NOTHING TO SEE HERE: One thing that rampant county cronyism creates is a bunch of well-connected board and commission members whose qualifications are often as dubious as their conscientiousness.
When Charter Commission Chair Sherman Shiraishi showed up at last Wednesday's Council Committee of the Whole meeting to request the council's input on a "proposal to establish a permanent Charter Review Commission," it was the council that seemed befuddled as to why the commission is sitting for 10 years in the first place.
Seems that when the 2007-8 commission was empaneled for the then-usual "once every 10 years" assemblage there were so many proposals for changes to the charter that they had to limit the number that made it to the ballot to 15 from as many as 50 at one point, just so as not to overwhelm voters.
And that was without even touching the whole "county manager" mess or the apparent need for a slew of housekeeping changes.
As the session began a letter from Mayor Bernard Carvalho to the commission and council was produced raising the question as to why, if the commission was good to go until 2018, it was necessary to make it permanent now.
Well that was enough for Shiraishi to take his cue and all of a sudden, after months of charter commission meetings and weeks of council deferrals until Shiraishi could come to address the council, he instantly decided he agreed with the mayor after all.
Nope- no cronyism here... just good old independent thought.
But since Shiraishi and Board and Commissions Director John Isobe were there anyway the councilmembers decided to air some gripes about the charter and past amendments- whether they had any idea what they were talking about or not.
First up was Councilperson JoAnn Yukimura who has a special black place in her heart for the ease with which citizen's can petition for a charter amendment- a 5% of registered voters threshold. That came about after she initiated and led the court fight- where the county sued the county- against the "Proposition 13" style property tax amendment that passed overwhelmingly in the early 2000's, only to be overturned by the Hawai`i Supreme Court in a confused ruling that no one really understood.
She and others maintain that a county's charter is "like the federal or state constitutions" in that it should be hard to change since it is a guiding document. But the difference is that while the federal and state constitutions grant rights to citizens and delineate powers, local charters merely take the powers left over and delineate the structure of the legislative and executive branches and list the various departments, board and commissions and the like, describing their functions- nuts and bolts measures that occasionally need revision due to changes in the needs of the community.
But that's a philosophical matter that can be argued either way. What wasn't was Yukimura's bemoaning of the fact that the people of Kaua`i "still need education" after they rejected changes to the infamous anti-cronyism section 20.02(D) of the charter which prohibits members of boards and commissions from "(a)ppear(ing) in behalf of private interests before any county board, commission or agency."
It's a simple measure that stops perceptions of conflicts of interest before they start so that the "one hand washes the other" style of governance can be nipped in the bud.
It seems the charter commission has recently lost three of its members because they routinely represented clients before the council and planning commission and even though there are only a handful of such good old boys and girls on the island they have populated boards and commissions in droves. The county tried to ignore the provision for years even appointing conflicted individuals to the Ethics Board to rule for allowing the practice.
But when they finally tried to change the charter the voters rejected it and the Ethics Board was left with no other choice to finally issue an opinion enforcing the charter.
Of course there were nods of agreement around the council table as well as from Shiraishi and Isobe that indeed it is the voters who "don't get it."
Despite the need for things like reform of the county attorney section (we're the only island without a "corporation counsel") and a the transformation of the Department of Personnel Services into a modern Department Human Resources (another example of changing times leading to the need for changes to the charter) as well as a slew of needed housekeeping changes (like removing all the references to "he") councilmembers insist on the commission asking voters the same questions over and over (like four year council terms) even when they've been answered again and again... resoundingly.
Once again the trophy for the most dunderheaded performance of the day had to go to- who else- Chair Jay Furfaro.
Recently the council discovered that the Cost Control Commission (CCC) was taking the powers the charter gave them seriously, such as requiring the administration to submit bills to the council to carry out their recommendations within 30 days of their request. But despite the charter requirement, the administration had simply ignored three such requests in 2009.
That apparently got Furfaro looking through CCC documents where he noticed that they were discussing possible changes to the real property tax laws- something that Furfaro rarely fails to tell the public, whether it's on the agenda or not, that he is working on reforming.
Like a lion building up from a growl to a roar, Furfaro essentially asked what the heck the CCC was doing butting into the council's kuleana finally reading Section 3.10 from the charter:
Annual Budget and Capital Program. The council shall enact an annual budget ordinance, which shall include both the operational and capital expenditures for the fiscal year and the method of financing same. The council shall provide sufficient revenues to assure a balanced budget (emphasis his).
The council is in charge of property taxes, he bellowed, not the cost control commission.
Apparently Furfaro failed to read the charter's Section 28, regarding the CCC. Isobe, left with no choice but to defend the CCC- and so himself as the person in charge- then read 28.04 aloud:
The commission shall review personnel costs, real property taxes (emphasis added), travel budgets, contract procedures; review with the aim of eliminating programs and services available or more efficiently supplied by other governments or organizations; eliminate or consolidate overlapping or duplicate programs and services; scrutinize for reduction any county operation.
Furfaro hemmed and hawed and with a Ralph Kramden "hahmana-hamamana" quickly changed the subject but we were laughing too hard to hear what he said next.
What wasn't surprising at all was how quickly Shiraishi changed from the need for a perpetual charter commission to saying that there was barely any work to do as soon as the mayor told him what to think- and how fast the council agreed.
Because after all what's the good of being able to nominate and confirm a select set of yes men and women to board and commissions if they start to tell you no?
Showing posts sorted by relevance for query cronyism. Sort by date Show all posts
Showing posts sorted by relevance for query cronyism. Sort by date Show all posts
Monday, July 18, 2011
Tuesday, January 5, 2010
UNFAIR TO MIDDLING
UNFAIR TO MIDDLING: We’d been wondering when we’d hear from Rolf Bieber himself telling the long sad story of his public service on the Board of Ethics (BOE) and his abominable treatment by just about everyone in the county administration for trying to do the job he was sworn to do- an unforgivable act on Kaua`i.
Bieber’s letter to the editor in today’s local newspaper cites his saga, chapter and verse, naming names of everyone involved from Mayor Bernard Carvalho to County Attorney Al Castillo, the rest of the BOE members, the members of the county council and assorted king’s-uniform-bedecked bureaucrats and sycophants, all carrying the kings sword.
Bieber writes that his taking of the
oath to preserve the Charter soon aligned me against BOE colleagues, mayoral appointees, the Office of Boards and Commissions (OBC), the County Attorney (CA) and apparently Mayor Carvalho himself, who inexplicably refused to reappoint me to the board for a second term.
But, although the unrivaled plodding cronyism of a politically-tone-deaf Carvalho has set the tone for this administration’s corruption as never before, it could not have been accomplished without Office Boards and Commissions (OBC) administrator John Isobe.
Bieber writes that
Mr. Isobe would on several other occasions try inappropriately to influence me — once, when I requested public documents that could expose members of the administration and commissions he asked that I not share the documents with anyone, and later calling me to meet in his office “to see how things were going” but to actually express his desire for the BOE to reach a “super-majority or unanimous-vote only for release of County Attorney opinions to the public.”
The irony in all this is that it was in fact the same good governance activists that Bieber thanks for their support at the end of the letter who were among those who helped create Isobe’s job.
When the “original” Charter Commission- the one appointed in 2004 under the “every 10 years” provision in the charter- proposed a slew of amendments for the ’06 election, one that all agreed would go a long way toward repairing the apparently broken board and commission system on Kaua`i was the creation of the OBC.
The problems the commission found were due to the lack of guidance from the administration as most newly appointed B&C members were just thrown into their position with no idea what they were doing there.
The thought was that an office of B&Cs would provide the necessary support with training and a one-stop central place for commissioners and board members to go with questions as to how to do their jobs correctly and ethically.
But, as we all find out sooner or later, you can write good legislation and charter provisions until you’re blue in the face but if corrupt-minded individuals dedicated to obedience and cronyism are elected and those elected appoint more of the same to administrative posts there’s little that will work the way it’s supposed to.
Rather than facilitating the B&C members in their quest to uphold their oath Isobe has intervened to make sure they serve the political goals of the mayor.
We can tinker with- or even fully rewrite- the Kaua`i County Charter. But if we continue to elect self-aggrandizing boobs like Carvalho with a “give the new guy a chance” and “how bad could he be” attitude we will, as Bieber says, keep finding out what we knew already... “together we can’t”
One more note- Bieber writes:
In April of 2009, Castillo told me he had meetings with Kauai Circuit Court Judge Randal Valenciano on several occasions concerning 20.02 (D)
Huh? But April of 2009 the controversy over 20.02(D) had been well underway for years with dueling “interpretations” making the matter ripe for an eventual 5th Circuit Court lawsuit.
We certainly deserve an explanation from both Castillo and Valenciano on this apparent breach of ethics.
Bieber’s letter to the editor in today’s local newspaper cites his saga, chapter and verse, naming names of everyone involved from Mayor Bernard Carvalho to County Attorney Al Castillo, the rest of the BOE members, the members of the county council and assorted king’s-uniform-bedecked bureaucrats and sycophants, all carrying the kings sword.
Bieber writes that his taking of the
oath to preserve the Charter soon aligned me against BOE colleagues, mayoral appointees, the Office of Boards and Commissions (OBC), the County Attorney (CA) and apparently Mayor Carvalho himself, who inexplicably refused to reappoint me to the board for a second term.
But, although the unrivaled plodding cronyism of a politically-tone-deaf Carvalho has set the tone for this administration’s corruption as never before, it could not have been accomplished without Office Boards and Commissions (OBC) administrator John Isobe.
Bieber writes that
Mr. Isobe would on several other occasions try inappropriately to influence me — once, when I requested public documents that could expose members of the administration and commissions he asked that I not share the documents with anyone, and later calling me to meet in his office “to see how things were going” but to actually express his desire for the BOE to reach a “super-majority or unanimous-vote only for release of County Attorney opinions to the public.”
The irony in all this is that it was in fact the same good governance activists that Bieber thanks for their support at the end of the letter who were among those who helped create Isobe’s job.
When the “original” Charter Commission- the one appointed in 2004 under the “every 10 years” provision in the charter- proposed a slew of amendments for the ’06 election, one that all agreed would go a long way toward repairing the apparently broken board and commission system on Kaua`i was the creation of the OBC.
The problems the commission found were due to the lack of guidance from the administration as most newly appointed B&C members were just thrown into their position with no idea what they were doing there.
The thought was that an office of B&Cs would provide the necessary support with training and a one-stop central place for commissioners and board members to go with questions as to how to do their jobs correctly and ethically.
But, as we all find out sooner or later, you can write good legislation and charter provisions until you’re blue in the face but if corrupt-minded individuals dedicated to obedience and cronyism are elected and those elected appoint more of the same to administrative posts there’s little that will work the way it’s supposed to.
Rather than facilitating the B&C members in their quest to uphold their oath Isobe has intervened to make sure they serve the political goals of the mayor.
We can tinker with- or even fully rewrite- the Kaua`i County Charter. But if we continue to elect self-aggrandizing boobs like Carvalho with a “give the new guy a chance” and “how bad could he be” attitude we will, as Bieber says, keep finding out what we knew already... “together we can’t”
One more note- Bieber writes:
In April of 2009, Castillo told me he had meetings with Kauai Circuit Court Judge Randal Valenciano on several occasions concerning 20.02 (D)
Huh? But April of 2009 the controversy over 20.02(D) had been well underway for years with dueling “interpretations” making the matter ripe for an eventual 5th Circuit Court lawsuit.
We certainly deserve an explanation from both Castillo and Valenciano on this apparent breach of ethics.
Monday, September 15, 2008
DIGGIN’ IN THE CESSPOOL
DIGGIN’ IN THE CESSPOOL: A few light bulbs went on when the inner machinations of the nepotism and cronyism in Kaua`i county government were revealed as never before at last week’s council meeting after a little known recent ploy by the council came to fruition.
Trying to find out exactly how and why the county hires people has been a mystifying process for as long as the Kaua`i has had a government, especially in the mammoth Department of Public Works and more so in its Solid Waste Division.... that and why they always seem to be incompetent
Threatened council audits and investigations have been aborted attempts at accountability for 10 years although most suspected what exposition of the scheme would reveal..
But during this year’s budget discussions the council finally included in the ordinance a requirement that, when the administration changes a council-funded position to another job, they must at least notify the council.
And the first such transfer was contained in a brief communication (2008-256) requesting a “reallocation” of the position of a “Solid Waste Program Assistant (SWPA)” to a position for a “Senior Account Clerk”.
Solid Waste’s Personnel Director Crystal Fujikawa, flanked by Personnel Director Mel Fernandez, sat before the council and was asked to explain why they were asking for a change a mere three months after they requested the SWPA in the budget that the council approved..
Fujikawa explained that since the SWPA had left the job- although she amazingly couldn’t remember when- this change was a “downward reallocation” to an “entry level” position, raising some eyebrows and objections, especially from the Council Vice Chair, mayoral candidate Mel Rapozo and his ally Shaylene Iseri Carvalho.
“We just budgeted that position” said Iseri. And knowing how badly the Solid Waste Division have been in need of expertise she wondered aloud why personnel didn’t recruit for and fill the position instead of hiring just a clerk.
What Fujikawa said next reveled the true nature of cronyism in Kaua`i government and showed exactly how powerful the mayor is in terms of patronage even though legally he or she only gets to hire department heads.
According to Fujikawa when a county position opens up the first thing they do is to try to see if there is a current county employee with the required expertise who wants to fill it. Nothing wrong with that, as all councilmembers agreed.
But then, if there is no county employee with the specific qualifications who wants the job, instead of trying to recruit someone qualified to fill the position from those on the island or, if not, elsewhere- one who might be able to, as Rapozo said, “hit the ground running”- the county simply eliminates the skilled position and downgrades it to fit the qualifications of the employee they want to promote or hire.
And, if necessary they’ll even make it an entry level job to accommodate someone’s auntie or uncle... or campaign supporter.
And while this type of decision is at the discretion of the department head it’s the mayor who gives- or can instantly take away- the department heads their job.
According to Fujikawa it usually takes at least a year or two to “train” the new person, assuming they have the ability to learn the new job in the first pace.
In the case of the SWPA the job requires at least a year of solid waste experience. Give how important such a position is- especially with the solid waste crisis in the county being such that it caused the approval of another reluctant expansion of the Kekaha landfill at the same meeting- the council funded it in a budget line item.
And if not for the new notification law, as in past years the council and the public would never have known about the plans to hire a clerk instead.
Rapozo was livid. “So we don’t even try to find out if there’s someone on the island that’s qualified to take the job?” he asked. “That makes no sense.”
“They do this so they can pick someone they want that doesn’t have the requirements.” he concluded.
Iseri was equally aghast at the revelation as she wondered aloud if the system is such that, someone applies, they are told they’re not qualified and then they lower the standard for the position so someone else can get the job even though they’re not qualified and can't actually do the job.
“It’s a very unfair process for the pubic that does want county jobs” said Iseri.
Council Chair Jay Furfaro was equally if not more outraged because it happened to someone in his family who applied for a skilled planning position was and told she was unqualified. Now, with the same qualifications, she works in that same area of expertise on Maui.
But this is certainly nothing new for anyone who has been paying attention over the years.
Glenn Mickens came up to the hot seat Wednesday to tell the story of Troy Tanigawa, current head of our Solid Waste Division. Back in the adolescent years of our solid waste crisis in the mid 90’s he was the young relative of a big supporter of then Mayor Maryanne Kusaka.
When Kusaka took over from former mayor, now councilperson and mayoral candidate JoAnn Yukimura, one of her first moves was to fire Yukimura’s solid waste people who had put together a solid waste management plan and were just ready to implement it after having to take two years off from implementation due to Hurricane `Iniki.
Kusaka had convinced the council to move from “line item” budgeting to a “program based” budget allowing her to shift around finds within departments willy-nilly. And one shift was to put the young, unskilled, untrained Tanigawa in charge of the Solid Waste Division where he remains today.
Famed Kaua`i activist Ray Chuan used to refer to Tanigawa as one of Kusaka’s “chosen people- the untouchables” as he railed against Troy’s appointment and bumbling incompetence at council meetings for years.
Finally Kusaka agreed, not that she would fill the position with someone competent but, that she would “send Troy back to school” and teach him how to do the job... while he remained in the position..
And of course she never did this but Tanigawa has remained in the position for the last 14 years throughout the Baptiste administration too. And so of course we are now not just ankle or waist deep in rubbish but up to our eyeballs, all under Tanigawa.
We can only hope for someone who will clean out the barn when the new mayor takes over in November. Many assume that will be the case under Rapozo or Yukimura. But if you like things the way they are Bernard Carvalho can be counted on to keep the same people under the same patronage system to stay in office for 10 years and hiring in his own cronies as is the tradition.
Of course if the proposal for a “county manager” system gets some wings over the next two years as letter-to-the-editor writer Larry Arruda says in today’s local paper, that may not be the case.
We’ll leave you with his words.
Even as much as 15 to 20 years ago, many times while visiting here at home on Kaua`i, I would mention to my parents or to friends that I would like to come home and work for the county. Their response to me was always the same, “You gotta know somebody to get in.”
However, I’m sure that all of the council realize that anything and everything that was said will not change anything.
After watching Kaua`i Council meetings for almost six years, it is very obvious to me that the County Council very seldom has any power and any say so over the administration and/or staff. There is no continuity, and because of that, there is no accountability.
After working for a very organized city in California for 30 years, I can guarantee that this would not happen if the County of Kauai’s was governed under a county manager type of government.
Trying to find out exactly how and why the county hires people has been a mystifying process for as long as the Kaua`i has had a government, especially in the mammoth Department of Public Works and more so in its Solid Waste Division.... that and why they always seem to be incompetent
Threatened council audits and investigations have been aborted attempts at accountability for 10 years although most suspected what exposition of the scheme would reveal..
But during this year’s budget discussions the council finally included in the ordinance a requirement that, when the administration changes a council-funded position to another job, they must at least notify the council.
And the first such transfer was contained in a brief communication (2008-256) requesting a “reallocation” of the position of a “Solid Waste Program Assistant (SWPA)” to a position for a “Senior Account Clerk”.
Solid Waste’s Personnel Director Crystal Fujikawa, flanked by Personnel Director Mel Fernandez, sat before the council and was asked to explain why they were asking for a change a mere three months after they requested the SWPA in the budget that the council approved..
Fujikawa explained that since the SWPA had left the job- although she amazingly couldn’t remember when- this change was a “downward reallocation” to an “entry level” position, raising some eyebrows and objections, especially from the Council Vice Chair, mayoral candidate Mel Rapozo and his ally Shaylene Iseri Carvalho.
“We just budgeted that position” said Iseri. And knowing how badly the Solid Waste Division have been in need of expertise she wondered aloud why personnel didn’t recruit for and fill the position instead of hiring just a clerk.
What Fujikawa said next reveled the true nature of cronyism in Kaua`i government and showed exactly how powerful the mayor is in terms of patronage even though legally he or she only gets to hire department heads.
According to Fujikawa when a county position opens up the first thing they do is to try to see if there is a current county employee with the required expertise who wants to fill it. Nothing wrong with that, as all councilmembers agreed.
But then, if there is no county employee with the specific qualifications who wants the job, instead of trying to recruit someone qualified to fill the position from those on the island or, if not, elsewhere- one who might be able to, as Rapozo said, “hit the ground running”- the county simply eliminates the skilled position and downgrades it to fit the qualifications of the employee they want to promote or hire.
And, if necessary they’ll even make it an entry level job to accommodate someone’s auntie or uncle... or campaign supporter.
And while this type of decision is at the discretion of the department head it’s the mayor who gives- or can instantly take away- the department heads their job.
According to Fujikawa it usually takes at least a year or two to “train” the new person, assuming they have the ability to learn the new job in the first pace.
In the case of the SWPA the job requires at least a year of solid waste experience. Give how important such a position is- especially with the solid waste crisis in the county being such that it caused the approval of another reluctant expansion of the Kekaha landfill at the same meeting- the council funded it in a budget line item.
And if not for the new notification law, as in past years the council and the public would never have known about the plans to hire a clerk instead.
Rapozo was livid. “So we don’t even try to find out if there’s someone on the island that’s qualified to take the job?” he asked. “That makes no sense.”
“They do this so they can pick someone they want that doesn’t have the requirements.” he concluded.
Iseri was equally aghast at the revelation as she wondered aloud if the system is such that, someone applies, they are told they’re not qualified and then they lower the standard for the position so someone else can get the job even though they’re not qualified and can't actually do the job.
“It’s a very unfair process for the pubic that does want county jobs” said Iseri.
Council Chair Jay Furfaro was equally if not more outraged because it happened to someone in his family who applied for a skilled planning position was and told she was unqualified. Now, with the same qualifications, she works in that same area of expertise on Maui.
But this is certainly nothing new for anyone who has been paying attention over the years.
Glenn Mickens came up to the hot seat Wednesday to tell the story of Troy Tanigawa, current head of our Solid Waste Division. Back in the adolescent years of our solid waste crisis in the mid 90’s he was the young relative of a big supporter of then Mayor Maryanne Kusaka.
When Kusaka took over from former mayor, now councilperson and mayoral candidate JoAnn Yukimura, one of her first moves was to fire Yukimura’s solid waste people who had put together a solid waste management plan and were just ready to implement it after having to take two years off from implementation due to Hurricane `Iniki.
Kusaka had convinced the council to move from “line item” budgeting to a “program based” budget allowing her to shift around finds within departments willy-nilly. And one shift was to put the young, unskilled, untrained Tanigawa in charge of the Solid Waste Division where he remains today.
Famed Kaua`i activist Ray Chuan used to refer to Tanigawa as one of Kusaka’s “chosen people- the untouchables” as he railed against Troy’s appointment and bumbling incompetence at council meetings for years.
Finally Kusaka agreed, not that she would fill the position with someone competent but, that she would “send Troy back to school” and teach him how to do the job... while he remained in the position..
And of course she never did this but Tanigawa has remained in the position for the last 14 years throughout the Baptiste administration too. And so of course we are now not just ankle or waist deep in rubbish but up to our eyeballs, all under Tanigawa.
We can only hope for someone who will clean out the barn when the new mayor takes over in November. Many assume that will be the case under Rapozo or Yukimura. But if you like things the way they are Bernard Carvalho can be counted on to keep the same people under the same patronage system to stay in office for 10 years and hiring in his own cronies as is the tradition.
Of course if the proposal for a “county manager” system gets some wings over the next two years as letter-to-the-editor writer Larry Arruda says in today’s local paper, that may not be the case.
We’ll leave you with his words.
Even as much as 15 to 20 years ago, many times while visiting here at home on Kaua`i, I would mention to my parents or to friends that I would like to come home and work for the county. Their response to me was always the same, “You gotta know somebody to get in.”
However, I’m sure that all of the council realize that anything and everything that was said will not change anything.
After watching Kaua`i Council meetings for almost six years, it is very obvious to me that the County Council very seldom has any power and any say so over the administration and/or staff. There is no continuity, and because of that, there is no accountability.
After working for a very organized city in California for 30 years, I can guarantee that this would not happen if the County of Kauai’s was governed under a county manager type of government.
Wednesday, September 21, 2011
UP CLOSE AND PERSONNEL
UP CLOSE AND PERSONNEL: If we didn't know better- and since we don't, we do- we'd think that the Kaua`i County Council was avoiding the real issues surrounding the long-delayed move to chuck our Personnel Services Department and institute a Human Resources Department.
An article in today's local newspaper stumbled and bungled around the subject but as our readers know it's not really a simple matter of restructuring.
As we mentioned briefly in July, when the new "consent calendar" system of further obscuring council business hit the floor new Councilmember Kipukai Kaua`i` nearly threw a conniption fit over the appearance of the routine quarterly report from Personnel Director Malcolm Fernandez on the calendar. Although we're not quite sure of why, we certainly hope Kuali`i has an inkling of the past problems with the way jobs are doled out on Kaua`i and the FBI's involvement in late 2008 and early 2009.
In a nutshell, as we described in a September 2008 article, Councilmember Mel Rapozo and then member Shaylene Iseri Carvalho started getting suspicious of why the mayor's cronies seemed to be showing up in civil service positions at an alarming rate.
It all became clear when, as we described at the time,
(D)uring this year’s budget discussions the council finally included in the ordinance a requirement that, when the administration changes a council-funded position to another job, they must at least notify the council.
And the first such transfer was contained in a brief communication (2008-256) requesting a “reallocation” of the position of a “Solid Waste Program Assistant (SWPA)” to a position for a “Senior Account Clerk”.
Solid Waste’s Personnel Director Crystal Fujikawa, flanked by Personnel Director Mel Fernandez, sat before the council and was asked to explain why they were asking for a change a mere three months after they requested the SWPA in the budget that the council approved.
Fujikawa explained that since the SWPA had left the job- although she amazingly couldn’t remember when- this change was a “downward reallocation” to an “entry level” position, raising some eyebrows and objections, especially from the Council Vice Chair, mayoral candidate Mel Rapozo and his ally Shaylene Iseri Carvalho.
“We just budgeted that position” said Iseri. And knowing how badly the Solid Waste Division has been in need of expertise, she wondered aloud why personnel didn’t recruit for and fill the position instead of hiring just a clerk.
What Fujikawa said next revealed the true nature of cronyism in Kaua`i government and showed exactly how powerful the mayor is in terms of patronage even though legally he or she only gets to hire department heads.
According to Fujikawa, when a county position opens up the first thing they do is to try to see if there is a current county employee with the required expertise who wants to fill it. Nothing wrong with that, as all councilmembers agreed.
But then, if there is no county employee with the specific qualifications who wants the job, instead of trying to recruit someone qualified to fill the position from those on the island or, if not, elsewhere- one who might be able to, as Rapozo said, “hit the ground running”- the county simply eliminates the skilled position and downgrades it to fit the qualifications of the employee they want to promote or hire.
And, if necessary they’ll even make it an entry level job to accommodate someone’s auntie or uncle... or campaign supporter.
Well it turned out Rapozo and Iseri weren't the only ones interested in the traditional cronyism and patronage on Kaua`i and, as we exclusively reported that December, the FBI had taken up the cause, according to Iseri who revealed in open council session that they had interviewed dozens of Kaua`i officials and employees on the matter.
Around the same time we reported anecdotally an event that made it clear that then new Mayor Bernard Carvalho was preparing to continue the patronage. We showed up to a county office in mid December and asked "Where's Lou?" (not his real name) who had always handled our business.
The woman sitting there at Lou's desk matter-of-factly explained that Lou had retired and she was being forced to do double duty because, she stated, "with the election and all Bernard hasn't decided who's going to get the job."
Well Rapozo lost the election and had to sit out the 2008-2010 council but now that he's back apparently he's learned to be good little boy, seemingly abandoning what appeared to be a quest to clean up the personnel system, leaving it to Kuali`i- who probably hasn't a clue as to what happened in '08- to try to dig through the paperwork until a light bulb goes on for him.
Just changing the title from Personnel to Human Resources seems to fit the MO of Kaua`i charter changes just as the title of administrative assistant was changed during the last election, with no corresponding change in function.
The deck chairs on the Titanic seem destined for repositioning once again. And as long as we keep electing captains who use the "ship of state" as their own little fiefdom, we can change the charter all we want to no avail.
Anyone got any donuts to wager to our dollars that Fernandez will be the head of the new Human Resources Department? We didn't think so.
An article in today's local newspaper stumbled and bungled around the subject but as our readers know it's not really a simple matter of restructuring.
As we mentioned briefly in July, when the new "consent calendar" system of further obscuring council business hit the floor new Councilmember Kipukai Kaua`i` nearly threw a conniption fit over the appearance of the routine quarterly report from Personnel Director Malcolm Fernandez on the calendar. Although we're not quite sure of why, we certainly hope Kuali`i has an inkling of the past problems with the way jobs are doled out on Kaua`i and the FBI's involvement in late 2008 and early 2009.
In a nutshell, as we described in a September 2008 article, Councilmember Mel Rapozo and then member Shaylene Iseri Carvalho started getting suspicious of why the mayor's cronies seemed to be showing up in civil service positions at an alarming rate.
It all became clear when, as we described at the time,
(D)uring this year’s budget discussions the council finally included in the ordinance a requirement that, when the administration changes a council-funded position to another job, they must at least notify the council.
And the first such transfer was contained in a brief communication (2008-256) requesting a “reallocation” of the position of a “Solid Waste Program Assistant (SWPA)” to a position for a “Senior Account Clerk”.
Solid Waste’s Personnel Director Crystal Fujikawa, flanked by Personnel Director Mel Fernandez, sat before the council and was asked to explain why they were asking for a change a mere three months after they requested the SWPA in the budget that the council approved.
Fujikawa explained that since the SWPA had left the job- although she amazingly couldn’t remember when- this change was a “downward reallocation” to an “entry level” position, raising some eyebrows and objections, especially from the Council Vice Chair, mayoral candidate Mel Rapozo and his ally Shaylene Iseri Carvalho.
“We just budgeted that position” said Iseri. And knowing how badly the Solid Waste Division has been in need of expertise, she wondered aloud why personnel didn’t recruit for and fill the position instead of hiring just a clerk.
What Fujikawa said next revealed the true nature of cronyism in Kaua`i government and showed exactly how powerful the mayor is in terms of patronage even though legally he or she only gets to hire department heads.
According to Fujikawa, when a county position opens up the first thing they do is to try to see if there is a current county employee with the required expertise who wants to fill it. Nothing wrong with that, as all councilmembers agreed.
But then, if there is no county employee with the specific qualifications who wants the job, instead of trying to recruit someone qualified to fill the position from those on the island or, if not, elsewhere- one who might be able to, as Rapozo said, “hit the ground running”- the county simply eliminates the skilled position and downgrades it to fit the qualifications of the employee they want to promote or hire.
And, if necessary they’ll even make it an entry level job to accommodate someone’s auntie or uncle... or campaign supporter.
Well it turned out Rapozo and Iseri weren't the only ones interested in the traditional cronyism and patronage on Kaua`i and, as we exclusively reported that December, the FBI had taken up the cause, according to Iseri who revealed in open council session that they had interviewed dozens of Kaua`i officials and employees on the matter.
Around the same time we reported anecdotally an event that made it clear that then new Mayor Bernard Carvalho was preparing to continue the patronage. We showed up to a county office in mid December and asked "Where's Lou?" (not his real name) who had always handled our business.
The woman sitting there at Lou's desk matter-of-factly explained that Lou had retired and she was being forced to do double duty because, she stated, "with the election and all Bernard hasn't decided who's going to get the job."
Well Rapozo lost the election and had to sit out the 2008-2010 council but now that he's back apparently he's learned to be good little boy, seemingly abandoning what appeared to be a quest to clean up the personnel system, leaving it to Kuali`i- who probably hasn't a clue as to what happened in '08- to try to dig through the paperwork until a light bulb goes on for him.
Just changing the title from Personnel to Human Resources seems to fit the MO of Kaua`i charter changes just as the title of administrative assistant was changed during the last election, with no corresponding change in function.
The deck chairs on the Titanic seem destined for repositioning once again. And as long as we keep electing captains who use the "ship of state" as their own little fiefdom, we can change the charter all we want to no avail.
Anyone got any donuts to wager to our dollars that Fernandez will be the head of the new Human Resources Department? We didn't think so.
Monday, April 9, 2012
GIMME THAT OLD TIME CORRUPTION
GIMME THAT OLD TIME CORRUPTION: Over the years many of the political old-timers have bemoaned the lack of "colorful" characters in Kaua`i officialdom these days.
"Where's the next Tony Baptiste or "Smokey" Louie Gonzalves? What about another Billy Fernandez?" they ask.
In all rhetorical honesty we've gotta suggest that there will never be another Tony, Louie or Billy.
In the day, self-enrichment and self-aggrandizement went hand-in-hand, and people expected it from those they elected. Corruption and abuse of power aside, what they say is missing these days is the pure bombast--the chest-thumping, booming oratory along with the routine mangling of language that went way beyond simply the use of pidgin in its curious misuse, mispronunciation and, well, general misappropriation of what used to be called "10 dollah words."
And though many have demonstrated elements of the old-time grandiloquent clap-trap and kleptomaniacal cronyism, none have embraced the whole package. Until recently.
Former Council member and current Prosecuting Attorney Shaylene Iseri-Carvalho has at least approached the old standard, and her escapades have been well chronicled in this space. Undisputed queen of the Malaprop, she also has the inability to speak more than a couple of hundred words without throwing in a "looooodicrous" or two, which accompanies a personal-vendetta style of governance right out of a "B" gangster movie.
But this week's chapter of her blood feud with Council member Tim Bynum may have reached the hallowed heights of yesteryear when her "Rice-Cooker-Gate" case against Bynum was ripped from her office-abusing hands as Fifth Circuit Court Judge Kathleen Watanabe got fed up with Shaylene and her First Deputy Jake Deleplane and threw the case to the state attorney general for disposition.
Readers might have gotten a small sense of Iseri's misbehavior if they read the oft-confusing and momentously-lacking-in-detail account in the local newspaper.
Apparently reporter Tom LaVenture was in a parallel courtroom to the one where journalist-reporter Joan Conrow observed the action, as Conrow actually quoted Watanabe, Deleplane and Bynum's attorney Dan Hempey in quickly and clearly getting to the point:
Lucas Burns testified he was working as a deputy prosecutor when Jake asked him to contact Liberty Yokotake, who had been assaulted by another woman while living at Tim's house. He said Jake coached him to use the assault case as a guise for asking questions about the layout of Tim's house and the location of various appliances, which could be evidence of a zoning violation. And all the while, Lucas would be surreptitiously tape recording the conversation.
The plot was foiled when Lucas refused to play along. "I thought it was inappropriate to secretly tape record and try to come up with reasons why these questions were being asked when it was really to investigate Mr. Bynum," he told the court. "I thought doing this with a hidden tape recorder and without the full knowledge of the victim was inappropriate and not something the first deputy should be doing."
What followed was a description of Deleplane's bafflingly incriminating courtroom antics and defense of Iseri and her office followed by Watanabe's excoriation of the two.
We won't try to summarize it all because it has to be read to grasp the full sleaziness of Iseri and Deleplane's apparently lawless activity, the gist of which has also seemingly been forwarded to the attorney general's office.
Those who have followed the case already know how Iseri apparently lied in trying to say that the whole case was initiated by the planning department. In fact, documents show that she was the one behind the apparently illegal searches and trumped-up charges against Bynum as revenge for Bynum's challenges to the paternalistic authority of her ally, former Council Chair Kaipo Asing (who not so oddly was in court for the hearing) during the time when she, Bynum and Asing were on the council together.
Those who have followed the story as told here (look for background by clicking the links above), in Conrow's KauaiEclectic blog, and, to a lesser and more confusing degree, in the local newspaper, have been appalled to this point by the inelegant abuse of power Iseri has exhibited during her reign as Prosecuting Attorney.
Some will be satisfied in knowing that current Deputy County Attorney Justin Kollar is running against her this November.
But if she is allowed to simply do as Smokey Louis and Uncle Billy (Tony Baptiste actually went to jail while he was mayor where he ran the county from his cell) and freely walk away, we'll only be inviting future Iseri's into office.
We urge the state attorney general not just to drop the non-case against Bynum, but to start an investigation of Iseri, if necessary kicking it up to the FBI, which has reportedly been looking into corruption and abuse of office on Kaua`i going back to the Bryan Baptiste administration.
We enjoy the entertainment factor as much the the next guy. But as much as we've enjoyed the laughs, when it comes to Iseri, our sense of humor is wearing thin.
"Where's the next Tony Baptiste or "Smokey" Louie Gonzalves? What about another Billy Fernandez?" they ask.
In all rhetorical honesty we've gotta suggest that there will never be another Tony, Louie or Billy.
In the day, self-enrichment and self-aggrandizement went hand-in-hand, and people expected it from those they elected. Corruption and abuse of power aside, what they say is missing these days is the pure bombast--the chest-thumping, booming oratory along with the routine mangling of language that went way beyond simply the use of pidgin in its curious misuse, mispronunciation and, well, general misappropriation of what used to be called "10 dollah words."
And though many have demonstrated elements of the old-time grandiloquent clap-trap and kleptomaniacal cronyism, none have embraced the whole package. Until recently.
Former Council member and current Prosecuting Attorney Shaylene Iseri-Carvalho has at least approached the old standard, and her escapades have been well chronicled in this space. Undisputed queen of the Malaprop, she also has the inability to speak more than a couple of hundred words without throwing in a "looooodicrous" or two, which accompanies a personal-vendetta style of governance right out of a "B" gangster movie.
But this week's chapter of her blood feud with Council member Tim Bynum may have reached the hallowed heights of yesteryear when her "Rice-Cooker-Gate" case against Bynum was ripped from her office-abusing hands as Fifth Circuit Court Judge Kathleen Watanabe got fed up with Shaylene and her First Deputy Jake Deleplane and threw the case to the state attorney general for disposition.
Readers might have gotten a small sense of Iseri's misbehavior if they read the oft-confusing and momentously-lacking-in-detail account in the local newspaper.
Apparently reporter Tom LaVenture was in a parallel courtroom to the one where journalist-reporter Joan Conrow observed the action, as Conrow actually quoted Watanabe, Deleplane and Bynum's attorney Dan Hempey in quickly and clearly getting to the point:
Lucas Burns testified he was working as a deputy prosecutor when Jake asked him to contact Liberty Yokotake, who had been assaulted by another woman while living at Tim's house. He said Jake coached him to use the assault case as a guise for asking questions about the layout of Tim's house and the location of various appliances, which could be evidence of a zoning violation. And all the while, Lucas would be surreptitiously tape recording the conversation.
The plot was foiled when Lucas refused to play along. "I thought it was inappropriate to secretly tape record and try to come up with reasons why these questions were being asked when it was really to investigate Mr. Bynum," he told the court. "I thought doing this with a hidden tape recorder and without the full knowledge of the victim was inappropriate and not something the first deputy should be doing."
What followed was a description of Deleplane's bafflingly incriminating courtroom antics and defense of Iseri and her office followed by Watanabe's excoriation of the two.
We won't try to summarize it all because it has to be read to grasp the full sleaziness of Iseri and Deleplane's apparently lawless activity, the gist of which has also seemingly been forwarded to the attorney general's office.
Those who have followed the case already know how Iseri apparently lied in trying to say that the whole case was initiated by the planning department. In fact, documents show that she was the one behind the apparently illegal searches and trumped-up charges against Bynum as revenge for Bynum's challenges to the paternalistic authority of her ally, former Council Chair Kaipo Asing (who not so oddly was in court for the hearing) during the time when she, Bynum and Asing were on the council together.
Those who have followed the story as told here (look for background by clicking the links above), in Conrow's KauaiEclectic blog, and, to a lesser and more confusing degree, in the local newspaper, have been appalled to this point by the inelegant abuse of power Iseri has exhibited during her reign as Prosecuting Attorney.
Some will be satisfied in knowing that current Deputy County Attorney Justin Kollar is running against her this November.
But if she is allowed to simply do as Smokey Louis and Uncle Billy (Tony Baptiste actually went to jail while he was mayor where he ran the county from his cell) and freely walk away, we'll only be inviting future Iseri's into office.
We urge the state attorney general not just to drop the non-case against Bynum, but to start an investigation of Iseri, if necessary kicking it up to the FBI, which has reportedly been looking into corruption and abuse of office on Kaua`i going back to the Bryan Baptiste administration.
We enjoy the entertainment factor as much the the next guy. But as much as we've enjoyed the laughs, when it comes to Iseri, our sense of humor is wearing thin.
Saturday, June 21, 2008
MARKING THEIR TERRITORY
MARKING THEIR TERRITORY: Even from a sick bed Mayor Bryan Baptiste never forgets that his prime directive is to grease the skids of cronyism and maintain and bolster Grove Farm’s positioning within County government.
The utter lack of any ethics on the Kaua`i Ethics Board has been a well- mined cesspool for months ever since Grove Farm honcho Mark Hubbard and other clueless Board members decided that no one has to follow the ethics laws anymore because it would make it hard for Hubbard and others on the Board to personally violate the clear laws that forbid them from representing their company before the County while serving on a board or commission.
Chair Hubbard’s Board actually cleared Attorney Jonathan Chun of double-dealing, influence-peddling, conflict-of-interest type charges after Chun successfully lobbied for months before the Council for the Board of Realtors while Chairing the Charter Commission.
Now at Hubbard’s request the quid pro quo is working it’s magic as the Charter Commission is considering chucking the ethics laws in the ocean if Chun can slip it by first the Commissions and then the unsuspecting voters this November.
For those who might have missed it we’ve covered one two three four five times in the past six months the shameless ways Board members have refused with impunity to enforce the laws because the only remedy to the Ethics Board members’ own ethics violations is, quite conveniently, to go before the Ethics Board. We’ve highlighted the take by the local newspaper’s last columnist standing Walter Lewis, and government watchdog extraordinaire Horace Stoessel through essays published printed here and in the paper.
And we covered the revolving door and pick a pack of pickled posers hierarchy of the corrupt corporate revolving door.
Now this week we get news that Baptiste has submitted the name of a potential new member of the Ethics Board which is up which is for Council approval. And guess what? It’s just happens to be the wife of a former Finance Department Director who took a ride half-way through the County’s revolving door to become a Grove Farm Vice President a while back.
Toward the end of the agenda for next Wednesday’s Council meeting is this little tidbit.
Resolution No. 2008-29, RESOLUTION CONFIRMING MAYORAL APPOINTMENT TO THE BOARD OF ETHICS (Christiane Nakea-Tresler-First Term)
For those who may not recognize the name she is the wife of former Finance Director Mike Tressler who turned five years of government work into essentially a lobbying job as Grove Farm’s VP in charge of development.
Tressler- the “other” football star in Baptiste’s hui of half-wits and hubris- was a key sycophant in some of the shady book cooking that led to charges of overspending at KPD and was the one who conveniently used a provision allowing him as Finance Director, to nullify contracts, to cancel the employment contract of former Police Chief KC Lum while he was under fire from all sides for not being Darryl Perry.
And he did it despite the fact that the law specifically excludes personnel contracts from his purview. Tressler was also a key supporter and campaign worker on Baptiste’s first run for Mayor.
Did we expect anything else from Baptiste?. Certainly not. Nor do we expect anyone to show up to object when the Council approves her without a peep? Yeah, right.
Even if they hold an interview it won’t be televised because they have to leave more grip and grin time to give all those awards and certificates to every sewing circle, book review and timing association and embarrass every kid on every team that ever came in higher than eight place in a nine team league and cablecast it all with full captioning... all the while putting the kibosh on TV for prospective commissioners and board members and budget hearing every year... a problem that was not apparently remedied in this year’s budget despite promises to the contrary.
After having all their solicitors and supplicants cleared of ethics violations the Council and Mayor know who butters their bread and if they can stack the Ethics Board with those who won’t find their abominable ethics unacceptable they’ve got a get out of jail free card to play plantation monopoly and make sure they’re allowed to slip Grove Farm’s new development plan into the County’s General Plan, as they’ve planned.
Come on guys- at least make a genuine attempt to obscure what you’re doing- make our work a little more challenging.
The utter lack of any ethics on the Kaua`i Ethics Board has been a well- mined cesspool for months ever since Grove Farm honcho Mark Hubbard and other clueless Board members decided that no one has to follow the ethics laws anymore because it would make it hard for Hubbard and others on the Board to personally violate the clear laws that forbid them from representing their company before the County while serving on a board or commission.
Chair Hubbard’s Board actually cleared Attorney Jonathan Chun of double-dealing, influence-peddling, conflict-of-interest type charges after Chun successfully lobbied for months before the Council for the Board of Realtors while Chairing the Charter Commission.
Now at Hubbard’s request the quid pro quo is working it’s magic as the Charter Commission is considering chucking the ethics laws in the ocean if Chun can slip it by first the Commissions and then the unsuspecting voters this November.
For those who might have missed it we’ve covered one two three four five times in the past six months the shameless ways Board members have refused with impunity to enforce the laws because the only remedy to the Ethics Board members’ own ethics violations is, quite conveniently, to go before the Ethics Board. We’ve highlighted the take by the local newspaper’s last columnist standing Walter Lewis, and government watchdog extraordinaire Horace Stoessel through essays published printed here and in the paper.
And we covered the revolving door and pick a pack of pickled posers hierarchy of the corrupt corporate revolving door.
Now this week we get news that Baptiste has submitted the name of a potential new member of the Ethics Board which is up which is for Council approval. And guess what? It’s just happens to be the wife of a former Finance Department Director who took a ride half-way through the County’s revolving door to become a Grove Farm Vice President a while back.
Toward the end of the agenda for next Wednesday’s Council meeting is this little tidbit.
Resolution No. 2008-29, RESOLUTION CONFIRMING MAYORAL APPOINTMENT TO THE BOARD OF ETHICS (Christiane Nakea-Tresler-First Term)
For those who may not recognize the name she is the wife of former Finance Director Mike Tressler who turned five years of government work into essentially a lobbying job as Grove Farm’s VP in charge of development.
Tressler- the “other” football star in Baptiste’s hui of half-wits and hubris- was a key sycophant in some of the shady book cooking that led to charges of overspending at KPD and was the one who conveniently used a provision allowing him as Finance Director, to nullify contracts, to cancel the employment contract of former Police Chief KC Lum while he was under fire from all sides for not being Darryl Perry.
And he did it despite the fact that the law specifically excludes personnel contracts from his purview. Tressler was also a key supporter and campaign worker on Baptiste’s first run for Mayor.
Did we expect anything else from Baptiste?. Certainly not. Nor do we expect anyone to show up to object when the Council approves her without a peep? Yeah, right.
Even if they hold an interview it won’t be televised because they have to leave more grip and grin time to give all those awards and certificates to every sewing circle, book review and timing association and embarrass every kid on every team that ever came in higher than eight place in a nine team league and cablecast it all with full captioning... all the while putting the kibosh on TV for prospective commissioners and board members and budget hearing every year... a problem that was not apparently remedied in this year’s budget despite promises to the contrary.
After having all their solicitors and supplicants cleared of ethics violations the Council and Mayor know who butters their bread and if they can stack the Ethics Board with those who won’t find their abominable ethics unacceptable they’ve got a get out of jail free card to play plantation monopoly and make sure they’re allowed to slip Grove Farm’s new development plan into the County’s General Plan, as they’ve planned.
Come on guys- at least make a genuine attempt to obscure what you’re doing- make our work a little more challenging.
Sunday, November 4, 2012
RIGHT ON SCHEDULE
RIGHT ON SCHEDULE: Despite the
fact that many across the country are worried about intentional voter
suppression in places like Ohio and Florida, the practice is
apparently alive and well on little Kaua`i- although we suspect it
may be due to Mayor Bernard Carvalho Jr's well
known penchant for the use of cronyism over skill in distributing
the many appointed jobs in his administration.
Although today's press
release fails to list a specific department or division
responsible, an announcement of "General Election Day closures"
includes the fact that, in addition to closing "all refuse
transfer stations, the Kekaha Landfill, the Kaua`i Resource Center,
and the Kapa`a and Waimea swimming pools... (t)he Kaua`i Bus will
be operating on a modified schedule on General Election Day."
Good work Yeronnah. While everyone
else trying to figure out why no one in Hawai`i votes anymore
you're providing yet another reason to blow it off. We couldn't be
prouder.
Thursday, May 15, 2008
ORDERED STEAK; GOT GENERIC DRIED DOGFOOD
ORDERED STEAK; GOT GENERIC DRIED DOGFOOD: Budget deadline routinely bring out the free-lunch crowd as the local letters to the editor column has shown lately.
Another day, another dippy “give up back the money” epistle, usually from someone who has also complained about the lack of services the County provides.
But the broad brush crowd always seems to have a blind eye to what we actually spend the money on and apparently doesn’t mind when their money goes down the rat hole of the cronyism-dole and various and sundry Incumbency Protection Plans- the only things that the Mayor and Council seem to be good at providing
The “extra” $2.2 million supplemental appropriations reported yesterday in the local paper has a couple of examples. But digging in the regular budget yields dozens of boondoggles and inflated prices and overpayments to the revolving door of the Public Works Department’s Employees, Ex-employees and Future Employees’ Benevolent Fund, such as triple-priced bridges and paying more for less asphalt.
And there’s always financial room for Jell-O research, causing the administration to get hand cramps writing up all those make-work programs and signing blank checks for poor, starving outside consultants and attorneys.
One of the most amusing ways to spend the “extra” money is the new re-inflation of the now $350,000 pay-off-to-Kekaha appropriation for- well for no one seems to know what for, but I’m sure my good friend Bruce Pleas will figure out something ... maybe malasadas and manapua for all.
Now no one wants a dump, GMO seed experiments and rocket launching facilities in their neighborhood except those making money from them. And Kekaha has more than it’s share of environmental disasters waiting to happen or already occurring.
But what area doesn’t deserve a break. The North Shore has to put up with losing their very neighborhoods to vacation rentals due to the County’s lack of enforcement and boneheaded, dumb-growth planning policies that created them.
Kapa`a has to literally pay double for gas to get though traffic that was created by the County with it’s famous lack of foresight and resulting infrastructure when it zoned everything for resorts and then didn’t expect them to be built. Koloa? Maybe we should buy them some trees. Po`ipu? Well forget Po`ipu- does anyone actually live there anymore... or should we say any voters? Koke`e? How much is appropriated to pay all of us when the state takes away our playground and hands it over to the tourists with gates and carnival-like concessions at every turn?
Well it just might be that the Kekaha community- one of the towns that votes overwhelmingly to return incumbents to office every other year- is rightly pissed at the Council and guess what? In Kekaha they vote in greater numbers than the rest of us. A third of a million dollars greases an awful lot of electoral skids.
Another supplemental absurdity is $850,000 for another Lihu`e Development Plan aka the Grove Farm Memorial Protection Bill. Since half the appointed faces and government contractors have ties to old Massah GF, let’s see how we can squeeze in a little more development of their Lihu`e lands. The $850,000 for the third try at a plan (because twice was not enough) while other town and area plans are not only non-existent but many have had money appropriated for them that’s still sitting in the Planning Department unspent... along with a half a dozen other consulting projects that any normally brain-powered Planning Department would be doing internally instead of awarding them to ex-planners who opened businesses to suck ’em up at the tap of the County tavern.
Over the years we’ve heard a lot of the “lower my taxes but fix the potholes” nincompoops rants like “I’m a social liberal but a fiscal conservative”. Well what does that mean? It means you’re either a fool or a crook who wants stuff from the government but doesn’t want to- or thinks you should have to- pay for it.
The same of course goes for the people who say there are too many government laws and regulations... but don’t get them going because each one can think of at least one more issue for which “there oughtta be a law”.
One man’s red tape is another’s protection of their rights to a safe and healthful community and environment. The problem is not too many laws it’s having ineffectual laws with no teeth to regulate those who think the world owes them a living even if it means turning everyone else’s surroundings into a pig pen or a slave plantation.
If anything we need to spend more and spend it on the things that will benefit all of us and repay us a hundred times over like better roads, public transit, better police and fire protection, restrictions on land use and enforcement of land rape law- and that’s just from the County.
The State needs more money to raise the salaries of teachers, lower the numbers of kids in each class, fix the schools we have and build more or them. But I’d like to see the parents- all of whom want these things- who say “yes- tax me enough to pay for what I want”. Health Care? Crumbling infrastructure? Buying land for open space, parks and cultural and historical protection?
We all want all of those things. We hear a chorus of cheers for each one. But ask “who wants to pay for them” and everyone looks at their shoes and shuffles away.
The little red hen gets no answer when she asks “who will help me... plant and harvest the wheat, gather the fuel and build the fire, mix the ingredients and bake the cookies?” But you can bet they’ll all come around trampling each other when she asks “who will help me eat theses wonderful cookies?. They can’t imagine why they should be asked to pay for them.
Yes folks you heard it here- strike up the band for bigger government and higher taxes.
And people ask why this petulant pup doesn’t run for office...
Another day, another dippy “give up back the money” epistle, usually from someone who has also complained about the lack of services the County provides.
But the broad brush crowd always seems to have a blind eye to what we actually spend the money on and apparently doesn’t mind when their money goes down the rat hole of the cronyism-dole and various and sundry Incumbency Protection Plans- the only things that the Mayor and Council seem to be good at providing
The “extra” $2.2 million supplemental appropriations reported yesterday in the local paper has a couple of examples. But digging in the regular budget yields dozens of boondoggles and inflated prices and overpayments to the revolving door of the Public Works Department’s Employees, Ex-employees and Future Employees’ Benevolent Fund, such as triple-priced bridges and paying more for less asphalt.
And there’s always financial room for Jell-O research, causing the administration to get hand cramps writing up all those make-work programs and signing blank checks for poor, starving outside consultants and attorneys.
One of the most amusing ways to spend the “extra” money is the new re-inflation of the now $350,000 pay-off-to-Kekaha appropriation for- well for no one seems to know what for, but I’m sure my good friend Bruce Pleas will figure out something ... maybe malasadas and manapua for all.
Now no one wants a dump, GMO seed experiments and rocket launching facilities in their neighborhood except those making money from them. And Kekaha has more than it’s share of environmental disasters waiting to happen or already occurring.
But what area doesn’t deserve a break. The North Shore has to put up with losing their very neighborhoods to vacation rentals due to the County’s lack of enforcement and boneheaded, dumb-growth planning policies that created them.
Kapa`a has to literally pay double for gas to get though traffic that was created by the County with it’s famous lack of foresight and resulting infrastructure when it zoned everything for resorts and then didn’t expect them to be built. Koloa? Maybe we should buy them some trees. Po`ipu? Well forget Po`ipu- does anyone actually live there anymore... or should we say any voters? Koke`e? How much is appropriated to pay all of us when the state takes away our playground and hands it over to the tourists with gates and carnival-like concessions at every turn?
Well it just might be that the Kekaha community- one of the towns that votes overwhelmingly to return incumbents to office every other year- is rightly pissed at the Council and guess what? In Kekaha they vote in greater numbers than the rest of us. A third of a million dollars greases an awful lot of electoral skids.
Another supplemental absurdity is $850,000 for another Lihu`e Development Plan aka the Grove Farm Memorial Protection Bill. Since half the appointed faces and government contractors have ties to old Massah GF, let’s see how we can squeeze in a little more development of their Lihu`e lands. The $850,000 for the third try at a plan (because twice was not enough) while other town and area plans are not only non-existent but many have had money appropriated for them that’s still sitting in the Planning Department unspent... along with a half a dozen other consulting projects that any normally brain-powered Planning Department would be doing internally instead of awarding them to ex-planners who opened businesses to suck ’em up at the tap of the County tavern.
Over the years we’ve heard a lot of the “lower my taxes but fix the potholes” nincompoops rants like “I’m a social liberal but a fiscal conservative”. Well what does that mean? It means you’re either a fool or a crook who wants stuff from the government but doesn’t want to- or thinks you should have to- pay for it.
The same of course goes for the people who say there are too many government laws and regulations... but don’t get them going because each one can think of at least one more issue for which “there oughtta be a law”.
One man’s red tape is another’s protection of their rights to a safe and healthful community and environment. The problem is not too many laws it’s having ineffectual laws with no teeth to regulate those who think the world owes them a living even if it means turning everyone else’s surroundings into a pig pen or a slave plantation.
If anything we need to spend more and spend it on the things that will benefit all of us and repay us a hundred times over like better roads, public transit, better police and fire protection, restrictions on land use and enforcement of land rape law- and that’s just from the County.
The State needs more money to raise the salaries of teachers, lower the numbers of kids in each class, fix the schools we have and build more or them. But I’d like to see the parents- all of whom want these things- who say “yes- tax me enough to pay for what I want”. Health Care? Crumbling infrastructure? Buying land for open space, parks and cultural and historical protection?
We all want all of those things. We hear a chorus of cheers for each one. But ask “who wants to pay for them” and everyone looks at their shoes and shuffles away.
The little red hen gets no answer when she asks “who will help me... plant and harvest the wheat, gather the fuel and build the fire, mix the ingredients and bake the cookies?” But you can bet they’ll all come around trampling each other when she asks “who will help me eat theses wonderful cookies?. They can’t imagine why they should be asked to pay for them.
Yes folks you heard it here- strike up the band for bigger government and higher taxes.
And people ask why this petulant pup doesn’t run for office...
Wednesday, February 29, 2012
PRAISE THE SPEAKER AND PASS THE COMPAZINE
PRAISE THE SPEAKER AND PASS THE COMPAZINE: As we enter our fifth year of "daily" whatever-the-heck-it-is-we-do in this space (changing the definition of "daily" on the fly, first to "week"days and later to whenever-the-heck we feel like it), we noticed that, while some years we tend to bang our head against the wall of the annual state legislative session more than others, this year?.. not so much.
Now don't get us wrong- we usually have little or no trouble getting our boxers in a bunch for the next big fight. The trouble is we're so damn tired of fighting the last one again and again.
Our legislative system has to be one of the most "corrupt" in the country. By that we mean that it's essentially based on a politically-motivated, mutual hand-washing type of cronyism and legalized bribery. This year there was a bill floating around that would have literally legalized "gifts" meant to influence legislators.
It's like a bento that comes with a heaping portion of our absurd "committee-chair-as-God" bill-referral system and two scoops of an "it's-always-this-way-unless-it's-not" rules and procedures, all slathered in the gravy of a hurry-up-and-wait, fake-you-out-of-your-Nikes slew of often-unannounced hearings culminating in a series of conference committees at session's end that make the previous four months of kabuki a bad and expensive joke on those picking up the check.
So the past week or so, as yet another effort to remove all environmental protections from the Hawai`i Environmental Protection Act (HRS 343) moved forward- this time in a measure to arbitrarily allow the governor and/or mayors to exempt anything their black little hearts desire from, not just environmental protection, but from any and all permitting that might trigger public hearings or even add conditions- we just couldn't whip up the outrage of past years' efforts at similar mahttp://www.blogger.com/img/blank.giflfeasance.
Thankfully this morning we awoke to a Facebook posting from former Kaua`i State Senator and current state Director of the Office of Environmental Quality Control, Gary Hooser. Fortunately Hooser is now in a position where it is his job to read through stacks of bills, many of which the environmental watchdogs might miss because of course they're not titled "Related to Rape of the Environment" but rather, as in this case, "Relating To Economic Revitalization."
After sending out an alarm last week as to the scheduling of a hearing yesterday, today Hooser wrote that:
HB1893 was "deferred" in the House Finance Committee which means it is most likely dead for this session! This of course is great news for those who care about the environment and preserving public participation in the development process.
Of course another bill, HB2324, which would exempt "the upgrading and new construction of broadband facilities on state and county property from state and county permitting processes" did pass with still-unknown amendments which, the ever optimistic Hooser hopes, "will result in a Bill that is far better than the version that arrived in Finance."
Every year there's another attack. We'd seen them come and go over the year with the worst of the worst, like "automatic approvals," creating havoc and leaving communities with monstrous projects and developments that no one wants because, in the case of automatic approvals, some bureaucrat was asleep at the wheel.
But a special place in the legislative Hall of Shame has to go to these outright HRS 343 exemptions for certain department or division projects.
We became aware of these relatively recently when the SuperFerry was triggering pre barf-o-meter nausea.
As word of the Linda Lingle Administration's corrupt little exemption from 343 began to be challenged, we noticed the absence of any county permitting- even a Shoreline Management Area (SMA) permit which always accompanies any project on or near the shore and is required under the federal Coastal Zone Management (CZM) Act.
But after our usual runaround at the planning department (PD)- which, as with all county departments, usually consists of a "click" on the phone whenever we identify ourselves- we finally received a semi-anonymous email from a lower echelon PD cog from sector "R," referring us to an HRS provision that, like one of those pockets in your colon that contain five year old potato skins, contained a particularly disgusting little turd of a law that exempted the entire Harbor Division of the Department of Land and Natural Resources (DLNR) from any and all county permitting.
Upon further review we learned from then-Kaua`i Representative Mina Morita that, though this provision pre-dated her tenure and had little chance of repeal, she had spent a decade or more fighting the same battle, year after year, to defeat bills that would make others, like the Airports Division, similarly exempted.
Of course now people are becoming more aware of these measures and sometimes, miraculously, as with today's "defeat" of HB1893, the bill is at least temporarily squelched until it rears its ugly head at next year's session.
We have no idea whether we'll be able to stomach much coverage of the legislature this year. Oh we may re-rant about the idiotic Council on Revenues (COR) system where they have to prepare the budget not once, not twice but three times as the economic projections change from one pulled from the COR's sleeve to another pulled from their butts at various points before, during or after the session.
Or maybe we'll get our hackles raised by some last minute "plate-lunch" bill with a heaping portion of gut-and-replace and a side order of conference-committee-shenanigans that yields a final day vote on bill that, although it never even got a hearing and was declared dead in January, has now been slipped into a stack of 20 bills that are passed in a matter of 25 seconds.
But don't expect much. We're nauseous enough from the vog blowing though these days, and food is too expensive to lose our lunch over an entrenched legislative process which stands zero chance of getting a gut-and replace treatment of its own.
----------#----------
Now don't get us wrong- we usually have little or no trouble getting our boxers in a bunch for the next big fight. The trouble is we're so damn tired of fighting the last one again and again.
Our legislative system has to be one of the most "corrupt" in the country. By that we mean that it's essentially based on a politically-motivated, mutual hand-washing type of cronyism and legalized bribery. This year there was a bill floating around that would have literally legalized "gifts" meant to influence legislators.
It's like a bento that comes with a heaping portion of our absurd "committee-chair-as-God" bill-referral system and two scoops of an "it's-always-this-way-unless-it's-not" rules and procedures, all slathered in the gravy of a hurry-up-and-wait, fake-you-out-of-your-Nikes slew of often-unannounced hearings culminating in a series of conference committees at session's end that make the previous four months of kabuki a bad and expensive joke on those picking up the check.
So the past week or so, as yet another effort to remove all environmental protections from the Hawai`i Environmental Protection Act (HRS 343) moved forward- this time in a measure to arbitrarily allow the governor and/or mayors to exempt anything their black little hearts desire from, not just environmental protection, but from any and all permitting that might trigger public hearings or even add conditions- we just couldn't whip up the outrage of past years' efforts at similar mahttp://www.blogger.com/img/blank.giflfeasance.
Thankfully this morning we awoke to a Facebook posting from former Kaua`i State Senator and current state Director of the Office of Environmental Quality Control, Gary Hooser. Fortunately Hooser is now in a position where it is his job to read through stacks of bills, many of which the environmental watchdogs might miss because of course they're not titled "Related to Rape of the Environment" but rather, as in this case, "Relating To Economic Revitalization."
After sending out an alarm last week as to the scheduling of a hearing yesterday, today Hooser wrote that:
HB1893 was "deferred" in the House Finance Committee which means it is most likely dead for this session! This of course is great news for those who care about the environment and preserving public participation in the development process.
Of course another bill, HB2324, which would exempt "the upgrading and new construction of broadband facilities on state and county property from state and county permitting processes" did pass with still-unknown amendments which, the ever optimistic Hooser hopes, "will result in a Bill that is far better than the version that arrived in Finance."
Every year there's another attack. We'd seen them come and go over the year with the worst of the worst, like "automatic approvals," creating havoc and leaving communities with monstrous projects and developments that no one wants because, in the case of automatic approvals, some bureaucrat was asleep at the wheel.
But a special place in the legislative Hall of Shame has to go to these outright HRS 343 exemptions for certain department or division projects.
We became aware of these relatively recently when the SuperFerry was triggering pre barf-o-meter nausea.
As word of the Linda Lingle Administration's corrupt little exemption from 343 began to be challenged, we noticed the absence of any county permitting- even a Shoreline Management Area (SMA) permit which always accompanies any project on or near the shore and is required under the federal Coastal Zone Management (CZM) Act.
But after our usual runaround at the planning department (PD)- which, as with all county departments, usually consists of a "click" on the phone whenever we identify ourselves- we finally received a semi-anonymous email from a lower echelon PD cog from sector "R," referring us to an HRS provision that, like one of those pockets in your colon that contain five year old potato skins, contained a particularly disgusting little turd of a law that exempted the entire Harbor Division of the Department of Land and Natural Resources (DLNR) from any and all county permitting.
Upon further review we learned from then-Kaua`i Representative Mina Morita that, though this provision pre-dated her tenure and had little chance of repeal, she had spent a decade or more fighting the same battle, year after year, to defeat bills that would make others, like the Airports Division, similarly exempted.
Of course now people are becoming more aware of these measures and sometimes, miraculously, as with today's "defeat" of HB1893, the bill is at least temporarily squelched until it rears its ugly head at next year's session.
We have no idea whether we'll be able to stomach much coverage of the legislature this year. Oh we may re-rant about the idiotic Council on Revenues (COR) system where they have to prepare the budget not once, not twice but three times as the economic projections change from one pulled from the COR's sleeve to another pulled from their butts at various points before, during or after the session.
Or maybe we'll get our hackles raised by some last minute "plate-lunch" bill with a heaping portion of gut-and-replace and a side order of conference-committee-shenanigans that yields a final day vote on bill that, although it never even got a hearing and was declared dead in January, has now been slipped into a stack of 20 bills that are passed in a matter of 25 seconds.
But don't expect much. We're nauseous enough from the vog blowing though these days, and food is too expensive to lose our lunch over an entrenched legislative process which stands zero chance of getting a gut-and replace treatment of its own.
----------#----------
Friday, November 7, 2008
DOWN IN THE DARK MY BONE MILL ROLLS
DOWN IN THE DARK MY BONE MILL ROLLS: From yesterday’s Kaua`i Burial Council meeting comes news via the local newspaper that ding-dong the wicked witch has resigned the chair because “life’s too short to put up with some of the things we put up with at the burial council.”
An odd choice of words indeed from Mark “Ainokea” Hubbard, the post around which the current revolving door of cronyism in Kaua`i government revolves, as we’ve detailed.
He has given up his post saying
“I was willing to run the meetings, but it’s not good to have a haole as the chair. You need to have a Hawaiian, a kupuna, to command some respect,” Hubbard said. “People were looking at council with disrespect just because I was the chair.”
Gee, ya think?
The fact is disrespect for Hubbard goes a lot deeper than his ethnicity- a contempt he has earned though his disrespectful actions toward the Kanaka community as well as the community at large.
The veep at Grove Farm- the old land-robbing plantation outfit that has been a prime actor in the genocide of the Hawaiian people for a century- still sits at the head of the Kaua`i (Lack of any Discernable) Ethics Board where he has refused to enforce the ethics law.
He actually tried to change the charter to allow him and his cronies to openly abuse their positions on the various board commissions and the county council this year.
But the defeat of the measure guarantees... well probably nothing.
Hubbard and his gang of disingenuous dullards are so bored of ethics that they have feigned ignorance- and of course have refused to release a county attorney’s opinion- as to what the law means when it says members of boards and commissions can’t represent private interests before other boards, commissions and administrative agencies
Despite Hubbard’s contention that the law is “too broad” and would cause those who serve to not be able to get a drivers’ license he schizophrenically admitted that the clause actually did do something by proposing an amendment to remove the clause from the charter that forbids conflicts.
The board actually cleared another good old boy, attorney Jonathan Chun- the chair of the Charter Commission that approved the proposed charter change- of ethics charges for extensively representing the Board of Realtors before the county council on the vacation rental bill earlier this year.
But despite the re-iteration of the law by the populace don’t expect Hubbard to change his ways should any complaint be filed when Chun appears before the Planning Commission at next week’s meeting representing another client
The Burial Council meeting itself was apparently an affair to remember in Hubbard’s absence, according to reporter Joan Conrow who described some real shenanigans in the infamous “capping” of the Naue kupuna iwi.
Apparently Mike Dega, the head of the contracted “archeological field crew”- i.e. construction workers- took it upon themselves to put a concrete slab over the ancestral bones, saying neither he nor state Archeologist Nancy McMahon approved the measure.
The real news- perhaps the only good thing in all of this- is that the cap, which from previous descriptions of the process we concluded actually encased the bones, was rather what was described as something similar to a “sewer cover” three feet above the bones which could be removed without disturbing the actual iwi.
But the unbelievable insensitivity in the description of the “caps” aside it remains to be seen if the Planning Commission will withdraw the permits because apparently Burial Council “approval” is one of the conditions for the “house” that developer Joe Brescia is trying to build on top of the cemetery.
One thing that seems to stick out like a skeletal hand reaching out from the ground is that the Planning Commission condition gives actual power to the Burial Council while the state- which created the body- treats them as advisory.
There doesn’t seem to be any law or rule against a county agency giving a state advisory council actual power for county purposes. But, according to the newspaper article Planning Commission Chair Steve Weinstein “(e)ven a violation would not guarantee revocation, as other mitigation measures can be considered.”
Translation? “We’ll probably do what we do whenever someone does something illegal- we’ll allow them to do it anyway if it’s in our power to do so- and sometimes even if it’s not.”
Another question is, based on our analysis yesterday of the new General Plan enforcement charter provision, one the planning department hasn’t dealt with at all- is Brescia’s “house” a “tourist accommodation” that would fall under the new law taking the power of approval away from the Planning Department?
If so, the processing of anything having to do with it should cease immediately if it is to comply with the law.
Although Brescia claims it is merely a huge single family residence Brescia’s other “houses” in the area have been serving as vacation rentals for years.
of course that presumes that anyone in Kaua`i county government even cares whether their activities meet legal requirements and standards..
As our friend Ace commented yesterday
Andy, Andy, Andy. You are ignoring the zeal with which the Planning Commission and the County Council tend to overlook such pesky things as laws, ordinances and charter amendments. One should not be surprised to see these folks do whatever they want and wait to be called on it. To which they will predictably respond, "So sue me".
Just more porridge to fill the Minotaur’s bowl.
An odd choice of words indeed from Mark “Ainokea” Hubbard, the post around which the current revolving door of cronyism in Kaua`i government revolves, as we’ve detailed.
He has given up his post saying
“I was willing to run the meetings, but it’s not good to have a haole as the chair. You need to have a Hawaiian, a kupuna, to command some respect,” Hubbard said. “People were looking at council with disrespect just because I was the chair.”
Gee, ya think?
The fact is disrespect for Hubbard goes a lot deeper than his ethnicity- a contempt he has earned though his disrespectful actions toward the Kanaka community as well as the community at large.
The veep at Grove Farm- the old land-robbing plantation outfit that has been a prime actor in the genocide of the Hawaiian people for a century- still sits at the head of the Kaua`i (Lack of any Discernable) Ethics Board where he has refused to enforce the ethics law.
He actually tried to change the charter to allow him and his cronies to openly abuse their positions on the various board commissions and the county council this year.
But the defeat of the measure guarantees... well probably nothing.
Hubbard and his gang of disingenuous dullards are so bored of ethics that they have feigned ignorance- and of course have refused to release a county attorney’s opinion- as to what the law means when it says members of boards and commissions can’t represent private interests before other boards, commissions and administrative agencies
Despite Hubbard’s contention that the law is “too broad” and would cause those who serve to not be able to get a drivers’ license he schizophrenically admitted that the clause actually did do something by proposing an amendment to remove the clause from the charter that forbids conflicts.
The board actually cleared another good old boy, attorney Jonathan Chun- the chair of the Charter Commission that approved the proposed charter change- of ethics charges for extensively representing the Board of Realtors before the county council on the vacation rental bill earlier this year.
But despite the re-iteration of the law by the populace don’t expect Hubbard to change his ways should any complaint be filed when Chun appears before the Planning Commission at next week’s meeting representing another client
The Burial Council meeting itself was apparently an affair to remember in Hubbard’s absence, according to reporter Joan Conrow who described some real shenanigans in the infamous “capping” of the Naue kupuna iwi.
Apparently Mike Dega, the head of the contracted “archeological field crew”- i.e. construction workers- took it upon themselves to put a concrete slab over the ancestral bones, saying neither he nor state Archeologist Nancy McMahon approved the measure.
The real news- perhaps the only good thing in all of this- is that the cap, which from previous descriptions of the process we concluded actually encased the bones, was rather what was described as something similar to a “sewer cover” three feet above the bones which could be removed without disturbing the actual iwi.
But the unbelievable insensitivity in the description of the “caps” aside it remains to be seen if the Planning Commission will withdraw the permits because apparently Burial Council “approval” is one of the conditions for the “house” that developer Joe Brescia is trying to build on top of the cemetery.
One thing that seems to stick out like a skeletal hand reaching out from the ground is that the Planning Commission condition gives actual power to the Burial Council while the state- which created the body- treats them as advisory.
There doesn’t seem to be any law or rule against a county agency giving a state advisory council actual power for county purposes. But, according to the newspaper article Planning Commission Chair Steve Weinstein “(e)ven a violation would not guarantee revocation, as other mitigation measures can be considered.”
Translation? “We’ll probably do what we do whenever someone does something illegal- we’ll allow them to do it anyway if it’s in our power to do so- and sometimes even if it’s not.”
Another question is, based on our analysis yesterday of the new General Plan enforcement charter provision, one the planning department hasn’t dealt with at all- is Brescia’s “house” a “tourist accommodation” that would fall under the new law taking the power of approval away from the Planning Department?
If so, the processing of anything having to do with it should cease immediately if it is to comply with the law.
Although Brescia claims it is merely a huge single family residence Brescia’s other “houses” in the area have been serving as vacation rentals for years.
of course that presumes that anyone in Kaua`i county government even cares whether their activities meet legal requirements and standards..
As our friend Ace commented yesterday
Andy, Andy, Andy. You are ignoring the zeal with which the Planning Commission and the County Council tend to overlook such pesky things as laws, ordinances and charter amendments. One should not be surprised to see these folks do whatever they want and wait to be called on it. To which they will predictably respond, "So sue me".
Just more porridge to fill the Minotaur’s bowl.
Friday, May 27, 2011
A SPORTING CHANCE
A SPORTING CHANCE: The cronyism in Mayor Bernard Carvalho's administration is already legendary. After his election to a full term last November competence sank to the bottom of the list of qualifications to hold appointed office.
And recently hizzonnah actually confirmed it in an interview.
As Joan Conrow wrote yesterday
I went to see Mayor Bernard Carvalho Jr. yesterday.
He’d called me last week, and asked if I’d be willing to sit down and talk story. We'd met, but never really had a discussion...
After a bit of small talk, he made the reason for our get-together clear: he wanted to know the person behind the blog...
Bernard then said he was opening the door for me to call him any time, and asked if I had any questions.
Why do we get the feeling we won't be getting a call.
Joan couldn’t help but ask about Carvalho's end run around the council's kuleana in a mid-budget-year hiring of five cronies, accomplished by shifting around money in his office to fill "dollar funded" positions- including one for ousted and disgraced former Deputy Planning Director Imai Aiu, a noted Carvalho water carrier who was alleged to have been the target of an FBI investigation before resigning.
Carvalho's response?
In explaining the rationale behind his hires, the mayor used a football metaphor that placed him as the quarterback in the line up. “I gotta be able to trust the guys on either side of me,” said the former Miami Dolphins player, looking right and left, his face and voice registering excitement. I could imagine him preparing to hike the pigskin. “I don’t ask how much they’re making, I just know they’re gonna be able to run with the ball and make a touchdown.”
It seems that Bernard, who advanced from the rank and file during his 26 years with the county, knows how difficult it can be to light a fire under the butts of some county workers, is aware of their tendency to cruise and wait out the term of the newest mayor. After sitting in the mayor’s chair for two years, fulfilling the term and agenda of the late Mayor Baptiste, he was eager now to make his own mark, advance his own ideas. And to do that, he said, he knew needed to put people he could trust, and whom he could personally hold accountable, in some key positions.
He acknowledges their participation in his campaign, and is aware that some of us view it as political patronage. He, however, sees it as insurance that at least some of the changes he envisions will occur.
Un-freakin'-believable. Normally any corrupt pol will at least TRY to make believe that the hires were the best person for the job. But perhaps Bernard knew that the laughing would have shattered ear drums from Kekaha to Ha`ena had he tried to foist such bullsh*t on us.
As if to make the point that the "protected" class of county employee is there to make sure nothing happens, at yesterday’s final passage of the county's operating budget it was revealed that the poster child for the county's cart-before-the-horse, incompetency-preservation scheme, the curbside recycling program, was essentially killed by the council because once again the purchase of the horse was not even in the budget.
A year or so ago the mayor dragged out a brand new curbside recycling "pilot program" making use of the county's brand new automated trash trucks and the purchase of a bunch of 96 gallon trash bins.
The problem is that the rest of the world makes sure they have some way to actually deal with the recycled items before they ask people to separate them and put them out by the curb.
But not good old Bernard and his good old boys and girls.
The missing sorting facility- called a materials recycling facility or MERF- was supposed to finally be part of this year's budget after years of delay for reasons unknown. But guess what? It was nowhere to be found, according to Councilmember JoAnn Yukimura's comments on the budget on Wednesday.
She explained that the lack of the MERF in the mayor's budget was why the council decided to end the curbside recycling program. It seems, she said, that the administration had at first told the council that it would cost only a reasonable $2,000 a month to sort the collected recyclables that were put in the bins unsorted. But when the bill came it was actually $14,000 a month- an outrageous amount $168,000 a year instead of $24,000.
So who's in charge of this mess? None other than the county's poster child for incompetence for over a decade and a half, Solid Waste Division head Troy Tanegawa, the epitome of the protected county employee who, through three administrations, has become the king of "fire, ready, aim." incompetence.
Having a "vision" is a two sided coin. It only works if the vision is based on a presumption that those engaged in its execution have the solid background to pull it off.
In football, the undrafted free agent may be the most enthusiastic player in the world but that and the fact that he's the owner's nephew doesn't insure he'll "be able to run with the ball and make a touchdown" like the first round draft pick.
In little league everyone gets to play, regardless of talent. But you'd think government would be a little more professional.
And recently hizzonnah actually confirmed it in an interview.
As Joan Conrow wrote yesterday
I went to see Mayor Bernard Carvalho Jr. yesterday.
He’d called me last week, and asked if I’d be willing to sit down and talk story. We'd met, but never really had a discussion...
After a bit of small talk, he made the reason for our get-together clear: he wanted to know the person behind the blog...
Bernard then said he was opening the door for me to call him any time, and asked if I had any questions.
Why do we get the feeling we won't be getting a call.
Joan couldn’t help but ask about Carvalho's end run around the council's kuleana in a mid-budget-year hiring of five cronies, accomplished by shifting around money in his office to fill "dollar funded" positions- including one for ousted and disgraced former Deputy Planning Director Imai Aiu, a noted Carvalho water carrier who was alleged to have been the target of an FBI investigation before resigning.
Carvalho's response?
In explaining the rationale behind his hires, the mayor used a football metaphor that placed him as the quarterback in the line up. “I gotta be able to trust the guys on either side of me,” said the former Miami Dolphins player, looking right and left, his face and voice registering excitement. I could imagine him preparing to hike the pigskin. “I don’t ask how much they’re making, I just know they’re gonna be able to run with the ball and make a touchdown.”
It seems that Bernard, who advanced from the rank and file during his 26 years with the county, knows how difficult it can be to light a fire under the butts of some county workers, is aware of their tendency to cruise and wait out the term of the newest mayor. After sitting in the mayor’s chair for two years, fulfilling the term and agenda of the late Mayor Baptiste, he was eager now to make his own mark, advance his own ideas. And to do that, he said, he knew needed to put people he could trust, and whom he could personally hold accountable, in some key positions.
He acknowledges their participation in his campaign, and is aware that some of us view it as political patronage. He, however, sees it as insurance that at least some of the changes he envisions will occur.
Un-freakin'-believable. Normally any corrupt pol will at least TRY to make believe that the hires were the best person for the job. But perhaps Bernard knew that the laughing would have shattered ear drums from Kekaha to Ha`ena had he tried to foist such bullsh*t on us.
As if to make the point that the "protected" class of county employee is there to make sure nothing happens, at yesterday’s final passage of the county's operating budget it was revealed that the poster child for the county's cart-before-the-horse, incompetency-preservation scheme, the curbside recycling program, was essentially killed by the council because once again the purchase of the horse was not even in the budget.
A year or so ago the mayor dragged out a brand new curbside recycling "pilot program" making use of the county's brand new automated trash trucks and the purchase of a bunch of 96 gallon trash bins.
The problem is that the rest of the world makes sure they have some way to actually deal with the recycled items before they ask people to separate them and put them out by the curb.
But not good old Bernard and his good old boys and girls.
The missing sorting facility- called a materials recycling facility or MERF- was supposed to finally be part of this year's budget after years of delay for reasons unknown. But guess what? It was nowhere to be found, according to Councilmember JoAnn Yukimura's comments on the budget on Wednesday.
She explained that the lack of the MERF in the mayor's budget was why the council decided to end the curbside recycling program. It seems, she said, that the administration had at first told the council that it would cost only a reasonable $2,000 a month to sort the collected recyclables that were put in the bins unsorted. But when the bill came it was actually $14,000 a month- an outrageous amount $168,000 a year instead of $24,000.
So who's in charge of this mess? None other than the county's poster child for incompetence for over a decade and a half, Solid Waste Division head Troy Tanegawa, the epitome of the protected county employee who, through three administrations, has become the king of "fire, ready, aim." incompetence.
Having a "vision" is a two sided coin. It only works if the vision is based on a presumption that those engaged in its execution have the solid background to pull it off.
In football, the undrafted free agent may be the most enthusiastic player in the world but that and the fact that he's the owner's nephew doesn't insure he'll "be able to run with the ball and make a touchdown" like the first round draft pick.
In little league everyone gets to play, regardless of talent. But you'd think government would be a little more professional.
Saturday, September 6, 2008
LEAVING NO BEHIND UNSNIFFED
Coming tomorrow: KPD Blue Chapter 4- Kaua`i Style
LEAVING NO BEHIND UNSNIFFED: It’s been a rough week for our governor with the local press ridiculing her speech introducing the book-banning, wacko Alaskan governor BS artist and would-be-in-a-parallel-universe Vice President Sarah Palin at the Republican Convention in St. Paul, MN.
Now in all honesty we might have said a few disparaging words about- and so are not exactly waiting by the phone for an appointment to an advisory board from- Linda “one of the Stepford Wives” Lingle, as our brother “Triumph the Insult Comic Dog” characterized her at the 2004 Republican Convention.
But her suck-up to the right-wing-nut fringe was apparently worthy of a slew of mocking and scornful print pieces even from former supporters.
Honolulu Advertiser columnist, Kauai’s own Lee Cataluna, noted her stilted delivery which was bizarrely deliberate even for the emotionless, humorless, supposedly centrist GOP leader in touting the bible-thumping cross between Tina Fey and the pregnant cop in “Fargo” saying:
Who was that person who introduced Sarah Palin at the Republican National Convention Wednesday night? She looked like Linda Lingle, had that same Paulie Walnuts hairdo Lingle has these days. She was introduced as Linda Lingle, but she didn't sound like Linda Lingle at all.
She ... spoke ... soooooo ... slowly. It took her over 17 minutes to get through a speech that was roughly 1,200 words. That's 3 1/2 pages double-spaced. You can clip through that in five minutes if you pause a lot and have a coughing fit. Lingle is a deliberate speaker, but she's also a facile speaker and this performance was way off. Sure, stop and wait for the wild applause, but the applause wasn't THAT wild.
But the real meat of the “what-the-heck-were-you-thinking” commentary was courtesy of oft-times Lingle apologist Dave Shapiro who, in his regular Wednesday Honolulu Advertiser column, opined:
Whenever Gov. Linda Lingle tries to inflate her importance in national leadership, as she’s done this week at the Republican National Convention, it causes me to reflect on what little leadership she’s provided at home during her six years in Hawai’i’s top job...
At the GOP convention this week, Lingle has taken on a major role in selling Palin as qualified to assume the presidency after serving as mayor of a town of about 7,000 and two years as governor of one of our least populous states...
This presidential year, she'll again spend a lot of time on the Mainland campaigning for McCain, but it won't make much difference in Hawai'i legislative races; the local GOP she leads isn't even fielding candidates for 22 of the 51 House seats or six of the 12 Senate seats up this year....
Lingle's national party activity suggests that Washington is exactly where her personal political radar is pointing — presumably toward the U.S. Senate as Hawai'i's octogenarian Sens. Daniel Inouye and Daniel Akaka near retirement.
The only question seems to be whether she'll take the seemingly suicidal step of running against the iconic Inouye if he follows through with plans to seek another term in 2010 or wait until 2012 and duke it out with Ed Case and Mufi Hannemann for Akaka's seat.
Or she can hold out for vice president on the next Republican ticket.
It’s getting pretty obvious that Lingle hasn’t got a prayer of even getting elected Maui dog catcher after her six year royal reign of taking cronyism, misplaced loyalty, political parsing and partisan pugnaciousness to a level unimagined by the past Democratic despots like former Hawai`i governors Waihe`e and Cayetano.
Even her devoted minions have ditched her if a letter in today’s Star Bulletin is indicative of her supporter’s current sentiment.
John Cheever of Honolulu writes
Did Lingle reveal true colors in GOP speech?
I used to feel sorry for Gov. Linda Lingle having to contend with an overwhelming Democratic majority in the Legislature.
However, after hearing her speak at the Republican convention, I'm beginning to be very thankful — despite the frequent dysfunction of the Hawai'i Democrats — for that check on her power.
To hear her celebrating Sarah Palin's socially conservative values and strict adherence to freetrade ideology certainly contrasted with what she says in front of local crowds and seemed very out of step with most Hawai'i residents.
I realize she was speaking to a partisan crowd and had to highlight certain important talking points, but in agreeing to do the bidding of her party did she also reveal her true colors?
I, for one, will think twice about voting for her again when she most likely runs for national office in 2010 or 2012, and I hope other local people listened to what she had to say and will remember that in the future.
In a politically progressive state like Hawai`i where the Republicans meet in a roomy sardine can as it is, you’d think that if a lame duck like Lingle has any further political ambitions the last place she’d want to be seen is sucking up to the worst of the evangelical fascist crowd.
Perhaps Lingle has realized that no one in Hawai`i is going to vote for her for anything anymore and the only prayer she has for future employment rests in a McCain administration where she hopes to fit right in with an ain’t-gonna-happen third term for Bushista regime.
But the press is always timid when it comes to actually pointing out the emperor’s lack of suitable attire so it was left to a Democratic partisan- our own State Senator, Majority Leader Gary Hooser- to lay it on the line by describing how little Lingle apparently cares about the people of the state when it comes to a choice between her own future and ours.
People may criticize the piece with a “what would you expect from the Senate majority leader” but it’s hard to argue with what he says about the grand imperial wizard of Washington Place.
In a piece from his on again off again blog that was rejected by both Honolulu papers as well as the Kaua`i daily fish-wrap Hooser took advantage of Lingle’s fanatical foibles to lambaste her in a gutsy manner and in a tone you don’t hear much from elected leaders in a piece titled “Lingle/Aiona: Out of step and out of touch”.
He wrote:
While local and national conservatives alike praised Governor Lingle's recent speech before the Republican National Convention, for most in Hawaii it is just further evidence of how out of touch she really is.
It is no wonder that Republicans in Hawaii are fleeing their party in droves. Like GenXer's caught at a Polka fest, they can't get to the door fast enough. Unable to field competent candidates in the upcoming election they have left some 32 seats totally uncontested, and filled others with marginal conservatives totally out of touch with mainstream Hawaii.
Whether delivered by John McCain or Linda Lingle, the Republican message is simply the wrong tune - out of step, out of style and out of touch.
The de facto head of the Hawai‘i Republican party, Governor Linda Lingle, along with her chief wing man Lieutenant Governor Duke Aiona, are both in St. Paul this week, praising the failed administration of President Bush and Senator John 'Four More Years' McCain, and working hard to defeat Hawai‘i-born Senator Barack Obama.
Why on earth would they be doing this?
Party politics aside, there is no question whatsoever that the vast majority of Hawaii residents support Barack Obama to be the next President of the United States. Opposing Senator Obama is akin to cheering for Georgia at the Sugar Bowl and hoping for the defeat of the University of Hawaii Warriors.
Without a doubt, the candidate who will offer Hawai‘i the greatest direct benefits would be Barack Obama. Clearly he would continue to visit his place of birth—our island home—to spend time with family and friends. The attention would serve Hawai‘i well, and our Congressional delegation would surely benefit from having a Democratic President with strong Hawai‘i ties.
Governor Lingle once called President Bush 'the best President ever,' so it is not surprising that she believes John McCain 'is a perfect person to elect president of the United States at this time,' as was reported in the Honolulu media.
Senator McCain has been quoted often in support of the Bush administration’s decisions over the past eight years, and he voted with the President over ninety percent of the time. Except perhaps for Rush Limbaugh, Carl Rove and now apparently Governor Lingle and Lieutenant Governor Aiona, few people will deny that the past eight years of the Bush administration have been an unmitigated disaster.
'Bush lied and people died' is more than a catchy slogan on a t-shirt - it is the truth. Lingle, Aiona, and the John McCain's of our country may look the other way in denial but the world community, backed by the overwhelming weight of the evidence knows it is the sad and brutal truth.
The election of Senator John McCain will only perpetuate the policies—and errors—of the past. Our country, our world and our community cannot afford four more years of this downward spiral.
McCain and the Republicans do not support Native Hawaiian recognition, and yet our Native Hawaiian Lieutenant Governor and our supposedly pro-recognition Governor still insist on supporting them. And they oppose Barack Obama who has pledged his support for the full recognition of Hawaii's indigenous people.
In light of the Hawaii connection and the obvious strong support for Obama by their state’s voters, the Governor and Lieutenant Governor could easily have refused an active role in the Republican convention and the McCain campaign. The leaders of their party would have understood. No one in either party would expect the Governor or Lieutenant Governor to campaign actively against their state’s 'favorite son.
'The role they have embraced at the convention is not simply an appropriate response to a party obligation; this is political pandering at its worst. Governor Lingle and Lieutenant Governor Aiona will be stumping this week for candidates who not only oppose Barack Obama, but who oppose Native Hawaiian recognition, oppose a woman's right to choose, oppose sex education in our schools, oppose equal rights being granted to all people, oppose environmental regulation, and oppose universal health care.
And why would our Governor and Lieutenant Governor be doing this?
It has to be about the money because it can't be about the votes. Lingle and Aiona are more likely to lose votes in their next elections as voters recall their opposition of Obama and support of Bush/McCain. Their aggressive support for McCain and opposition to Obama isn’t about votes, and it’s not about principle. It is about money.
While losing votes and working to reduce our state’s political capital, Lingle and Aiona will gain national recognition and make points with national Republican funding groups. Both will likely do quite handsomely in the fund-raising department during the coming run-up to 2010, and both are most likely betting the memory of the electorate will be short while the pockets of their mainland contributors will be deep.
The elephant in the room that no one has quite stated in so many words is that in these days of upcoming economic calamity it seems Lingle is all too ready to push her constituents under the bus for her political ambitions.
If given her druthers she’d apparently deal a vicious blow to our local economy by putting the kibosh on the expected “Obama Birthplace Tourism” that will follow his election, as it has every other president.
Activist songwriter Jackson Browne has sung “I ain’t no Democrat, but I sure ain’t no Republican” and we resemble that remark.
Unlike Gary we’re not quite hungry enough to choke down whole the bland if not distasteful lack of choice servings on the public policy menu that Obama/Biden presents no matter how much smothering salt and spice it has.
Just like McCain, Obama’s lips have never met a corporate butt they’re not willing to kiss and no matter what happens in November the USA Inc. will still be a wholly owned subsidiary of the Fortune 500.
We’ll be savoring a dish truly to our liking by voting for Cynthia McKinney who, along with Ralph Nader, serves up blue-plate-special policies that we can actually support rather than merely stomach some less vomit-inducing slop.
Though Hooser touts Obama’s support of “Native Hawaiian recognition” the Akaka bill is a piece of century-old fish designed to steal the lands of the Kanaka Maoli “one last time fair and square”.
And Obama still supports all those little erosions of women’s control over their own bodies and though he apparently opposes “abstinence only” sex education still favors stressing abstinence in a bow to church-addled zealots.
And Obama is ready willing and able to compromise away many environmental protections, slip-sliding toward off-shore drilling, nuclear power and wherever else he can find “the middle ground”
And “universal health care” under Obama is a joke. Single government payer or “Medicare for all” is something we’ll never see when Obama takes over... just like all the other things like an end to the current wars, a dismantling of the war machine and an end to the cockamamie wars on terror, drugs and people as contained in the new FISA act and other repressive homeland insecurity legislation..
It could be worse- be thankful for term limits.
LEAVING NO BEHIND UNSNIFFED: It’s been a rough week for our governor with the local press ridiculing her speech introducing the book-banning, wacko Alaskan governor BS artist and would-be-in-a-parallel-universe Vice President Sarah Palin at the Republican Convention in St. Paul, MN.
Now in all honesty we might have said a few disparaging words about- and so are not exactly waiting by the phone for an appointment to an advisory board from- Linda “one of the Stepford Wives” Lingle, as our brother “Triumph the Insult Comic Dog” characterized her at the 2004 Republican Convention.
But her suck-up to the right-wing-nut fringe was apparently worthy of a slew of mocking and scornful print pieces even from former supporters.
Honolulu Advertiser columnist, Kauai’s own Lee Cataluna, noted her stilted delivery which was bizarrely deliberate even for the emotionless, humorless, supposedly centrist GOP leader in touting the bible-thumping cross between Tina Fey and the pregnant cop in “Fargo” saying:
Who was that person who introduced Sarah Palin at the Republican National Convention Wednesday night? She looked like Linda Lingle, had that same Paulie Walnuts hairdo Lingle has these days. She was introduced as Linda Lingle, but she didn't sound like Linda Lingle at all.
She ... spoke ... soooooo ... slowly. It took her over 17 minutes to get through a speech that was roughly 1,200 words. That's 3 1/2 pages double-spaced. You can clip through that in five minutes if you pause a lot and have a coughing fit. Lingle is a deliberate speaker, but she's also a facile speaker and this performance was way off. Sure, stop and wait for the wild applause, but the applause wasn't THAT wild.
But the real meat of the “what-the-heck-were-you-thinking” commentary was courtesy of oft-times Lingle apologist Dave Shapiro who, in his regular Wednesday Honolulu Advertiser column, opined:
Whenever Gov. Linda Lingle tries to inflate her importance in national leadership, as she’s done this week at the Republican National Convention, it causes me to reflect on what little leadership she’s provided at home during her six years in Hawai’i’s top job...
At the GOP convention this week, Lingle has taken on a major role in selling Palin as qualified to assume the presidency after serving as mayor of a town of about 7,000 and two years as governor of one of our least populous states...
This presidential year, she'll again spend a lot of time on the Mainland campaigning for McCain, but it won't make much difference in Hawai'i legislative races; the local GOP she leads isn't even fielding candidates for 22 of the 51 House seats or six of the 12 Senate seats up this year....
Lingle's national party activity suggests that Washington is exactly where her personal political radar is pointing — presumably toward the U.S. Senate as Hawai'i's octogenarian Sens. Daniel Inouye and Daniel Akaka near retirement.
The only question seems to be whether she'll take the seemingly suicidal step of running against the iconic Inouye if he follows through with plans to seek another term in 2010 or wait until 2012 and duke it out with Ed Case and Mufi Hannemann for Akaka's seat.
Or she can hold out for vice president on the next Republican ticket.
It’s getting pretty obvious that Lingle hasn’t got a prayer of even getting elected Maui dog catcher after her six year royal reign of taking cronyism, misplaced loyalty, political parsing and partisan pugnaciousness to a level unimagined by the past Democratic despots like former Hawai`i governors Waihe`e and Cayetano.
Even her devoted minions have ditched her if a letter in today’s Star Bulletin is indicative of her supporter’s current sentiment.
John Cheever of Honolulu writes
Did Lingle reveal true colors in GOP speech?
I used to feel sorry for Gov. Linda Lingle having to contend with an overwhelming Democratic majority in the Legislature.
However, after hearing her speak at the Republican convention, I'm beginning to be very thankful — despite the frequent dysfunction of the Hawai'i Democrats — for that check on her power.
To hear her celebrating Sarah Palin's socially conservative values and strict adherence to freetrade ideology certainly contrasted with what she says in front of local crowds and seemed very out of step with most Hawai'i residents.
I realize she was speaking to a partisan crowd and had to highlight certain important talking points, but in agreeing to do the bidding of her party did she also reveal her true colors?
I, for one, will think twice about voting for her again when she most likely runs for national office in 2010 or 2012, and I hope other local people listened to what she had to say and will remember that in the future.
In a politically progressive state like Hawai`i where the Republicans meet in a roomy sardine can as it is, you’d think that if a lame duck like Lingle has any further political ambitions the last place she’d want to be seen is sucking up to the worst of the evangelical fascist crowd.
Perhaps Lingle has realized that no one in Hawai`i is going to vote for her for anything anymore and the only prayer she has for future employment rests in a McCain administration where she hopes to fit right in with an ain’t-gonna-happen third term for Bushista regime.
But the press is always timid when it comes to actually pointing out the emperor’s lack of suitable attire so it was left to a Democratic partisan- our own State Senator, Majority Leader Gary Hooser- to lay it on the line by describing how little Lingle apparently cares about the people of the state when it comes to a choice between her own future and ours.
People may criticize the piece with a “what would you expect from the Senate majority leader” but it’s hard to argue with what he says about the grand imperial wizard of Washington Place.
In a piece from his on again off again blog that was rejected by both Honolulu papers as well as the Kaua`i daily fish-wrap Hooser took advantage of Lingle’s fanatical foibles to lambaste her in a gutsy manner and in a tone you don’t hear much from elected leaders in a piece titled “Lingle/Aiona: Out of step and out of touch”.
He wrote:
While local and national conservatives alike praised Governor Lingle's recent speech before the Republican National Convention, for most in Hawaii it is just further evidence of how out of touch she really is.
It is no wonder that Republicans in Hawaii are fleeing their party in droves. Like GenXer's caught at a Polka fest, they can't get to the door fast enough. Unable to field competent candidates in the upcoming election they have left some 32 seats totally uncontested, and filled others with marginal conservatives totally out of touch with mainstream Hawaii.
Whether delivered by John McCain or Linda Lingle, the Republican message is simply the wrong tune - out of step, out of style and out of touch.
The de facto head of the Hawai‘i Republican party, Governor Linda Lingle, along with her chief wing man Lieutenant Governor Duke Aiona, are both in St. Paul this week, praising the failed administration of President Bush and Senator John 'Four More Years' McCain, and working hard to defeat Hawai‘i-born Senator Barack Obama.
Why on earth would they be doing this?
Party politics aside, there is no question whatsoever that the vast majority of Hawaii residents support Barack Obama to be the next President of the United States. Opposing Senator Obama is akin to cheering for Georgia at the Sugar Bowl and hoping for the defeat of the University of Hawaii Warriors.
Without a doubt, the candidate who will offer Hawai‘i the greatest direct benefits would be Barack Obama. Clearly he would continue to visit his place of birth—our island home—to spend time with family and friends. The attention would serve Hawai‘i well, and our Congressional delegation would surely benefit from having a Democratic President with strong Hawai‘i ties.
Governor Lingle once called President Bush 'the best President ever,' so it is not surprising that she believes John McCain 'is a perfect person to elect president of the United States at this time,' as was reported in the Honolulu media.
Senator McCain has been quoted often in support of the Bush administration’s decisions over the past eight years, and he voted with the President over ninety percent of the time. Except perhaps for Rush Limbaugh, Carl Rove and now apparently Governor Lingle and Lieutenant Governor Aiona, few people will deny that the past eight years of the Bush administration have been an unmitigated disaster.
'Bush lied and people died' is more than a catchy slogan on a t-shirt - it is the truth. Lingle, Aiona, and the John McCain's of our country may look the other way in denial but the world community, backed by the overwhelming weight of the evidence knows it is the sad and brutal truth.
The election of Senator John McCain will only perpetuate the policies—and errors—of the past. Our country, our world and our community cannot afford four more years of this downward spiral.
McCain and the Republicans do not support Native Hawaiian recognition, and yet our Native Hawaiian Lieutenant Governor and our supposedly pro-recognition Governor still insist on supporting them. And they oppose Barack Obama who has pledged his support for the full recognition of Hawaii's indigenous people.
In light of the Hawaii connection and the obvious strong support for Obama by their state’s voters, the Governor and Lieutenant Governor could easily have refused an active role in the Republican convention and the McCain campaign. The leaders of their party would have understood. No one in either party would expect the Governor or Lieutenant Governor to campaign actively against their state’s 'favorite son.
'The role they have embraced at the convention is not simply an appropriate response to a party obligation; this is political pandering at its worst. Governor Lingle and Lieutenant Governor Aiona will be stumping this week for candidates who not only oppose Barack Obama, but who oppose Native Hawaiian recognition, oppose a woman's right to choose, oppose sex education in our schools, oppose equal rights being granted to all people, oppose environmental regulation, and oppose universal health care.
And why would our Governor and Lieutenant Governor be doing this?
It has to be about the money because it can't be about the votes. Lingle and Aiona are more likely to lose votes in their next elections as voters recall their opposition of Obama and support of Bush/McCain. Their aggressive support for McCain and opposition to Obama isn’t about votes, and it’s not about principle. It is about money.
While losing votes and working to reduce our state’s political capital, Lingle and Aiona will gain national recognition and make points with national Republican funding groups. Both will likely do quite handsomely in the fund-raising department during the coming run-up to 2010, and both are most likely betting the memory of the electorate will be short while the pockets of their mainland contributors will be deep.
The elephant in the room that no one has quite stated in so many words is that in these days of upcoming economic calamity it seems Lingle is all too ready to push her constituents under the bus for her political ambitions.
If given her druthers she’d apparently deal a vicious blow to our local economy by putting the kibosh on the expected “Obama Birthplace Tourism” that will follow his election, as it has every other president.
Activist songwriter Jackson Browne has sung “I ain’t no Democrat, but I sure ain’t no Republican” and we resemble that remark.
Unlike Gary we’re not quite hungry enough to choke down whole the bland if not distasteful lack of choice servings on the public policy menu that Obama/Biden presents no matter how much smothering salt and spice it has.
Just like McCain, Obama’s lips have never met a corporate butt they’re not willing to kiss and no matter what happens in November the USA Inc. will still be a wholly owned subsidiary of the Fortune 500.
We’ll be savoring a dish truly to our liking by voting for Cynthia McKinney who, along with Ralph Nader, serves up blue-plate-special policies that we can actually support rather than merely stomach some less vomit-inducing slop.
Though Hooser touts Obama’s support of “Native Hawaiian recognition” the Akaka bill is a piece of century-old fish designed to steal the lands of the Kanaka Maoli “one last time fair and square”.
And Obama still supports all those little erosions of women’s control over their own bodies and though he apparently opposes “abstinence only” sex education still favors stressing abstinence in a bow to church-addled zealots.
And Obama is ready willing and able to compromise away many environmental protections, slip-sliding toward off-shore drilling, nuclear power and wherever else he can find “the middle ground”
And “universal health care” under Obama is a joke. Single government payer or “Medicare for all” is something we’ll never see when Obama takes over... just like all the other things like an end to the current wars, a dismantling of the war machine and an end to the cockamamie wars on terror, drugs and people as contained in the new FISA act and other repressive homeland insecurity legislation..
It could be worse- be thankful for term limits.
Tuesday, December 4, 2012
WHEEL OF MISFORTUNE
WHEEL OF MISFORTUNE: It's not as
if it's unique to Kaua`i. The expression, "It's not what you know
but who you know," wasn't coined in Lihu`e. It just seems like it
sometimes.
While it's been that way since the
island's haole sugar planters who comprised the Board of Supervisors
appointed the mayor, under the current administration cronyism is not
just the mothers' milk of our local politics but the very air it
breathes.
That's why it so scrumptious to watch them eat their young as two leviathans (as it were) of local
politics, Mayor Bernard Carvalho Jr. and Police Chief Darryl Perry,
engage in one of those 1890's bare-knuckled,
you-take-a-punch-I-take-a-punch boxing matches being staged over
once-solid alliances that have turned inward on the body politic like
antibodies rejecting a transplanted organ.
The battle over who has the right to
discipline the chief of police, the mayor or the police commission,
is not new. As a matter of fact the events that followed the last
time a skirmish was fought (although it never went to court)- when in the late 90's Mayor Marianne
Kusaka got Chief George Freitas' secretary to take away his gun and
badge ostensibly because he gave his fiancee a ride in his official
police vehicle- has led directly, in a strange karmic way, to
today's standoff.
For those who have been doing a Rip Van
Winkle recently, the commission vs mayor question came up earlier
this year again when Perry allegedly ignored sexual harassment
charges against one of his two assistant chiefs and coverup charges
against the other. Carvalho felt he had to step in and suspend the
chief because the county charter doesn't directly address who has the
right to discipline the chief but does give him the right to
discipline all department heads.
The court, in the person of former
councilmember and now Circuit Court Judge Randall Valenciano, ruled
in favor of the mayor, saying there was no ambiguity in the charter
despite the fact that it says that the commission hires and fires the
chief.
The commission is now reportedly
appealing the ruling despite their promise, according to earlier
reports, to let Valenciano decide without any appeal. And for some
crazy reason (coming from
the person whose initials are MR) the county council
has just voted to fund the appeal as they did with the original case.
But back to the chain of craters from
Chiefs Freitas to Perry with a speed bump named Lum thrown in in
between.
Readers of this space, and of course the
book KPD Blue (see left rail) by former Honolulu Star-Bulletin Kaua`i
Bureau Chief Anthony Sommer, know the story of how Perry coveted the
Kaua`i chief job. He and his allies engineered their way to
ousting Chief KC Lum- an "outsider" (as was Freitas) from Kansas City
(despite his Asian ancestry) who wasn't about to give deference to the
tradition of drug dealers and other assorted bad apples on the force.
This was known as "destroying
morale"... no, really.
Those allies included Mayors Kusaka
and, because he had no appetite for going up against the old boys
network upon which the crony network relies, Mayor Bryan Baptiste
when he took the county reins in 2002.
Although Baptiste had only one real
crony- Bryan Baptiste- he saw the value others gave it and always
used it to his advantage.
And included on the list of allies was,
of course, County Council Chair Kaipo Asing, the paternalistic
godfather of local government who saw to it that the Board of Ethics
removed Lum on trumped up charges in order to grease the skid for
putting Perry in the top spot.
That was the position that the GOBs
(now GOBAGs since gender has little to do with who is and who is not
a good old boy or girl these days) who felt the locally-born-and-raised
Perry was cheated out of his rightful position when, after
Freitas "retired" (with a reported $250,000
settlement/buy-out), two upstart police commissioners- Chair Michael
Ching and Vice Chair Carol Furtado- decided that the only way to end
the blatant corruption and moral ineptitude described in KPD Blue was
to appoint an "outsider", Lum, who had served for many years on
the force.
Bad move guys. Who knew? (Answer:
everybody but them).
So when Baptiste ate himself into a
deadly heart-attack (and actually tried to cover-up his own death for
two or three days), Carvalho stepped into a county where Perry was the
new god of "raised morale" in the department. And, in a "my
crony is your crony and your crony is my crony" move, he
appointed all Perry supporters to the already pro-Perry commission
that had helped engineer the ouster of Lum, Ching and Furtado...
although she actually resigned after demanding a public "trial"
in front of the ethics board where the case against all three was
then seen by all to be the politically-based purge it really was all
along.
Carvalho has always played the crony
system for all it was worth. And it has worked for him. Those who
support and even fall on their sword for him, and past purveyors of
the system, get rewarded with life-long, high-paying, county
department head or deputy jobs, like the recently-in-the-news Janine
Rapozo... but that's another story for another time.
The very last thing Carvalho thought he
would have to worry about was a renegade police commission because he
never saw the conflict with Perry coming. But when he was put in a
"damned if you do, damned if you don't" position when he
was told of Perry's alleged coverup of the harassment charges that
had gone to the EEOC already, he chose to protect himself from the
potential public outcry over a coverup of the sexual harassment
charges against the chief, who apparently tried to intimidate the
complainant.
So here we are- the police
commissioners, when pushed to show their true allegiance, chose Perry,
leaving Carvalho with his pants down and his you-know-whats exposed
and swingin' in the breeze (of public opinion anyway)... exactly what
he had hoped to avoid.
To say "what goes around comes
around" is an understatement and it all leaves those of us
looking for a good chuckle being rewarded for our patience.
We imagine Lum, Ching and Furtado- and
of course Sommer- are similarly amused.
Monday, November 29, 2010
G-MEN AND THE TWO C-MEN
G-MEN AND THE TWO C-MEN: The sudden resignation of Planning Director Ian Costa was apparently forced due to a current FBI investigation of the Kaua`i Planning Department focusing on Costa and his Deputy Imai Aiu.
According to an extremely reliable source close to the investigation, the bureau has been focusing on the planning department in recent weeks. This was also confirmed by a second source independent of the first one.
Anyone who watched the planning commission meeting last Tuesday couldn’t help but be convinced that Costa didn’t simply resign- the measured hesitating speeches, the down-looking faces, the references to a “sad day”, the reassurances by Mayor Bernard Carvalho that “no matter what” there would be “good days ahead for Costa”, even comments from commission members referring to “the situation we’re in” and “the steps we’ve taken.”
Prior to Costa’s “resignation”, at their October 26 meeting the planning commission held an executive session “to discuss matters pertaining to the Planning Director and, if necessary, to consult with the County’s legal counsel... pertain(ing) to the evaluation of the Planning Director.”
The investigation may be related to the cases upon which we reported recently that were brought before the Kaua`i Board of Ethics (BOE).
They involved the practice of department employees of taking outside work that came back to the department for approval. And it wasn’t limited to underlings but extended to Costa himself who was reportedly the subject of a complaint that he did architectural work on projects his department later approved.
Not only is this kind of thing a violation of the local Code of Ethics, if the FBI finds that there was say, a link between their work and the approvals or that the amount of work was not really commensurate with the amount they were paid or even that a kickback scheme existed, indictments could be ahead... not just for the actions themselves but under conspiracy and racketeering laws if it were found to be pervasive in the department.
But aside from the inherent nature of Carvalho’s “ode to cronyism” speech to the commission- in which he pledged to give Costa another job because their “relationship goes back to ‘hanabata’ days” and talked of how “it’s all about the relationships,” his attempt to use his “ex-officio” membership on the planning commission to promote and lobby for Deputy County Attorney Michael Dahilig as interim planning director is a huge ethics violation in and of itself.
Ethics and Sunshine watchdog Rob Abrew made it plain in his testimony before the commission.
The Kaua`i County Charter makes the mayor an “ex-officio”, non-voting member of every county board and commission. And as a member of a board or commission- which is the capacity in which Carvalho wrote he was acting in his letter to the commission- one is not permitted to lobby for a vote except during a duly agendaed and called-to-order meeting. To do so beforehand- and to make sure, as Carvalho did, that everyone saw it when it was printed on the front page of the local newspaper - is a blatant violation of HRS 92.
But that isn’t the worst ethics violation inherent in Carvalho’s request.
Most remember the case of former Police Commissioner Michael Ching who was accused of using his position on the commission to lobby for the hiring of K.C. Lum as police chief.
And although the decision was tainted by a series of manipulations by the BOE and county council to get the result they wanted, that kind of action was found to be a violation of the code of ethics which prohibits the use of one’s position to seek a special favor or benefit for another.
Ching was forced to resign and Lum’s contract was nullified.
How that case differs from the case of Planning Commission “member” Carvalho lobbying for the appointment of Dahilig as interim planning director is anything but apparent.
While details of the FBI investigation are not available just yet, it is known that they have been looking into the possibility of corruption in Kaua`i county government since the end of the Baptiste administration, as revealed by then Councilperson now Prosecutor Shaylene Iseri-Carvalho in an open council session.
She and others in county government revealed that they had been grilled- often for hours at a time- by FBI officials who then opened an office on the island for the first time.
There’s one more interesting note on Costa’s appointment by Carvalho to the post of deputy director of parks and recreation.
Back in the late 90’s then Mayor Maryanne Kusaka attempted to appoint the deputy director of the planning department, even though the county charter specifically calls for the appointment of a department directors who are then to hire and fire his or her own staff.
Then County Attorney Hartwell Blake, in a bizarre opinion, told Kusaka that it was all legal for her to hire the deputy.
That outraged another ethics and sunshine activist, Horace Stoessel, who waged a years-long battle to have the opinion reversed. When Baptiste was elected the first action of his new County Attorney, Lani Nakazawa, was to reverse the opinion.
The Nakazawa opinion stands to this day and would ban Carvalho from hiring a deputy director of parks and recreation.
Of course the Director of Parks and Recreation is one of Carvalho’s closest cronies, his former campaign director Lenny Rapozo so the actual appointment of Costa may be moot. But once again using one's position to secure a special favor or benefit for another- something Carvalho didn’t mince words in admitting he was doing in his testimony before the planning commission- is a violation of the county charter, section 20.02(E).
According to an extremely reliable source close to the investigation, the bureau has been focusing on the planning department in recent weeks. This was also confirmed by a second source independent of the first one.
Anyone who watched the planning commission meeting last Tuesday couldn’t help but be convinced that Costa didn’t simply resign- the measured hesitating speeches, the down-looking faces, the references to a “sad day”, the reassurances by Mayor Bernard Carvalho that “no matter what” there would be “good days ahead for Costa”, even comments from commission members referring to “the situation we’re in” and “the steps we’ve taken.”
Prior to Costa’s “resignation”, at their October 26 meeting the planning commission held an executive session “to discuss matters pertaining to the Planning Director and, if necessary, to consult with the County’s legal counsel... pertain(ing) to the evaluation of the Planning Director.”
The investigation may be related to the cases upon which we reported recently that were brought before the Kaua`i Board of Ethics (BOE).
They involved the practice of department employees of taking outside work that came back to the department for approval. And it wasn’t limited to underlings but extended to Costa himself who was reportedly the subject of a complaint that he did architectural work on projects his department later approved.
Not only is this kind of thing a violation of the local Code of Ethics, if the FBI finds that there was say, a link between their work and the approvals or that the amount of work was not really commensurate with the amount they were paid or even that a kickback scheme existed, indictments could be ahead... not just for the actions themselves but under conspiracy and racketeering laws if it were found to be pervasive in the department.
But aside from the inherent nature of Carvalho’s “ode to cronyism” speech to the commission- in which he pledged to give Costa another job because their “relationship goes back to ‘hanabata’ days” and talked of how “it’s all about the relationships,” his attempt to use his “ex-officio” membership on the planning commission to promote and lobby for Deputy County Attorney Michael Dahilig as interim planning director is a huge ethics violation in and of itself.
Ethics and Sunshine watchdog Rob Abrew made it plain in his testimony before the commission.
The Kaua`i County Charter makes the mayor an “ex-officio”, non-voting member of every county board and commission. And as a member of a board or commission- which is the capacity in which Carvalho wrote he was acting in his letter to the commission- one is not permitted to lobby for a vote except during a duly agendaed and called-to-order meeting. To do so beforehand- and to make sure, as Carvalho did, that everyone saw it when it was printed on the front page of the local newspaper - is a blatant violation of HRS 92.
But that isn’t the worst ethics violation inherent in Carvalho’s request.
Most remember the case of former Police Commissioner Michael Ching who was accused of using his position on the commission to lobby for the hiring of K.C. Lum as police chief.
And although the decision was tainted by a series of manipulations by the BOE and county council to get the result they wanted, that kind of action was found to be a violation of the code of ethics which prohibits the use of one’s position to seek a special favor or benefit for another.
Ching was forced to resign and Lum’s contract was nullified.
How that case differs from the case of Planning Commission “member” Carvalho lobbying for the appointment of Dahilig as interim planning director is anything but apparent.
While details of the FBI investigation are not available just yet, it is known that they have been looking into the possibility of corruption in Kaua`i county government since the end of the Baptiste administration, as revealed by then Councilperson now Prosecutor Shaylene Iseri-Carvalho in an open council session.
She and others in county government revealed that they had been grilled- often for hours at a time- by FBI officials who then opened an office on the island for the first time.
There’s one more interesting note on Costa’s appointment by Carvalho to the post of deputy director of parks and recreation.
Back in the late 90’s then Mayor Maryanne Kusaka attempted to appoint the deputy director of the planning department, even though the county charter specifically calls for the appointment of a department directors who are then to hire and fire his or her own staff.
Then County Attorney Hartwell Blake, in a bizarre opinion, told Kusaka that it was all legal for her to hire the deputy.
That outraged another ethics and sunshine activist, Horace Stoessel, who waged a years-long battle to have the opinion reversed. When Baptiste was elected the first action of his new County Attorney, Lani Nakazawa, was to reverse the opinion.
The Nakazawa opinion stands to this day and would ban Carvalho from hiring a deputy director of parks and recreation.
Of course the Director of Parks and Recreation is one of Carvalho’s closest cronies, his former campaign director Lenny Rapozo so the actual appointment of Costa may be moot. But once again using one's position to secure a special favor or benefit for another- something Carvalho didn’t mince words in admitting he was doing in his testimony before the planning commission- is a violation of the county charter, section 20.02(E).
Friday, November 28, 2008
PLUGGING HOLES
PLUGGING HOLES: One striking Mayoral appointment that was missing from the report we cited the other day was included in another list in the local paper yesterday.
And it shouldn’t come as any surprise that cronyism and provincialism are apparently alive and well in the Bernard Carvalho administration as the most praised and extraordinarily skilled and competent department head is going to replaced with a good old boy hack from corrupt administrations past.
According to the paper the new director of the Housing Agency will be former Deputy Finance Director for the county from 1994 to 2002. under Mayor Maryanne Kusaka and former housing head before that- Eugene Jimenez., who like the rest of the appointees was of course rewarded with a job for his work on Carvalho’s campaign.
But who he will be replacing should speak volumes to anyone who thought they should “give Bernard a chance” to show he’s not as corrupt and dumb as he appears to be.
That man is Ken Rainforth. For those who don’t attend or watch council meetings let us clue you in.
We’ve spoken a lot about how department heads do a little dance before the council because they cannot be compelled to testify much less forced to tell the council the truth due to the “strong mayor” aspects of our county charter.
Rainforth has been the exception that proves the rule for many years and there is no other department head that has received such persistent and unanimous acclaim, praise and thanks from the council for not only the work he has done but the fact that he has been the only one that’s been consistently forthcoming with full, accurate information.
Unlike almost every other department head, we’ve never seen a time when a housing matter was on the council agenda when Rainforth wasn’t there in the chamber to answer questions- whether he was asked to be there or not.
Not only that, he never used the “I’ll have to ask my assistant” dodge we’ve described a few times where the matters are deferred over and over until they are replaced with another crisis of mismanagement and councilmembers finally just give up on their administration-oversight responsibilities .
That’s because he usually, shockingly, actually anticipates the questions the council will ask and brings the assistant with him if the council has to have the details of the work described.
As a matter of fact his considered testimony actually- gasp- answered the council’s questions directly honestly and fully. When the council would send a written advance list of questions to be answered he did what no others seemed capable of doing- getting through the list without “pulling a Sarah Palin” by saying “I’ll have to check that and get back to you”.
Unlike Carvalho when he came before the council, Rainforth would actually use a “Power-Point” presentation to not just outline a reiteration of the questions asked like Bernard, he’d actually put the answers in the presentation... imagine that.
Just last month he came in with a list of available federal housing grants that he had dug out causing councilmembers to say aloud they wished other department heads would take that kind of initiative or even had that kind of ability.
He also spent the last two years negotiating a document long missing from the county arsenal detailing a consistent, systemic approach to affordable housing requirements for developers.
Until the council recently instituted a standard requirement, they were assessed on a whim on a case by case basis by the corrupt planning department and commission, often giving connected developers a break that “the little guy” would never get.
That created a methodology that, given the right wing, “property rights” bent of courts these days, gave the county exposure to civil charges of inconsistency and a lack of basis for these “assessments” such as the recent case with a Kapa`a development.
Setting a standard had been something the council and “others” in the Baptiste administration- including the planning department which should have been responsible along with Baptiste’s “affordable housing task force” that was delegated responsibility- couldn’t seem to get together despite having it on their “to do” list for many years.
The “others” is in quotes because one of the “others” was none “other” than the task force’s head honcho (guess who?) Bernard Carvalho who was Rainforth's “boss” when he was the head of the “community assistance” agency. that oversaw, among other things, county housing.
Those who followed the recent campaign will remember one of the few times the two final mayoral candidates “mixed it up” it was over the Carvalho’s task force’s recommendation that, in lieu of actual affordable housing being provided in exchange for zoning permits for the Kaua`i Lagoons project, the county accept $25,000 per unit instead of actual housing.
The council thought this absurd and of course called in Rainforth who described what he was working on- since nobody else seemed competent enough to do it- in the area of a standard for affordable housing and compared it with Maui that has the highest requirement in the state if not the country- a solid 50%.
Parenthetically this 50% is opposed to the much lower standard with loopholes galore that our council eventually passed after pressuring Rainforth to go back and lower the requirements that originally, for the most part, mirrored Maui’s.
The council then, rather than accepting Carvalho’s recommendation for a paltry $1.6 million donation to some county housing fund,. required 83 units to be actually built with a cost to the developer of up to $300,000 a piece- a whopping $275.000 difference per unit required (for a county in the middle of a housing crisis).making a contribution of $22,825 million more than Carvalho wanted to accept.
Amazingly enough when Carvalho’s opponent JoAnn Yukimura brought up the whole debacle in a live televised debate Carvalho used his “last word” to say “well the 83 units got built, right? What’s the problem”... though of course it was built no thanks to him.
Jimenez on the other hand was the assistant chief cooker of the books during the Kusaka administration and is widely credited with instituting her failed “program-based budget” system that wound up being trashed after the “last straw” of Kusaka’s use of county funds to secretly lease herself a red luxury Chrysler.
“Program-based” budgeting was a concoction of “a new era cooperation” that the council and newly elected mayor instituted whereby each “program”- or really whole department in many cases- were given a lump sum of money to spend as they saw fit without council oversight or even a need for a report to the council of how it was being spent in most cases.
This allowed the budget sessions to be abbreviated allowing for increased revenues at the golf course with all the free time the council had.
It came about after Kusaka discovered the Steve Covey “Seven Habits” of Highly Manipulative A-holes classes which were basically a series of feel-good seminars and workshops focused on creating so-called “win-win” situations,
There, problem solving was accomplished by ignoring the problem and basically telling the losers to shut up and sit down and not complain when they were railroaded.
This allowed the devious Kusaka to do what the program really does- allow unscrupulous people to get way with that which would be unimaginable if transparency triumphed over complacency.
When the high-priced, leased-car purchase- made at full or more than full price from her former campaign manager Charlie King of King Auto (now there’s a “win win”)- was discovered (because some of the regular council “nitpickers” were asking questions about the big red Chrysler” she was seen driving around) the council freaked out at the “smoking gun” of abuse of the system and chucked program-based budgeting, going back to the standard “line item” budget process..
Jimenez was the henchman in the trenches of the finance department that helped devise and execute the system and was responsible for secretly juggling the books over the years to make sure no one knew where county money was being spent,
This allowed the council and mayor to do more important things like fast tracking zoning approval for any and every development that came down the pike.
The appointments of both the new county attorney and county engineer (as the head of the Dept of Public Works is known) are not in yet but that may be because they are positions that have actual charter-based professional requirements and apparently none of the assorted cronies and bozos in Carvalho’s campaign is qualified.
Actually the County Engineer post stood vacant for many years before the current stumblebum, Donald Fujimoto took the job because no one qualified wanted the job.
The county engineer position then became a socket to screw cronies into by making them “deputy” county engineer and having them act as the chief, as when current Planning Director Ian Costa served both Kusaka and Baptiste even though he was not qualified for the job.
That was because Kusaka’s other solution- changing the requirements- was rejected by the people in a failed charter amendment proposal.
Before Fujimoto took over they actually had an attorney in charge for a while because they were under such fire over things like the Jimmy Pflueger’s and Tom McCloskey’s “Developers Gone Wild” televised video presentations of grubbing and grading violations... which the county ignored until Pflueger’s actually killed people.
But you can bet this is only the beginning. Watch for more of the same Baptiste-style lack of action and pervasive corruption to be the order of each day under Carvalho... only more corrupt and without the (place tongue in cheek) “political savvy” of Baptiste.
And to think there were actually times when, for a brief moment we got a notion that it was possible that Carvalho might deny us a pathetic and transparently corrupt administration, ripe for two years of daily ridicule, by running a smart competent operation.
Glad we nipped that one in the bud.
And it shouldn’t come as any surprise that cronyism and provincialism are apparently alive and well in the Bernard Carvalho administration as the most praised and extraordinarily skilled and competent department head is going to replaced with a good old boy hack from corrupt administrations past.
According to the paper the new director of the Housing Agency will be former Deputy Finance Director for the county from 1994 to 2002. under Mayor Maryanne Kusaka and former housing head before that- Eugene Jimenez., who like the rest of the appointees was of course rewarded with a job for his work on Carvalho’s campaign.
But who he will be replacing should speak volumes to anyone who thought they should “give Bernard a chance” to show he’s not as corrupt and dumb as he appears to be.
That man is Ken Rainforth. For those who don’t attend or watch council meetings let us clue you in.
We’ve spoken a lot about how department heads do a little dance before the council because they cannot be compelled to testify much less forced to tell the council the truth due to the “strong mayor” aspects of our county charter.
Rainforth has been the exception that proves the rule for many years and there is no other department head that has received such persistent and unanimous acclaim, praise and thanks from the council for not only the work he has done but the fact that he has been the only one that’s been consistently forthcoming with full, accurate information.
Unlike almost every other department head, we’ve never seen a time when a housing matter was on the council agenda when Rainforth wasn’t there in the chamber to answer questions- whether he was asked to be there or not.
Not only that, he never used the “I’ll have to ask my assistant” dodge we’ve described a few times where the matters are deferred over and over until they are replaced with another crisis of mismanagement and councilmembers finally just give up on their administration-oversight responsibilities .
That’s because he usually, shockingly, actually anticipates the questions the council will ask and brings the assistant with him if the council has to have the details of the work described.
As a matter of fact his considered testimony actually- gasp- answered the council’s questions directly honestly and fully. When the council would send a written advance list of questions to be answered he did what no others seemed capable of doing- getting through the list without “pulling a Sarah Palin” by saying “I’ll have to check that and get back to you”.
Unlike Carvalho when he came before the council, Rainforth would actually use a “Power-Point” presentation to not just outline a reiteration of the questions asked like Bernard, he’d actually put the answers in the presentation... imagine that.
Just last month he came in with a list of available federal housing grants that he had dug out causing councilmembers to say aloud they wished other department heads would take that kind of initiative or even had that kind of ability.
He also spent the last two years negotiating a document long missing from the county arsenal detailing a consistent, systemic approach to affordable housing requirements for developers.
Until the council recently instituted a standard requirement, they were assessed on a whim on a case by case basis by the corrupt planning department and commission, often giving connected developers a break that “the little guy” would never get.
That created a methodology that, given the right wing, “property rights” bent of courts these days, gave the county exposure to civil charges of inconsistency and a lack of basis for these “assessments” such as the recent case with a Kapa`a development.
Setting a standard had been something the council and “others” in the Baptiste administration- including the planning department which should have been responsible along with Baptiste’s “affordable housing task force” that was delegated responsibility- couldn’t seem to get together despite having it on their “to do” list for many years.
The “others” is in quotes because one of the “others” was none “other” than the task force’s head honcho (guess who?) Bernard Carvalho who was Rainforth's “boss” when he was the head of the “community assistance” agency. that oversaw, among other things, county housing.
Those who followed the recent campaign will remember one of the few times the two final mayoral candidates “mixed it up” it was over the Carvalho’s task force’s recommendation that, in lieu of actual affordable housing being provided in exchange for zoning permits for the Kaua`i Lagoons project, the county accept $25,000 per unit instead of actual housing.
The council thought this absurd and of course called in Rainforth who described what he was working on- since nobody else seemed competent enough to do it- in the area of a standard for affordable housing and compared it with Maui that has the highest requirement in the state if not the country- a solid 50%.
Parenthetically this 50% is opposed to the much lower standard with loopholes galore that our council eventually passed after pressuring Rainforth to go back and lower the requirements that originally, for the most part, mirrored Maui’s.
The council then, rather than accepting Carvalho’s recommendation for a paltry $1.6 million donation to some county housing fund,. required 83 units to be actually built with a cost to the developer of up to $300,000 a piece- a whopping $275.000 difference per unit required (for a county in the middle of a housing crisis).making a contribution of $22,825 million more than Carvalho wanted to accept.
Amazingly enough when Carvalho’s opponent JoAnn Yukimura brought up the whole debacle in a live televised debate Carvalho used his “last word” to say “well the 83 units got built, right? What’s the problem”... though of course it was built no thanks to him.
Jimenez on the other hand was the assistant chief cooker of the books during the Kusaka administration and is widely credited with instituting her failed “program-based budget” system that wound up being trashed after the “last straw” of Kusaka’s use of county funds to secretly lease herself a red luxury Chrysler.
“Program-based” budgeting was a concoction of “a new era cooperation” that the council and newly elected mayor instituted whereby each “program”- or really whole department in many cases- were given a lump sum of money to spend as they saw fit without council oversight or even a need for a report to the council of how it was being spent in most cases.
This allowed the budget sessions to be abbreviated allowing for increased revenues at the golf course with all the free time the council had.
It came about after Kusaka discovered the Steve Covey “Seven Habits” of Highly Manipulative A-holes classes which were basically a series of feel-good seminars and workshops focused on creating so-called “win-win” situations,
There, problem solving was accomplished by ignoring the problem and basically telling the losers to shut up and sit down and not complain when they were railroaded.
This allowed the devious Kusaka to do what the program really does- allow unscrupulous people to get way with that which would be unimaginable if transparency triumphed over complacency.
When the high-priced, leased-car purchase- made at full or more than full price from her former campaign manager Charlie King of King Auto (now there’s a “win win”)- was discovered (because some of the regular council “nitpickers” were asking questions about the big red Chrysler” she was seen driving around) the council freaked out at the “smoking gun” of abuse of the system and chucked program-based budgeting, going back to the standard “line item” budget process..
Jimenez was the henchman in the trenches of the finance department that helped devise and execute the system and was responsible for secretly juggling the books over the years to make sure no one knew where county money was being spent,
This allowed the council and mayor to do more important things like fast tracking zoning approval for any and every development that came down the pike.
The appointments of both the new county attorney and county engineer (as the head of the Dept of Public Works is known) are not in yet but that may be because they are positions that have actual charter-based professional requirements and apparently none of the assorted cronies and bozos in Carvalho’s campaign is qualified.
Actually the County Engineer post stood vacant for many years before the current stumblebum, Donald Fujimoto took the job because no one qualified wanted the job.
The county engineer position then became a socket to screw cronies into by making them “deputy” county engineer and having them act as the chief, as when current Planning Director Ian Costa served both Kusaka and Baptiste even though he was not qualified for the job.
That was because Kusaka’s other solution- changing the requirements- was rejected by the people in a failed charter amendment proposal.
Before Fujimoto took over they actually had an attorney in charge for a while because they were under such fire over things like the Jimmy Pflueger’s and Tom McCloskey’s “Developers Gone Wild” televised video presentations of grubbing and grading violations... which the county ignored until Pflueger’s actually killed people.
But you can bet this is only the beginning. Watch for more of the same Baptiste-style lack of action and pervasive corruption to be the order of each day under Carvalho... only more corrupt and without the (place tongue in cheek) “political savvy” of Baptiste.
And to think there were actually times when, for a brief moment we got a notion that it was possible that Carvalho might deny us a pathetic and transparently corrupt administration, ripe for two years of daily ridicule, by running a smart competent operation.
Glad we nipped that one in the bud.
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