WE’RE READY FOR OUR CLOSE-UP, MRS. DEVILLE: Although the Honolulu Advertiser’s headline blares Election officials ready for 100% turnout it seems that the turnout today won’t effect the election on Kaua`i as much as that of those who voted early.
A whopping 11, 032 people had already voted before the polls opened today, a figure that could be 50% of the votes.
The last comparable November mayoral election on Kaua`i would have to be the 2002 election where the total vote in the mayor’s race was only about 23,000. That year the number of registered voters was only about a thousand less than this year.
That could mean that, unlike in the past when catch-ups and fall-outs were common between the first “printout”- comprised of the early voters and sometimes those who voted before noon- and the final tally, the first release tonight might not be changing much.
The eighth place council candidate after the first tally in the past has “made up” as many as 500 votes when the results were final. But expect anything more than a 200 vote margin for seventh place contender to be insurmountable
It’s anyone’s guess whether the latest of the dozens of screw-up by “King” Kevin Cronin and his state Elections Office will invalidate a stack of the mail-in ballots.
Honolulu Advertiser correspondent and blogger Derrick DePledge tells us today that
Staff at the state Office of Elections believe they have found the reason for the unusually high number of over votes on absentee mail ballots during the September primary in the (Honolulu) mayor’s race.
The Office of Elections rejected 1,599 absentee mail ballots because of overvotes — 3.1 percent of the total — by far the highest for any race.
Kevin Cronin, the state’s chief elections officer, said staff believe that most of the overvotes were caused by the way the ballots were folded. Cronin said the folds — made either when ballots were mailed out or when they were returned by voters — left creases that optical-scan voting machines read as votes for minor candidates Paul Manner and George Nitta.
The creases also created a high number of overvotes in the District 3 state Board of Education race.
“We are approximately 95 percent certain that this is what created the overvotes in the absentee mail ballots,” Cronin said this afternoon.
Although there were no apparent anomalies on Kaua`i in the primaries in terms of overvotes it might be something to look for tonight when the results are released.
It’s just another nail in the coffin for Cronin’s all-the-bells-and-whistles $41 million contract with HartIntercivic that was voided and will have to be re-bid next year.
The question of who is going to bid against them might be a factor when the next system is procured because we’ve learned that their chief competitor ES&S is reportedly closing their office in Honolulu.
And in another one from the “bet you’re gonna vote this time, hippie” file, in following-up on our thoughts yesterday on the voter suppression, vote flipping and the rest of the ubiquitous fraud we realized that it’s all actually doing wonders for the “get out the vote” efforts for Obama.
Normally there’s a self limiting factor in landslides- if people listen to polls and think the vote is a foregone conclusion many don’t bother to vote.
But since people have heard about all the fraud- including a dozen people who pointed out to us yesterday’s Democracy Now! revelations, as summarized well at KauaiEclectic today- the question on voters’ minds is, will the fraud be overwhelmed by a wide enough margin for Obama to win?
A friend in Germany sent us a Spiegel article this morning about a team of German observers in Florida and apparently the Germans are even more outraged about all this than we are.
He translated and paraphrased it this way
European election observers (in Fr. Lauderdale, Fla.) are surprised and complain about that they only allowed to visit one polling place. That this particular polling place was pre-selected by Government Officials. ... this is unacceptable..... to tell election observers which polling place they have to visit and which polling places are not / off limits .... specially in Florida (as we all remember) had in 2000 some irregularities.... we (the election observers) have had expected more sensibility... said Rep. Meinhardt (Member of House of Rep. in Germany)...
And, if you’ve been living in a cave and woke up today trying to find out who was running in the special mayor’s race to replace Bryan Baptiste, you’d know there was an election but wouldn’t know who was running by reading today’s edition of our local Kaua`i rag.
Though it’s chocked full of numbers and the names of everyone else running for office on Kaua`i the article fails to mention the names Bernard Carvalho and JoAnn Yukimura.
Well it could be worse- yesterday there wasn’t an article about the election at all.
Nor has there been a mention much less coverage in the alleged newspaper about the fraudulent nature of the six Charter Amendment amendments on the ballot on Kaua`i.
First off. they were unnumbered on the ballot causing communication between voters regarding the virtues of any particular amendment almost impossible.
Then the inclusion of the entire amendment for the citizen’s General Plan proposal was a sure fire voter suppression measure.
And two of the questions were intentionally worded to give the impression the measure would do the exact opposite of what was described in the question.
Yet as dismal as the actions of the newspaper, the county clerk, the county attorney and the charter commission was the lack of action by the citizens of Kaua`i who declined to file suit before the election... insuring that the fraudulent results will no doubt stand.
All in all it’s been a disappointing election year with few worthy candidates and even fewer seemingly informed voters... par for the course these days in what is billed on CNN as “election result courtesy of Exxon-Mobile.”
We’ll be gagging down and digesting the local results with Lani Kawahara tonight at HawaiiLink, right behind Hamura’s. Join us and celebrate the one bright spot in the Kaua`i election.
Showing posts with label 2008 Mayoral campaign. Show all posts
Showing posts with label 2008 Mayoral campaign. Show all posts
Tuesday, November 4, 2008
Monday, November 3, 2008
GETTING CATTY
GETTING CATTY: The password today is “historic”..
And the voters are damn near hysteric as apoplectic mobs besiege the polls. It should be ingratiating for those of us that have spent their lives trying to drag voters to the polls.
But our cynicism and curmudgeonly nature- gleaned of years of actually paying attention to the election cycles- is undulled even as the hopeful, youthful folly plays itself out.
“Bet you’re gonna vote this time, hippie” t-shirts notwithstanding, those expecting that their candidate will dismantle the war machine, repeal the Patriot Act, end the drug war, ban corporate personhood, re-regulate environmental and financial institutions, invest in non-fossil fuel technologies and institute social and economic justice for all are in for a rude awakening.
It still amazes us how voters- and this year that apparently includes all the non-voters who will be voting- listen their candidate and when he or she fails to articulate all these types of things, thinks that something along the lines of “oh, they’re just saying that to get elected – once they’re in office they’ll do all that great stuff.”
But the only ones that actually claim that Obama will be a progressive savior is his opponents. If all the claims that John McCain and his surrogates made- Obama's a radical leftist, he’s a socialist, he’ll cut war funding, he’ll stop new coal-power plants, he’ll tax and rich and give to the poor, he’ll spend and spend on new social programs- we might actually vote for him.
Nonetheless, the lines will snake for miles tomorrow as people flock to try to overwhelm the widely reported vote stealing.
The presidential landslide that will actually occur tomorrow- a 60-40 split or more is likely despite the seven or eight percent victory the pundits are predicting- will astonish the pollsters who are busy with their “likely voter” and “no cell phone” (meaning no one under 30) surveys... even as we remain “shocked shocked”.
People who generally don’t even know, much less care what’s going on every other year on the first Tuesday in November are phenomenally well acquainted with it this time and are swept up projecting their own hopes on the blank screen of Obama.
Their yearnings meander across their consciousnesses, propelling them to their voting precinct like their asses were on fire.
And they will also be showing up on left-leaning Kaua`i in even greater percentages than arguably any other county in the country.
Now this would, you would think, bode well for the more progressive candidate in tomorrow’s mayoral election here.
Here are the pertinent numbers from the primary elections
The turnout in the primary- where not one of these new voters showed up- was less than half. Only 17,941 out of 38,874 (46.2%) registered voters showed up on September 20.
Of those 7,144 (39.8%) voted for Bernard Carvalho and 5,374 (30.0%) voted for JoAnn Yukimura
So the question is how does Yukimura make up a 1770 vote difference?
The Honolulu pundits from Dan Boylan to Jerry Burris and Richard Borreca all have said it comes down to the Mel Rapozo vote who got 4,360 (24.3%) votes but that comes from not knowing their ass from their elbows unless it’s conventional wisdom, especially about Kaua`i.
Rapozo voters- those who voted for him based on more than the fact his name is Rapozo--or more rightly that THEIR name is Rapozo- are most likely split down the middle.
They undoubtedly disliked Mayor Bryan Baptiste, the target of Rapozo’s “investigations” and often ridicule, so they would not be voting for his legacy in the person of Carvalho.
But the ire Rapozo directed diagonally across the council table toward Yukimura at weekly meetings over the past four years was palpable. And if it was a bit subdued at times that was made up for by Rapozo’s chief political council ally Shaylene Iseri-Carvalho. Her seething often teeth-baring and spittle-spewing hatred of Yukimura was a revulsion expressed only slightly more subtlety by Rapozo.
We could call Rapozo’s votes a toss up if it weren’t for one or the two thing that will lose this election for Yukimura.- there are a lot more JoAnn haters than just the Rapozo-Iseri crowd.
Over the last six weeks we’ve been at times stunned at how much she is reviled not just by the revolving-door old-boy-network and their supporters but among the progressive crowd, much of it based what many call the two faces of JoAnn.
One face talks about how horrible council secrecy and hidden county attorney opinions are while the other performs the nuts and bolts actions that keeps them that way.
One face claims to want to keep Kaua`i residential neighborhoods in residential use by keeping out vacation rentals and the other “grandfathers” the existing ones into a bill to stop new ones, rather than seeking enforcement of the state law that banned them all along
One face promotes smart growth and rational development, the other face takes a thousands acres and single-handedly allows the developers to decrease the density so that, what would have been mid-market-priced housing is now re-zoned for multi million dollar luxury homes... and she even helped them raise the money to pay for the internal development infrastructure by shepherding through a bill that eventually created a county bond issue to pay for the facilities at Kukui`ula.
Yukimura will do well to just get 50% of the Rapozo voters but even if she got 55% that’s only 436 votes.
She’s still need 1344 more votes than Carvalho gets from the “new” voters.
And assuming even an extraordinary 75% turnout in the general election she would have to get them from an extra 9710 votes.
That means she would need nearly 57% of those voters who didn’t vote in the primaries. And that’s if you assume incorrectly that all of that huge difference in turnout between the primary and the general elections are new voters.
Many will be regular voters who skipped the primary because the only things on the ballot were eliminating one viable mayoral candidate and eight of the 21 council aspirants with both races to be finalized in November.
If only a third of them are regular voters- an average in keeping with past increases over the primaries- that 57% soars, approaching perhaps 60% or more of the “new” voters as the number of regular voters increases.. all assuming an even split of the “regulars”.
But it becomes really difficult to see how she gets those votes because of the other factor- the campaign she has run
Despite urging from many her supporters, her campaign has been devoid of an exposition detailing the actual record of blithering incompetence Bernard Carvalho has left behind in the last six year- a record we barely scraped the surface of last week.
Only in the final days has she brought up one of them, the Kaua`i Lagoons debacle, giving new meaning to the term too little too late.
Perhaps her greatest blunder was letting Carvalho define the race, even agreeing with him that the issue is one of “leadership”..
Quite obviously Yukimura’s internal poll showed this word to be the biggest issue in the election and, consummate politician she has become, she went with it.
But it was the only issue Bernard had... as a matter of fact it’s been virtually the only word he ever speaks on the stump..
Then she chose to cloak the leadership quality that she had and Bernard didn’t as “experience”. She could have been detailing all of the horrors of the Baptiste Administration and linking Carvalho to them thereby becoming the candidate of “change”.
But by stressing her experience she also stressed to voters her position as the “establishment” candidate, in essence taking on the burden of the ire of those who are dissatisfied with the current county governance and generally can’t and don’t distinguish between the council and administration
And she did this in what everyone has known for a long time was a year of “change” elections.
Yukimura knew she needed to get a virtual landslide of votes from those new wild–eye new voters flocking to the polls to vote against “experience” and for “hope”.
But she chose to not only fail to define the race as one she would win, she actually agreed to her opponent’s definition, being quoted repeatedly as saying “leadership is the biggest issue in this election”.
When Yukimura lost the ’94 mayoral election she apparently learned the wrong lesson. She assumed that fighting for what she believed in was what caused her to be a political liability to herself so she went out to recreate herself as the perfect politician
The sad truth is that she is not that kind of person at heart and no matter how hard she tries she cannot really sell out her own ideals as a consummate pol must do.
She wound up being transparent in her hypocrisy, one thing the public won’t stand for no matter which side of the political isle you sit on.
In trying to become all things to all people she has become nothing to anyone except a member of the old guard who, no matter what she says or does, cannot dig herself out of the hole she dug herself into.
Tomorrow is the beginning of the rest of JoAnn’s political life and if she wants to she can reassemble the progressive activist roots from which she came.
We “hope” it’s never too late for another “change”.
And the voters are damn near hysteric as apoplectic mobs besiege the polls. It should be ingratiating for those of us that have spent their lives trying to drag voters to the polls.
But our cynicism and curmudgeonly nature- gleaned of years of actually paying attention to the election cycles- is undulled even as the hopeful, youthful folly plays itself out.
“Bet you’re gonna vote this time, hippie” t-shirts notwithstanding, those expecting that their candidate will dismantle the war machine, repeal the Patriot Act, end the drug war, ban corporate personhood, re-regulate environmental and financial institutions, invest in non-fossil fuel technologies and institute social and economic justice for all are in for a rude awakening.
It still amazes us how voters- and this year that apparently includes all the non-voters who will be voting- listen their candidate and when he or she fails to articulate all these types of things, thinks that something along the lines of “oh, they’re just saying that to get elected – once they’re in office they’ll do all that great stuff.”
But the only ones that actually claim that Obama will be a progressive savior is his opponents. If all the claims that John McCain and his surrogates made- Obama's a radical leftist, he’s a socialist, he’ll cut war funding, he’ll stop new coal-power plants, he’ll tax and rich and give to the poor, he’ll spend and spend on new social programs- we might actually vote for him.
Nonetheless, the lines will snake for miles tomorrow as people flock to try to overwhelm the widely reported vote stealing.
The presidential landslide that will actually occur tomorrow- a 60-40 split or more is likely despite the seven or eight percent victory the pundits are predicting- will astonish the pollsters who are busy with their “likely voter” and “no cell phone” (meaning no one under 30) surveys... even as we remain “shocked shocked”.
People who generally don’t even know, much less care what’s going on every other year on the first Tuesday in November are phenomenally well acquainted with it this time and are swept up projecting their own hopes on the blank screen of Obama.
Their yearnings meander across their consciousnesses, propelling them to their voting precinct like their asses were on fire.
And they will also be showing up on left-leaning Kaua`i in even greater percentages than arguably any other county in the country.
Now this would, you would think, bode well for the more progressive candidate in tomorrow’s mayoral election here.
Here are the pertinent numbers from the primary elections
The turnout in the primary- where not one of these new voters showed up- was less than half. Only 17,941 out of 38,874 (46.2%) registered voters showed up on September 20.
Of those 7,144 (39.8%) voted for Bernard Carvalho and 5,374 (30.0%) voted for JoAnn Yukimura
So the question is how does Yukimura make up a 1770 vote difference?
The Honolulu pundits from Dan Boylan to Jerry Burris and Richard Borreca all have said it comes down to the Mel Rapozo vote who got 4,360 (24.3%) votes but that comes from not knowing their ass from their elbows unless it’s conventional wisdom, especially about Kaua`i.
Rapozo voters- those who voted for him based on more than the fact his name is Rapozo--or more rightly that THEIR name is Rapozo- are most likely split down the middle.
They undoubtedly disliked Mayor Bryan Baptiste, the target of Rapozo’s “investigations” and often ridicule, so they would not be voting for his legacy in the person of Carvalho.
But the ire Rapozo directed diagonally across the council table toward Yukimura at weekly meetings over the past four years was palpable. And if it was a bit subdued at times that was made up for by Rapozo’s chief political council ally Shaylene Iseri-Carvalho. Her seething often teeth-baring and spittle-spewing hatred of Yukimura was a revulsion expressed only slightly more subtlety by Rapozo.
We could call Rapozo’s votes a toss up if it weren’t for one or the two thing that will lose this election for Yukimura.- there are a lot more JoAnn haters than just the Rapozo-Iseri crowd.
Over the last six weeks we’ve been at times stunned at how much she is reviled not just by the revolving-door old-boy-network and their supporters but among the progressive crowd, much of it based what many call the two faces of JoAnn.
One face talks about how horrible council secrecy and hidden county attorney opinions are while the other performs the nuts and bolts actions that keeps them that way.
One face claims to want to keep Kaua`i residential neighborhoods in residential use by keeping out vacation rentals and the other “grandfathers” the existing ones into a bill to stop new ones, rather than seeking enforcement of the state law that banned them all along
One face promotes smart growth and rational development, the other face takes a thousands acres and single-handedly allows the developers to decrease the density so that, what would have been mid-market-priced housing is now re-zoned for multi million dollar luxury homes... and she even helped them raise the money to pay for the internal development infrastructure by shepherding through a bill that eventually created a county bond issue to pay for the facilities at Kukui`ula.
Yukimura will do well to just get 50% of the Rapozo voters but even if she got 55% that’s only 436 votes.
She’s still need 1344 more votes than Carvalho gets from the “new” voters.
And assuming even an extraordinary 75% turnout in the general election she would have to get them from an extra 9710 votes.
That means she would need nearly 57% of those voters who didn’t vote in the primaries. And that’s if you assume incorrectly that all of that huge difference in turnout between the primary and the general elections are new voters.
Many will be regular voters who skipped the primary because the only things on the ballot were eliminating one viable mayoral candidate and eight of the 21 council aspirants with both races to be finalized in November.
If only a third of them are regular voters- an average in keeping with past increases over the primaries- that 57% soars, approaching perhaps 60% or more of the “new” voters as the number of regular voters increases.. all assuming an even split of the “regulars”.
But it becomes really difficult to see how she gets those votes because of the other factor- the campaign she has run
Despite urging from many her supporters, her campaign has been devoid of an exposition detailing the actual record of blithering incompetence Bernard Carvalho has left behind in the last six year- a record we barely scraped the surface of last week.
Only in the final days has she brought up one of them, the Kaua`i Lagoons debacle, giving new meaning to the term too little too late.
Perhaps her greatest blunder was letting Carvalho define the race, even agreeing with him that the issue is one of “leadership”..
Quite obviously Yukimura’s internal poll showed this word to be the biggest issue in the election and, consummate politician she has become, she went with it.
But it was the only issue Bernard had... as a matter of fact it’s been virtually the only word he ever speaks on the stump..
Then she chose to cloak the leadership quality that she had and Bernard didn’t as “experience”. She could have been detailing all of the horrors of the Baptiste Administration and linking Carvalho to them thereby becoming the candidate of “change”.
But by stressing her experience she also stressed to voters her position as the “establishment” candidate, in essence taking on the burden of the ire of those who are dissatisfied with the current county governance and generally can’t and don’t distinguish between the council and administration
And she did this in what everyone has known for a long time was a year of “change” elections.
Yukimura knew she needed to get a virtual landslide of votes from those new wild–eye new voters flocking to the polls to vote against “experience” and for “hope”.
But she chose to not only fail to define the race as one she would win, she actually agreed to her opponent’s definition, being quoted repeatedly as saying “leadership is the biggest issue in this election”.
When Yukimura lost the ’94 mayoral election she apparently learned the wrong lesson. She assumed that fighting for what she believed in was what caused her to be a political liability to herself so she went out to recreate herself as the perfect politician
The sad truth is that she is not that kind of person at heart and no matter how hard she tries she cannot really sell out her own ideals as a consummate pol must do.
She wound up being transparent in her hypocrisy, one thing the public won’t stand for no matter which side of the political isle you sit on.
In trying to become all things to all people she has become nothing to anyone except a member of the old guard who, no matter what she says or does, cannot dig herself out of the hole she dug herself into.
Tomorrow is the beginning of the rest of JoAnn’s political life and if she wants to she can reassemble the progressive activist roots from which she came.
We “hope” it’s never too late for another “change”.
Wednesday, October 29, 2008
RUNNIN’ WITH THE PACK
RUNNIN’ WITH THE PACK: Buffoonery hit the heights and even took on new context at last nights televised mayoral debate between Bernard Carvalho and JoAnn Yukimura as Carvalho continued his vapid content-free quest to set his ample butt in the mayor’s chair.
It was a stumble-bum performance from the start as Bernard read an opening statement he certainly didn’t write, bungling his two minute address like he was reading a technical manual instead of the actual meaningless blather it was.
His insistence that he would “do the critical work that needs to be done” was, as usual devoid of any specifics with claims he “will be a good leader” because he knows “how to lead” and other such mindless drivel.
At the heart of Carvalho’s campaign is a penchant for saying nothing. He says he will lead by leading, do by doing, think by thinking, plan by planning and of course solve problems by solving problems.
But believe it or not it was actually more revealing than anyone thought possible when Bernard was allowed to ramble-on, impromptu.
“It’s all about relationships” says Carvalho over and over claiming he knows all the people who dug and filled the Kaua`i cesspool of governance and how he will rely on them to keep doing it.
Here’s how one Honolulu paper described Carvalho’s “position”
Carvalho touted his relationships with state officials, such as state Transportation Director Brennon Morioka and Department of Hawaiian Home Lands Director Micah Kane, as the way he would solve traffic problems.
"It's my duty and my responsibility to bring people together," he said.
"This election is not so much about what we have done in the past," Carvalho said in his closing remarks. "It's whether or not your mayor can lead you into new and uncharted territory with courage and confidence.
"You need to know that you have a seat at the table and your voice will be heard. You need to know your mayor embraces and values your opinion," Carvalho said.
This is apparently Carvalho’s theme – he’s been there and knows all the people who got us into this mess... and he intends to rely on them to keep things that way.
He says it loud and clear- I AM the entrenched old-boy network. Vote for me for more of the same corruption and incompetence you’ve come to abhor because since I haven’t got a mind of my own I’ll just let these bungling bozos and thieving thugs keep doing what they’re doing and actually help them do it..
It’s rare that a politician actually not just admits to being part of “the machine” but actually touts it as the only thing to recommend his candidacy.
But then no one ever accused Bernard of being a “deep thinker” as many satirically described his predecessor Bryan Baptiste after one of his aides portrayed him that way seriously.
But amidst the hilariously-unprepared, empty statements- we think he actually said “the future is ahead” at one point- Bernard defined himself as the anti vision, anti planning anti past-as-prologue candidate.
Carvalho criticized Yukimura for having a forethought for the future saying that "just looking to the issues of the past will not solve the problems of the future.".
Damn that planning- we just need to continue the absurd growth curve we’re on now until the traffic stops moving entirely.
Yes we’ll just stumble our way to the solution to all our problems- and we’ll burn the rest.
Burn? Well, the one actual “plan” he said he does support is one for the worst of all the ways to deal with out solid waste – a plan to build an incinerator, which is the major stumbling block in the current R.W. Beck solid waste plan before the council, as we described a couple of times earlier this year.
“We have a plan” he said urging everyone to just blindly follow it even though, as Yukimura pointed out, it has yet to become an approved plan.
While it’s been impossible to site a landfill, it will of course be even more impossible to site a soot and pollution spewing trash incinerator. But, as always, Bernard mindlessly thinks that he will simply talk to people and somehow magically they will all be happy to have one in their back yard.
“In order to do that, we need leaders with courage, leaders who can deliver results," Carvalho said "I know that I am that kind of leader." as the paper quote him as saying.
As we mentioned the other day this is seemingly the schizophrenic basis for his campaign. He will lead by asking people what they want and when they tell him he will do it.
Perhaps the concepts of “lead” and “follow “ aren’t well defined in Bernard’s mind- maybe he missed that day in kindergarten.
His self view is reminiscent of one of the leaders of the French Revolution who, upon learning that the revolution had begun, asked his aides to locate the massive crowds and find out where they were going and what they planned to do so he could go there and lead them.
Or maybe Carvalho’s candidacy brings to mind that scene in “Modern Times” where Charlie Chaplin gets a red stained rag stuck to his walking stick and, in waving it around over his head trying to get it off, stumbles his way to the head of a street parade of communists where they anoint him their leader as he leads them down the street waiving the banner of the Reds
Bernard has bumbled and stumbled into a position where, his total lack of acumen or even intellectual curiosity as to the specifics of the issues has combined with his one and only talent- spending a half hour to say nothing- have him poised for administration... the Kaua`i answer to the “everyman” candidate.
Bernard is just like the electorate- the typical uninformed, apathetic voter who has no idea how we got here, no idea or where to go but always has an opinion at the ready on “what they oughtta do”.. except for, in Bernard’s case, the part having an idea of what we oughtta do.
As a political commentator and attempted humorist we might just have a problem if JoAnn is elected. We might have to actually do a lot more research and investigation before critiquing her actions which, if not always well intentioned are at least well thought out and based on some understanding of the planning and other established processes.
The silver lining here at got windmills? is that if Bernard is elected our column might just write itself. His actions, like those of his predecessor, are bound to be so absurdly comical on their face that all we’ll have to do is pick the debacle of the day and describe it.
We’ll leave you with an appropriate theme song for Bernard
I want to grow up to be a politician
by Roger McGuinn and Jacques Levy
I want to grow up to be a politician
And take over this beautiful land
I want to grow up to be a politician
And be the old U.S. of A.'s number one man
I'll always be tough but I'll never be scary
I want to shoot guns or butter my bread
I'll work in the towns or conservate the prairies
And you can believe the future's ahead
I'll give the young the right to vote as soon as they mature
But spare the rod and spoil the child to help them feel secure
And if I win election day I might give you a job
I'll sign a bill to help the poor to show I'm not a snob
I'll open my door I'm charging no admission
And you can be sure I'll give you my hand
I want to grow up to be a politician
And take over this beautiful land I'll make you glad you got me in with everything I do
And I'll defend until the end the old red white and blue
I want to grow up to be a politician
And take over this beautiful land
And take over this beautiful land
And take over this beautiful land
It was a stumble-bum performance from the start as Bernard read an opening statement he certainly didn’t write, bungling his two minute address like he was reading a technical manual instead of the actual meaningless blather it was.
His insistence that he would “do the critical work that needs to be done” was, as usual devoid of any specifics with claims he “will be a good leader” because he knows “how to lead” and other such mindless drivel.
At the heart of Carvalho’s campaign is a penchant for saying nothing. He says he will lead by leading, do by doing, think by thinking, plan by planning and of course solve problems by solving problems.
But believe it or not it was actually more revealing than anyone thought possible when Bernard was allowed to ramble-on, impromptu.
“It’s all about relationships” says Carvalho over and over claiming he knows all the people who dug and filled the Kaua`i cesspool of governance and how he will rely on them to keep doing it.
Here’s how one Honolulu paper described Carvalho’s “position”
Carvalho touted his relationships with state officials, such as state Transportation Director Brennon Morioka and Department of Hawaiian Home Lands Director Micah Kane, as the way he would solve traffic problems.
"It's my duty and my responsibility to bring people together," he said.
"This election is not so much about what we have done in the past," Carvalho said in his closing remarks. "It's whether or not your mayor can lead you into new and uncharted territory with courage and confidence.
"You need to know that you have a seat at the table and your voice will be heard. You need to know your mayor embraces and values your opinion," Carvalho said.
This is apparently Carvalho’s theme – he’s been there and knows all the people who got us into this mess... and he intends to rely on them to keep things that way.
He says it loud and clear- I AM the entrenched old-boy network. Vote for me for more of the same corruption and incompetence you’ve come to abhor because since I haven’t got a mind of my own I’ll just let these bungling bozos and thieving thugs keep doing what they’re doing and actually help them do it..
It’s rare that a politician actually not just admits to being part of “the machine” but actually touts it as the only thing to recommend his candidacy.
But then no one ever accused Bernard of being a “deep thinker” as many satirically described his predecessor Bryan Baptiste after one of his aides portrayed him that way seriously.
But amidst the hilariously-unprepared, empty statements- we think he actually said “the future is ahead” at one point- Bernard defined himself as the anti vision, anti planning anti past-as-prologue candidate.
Carvalho criticized Yukimura for having a forethought for the future saying that "just looking to the issues of the past will not solve the problems of the future.".
Damn that planning- we just need to continue the absurd growth curve we’re on now until the traffic stops moving entirely.
Yes we’ll just stumble our way to the solution to all our problems- and we’ll burn the rest.
Burn? Well, the one actual “plan” he said he does support is one for the worst of all the ways to deal with out solid waste – a plan to build an incinerator, which is the major stumbling block in the current R.W. Beck solid waste plan before the council, as we described a couple of times earlier this year.
“We have a plan” he said urging everyone to just blindly follow it even though, as Yukimura pointed out, it has yet to become an approved plan.
While it’s been impossible to site a landfill, it will of course be even more impossible to site a soot and pollution spewing trash incinerator. But, as always, Bernard mindlessly thinks that he will simply talk to people and somehow magically they will all be happy to have one in their back yard.
“In order to do that, we need leaders with courage, leaders who can deliver results," Carvalho said "I know that I am that kind of leader." as the paper quote him as saying.
As we mentioned the other day this is seemingly the schizophrenic basis for his campaign. He will lead by asking people what they want and when they tell him he will do it.
Perhaps the concepts of “lead” and “follow “ aren’t well defined in Bernard’s mind- maybe he missed that day in kindergarten.
His self view is reminiscent of one of the leaders of the French Revolution who, upon learning that the revolution had begun, asked his aides to locate the massive crowds and find out where they were going and what they planned to do so he could go there and lead them.
Or maybe Carvalho’s candidacy brings to mind that scene in “Modern Times” where Charlie Chaplin gets a red stained rag stuck to his walking stick and, in waving it around over his head trying to get it off, stumbles his way to the head of a street parade of communists where they anoint him their leader as he leads them down the street waiving the banner of the Reds
Bernard has bumbled and stumbled into a position where, his total lack of acumen or even intellectual curiosity as to the specifics of the issues has combined with his one and only talent- spending a half hour to say nothing- have him poised for administration... the Kaua`i answer to the “everyman” candidate.
Bernard is just like the electorate- the typical uninformed, apathetic voter who has no idea how we got here, no idea or where to go but always has an opinion at the ready on “what they oughtta do”.. except for, in Bernard’s case, the part having an idea of what we oughtta do.
As a political commentator and attempted humorist we might just have a problem if JoAnn is elected. We might have to actually do a lot more research and investigation before critiquing her actions which, if not always well intentioned are at least well thought out and based on some understanding of the planning and other established processes.
The silver lining here at got windmills? is that if Bernard is elected our column might just write itself. His actions, like those of his predecessor, are bound to be so absurdly comical on their face that all we’ll have to do is pick the debacle of the day and describe it.
We’ll leave you with an appropriate theme song for Bernard
I want to grow up to be a politician
by Roger McGuinn and Jacques Levy
I want to grow up to be a politician
And take over this beautiful land
I want to grow up to be a politician
And be the old U.S. of A.'s number one man
I'll always be tough but I'll never be scary
I want to shoot guns or butter my bread
I'll work in the towns or conservate the prairies
And you can believe the future's ahead
I'll give the young the right to vote as soon as they mature
But spare the rod and spoil the child to help them feel secure
And if I win election day I might give you a job
I'll sign a bill to help the poor to show I'm not a snob
I'll open my door I'm charging no admission
And you can be sure I'll give you my hand
I want to grow up to be a politician
And take over this beautiful land I'll make you glad you got me in with everything I do
And I'll defend until the end the old red white and blue
I want to grow up to be a politician
And take over this beautiful land
And take over this beautiful land
And take over this beautiful land
Monday, October 27, 2008
A CALL FOR CHANGE AT THE KENNEL
A CALL FOR CHANGE AT THE KENNEL: “What’s so bad about Bernard Carvalho”, asked a caller the other day, “He seems like a nice enough guy.”
It’s a question a lot of people are asking and it just shows to go ya how little people know or care about how corrupt or incompetent leaders on Kaua`i are.
The same people who are the first to complain about their government for 729 days in a row- even many of those who can tell you exactly what’s wrong and needs to change- suddenly take idiot pills on the first Tuesday of every other November and vote for the guy they most want sitting next to them on a barstool.
Our backhanded endorsement of JoAnn Yukimura last September was based not on her potential actions as a Mayor but the dangers of a Carvalho administration.
And not much has changed since then.
It’s sometimes hard to fathom why the self-same people who are disgusted with the Bryan Baptiste administration are willing to continue the regime for the next two years with someone who is even less competent than Baptiste was (if that’s possible) and was actually personally responsible for most of his biggest blunders.
Carvalho is a walking talking contradiction. Just look at the meaningless drivel of his sloganeering. It’s truly baffling how he can first shill his own “leadership” skills by saying “I know what to do and how to make decisions” and then, when asked specifically about how he would solve a specific problem tells you “I’ll ask the people and let them decide”..
Hey we got news for ya Bernard- that’s why we’re electing you- to make the decisions. That’s why as mayor, you get the big bucks
And so let’s look at what Bernard has actually done- yes he does have a record- when he has to actually figure out what to do about an intractable obstruction.
Any examination shows exactly how his disastrous management skills over the past six years have caused most of the worst blunders his boss has been tagged with creating.
Whenever Baptiste faced an unsolvable problem his first action was to set up one of his infamous “task forces”. And the first one appointed to most of them was Carvalho.
These task forces were usually made up strictly of Baptiste’s county-employed sycophants like Carvalho along with so called “stakeholders”- which never seemed be concerned, knowledgeable citizens but rather assorted cronies, hacks and executives from business interests in the projects they were tasked with overseeing.
And the results were predictable- they were all, without exception, unmitigated disasters, leaving things worse than when they started. .
Barnard’s job as head of the Community Assistance- a hodge podge of administrative agencies- was based on letting Bernard take charge of the really screwed up stuff because, well, how much harm could he do?- it couldn’t get much worse.
One of Bernard’s first debacles was the new Lydgate camping areas. After Bernard and his task force took charge, rather than bother finding out what the actual laws concerning the requirements for the camp grounds were, Bernard decided that he’d just build them first and ask questions later.
According to his own testimony before a disbelieving head-shaking county council, he built them without required permits and so forgot to make them compliant with half a dozen regulations including the US Americans with Disabilities Act- causing them to have to be torn out and redone at county expense.
Another associated task force was the one dealing with the “bike path” where Bernard took the already problem-plagued project and drove it into another half-dozen disasters like the illegal Kealia pavilions and of course the dog path controversy, which were all Bernard’s doings.
Carvalho is the one who unilaterally and illegally declared the bike path to be a “lateral park” causing months of hilarious entertainment in the council chambers as the council spent their time refereeing disputes between “dog nuts” and “dog haters”, as the sides characterized each other.
He also made the decision to push forward with the portion of the path that will now have to torn out because, despite warnings from the real experts and council members, the dunderheads on his task force built it anyway, right next to the dilapidated illegal Pono Kai seawall where it sits poised to be eaten by the ocean any day now.
And wait- there’s more... now, if elected he will be proceeding with plans to run the “coastal path” across the highway and through the Safeway and Foodland parking lots, right through the place with the worst traffic on the island.
Carvalho, as ultimate de facto head of the Housing Agency also led the “affordable housing” task force that has done nothing but keep track of what housing developers have built.
Despite “affordable housing” being the top issue in the last two county elections, under Carvalho the Baptiste administration did not create one new housing unit- they just “claimed” as their accomplishment any that were in the pipeline or demanded by the council as part of a development.
He even blew the chance- and continues to blow it- to turn state lands into affordable housing. Although most of the land that the state proposed be used was Hawaiian lands, Carvalho took what was a difficult task-that of negotiating with DHHL and OHA- and made it into an impossible one.
After years of personally attempting to negotiate use of the lands the project is now apparently dead and, because of his bungling, the state agencies are no longer interested in signing a memorandum of agreement, with the sides being farther apart than ever according to council testimony.
Drugs? Remember when the ice epidemic was going to be the number one focus for Baptiste? Well all he had to do was bring in Bernard and assemble another task force for the problem to get worse today.
Their biggest move was to secretly pick the old dog pound as a place appropriate to house and treat troubled teens with drug problems.
Bernard’s penchant for “forgetting” to ask anybody- either in the community or among the agencies whose sign-offs would be needed for construction- led to the loss of more cash from the county coffers when the Hanapepe community found out about it after it was a “done deal” and complained.
Seems that when Bernard finally got around to asking them the answer was “no”. Then the various agencies found out and reported how much it would cost for proper waste water treatment and stopping any runoff that would destroy the nearby ancient and sacred Hawaiian salt making pans causing the council to finally pull the plug.
Carvalho was actually there as the administration representative that was supposed to be the one who said “wait- shouldn’t we check with all the state and county agencies and the people who live there?”.
But of course Bernard is a prime purveyor of what’s been ridiculed by the council as the Baptiste administrations “fire, ready, aim” method of governance.
Also on his watch the Agency for Elderly Affairs- one of those “Community Assistance” agencies he was in charge of- was found to have been trying to extort money out of our kupuna for the free “meals on wheel’s” program.
Rather than ask for voluntary contributions and only if the recipients could afford it, seniors were duped into thinking they had to pay for the meals according to testimony before the council.
The words “recommended donation” were never used as a matter of policy and were replaced by the word “cost”. And even the destitute were told to pay up.
And, as council testimony also showed, rather than do what a good administrator would do- find the private and government grants and programs to fund the program- Carvalho let the program become an underfunding crisis causing cuts in the service.
This caused the county taxpayers to have to pick up much of the tab while the outside private and government funding was left on the table for lack of someone who could find grants and fill out proposals- essentially what he and his staff were supposed to be doing..
“Deck chair shuffling on the Titanic” was apparently the only accomplishment in the Transportation Agency under Barnard’s tutelage. Bus service remains a spotty “rob Peter to pay Paul” operation with no new original grants or programs for expansion under Carvalho, just a lot of “rerouting” which many claim served areas where Baptiste’s voting constituents were more numerous
Not enough? Well, if you ask any tourist what the worst aspect of their visit was they will overwhelmingly tell you it is the condition of our county parks, especially the trash and the conditions of the bathrooms.
Yet for two years officially and another four unofficially under Carvalho the situation hasn’t improved and if anything it’s even worse.
The fact is that not only are there no accomplishments but Carvalho has bungled- and most time bungled badly- every single task he has undertaken over the past six years costing the county millions.
If you like the way Kaua`i has been governed for the last six years, if you like government waste, incompetence, laziness and corruption- if you want more of the same- Bernard is your guy.
If he is elected you can be assured that come December 1 all the departments will be headed up by the same incompetent and corrupt heads... like Planning Director Ian Costa,, County Attorney Matthew Pyun, Director of Finance Wally Rezentes Jr., Office of Economic Development head Beth Tokioka, (although as his campaign manager many think she will move up to administrative assistant) and the rest of the cretins you’ve come to know and disrespect.
Vote for Bernard and they will remain just where they are, shoveling piles of cash to their revolving door cronies and doing favors for the Mayor’s campaign contributors.
Yes. Bernard is a nice guy. So for that matter are the department heads and all the rest of the cast and characters in the criminal conspiracy to defraud the Kaua`i taxpayers who have stealing us blind since 1994.
Now maybe you’re disgusted by the fact that Joann Yukimura has been like infected tonsils that have not just stopped protecting you from disease but are actually causing it now.
We ask you to consider the alternative.
Two different people have written about the “fear of change” tactics of the Carvalho campaign recently quoting local people as saying “if Bernard’s elected, get jobs, if JoAnn’s elected, no more jobs”.
But those county jobs aren’t going anywhere. We suspect what they mean by that is that is that if Bernard is elected all the crooks at the Round Building who are running incompetence clinics and work evasion training for their aunties and cousins will be replaced with competent, experienced, bright people- as happened in 1988... which is the real reason so many people don’t like Yukimura.
But if we want any shot at sustainable energy, Max 3R zero waste programs, adequate public transportation and competent people in our county offices when you need service, vote for Yukimura and stop cutting off your nose to spite your face
It’s a question a lot of people are asking and it just shows to go ya how little people know or care about how corrupt or incompetent leaders on Kaua`i are.
The same people who are the first to complain about their government for 729 days in a row- even many of those who can tell you exactly what’s wrong and needs to change- suddenly take idiot pills on the first Tuesday of every other November and vote for the guy they most want sitting next to them on a barstool.
Our backhanded endorsement of JoAnn Yukimura last September was based not on her potential actions as a Mayor but the dangers of a Carvalho administration.
And not much has changed since then.
It’s sometimes hard to fathom why the self-same people who are disgusted with the Bryan Baptiste administration are willing to continue the regime for the next two years with someone who is even less competent than Baptiste was (if that’s possible) and was actually personally responsible for most of his biggest blunders.
Carvalho is a walking talking contradiction. Just look at the meaningless drivel of his sloganeering. It’s truly baffling how he can first shill his own “leadership” skills by saying “I know what to do and how to make decisions” and then, when asked specifically about how he would solve a specific problem tells you “I’ll ask the people and let them decide”..
Hey we got news for ya Bernard- that’s why we’re electing you- to make the decisions. That’s why as mayor, you get the big bucks
And so let’s look at what Bernard has actually done- yes he does have a record- when he has to actually figure out what to do about an intractable obstruction.
Any examination shows exactly how his disastrous management skills over the past six years have caused most of the worst blunders his boss has been tagged with creating.
Whenever Baptiste faced an unsolvable problem his first action was to set up one of his infamous “task forces”. And the first one appointed to most of them was Carvalho.
These task forces were usually made up strictly of Baptiste’s county-employed sycophants like Carvalho along with so called “stakeholders”- which never seemed be concerned, knowledgeable citizens but rather assorted cronies, hacks and executives from business interests in the projects they were tasked with overseeing.
And the results were predictable- they were all, without exception, unmitigated disasters, leaving things worse than when they started. .
Barnard’s job as head of the Community Assistance- a hodge podge of administrative agencies- was based on letting Bernard take charge of the really screwed up stuff because, well, how much harm could he do?- it couldn’t get much worse.
One of Bernard’s first debacles was the new Lydgate camping areas. After Bernard and his task force took charge, rather than bother finding out what the actual laws concerning the requirements for the camp grounds were, Bernard decided that he’d just build them first and ask questions later.
According to his own testimony before a disbelieving head-shaking county council, he built them without required permits and so forgot to make them compliant with half a dozen regulations including the US Americans with Disabilities Act- causing them to have to be torn out and redone at county expense.
Another associated task force was the one dealing with the “bike path” where Bernard took the already problem-plagued project and drove it into another half-dozen disasters like the illegal Kealia pavilions and of course the dog path controversy, which were all Bernard’s doings.
Carvalho is the one who unilaterally and illegally declared the bike path to be a “lateral park” causing months of hilarious entertainment in the council chambers as the council spent their time refereeing disputes between “dog nuts” and “dog haters”, as the sides characterized each other.
He also made the decision to push forward with the portion of the path that will now have to torn out because, despite warnings from the real experts and council members, the dunderheads on his task force built it anyway, right next to the dilapidated illegal Pono Kai seawall where it sits poised to be eaten by the ocean any day now.
And wait- there’s more... now, if elected he will be proceeding with plans to run the “coastal path” across the highway and through the Safeway and Foodland parking lots, right through the place with the worst traffic on the island.
Carvalho, as ultimate de facto head of the Housing Agency also led the “affordable housing” task force that has done nothing but keep track of what housing developers have built.
Despite “affordable housing” being the top issue in the last two county elections, under Carvalho the Baptiste administration did not create one new housing unit- they just “claimed” as their accomplishment any that were in the pipeline or demanded by the council as part of a development.
He even blew the chance- and continues to blow it- to turn state lands into affordable housing. Although most of the land that the state proposed be used was Hawaiian lands, Carvalho took what was a difficult task-that of negotiating with DHHL and OHA- and made it into an impossible one.
After years of personally attempting to negotiate use of the lands the project is now apparently dead and, because of his bungling, the state agencies are no longer interested in signing a memorandum of agreement, with the sides being farther apart than ever according to council testimony.
Drugs? Remember when the ice epidemic was going to be the number one focus for Baptiste? Well all he had to do was bring in Bernard and assemble another task force for the problem to get worse today.
Their biggest move was to secretly pick the old dog pound as a place appropriate to house and treat troubled teens with drug problems.
Bernard’s penchant for “forgetting” to ask anybody- either in the community or among the agencies whose sign-offs would be needed for construction- led to the loss of more cash from the county coffers when the Hanapepe community found out about it after it was a “done deal” and complained.
Seems that when Bernard finally got around to asking them the answer was “no”. Then the various agencies found out and reported how much it would cost for proper waste water treatment and stopping any runoff that would destroy the nearby ancient and sacred Hawaiian salt making pans causing the council to finally pull the plug.
Carvalho was actually there as the administration representative that was supposed to be the one who said “wait- shouldn’t we check with all the state and county agencies and the people who live there?”.
But of course Bernard is a prime purveyor of what’s been ridiculed by the council as the Baptiste administrations “fire, ready, aim” method of governance.
Also on his watch the Agency for Elderly Affairs- one of those “Community Assistance” agencies he was in charge of- was found to have been trying to extort money out of our kupuna for the free “meals on wheel’s” program.
Rather than ask for voluntary contributions and only if the recipients could afford it, seniors were duped into thinking they had to pay for the meals according to testimony before the council.
The words “recommended donation” were never used as a matter of policy and were replaced by the word “cost”. And even the destitute were told to pay up.
And, as council testimony also showed, rather than do what a good administrator would do- find the private and government grants and programs to fund the program- Carvalho let the program become an underfunding crisis causing cuts in the service.
This caused the county taxpayers to have to pick up much of the tab while the outside private and government funding was left on the table for lack of someone who could find grants and fill out proposals- essentially what he and his staff were supposed to be doing..
“Deck chair shuffling on the Titanic” was apparently the only accomplishment in the Transportation Agency under Barnard’s tutelage. Bus service remains a spotty “rob Peter to pay Paul” operation with no new original grants or programs for expansion under Carvalho, just a lot of “rerouting” which many claim served areas where Baptiste’s voting constituents were more numerous
Not enough? Well, if you ask any tourist what the worst aspect of their visit was they will overwhelmingly tell you it is the condition of our county parks, especially the trash and the conditions of the bathrooms.
Yet for two years officially and another four unofficially under Carvalho the situation hasn’t improved and if anything it’s even worse.
The fact is that not only are there no accomplishments but Carvalho has bungled- and most time bungled badly- every single task he has undertaken over the past six years costing the county millions.
If you like the way Kaua`i has been governed for the last six years, if you like government waste, incompetence, laziness and corruption- if you want more of the same- Bernard is your guy.
If he is elected you can be assured that come December 1 all the departments will be headed up by the same incompetent and corrupt heads... like Planning Director Ian Costa,, County Attorney Matthew Pyun, Director of Finance Wally Rezentes Jr., Office of Economic Development head Beth Tokioka, (although as his campaign manager many think she will move up to administrative assistant) and the rest of the cretins you’ve come to know and disrespect.
Vote for Bernard and they will remain just where they are, shoveling piles of cash to their revolving door cronies and doing favors for the Mayor’s campaign contributors.
Yes. Bernard is a nice guy. So for that matter are the department heads and all the rest of the cast and characters in the criminal conspiracy to defraud the Kaua`i taxpayers who have stealing us blind since 1994.
Now maybe you’re disgusted by the fact that Joann Yukimura has been like infected tonsils that have not just stopped protecting you from disease but are actually causing it now.
We ask you to consider the alternative.
Two different people have written about the “fear of change” tactics of the Carvalho campaign recently quoting local people as saying “if Bernard’s elected, get jobs, if JoAnn’s elected, no more jobs”.
But those county jobs aren’t going anywhere. We suspect what they mean by that is that is that if Bernard is elected all the crooks at the Round Building who are running incompetence clinics and work evasion training for their aunties and cousins will be replaced with competent, experienced, bright people- as happened in 1988... which is the real reason so many people don’t like Yukimura.
But if we want any shot at sustainable energy, Max 3R zero waste programs, adequate public transportation and competent people in our county offices when you need service, vote for Yukimura and stop cutting off your nose to spite your face
Friday, October 17, 2008
LASSIE’S LAMENT/QUESTIONS FOR QUEENIE/AUDIT THE AIREDALE
LASSIE’S LAMENT: Has anyone wondered what the deal is after seeing the listing as it appears on the ballot for council candidate Dickie Chang.
In parentheses it lists his business’ name, Wala`au, after his name- a blatant violation of Hawai`i law and administrative rules.
HRS: §12-3 states specifically
Nomination paper; format; limitations. (a) No candidate's name shall be printed upon any official ballot to be used at any primary, special primary or special election unless a nomination paper was filed in the candidate's behalf and in the name by which the candidate is commonly known.(emphasis added)
The nomination paper shall be in a form prescribed and provided by the chief election officer containing substantially the following information:
(4) The legal name of the candidate, the name by which the candidate is commonly known, if different, the office for which the candidate is running, and the candidate's party affiliation or nonpartisanship; all of which are to be placed on the nomination paper by the chief election officer or the clerk prior to releasing the form to the candidate.
Is there someone who actually calls our good friend Dickie Wala`au? If not, it is illegal to have included it on the ballot.
And if there’s any doubt, Hawai`i Administrative Rules (HAR) §2-52-4 make it clear by saying
Nomination papers; candidate name on ballot.
(a) A candidate's name, including the Hawaiian or English equivalent or nickname, shall be limited to twenty-seven characters; provided that the twenty-seven characters shall include punctuation and blank spaces, and shall be set on one line.
(b) The name of the candidate appearing on the ballot may be the candidate's legal name or the name by which the candidate is most commonly known. If a candidate seeks to have a name other than the candidate's legal name, its commonly recognized equivalent, or maiden name, appear on the ballot, the candidate, at the time of filing nomination papers shall also file a notarized affidavit in which the candidate attests to the fact that the name to appear on the ballot is the name by which the candidate is most commonly known throughout the district from which the candidate seeks election. .(emphasis added)
(e) Slogans shall not be printed on the ballot.
Not only doesn’t anyone call Dickie “Wala`au”- the name of his television program- it certainly is not the name by which he is most commonly known throughout the island.
Dickie may be the nicest guy you would want to meet but not only is he out of step with his pro-uncontrolled-growth “never met a tourism business or hotel he didn’t like” positions but he obviously has little regard for the law either when it comes to shameless promotion- something at which few haven’t cringed in the past
Swearing a false affidavit is a crime in Hawai`i.
-----------------
QUESTIONS FOR QUEENIE: Ask Fido:When we reported twice how Bernard Carvalho was apparently ducking a “forum” with his opponent JoAnn Yukimura last month it wasn’t as if there weren’t any other forums with the two.
The difference was that the one that was “cancelled” at the time was the one sponsored by the local newspaper The Garbage- er Garden Island.
Imagine our relief when we were able to report not only had it had been rescheduled, this time it was billed as an actual debate
At last- some professionally-developed, well-structured questions with specificity and follow-ups asked to provoke answers on the issues not just the “what are you going to do about” or “tell us your thoughts on” type of questions which generally do little but provoke the candidatures to give their standard pre-packaged stump speech.
But this being Kaua`i and the newspaper being the rag it is- staffed by a malahini editor and publisher and reporters similarly unfamiliar with Kaua`i history, culture and issues - we should have known better.
Perhaps the most inane nonsensical misinformed questions were asked of the candidates by Adam Harju, a mainland transplant who, along with his well meaning and skilled staff have no idea what they’re doing and obviously never prepared debate questions before, much less ones pertinent to Kaua`i voters.
The first one was a doozy, to the point where they had to be asked to repeat it because it was so long convoluted – not to mention presumptuous and baffling as to intent and content.
Even reading it now it’s no wonder the candidates didn’t bother trying to answer it. It asked
The Kauai County Charter has been described as lacking the depth for a strict interpretation of its intent. If the charter does in fact allow for flexibility in interpreting the powers bestowed upon the office of mayor, is that flexibility a good thing and how will you use that flexibility to carry out your duties?
What? Who described it that way? And what the heck does that first sentence even mean? What exactly does the phrase “strict interpretation of it’s intent”. Is intent interpretable?. By definition, no. And what “flexibility” does it have? Perhaps ambiguity is the word you were looking for Adam.
Certainly the Kaua`i charter is short on specific nuts and bolts but so are most constitutional documents- look at the US Constitution the national equivalent of our county charter.
Charters -and constitutions- rely on setting out the inviolable basics to be detailed by ordinances by the legislative body, the council and effectuated by the administrative branch- the mayor.
If anything the question shows a distinct lack of understanding of how government works. Didn’t the author ever take a civics class? Or was this just an attempt to sound smart?
But out of the frying pan into the fire. The rest of the questions were so broad it was basically just an invitation to tell us anything at all and some were downright hilarious attempts to do that.
The so called follow-up to the charter question was even more vacuous. He asked
“So what role does the charter play in the day-to-day functioning of the mayor's office?”
Day to day? Probably none since there are ordinances and administrative rules that are in place based on the Charter that are the real day to day concerns. And what is this- high school. Are they candidates or teachers?
Here some more fluffy softballs lobbed
What is your interpretation of supporting the local economy?
What specifically are you going to do to help the small businesses on Kauai?
What's the first issue you would tackle in office?
But these snoozers are nothing compared to the silliness of others such as
What does the Kauai County General Plan have to do with anything?
Well if you have to ask maybe you should read the General Plan and read the Charter, (which has a whole section that answers this question) something that obviously wasn’t done... along with first gaining an understanding of what “planning” is in the governance context since every community across the state and most throughout the county’s have a general development plan?
One of the screwiest was this
How do you determine where the state's fiscal responsibility ends and the county's begins?
Although there are some gray areas - such as some roads that were established as “government roads” before statehood- for the most part, due to the centralized structure that resulted from statehood for a territory with well established law, the state, through its constitution, laws and regulations pretty much determines what the state’s and counties’ responsibilities are. Anything unaddressed is delegated to the counties by default.
At this point it seems more like the Harju was asking the candidate to give him a class in civics and governance and explain the minutia Hawai`i laws and regulations
And on others it seemed as if Harju hadn’t read his own paper. He asked
Would you relocate the Salt Pond treatment facility from the old humane society buildings?
Guess what? That plan was ditched years ago. It made headlines statewide.
Though a facility is sorely needed and he could have asked what they were going to do to get one built- or better, in whose neighborhood they would put one- he asked about reviving the Hanapepe plans– another debacle of the Baptiste administration.
He obviously didn’t get the “news” that protests put the kibosh on putting troubled teens in the old dog pound and pollute the nearby ancient salt pans with sewage and run-off..
Actually the best questions came from the audience who seemed to have at least more of a handle on the real issues and even a better ability to pinpoint the questions to elicit specific answers. Questions like
What targets would you set to reduce our dependancy (sic) on oil imports and your specific actions to achieve those targets?
and, although strangely worded, this one
How are you handling NIMBY (not in my backyard) for locating a new landfill?
and especially this one
What is your plan of action for increasing sustainable commerce on Kauai. With tourism on the decline, Poipu destroyed, developers stopping construction, now laying people off, how will you turn this around so Kauai can withstand this declining economy?
While not perfect at least they go to the heart of the issues and amount to more than TGI’s “what pabulum have you come to spoon-feed us tonight?” queries.
This seemingly leaves unasked that one question we always seem to be asking of our county government, the business community and the press : “Can’t anyone here play this game?”
------
AUDIT THE AIREDALE: And to round out our charter amendment analyses there’s one to establish the long needed County Auditor.
The council has hemmed and hawed and threatened investigations of the administration for 15 years even appropriating money in an aborted effort to establish an auditor’s office under the council’s control.
This amendment will establish an office, supposedly independently, to perform management audits of the administrative departments and agencies. It is long overdue. Vote yes- twice if you can.
In parentheses it lists his business’ name, Wala`au, after his name- a blatant violation of Hawai`i law and administrative rules.
HRS: §12-3 states specifically
Nomination paper; format; limitations. (a) No candidate's name shall be printed upon any official ballot to be used at any primary, special primary or special election unless a nomination paper was filed in the candidate's behalf and in the name by which the candidate is commonly known.(emphasis added)
The nomination paper shall be in a form prescribed and provided by the chief election officer containing substantially the following information:
(4) The legal name of the candidate, the name by which the candidate is commonly known, if different, the office for which the candidate is running, and the candidate's party affiliation or nonpartisanship; all of which are to be placed on the nomination paper by the chief election officer or the clerk prior to releasing the form to the candidate.
Is there someone who actually calls our good friend Dickie Wala`au? If not, it is illegal to have included it on the ballot.
And if there’s any doubt, Hawai`i Administrative Rules (HAR) §2-52-4 make it clear by saying
Nomination papers; candidate name on ballot.
(a) A candidate's name, including the Hawaiian or English equivalent or nickname, shall be limited to twenty-seven characters; provided that the twenty-seven characters shall include punctuation and blank spaces, and shall be set on one line.
(b) The name of the candidate appearing on the ballot may be the candidate's legal name or the name by which the candidate is most commonly known. If a candidate seeks to have a name other than the candidate's legal name, its commonly recognized equivalent, or maiden name, appear on the ballot, the candidate, at the time of filing nomination papers shall also file a notarized affidavit in which the candidate attests to the fact that the name to appear on the ballot is the name by which the candidate is most commonly known throughout the district from which the candidate seeks election. .(emphasis added)
(e) Slogans shall not be printed on the ballot.
Not only doesn’t anyone call Dickie “Wala`au”- the name of his television program- it certainly is not the name by which he is most commonly known throughout the island.
Dickie may be the nicest guy you would want to meet but not only is he out of step with his pro-uncontrolled-growth “never met a tourism business or hotel he didn’t like” positions but he obviously has little regard for the law either when it comes to shameless promotion- something at which few haven’t cringed in the past
Swearing a false affidavit is a crime in Hawai`i.
-----------------
QUESTIONS FOR QUEENIE: Ask Fido:When we reported twice how Bernard Carvalho was apparently ducking a “forum” with his opponent JoAnn Yukimura last month it wasn’t as if there weren’t any other forums with the two.
The difference was that the one that was “cancelled” at the time was the one sponsored by the local newspaper The Garbage- er Garden Island.
Imagine our relief when we were able to report not only had it had been rescheduled, this time it was billed as an actual debate
At last- some professionally-developed, well-structured questions with specificity and follow-ups asked to provoke answers on the issues not just the “what are you going to do about” or “tell us your thoughts on” type of questions which generally do little but provoke the candidatures to give their standard pre-packaged stump speech.
But this being Kaua`i and the newspaper being the rag it is- staffed by a malahini editor and publisher and reporters similarly unfamiliar with Kaua`i history, culture and issues - we should have known better.
Perhaps the most inane nonsensical misinformed questions were asked of the candidates by Adam Harju, a mainland transplant who, along with his well meaning and skilled staff have no idea what they’re doing and obviously never prepared debate questions before, much less ones pertinent to Kaua`i voters.
The first one was a doozy, to the point where they had to be asked to repeat it because it was so long convoluted – not to mention presumptuous and baffling as to intent and content.
Even reading it now it’s no wonder the candidates didn’t bother trying to answer it. It asked
The Kauai County Charter has been described as lacking the depth for a strict interpretation of its intent. If the charter does in fact allow for flexibility in interpreting the powers bestowed upon the office of mayor, is that flexibility a good thing and how will you use that flexibility to carry out your duties?
What? Who described it that way? And what the heck does that first sentence even mean? What exactly does the phrase “strict interpretation of it’s intent”. Is intent interpretable?. By definition, no. And what “flexibility” does it have? Perhaps ambiguity is the word you were looking for Adam.
Certainly the Kaua`i charter is short on specific nuts and bolts but so are most constitutional documents- look at the US Constitution the national equivalent of our county charter.
Charters -and constitutions- rely on setting out the inviolable basics to be detailed by ordinances by the legislative body, the council and effectuated by the administrative branch- the mayor.
If anything the question shows a distinct lack of understanding of how government works. Didn’t the author ever take a civics class? Or was this just an attempt to sound smart?
But out of the frying pan into the fire. The rest of the questions were so broad it was basically just an invitation to tell us anything at all and some were downright hilarious attempts to do that.
The so called follow-up to the charter question was even more vacuous. He asked
“So what role does the charter play in the day-to-day functioning of the mayor's office?”
Day to day? Probably none since there are ordinances and administrative rules that are in place based on the Charter that are the real day to day concerns. And what is this- high school. Are they candidates or teachers?
Here some more fluffy softballs lobbed
What is your interpretation of supporting the local economy?
What specifically are you going to do to help the small businesses on Kauai?
What's the first issue you would tackle in office?
But these snoozers are nothing compared to the silliness of others such as
What does the Kauai County General Plan have to do with anything?
Well if you have to ask maybe you should read the General Plan and read the Charter, (which has a whole section that answers this question) something that obviously wasn’t done... along with first gaining an understanding of what “planning” is in the governance context since every community across the state and most throughout the county’s have a general development plan?
One of the screwiest was this
How do you determine where the state's fiscal responsibility ends and the county's begins?
Although there are some gray areas - such as some roads that were established as “government roads” before statehood- for the most part, due to the centralized structure that resulted from statehood for a territory with well established law, the state, through its constitution, laws and regulations pretty much determines what the state’s and counties’ responsibilities are. Anything unaddressed is delegated to the counties by default.
At this point it seems more like the Harju was asking the candidate to give him a class in civics and governance and explain the minutia Hawai`i laws and regulations
And on others it seemed as if Harju hadn’t read his own paper. He asked
Would you relocate the Salt Pond treatment facility from the old humane society buildings?
Guess what? That plan was ditched years ago. It made headlines statewide.
Though a facility is sorely needed and he could have asked what they were going to do to get one built- or better, in whose neighborhood they would put one- he asked about reviving the Hanapepe plans– another debacle of the Baptiste administration.
He obviously didn’t get the “news” that protests put the kibosh on putting troubled teens in the old dog pound and pollute the nearby ancient salt pans with sewage and run-off..
Actually the best questions came from the audience who seemed to have at least more of a handle on the real issues and even a better ability to pinpoint the questions to elicit specific answers. Questions like
What targets would you set to reduce our dependancy (sic) on oil imports and your specific actions to achieve those targets?
and, although strangely worded, this one
How are you handling NIMBY (not in my backyard) for locating a new landfill?
and especially this one
What is your plan of action for increasing sustainable commerce on Kauai. With tourism on the decline, Poipu destroyed, developers stopping construction, now laying people off, how will you turn this around so Kauai can withstand this declining economy?
While not perfect at least they go to the heart of the issues and amount to more than TGI’s “what pabulum have you come to spoon-feed us tonight?” queries.
This seemingly leaves unasked that one question we always seem to be asking of our county government, the business community and the press : “Can’t anyone here play this game?”
------
AUDIT THE AIREDALE: And to round out our charter amendment analyses there’s one to establish the long needed County Auditor.
The council has hemmed and hawed and threatened investigations of the administration for 15 years even appropriating money in an aborted effort to establish an auditor’s office under the council’s control.
This amendment will establish an office, supposedly independently, to perform management audits of the administrative departments and agencies. It is long overdue. Vote yes- twice if you can.
Monday, October 6, 2008
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.
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.
Wednesday, October 1, 2008
CAN A THREE-LEGGED DOG COUNT TO FOUR?
CAN A THREE-LEGGED DOG COUNT TO FOUR? There actually are ongoing local Kaua`i political campaigns but with a little more than a month go you wouldn’t know it from the coverage by the local newspaper.
In the last two days they’ve told us the explosive “news” about quilting, Easter Seals (in October), baking, the bold-faced name-dropping exploits of the Happy Camper, promos for the Mokihana Festival, student music programs, Jewish New Years and new bus routes but nary a word about the doings, statements and activities of the 16 people running for council and mayor on Kaua`i.
Though we’re not expecting much at least they have, after a little PNN prodding, re-scheduled their formerly cancelled “forum” (look for it way way way down at the bottom buried in a separate article) we reported on last week, even now calling it a “debate”.
99% of their political coverage has been comprised of fluff pieces of basically free advertising for all the candidates (the first one’s free) and a batch of laughably-naive, softball questions and rote, stump-speech non-answers to their candidates’ questionnaire.
The one recent attempt at analysis was a somewhat strange district by district analysis of the precinct reports – an out of context examination of the numbers with no exhibited knowledge or analysis of Kaua`i demographics and no island-wide comparisons at all, just some random, useless regurgitation of the stats within artificially drawn state house districts.
And we certainly haven’t seen any analysis or even mention of campaign contributions and expenditures in this or any election year from the local paper despite the fact that they are now readily available on-line and, as we were reminded today, carry heavier fines for non-compliance this year.
According to Derrick DePledge’s blog post today
(S)ome may have overlooked that the bill passed by the state Legislature last session also included increases in the penalties for filing late campaign-finance reports.
Brian Schatz, chairman of the Democratic Party of Hawai`i, said he has been hit with a $500 fine for a late report for his old campaign committee. “We made an error in missing the deadline,” he explained.
The state Campaign Spending Commission has posted a warning about the larger fines on its Web site.
The fine for a late report is $50 per day for the first seven days and then $200 per day thereafter. The fine is $300 per day for filing late second preliminary primary and preliminary general election reports for candidates and late preliminary primary and general election reports for PACs. There is a cap on fines so as not to exceed 25 percent of the contributions or expenditures in the report, whichever is greater.
But our local newspaper seems fixated on serving its advertisers, rather than the electorate with not one mention of the campaign spending reports that pour in every few weeks..
But that s tradition at the local paper as was evidenced in the way for years Kaua`i candidates routinely broke the law by buying votes from non-profit organizations via the illegal disbursing of more money than the limits allow or actually doing it during campaign season.... until Bryan Baptiste was caught doing it on a massive level never seem before in the state.
It’s just one example of what can happen when a newspaper doesn’t do its job.
Seems that although contributions to community organizations and non-profits from campaign coffers are limited to $4000 a year in total and “no contribution from campaign funds shall be made from the date the candidate files nomination papers to the date of the general election.” Baptiste “spread it around” while on the campaign trail nonetheless
And the commission didn’t fool around (remove tongue from cheek). After Baptiste was safely ensconced in a second term in office they fined him “$6,000 for exceeding the state limit for contributions to community groups by $17,255 over four years.” according to a one and off article in the local paper in 2007.
As the campaign spending commission found in a 2007 “Conciliation Agreement”
7. Mr. Baptiste filed nomination papers for office on July 18, 2006.
8. The Respondents made contributions of $21,226.14 to various community groups, during the election period.
9. Respondents made $17,226.14 in contributions to community groups which exceeded the $4,000 “cap” in sections 11-200(b)(3) and 11-206(c)(3), HRS.CA 07-14
10. Respondents made seven contributions totaling $730 to community groups after filing nomination papers.
According to the article:
Barbara Wong, executive director of the Campaign Spending Commission, said the group had the authority to levy a fine three times that of the excess amount donated.“He could have paid $51,000 (in fines),” she said, adding that many of the contributions in question were between $10 and $15.
But as usual, despite its responsibility as the only newspaper in town to delve into these things TGI once again didn’t live up to it’s professional obligations.
Almost all real newspapers routinely assign reporters to take the time to peruse the records and dig out this kind of thing- and do it while it matters, in the middle of the campaign, not just report on the actions taken to punish the perpetrators years later
This was not easy in the past- records were slow in being filed and were not available on-line. But that was true everywhere yet newspapers across the country would routinely do the leg work to uncover these kinds of things as they were happening.
But now that half the leg work is “click work” there is no excuse for this kind of slap in the face to the community the local paper supposedly “serves”, according to it’s masthead
Why? Well as we said last week anyone who can add 2 and 2 can see that the lack of investigative efforts is one “2” and the revenue generated by candidate ads in the paper every day for months on end is the other “2”.
Baptiste’s $6000 slap on the wrists was nothing compared to what a story about him buying votes from community groups would have done if it was discovered during the campaign.
When all you need to pull the wool over the electorate’s eyes is a compliant lap dog in the watch dog’s house, it again makes us ask “can’t anyone play this game”.
In the last two days they’ve told us the explosive “news” about quilting, Easter Seals (in October), baking, the bold-faced name-dropping exploits of the Happy Camper, promos for the Mokihana Festival, student music programs, Jewish New Years and new bus routes but nary a word about the doings, statements and activities of the 16 people running for council and mayor on Kaua`i.
Though we’re not expecting much at least they have, after a little PNN prodding, re-scheduled their formerly cancelled “forum” (look for it way way way down at the bottom buried in a separate article) we reported on last week, even now calling it a “debate”.
99% of their political coverage has been comprised of fluff pieces of basically free advertising for all the candidates (the first one’s free) and a batch of laughably-naive, softball questions and rote, stump-speech non-answers to their candidates’ questionnaire.
The one recent attempt at analysis was a somewhat strange district by district analysis of the precinct reports – an out of context examination of the numbers with no exhibited knowledge or analysis of Kaua`i demographics and no island-wide comparisons at all, just some random, useless regurgitation of the stats within artificially drawn state house districts.
And we certainly haven’t seen any analysis or even mention of campaign contributions and expenditures in this or any election year from the local paper despite the fact that they are now readily available on-line and, as we were reminded today, carry heavier fines for non-compliance this year.
According to Derrick DePledge’s blog post today
(S)ome may have overlooked that the bill passed by the state Legislature last session also included increases in the penalties for filing late campaign-finance reports.
Brian Schatz, chairman of the Democratic Party of Hawai`i, said he has been hit with a $500 fine for a late report for his old campaign committee. “We made an error in missing the deadline,” he explained.
The state Campaign Spending Commission has posted a warning about the larger fines on its Web site.
The fine for a late report is $50 per day for the first seven days and then $200 per day thereafter. The fine is $300 per day for filing late second preliminary primary and preliminary general election reports for candidates and late preliminary primary and general election reports for PACs. There is a cap on fines so as not to exceed 25 percent of the contributions or expenditures in the report, whichever is greater.
But our local newspaper seems fixated on serving its advertisers, rather than the electorate with not one mention of the campaign spending reports that pour in every few weeks..
But that s tradition at the local paper as was evidenced in the way for years Kaua`i candidates routinely broke the law by buying votes from non-profit organizations via the illegal disbursing of more money than the limits allow or actually doing it during campaign season.... until Bryan Baptiste was caught doing it on a massive level never seem before in the state.
It’s just one example of what can happen when a newspaper doesn’t do its job.
Seems that although contributions to community organizations and non-profits from campaign coffers are limited to $4000 a year in total and “no contribution from campaign funds shall be made from the date the candidate files nomination papers to the date of the general election.” Baptiste “spread it around” while on the campaign trail nonetheless
And the commission didn’t fool around (remove tongue from cheek). After Baptiste was safely ensconced in a second term in office they fined him “$6,000 for exceeding the state limit for contributions to community groups by $17,255 over four years.” according to a one and off article in the local paper in 2007.
As the campaign spending commission found in a 2007 “Conciliation Agreement”
7. Mr. Baptiste filed nomination papers for office on July 18, 2006.
8. The Respondents made contributions of $21,226.14 to various community groups, during the election period.
9. Respondents made $17,226.14 in contributions to community groups which exceeded the $4,000 “cap” in sections 11-200(b)(3) and 11-206(c)(3), HRS.CA 07-14
10. Respondents made seven contributions totaling $730 to community groups after filing nomination papers.
According to the article:
Barbara Wong, executive director of the Campaign Spending Commission, said the group had the authority to levy a fine three times that of the excess amount donated.“He could have paid $51,000 (in fines),” she said, adding that many of the contributions in question were between $10 and $15.
But as usual, despite its responsibility as the only newspaper in town to delve into these things TGI once again didn’t live up to it’s professional obligations.
Almost all real newspapers routinely assign reporters to take the time to peruse the records and dig out this kind of thing- and do it while it matters, in the middle of the campaign, not just report on the actions taken to punish the perpetrators years later
This was not easy in the past- records were slow in being filed and were not available on-line. But that was true everywhere yet newspapers across the country would routinely do the leg work to uncover these kinds of things as they were happening.
But now that half the leg work is “click work” there is no excuse for this kind of slap in the face to the community the local paper supposedly “serves”, according to it’s masthead
Why? Well as we said last week anyone who can add 2 and 2 can see that the lack of investigative efforts is one “2” and the revenue generated by candidate ads in the paper every day for months on end is the other “2”.
Baptiste’s $6000 slap on the wrists was nothing compared to what a story about him buying votes from community groups would have done if it was discovered during the campaign.
When all you need to pull the wool over the electorate’s eyes is a compliant lap dog in the watch dog’s house, it again makes us ask “can’t anyone play this game”.
Wednesday, September 24, 2008
SUCKIN’ UP TO ST. BERNARD
SUCKIN’ UP TO ST. BERNARD: Mayor candidate Bernard Carvalho has effectively ducked a debate with his opponent JoAnn Yukimura that was supposed to take place tomorrow (Thursday) night.
But perplexingly the sponsor of the event, The Garden Island (TGI) newspaper, hid the announcement halfway through an interview with Carvalho in Tuesday’s paper and then said they were canceling it. rather than stating that Carvalho had refused the invitation to the event announced more than three weeks ago.
Reporter Michael Levine spent six paragraphs detailing Carvalho’s pro-forma ducking of substantive questions but in the seventh he relates the fact that
Carvalho will be attending meetings in Honolulu and unable to attend Thursday’s now-canceled political forum sponsored by The Garden Island, but said he remains open to future debates against (his opponent Councilperson JoAnn) Yukimura.
But despite the fact that Carvalho said he could or would not attend, TGI Editor Adam Harju told us that “(w)e canceled as a debate with one participant would not be in the best interest of the community”.
Reached for comment Carvalho’s campaign manager Leonard Rapozo told PNN that despite numerous articles in the newspaper beginning September 1 “they never contacted us” about the TGI forum.
Rapozo said that Carvalho ”had already scheduled something” for that day although he refused to say what or where the “event” was, when the “event” had been scheduled and whether or not they had read the announcements in the newspaper.
When asked specifically Rapozo would not confirm or deny TGI’s claim Carvalho would be at a “meeting in Honolulu”..
Harju however says that “all four candidates were invited” but has declined to provide other details.
The original newspaper announcement of the forum was published Sept 1 in TGI and read:
TGI to host political forums Sept. 25, Oct. 16
by The Garden Island
Posted: Sunday, Aug 31, 2008 - 09:56:46 pm HST
The Garden Island will host political forums for Kaua‘i’s mayoral candidates on Sept. 25 and for County Council candidates on Oct. 16 at the Kaua‘i Veterans Center on Kapule Highway.
Doors will open at 6 p.m. The forum starts at 6:30 p.m.
Light pupu and refreshments will be served at the free events.Invitations to candidates are forthcoming.
Yukimura was in county council session today and unavailable for comment according to a campaign spokesperson.
However in an even more perplexing development the Yukimura campaign said that
Both candidates will be at Duke's Kalapaki tomorrow (Thursday) at 7:30am at the Lihu`e Business Association public forum.
Although PNN has not been able to confirm it, it has been rumored all day at the council meeting that the event will not be a debate and as a matter of fact the two candidate will not even be in the same room.
Why exactly TGI buried the story then parsed their words and spun the situation by saying that they cancelled rather than saying that Carvalho refused to attend- apparently refusing at the last minute and after Saturday’s election- is not clear.
What is clear though is that Carvalho’s excuse for ducking the debate doesn’t pass the smell or laugh test, especially considering the dearth of substance in his campaign so far, which focuses solely on “leadership” and “working with the community” rather than addressing his specific plans and programs for dealing with the issues.
It’s not surprising that TGI wouldn’t report the news without tilt so as not to antagonize a campaign with a $140,000 war chest, a sizable chunk of which will be spent on newspaper advertising between now and November 4
Reached for comment former mayoral candidate Rolf Bieber who was eliminated Saturday after garnering a healthy 4% of the vote said that he had cancelled a meeting with Carvalho and Rapozo scheduled for the day after the debate saying that, especially in light of Carvalho’s refusal to debate “I can’t support anyone yet”.
Bieber said he has been approached by both campaigns for their support but wants to hear more before he considers lending support or endorsement. He said that a plethora of calls from Rapozo began Saturday night even before all the results were in but after it became apparent Carvalho would not get the 50% of the vote needed to avoid a runoff with Yukimura.
Yukimura for her part approached him while both were “mahalo” sign-waiving on Sunday asking him simply if he would support her.
But perplexingly the sponsor of the event, The Garden Island (TGI) newspaper, hid the announcement halfway through an interview with Carvalho in Tuesday’s paper and then said they were canceling it. rather than stating that Carvalho had refused the invitation to the event announced more than three weeks ago.
Reporter Michael Levine spent six paragraphs detailing Carvalho’s pro-forma ducking of substantive questions but in the seventh he relates the fact that
Carvalho will be attending meetings in Honolulu and unable to attend Thursday’s now-canceled political forum sponsored by The Garden Island, but said he remains open to future debates against (his opponent Councilperson JoAnn) Yukimura.
But despite the fact that Carvalho said he could or would not attend, TGI Editor Adam Harju told us that “(w)e canceled as a debate with one participant would not be in the best interest of the community”.
Reached for comment Carvalho’s campaign manager Leonard Rapozo told PNN that despite numerous articles in the newspaper beginning September 1 “they never contacted us” about the TGI forum.
Rapozo said that Carvalho ”had already scheduled something” for that day although he refused to say what or where the “event” was, when the “event” had been scheduled and whether or not they had read the announcements in the newspaper.
When asked specifically Rapozo would not confirm or deny TGI’s claim Carvalho would be at a “meeting in Honolulu”..
Harju however says that “all four candidates were invited” but has declined to provide other details.
The original newspaper announcement of the forum was published Sept 1 in TGI and read:
TGI to host political forums Sept. 25, Oct. 16
by The Garden Island
Posted: Sunday, Aug 31, 2008 - 09:56:46 pm HST
The Garden Island will host political forums for Kaua‘i’s mayoral candidates on Sept. 25 and for County Council candidates on Oct. 16 at the Kaua‘i Veterans Center on Kapule Highway.
Doors will open at 6 p.m. The forum starts at 6:30 p.m.
Light pupu and refreshments will be served at the free events.Invitations to candidates are forthcoming.
Yukimura was in county council session today and unavailable for comment according to a campaign spokesperson.
However in an even more perplexing development the Yukimura campaign said that
Both candidates will be at Duke's Kalapaki tomorrow (Thursday) at 7:30am at the Lihu`e Business Association public forum.
Although PNN has not been able to confirm it, it has been rumored all day at the council meeting that the event will not be a debate and as a matter of fact the two candidate will not even be in the same room.
Why exactly TGI buried the story then parsed their words and spun the situation by saying that they cancelled rather than saying that Carvalho refused to attend- apparently refusing at the last minute and after Saturday’s election- is not clear.
What is clear though is that Carvalho’s excuse for ducking the debate doesn’t pass the smell or laugh test, especially considering the dearth of substance in his campaign so far, which focuses solely on “leadership” and “working with the community” rather than addressing his specific plans and programs for dealing with the issues.
It’s not surprising that TGI wouldn’t report the news without tilt so as not to antagonize a campaign with a $140,000 war chest, a sizable chunk of which will be spent on newspaper advertising between now and November 4
Reached for comment former mayoral candidate Rolf Bieber who was eliminated Saturday after garnering a healthy 4% of the vote said that he had cancelled a meeting with Carvalho and Rapozo scheduled for the day after the debate saying that, especially in light of Carvalho’s refusal to debate “I can’t support anyone yet”.
Bieber said he has been approached by both campaigns for their support but wants to hear more before he considers lending support or endorsement. He said that a plethora of calls from Rapozo began Saturday night even before all the results were in but after it became apparent Carvalho would not get the 50% of the vote needed to avoid a runoff with Yukimura.
Yukimura for her part approached him while both were “mahalo” sign-waiving on Sunday asking him simply if he would support her.
Monday, September 22, 2008
CHALLENGING THE CHOKE CHAIN
CHALLENGING THE CHOKE CHAIN: Ho-hum.
Saturday’s election results were anything but surprising although you wouldn’t know it from listening to the shocked malahinis and young progressives who, like their past brethren, learned a lesson that many of us are slow to learn- Kaua`i is an extremely conservative community when it comes to change.
Amidst all the talk of “new demographics”- the same talk we’ve heard for 40 years- most of the predictions of change a’comin’ are wishful thinking.
Though we hit the bulls-eye in our Wednesday prediction of the percentages of all four candidates in the mayor’s race, the council race wasn’t much of a shock either with one notable pleasant exception- Lani Kawahara’s encouraging 8th place showing.
The Kapa`a librarian and political protégé of Kauai State Senator Gary Hooser is the one bright spots in the council results for those searching for an alternative to the entrenched machine and their younger wannabes.
Her platform statements on transportation, sustainability, infrastructure improvements, environmental protection, growth management, alternative energy, economic diversification, ag lands ad open spaces, beach and trail access, and solid waste and recycling all provide detailed solutions no other candidates can come close to.
But Kawahara will have to fight her way into a mix of five incumbents and two new big-money, old-boy-connected, pro-unbridled-development, anti-sustainability candidates, Derik Kawakami and Dickie Chang.
Although she is positioned only a thousand votes out of 7th place and 1200 votes more than the 9th place candidate, Kawahara is also only 1200 votes out of third place.
Her biggest difficulty will be that she is without the big money support of the super-wealthy Kawakami, the media megaphone of ambiguous TV personality Chang- the personification pro-big-business over-development- or the incumbents’ weekly promotional video known as the cablecast of the council meetings
Generally progressives across the state took a bath Saturday, especially on the neighbor islands.
In the Big Island vote although Councilperson Angel Pilago made the cut in their mayoral race he has a 22% margin to make up when he squares off against old- boy, first-time candidate Administrative Assistant Billy Kanoi.
He’s got a long way and a much tougher fight than Councilperson JoAnn Yukimura will have against a similar foe in Bernard Carvalho.
Yukimura seems primed to pick up a huge chunk of loser Mel Rapozo’s 25% since much of it was an anti-Baptiste vote and therefore anti self-proclaimed, heir-apparent Carvalho.
Rapozo was arguably Baptiste’s biggest critic and it’s hard to imagine any but the fully uninformed voters or those who voted for Rapozo through family or community ties voting for Carvalho, who may have approached his peak vote in the primaries.
But on the Big Island Pilago barely beat out third place finisher former State Rep Lorraine Inouye, a well connected female-old-boy seeking her old mayoral chair. And Big Island polls show Kanoi picking up 40% of Inouye’s vote..
Even long time Puna Green Bob Jacobson lost to a pro-development adversary. With Pilago gone Big Island journalist and political blogger Hunter Bishop calls it the “dissolv(ing of)... the current five-member Sierra Club majority” that passed a ban on plastic grocery bags and put a measure on the ballot to make marijuana the lowest priority for HPD enforcement while rejecting federal pot eradication funding
We can forget about a plastic bag ban or any sustainability and environmental protection measures passing if Kawakami makes the November cut on Kaua`i
As the son of former state representatives (yes, both of them) Richard and Bertha Kawakami and owner and GM of Big Save Markets he hasn’t met development that he doesn’t like especially when it benefits Big Save
And, although for some reason he seems reluctant to mention his lineage the old boy network knows exactly who he is even if the voters don’t. .
We know it won’t be him that’s crying after we heard his radio ad proclaiming how he has nothing to offer but his “blood sweat and tears”..
“D-E-R-I-K and Derik is so lame-o”- as many mis-phrase his advertising slogan song- is the dim-bulb of the Kawakami dynasty but given the support for nothing-upstairs candidates like Carvalho it’s obvious that the electorate self-identifies with that
Some might think- and we’re among them- that the starkness of the presence of the worst of the worst land pimps and hotel whores in the top seven is related to a perception of bad economic times ahead.
On Kaua`i, those whose economic fortunes rise and fall with the numbers of visitors are seeing 20-30% declines in their paychecks, especially if they work by the piece or for tips or commission.
Fear is a great motivator and when it comes down to the level of food and shelter people will respond by ditching concerns about lifestyle, environmental protection and future sustainability in favor of the lower echelon of Maslow’s hierarchy needs.
Fear drives out calls for change- when fear is the chief motivating factor incumbents are happy. And top five finishes for the five “incumbents” indicates that may well be the case here.
But though that make explain the extent of rejection of the new ideas of more progressive candidates something one retired pillar of the community said to us Saturday night has the ring of truth that all those hope-mongers need to hear- something we’ve been fighting against hearing again and again each election for many decades.
“Did you ever think that maybe people are happy with things the way they are?” he said.
Sometimes it’s hard to imagine how, but things could be worse. Lani Kawahara could have come in lower than Republican stalwart Ron Agor.
Kawahara’s supporters have their work cut out for them. A thousand votes is a lot to make up and the turnout on Kaua`i was the highest in the state at 46%, similar to general election turnouts in the recent past and even if it hasn’t peaked no higher turnout alone will make up for that margin.
If Kaua`i fails to put Lani over the top we won’t just be losing two years of service of an extremely bright and akamai, controlled growth advocate but won’t have any voice on the council to combat the money-driven developers who will own all seven councilmembers.
One voice may not be able to stop the full mainland-ization of Kaua`i that many call inevitable. But it’s always better to have a foot in the door than have it shut, locked and barred trying to kick it down.
Saturday’s election results were anything but surprising although you wouldn’t know it from listening to the shocked malahinis and young progressives who, like their past brethren, learned a lesson that many of us are slow to learn- Kaua`i is an extremely conservative community when it comes to change.
Amidst all the talk of “new demographics”- the same talk we’ve heard for 40 years- most of the predictions of change a’comin’ are wishful thinking.
Though we hit the bulls-eye in our Wednesday prediction of the percentages of all four candidates in the mayor’s race, the council race wasn’t much of a shock either with one notable pleasant exception- Lani Kawahara’s encouraging 8th place showing.
The Kapa`a librarian and political protégé of Kauai State Senator Gary Hooser is the one bright spots in the council results for those searching for an alternative to the entrenched machine and their younger wannabes.
Her platform statements on transportation, sustainability, infrastructure improvements, environmental protection, growth management, alternative energy, economic diversification, ag lands ad open spaces, beach and trail access, and solid waste and recycling all provide detailed solutions no other candidates can come close to.
But Kawahara will have to fight her way into a mix of five incumbents and two new big-money, old-boy-connected, pro-unbridled-development, anti-sustainability candidates, Derik Kawakami and Dickie Chang.
Although she is positioned only a thousand votes out of 7th place and 1200 votes more than the 9th place candidate, Kawahara is also only 1200 votes out of third place.
Her biggest difficulty will be that she is without the big money support of the super-wealthy Kawakami, the media megaphone of ambiguous TV personality Chang- the personification pro-big-business over-development- or the incumbents’ weekly promotional video known as the cablecast of the council meetings
Generally progressives across the state took a bath Saturday, especially on the neighbor islands.
In the Big Island vote although Councilperson Angel Pilago made the cut in their mayoral race he has a 22% margin to make up when he squares off against old- boy, first-time candidate Administrative Assistant Billy Kanoi.
He’s got a long way and a much tougher fight than Councilperson JoAnn Yukimura will have against a similar foe in Bernard Carvalho.
Yukimura seems primed to pick up a huge chunk of loser Mel Rapozo’s 25% since much of it was an anti-Baptiste vote and therefore anti self-proclaimed, heir-apparent Carvalho.
Rapozo was arguably Baptiste’s biggest critic and it’s hard to imagine any but the fully uninformed voters or those who voted for Rapozo through family or community ties voting for Carvalho, who may have approached his peak vote in the primaries.
But on the Big Island Pilago barely beat out third place finisher former State Rep Lorraine Inouye, a well connected female-old-boy seeking her old mayoral chair. And Big Island polls show Kanoi picking up 40% of Inouye’s vote..
Even long time Puna Green Bob Jacobson lost to a pro-development adversary. With Pilago gone Big Island journalist and political blogger Hunter Bishop calls it the “dissolv(ing of)... the current five-member Sierra Club majority” that passed a ban on plastic grocery bags and put a measure on the ballot to make marijuana the lowest priority for HPD enforcement while rejecting federal pot eradication funding
We can forget about a plastic bag ban or any sustainability and environmental protection measures passing if Kawakami makes the November cut on Kaua`i
As the son of former state representatives (yes, both of them) Richard and Bertha Kawakami and owner and GM of Big Save Markets he hasn’t met development that he doesn’t like especially when it benefits Big Save
And, although for some reason he seems reluctant to mention his lineage the old boy network knows exactly who he is even if the voters don’t. .
We know it won’t be him that’s crying after we heard his radio ad proclaiming how he has nothing to offer but his “blood sweat and tears”..
“D-E-R-I-K and Derik is so lame-o”- as many mis-phrase his advertising slogan song- is the dim-bulb of the Kawakami dynasty but given the support for nothing-upstairs candidates like Carvalho it’s obvious that the electorate self-identifies with that
Some might think- and we’re among them- that the starkness of the presence of the worst of the worst land pimps and hotel whores in the top seven is related to a perception of bad economic times ahead.
On Kaua`i, those whose economic fortunes rise and fall with the numbers of visitors are seeing 20-30% declines in their paychecks, especially if they work by the piece or for tips or commission.
Fear is a great motivator and when it comes down to the level of food and shelter people will respond by ditching concerns about lifestyle, environmental protection and future sustainability in favor of the lower echelon of Maslow’s hierarchy needs.
Fear drives out calls for change- when fear is the chief motivating factor incumbents are happy. And top five finishes for the five “incumbents” indicates that may well be the case here.
But though that make explain the extent of rejection of the new ideas of more progressive candidates something one retired pillar of the community said to us Saturday night has the ring of truth that all those hope-mongers need to hear- something we’ve been fighting against hearing again and again each election for many decades.
“Did you ever think that maybe people are happy with things the way they are?” he said.
Sometimes it’s hard to imagine how, but things could be worse. Lani Kawahara could have come in lower than Republican stalwart Ron Agor.
Kawahara’s supporters have their work cut out for them. A thousand votes is a lot to make up and the turnout on Kaua`i was the highest in the state at 46%, similar to general election turnouts in the recent past and even if it hasn’t peaked no higher turnout alone will make up for that margin.
If Kaua`i fails to put Lani over the top we won’t just be losing two years of service of an extremely bright and akamai, controlled growth advocate but won’t have any voice on the council to combat the money-driven developers who will own all seven councilmembers.
One voice may not be able to stop the full mainland-ization of Kaua`i that many call inevitable. But it’s always better to have a foot in the door than have it shut, locked and barred trying to kick it down.
Friday, September 19, 2008
STILL IN THE DOG HOUSE?
(Coming this weekend- Chapters 6 and 7 of KPD Blue)
STILL IN THE DOG HOUSE?: Our prognosticating post on Wednesday has kicked up a hornets nest of disagreement and more importantly uncovered a constituency we might have ignored.
We said
(T)his Saturday’s Special Mayoral Election appears to be a two way race between Bernard Carvalho ad JoAnn Yukimura for first place with Mel Rapozo trailing badly according to the PNN’s coconut-wireless totally-not-based-on-anything-but-a-hunch poll.
Our guess is that Carvalho will come in with about 40% with Yukimura coming in at about 35%, Rapozo around 20% and Rolf Bieber pulling in about 5%....
Yukimura... has received a boost in recent days and weeks as more and more local grassroots and community organizations have endorsed her.The question is if she can turn out the vote, especially the “I’m not voting for any of those creeps” crowd.Her spurt has seemingly whip-sawed her past Rapozo as many of her disappointed old friends and supporters found nowhere else to go if they hope to dislodge denizens of the recesses of the county-insiders’ bunker.
But in talking to folks since then we realize now we forgot one essential factor- among the “I’m not voting for any of those creeps” crowd there is a significant “especially JoAnn” constituency.
As always, history is an important indicator of how thing will probably go tomorrow.
In 2002 Ron Kouchi and Bryan Baptiste squared off for mayor. Kouchi had been much reviled by many for years for having never met development he didn’t like, especially hotels and resorts.
And he had been on and later in charge of the council when it was busy approving most of the re-zonings that are now the bane of residents as they are constructed all a once without the infrastructure to support them.
But in ’02 Kouchi not only admitted he had done all this but claimed to be a reborn smart growth and controlled development advocate. His “mea culpa” pulled in many of those who had despised him for years and in fact he depended on their votes.
Kouchi courted them using slow-growth slogans stolen directly from ex-mayor Yukimura’s 1988 campaign when she trounced the establishment pro-development Mayor “Uncle” Tony Kunimura during the campaign that malahini- who didn’t know the candidates and history- referred to as the “vote for the ‘-imura’ of your choice” election.
Baptiste ran a lackluster campaign on ’02 and had hardly a word to say on any of the issues, preferring to run a “he’s one of us” campaign with his “leadership from the heart” slogan... an axiom completed by many with “only because he doesn’t have a brain”..
With a growing “settler” constituency who would vote based on the issues rather than community ties Kouchi seemed to be headed for a victory with his new-found, almost religious, conversion
But he- and we- forgot about the “there is no way in hell I’d ever vote for Ron Kouchi” vote.
We kept hearing it throughout the campaign from those who remembered all too well the literally hundreds of 6-1 council votes with Kouchi and the old boys (and a girl or two along the way) pushing through any project that came before them leaving poor Kaipo Asing in a minority of one in almost every vote.
But we didn’t believe it. Surely they would come to their senses since Bryan was such a obnoxious boob, recent eulogies notwithstanding. (What? Too soon?)
But of course Ron didn’t win and, well, guess what? We’re hearing the same about JoAnn.
Though you would think that with her endorsements and the way Rapozo’s stock has fallen recently she was going to pick up enough votes for second place and a place in the November runoff .
But her negatives, like Kouchi’s, may just be too high.
Many still remember how she pissed off just about everybody on one thing or another during her six years as mayor, something we got an earful of in the past three days.
And even some of her former supporters have gotten thoroughly disgusted with how she’s gotten chummy with developers and given away the store lately to the point that they have also vowed never to vote for her again.
The council election is not the mayoral election. Despite her high vote totals in the last two council elections- which paled in comparison to her traditional first place totals before she became mayor- everyone gets seven votes.
And when the candidates say “save one vote for me” it isn’t just a quaint Kauai-ism. It’s the way you get elected here
Kaipo Asing found that out we he ran in 1998 against then Mayor Marianne Kusaka, The day after his last minute filing we overheard two Democratic Party bosses talking (down by the copy store, hint hint) about how the election was his based on his first place finish in every election since 1988.
But Asing stunningly didn’t even make the primary cut, revising the thinking of every councilperson considering the mayor’s seat ever since.
Perhaps Yukimura didn’t take notice because she was living in Honolulu at the time. And perhaps she didn’t get the significance of Kouchi’s loss in ’02.
In these days of duopolisitc, diminished, almost non-existent democracy and the usual choices between tweedledum and tweedledumber it may not be as important to be liked as it is to not be disliked.
If the un-scientific poll in the local paper is any indication Yukimura will be enjoying at least a two year vacation from public service with nothing but time to think about it all..
STILL IN THE DOG HOUSE?: Our prognosticating post on Wednesday has kicked up a hornets nest of disagreement and more importantly uncovered a constituency we might have ignored.
We said
(T)his Saturday’s Special Mayoral Election appears to be a two way race between Bernard Carvalho ad JoAnn Yukimura for first place with Mel Rapozo trailing badly according to the PNN’s coconut-wireless totally-not-based-on-anything-but-a-hunch poll.
Our guess is that Carvalho will come in with about 40% with Yukimura coming in at about 35%, Rapozo around 20% and Rolf Bieber pulling in about 5%....
Yukimura... has received a boost in recent days and weeks as more and more local grassroots and community organizations have endorsed her.The question is if she can turn out the vote, especially the “I’m not voting for any of those creeps” crowd.Her spurt has seemingly whip-sawed her past Rapozo as many of her disappointed old friends and supporters found nowhere else to go if they hope to dislodge denizens of the recesses of the county-insiders’ bunker.
But in talking to folks since then we realize now we forgot one essential factor- among the “I’m not voting for any of those creeps” crowd there is a significant “especially JoAnn” constituency.
As always, history is an important indicator of how thing will probably go tomorrow.
In 2002 Ron Kouchi and Bryan Baptiste squared off for mayor. Kouchi had been much reviled by many for years for having never met development he didn’t like, especially hotels and resorts.
And he had been on and later in charge of the council when it was busy approving most of the re-zonings that are now the bane of residents as they are constructed all a once without the infrastructure to support them.
But in ’02 Kouchi not only admitted he had done all this but claimed to be a reborn smart growth and controlled development advocate. His “mea culpa” pulled in many of those who had despised him for years and in fact he depended on their votes.
Kouchi courted them using slow-growth slogans stolen directly from ex-mayor Yukimura’s 1988 campaign when she trounced the establishment pro-development Mayor “Uncle” Tony Kunimura during the campaign that malahini- who didn’t know the candidates and history- referred to as the “vote for the ‘-imura’ of your choice” election.
Baptiste ran a lackluster campaign on ’02 and had hardly a word to say on any of the issues, preferring to run a “he’s one of us” campaign with his “leadership from the heart” slogan... an axiom completed by many with “only because he doesn’t have a brain”..
With a growing “settler” constituency who would vote based on the issues rather than community ties Kouchi seemed to be headed for a victory with his new-found, almost religious, conversion
But he- and we- forgot about the “there is no way in hell I’d ever vote for Ron Kouchi” vote.
We kept hearing it throughout the campaign from those who remembered all too well the literally hundreds of 6-1 council votes with Kouchi and the old boys (and a girl or two along the way) pushing through any project that came before them leaving poor Kaipo Asing in a minority of one in almost every vote.
But we didn’t believe it. Surely they would come to their senses since Bryan was such a obnoxious boob, recent eulogies notwithstanding. (What? Too soon?)
But of course Ron didn’t win and, well, guess what? We’re hearing the same about JoAnn.
Though you would think that with her endorsements and the way Rapozo’s stock has fallen recently she was going to pick up enough votes for second place and a place in the November runoff .
But her negatives, like Kouchi’s, may just be too high.
Many still remember how she pissed off just about everybody on one thing or another during her six years as mayor, something we got an earful of in the past three days.
And even some of her former supporters have gotten thoroughly disgusted with how she’s gotten chummy with developers and given away the store lately to the point that they have also vowed never to vote for her again.
The council election is not the mayoral election. Despite her high vote totals in the last two council elections- which paled in comparison to her traditional first place totals before she became mayor- everyone gets seven votes.
And when the candidates say “save one vote for me” it isn’t just a quaint Kauai-ism. It’s the way you get elected here
Kaipo Asing found that out we he ran in 1998 against then Mayor Marianne Kusaka, The day after his last minute filing we overheard two Democratic Party bosses talking (down by the copy store, hint hint) about how the election was his based on his first place finish in every election since 1988.
But Asing stunningly didn’t even make the primary cut, revising the thinking of every councilperson considering the mayor’s seat ever since.
Perhaps Yukimura didn’t take notice because she was living in Honolulu at the time. And perhaps she didn’t get the significance of Kouchi’s loss in ’02.
In these days of duopolisitc, diminished, almost non-existent democracy and the usual choices between tweedledum and tweedledumber it may not be as important to be liked as it is to not be disliked.
If the un-scientific poll in the local paper is any indication Yukimura will be enjoying at least a two year vacation from public service with nothing but time to think about it all..
Monday, September 8, 2008
SAME OLD DOGS, SAME OLD TRICKS
SAME OLD DOGS, SAME OLD TRICKS: Though there are few benevolent bright bulbs running for council along with the usual sucking black holes, the same can’t be said about this year’s Mayor’s race.
It’s Slim Pickens out there and we’d probably vote for him if he was running before one of the four headless horsemen. It’s one of those elections where the “none of the above” crazes come out of the woodwork.
Having an NOTA choice on the ballot might make some fools feel better but is an exercise in futility.
NOTA as an electoral choice only make matters worse. It forces another vote, usually for an even worse slate. It makes you wonder where all the NOTA people were when others were filing to run.
Sometimes there is a candidate who fills the NOTA niche- a candidate who, we’re told, has no chance of winning but who everyone agrees with on the issues. Such an apparent non-sequitor is informative of the sorry state of what passes for democracy in our two-party-addled system.
This year on Kaua`i even our NOTA candidate is a malahini high school teacher with no government experience whose only campaign promise is that he will give his salary back to the taxpayers.
For all we know, if elected he may even need to watch one of those 50’s film strips on “How a Bill Becomes a Law” replete with talking cartoon documents, narrated by the condescending Mr. Know-It-All.
At least during the last election, among the usual “electable” dregs we had good-governance aficionado and current council candidate Bruce Pleas to vote for for mayor. It gave people an opportunity vote their conscience and at least use their vote to make an NOTA statement.
But Rolf Bieber could be a Ralph Cramdon or a Ralph Richardson but he’s no Ralph Nader and no one is lining up to support his policies because he doesn’t appear to have any.
As for the “aboves”, Bernard Carvalho would be four more years of even more of the headless chicken dance that passed for an administration under Bryan Baptiste- same department heads, same private interests sitting on all the boards and commissions, same cronies, same time, same station.
All the corruption, secrecy and general inactivity you’re come to know and love will dig itself in a little deeper, approve few more hotels, sell off a few more beach accesses and generally run the place into the ground.
Bernard can best be described as the lack of brains behind Baptiste, putting together secret task forces and done deals and generally exhibiting an expertise only in paper shuffling.
The reason his ads say “together we can” is because he has no idea how to do it himself. He hasn’t got a clue and needs all the help he can get from anyone who’ll give it.
Not that he’ll take it from us. He’s usually already made his decision based on what the various and sundry crooks have told him because he knows he’s not capable of rendering a learned one. Few other than he himself will disagree that he treats you and your required public testimony as a bothersome nuisance.
It’s hard to imagine anyone worse for our future but perhaps only if you hadn’t met that piece of work they call Mel “tail-gunner-Joe” Rapozo.
There actually is a shot in hell of him ripping into some of the sleaze in county government but only if it’s someone Mel has it in for anyway. He can be petty and vindictive and isn’t above abusing his position with the witch hunts and cover-ups that have characterized his tenure on the council.
It usually depends on who’s got what on him at the time.
And that leaves our sister JoAnn Yukimura. She’s a shell of the activist she once was- the one dedicated to public service who spoke and acted her mind and was wildly popular for it..
Now she’s ditched all service but the lip kind and become the consummate politician.
She is single-handedly responsible for continuing vacation rentals in non-tourism areas, the thousand acres of million-plus-dollar homes at Kukui`ula and keeping official legal opinions and council public policy decisions away from public eyes..... all the while claiming to have ended the vacation rental crisis and led “affordable” housing efforts and verbally championing the sunshine law.
But she’s also the one of the smartest people in government– or at least she used to be until she thought she lost the ‘94 election because she didn’t make everybody happy.
Then she took one of those Steve Covey “Seven Irritating Habits of Highly Annoying A-holes” seminars and became the developer’s best friend, creating “win-win” situations by losing what had already been won.
She now compromises and compromises until the final product doesn’t resemble anything but the dreams of the developers and other assorted thieves and rogues. Anyone who waves a park, a road, land for an unneeded new school or some other unfathomable pet project at her is thus entitled to a private beach or some other golden-egg-laying goose in return.
But while she’s no longer smart enough to see what she’s doing to herself or us, she is smart and at one time did great things for this island.
We don’t expect her to change but at least under JoAnn we would have a mayor who knew what the right thing to do was at one time and may actually set a few things in balance.
Which is why- and even we can’t believe we’re saying this- we are urging people vote for JoAnn Yukimura for Mayor on September 20.
It could be worse... a whole lot worse.
It’s Slim Pickens out there and we’d probably vote for him if he was running before one of the four headless horsemen. It’s one of those elections where the “none of the above” crazes come out of the woodwork.
Having an NOTA choice on the ballot might make some fools feel better but is an exercise in futility.
NOTA as an electoral choice only make matters worse. It forces another vote, usually for an even worse slate. It makes you wonder where all the NOTA people were when others were filing to run.
Sometimes there is a candidate who fills the NOTA niche- a candidate who, we’re told, has no chance of winning but who everyone agrees with on the issues. Such an apparent non-sequitor is informative of the sorry state of what passes for democracy in our two-party-addled system.
This year on Kaua`i even our NOTA candidate is a malahini high school teacher with no government experience whose only campaign promise is that he will give his salary back to the taxpayers.
For all we know, if elected he may even need to watch one of those 50’s film strips on “How a Bill Becomes a Law” replete with talking cartoon documents, narrated by the condescending Mr. Know-It-All.
At least during the last election, among the usual “electable” dregs we had good-governance aficionado and current council candidate Bruce Pleas to vote for for mayor. It gave people an opportunity vote their conscience and at least use their vote to make an NOTA statement.
But Rolf Bieber could be a Ralph Cramdon or a Ralph Richardson but he’s no Ralph Nader and no one is lining up to support his policies because he doesn’t appear to have any.
As for the “aboves”, Bernard Carvalho would be four more years of even more of the headless chicken dance that passed for an administration under Bryan Baptiste- same department heads, same private interests sitting on all the boards and commissions, same cronies, same time, same station.
All the corruption, secrecy and general inactivity you’re come to know and love will dig itself in a little deeper, approve few more hotels, sell off a few more beach accesses and generally run the place into the ground.
Bernard can best be described as the lack of brains behind Baptiste, putting together secret task forces and done deals and generally exhibiting an expertise only in paper shuffling.
The reason his ads say “together we can” is because he has no idea how to do it himself. He hasn’t got a clue and needs all the help he can get from anyone who’ll give it.
Not that he’ll take it from us. He’s usually already made his decision based on what the various and sundry crooks have told him because he knows he’s not capable of rendering a learned one. Few other than he himself will disagree that he treats you and your required public testimony as a bothersome nuisance.
It’s hard to imagine anyone worse for our future but perhaps only if you hadn’t met that piece of work they call Mel “tail-gunner-Joe” Rapozo.
There actually is a shot in hell of him ripping into some of the sleaze in county government but only if it’s someone Mel has it in for anyway. He can be petty and vindictive and isn’t above abusing his position with the witch hunts and cover-ups that have characterized his tenure on the council.
It usually depends on who’s got what on him at the time.
And that leaves our sister JoAnn Yukimura. She’s a shell of the activist she once was- the one dedicated to public service who spoke and acted her mind and was wildly popular for it..
Now she’s ditched all service but the lip kind and become the consummate politician.
She is single-handedly responsible for continuing vacation rentals in non-tourism areas, the thousand acres of million-plus-dollar homes at Kukui`ula and keeping official legal opinions and council public policy decisions away from public eyes..... all the while claiming to have ended the vacation rental crisis and led “affordable” housing efforts and verbally championing the sunshine law.
But she’s also the one of the smartest people in government– or at least she used to be until she thought she lost the ‘94 election because she didn’t make everybody happy.
Then she took one of those Steve Covey “Seven Irritating Habits of Highly Annoying A-holes” seminars and became the developer’s best friend, creating “win-win” situations by losing what had already been won.
She now compromises and compromises until the final product doesn’t resemble anything but the dreams of the developers and other assorted thieves and rogues. Anyone who waves a park, a road, land for an unneeded new school or some other unfathomable pet project at her is thus entitled to a private beach or some other golden-egg-laying goose in return.
But while she’s no longer smart enough to see what she’s doing to herself or us, she is smart and at one time did great things for this island.
We don’t expect her to change but at least under JoAnn we would have a mayor who knew what the right thing to do was at one time and may actually set a few things in balance.
Which is why- and even we can’t believe we’re saying this- we are urging people vote for JoAnn Yukimura for Mayor on September 20.
It could be worse... a whole lot worse.
Thursday, September 4, 2008
SALTY DOG
SALTY DOG: Dividing lines on the Hawaii Superferry (HSf) were reportedly drawn at Tuesday’s mayoral debate with candidates Mel Rapozo and Bernard Carvalho giving unqualified support and JoAnn Yukimura and Rolf Bieber coming down on the skeptical side.
Seemingly though, for most the determining factor is completion of the environmental impact statement (EIS) currently being undertaken.
Kauaians overwhelmingly, whether they favor or despise the HSf want to know all the impacts island wide and how they are going to be dealt with.
But ever since the Eco-Roundtable candidates’ forum there’s been a question as to the validity of the current Belt Collins EIS that was called the “Act 2 EIS” in a question to the candidates, as distinguished from a normal EIS under the Hawai`i and National Environmental Protection Acts, HEPA and NEPA respectively.
Though we’ve asked numerous people during the last month what the exact difference was we were unable to even get an approximate answer... until now.
Intrepid Superferry researcher and foe Brad Parsons- who was MauiBrad until he recently moved to our shores to become KauaiBrad- has a post at his Hawaii Superferry Unofficial Blog, explaining that Act 2 will not contain one of the most important elements of an EIS- the “no action alternative”.
Apparently one of the council members didn’t get it either and asked Brad to clue us in on what others have been referring to.
Brad wrote in reply
From reading Act 2 and Chapter 343 and from a speech I heard Dan Hempey give based on a conversation he had with Isaac Hall, my understanding is that Act 2 does not allow for the 'no action' alternative on the project being studied, further it does not provide for the governing authority to reject and not allow the project. The 'no action' alternative is a part of a real EIS under HEPA Chapter 343 and a federal NEPA EIS.
What this essentially means is that it’s a given that the EIS will not have to provide for mitigation of the environmental, cultural and social impacts because it doesn’t really matter whether they do or not.
In other words the boat is already in service so therefore the impacts somehow don’t matter and can and will be ignored.
But does the Hawai`i state legislature really have the right to say this? Apparently not.
HEPA is the state version of NEPA which details the federal mandates states must follow in preparing EIS’. And one of the most important is the evolved standard “no action alternative” which is in EIS’ for the “accepting” entity to use if they determine that either all the impacts are not identified or more importantly that the impacts are so great that they simply cannot be sufficiently mitigated.
Many think the latter would probably be the case in an “honest” EIS without spending hundreds of millions of dollars on improving our infrastructural capacity and protecting our resources
In the federal courts it has become quite clear that the “no action alternative” (NAA) is an essential element of any EIS.
Just recently here in Hawai`i, in cases involving both the Army’s use of the sacred Makua Valley on O`ahu and the Navy’s use of sonar, the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that the lack of the NAA is reason enough to go back to the drawing board and has stuck down the EIS’ that didn’t contain them.
But the whole history of the HSf is littered with a total regard of federal law. That’s because it has suffered from a dearth of cases filed in federal court except for one that was thrown out, not on the merits but on technicalities, well before many pertinent facts were known and more than a year before the ferry first attempted to travel.
As PNN detailed in a series of articles last year, from the State Department of Transportation’s original “exemption” for the HSf that was struck down by the Hawai`i Supreme Court to the state’s lack of adherence to the federal Coastal Zone Management act by playing a shell game with the local Special Management Area permitting process, the state has routinely ignored federal laws that trump the state statutes.
But none of the attorney’s involved in getting adherence to State law have chosen to go to the Federal courts to get state compliance since that long ago ruling
Parsons closed his piece by saying
The following is a passage written by a legal expert involved and further explains it, "Act 2 changed the very purpose of HEPA just to accommodate the Superferry Corporation. Until November 1, 2007 (the day Act 2 took effect), HEPA had been based on the fact that EA studies were “critical to humanity’s well being,…and that an environmental review process” was necessary to “alert decision makers to significant environmental effects which may result from the implementation of certain actions.” Act 2’s stated purpose is to “facilitate the establishment of interisland ferry service and, at the same time, protect Hawai‘i’s fragile environment (italics added) by clarifying that neither the preparation of an environmental assessment, nor a finding of no significant impact, nor acceptance of an environmental impact statement shall be a condition precedent to, or otherwise be required prior to … operation of a large capacity ferry vessel company.”"
Rapozo has been duped- as has Carvalho, as have thousands of people on Kaua`i- into thinking that a there is an EIS being prepared that adheres to federal standards.
But as feared, the legislature’s “Act 2”- which threw out the "condition precedent" requirements of Chapter 343 of State law aka HEPA - not only allowed the HSf to operate while an EIS was being done but threw out any question of operation after it was done.
As mayoral candidate JoAnn Yukimura was quoted as saying at the debate
Yukimura said she needs assurance the issues that may be identified in the environmental assessment — such as traffic, drugs, overcrowded parks, invasive species and cultural theft — will be operationally addressed and “not just with words.”
It’s like asking if we want a chocolate bar and then giving us a chocolate-covered turd. When we break it open and look at it closely we complain that “this is nothing but a piece of shit”.
Apparently Rapozo’s, Carvalho’s and the Chamber of Commerce crowd’s answer to us is “yeah but it’s really great shit”
Seemingly though, for most the determining factor is completion of the environmental impact statement (EIS) currently being undertaken.
Kauaians overwhelmingly, whether they favor or despise the HSf want to know all the impacts island wide and how they are going to be dealt with.
But ever since the Eco-Roundtable candidates’ forum there’s been a question as to the validity of the current Belt Collins EIS that was called the “Act 2 EIS” in a question to the candidates, as distinguished from a normal EIS under the Hawai`i and National Environmental Protection Acts, HEPA and NEPA respectively.
Though we’ve asked numerous people during the last month what the exact difference was we were unable to even get an approximate answer... until now.
Intrepid Superferry researcher and foe Brad Parsons- who was MauiBrad until he recently moved to our shores to become KauaiBrad- has a post at his Hawaii Superferry Unofficial Blog, explaining that Act 2 will not contain one of the most important elements of an EIS- the “no action alternative”.
Apparently one of the council members didn’t get it either and asked Brad to clue us in on what others have been referring to.
Brad wrote in reply
From reading Act 2 and Chapter 343 and from a speech I heard Dan Hempey give based on a conversation he had with Isaac Hall, my understanding is that Act 2 does not allow for the 'no action' alternative on the project being studied, further it does not provide for the governing authority to reject and not allow the project. The 'no action' alternative is a part of a real EIS under HEPA Chapter 343 and a federal NEPA EIS.
What this essentially means is that it’s a given that the EIS will not have to provide for mitigation of the environmental, cultural and social impacts because it doesn’t really matter whether they do or not.
In other words the boat is already in service so therefore the impacts somehow don’t matter and can and will be ignored.
But does the Hawai`i state legislature really have the right to say this? Apparently not.
HEPA is the state version of NEPA which details the federal mandates states must follow in preparing EIS’. And one of the most important is the evolved standard “no action alternative” which is in EIS’ for the “accepting” entity to use if they determine that either all the impacts are not identified or more importantly that the impacts are so great that they simply cannot be sufficiently mitigated.
Many think the latter would probably be the case in an “honest” EIS without spending hundreds of millions of dollars on improving our infrastructural capacity and protecting our resources
In the federal courts it has become quite clear that the “no action alternative” (NAA) is an essential element of any EIS.
Just recently here in Hawai`i, in cases involving both the Army’s use of the sacred Makua Valley on O`ahu and the Navy’s use of sonar, the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that the lack of the NAA is reason enough to go back to the drawing board and has stuck down the EIS’ that didn’t contain them.
But the whole history of the HSf is littered with a total regard of federal law. That’s because it has suffered from a dearth of cases filed in federal court except for one that was thrown out, not on the merits but on technicalities, well before many pertinent facts were known and more than a year before the ferry first attempted to travel.
As PNN detailed in a series of articles last year, from the State Department of Transportation’s original “exemption” for the HSf that was struck down by the Hawai`i Supreme Court to the state’s lack of adherence to the federal Coastal Zone Management act by playing a shell game with the local Special Management Area permitting process, the state has routinely ignored federal laws that trump the state statutes.
But none of the attorney’s involved in getting adherence to State law have chosen to go to the Federal courts to get state compliance since that long ago ruling
Parsons closed his piece by saying
The following is a passage written by a legal expert involved and further explains it, "Act 2 changed the very purpose of HEPA just to accommodate the Superferry Corporation. Until November 1, 2007 (the day Act 2 took effect), HEPA had been based on the fact that EA studies were “critical to humanity’s well being,…and that an environmental review process” was necessary to “alert decision makers to significant environmental effects which may result from the implementation of certain actions.” Act 2’s stated purpose is to “facilitate the establishment of interisland ferry service and, at the same time, protect Hawai‘i’s fragile environment (italics added) by clarifying that neither the preparation of an environmental assessment, nor a finding of no significant impact, nor acceptance of an environmental impact statement shall be a condition precedent to, or otherwise be required prior to … operation of a large capacity ferry vessel company.”"
Rapozo has been duped- as has Carvalho, as have thousands of people on Kaua`i- into thinking that a there is an EIS being prepared that adheres to federal standards.
But as feared, the legislature’s “Act 2”- which threw out the "condition precedent" requirements of Chapter 343 of State law aka HEPA - not only allowed the HSf to operate while an EIS was being done but threw out any question of operation after it was done.
As mayoral candidate JoAnn Yukimura was quoted as saying at the debate
Yukimura said she needs assurance the issues that may be identified in the environmental assessment — such as traffic, drugs, overcrowded parks, invasive species and cultural theft — will be operationally addressed and “not just with words.”
It’s like asking if we want a chocolate bar and then giving us a chocolate-covered turd. When we break it open and look at it closely we complain that “this is nothing but a piece of shit”.
Apparently Rapozo’s, Carvalho’s and the Chamber of Commerce crowd’s answer to us is “yeah but it’s really great shit”
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