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.

(PNN) PROSECUTOR ISERI UNDER FIRE FOR MISMANAGEMENT AND MALTREATMENT OF EMPLOYEES OF VICTIM WITNESS PROGRAM

(PNN) PROSECUTOR ISERI UNDER FIRE FOR MISMANAGEMENT AND MALTREATMENT OF EMPLOYEES OF VICTIM WITNESS PROGRAM; LETTER TO COUNCIL FROM LAID-OFF COUNSELOR CHARGES PROGRAM IS INEFFECTIVE, IN DISARRAY

(PNN) 17.

That's the answer usually given by former and current employees at the Office of the Prosecuting Attorney (OPA) to many of the questions as to why there are so many charges of mismanagement and ill-treatment of employees in Prosecutor Shaylene Iseri-Carvalho's office.

That's because 17 is the number of "Deputy Attorneys who had been hired and either terminated or left on their own accord from OPA" according to a scathing letter to the Kaua`i County Council by Erin Wilson, a former Victim Witness Counselor at the OPA.

Wilson's letter- which is published here in full (below at the end of this article)- was submitted as testimony on a communication at yesterday's (January 11, 2012) council meeting. The communication asked for Iseri to come before the council to discuss "the status of the Victim Witness Program and Office of the Prosecuting Attorney."

The matter was deferred for two weeks until January 25 however because Iseri submitted a letter saying she was "sick," according to Council Chair Jay Furfaro.

The issues Iseri will discuss in two weeks, according to the agenda, include:

1) Case backlog caused by furloughs.
2) Funding - how utilized and whether sufficient to address concerns.
3) Levels of staffing and level of service for the Victim Witness program.
4) Caseload open, closed and pending

The issue dates back to May 6, 2009 according to Councilmember Tim Bynum when Iseri was summoned to appear before the council to answer the same questions but never did because, Bynum said the minutes of that meeting show, he was cut off from his line of questioning by then Council Chair Kaipo Asing.

Asing claimed Bynum's questioning of Iseri was a Sunshine (open meetings) Law violation because it was off the subject of the agenda. However according to Bynum, more than a year later the Office of Information Practices (OIP), which oversees the Sunshine Law, ruled his line of questioning did not violate the law.

Bynum famously feuded with Asing over many matters of council process and rules during Asing's tenure and is currently involved in a well-known, long-standing feud with Iseri dating back to her days on the council with Bynum.

Until yesterday the latest chapter in the conflict has been what Bynum claims is his malicious, first-of-its-kind prosecution by Iseri for a permitting violation, apparently spurred by Bynum having had a rice cooker in a family room of his home which, Iseri claims, is a zoning violation because technically, with the presence of a sink, it created a unpermitted separate living unit.

Wilson spoke of the number "17" by saying:

After asking many employees at OPA why the delay on the above referenced case and others I had been assigned to, I was consistently referred to one number...17. This number was significant because there had been 17 Deputy Attorneys who had been hired and either terminated or left on their own accord from OPA. 17 was a significant number because the prosecutor’s office is a relatively small office to begin with. 17 was a significant number because all of these 17 former employees had left the office since the current OPA Leadership was elected into office. Most importantly, 17 was a significant number because it answered some of my questions about why a large backlog of cases had either sat for long periods of time without victims being contacted, defendants being indicted, or passed on from deputy to deputy through the revolving door at OPA.

Some of the allegations in Wilson's letter are that:

- NOTHING could be done without the direct approval and oversight of the elected prosecutor. In fact, office staff received an email from the Prosecutor’s Office leadership, stating that staff was not to send emails to any outside agencies unless discussed with the OPA leadership prior to sending. Furthermore, OPA Leadership asked to be cc’ed on all other emails to outside agencies.

- The process by which OPA would receive completed investigations and then assigned to the appropriate Deputy and Victim Witness Counselor was ambiguous. The time frame with which the assignment would take place was even more vague and varied week to week. Sometimes cases would be reviewed by the Prosecutor and assigned to a Deputy Attorney and Victim Witness Counselor right away. Other times, as I found out with my caseload, would take months upon months before even being assigned to a Deputy or Counselor for any action to be taken.

- In a letter to County Council dated January 19, 2011 regarding furloughs, the Elected Prosecutor, Shaylene Iseri-Carvalho, states that as a result of furloughs,

'OPA, the sole agency to file the criminal documents with the court and/or prepare for hearings, wasn’t able to accomplish its duties in a number of cases because there was insufficient staff to prepare them in an expedited and timely manner.'

I beg to differ. I would suggest instead, it is the constant revolving door of employees that has caused a tremendous backlog of cases at OPA. Even the office letterhead is constantly changing and currently reflects that about half of the Deputies that were listed on the above referenced letter, dated January 19th, 2011, have left OPA within the past year. All, I would suggest, to the detriment of Kauaiian families and community.

- The elected prosecutor demoted the former Victim Witness Director, Diana Gausepohl-White and effectively eliminated the Director position altogether. What did this mean for the Victim Witness program? It meant that our Victim Witness program no longer had a leader in Victim Witness services to provide oversight of day to day operations and management of the program. It also resulted in drastic changes in the scope of services that Victim Witness Counselors were allowed to offer... After the Victim Witness Director position was eliminated, these components of our comprehensive program diminished or ceased to exist.

- The current OPA Leadership also promotes the perception that Victim Witness Counselors have little importance within the office and are perceived as such by many of the attorneys, clerks, and other staff at OPA.

- I am no longer employed with the Prosecutor’s Office as I was informed on November 9th that I was being laid off and my position as Victim Witness Counselor was being eliminated from the office due to “lack of work”. This “lack of work” described in the letter that OPA gave me is in stark contrast to the much needed Victim Witness Counselor that the elected prosecutor requested monies for, in her letter (just a few months ago) to County Council dated June 13th, 2011. Despite this “lack of work” the office has hired several people including a Receptionist, a Process Server, two (2) Law Clerks, and a Law Office Assistant position which was created for the previous Secretary--all since my last day of employment, November 23rd, 2011. Furthermore, OPA has done nothing to preserve my employment despite that the County of Kauai Employee Handbook (page 17) Layoff Policy states that they will give 90 days’ notice prior to instilling a Reduction in Workforce or Layoff. I am certain that the victims who call OPA on a daily basis requesting an update on their case status or the victims of the most recent surge of crime on Kauai, could have used the services I provided as a Victim Witness Counselor.

At yesterday's meeting, while Bynum was trying to give the history of the issues being aired before the council and the Asing/Sunshine Law/OIP matter, Councilperson Mel Rapozo, famously an extremely close ally and employee of Iseri's, tried to stop Bynum from speaking by claiming the statement he was making violated the Sunshine Law, interrupting Bynum twice and appealing to Furfaro to stop Bynum.

After getting huffy at the notion that he was being accused of ducking the issue- even though Bynum said no such thing- Furfaro allowed Bynum to finish his statement.

Rapozo serves summonses for Iseri's office despite a ban on councilmembers doing more than $500 worth of work for the county. He and Iseri have thus far successfully circumvented the provision by breaking the contracts up into parcels of less than $500 each and also have claimed that Rapozo is the only one on the island who can do the work based on the fact that no one else bid on it.

Part of the intent of the law is to make sure that councilmembers cannot use their power to intimidate others from bidding on a contract upon which the councilmember is bidding.

Council Vice Chair JoAnn Yukimura- who sent the communication to the council requesting Iseri's presence- referred to Wilson's letter and asked that staff contact former Victim Witness Director, Diana Gausepohl-White and request that she be present to testify at the January 25 meeting.

Iseri is up for reelection this year and will face current Deputy County Attorney with the Kaua`i Police Department, Justin Kollar.

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Erin Wilson's letter to the Kaua`i County Council


Date: January 10, 2012

To: Jay Furfaro, Chair
Joann Yukimura, Vice Chair
Tim Bynum
Dicky Chang
KipuKai Kuali’i
Mel Rapozo
Nadine Nakamura

From: Erin Wilson, Former Victim Witness Counselor at OPA
Re: Council Meeting Agenda Item C 2012-08

First of all let me say thank you for your time and providing an opportunity for public comment on the Office of the Prosecuting Attorney (OPA) and Victim Witness Program (VWP) at your meeting today. I believe my circumstance is unique to any other and I appreciate the opportunity to share some of my experiences with you in hopes that you will consider what I have to say as an opportunity to improve services at OPA and the Victim Witness Program.

I am a single mom who moved to Kauai in August 2011 from Colorado with my 6 year old son because I was offered a position as a Victim Witness Counselor at the Office of the Prosecuting Attorney. This was in my mind, a dream job, where I could use my passion for helping others, advocating for victims of crime. Within a few days of working, I was assigned to work on the most serious of crimes including murder, negligent homicide, assault, robbery, theft, etc. In this position, my responsibilities included making contact with victims to find out how they were coping, finding out what their needs are, helping victims apply for Crime Victim Compensation, finding local resources, getting victims registered for SAVIN (a victim notification system), and let victims know about other civil remedies. Most importantly, my job was to listen to our victims.

I quickly learned at OPA that NOTHING could be done without the direct approval and oversight of the elected prosecutor. In fact, office staff received an email from the Prosecutor’s Office leadership, stating that staff was not to send emails to any outside agencies unless discussed with the OPA leadership prior to sending. Furthermore, OPA Leadership asked to be cc’ed on all other emails to outside agencies. I was very surprised by this as I had not worked in such an environment where communication with related agencies (agencies we interface with) was restricted in such a manner.

The process by which OPA would receive completed investigations and then assigned to the appropriate Deputy and Victim Witness Counselor was ambiguous. The time frame with which the assignment would take place was even more vague and varied week to week. Sometimes cases would be reviewed by the Prosecutor and assigned to a Deputy Attorney and Victim Witness Counselor right away. Other times, as I found out with my caseload, would take months upon months before even being assigned to a Deputy or Counselor for any action to be taken.

In one case that was assigned to me, there were several victims of a violent crime. Prior to making initial contact with the victims, I reviewed the police reports so as to be fully prepared when I contacted the victims and their families, being fully aware of what happened. What I was unable to prepare for was the anger and frustration these families felt when I met with them the first time in our office and learned that after 17 months, I was the first person to contact them from the Prosecutor's Office. In those 17 months, none of the victims or their families had been contacted by anyone at the Prosecutor’s office to offer condolences (there had been a death resulting from the crime) or inform the families about their rights to Victim Witness services, Crime Victim Compensation, or any other related community services that they were entitled to. It was not that the Deputies or Victim Witness Counselors were not working hard on their caseloads, but rather, the victims’ receipt of services could have occurred much earlier in this case and many others, had the case(s) been assigned by OPA Leadership in a timelier manner. Many of the cases I came across had sat waiting for screening and prosecution or declination for long periods of time. Cases had sat for so long that in some situations, the statute of limitations had run out on certain counts of crimes and the defendants could no longer be charged, leaving victims helpless.

After asking many employees at OPA why the delay on the above referenced case and others I had been assigned to, I was consistently referred to one number...17. This number was significant because there had been 17 Deputy Attorneys who had been hired and either terminated or left on their own accord from OPA. 17 was a significant number because the prosecutor’s office is a relatively small office to begin with. 17 was a significant number because all of these 17 former employees had left the office since the current OPA Leadership was elected into office. Most importantly, 17 was a significant number because it answered some of my questions about why a large backlog of cases had either sat for long periods of time without victims being contacted, defendants being indicted, or passed on from deputy to deputy through the revolving door at OPA.

In a letter to County Council dated January 19, 2011 regarding furloughs, the Elected Prosecutor, Shaylene Iseri-Carvalho, states that as a result of furloughs,

“OPA, the sole agency to file the criminal documents with the court and/or prepare for hearings, wasn’t able to accomplish its duties in a number of cases because there was insufficient staff to prepare them in an expedited and timely manner.”

I beg to differ. I would suggest instead, it is the constant revolving door of employees that has caused a tremendous backlog of cases at OPA. Even the office letterhead is constantly changing and currently reflects that about half of the Deputies that were listed on the above referenced letter, dated January 19th, 2011, have left OPA within the past year. All, I would suggest, to the detriment of Kauaiian families and community.

There was another significant factor that limited the scope of Victim Witness Services at OPA. The elected prosecutor demoted the former Victim Witness Director, Diana Gausepohl-White and effectively eliminated the Director position altogether. What did this mean for the Victim Witness program? It meant that our Victim Witness program no longer had a leader in Victim Witness services to provide oversight of day to day operations and management of the program. It also resulted in drastic changes in the scope of services that Victim Witness Counselors were allowed to offer. For example, before the Director position was eliminated, the VWP offered services such as Outreach programs, crime scene support upon request, alliances with multiple community agencies. After the Victim Witness Director position was eliminated, these components of our comprehensive program diminished or ceased to exist. Another downfall to eliminating the Director position was the inability to maintain relationships with agencies that the VWP interfaces with on Kauai, in the state of Hawaii (ex. Victim Witness Coordinator meetings) as well as nationwide organizations such as National Organization for Victim Advocacy (NOVA). These former relationships made our Victim Witness program at the Prosecutor’s Office stand out among others in the Pacific region.

Losing the Victim Witness Director at OPA, we also lost accountability for an equitable distribution of workloads among the Counselors. For example, each Counselor is assigned to certain types of cases such as Property, Crimes Against Persons, Firearms, etc. without regard to the intensity of the case or the needs of the victims and witnesses. The current OPA Leadership also promotes the perception that Victim Witness Counselors have little importance within the office and are perceived as such by many of the attorneys, clerks, and other staff at OPA. For example, in one conversation I had with a Deputy Attorney at OPA, two Victim Witness Counselors were referred to as “worthless.” In a separate conversation I had with a Prosecutor, it was stated that ‘Victim Witness Counselors were not needed because deputy attorney’s already make contact with their victims, without the help of a Counselor.’ Based on my experience working at OPA, I disagree. Furthermore, the notion that the Deputy Prosecuting Attorneys have the same job responsibilities as a Victim Witness Counselor, is misleading.

Other responsibilities of the Victim Witness Director that also took a backseat included the onboarding of new Counselors, ongoing training of new skills, knowledge of trends in the field, and ensuring that advocates took turns attending national conferences.
I am no longer employed with the Prosecutor’s Office as I was informed on November 9th that I was being laid off and my position as Victim Witness Counselor was being eliminated from the office due to “lack of work”. This “lack of work” described in the letter that OPA gave me is in stark contrast to the much needed Victim Witness Counselor that the elected prosecutor requested monies for, in her letter (just a few months ago) to County Council dated June 13th, 2011. Despite this “lack of work” the office has hired several people including a Receptionist, a Process Server, two (2) Law Clerks, and a Law Office Assistant position which was created for the previous Secretary--all since my last day of employment, November 23rd, 2011. Furthermore, OPA has done nothing to preserve my employment despite that the County of Kauai Employee Handbook (page 17) Layoff Policy states that they will give 90 days’ notice prior to instilling a Reduction in Workforce or Layoff. I am certain that the victims who call OPA on a daily basis requesting an update on their case status or the victims of the most recent surge of crime on Kauai, could have used the services I provided as a Victim Witness Counselor.

I request of you today, to re-evaluate the Victim Witness Program and consider that victims are not being served in this community in the full scope that they should be served, due to the changes and restraints that the elected prosecutor is putting on the Counselor’s abilities to communicate with local agencies and organizations, conduct outreach to victims, and serving victims in a timely manner through the prosecution of crimes. I believe that the County of Kauai has excellent resources to support the victims of our community. My hope is that my words will be a starting point for restoring the full scope of the Victim Witness Program back to its intended purpose for our victims, community, and ohana.

Sincerely,

Erin Wilson

KIBBLE AND BITS

KIBBLE AND BITS: Former County Attorney (CA) Matthew Pyun couldn’t run fast enough to escape the morass of the bizarro-world of Kaua`i County’s through-the-looking-glass view of law when administrations changed.

And we’ve been trying to figure out what exactly is going on with the county council’s confirmation of previously rumored and sort-of announced CA appointee, former deputy prosecutor and now defense attorney Al Castillo.

We were kind of taken aback by the selection since he apparently has no experience in governmental law and comes from the criminal law community but chalked it up to more of the same from Mayor Bernard “You (can go to hell) and Me (I’ll pay off my supporters) Together (we’ll steal you blind)” Carvalho.

Almost two months have gone by with no confirmation from the council as is required by the county charter- and no word as to why.

But at the last full council meeting our ears perked up when deputy CA Darren “that’s my story and I’m sticking to it” Suzuki introduced himself as the “acting CA” while he was not answering a question, as is apparently part of the CA’s job description these days.

Now, silently and stealthily, it appears that another appointment has been made.

Former deputy county attorney and county council legal analyst Amy Esaki’s name appears on this week’s council agenda, with Carvalho requesting council confirmation for her to lead the office of the county attorney.

Now of course you’re expecting the usual tirade and excoriation along with the requisite exposition of another revolving-door hack and crony, listing the misdeeds and sneaky crap the nominee has pulled over the years.

But apparently Carvalho was asleep at the wheel of his patronage-addled office because Esaki would be on our short list of who we would pick if we had the ability to do so.

Esaki is one of those attorneys who hasn’t been through that revolving door except for the time when she apparently quit the CA’s office under the widely reviled Lani Nakazawa to work for the council, writing and reading legislation.

She’s actually one of the most straightforward and seemingly honest, diligent and even (gasp) helpful lawyers ever employed by the county.

We have nothing but good things to say about her and can only hope against hope that she will bring a new era of openness and professionalism that’s been lacking in the office for a long time.

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With the legislature doing it’s biannual dance-of-the-headless-chicken over the budget and its projected shortfalls, we’ve heard about of a lot of cockamamie bills containing schemes ranging from the brainless to the downright dangerous..

It’s the time of year when un-enterprising reporters can sit at a desk, riffle though the stack of introduced bills, stop anywhere and find something that causes heads to shake back and forth and eyes to roll..

But we have to wonder why none of them have seen one little ditty that has thus far gone unreported, whereby the state would steal the county’s share of the Transient Accommodation Tax (TAT) for the next six years.

Although to the relief of all the state’s mayors and councils it hasn’t yet been scheduled for a hearing, House Bill 1744 (Status) would “(s)uspend... for 6 years from 07/01/2009 to 06/30/2015 the distribution of transient accommodations tax revenues to the counties.”

The measure, introduced under the radar by House Speaker Calvin Say, has passed first reading and been referred to the Finance Committee.

It amends HRS 237D-6.5 by adding a section at the end that reads:

Subsection (b)(3), with regard to transfer of revenues to the counties, and subsection (c), with regard to computation and payment to the counties, shall not be operative from July 1, 2009 to June 30, 2015. During the period that subsection (b)(3) is not operative, the remainder of the revenues collected shall be deposited into the state general fund."

Subsection (b)3 reads:

44.8 per cent of the revenues collected under this chapter shall be transferred as follows: Kauai county shall receive 14.5 per cent, Hawaii county shall receive 18.6 per cent, city and county of Honolulu shall receive 44.1 per cent, and Maui county shall receive 22.8 per cent.

The TAT is collected, as one might expect from the name, from people staying at tourist accommodations. The counties’ shares were originally included as a way to mitigate the impact of tourism on the counties’ budgets by giving them a share rather than allowing them to have their own taxation power (perish the thought), as had been proposed before the measure was enacted.

But now, rather than keeping their grubby paws to themselves they’ve got a bill handy to either rob Peter to pay Paul or use in some kind of extortion scheme to balance their budget by sloughing off their politically untenable choices- like actually taxing their precious campaign contributing faux hi-tech companies, land-raping developers and bottom-feeding military contractors- on the county level pols.

The measure would cost Kaua`i an estimated $15 million a year in revenue- more than 10% of the island’s operating budget- on top of the 10% across the board cuts ordered by Mayor Bernard Carvalho for the upcoming ’09-10 fiscal year.

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And finally an update- and a happy one for those following the HUD non-discrimination bill in the Senate that we reported on again yesterday.

After a flurry of emails and phone calls yesterday from many people to Commerce and Consumer Protection Committee Chair Roz Baker, SB 456 is now set for a hearing on Friday February 13 at 8:30 a.m..

Testimony may be emailed, if it’s less than 5 pages in length, to the Committee at CPNTestimony@Capitol.hawaii.gov Indicate it’s “Testimony for SB 456 for the 2/13/09 8:30 a.m. hearing” in the subject line.

FIRST THERE IS A STICK, THEN THERE IS NO STICK, THEN THERE IS

FIRST THERE IS A STICK, THEN THERE IS NO STICK, THEN THERE IS: Some are astounded, some are ambivalent, some are apathetic, some are angry.

But no one who watches the twice-monthly circus on TV should be baffled at the Kaua`i Planning Commission’s approval of an extension of the zoning permits for the Coco Palms developers.

The commission isn’t chock-full-o-nuts, it’s just choke pre-corrupted citizens who operate at the behest of revolving door planners whose only relationship with smart growth principles are that they think themselves too smart to be principled.

It’s not surprising that new commissioner Hartwell Blake most likely voted for the measure (we only know the vote was 6-1 according to this morning’s brief notice in the local paper). The former county attorney for former Mayor Maryanne Kusaka- who, along with her flunkies took a financial beating in the collapse of the project- was pre-approved for serving the interests of developers during his years aiding and abetting the crimes of Kusaka.

Blake recently was rubber-stamped by the council to fill the “environmental” slot on the commission recently when no one from the organized environmental community stepped up to object his lack of credentials or offer themselves for service despite by attempts by rookie councilperson Lani Kawahara to get them involved in the council’s decision.

And, although many thought that perhaps former progressive Democratic Party stalwart Commission Chair Jimmy Nishida might actually represent the community’s interests, once he sold his soul to upzone some of his vast Wailua ag land holdings to residential- supposedly so he could put up as yet unbuilt, promised but not required to be, “affordable” housing- he went the way of Kaipo Asing who also not so coincidentally did a 180 after being granted a personal zoning favor by the county council in the 90’s.

But the real brains behind the extension was planner Mike Lauretta- a charter member of the conflicted, revolving-door, old-boys network, having moved back and forth with ease from his position with the planning department to the employ of developers over the years.

His convoluted plea at the last commission meeting was no doubt the deciding factor for many planners, even though his spiel flew in the face of a vast movement to obtain the abandoned hotel for use as a cultural park.

Everyone from Lihu`e Business Association chief Pat Griffin, to State Senator Gary Hooser to Kanaka activist Nani Rogers and hundreds if not thousands of people- from the average working Keone to the highest mucky mucks of all stripe- have watched as the community got scammed by the current owner and waited for yesterday so the value of the property would plummet to an affordable realm so the poised-for-success project could go forward once the property was valued at an “undevelopable” price.

At the previous meeting Lauretta launched into a “where are they all with specific plans and funding?” spiel, despite the packed chamber and dozens who filed up to ask the commission to reject the extension so the long-envisioned park project could be realized.

Lauretta simply ignored the fact that land is just land but land with the rights to develop it is worth it’s weight in gold, at least doubling if not tripling it’s value in the case of Coco Palms.

He listed all the people who had not come up with the money and the plan- DLNR, Hooser, OHA and a slew of others who have in fact put forth extensive plans and commitments and are waiting for the commission to put the final nail in the developer’s coffin after the “two local guys from Princeville”- who turned out to be shopping center developers from Maryland- intentionally put the kibosh on their own permits by asking for a “spa” in a place and of a nature that they could be assured they would be rejected, after their funding disappeared in the real estate bubble-burst.

Under Planning Director Ian Costa- whose conflicts and corruption go back to the grubbing and grading cover-ups during the Kusaka administration that ended up on the Pflueger debacle- the commission has become an incompetent joke. The members are selected solely for their ability to do the bidding of Costa who actually serves at the pleasure of the commission according to the county charter... that and a seemingly pierced nose to accommodate the tethered ring Costa apparently installs upon their swearing in.

The problem is that commission rules conveniently leave out any process for removing a sitting planning director and not only have none ever been removed (the past ones have all resigned and gone on to represent developers, even before the commission and department) the ones that have served have all been “appointed” by the Mayor and rubber stamped by the commission without any inkling sometimes that they even know they have the power to do a search for a skilled competent director and hire one on their own.

The three year extension for all intent and purpose puts the cultural park on the back burner thanks to Lauretta’s threats that the property will just become more of a public nuisance and the commission’s usual “fool me a hundred times, fool me a hundred-and-one times” stupidity in believing the owners will clean up the place now when they’ve refused to do so for many years.

Expect a sale of the property to another developer soon when we’ll all issue a particularly unsatisfying “we told you so”.

YOU CAN’T SMELLTHAT?

YOU CAN’T SMELLTHAT?: Rachel Gehrlein’s rather confused report today in the local paper about Monday’s Charter Commission (CC) meeting reports both a deferral and a “moving forward” of the controversial County Manager proposal being considered,

Thought the article lacks cohesion and continuity, as if written by the specter of Lester Chang, it does characterize and quote CC Chair Jonathan Chun this way:.

Commission Chair Jonathan Chun said he still didn’t see the need for the proposed amendment.

“What is the problem we are trying to solve?” Chun said. “No one, in my mind, has said what the problem is.

"Every time the question is asked, different answers are given, Chun said.

Maybe because so may things are broken and more are breaking all the time so like the procrastinating unhandy homeowner with the house that’s falling apart, every time you ask “what’s the problem” you get “a different answer”

So let’s assume for argument sake the quote and surrounding material is accurate. It brings up an interesting question

Are you friggin insane Jonathan or just a disingenuous liar trying to squelch the measure for some ulterior motive... because we know you’re not an idiot?

We haven’t exactly been on the County Manager conga line ourselves although we are starting to come around with Walter Lewis and Walter Briant’s specific proposal, even though the proposal itself is extremely problematic and poorly written, disregarding the 89 state laws that would have to be changed to accommodate the lack of an administrative “mayor”

But there are no problems with Kaua`i County government and the strong mayor system that makes every department head job a political appointee, Jonathan? Have you seen these bozos? Have you noticed how mayors are eaten alive when they try to get each new “temp” at the helm to get the department “we-bes” (we be here when you got here we be here when you go) to actually do anything differently?

Have you seen these people give what is laughingly called testimony before the council? Or were you just engulfed by “the fog” as they call it when mumbling incompetents who got their job by campaigning or collecting bundles of cash for the mayor try play their shell games.

The game typically goes like this.

Department head: “Oh I can’t answer that, Wendel has to tell you.”

Councilperson: Where’s Wendel?”

“He’s not here today”

“OK we’ll defer to next week and you get Wendel here”

Wendel comes in next week but no Department head and Wendel says “well I have to ask the department head for more information”

“Where’s he?”

“He’s out of town today”

“OK we’ll defer until next week”

Next meeting there’s the department head but no Wendel

“Wendel’s on vacation”

Finally they get Wendel and the department head there on the same day but either
A) They now say Clayton- who isn’t there- has the real information or
B) The department head testifies, then Wendel testifies and then when they want to get back to the department head he’s
1) left for lunch,
2) left for a meeting or
3) taken a plane to Honolulu

And on and on until the council gives up and moves on to the next calamity caused by an incompetent political appointee department head comes up on the agenda.

For god sake look at Ian Costa. He practically invented “the fog” as the unqualified de facto head of Public Works where he caused the grading and grubbing crisis a while back.

As Baptiste’s top bulldog during the campaign the barely-qualified. huge land-owner has taken an already traditionally incompetent Planning Department and driven it into the ground.

He’s got millions appropriated and set aside for unstarted planning studies and development plans and his rubber stamp planners and befuddled and sycophantic Planning Commission can’t even properly deny a permit the one time they try, getting sued for their incompetence to the point where the County Attorneys had to throw up their hands and settle for the worst development possible.

Then there’s- he’s baaaack- the latest whiplash-of-the-revolving-door largess recipient Wally Rezentes Jr. who can’t seem to get the hang of line-item budgeting so he ignores it since the council is still reeling over the “program based budget” system he officiated over during the Kusaka administration.

He quit the first time when the level of corrupt spending got so out of hand the Mayor was leasing luxury cars from her campaign manager at inflated prices and the Council only found out they gave her the money for it when they saw her driving around in it.

The patronage system we have today actually created jobs that didn’t exist for the truly unqualified like Bernard Carvalho. He preeminently glad-handed every voter he could find during Baptiste’s first Mayoral run and cashed in on his football fame to get appointed as a quasi department head in an insane, hybrid cant-decide-what-it-is Community Assistance conglomeration of Public Works, Planning and a couple of other departments. Then the voters created a Parks and Recreation department for him to screw up.

Guess who’s really responsible for the dog path fiasco? Try Bernard whose “task force” apparently just illegally made the pronouncement that the path was now a park (where dogs are illegal), neglecting to follow the state administrative rules law. He’s the same guy who put together the “task force” to put the teen rehab center in the old dog pound near the culturally iconic salt pans in Hanapepe creating a virtual lynch mob when people found out.

And what about the biggest plum of all- the Conventional Hall manager... a do nothing position that pays well and usually employs the mayor’s best buddy to collect perks and kickbacks by doling out favors under an ambiguous rate sheet system that never undergoes any scrutiny because it’s a separate world over there.

We don’t even want to talk about Public Works, the worst mess of all where the Kusaka and then Baptiste couldn’t even find a crony to fill the position for half of each’s administration.

And once they found a young bright and qualified sucker to take the job they beat down poor Donald Fujimoto into another cover-up artist and administration apologist.

He recently refused to answer Council questions regarding the illegal and crumbling Pono Kai sea wall without going into an illegal executive session even though all the illegalities had been thoroughly discussed in open session previously.

Seem like he’s learned well and will probably be moving on through the revolving door as soon as it’s convenient, which should be soon with a new mayor coming on board.

If Jonathan is not seeing the lack of professionalism in this and every administration and the level of corruption within each department as a problem he’d better either take off the rose colored glasses or quit the Charter Commission so we can find someone who has a little firmer grasp on reality.

We’re not saying the county Manager will do anything to change all of this. What it would do is theoretically make the administrative department heads subject to hiring and firing based on whether the job is getting done since the county manager’s job would be similarly held or lost.

Also, although the manager would be beholden to the political whims of the Council, what it would do in essence is put the decision-making out in the open since the Council would have some control over how the money is spent and a little better chance at getting truthful and transparent testimony out of department heads and other administrative personnel.

And it would take some of those secret decision-making sessions and “task forces” that aren’t subject to the sunshine law and put them, if not under it a little closer to it’s umbrella by having their testimony a little more compellable in open session.

But the critics are right in that if we do have “a” county manger system that it be “the” county manager system that is appropriate and acceptable to the people whom it serves.

It will indeed be an upheaval of political culture if not politics itself to have a new governance system.

The proposal from the two Walters is a start but it doesn’t seem ready for prime time and the deadline is a-comin’ well before we can be sure it’s the right one and one that’s even applicable to state laws.

The problems cited in the article as described by various politicians all have to do with this point- fully discussing and vetting the proposal and allowing the Charter Commission to focus on doing the job they are supposed to be doing in studying and vetting systems, compiling data, holding hearings and getting ready to present a full-formed. fully-discussed, fully “right for Kaua`i” proposal for the 2010 election ballot.

It’s time for people like Jonathan to stop feigning ignorance, acknowledge the mess this county’s government is in, much of it due to the patronage system that has evolved under our strong mayoral system.

Jonathan himself has certainly been employed by it long enough to know not only where the bodies are buried but how they got there.

It’s how, not why Jonathan. You’re almost all alone out on that limb. Whether there is a “how” that will be acceptable can only be found if we look for it.

Anyone with your brains knows what the problems are so don’t play dumb with us

WE SHOULD BE TOGETHER

WE SHOULD BE TOGETHER: You've gotta be baffled at today's Civil Beat article on the Center for Food Safety's new office in Hawai`i and the tome's "Follow the Money" angle.


The point is what? That a public interest group is successfully raising money to fight the attempts by the chemical biotech industry to adulterate and control our food supply and spray it with more and more poisons?


Oh noooo- someone is challenging the pesticide purveyors and promoting sustainable agriculture and healthy food. And they're successfully raising money to do it. Katy bar the door.


Or is the point that a tiny percentage of CFS's money comes from people who are actually producing healthy foods? Perish the thought that organic farmers and stores should support organic farming. And how dare some of them get so big, because people want to eat healthy food, that they can afford to give CFS money?


Because we all know that, given the choice people eschew healthy eating for toxic "Frankenfoods."


Just why do you think it is that all these consumer protection groups are donating money? Could it be because people overwhelmingly want to eat healthier foods? Oh those evil foundations- protecting the public interest when we all know money should only be used to make more money and nothing else... what are they some kind of communists?


Sarcasm aside and pesticides and despoilment of the lands notwithstanding, no matter how many times the chemical and biotech industry repeats "the Big Lie"- that eating genetically modified foods is proven to be safe- their inability to follow basic scientific precautionary principles or produce their supposed "studies" in full (just try to find a link to one of them at Monsanto's web site) belies those claims... not to mention their well-documented revolving door control of the FDA and the massive funding of virtually all major university agricultural research.


Apparently they're not fooling anyone as evidenced by the millions raised by CSF.


To read the article you get the feeling that even the most virulent of industry shills like Jon Entine apparently accept the anti-GMO movement's characterizations except they try to play the print equivalent of scary music in the background while calling eating healthy food "elitist." Is that your best argument- "if I have to eat poison, you have to eat poison?".


The fact is that healthy, pesticide-free, heirloom, unpatented foods are not really much more expensive any more and the prices are becoming more and more the same every day. What keeps them a little more expensive is not the cost of producing them organically but industry propaganda that seeks to maintain their patents on our food supply by convincing farmers to stick with the corporate program. Just ask Wal-Mart which has recently announced that it has discovered it's more profitable to switch than fight.... and to do it at the same prices


Yes, to quote a the popular song from the 60's- "Everything that say we are, we are- and we are very proud of ourselves."

SAME KENNEL, NEW DOG

SAME KENNEL, NEW DOG: After eight years of rule by the village idiot it appears the presidency will go to someone who has at least a modicum of pia mater although if it somehow is John McCain it will be neurons that are addled by a combination of mindless militarism, post traumatic stress disorder and creeping crotchety-old-man syndrome.

But though the country might escape a continuation our recent fate, as promulgated by the ultimate application of The Peter Principle, the county isn’t so lucky.

Because unless JoAnn Yukimura suddenly grows a pair and delineates his fraudulency, Bernard Carvalho, she will lose to the dumbest man ever elected to pubic office on Kaua`i... and that’s saying a lot.

Seemingly it’s a well kept secret that not only is Carvalho vapidly mindless in his campaign, he has spent the last six years being the lack of brains behind the insipidly destructive Bryan Baptiste administration.

Though it boggles the mind of outside observers that Kaua`i voters continually vote for the least competent mayoral candidate every fours years, apparently Kaua`i voters’ complaints over our crumbling infrastructure, lack of housing, decrepit and often disgusting parks and recreational facilities are forgotten when they step into the voting booth.

Because when you look down the list of the worst of our problems and the lack of government response over the last six years you’ll see one name in charge of almost all of them- Barnard Carvalho.

A little recent history. As soon as Batiste was elected he immediately took all the “agencies” in the county- those not created by the County Charter- and smushed together all these “loose end departments” that were created as a loophole of unaccountability from past administrations.

It was called the Community Assistance “Department” (CAD) although technically it wasn’t a department at all.

It encompassed those administrative functions that had answered directly to the mayor’s office under former Mayor Marianne Kusaka in order to make sure power was enhanced in her office.

Unfortunately that also added accountability and that was one thing Baptiste would never stand for.

Now when Baptiste took over he needed to reward one of his chief campaign supporters, his buddy from hamabada days (little kid time for all you malahini) Carvalho and also isolate himself from blame for screwing up when it came time for reelection.

And as luck would have it - and perhaps not so strangely because they were subject to lessened accountability and transparency- some the worst problems on Kaua`i were regulated by those agencies.

The CAD was created as an added layer of bureaucracy and combined the Agency on Elderly Affairs, the Housing Agency and the Transportation Agency.

And for good measure, because Carvalho wasn’t qualified for those- or any- areas of oversight, the Division of Parks & Recreation from the Public Works Department. was added.

Carvalho was Kusaka’s politically appointed recreation chief at the time but his having never been an administrator before didn’t seem to phase Baptiste. The Mayor actually left some park functions in the DPW, creating the typical split-function nightmare of dual administration.

And Carvalho proceeded to take the already orphan and neglected areas of executive management and run them into the ground.

It’s not a secret that there was- and is and will be for a quite a while- a housing crisis on Kaua`i. It was a crisis in the 2002 election when Baptiste was first elected and after Carvalho’s reign it has become an un-addressed calamity.

Not only has the county failed to provide housing but it took six years just to develop a policy and the policy was developed through the first of Carvalho’s infamous “tasks forces”.

These task forces were generally groups of county employees, revolving-door-connected business honchos and assorted good old boys who held closed door meetings, never took public input and presented thin gruel to the council for approval when they were done.

The results of Carvalho’s housing efforts are self apparent- Kaua`i is still the only county that has no public housing and the whole effort has been comprised of trying to allow developers to not comply with zoning, planning and permitting.

And perhaps worst of all it was solely designed to create for-sale “affordable” housing that even the housing chief acknowledged to the council wasn’t affordable- or even appropriate- especially for those who needed it most.

There is an even worse result of this- the feds have had the housing agency on a short leash because they are not serving the people who they’re supposed to serve- those who need rental housing and make less than 50% of the median income.

There is some for-sale so-called “affordable” housing “ that’s been created- all by developers, not the county, although some was required during development and subdivision.

But the only people who can afford it are those making more than 120%, many times even 160% of the median income although it’s really supposed to serve those making 100% or less, preferably 80% by law.

But it’s set up so that no one at the lower levels can get a loan for the price of these “affordable” houses so they go to those who make more.

And of course the Baptiste administration with Carvalho in charge of the Housing Agency did not create, start to finish, one unit of rental housing, the greatest need of all on Kaua`i.

But every time the council- which is certainly not blameless- called in Carvalho to explain, when they eventually got him there he would bring some simplistic “PowerPoint presentation”.

These glorified slide shows would inevitably detail the bare bones of a future plan and try to hide what everyone knew already- we weren’t doing diddley-squat for anyone who needed it.

Carvalho has become the tongue-in-cheek “King of the PowerPoint”, proudly presenting his useless and uninspiring pages of large print banalities, usually bestowed after delaying any report to the council for months on end, only to not really answer any questions much less provide any info when the long awaited “answers” finally came.

Year after year it’s been the same, with the council asking “what have you done” and Carvalho answering “here’s what we are going to do.”

The conditions of our parks and county facilities is infamous across the world with newspaper and magazine articles and word of mouth disparagements that make tourism official cringe- all detailing our disgusting bathrooms, trash filled parks and other neglected facilities.

And with Carvalho in chare it’s only gotten worse.

But perhaps Carvalho’s biggest fiasco was his biggest project- the costly corruption-plagued boondoggle of the “Bike Path” project, the “jewel” in Baptiste’s tarnished crown.

From start to non-finish the path has been a plague of problems from wasted funds to un-permitted structures and a plethora of violations of county code and state and federal law, all detailed at county council meetings .

The “29 bike path questions” for Carvalho and his people that the county council asked years ago remain unanswered and apparently will since the ones who wouldn’t let the list die- Mel Rapozo and Shaylene Iseri-Carvalho- will no longer be on the council two months from now.

Again Bernard Carvalho’s answer to all the problems was to, after he delayed appearances and answers as long as he could, form another secretive “task force” which never did answer the questions.

Carvalho even managed to dodge and weave so long that Baptiste’s sycophant Councilmember Tim “don’t confuse me with the facts” Bynum- who was responsible for many of the bike path abuses as a civilian before being elected- got so impatient he seemed to have forgotten that the questions hadn’t already been answered, saying in fact they had been and using as evidence the fact that it had taken so long to get answers..... that and those magnificent PowerPoint presentations..

But the task force did help do one thing- they lent a hand in creating the dog walking ignominy by apparently getting Carvalho to implement a secret “declaration” of the path as a “linear park”, causing an uproar in the community and packed council chambers for months.

The secret bike path task force hasn’t said where the money is going to come from to finish the path- a path originally funded as a bike path but which now has somehow morphed into a “multi-use path”, in violation of the policy for distribution of the federal funding that declares the path must be “primarily for transportation (and) not recreation”.

That’s the reason that despite the fact that the original $40 million in federal funds is long gone- having in part been wasted on amenities along the path, many illegally constructed without permits or required shoreline certifications- they must complete the whole 16 miles to make true their “transportation” claim that got them the money in the first place.

It’s also the reason for the beach-side path’s mauka detour as described in the local paper Sunday.

The article says that “Phase III” is now ready for launch and in order to complete the segment the ocean-hugging path is now going to go through the parking lots of Safeway and Foodland and across the highway twice- once trough the busiest most congested intersection on Kaua`i, the focal point of the infamous Kapa`a traffic jumble..

Another part of the reason for that bit of insanity is that the “county matching” for the $40 million has been in the form of donated land and they’ve run out of land to be donated.

So they essentially eliminated most of a 30-year-old requirement that the two shopping centers build a bridge connecting them so they could get the bike path land in the parking lot to fulfill the rest of the “match”.

Perhaps the most striking of Carvalho’s idiocies was his creation of the Lydgate camping area were he cost the county big bucks by failing to ask anybody that mattered how to both do it and comply with the law.

Instead he and his again secret “task force” didn’t bother to comply with the minimal requirements of the Americans with Disabilities Act and actually built the campground in violation of that and other laws before eventually having to tear it out and build it again..

It might have come to light in time to stop it but Carvalho’s penchant for secrecy made sure no one even knew about it before it was built... except for those in his secret group.

Transportation? Do you have to ask what Bernard is done? If so perhaps you haven’t driven in Kapa`a or tried to depend on the Kauai Bus which hasn’t “gone anywhere” in Carvalho’s years in charge.

And his Elderly Affairs Agency has decreased services such as meals on wheels and other programs under his tutelage.

And this is the front runner in our mayoral race. And that may be because Carvalho’s opponent seems to be happily skipping her way to a loss to this babooze without actually talking about his and the Baptiste administrations corruption and general incompetence.

In the year of the ”change” election she apparently refuses to allude to the need for it locally.

Even knowing that Carvalho will continue the policies – and more importantly retain the appointed personnel- of the Baptiste administration there’s not a word out JoAnn Yukimura about “cleaning house”, especially in the Planning Department where her nemesis Ian Costa has run a rubber stamp operation and where the word “planning” is not what they do but merely the name of the department.

Will JoAnn wake up and delineate the issues? Or will she just sit back and let Bernard coast into office.

Maybe the JoAnn of 20 years ago might have fought for the community she says she loves but don’t hold your breath nowadays.

According to some close to her campaign she wants others to criticize Bernard for her.

But no one in the mainstream media is going to repeat the rantings of a Kapa`a blogger or anyone else. If she’s going to play this game of letting others speak for her she’s most assuredly going to lose because that’s not the way the press works.

She’s got the only megaphone that matters. Because the media- and the voters for that matter- always need to hear it from the candidates themselves. And that goes double for Kaua`i where the press is a joke to begin with.

If she continues to snooze her way toward November 4 we’ll all be in for a rude awakening on December 1.

Unethical culture- Government service with a personal “touch”

The following is the first in a three-part series of articles regarding reported apparent violations of the Kaua`i County Charter by the Kaua`i County Board of Ethics. Much of the report is based on BOE related documents PNN has recently obtained.

(PNN) Unethical culture- Government service with a personal “touch”

Part One- Bored of Ethics on the Board of Ethics?

The Kaua`i County Board of Ethics (BOE) has come under fire in recent years for turning a blind eye to one of the central government service prohibitions in the Kaua`i County Charter (Section 20.02(D)- one that prohibits an “officer or employee of the county”- including those appointed to a board and/or commission (B&C) - from.”(a)ppearing(ing) behalf of private interests before any county board, commission or agency”.

On it’s face the plain wording prohibits people who come to the county’s decision makers for discretionary considerations from, at the same time, “working” for the county, whether their position is paid or volunteer and whether or not their position is directly related to what they are asking for.

But since late 2007 the BOE has issued many “advisory opinions” clearing the way for those who serve on B&C’s to appear before the planning commission, county council and other B&C’s “on behalf of private interests” despite the fact that the provision apparently forbids such appearances.

Recently three members of the BOE itself- including the chair and vice chair- have solicited funding for their organizations from the county council, two making personal appearances, hat in hand, and one arranging for county funding as the “director of fund development” that received the money .

How did we get here? What possible basis for these decisions could there be?

Those are the questions that community members like Horace Stoessel have been asking for years and the answer they have been getting from the BOE is that there exists a “confidential” opinion from the office of the county attorney (CA) that addresses the matter. But that thus far the BOE has refused or has been unable to provide it or even it’s rationale to the public.

PNN has recently obtained documents that, while public record, have not been widely distributed and they will form much of the basis for this series.

While PNN is not in possession of the CA opinion the documents we do have seem to indicate that rather than adhere to and abide by the charter provisions, the opinion relies solely on an ordinance in the Kaua`i County Code, Chapter 3, Article 1, the county’s “Code of Ethics”, which spells out specific prohibitions that do not fully jibe with the charter provision.

What the code does that the charter doesn’t is to restrict the broad prohibitions in the charter to only those that are “direct” interactions and then only for a “significant” consideration or amount of money.

That means that as long as the employee or official is not soliciting his or her own department or B&C and the consideration is not of significant value, there is no prohibition, even though the plain reading of the charter would prohibit such solicitation.

In the next two parts PNN will first present the history of how we got here and then delve into details regarding the CA opinion and the law as well as provide analysis of the various official BOE advisory opinions clearing various B&C members. We’ll also take a look at some “unofficial” memos presented at meetings by BOE members in order to justify their actions.

The reason these prohibitions are there is to prevent corrupt actions by eliminating circumstances that amount to potential “conflicts of interest” (COI) where the actions of an individual not just do but even could conceivably lead to a special benefit not available to the general public.

COI’s are generally of two types: potential (or perceived) and actual. Both are equally important when considering prohibitions on actions and circumstances..

The charter provision prohibits those who come to the county and ask for a discretionary consideration- not one that the public is generally entitled to- from serving on other boards and commissions that exercise similar discretion.

That means that if you routinely appear, hat in hand, on behalf of private interests as part of your “job” – whether hired by a for-profit company or as a volunteer for a non-profit organization- you should not be sitting on a B&C. It’s that simple.

This prevents conflicts from occurring when a member of one board comes before another board while a member of that second board also comes before the first.

On Kaua`i, where the same faces ride the revolving-door between the public and private sector all while sitting on various boards and commissions, this is anything but a rare occurrence.

In the case of members of the BOE is it almost unavoidable, since they not only issue advisory opinions on potential conflicts for any and all employees and officials but are also responsible for processing the public disclosure forms submitted by many of them.

It’s certainly not a rare occurrence when members of a B&C comes before other B&C's- including and especially the council or planning commission, as the number of advisory opinions requested- as well as the number of obvious situations that call for an opinion but for which they aren’t sought- will attest.

The reason for the general prohibition is to avoid, to the extent possible, the circumstance where it must be decided whether there is an actual “quid pro quo”- literally getting something for something- in a “one hand washes the other” situation.

While there is a specific prohibition in the charter (20.02[C]) that forbids an employee or official from “(a)cquir(ing) financial interest in business enterprises which he may be directly involved in official action to be taken by him” the prohibition against “appearing on behalf of a private interest” additionally prevents the potential for two people corrupting of the discretionary decision-making process..

The general prohibition removes the temptation to achieve a “you do something for me, I’ll do something for you” deal which is often times so obvious to the two individuals involved that it doesn’t have to be discussed and therefore become a violation of the actual “tit for tat” that would be illegal.

One example of this occurred just last year and involved, ironically enough, the very charter provision that prohibits people that ask the county for special discretionary consideration from serving on B&C’s.

As PNN has reported Jonathan Chun, an attorney who sits on the charter commission- which has the power to place amendments to the charter on the ballot- routinely represents clients before the county council, as he did recently on behalf of the Board of Realtors regarding the bill to grandfather certain existing “vacation rentals while prohibiting new ones.”

He asked the BOE if he was violating the law and the BOE essentially okayed his appointment saying the law was ambiguous.

Then the BOE turned around and asked the charter commission to put a measure on the ballot to remove section 20.02(D) from the charter.

In the case of the county council at least two ethics complaints have been filed against them over the past few years and a few other councilmembers have apparent ethics problems that the BOE has to power to investigate even without a complaint.

Yet just in the last few weeks three members of the BOE have been soliciting money from the council.

On April 6 at a council budget hearing former Chair and now Vice Chair of the BOE Mark Hubbard- who has led the battle against enforcing the provision- appeared on behalf of the Kauai Planning & Action Alliance (KPAA) where he serves as Treasurer, asking that $15,000 of a $35,000 grant for his organization be restored after it was cut to $20,000 this year.

At the same meeting BOE member Judy Lenthall, Executive Director of the Kaua`i Food Bank came before the council to ask for a chunk of the county budget as she has done many times in the past while serving on the board.

And, as reported in the local newspaper, BOE Chair Leila Fuller, who “serves as YWCA’s director of fund development and contract manager” just received grant money from the county when new Prosecutor Shaylene Iseri-Carvalho “let go two victim witness advocates and transfer(ed) the grant money” to Fuller’s fund.
But it’s not just the BOE. Attorney. On April 1 Lorna Nishimitsu, who serves on a county commission, appeared before the council’s planning committee on behalf of the Kiki`ula Land corporation seeking a time extension on a Westside project.

And these are only this month’s examples...

As we’ll detail in our next reports, some- notably Hubbard, Lenthall and Fuller- have tried to twist the plain reading of the charter by equivocally redefining words to say that to “(a)ppear in behalf of private interests before any county board, commission or agency” could mean “applying for a drivers’ license” or “even playing a round of golf” if “appear before” means literally to “come into sight”

Their arguments also ignore the plain meaning of “appearing on behalf of” which denotes requesting discretionary consideration as opposed to applying or simply requesting non-discretionary services.

Given their own apparent violations of the law and shirking of their duties it is not an unfair question to ask if the individuals are engaging in a prosecutable offense or even whether a criminal conspiracy exists to trigger racketeering laws.

Ordinarily the process for starting such an investigation would be to file a complaint with- yup- the board of ethics.

Some- notably the most conflicted and those that appoint them- claim that they need to allow this now-prohibited double dealing because it seems to them “everyone has a conflict”. But that may just be the circles they run in, specifically those that populate the revolving door good old boys and girls.

But even if that proposition were valid, the law is currently on the books and the usual practice is to follow the law and try to change it- which they did... and they failed.

That also raises the question as to why, if they interpret the law to allow these situations, did they seek to change it last fall?

The truth is that there is certainly no shortage of people on Kaua`i who never come before government bodies on behalf of private interest. As a matter of fact, they are the vast majority. They simply either haven’t been asked or haven’t stepped forward because they fear their lack of membership in “the club” will preclude them from being chosen.

And as long as the law is ignored and the “well-connected” continue to be the only ones in this game of musical chairs, they’ll remain on the sidelines.

Watch for part 2- The Long and Winding Road to Inertia.

SchMUSINGS

SchMUSINGS: It was actually a dark and stormy night. The rain was harder than the two feet in three days last weekend and hail was pelting the window so hard it woke us up. But we don't have dogs to walk, the electricity was off and the last time we saw the dawn- or even got up, got out of bed and went outside in the dark- was probably 30 years ago when seeing the sunrise was a result of an all-nighter. So we grabbed another blanket and some ear plugs, rolled over and went back to sleep.

Our apologies to Joan Conrow but since we're going to flit around and do it between games today it seems an appropriate way to commence.

First comes the news that former local Kaua`i newspaper editor Nathan Eagle, the other half of the dynamic duo, has landed a gig with his former cohort, joining ace reporter Mike Levine at Civil Beat.

No surprise on this end since whenever, against all odds, our local paper ends up mysteriously hiring someone even halfway competent, they eventually leave for a real publication. But congrats to CB and Nathan. We can only hope that maybe with two (count 'em two) ex-Kaua`i residents CB will treat Kaua`i like we exist.

Better news on the medical marijuana front. SB 2262 which "clarifies that the medical use of marijuana is considered to be consistent with the Pain Patients' Bill of Rights" has passed the senate and first reading in the house. Passage of the bill will mean that chronic pain patients will now have the right to receive medical marijuana in addition to all other appropriate medications.

That is coupled with the death of House Bill 1963 which was the horrendous effort courtesy of Assistant Director of the Department of Public Safety Keith Kamita- an effort also backed by Kaua`i Prosecutor Shaylene Iseri Carvalho- that would have actually removed chronic pain as a condition for which medical marijuana could be recommended. HB 1963 miraculously didn't get a hearing scheduled by the house Judiciary Committee.

Of course in the "now you see it now you don't" Hawai`i State Legislature, nothing is ever approved until it actually gets signed into law and nothing is ever-ever-ever really dead.

Then, from the "shocked-shocked" file, according to Civil Beat, Kaua`i State Senator Ron Kouchi has jumped on the ethically-bankrupt, legalized-bribery bandwagon by holding a Honolulu fundraiser during the legislative session. Last Night's soiree was a hundred-bucks-a-head affair held at the Mandalay restaurant.

Some states ban the practice of holding fund-raisers during a legislative session. But of course in catch-me-if-you-can-Hawai`i, legislators routinely cash in by holding these events in the hopes of scooping up some cash from those who have an interest in seeing the recipient's vote go a certain way on certain soon-to-be-considered bills. Since quid pro quo's are hard if not impossible to prove it's a practice that is looked upon with disgust by good governance and campaign reform mavens everywhere.

The fundraiser by-the-by is being organized by former Kaua`i Deputy County Attorney Harrison Kawate who worked under perennially county-government-employed former County Attorney Lani Nakazawa. We could go on with many more revolving door connections but the next game is starting soon.

Last but certainly not least is the latest dust up involving our always bafflingly buffoonish Prosecutor, the aforementioned reefer-madness adherent, Shaylene Iseri Carvalho.

Those who missed the real story behind the vague coverage in the local newspaper of the horse-abuse case will want to check in with the aforementioned Joan Conrow and read her coverage beginning last Friday.

Seems dear Shay actually threatened to use her prosecutorial discretion to drop the infamous animal cruelty case because one of the animal control officers at Kaua`i Human Society (KHS) got into a dust up with one of Shay's cousin over a complaint about the cousin's barking dogs and then his lack of dog licenses. Shay claimed the officer was trespassing and is a habitual liar whose testimony in the horse case would be unreliable, so Iseri wanted KHS to fire her.

It's a lot more juicy than that so read Joan's coverage.

But Iseri is back this week with more questionable behavior in a series of emails received by most of the attorneys on Kaua`i regarding the formation of a "Kaua'i Bar Bench Committee"- a "working group of attorneys [formed to] discuss and present issues to our judges [regarding] matters pertaining to judicial administration" according to one local attorney.

The group is being put together through the efforts of local attorney Rosa Flores who, after apparently putting in hours of volunteer time on behalf of the "Kaua`i Bar," innocently sent the following email confirming the "members" of the group, apparently "BCCing" almost all of the attorneys on Kaua`i

Subject: Re: KBA Bench Bar Committee Members

Hi Everyone,

I am very happy to announce the Bench Bar Committee Members. We are very fortunate to have had such an amazing amount of interest and support in the creation of this Committee.

Civil (Circuit Court): Dan Hempey
Collections (District Court): Tim Tobin
Landlord/Tenant, Self-Help Center, Legal Aid, Indigent Services: Emiko Meyers
Criminal Defense: June Ikemoto
Family Law: Caren Dennemeyer
Public Defenders: revolving
Prosecutors Office: revolving/unknown
County Attorneys: Justin Kollar
KBA President/Chair: Rosa Flores
KBA Vice-President/Vice-Chair: Shauna Cahill

The private attorneys on the Committee all wear many hats with various specialties, so we'll have a great overlap in coverage at all times. Please feel free to direct concerns, inquiries, comments, etc. that you would like to bring to the attention of our judges to the Committee member representing your particular area of interest. Everyone is also welcome to direct any inquiries to myself or Shauna Cahill anytime.

Committee Members, I will be in touch soon with all of you.

Thank you,
Rosa

This seemingly pleasant note, apparently following a lot of hard work on Flores' part, elicited a disturbing response from Iseri addressed Flores and CCed to around 75 local attorneys (with the original email in the thread) as well as the Kaua`i judges.

Subject: Re: KBA Bench Bar Committee Members

Aloha Rosa,

It would have been considerate of you to have contacted our office to inquire who would be the representative for the OPA because I would have told you clearly, that it would be me. Please put my name down as the representative of our office.

Shay

Okey-dokey. Apparently because the email was sent to the entire Kaua`i bar, Flores felt compelled to reply to the content and the tone of Iseri's response. She wrote:

Talk about a slap in the face for the best of intentions. Thank you for everyone else for their support in this endeavor, and to the volunteer representatives who took the initiative to contact me.

But Iseri wasn't done with Flores and, CCing the other, wrote back:

We did contact you. Your response is very unprofessional.

Unprofessional? Flores had had just about enough and felt she had to set the record straight. She wrote back saying:

As you very well know, I responded to you directly last week following your assertion that your agency should be represented, and in my response I agreed that your agency should be represented. No mention was made from you as to who would be the representative, and I do not have the time to hunt down attorneys from every possible section to see who is willing to attend the meetings. Yours was not the only agency which did not have name for their rep, but they were nonetheless indicated as being part of the committee.

If anyone else is offended that I did not put their names, please know that it was not intentional; my psychic mind-reading skills are not developed to the point at which I would like them to be. And I apologize for yet another unprofessional response from me.

Not having appeared rude and offensive enough Iseri first wrote:

It definitely is another unprofessional response.

finally adding

I also do not want to be a party to anymore unprofessional emails

Finally Flores realized who she was dealing with and ended the futile conversation by stating

Duly noted. Thank you and God Bless!

Isn't this an election year? Seems everyone knows that but Shaylene.

THE ILLUSION OF SUSTAINABILITY- AT WAIPAKE IT'S 'NOW YOU SEE IT NOW YOU DON'T'

It's no secret that the "sustainability movement" on Kaua`i is being squeezed.

To the west is a experimental pesticide industry with multinational chemical companies who gobble up state land leases and land-rich legacy corporations' acreage to test how well and how much genetically modified commodities can withstand poisons.


To the east farm lands have been sliced and diced into legally-questionable luxury residences that have driven up farm land prices until crop cultivation is economically unfeasible.


Whether the fast disappearing remaining "vacant" agriculturally zoned and districted land will grow organic crops or mansions for the rich and famous is up for grabs.


But depending on who is painting the picture, the lawyers or the community, the the Kahu `Aina Plantation Subdivision in Waipake could go either way.


------


Last Wednesday a meeting of the Planning Committee of the Kaua`i County Council once again took up what appears to be the last remaining obstacle in the way of Falko Partners' owner Larry Bowman's and his manager Shawn Smith's plans for 76 "luxury residential lots" as they were at one time advertised: the final official establishment of horizontal and lateral beach access which is guaranteed in the Hawai`i State Constitution, and whether it will include an ancient lateral trail system called "The Ala Loa" that gently meanders for miles adjacent to the coast and provides many points of easy beach access as it currently runs.


Even though the state actually has fee-simple ownership in the by-way that according to elders connects the towns of Anahola and Kilauea, the landowners have been using a series of flimflams, supposed legal loopholes, threats of lawsuits, fake maps, revolving door government regulators and the political intimidation of already bought and paid for government officials to gobble up the Ala Loa and easy beach access in an attempt to create what amounts to miles of a de facto privatized coastline... all in a state where no one can own the beaches.


They've gone as far as to get the state Department of Land and Natural Resources (DLNR) to accept maps that show the Ala Loa to be far inland from where actually is in one of the most "are you going to believe me or your lyin' eyes" boondoggles anyone has ever seen... or not seen as the case may be.


How the battle for access turns out though seems at times to be almost (but not really) secondary for Bowman, Smith and Falko to the urgency for it to actually "turn out"- finally and permanently.


And while it remains up in the air Falko seems to be changing the the image they are selling the community, doing a 180 and now claiming that each buyer will be "an active farmer engaged in farming" according to what lead attorney for Falko, Dennis Lombardi of the powerhouse Honolulu law firm of Case, Lombardi and Pettit told the council last Wednesday.


Huh? Could this really be true? Will this agricultural subdivision- the one that was supposed to be "the last" under the 2000 Kaua`i General Plan (it wasn't)- now be re-purposed for 76 farmers to till the land on the 376 acres and build the legally required "farm dwellings?"


Well, according to testimony Wednesday there is already an eight to ten acres plot (depending on who you ask and what day you're asking) planted in "organic" ginger root and, we've heard papayas and Olena (also known as turmeric).


And an ad recently appeared in the local Kaua`i newspaper announcing:


"Attention Non-GMO Organic Farmers:


REQUEST FOR PROPOSALS


Kahu `Aina Plantation is currently seeking proposals for non GMO, non pesticide Organic Farming ventures of 1 to 10 acres size on our Waipake property


Ample land and irrigation water
Organic farming experience required


Send written proposals to
Shawn Smith, Falko Partners
PO Box 588, Kapaa Hi 96746"


Can this be? The buzz in the sustainability crowd has been, well, "Wow."


Well if you believe this subdivision will be an organic paradise and not just another bunch of typical gentleman’s estates that have been built on many thousands of North Shore Ag land, we've got some, well, organic farmland to sell you.


Stick with us here- it's not as complicated as those who want you to think it's all too much for your poor little brain to comprehend would have you to believe.


Don't think for a minute that this is going to be happening on each one of those 76 "luxury residential farm dwellings" for lack of a less schizophrenic description. Actually the subdivision, depending on who you believe and what set of paperwork you're looking at, had 80 plots when you count up both the subdivided and "condominiumized" lots.


(For the uninitiated, to be brief, in Hawai`i we have what are called "Agricultural Condominiums," a legal fiction that was "discovered" in the 1970's to get around a "one time subdivision" law... a loophole that, one discovered, became way too lucrative for the legislature to close).


Sooo... apparently and presumably the 8-10 acres of "organic" ginger root, turmeric and papayas and the 1-10 acres of "organic farm land" (assuming it's not the same acreage) are not part of the "luxury farm lots" (or whatever they're calling them today) and will really not have anything to do with the farming that it has now been guaranteed will occur on each and every one of the 76 lots via the hands (dirty hands? farm hands?- either way. this we've gotta see) of the owners... owners who are going to be paying millions for the best and biggest of the lots.


Right now the "ginger-Olena " farm is on the edge of the property down wind and far away from where the luxury farms dwellings are being sold so there'll be no need to smell fertilizer or hear tractors.


But we say "presumably" and "apparently" and seem to be hedging our words. Well yes... that's because we can only base them on reported observation because the Kaua`i Planning Department is refusing to answer any questions or provide the latest up-to date public information information regarding the true location of these house lots, according to Moloa`a farmer Hope Kallai.


Kallai has been trying to reconcile different maps and descriptions provided by Falko, the Planning Department, the attorneys and the DLNR for years and recently asked the Planning Department to straighten it all out.


We're going to leave out all the shenanigans regarding what Kallai calls the "shuffling and reshuffling" of "kuleana" lots and Shoreline Management Area (SMA) and Conservation District boundaries (until they magically disappeared) as well as possible "additional dwelling units" that could double the 76 permitted "farm dwellings." Just be aware that there's been a lot of "now you see it now you don't" going on.


But here's a recent email exchange regarding just a few of her questions for one planner when Kallai finally got fed up with being hung up on, having calls unreturned and getting different stories every time she asked.


"From: Hope Kallai
Sent: Tuesday, April 08, 2014 12:49 PM
To: Jody Galinato
Subject: Kahu`Aina
Aloha e Jody - Can you please help with the following questions about the Kahu`Aina Subdivision Phase I and Subdivision Phase II?
1.  How many total House sites and Guest House site rights are attached to this project?
2.  Has the Parking Lot site been identified?  Size?  For how many vehicles?
3. How many house sites are planned for the SMA?  The Conservation District?
4.  Who will be responsible for the Conservation District Use Application for the public access easement - grantee or grantor?
Mahalo, Hope Kallai"


Galinato's answer?


"I cannot answer these questions and would refer to Dale or Kenny by means of the OIP form (emphasis added)  Jody"


For the uninitiated what "by means of the OIP form" means is that "we aren't giving you anything unless you file a formal request with the OIP (Office of Information Practices) under the Uniform Information Practices Act (the Hawai`i version of a freedom of information request) under which we will charge you untold amounts of money to research and segregate and if necessary redact material, possibly even having our attorney's go over it at $500 an hour.


And we can also delay the process for weeks, months or even years while we battle with OIP over what we absolutely have to release."


And all this for the current public information on the subdivision and the plans for Kahu `Aina.


So what's the big deal? Well as we said the access issue is the final barrier to approval for the project and once it's final all discretionary involvement by the county council and planning commission- and the public input and scrutinization that goes with it- is over.


And once it's all "final" the question of what exactly is going to happen on those 76 plots is up to Falko and, drum roll, the same Planning Department that won't even show the public the real maps of or give out information regarding Kahu `Aina Plantation.


And perhaps we're burying the lead here but it's no secret that the Planning Department has never- not once- actually enforced a case of a violation of one of these "farm dwelling agreements" that gentleman's estate owners must sign promising to farm their land whether on subdivided or condominiumized lots.


The history has been that, as long as you put a horse or two in the yard and plant a few fruit trees, voila!- you're a farmer.


And because they have somehow interpreted the law to say that their inspectors aren't really allowed inspect the lots without permission (unless it's for a rice-cooker.. you had to be there)- or don't have enough people or that they are "complaint driven" or whatever excuse they are using today- no one is ever "busted" for violating their agreement to farm their Ag land.


That's why the access issue is so important- not just for the access itself but because it's the last place for public testimony and/or council discretion.


That may just be what's behind this sudden turn-around by Smith and Falko because the very people likely to try to block the project by insisting on the type of access that Bowman doesn’t want to give, are the same North Shore folks who tend to see the advertised "non GMO, non Pesticide, Organic Farming ventures of 1 to 10 acres size on our Waipake property" and promises that every owner will be an active a farmer" as a reason to drop opposition to the finalization of the project.


The owner-farmer promise is just that- a promise that is not worth the paper it isn't written on, especially given the Planning Department's history of non-enforcement. And the 10 or even 20 some-odd acres of organic farming off to the side where it won't muck up the aesthetics of the "luxury farms" could be just enough to buy off those who do understand the land use issues and law or don't care when they hear the words "non GMO Organic Farms."


At last Wednesday's meeting you could see the desperation and exasperation of attorney Lombardi as he actually attempted to intimidate and threaten the council into accepting the lousy beach access which also seeks to locate the parking lot a mile from the beach, even claiming it was "not in the purview of this council to consider options relative to easement- absolutely not."


That raised the dander of most councilmembers who well understood that, despite the fact that Deputy CA Jung had, as he is wont to do, done his best at legal kow-towing to Lombardi, they do have the final say over this access issue.


Jung, who "negotiated" the proposed easement, has been bending over for land developers and local land use attorneys for years, readying himself, as many think, to enter the revolving door and eventually see his own name at the end of a partners list. He's best known for the "beer-gate" scandal when he tried to influence then Councilmember Dickie Chang to vote for a developer-friendly re-interpretation of the vacation rental laws through a beer-bearing home visit.*


Barely able to contain his rage, Lombardi tried to tell the council they had to accept the easements before them claiming there had already been 26 or 28 public hearings (a number that seem suspiciously imprecise and which no one seems to be able to remember) and then listing all the taxes and parks and housing fees they had paid (as they were legally required to do) as well as all the "millions" spent on local charity- the latter sounding suspiciously like a request for a quid pro quo bribe.


"We are good corporate citizens... I don't think we deserve what's going on here" he said of the community's demands for the access the government owns and the state constitution requires.


He also insisted that "there will be no debate" between the public and himself during the three site visits scheduled for April 30, May 30, June 27 - all at 10 am. The site visits are crafted to evade the sunshine law by having only two councilmembers at a time attend each visit and also so that the public can discuss the issues and everyone can see the lay of the land for themselves.


This didn't exactly endear him to councilmembers but the message was clear- the developers have more money than god and they will use it sue you and the taxpayers to get what we want. Put that in your November election and smoke it.


The matter will return to the Council's Planning Committee on July 2.


The question here isn't whether the community can strike a blow for "diversified agriculture"- much less those "non GMO, non Pesticide Organic Farms"- by stopping the chop-shop job on another vast agricultural swath of North Shore land, preventing it from becoming another playground for the rich and famous.


That boat has sailed. It's a fight that the community has been losing- or should we say "has lost"- since the end of the sugar cane era. All that's really left is to beg for the table scraps of being able to traverse the trail we own so as get to our beaches without risking life and limb in the process.


The original plans include a heliport and a clubhouse adjacent to what was going to be an essentially private beach where residents could walk the gently sloping access to the beach and the rest of us will have to walk miles before jumping off a cliff to get there.


This fight is actually over just how stupid they think we are and whether we can be bought off for a few acres of "silver" which may actually be nothing but an illusion cooked up in attorneys' offices here and in Honolulu.

 
*(The above has been corrected to reflect that Mauna Kea Trask did not attend the "beer-gate" visit.)
*(The above has been corrected to reflect that Mauna Kea Trask did not attend the "beer-gate" visit.)