I picked up on this issue and got together with the Acrow people and confirmed that they could and would build this bridge for the well under $1 million dollar price. PLUS Acrow could put the bridge in place in one to two days whereas Unlimited took 3 months to build theirs and had traffic detoured for miles while construction was being done!!!
When Jay told me that he "had" to vote for the money bill I told him it would shoot down any chance for Acrow to build it but he just walked away. Obviously the political wind (or other ulterior motive???) influenced his decision and this was just another example of Jays make up. And, at vote time on that morning it was a 3 to 3 vote for the money bill and the "great" Jo Ann voted to give them the money bill and the deal was done. Even the Mayor was there till 4:30 (making sure that his buddies got what they wanted) and I lived in his back pocket telling him he was doing the wrong thing.
Maybe you remember this whole incident, Andy, but I had the entire Wailua Homesteads neighborhood fighting against this Unlimited bridge---a small bridge over a "ditch" (so designated on the map) that cost the tax payers $4.8 million dollars and not under $1 million that Acrow would have built it for.
And, Andy, the Kilauea bridge was built for a cost of over $12 million whereas I personally asked the Acrow people (when they were on Island) for an estimate and they said for under a million dollars!!!! Talk about rip offs. And remember that these Acrow bridges are built around the world and we have 4 of them on Kauai (Federal, State and County approved) plus the bridge across the Wailua River will be Acrow so you tell me what is going on???
---------
And to give true meaning to Veteran’s Day we present one veteran’s thoughts... all you have to do is just substitute Afghanistan for Viet Nam and Taliban for Viet Cong to show nothing ever changes...
And for all you FISHionados we’ve also found bit of old Bizerkley:
Tuesday, November 10, 2009
IN SEARCH OF A PACK
IN SEARCH OF A PACK: Yesterday’s brief mention of Councilperson Jay Furfaro’s vague 2010 political aspirations for higher office- as reported by Joan Conrow in last week’s “Kauai People”- are nonetheless clearer then those of once and current blogger, former Councilperson Mel Rapozo.
Knowing that he has to do something to get his political fortunes ball rolling after an embarrassingly poor showing in the 2006 special mayoral election where he failed to make the run-off round, he has latched onto the issue of the Furlough Fridays with a redux of a probably apocryphal quote commonly attributed to French politician Alexandre Auguste Ledru-Rollin.
Supposedly, upon seeing a crowd surge past him in Paris during the French Revolution, he is said to have shrieked, “There go my people. I must find out where they are going so I can lead them” .... much as Rapozo said, though with less brevity, in his blog post yesterday:
As our legislators sit back and watch the future of out keiki get compromised, we need to move to action. We need to initiate change ourselves. I am looking for people that will walk the walk, not talk the talk. I'm looking for people that are willing to MAKE CHANGE, not just talk about it. I am looking for THOUSANDS of concerned citizens to come together to DEMAND change from our legislators. If this issue does motivate people to get involved, nothing will. It is so sad to see that more people gave a damn about the Superferry than for our keiki. This is not right. People, let's PUT UP OR SHUT UP. If you are interested in joining this movement, let me know. More importantly, you need to pass this on. My email is melrapozo@gmail.com and I want to make sure that the future of our kids is the PRIORITY! People, let's PUT UP OR SHUT UP. If you are interested in joining this movement, let me know.
GOD HELP OUR CHILDREN!!
Now this wouldn’t be a shallow, transparently self-serving appeal to find new supporters and expand his e-mailing list for a run at either the soon to be vacant state senate seat or the vulnerable seat of State Representative Jimmy Tokioka whose anti-civil rights and pro-Superferry actions among others have pissed of a couple of precinct-loads of progressive East Kaua`i voters would it?
Nah- we’re not that cynical. However we do remember Mel first run for political office when he started showing up to the famous “Developers Gone Wild”, grading and grubbing hearings before the county council and promised to focus like a laser on an investigation of the Department of Public Works- the self same DPW that just cost the county an as yet unknown percentage of the reported $25 million Ka Loko Dam tragedy settlement- for complicity in other prior grading and grubbing cover-ups allegedly under the tutelage of former Mayor Maryanne Kusaka.
Needless to say demands for that investigation were dropped by Rapozo soon after taking office purportedly due to opposition by other councilmembers but coincidentally after the rest of his colleagues went to bat for him in his efforts to keep from the public eye whatever he said during the infamous ES-177... which will forever remain sealed after a recent Hawai`i Supreme Court Decision
Apparently Rapozo- whose new blog now has advertising for such diverse enterprises as the Playboy Store and the 2010 campaign of Republican Kay Bailey Huchison for Governor of Texas- has gone back to his old playbook and come up with a populist issue ripe for demagoguery for the 2010 campaign- one which can accommodate seething rabid rhetoric that can ultimately be swept under the rug once elected because “political realities” have come into play.
Now we would never cast aspersions as to Rapozo’s intellectual integrity. Well, alright we certainly would but here, as a matter of fact and in all seriousness, we actually believe he’s most likely as pissed as anyone at the disingenuousness and vapidity of the Lingle administration and the lack of political will and acumen in the legislature.
But you got to admit it’s funny how, with exactly one year to go until the election Rapozo is seeking to rush to the gates of the Bastille- aka the steps of the capitol- to find his people so he can lead them.
Knowing that he has to do something to get his political fortunes ball rolling after an embarrassingly poor showing in the 2006 special mayoral election where he failed to make the run-off round, he has latched onto the issue of the Furlough Fridays with a redux of a probably apocryphal quote commonly attributed to French politician Alexandre Auguste Ledru-Rollin.
Supposedly, upon seeing a crowd surge past him in Paris during the French Revolution, he is said to have shrieked, “There go my people. I must find out where they are going so I can lead them” .... much as Rapozo said, though with less brevity, in his blog post yesterday:
As our legislators sit back and watch the future of out keiki get compromised, we need to move to action. We need to initiate change ourselves. I am looking for people that will walk the walk, not talk the talk. I'm looking for people that are willing to MAKE CHANGE, not just talk about it. I am looking for THOUSANDS of concerned citizens to come together to DEMAND change from our legislators. If this issue does motivate people to get involved, nothing will. It is so sad to see that more people gave a damn about the Superferry than for our keiki. This is not right. People, let's PUT UP OR SHUT UP. If you are interested in joining this movement, let me know. More importantly, you need to pass this on. My email is melrapozo@gmail.com and I want to make sure that the future of our kids is the PRIORITY! People, let's PUT UP OR SHUT UP. If you are interested in joining this movement, let me know.
GOD HELP OUR CHILDREN!!
Now this wouldn’t be a shallow, transparently self-serving appeal to find new supporters and expand his e-mailing list for a run at either the soon to be vacant state senate seat or the vulnerable seat of State Representative Jimmy Tokioka whose anti-civil rights and pro-Superferry actions among others have pissed of a couple of precinct-loads of progressive East Kaua`i voters would it?
Nah- we’re not that cynical. However we do remember Mel first run for political office when he started showing up to the famous “Developers Gone Wild”, grading and grubbing hearings before the county council and promised to focus like a laser on an investigation of the Department of Public Works- the self same DPW that just cost the county an as yet unknown percentage of the reported $25 million Ka Loko Dam tragedy settlement- for complicity in other prior grading and grubbing cover-ups allegedly under the tutelage of former Mayor Maryanne Kusaka.
Needless to say demands for that investigation were dropped by Rapozo soon after taking office purportedly due to opposition by other councilmembers but coincidentally after the rest of his colleagues went to bat for him in his efforts to keep from the public eye whatever he said during the infamous ES-177... which will forever remain sealed after a recent Hawai`i Supreme Court Decision
Apparently Rapozo- whose new blog now has advertising for such diverse enterprises as the Playboy Store and the 2010 campaign of Republican Kay Bailey Huchison for Governor of Texas- has gone back to his old playbook and come up with a populist issue ripe for demagoguery for the 2010 campaign- one which can accommodate seething rabid rhetoric that can ultimately be swept under the rug once elected because “political realities” have come into play.
Now we would never cast aspersions as to Rapozo’s intellectual integrity. Well, alright we certainly would but here, as a matter of fact and in all seriousness, we actually believe he’s most likely as pissed as anyone at the disingenuousness and vapidity of the Lingle administration and the lack of political will and acumen in the legislature.
But you got to admit it’s funny how, with exactly one year to go until the election Rapozo is seeking to rush to the gates of the Bastille- aka the steps of the capitol- to find his people so he can lead them.
Monday, November 9, 2009
BIG DOG ASPIRATIONS
BIG DOG ASPIRATIONS: In this week’s “Kaua`i People”- the mid-week advertising newspaper that pops up in your mailbox every Wednesday- our friend Joan Conrow’s profile of Councilperson Jay Furfaro begins by saying “Jay Furfaro is a man with many roles, but steward is the one he considers most important”.
But many who know and have dealt with Furfaro or watched his machinations at televised council meetings, see that quality which Furfaro calls “stewardship” expressed in it’s basest form through a kind of pompous, paternalistic, know-it-all persona noted for his penchant for essentially telling questioning members of the public “I’ve looked into it and it’s all ok so don’t worry your pretty little head about it”.
Now it came as no surprise that, at last Wednesday’s council meeting, the council approved without comment the write-off of a $6,044.98 delinquent “tipping fee” debt- one on which we reported on that same day exposing the blunder that led to the need to forgo the “bad debt”
We didn’t expect the council to use the television cameras to explain that, after eight years of lapsed payment plans, the debt was now uncollectible due to a legal screw-up by former Deputy County Attorney Jim Tagupa who, after the county sued and the judge ordered the amount be paid or the debtor’s property be attached, inexplicably filed a “Satisfaction of Judgment” despite the fact that the money was never paid.
(To follow up, current County Attorney Al Castillo still has not returned our Wednesday phone call asking for an explanation and/or comment.)
But what occurred during a recess after the matter had been swept under the rug was exactly what we’d expect from Furfaro, whom Conrow’s article intimates is considering a run for the to-be-vacant state senate seat in 2010.
Seems the “nitpickers”- the group of council regulars who now wear as a badge the name they got from former Mayor Maryanne Kusaka for criticizing the inflated purchase price of Kaua`i Electric by the current co-op- was discussing the write-off wondering what the deal was and why we were taking the loss.
That’s when the self appointed nitpickers were overheard by Furfaro, the self appointed all-purpose explainer. Unsolicited, he sauntered up to them and, according to nitpickers Glenn Mickens and Rob Abrew told them that it was simply “an accounting problem” and that the council was actually insuring that the matter “can now go to collection”
Abrew said “he told us this is the way the accountants do it- this way we can write it off our books and it can go to collection”.
Mickens independently corroborated Abrew’s account- without having heard it or discussed it with him or us- saying in an email saying that Furfaro “said it is simply some type of accounting problem and that when the issue goes in the proper table it means that the account is still collectible”.
We admit to being a bit sneaky here in publishing the real story during the council meeting rather than before or after as an experiment to see whether the council- who was presumably just as informed as we were since the information came from the council’s packet of background documents they receive with the agenda six days before each meeting- would be honest and level with the people on their own, without media prodding.
And as we said we fully expected that no one would say a word in session when the matter was silently approved. But Furfaro’s seems so fixated on his “stewardship” role- even to the point of either making stuff up or talking about it without doing his homework- that he can’t resist an opportunity to either cover for administration incompetence even it means “open mouth-insert foot”.
And he wants to be our state senator- or if not move up to council chair when Kaipo Asing retires next year as he has publicly stated he will.
It makes us once again quote Manager Casey Stengle of the still-a-record 120-game-losing 1962 NY Mets who asked “can’t anyone here play this game?”.
But many who know and have dealt with Furfaro or watched his machinations at televised council meetings, see that quality which Furfaro calls “stewardship” expressed in it’s basest form through a kind of pompous, paternalistic, know-it-all persona noted for his penchant for essentially telling questioning members of the public “I’ve looked into it and it’s all ok so don’t worry your pretty little head about it”.
Now it came as no surprise that, at last Wednesday’s council meeting, the council approved without comment the write-off of a $6,044.98 delinquent “tipping fee” debt- one on which we reported on that same day exposing the blunder that led to the need to forgo the “bad debt”
We didn’t expect the council to use the television cameras to explain that, after eight years of lapsed payment plans, the debt was now uncollectible due to a legal screw-up by former Deputy County Attorney Jim Tagupa who, after the county sued and the judge ordered the amount be paid or the debtor’s property be attached, inexplicably filed a “Satisfaction of Judgment” despite the fact that the money was never paid.
(To follow up, current County Attorney Al Castillo still has not returned our Wednesday phone call asking for an explanation and/or comment.)
But what occurred during a recess after the matter had been swept under the rug was exactly what we’d expect from Furfaro, whom Conrow’s article intimates is considering a run for the to-be-vacant state senate seat in 2010.
Seems the “nitpickers”- the group of council regulars who now wear as a badge the name they got from former Mayor Maryanne Kusaka for criticizing the inflated purchase price of Kaua`i Electric by the current co-op- was discussing the write-off wondering what the deal was and why we were taking the loss.
That’s when the self appointed nitpickers were overheard by Furfaro, the self appointed all-purpose explainer. Unsolicited, he sauntered up to them and, according to nitpickers Glenn Mickens and Rob Abrew told them that it was simply “an accounting problem” and that the council was actually insuring that the matter “can now go to collection”
Abrew said “he told us this is the way the accountants do it- this way we can write it off our books and it can go to collection”.
Mickens independently corroborated Abrew’s account- without having heard it or discussed it with him or us- saying in an email saying that Furfaro “said it is simply some type of accounting problem and that when the issue goes in the proper table it means that the account is still collectible”.
We admit to being a bit sneaky here in publishing the real story during the council meeting rather than before or after as an experiment to see whether the council- who was presumably just as informed as we were since the information came from the council’s packet of background documents they receive with the agenda six days before each meeting- would be honest and level with the people on their own, without media prodding.
And as we said we fully expected that no one would say a word in session when the matter was silently approved. But Furfaro’s seems so fixated on his “stewardship” role- even to the point of either making stuff up or talking about it without doing his homework- that he can’t resist an opportunity to either cover for administration incompetence even it means “open mouth-insert foot”.
And he wants to be our state senator- or if not move up to council chair when Kaipo Asing retires next year as he has publicly stated he will.
It makes us once again quote Manager Casey Stengle of the still-a-record 120-game-losing 1962 NY Mets who asked “can’t anyone here play this game?”.
Wednesday, November 4, 2009
(PNN) FORMER CA TAGUPA’S “BLUNDER” TO COST COUNTY OVER 6K:
FORMER CA TAGUPA’S “BLUNDER” TO COST COUNTY OVER 6K:
(PNN) It’s the perennial question regarding governmental SNAFUs, especially on Kaua`i, one taken advantage of by many a county worker- was it malfeasance, malpractice or simply incompetence?
Case in point an item on today’s council agenda:
C 2009-344 Communication (10/01/2009) from the County Engineer, requesting Council approval to write-off delinquent tipping fees in the amount of $6,044.98 for Eric Taniguchi dba Eric Taniguchi Trucking & Equipment ("Taniguchi") (Account #55445-432027), pursuant to Kaua`i County Code Section 21-9.4, relating to uncollectible delinquent tipping fee accounts (Department of Public Works Solid Waste
Division).
Matters like these seem to pop up on the agenda now and then, mostly for sewer fees that are uncollectible due to things like bankruptcies or simply the fact that it would cost more to sue the delinquent individual than they owe.
But a tipping fee- the money that commercial businesses pay per ton to dump their load in the county landfill? That’s a new one on us.
A look at the paperwork behind the request though shows a story of either the worst bungling incompetence in a long time or an effort by one individual- then Deputy County Attorney James Tagupa- to help Taniguchi get away without paying the $6,044.98 he owes the county.
According to a letter to the council from County Engineer Donald M. Fujimoto with the concurrence of Director of Finance Wallace G Rezentes Jr., it all goes back to May of 2001 when Taniguchi was issued a delinquency letter for $34,704.49 in tipping fees. After a June follow-up letter, in August Taniguchi’s tipping privileges were revoked after the county attorney’s (CA) office unsuccessfully attempted collection.
In September Taniguchi and the county reached a “payment plan” and the suit was dropped but apparently by January 2004 Taniguchi had fallen into delinquency and another plan was formulated to make him pay off $15,986.64 over the next 12 months.
Strangely enough considering the non-payment and default over the previous three plus years, Tagupa recommended that “no collateral be collected, given Taniguchi’s previous record of payment”.
Or non-payment as the case may be.
By November Taniguchi was in default again and was sent a letter by the Solid Waste Division that remained unclaimed and was returned. The County Engineer then asked the CA to file suit against Taniguchi for $3,681.52 and in March 2005 District Court entered a judgment for the county which was recorded with the Bureau of Conveyances against Taniguchi’s assets.
That’s when all the extremely specific facts in the letter turn vague.
For some reason “(a) satisfaction of judgment was filed by Tagupa with the District Court in July 2008 and subsequently with the Bureau (of Conveyances) in August of that year. The filings do not indicate why Tagupa filed the Satisfaction of Judgment” since apparently the judgment was never satisfied, although the letter fails to say this in so many words.
There is also no explanation of the discrepancy between the $3,681.52 that was apparently awarded in court and the $6,044.98 that the council is being asked to write off.
As the letter’s penultimate paragraph says “(a)s a satisfaction of judgment was filed, we are unable to pursue this debt further. Upon recommendation of the county attorney we request the said amount be written off.”
Tagupa no longer works for he county attorney’s office and County Attorney Al Castillo did not return a late morning phone call by press time requesting further information on why Tagupa filed the satisfaction of judgment or whether he was fired for the action.
Others in the CA’s office were apparently terminated when Castillo took over last spring including Margaret Hanson Sueoka who has filed a discrimination action with the federal Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) as PNN reported last April.
Many of those hired by Castillo were attorneys that had been apparently fired by new Prosecuting Attorney Shaylene Iseri-Carvalho who was elected last November after serving two terms on the county council.
(PNN) It’s the perennial question regarding governmental SNAFUs, especially on Kaua`i, one taken advantage of by many a county worker- was it malfeasance, malpractice or simply incompetence?
Case in point an item on today’s council agenda:
C 2009-344 Communication (10/01/2009) from the County Engineer, requesting Council approval to write-off delinquent tipping fees in the amount of $6,044.98 for Eric Taniguchi dba Eric Taniguchi Trucking & Equipment ("Taniguchi") (Account #55445-432027), pursuant to Kaua`i County Code Section 21-9.4, relating to uncollectible delinquent tipping fee accounts (Department of Public Works Solid Waste
Division).
Matters like these seem to pop up on the agenda now and then, mostly for sewer fees that are uncollectible due to things like bankruptcies or simply the fact that it would cost more to sue the delinquent individual than they owe.
But a tipping fee- the money that commercial businesses pay per ton to dump their load in the county landfill? That’s a new one on us.
A look at the paperwork behind the request though shows a story of either the worst bungling incompetence in a long time or an effort by one individual- then Deputy County Attorney James Tagupa- to help Taniguchi get away without paying the $6,044.98 he owes the county.
According to a letter to the council from County Engineer Donald M. Fujimoto with the concurrence of Director of Finance Wallace G Rezentes Jr., it all goes back to May of 2001 when Taniguchi was issued a delinquency letter for $34,704.49 in tipping fees. After a June follow-up letter, in August Taniguchi’s tipping privileges were revoked after the county attorney’s (CA) office unsuccessfully attempted collection.
In September Taniguchi and the county reached a “payment plan” and the suit was dropped but apparently by January 2004 Taniguchi had fallen into delinquency and another plan was formulated to make him pay off $15,986.64 over the next 12 months.
Strangely enough considering the non-payment and default over the previous three plus years, Tagupa recommended that “no collateral be collected, given Taniguchi’s previous record of payment”.
Or non-payment as the case may be.
By November Taniguchi was in default again and was sent a letter by the Solid Waste Division that remained unclaimed and was returned. The County Engineer then asked the CA to file suit against Taniguchi for $3,681.52 and in March 2005 District Court entered a judgment for the county which was recorded with the Bureau of Conveyances against Taniguchi’s assets.
That’s when all the extremely specific facts in the letter turn vague.
For some reason “(a) satisfaction of judgment was filed by Tagupa with the District Court in July 2008 and subsequently with the Bureau (of Conveyances) in August of that year. The filings do not indicate why Tagupa filed the Satisfaction of Judgment” since apparently the judgment was never satisfied, although the letter fails to say this in so many words.
There is also no explanation of the discrepancy between the $3,681.52 that was apparently awarded in court and the $6,044.98 that the council is being asked to write off.
As the letter’s penultimate paragraph says “(a)s a satisfaction of judgment was filed, we are unable to pursue this debt further. Upon recommendation of the county attorney we request the said amount be written off.”
Tagupa no longer works for he county attorney’s office and County Attorney Al Castillo did not return a late morning phone call by press time requesting further information on why Tagupa filed the satisfaction of judgment or whether he was fired for the action.
Others in the CA’s office were apparently terminated when Castillo took over last spring including Margaret Hanson Sueoka who has filed a discrimination action with the federal Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) as PNN reported last April.
Many of those hired by Castillo were attorneys that had been apparently fired by new Prosecuting Attorney Shaylene Iseri-Carvalho who was elected last November after serving two terms on the county council.
Monday, November 2, 2009
PUPPY LOVE
PUPPY LOVE: You can’t pick up a newspaper, watch the local TV news- or what passes for “Hawai`i News, Now”- or for that matter hold a conversation these days without someone bemoaning how our keiki are suffering by “missing out” on 17 instructional school days.
Everyone that is but the kids themselves. Oh sure the media has managed to scrounge-up a handful of Goody-Two-Shoes, “I’m gonna teeeeeell” types and stick cameras in their faces so they can parrot what their parents told them to say about “sacrificing our future” because a petty vindictive governor and a pompous and lazy legislature fiddle while education burns.
But move outside the ear-shot of the grown-up and ask any red-blooded kid- especially those who are bored to tears at this year’s “long division again” curriculum- and you’ll hear nothing but “Hip Hip Hooray for “Furlough Fridays”
They’re ecstatic about the fact that the so-called adults are so busy fighting over political considerations that they can’t come up with a lousy $60-85 million to keep the schools open despite the half-a-billion federal stimulus dollars that were supposed to be spent specially for education but instead went for everything but.
$60-85 million?... hmmmm- why does that number sound familiar?
Oh yeah- that’s the same range of the estimate of how much the self-same governor and legislature blew trying to pull a super-fast-one and ram the super-fast-tracked super-fast-Superferry down our gagging throats.
When you include not just the base $40 million bucks for the unneeded, now-useless harbor improvements but stuff like keeping the half-assed barge loading system running, the millions in legal fees and state-worker time and expenses as well as dozens of other costly incidentals, it comes out to... let’s see, divide by the arrogance, carry the corruption, multiply by the “legal bribe” corporate campaign contributions.... oh, around $60-85m.
So kiddies, the least you could do with all your free time is get busy writing to your military-madness-mindset-muddled senator, your Stepford Wife governor and your bought and paid for state legislative leadership and thank them for the gift of “Superferry Fridays”.
With any luck these dolts will figure out a way to fritter away another $60-85 million and make all weekends the three-day variety.
Everyone that is but the kids themselves. Oh sure the media has managed to scrounge-up a handful of Goody-Two-Shoes, “I’m gonna teeeeeell” types and stick cameras in their faces so they can parrot what their parents told them to say about “sacrificing our future” because a petty vindictive governor and a pompous and lazy legislature fiddle while education burns.
But move outside the ear-shot of the grown-up and ask any red-blooded kid- especially those who are bored to tears at this year’s “long division again” curriculum- and you’ll hear nothing but “Hip Hip Hooray for “Furlough Fridays”
They’re ecstatic about the fact that the so-called adults are so busy fighting over political considerations that they can’t come up with a lousy $60-85 million to keep the schools open despite the half-a-billion federal stimulus dollars that were supposed to be spent specially for education but instead went for everything but.
$60-85 million?... hmmmm- why does that number sound familiar?
Oh yeah- that’s the same range of the estimate of how much the self-same governor and legislature blew trying to pull a super-fast-one and ram the super-fast-tracked super-fast-Superferry down our gagging throats.
When you include not just the base $40 million bucks for the unneeded, now-useless harbor improvements but stuff like keeping the half-assed barge loading system running, the millions in legal fees and state-worker time and expenses as well as dozens of other costly incidentals, it comes out to... let’s see, divide by the arrogance, carry the corruption, multiply by the “legal bribe” corporate campaign contributions.... oh, around $60-85m.
So kiddies, the least you could do with all your free time is get busy writing to your military-madness-mindset-muddled senator, your Stepford Wife governor and your bought and paid for state legislative leadership and thank them for the gift of “Superferry Fridays”.
With any luck these dolts will figure out a way to fritter away another $60-85 million and make all weekends the three-day variety.
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