EVEN REPORTERS GET THE BLUES: Mesmer never had TV but if he had he would have done well to use the county council's budget hearings to lull his patients into the half-sleep of passive compliance he sought.
So we'll excuse ourself for having such heavy eyelids after attempting to view the un-viewable and relying on- god help us- Leo Azumbuja's account of the council services budget requests session.
Of course he starts off his article with a total fabrication from who knows what recess of his imagination in referring to "County Clerk Peter Nakamura’s mayoral re-appointment and subsequent Kaua`i County Council confirmation in December."
The obviously click-challenged Azumbuja might have at least checked the county charter to find out that the mayor has nothing whatsoever to do with the appointment of the clerk.
But we'll have to rely on his account of a much more important matter- one so important he saved it for paragraph 18 (of 21) in noting that:
(Nakamura) also asked for a new position in Council Services for secretarial support. This new hire would provide support to increase web postings of council documents.
“As part of our goal of increasingthe presence of the council and council documents on the Web, the primary objective that we were given by the council chair was to obtain and upgrade our copier systems to multi-function systems,” said Nakamura, adding that the system would allow the office to begin such process at Nawiliwili and be able to transition directly to the network systems in the renovated Historic County Building.
Nakamura said the office should obtain the second multi-function copier within one month.
“Our hope is that it would be able to decrease the amount of steps that we currently have to do to convert paper documents into readable, searchable documents,” he said.
As we've noted over and over, the posting of the supporting documents for council agenda items that are given out routinely at the council services office has been ourand others' source of choice for uncovering corruption and malfeasance by both the administration and council and therefore the council has had to be dragged kicking and screaming into the information age although they've been successful with foot dragging for years now.
As we revealed long ago, council services already has a fancy-schmancy super-duper "copy machine" right now that scans and then actually posts documents on their website- one they've used on things like minutes, agendas and summaries.
But while ignoring that- until now with their questionable claim that they need another one- their main claim has been that somehow they need a new "secretary" whose job we suppose will be to push the second button when they make hard copies of those supporting documents for the members of the council.
Now they need a second machine for the button pusher.
Of course now that they've told the lie about needing a new position for so long they are trapped into including it in the budget.
We can just imagine Nakamura calling up Personnel Director Malcolm Fernandez and asking for the civil service personnel code number for a button pusher. We're pretty sure civil service must have a special class of people with huge index fingers at the ready.
Showing posts with label Budget County Council. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Budget County Council. Show all posts
Thursday, April 21, 2011
Friday, April 15, 2011
ZZZZZZ
ZZZZZZ: We've spent a rousing week of evenings waiting for something to actually happen at the county council budget hearings, so it was another "huh" moment when today's local newspaper story by you-know-who proclaimed that "(s)parks were flying Thursday morning between County Council members during a heated discussion at the Nawiliwili Council Chambers."
What a witty lede. There was only one problem with it- the article never mentioned the "sparks" perhaps because in actuality these budget hearings have alternated between snooze-fest and schmooze fest since the festivities began.
You'd think that with the all-cronies-all-the-time nature of the department heads appointed by Mayor Bernard Carvalho the level of incompetence at the top that's been reported to us by the county's "we-bes"- as in "we be here when you got here, we be here when you're gone"- might have been an issue for councilmembers, whose job is, after all, oversight of the administration.
Instead, after the department heads' usual perfunctory reading of their "prepared remarks" councilmembers lobbed a few softballs before heaping the praise on them reminiscent of the post-secret-handshake "you're great, no you're great" declaration from the Tom Hanks Saturday Night Live "Fiver Timer" sketch.
Most of the questions that have been asked are invariably of the "what the bleep did you do with the money" nature with "anykine" answers sufficing as appointees stumbled and bumbled their way through the sessions until they finally ran out the clock. That was followed by councilmembers declarations of "I especially liked the way you listed..." whatever it was they listed and an "I love you too" from the person in the not-so-hot seat.
Apparently, we have it all wrong. There's no incompetence at the top in administrative departments- our experiences are illusory. It's just coincidence- the mayor's campaign workers and big contributors just happen to be the most qualified people to lead these departments.
So glad we cleared that up. Go back to your homes folks- nothing to see here.
What a witty lede. There was only one problem with it- the article never mentioned the "sparks" perhaps because in actuality these budget hearings have alternated between snooze-fest and schmooze fest since the festivities began.
You'd think that with the all-cronies-all-the-time nature of the department heads appointed by Mayor Bernard Carvalho the level of incompetence at the top that's been reported to us by the county's "we-bes"- as in "we be here when you got here, we be here when you're gone"- might have been an issue for councilmembers, whose job is, after all, oversight of the administration.
Instead, after the department heads' usual perfunctory reading of their "prepared remarks" councilmembers lobbed a few softballs before heaping the praise on them reminiscent of the post-secret-handshake "you're great, no you're great" declaration from the Tom Hanks Saturday Night Live "Fiver Timer" sketch.
Most of the questions that have been asked are invariably of the "what the bleep did you do with the money" nature with "anykine" answers sufficing as appointees stumbled and bumbled their way through the sessions until they finally ran out the clock. That was followed by councilmembers declarations of "I especially liked the way you listed..." whatever it was they listed and an "I love you too" from the person in the not-so-hot seat.
Apparently, we have it all wrong. There's no incompetence at the top in administrative departments- our experiences are illusory. It's just coincidence- the mayor's campaign workers and big contributors just happen to be the most qualified people to lead these departments.
So glad we cleared that up. Go back to your homes folks- nothing to see here.
Tuesday, January 27, 2009
MAYOR ORDERS DEP’T HEADS CUT BUDGET BY 10% ACROSS THE BOARD
MAYOR ORDERS DEP’T HEADS CUT BUDGET BY 10% ACROSS THE BOARD: PNN has confirmed rumors that Mayor Bernard Carvalho has instructed all department heads to cut their budgets by 10% across the board in the budget currently being complied by the administration.
Although a 5% figure had been tossed around in reports PNN received from various county employees, administration spokesperson Mary Daubert confirmed the 10% reduction yesterday saying that “(t)he Mayor asked each department head to reduce his or her budget by 10%, not 5%. He did not specify how the department head was to reach that 10% reduction.”
The 5% figure was also mentioned by members of the Police Commission at their public meeting last Friday.
Carvalho’s administration has been tightlipped about specifics in putting together the 2009-10 budget so far except for saying that “we are anticipating a ten to fifteen percent decline in revenues from both local and state sources, and have advised department heads to reduce their budgets accordingly” in his testimony to the state legislature on January 13.
Although that testimony spoke of specifics such as a hiring freeze, a pay freeze for himself and department heads, the discontinuation of the mayor’s car allowance and savings in “energy use” this is the first indication of an “across the board” budget cut as opposed to “surgical trimming” of specific programs as the state and the other counties have sought in their budgets.
Despite the claimed “hiring freeze” the administration recently hired at least three new employees as “park rangers” as widely publicized, essentially in order to enforce new regulations allowing dogs on the east side bike path.
During the campaign, in a debate sponsored by the local newspaper, Carvalho angrily boasted that he would “not cut any programs” after his opponent JoAnn Yukimura said the new mayor would have to make cuts somewhere and stated that Carvalho did not understand the budgeting process.
According to the county charter the mayor’s new budget is due on the council’s table on or before March 15 for slicing and dicing during a series of council budget hearings with all department heads coming before the council to justify their budgets.
Although the charter calls for a balanced budget and requires the council publish “a summary of the estimated revenues, including any new sources of revenues, and expenditures” upon receipt of the mayor’s budget, it does not define how the total of income is to be tabulated.
Councilperson Jay Furfaro, formerly Chair of the council’s Finance Committee has called for a local version of the state’s council of revenue to give the council a figure they can work from.
The current practice of the council has been to take the tabulation of all of the assessments of all properties on the island and set a “real property tax rate” sufficient to “balance” the budget.
The county’s only source of taxation revenue is from property taxes according to the state constitution.
The setting of the tax rate has been controversial over the past 10 years of increasing assessments since the council has been able to raise the amount of actually revenues received through tax collections while technically being able to claim to have maintained or even “lowered the real property tax” often leaving out the word “rate” at the end.
According to the charter the mayor also is required to submit suggested modifications to the budget by May 8 which is followed by a public hearing on the budget before the council.
There is no public hearing mandated before the council’s deliberations begin although one has been requested many times over the years by members of the public and some councilmembers.
During the process the council is allowed to “reduce any item or items in the mayor's proposed budget by a majority vote and may increase any item or items therein or add new items thereto by an affirmative vote of two-thirds of the entire membership”.
The charter also says that “(a)mendments to the adopted annual budget ordinance may be submitted by the mayor... but no amendment shall increase the aggregate of authorized expenditures to any amount greater than the estimate of revenues for the fiscal year.”
The council must then pass a budget on or before June 7 or the mayor’s original budget submitted in March takes effect automatically.
Section 19 of the charter on “Financial Procedures” does not require the mayor’s signature on the budget for it to become law.
The current charter provision for the budget process was added in 1992 following bitter budget battles during a time when the charter was basically silent about what would happen if the mayor vetoed the budget and the council didn’t override the veto by the beginning of the next fiscal year.
Despite a public outcry for the televising of the budget hearings over the past few years it is expected that the council will not honor that request again this year and is expected to conduct their deliberations as secretly as possible under the open meetings provisions in the state sunshine law.
Although a 5% figure had been tossed around in reports PNN received from various county employees, administration spokesperson Mary Daubert confirmed the 10% reduction yesterday saying that “(t)he Mayor asked each department head to reduce his or her budget by 10%, not 5%. He did not specify how the department head was to reach that 10% reduction.”
The 5% figure was also mentioned by members of the Police Commission at their public meeting last Friday.
Carvalho’s administration has been tightlipped about specifics in putting together the 2009-10 budget so far except for saying that “we are anticipating a ten to fifteen percent decline in revenues from both local and state sources, and have advised department heads to reduce their budgets accordingly” in his testimony to the state legislature on January 13.
Although that testimony spoke of specifics such as a hiring freeze, a pay freeze for himself and department heads, the discontinuation of the mayor’s car allowance and savings in “energy use” this is the first indication of an “across the board” budget cut as opposed to “surgical trimming” of specific programs as the state and the other counties have sought in their budgets.
Despite the claimed “hiring freeze” the administration recently hired at least three new employees as “park rangers” as widely publicized, essentially in order to enforce new regulations allowing dogs on the east side bike path.
During the campaign, in a debate sponsored by the local newspaper, Carvalho angrily boasted that he would “not cut any programs” after his opponent JoAnn Yukimura said the new mayor would have to make cuts somewhere and stated that Carvalho did not understand the budgeting process.
According to the county charter the mayor’s new budget is due on the council’s table on or before March 15 for slicing and dicing during a series of council budget hearings with all department heads coming before the council to justify their budgets.
Although the charter calls for a balanced budget and requires the council publish “a summary of the estimated revenues, including any new sources of revenues, and expenditures” upon receipt of the mayor’s budget, it does not define how the total of income is to be tabulated.
Councilperson Jay Furfaro, formerly Chair of the council’s Finance Committee has called for a local version of the state’s council of revenue to give the council a figure they can work from.
The current practice of the council has been to take the tabulation of all of the assessments of all properties on the island and set a “real property tax rate” sufficient to “balance” the budget.
The county’s only source of taxation revenue is from property taxes according to the state constitution.
The setting of the tax rate has been controversial over the past 10 years of increasing assessments since the council has been able to raise the amount of actually revenues received through tax collections while technically being able to claim to have maintained or even “lowered the real property tax” often leaving out the word “rate” at the end.
According to the charter the mayor also is required to submit suggested modifications to the budget by May 8 which is followed by a public hearing on the budget before the council.
There is no public hearing mandated before the council’s deliberations begin although one has been requested many times over the years by members of the public and some councilmembers.
During the process the council is allowed to “reduce any item or items in the mayor's proposed budget by a majority vote and may increase any item or items therein or add new items thereto by an affirmative vote of two-thirds of the entire membership”.
The charter also says that “(a)mendments to the adopted annual budget ordinance may be submitted by the mayor... but no amendment shall increase the aggregate of authorized expenditures to any amount greater than the estimate of revenues for the fiscal year.”
The council must then pass a budget on or before June 7 or the mayor’s original budget submitted in March takes effect automatically.
Section 19 of the charter on “Financial Procedures” does not require the mayor’s signature on the budget for it to become law.
The current charter provision for the budget process was added in 1992 following bitter budget battles during a time when the charter was basically silent about what would happen if the mayor vetoed the budget and the council didn’t override the veto by the beginning of the next fiscal year.
Despite a public outcry for the televising of the budget hearings over the past few years it is expected that the council will not honor that request again this year and is expected to conduct their deliberations as secretly as possible under the open meetings provisions in the state sunshine law.
Saturday, June 21, 2008
MARKING THEIR TERRITORY
MARKING THEIR TERRITORY: Even from a sick bed Mayor Bryan Baptiste never forgets that his prime directive is to grease the skids of cronyism and maintain and bolster Grove Farm’s positioning within County government.
The utter lack of any ethics on the Kaua`i Ethics Board has been a well- mined cesspool for months ever since Grove Farm honcho Mark Hubbard and other clueless Board members decided that no one has to follow the ethics laws anymore because it would make it hard for Hubbard and others on the Board to personally violate the clear laws that forbid them from representing their company before the County while serving on a board or commission.
Chair Hubbard’s Board actually cleared Attorney Jonathan Chun of double-dealing, influence-peddling, conflict-of-interest type charges after Chun successfully lobbied for months before the Council for the Board of Realtors while Chairing the Charter Commission.
Now at Hubbard’s request the quid pro quo is working it’s magic as the Charter Commission is considering chucking the ethics laws in the ocean if Chun can slip it by first the Commissions and then the unsuspecting voters this November.
For those who might have missed it we’ve covered one two three four five times in the past six months the shameless ways Board members have refused with impunity to enforce the laws because the only remedy to the Ethics Board members’ own ethics violations is, quite conveniently, to go before the Ethics Board. We’ve highlighted the take by the local newspaper’s last columnist standing Walter Lewis, and government watchdog extraordinaire Horace Stoessel through essays published printed here and in the paper.
And we covered the revolving door and pick a pack of pickled posers hierarchy of the corrupt corporate revolving door.
Now this week we get news that Baptiste has submitted the name of a potential new member of the Ethics Board which is up which is for Council approval. And guess what? It’s just happens to be the wife of a former Finance Department Director who took a ride half-way through the County’s revolving door to become a Grove Farm Vice President a while back.
Toward the end of the agenda for next Wednesday’s Council meeting is this little tidbit.
Resolution No. 2008-29, RESOLUTION CONFIRMING MAYORAL APPOINTMENT TO THE BOARD OF ETHICS (Christiane Nakea-Tresler-First Term)
For those who may not recognize the name she is the wife of former Finance Director Mike Tressler who turned five years of government work into essentially a lobbying job as Grove Farm’s VP in charge of development.
Tressler- the “other” football star in Baptiste’s hui of half-wits and hubris- was a key sycophant in some of the shady book cooking that led to charges of overspending at KPD and was the one who conveniently used a provision allowing him as Finance Director, to nullify contracts, to cancel the employment contract of former Police Chief KC Lum while he was under fire from all sides for not being Darryl Perry.
And he did it despite the fact that the law specifically excludes personnel contracts from his purview. Tressler was also a key supporter and campaign worker on Baptiste’s first run for Mayor.
Did we expect anything else from Baptiste?. Certainly not. Nor do we expect anyone to show up to object when the Council approves her without a peep? Yeah, right.
Even if they hold an interview it won’t be televised because they have to leave more grip and grin time to give all those awards and certificates to every sewing circle, book review and timing association and embarrass every kid on every team that ever came in higher than eight place in a nine team league and cablecast it all with full captioning... all the while putting the kibosh on TV for prospective commissioners and board members and budget hearing every year... a problem that was not apparently remedied in this year’s budget despite promises to the contrary.
After having all their solicitors and supplicants cleared of ethics violations the Council and Mayor know who butters their bread and if they can stack the Ethics Board with those who won’t find their abominable ethics unacceptable they’ve got a get out of jail free card to play plantation monopoly and make sure they’re allowed to slip Grove Farm’s new development plan into the County’s General Plan, as they’ve planned.
Come on guys- at least make a genuine attempt to obscure what you’re doing- make our work a little more challenging.
The utter lack of any ethics on the Kaua`i Ethics Board has been a well- mined cesspool for months ever since Grove Farm honcho Mark Hubbard and other clueless Board members decided that no one has to follow the ethics laws anymore because it would make it hard for Hubbard and others on the Board to personally violate the clear laws that forbid them from representing their company before the County while serving on a board or commission.
Chair Hubbard’s Board actually cleared Attorney Jonathan Chun of double-dealing, influence-peddling, conflict-of-interest type charges after Chun successfully lobbied for months before the Council for the Board of Realtors while Chairing the Charter Commission.
Now at Hubbard’s request the quid pro quo is working it’s magic as the Charter Commission is considering chucking the ethics laws in the ocean if Chun can slip it by first the Commissions and then the unsuspecting voters this November.
For those who might have missed it we’ve covered one two three four five times in the past six months the shameless ways Board members have refused with impunity to enforce the laws because the only remedy to the Ethics Board members’ own ethics violations is, quite conveniently, to go before the Ethics Board. We’ve highlighted the take by the local newspaper’s last columnist standing Walter Lewis, and government watchdog extraordinaire Horace Stoessel through essays published printed here and in the paper.
And we covered the revolving door and pick a pack of pickled posers hierarchy of the corrupt corporate revolving door.
Now this week we get news that Baptiste has submitted the name of a potential new member of the Ethics Board which is up which is for Council approval. And guess what? It’s just happens to be the wife of a former Finance Department Director who took a ride half-way through the County’s revolving door to become a Grove Farm Vice President a while back.
Toward the end of the agenda for next Wednesday’s Council meeting is this little tidbit.
Resolution No. 2008-29, RESOLUTION CONFIRMING MAYORAL APPOINTMENT TO THE BOARD OF ETHICS (Christiane Nakea-Tresler-First Term)
For those who may not recognize the name she is the wife of former Finance Director Mike Tressler who turned five years of government work into essentially a lobbying job as Grove Farm’s VP in charge of development.
Tressler- the “other” football star in Baptiste’s hui of half-wits and hubris- was a key sycophant in some of the shady book cooking that led to charges of overspending at KPD and was the one who conveniently used a provision allowing him as Finance Director, to nullify contracts, to cancel the employment contract of former Police Chief KC Lum while he was under fire from all sides for not being Darryl Perry.
And he did it despite the fact that the law specifically excludes personnel contracts from his purview. Tressler was also a key supporter and campaign worker on Baptiste’s first run for Mayor.
Did we expect anything else from Baptiste?. Certainly not. Nor do we expect anyone to show up to object when the Council approves her without a peep? Yeah, right.
Even if they hold an interview it won’t be televised because they have to leave more grip and grin time to give all those awards and certificates to every sewing circle, book review and timing association and embarrass every kid on every team that ever came in higher than eight place in a nine team league and cablecast it all with full captioning... all the while putting the kibosh on TV for prospective commissioners and board members and budget hearing every year... a problem that was not apparently remedied in this year’s budget despite promises to the contrary.
After having all their solicitors and supplicants cleared of ethics violations the Council and Mayor know who butters their bread and if they can stack the Ethics Board with those who won’t find their abominable ethics unacceptable they’ve got a get out of jail free card to play plantation monopoly and make sure they’re allowed to slip Grove Farm’s new development plan into the County’s General Plan, as they’ve planned.
Come on guys- at least make a genuine attempt to obscure what you’re doing- make our work a little more challenging.
Saturday, June 14, 2008
BARK CLEARLY
BARK CLEARLY: Another day another pile of “huh?” on Kaua`i.
The first one regards the report in today’s paper from new reporter Michael Levine, who’s been doing an unparalleled job so far of covering the police and court beat with vigorous, clear and concise coverage.
In his article today we get news that despite the deliberate lack of funding for it in the County’s new Kaua`i Police Department (KPD) budget, Chief Darryl Perry is going ahead with creating an Internal Affairs Division (IAD) anyway, in possible violation of the budget ordinance..
The article itself is careful to call it a “pseudo” IAD despite the misleading headline, “Police chief to add internal affairs unit, information officer”, apparently written by someone who didn’t bother to read the article.
The headline is factually wrong in two respects- first in saying the Chief is the one adding a Public Information Officer (PIO) when the Council approved and funded the position thereby creating it and second in saying that the Chief is adding an actual IA division instead of a “sort of” one.
The distressing news is that the already understaffed department’s Criminal Investigations Bureau (CIB) will apparently be giving up officers to create the pseudo-IA, despite bitter complaints from the Council during the budget process this year that department heads are misappropriating salary monies and shifting around positions without Council approval for purposes not specifically identified by the Council in the ordinance
But the illegality might be one of those problems that takes care of itself since now the CIB will have even less time to investigate “The Case of the Shifting Salaries”.
Certainly we’ve needed an IA division at KPD for many years and the Council can certainly be criticized for reportedly giving the Chief a bad “choice” in saying he could have either more clerks or an IA division but not both.
The extra clerks will presumably be used to get officers back on the street and away from doing paperwork that can be done by non Public Safety Officers. This has been a long standing problem discussed at length by the Police Commission and this and past chiefs.
But so much for the Council’s past promises to give funding priority to reasonable requests for necessary items requested by KPD to not just make better use of personnel but to put a clamp on rogue officers without pitting the chief against his personnel, which is what the IA is supposed to do.
We’re also a little “huh” about the way the PIO position was described. The article claims
(T)he new position will be opening dialogue with community leaders to coordinate joint efforts, Perry said.
Whether that was meant to say that average community members will be excluded and only “leaders” will be included in these dialogues is an important distinction for many especially given the current perceived lack of public input on policing policies.
If it was an unintended word slip-up one would think the Chief would choose his words a little more carefully what with the ill-considered way many say he has responded to community complaints recently.
But in any case getting the filter of the administration out of the mix- where it shouldn’t be by law- and allowing the Department to speak for itself is certainly a step in the right direction.
Another “huh?” is contained in a report in Walter Lewis’ column today saying that the new administration-proposed property tax reform bill was put together by what the Mayor Bryan Baptiste has called a “Real Property Tax Commission”.
We’re beginning to think the administration doesn’t just “not get it”- the idea of open governance or the concept of following the law- but is blatantly thumbing their nose at it.
In addition to the fact that, as Walter says, according to the Charter only the Council can create boards and commissions, when a commission meets their confabs must be open to the public, take public testimony on every agenda item and announce and “post” their agenda with the lieutenant governor’s office six days in advance according to State law
Somehow this commission formed, met and delivered their work product in complete secrecy.
It would take pages to list all the times Baptiste’s babooze brigade of crony consultants have done this kind of thing- meeting secretly to come up with “done-deals”- so we don’t expect anyone to notice unless the Council decides to enforce the law and send the proposed bill back as dead on arrival. But unless it’s politically advantageous for them to nix it, don’t count on it.
Last but not least is this weird little “huh?” piece from the yesterday’s paper announcing how Councilpersons Mel Rapozo and Shaylene Iseri-Carvalho have really brought home the bacon in the form of prescription-drug discount program for Kaua`i.
With a headline of “Discount prescription program now on Kaua‘i” the article ballyhoos how:
Kaua‘i County yesterday launched a prescription drug discount card program to help relieve the financial strain on residents due to soaring medical costs, officials said.The free program, sponsored by the National Association of Counties, offers an average savings of 20 percent off the retail price of commonly prescribed drugs
“This is the best program ever offered for free to our residents,” said Kaua‘i County Councilwoman Shaylene Iseri-Carvalho, who has served on the NACo Board of Directors since 2006.
Wow. Free. And the “best” program to boot.. Tell us more Mel...
Local government may be unable to combat high prices at the pump, but this program should provide some monetary aid for residents, Councilman Mel Rapozo said at the Historic County Building.It costs county taxpayers nothing to make the cards available at neighborhood centers, the Parks and Recreation Department, the Office of Elderly Affairs, the Mayor’s Office and the Historic County Building, officials said.“Why wouldn’t we do this?” said Rapozo, who thanked Mayor Bryan Baptiste’s administration for its help in making the program possible on Kaua‘i.
But credit where credit is do. What did Shaylene do to bring this godsend to our shores?
“I personally took the initiative to start this program on Kaua‘i after seeing the tremendous benefits to other counties and after having the contract reviewed by our county attorney,” (Iseri Carvalho) said. “Since the program began, participating counties have made the program available to millions of Americans of any age, income level or health condition, and has saved consumers more than $83 million through 7.5 million prescriptions in savings averaging 22 percent.”
“It’s so vital ... the networking capabilities ... that put Michigan in the same room as Hawai`i,” he said. “We share so many of the same problems.”Oooo...vital.. Tell us more Shay- you must really care and showed us by taking the initiative. You’re our hero. Maybe we can buy a new car now with all that money we’ll be saving.
But wait there’s more.
NACo President Eric Coleman, who calls the program the association’s most innovative to date, attended the council’s meeting.“The NACo prescription discount card offers significant savings for the uninsured and underinsured residents of our county and even those fortunate to have prescription coverage can use the card to save money on drugs that are not covered by their health plan,” Iseri-Carvalho says in a news release. “Residents do not have to be Medicare beneficiaries to be eligible.”
We’re ready- tell us how dos this program works- how much will we be saving.
Well if you read to the bottom you’ll see.
The program works by simply presenting the card to a participating pharmacy and the consumer will receive the lowest price available from the pharmacy for a prescription, Iseri-Carvalho said.
Wow- you mean this time they’ll charge us their “lowest” price? We sure tied of being charged their highest price. “Let’s see” says the pharmacist, “that difference would be... let me total that up for ya here....
...ZERO, because the highest and lowest prices are both the same- they’re called THE PRICE.”
“We were going to charge you the price we’re charging Mrs. Kanaka but we decided that for you, special today, because you look like an honest lady and we like your face AND you have the ‘Mel and Shaylene Card’ we’ll charge you the price we’re charging everyone“
What, are there pharmacies charging different prices for different people?. Special 10% surcharge for malahinis?. 20% off for one-legged Filipinos? Are there signs at Kaua`i drug stores saying “we cheat kids, old people, sailors and drunks but not ‘Mel and Shaylene Cardholders’?”
Raising the perennial question do three “huh?” make a ?Whaaaaa?”?.
The first one regards the report in today’s paper from new reporter Michael Levine, who’s been doing an unparalleled job so far of covering the police and court beat with vigorous, clear and concise coverage.
In his article today we get news that despite the deliberate lack of funding for it in the County’s new Kaua`i Police Department (KPD) budget, Chief Darryl Perry is going ahead with creating an Internal Affairs Division (IAD) anyway, in possible violation of the budget ordinance..
The article itself is careful to call it a “pseudo” IAD despite the misleading headline, “Police chief to add internal affairs unit, information officer”, apparently written by someone who didn’t bother to read the article.
The headline is factually wrong in two respects- first in saying the Chief is the one adding a Public Information Officer (PIO) when the Council approved and funded the position thereby creating it and second in saying that the Chief is adding an actual IA division instead of a “sort of” one.
The distressing news is that the already understaffed department’s Criminal Investigations Bureau (CIB) will apparently be giving up officers to create the pseudo-IA, despite bitter complaints from the Council during the budget process this year that department heads are misappropriating salary monies and shifting around positions without Council approval for purposes not specifically identified by the Council in the ordinance
But the illegality might be one of those problems that takes care of itself since now the CIB will have even less time to investigate “The Case of the Shifting Salaries”.
Certainly we’ve needed an IA division at KPD for many years and the Council can certainly be criticized for reportedly giving the Chief a bad “choice” in saying he could have either more clerks or an IA division but not both.
The extra clerks will presumably be used to get officers back on the street and away from doing paperwork that can be done by non Public Safety Officers. This has been a long standing problem discussed at length by the Police Commission and this and past chiefs.
But so much for the Council’s past promises to give funding priority to reasonable requests for necessary items requested by KPD to not just make better use of personnel but to put a clamp on rogue officers without pitting the chief against his personnel, which is what the IA is supposed to do.
We’re also a little “huh” about the way the PIO position was described. The article claims
(T)he new position will be opening dialogue with community leaders to coordinate joint efforts, Perry said.
Whether that was meant to say that average community members will be excluded and only “leaders” will be included in these dialogues is an important distinction for many especially given the current perceived lack of public input on policing policies.
If it was an unintended word slip-up one would think the Chief would choose his words a little more carefully what with the ill-considered way many say he has responded to community complaints recently.
But in any case getting the filter of the administration out of the mix- where it shouldn’t be by law- and allowing the Department to speak for itself is certainly a step in the right direction.
Another “huh?” is contained in a report in Walter Lewis’ column today saying that the new administration-proposed property tax reform bill was put together by what the Mayor Bryan Baptiste has called a “Real Property Tax Commission”.
We’re beginning to think the administration doesn’t just “not get it”- the idea of open governance or the concept of following the law- but is blatantly thumbing their nose at it.
In addition to the fact that, as Walter says, according to the Charter only the Council can create boards and commissions, when a commission meets their confabs must be open to the public, take public testimony on every agenda item and announce and “post” their agenda with the lieutenant governor’s office six days in advance according to State law
Somehow this commission formed, met and delivered their work product in complete secrecy.
It would take pages to list all the times Baptiste’s babooze brigade of crony consultants have done this kind of thing- meeting secretly to come up with “done-deals”- so we don’t expect anyone to notice unless the Council decides to enforce the law and send the proposed bill back as dead on arrival. But unless it’s politically advantageous for them to nix it, don’t count on it.
Last but not least is this weird little “huh?” piece from the yesterday’s paper announcing how Councilpersons Mel Rapozo and Shaylene Iseri-Carvalho have really brought home the bacon in the form of prescription-drug discount program for Kaua`i.
With a headline of “Discount prescription program now on Kaua‘i” the article ballyhoos how:
Kaua‘i County yesterday launched a prescription drug discount card program to help relieve the financial strain on residents due to soaring medical costs, officials said.The free program, sponsored by the National Association of Counties, offers an average savings of 20 percent off the retail price of commonly prescribed drugs
“This is the best program ever offered for free to our residents,” said Kaua‘i County Councilwoman Shaylene Iseri-Carvalho, who has served on the NACo Board of Directors since 2006.
Wow. Free. And the “best” program to boot.. Tell us more Mel...
Local government may be unable to combat high prices at the pump, but this program should provide some monetary aid for residents, Councilman Mel Rapozo said at the Historic County Building.It costs county taxpayers nothing to make the cards available at neighborhood centers, the Parks and Recreation Department, the Office of Elderly Affairs, the Mayor’s Office and the Historic County Building, officials said.“Why wouldn’t we do this?” said Rapozo, who thanked Mayor Bryan Baptiste’s administration for its help in making the program possible on Kaua‘i.
But credit where credit is do. What did Shaylene do to bring this godsend to our shores?
“I personally took the initiative to start this program on Kaua‘i after seeing the tremendous benefits to other counties and after having the contract reviewed by our county attorney,” (Iseri Carvalho) said. “Since the program began, participating counties have made the program available to millions of Americans of any age, income level or health condition, and has saved consumers more than $83 million through 7.5 million prescriptions in savings averaging 22 percent.”
“It’s so vital ... the networking capabilities ... that put Michigan in the same room as Hawai`i,” he said. “We share so many of the same problems.”Oooo...vital.. Tell us more Shay- you must really care and showed us by taking the initiative. You’re our hero. Maybe we can buy a new car now with all that money we’ll be saving.
But wait there’s more.
NACo President Eric Coleman, who calls the program the association’s most innovative to date, attended the council’s meeting.“The NACo prescription discount card offers significant savings for the uninsured and underinsured residents of our county and even those fortunate to have prescription coverage can use the card to save money on drugs that are not covered by their health plan,” Iseri-Carvalho says in a news release. “Residents do not have to be Medicare beneficiaries to be eligible.”
We’re ready- tell us how dos this program works- how much will we be saving.
Well if you read to the bottom you’ll see.
The program works by simply presenting the card to a participating pharmacy and the consumer will receive the lowest price available from the pharmacy for a prescription, Iseri-Carvalho said.
Wow- you mean this time they’ll charge us their “lowest” price? We sure tied of being charged their highest price. “Let’s see” says the pharmacist, “that difference would be... let me total that up for ya here....
...ZERO, because the highest and lowest prices are both the same- they’re called THE PRICE.”
“We were going to charge you the price we’re charging Mrs. Kanaka but we decided that for you, special today, because you look like an honest lady and we like your face AND you have the ‘Mel and Shaylene Card’ we’ll charge you the price we’re charging everyone“
What, are there pharmacies charging different prices for different people?. Special 10% surcharge for malahinis?. 20% off for one-legged Filipinos? Are there signs at Kaua`i drug stores saying “we cheat kids, old people, sailors and drunks but not ‘Mel and Shaylene Cardholders’?”
Raising the perennial question do three “huh?” make a ?Whaaaaa?”?.
Wednesday, May 21, 2008
THROW SOME WATER ON ‘EM
THROW SOME WATER ON ‘EM: There’s an issue that’s tearing Kaua`i apart. It has spurred dozens of letters to the editor. County Council battle lines are drawn with no less than three bills on the table to deal with it.
And there are 61 (and counting) comments posted at Councilman Mel Rapozo’s blog on the subject since he wrote about his view there last Friday.
We decided to compile and reproduce some of the responses elicited here to give a taste of the emotional, often bitter, certainly wide ranging opinions on the subject.
To paraphrase our childhood hero, names have been left out to avoid a punch in the mouth. All comments are “sic”... as apparently are the commenters.
Vacation Rentals? The Superferry? Unbridled development? Drugs? Rape of farmlands? GMO seed companies poisoning our kids? Tasers and police corruption? Chemtrails? Crop Circles?
All those issues apparently pale in comparison. If you still don’t know what it’s all about Alfie either go to Mel’s blog, re-read some of our past posts or thank your stars you’re not part of the discussion.
And there are 61 (and counting) comments posted at Councilman Mel Rapozo’s blog on the subject since he wrote about his view there last Friday.
We decided to compile and reproduce some of the responses elicited here to give a taste of the emotional, often bitter, certainly wide ranging opinions on the subject.
To paraphrase our childhood hero, names have been left out to avoid a punch in the mouth. All comments are “sic”... as apparently are the commenters.
We have laws for a reason
People... who talk about (this) being
allowed everywhere else maybe should move there.
...do you really
want to open this can of worms?...it would be
unconsitutional...
Mel, you are not an opponent of our rural
lifesyle, you passionalty fight for our keiki and our way of life. Mahalo to
you.
Don't believe the spin.
If you want to talk about
spin, I think you will discover the work of masters by reviewing the history of
this issue over the last 18 months. Then you can talk about
spin.
Does Kauai really need another layer of notoriety as an
unfriendly place to live and to work?... Responsible people pay huge taxes
(because they go to work like responsible people do), buy all sorts of things
from our local businesses (because it is pono to buy local), and support our
charitable organizations (of which there are many here).... We want to support
responsible people in this world and on this island---we need them to pay taxes
for us and keep bloated government offices flush with cash.
The
world is watching us and we look like fools.... Set the rules and get on with
it!
...instead of spending funds in this, as you say, tough
economic time. Isn't that one of your main tenets held in explaining your
opposition...
Obviously you haven't been, or you would already know
that the... issue is a moot point, meaning of little or no practical value in
the argument... You would know that if you had been READING and understanding
the flow of information involved in this process.
It is clear that
anyone that suggests that is totally ignorant... Who are you trying to kid?
Please consider the children when you make stupid comments like
these.
...why are we not surprised that you are also pro
superferry! I guess you think it is ok to change any laws that will benefit
yourself. You are a very pilau individual. Thank God for people like Andy Parx.
He is 100% right on!
You have said what many others are thinking.
It is funny how some people feel that their opinion is the only right one for
the people of Kauai. And most of these yahoos haven't been here very long. They
come to beautiful Kauai and try to change the way we live. If you are so unhappy
with the way things are here, go back to where you came from. This goes for you
too, Bynum.
The posts that are so worried about what other people
and areas think of us are not relevant.This is Kaua'i not the mainland.. Keep it
away from the rest of us who have the laws to protect us.
How fast
you all turn this into "Haole Go Home".
We want "our way of life"
back. We want it like the way is was insread of being punished for what we
haven't done.
It seems crazy to punish a large group... for the bad
behavior of a few. It's like forbidding everyone from driving because a few
people drive drunk. ...Let's show our aloha for one another.
Settle this matter soon so we can get back to enjoying what's left
of the simple pleasures in life.
The comment made recently about
"yahoos who haven't been here very long trying to change the way we live" is
upside down and whacked out... It's not the Yahoos doing the changing, it's the
Who's Who's.
...this issue has compromise written all over it...
why penalize tax paying law abiding citizenz? WTF would we want to make this
complicated and devisive; that's what the superferry is for! look for a
solution. it's right infront of us.
This is not the mainland. We
have laws in place for protection. Whoever is writing this crap needs to stop
thinking "me me me" and "I want, I want, I want" That is not the local way that
is the mainland way. You are disrespecting other people...
What
makes you think that people who bring up examples of how things are in other
places are not from here? Some of us travel.
It's a negative
change, and we need to turn it around.
What's all this shibai about
where people come from? The narrow-mindedness is
astounding.
Stating "its da law" is a bunch of BS. Whose law are we
talking about? Put your efforts with law enforcement towards fighting ICE on the
island.
Vacation Rentals? The Superferry? Unbridled development? Drugs? Rape of farmlands? GMO seed companies poisoning our kids? Tasers and police corruption? Chemtrails? Crop Circles?
All those issues apparently pale in comparison. If you still don’t know what it’s all about Alfie either go to Mel’s blog, re-read some of our past posts or thank your stars you’re not part of the discussion.
Saturday, May 17, 2008
BUT WHAT IF THE DOG IS RIDING A BICYCLE?
BUT WHAT IF THE DOG IS RIDING A BICYCLE? Sometimes it feels like half the people of Kaua`i have gone insane.
The biggest issue on Kaua`i drawing a hydrophobically hysterical teeth-baring crowd at this week’s Council meeting wasn’t vacation rentals, protecting ag land, the budget or even runaway development and the resultant hour it takes to get through Kapa`a.
No it’s dog lovers vs. dog haters.
At least this time the subject of discussion rather than the discussion itself was dog droppings as the first reading of the various dog path bills drew the gamut of emotional appeals and rational statistical prevarications and pontifications from a slew of people, most of whom have probably never seen the inside of the Council Chambers before.
And in response Councilpersons Mel Rapozo and Shaylene Iseri-Carvalho have written their own somewhat schizophrenic defenses of their personal activities in both supporting and opposing the bike path depending on the momentarily functional side of their mouths and faces.
But we must admit that at one of those moments a momentous event has taken place. On his blog today Rapozo becomes the first elected official to mention that the bike path was actually supposed to be- gasp- for bikes to get from point A to point B.
He starts a pertinent paragraph by saying: “the original intent of the path was for traffic enhancement. In fact, the Federal government provided funds for this County to provide an alternate route for transportation, not a recreational path.”
But then he ends it with what you would expect to hear from a politician in an election year.
“Don’t get me wrong. I fully support the bike path and the recreational use that it provides. This was not the original intent and we need to remember that.”
And what do we do with that remembrance? With that and four bucks you can get a gallon of gas.
Shaylene is, as usual, totally off her rocker again giving a slightly different blow-off to the question of whether our sea-side sidewalk is a park and therefore “no dogs allowed” in a letter to the editor.
“The law prohibits dogs in parks, the bike path is located on ‘park property,’ therefore, dogs are prohibited from being on the bike path.” she maintains although what the heck park property- as it seems distinct from “a park”- is we are still in the dark.
But then she goes on to say since it is a law, even though she apparently can’t cite a specific one, she is going to be vigilant in upholding it.
“I’m sure the rest of the community would take offense if I decided unilaterally to pick and choose which laws I wanted to enforce or not.”
And this woman wants to be our prosecutor? I’m sure we all want somebody enforcing laws they made up.
How did we get to the point where the argument against dogs on the BIKE path is not that it would endanger bicycling commuters-that for which we extracted $40 million in federal funds with a guarantee it would be for “transportation, not recreation”- but that the dogs might reach into the baby carriages and devour a keiki.
How did we get to the point where asking “what the heck is anything but a bicycle doing on the bike path in the first place” elicit a response of “why do you hate dogs so much?”
It’s a damn good thing we are the farthest you can get from Washington D.C. because if they got wind of what’s going on with their transportation money they could very well ask for it back.
Will we ever be able to actually ride a bike on the bike path? When is that U.S. General Accounting Office audit/report due anyway?
The real question may be whether your dog and pony path is worth $40 million. Because the dog and pony show is for a Kaua`i audience only and the feds may well say “we are not amused.”
The biggest issue on Kaua`i drawing a hydrophobically hysterical teeth-baring crowd at this week’s Council meeting wasn’t vacation rentals, protecting ag land, the budget or even runaway development and the resultant hour it takes to get through Kapa`a.
No it’s dog lovers vs. dog haters.
At least this time the subject of discussion rather than the discussion itself was dog droppings as the first reading of the various dog path bills drew the gamut of emotional appeals and rational statistical prevarications and pontifications from a slew of people, most of whom have probably never seen the inside of the Council Chambers before.
And in response Councilpersons Mel Rapozo and Shaylene Iseri-Carvalho have written their own somewhat schizophrenic defenses of their personal activities in both supporting and opposing the bike path depending on the momentarily functional side of their mouths and faces.
But we must admit that at one of those moments a momentous event has taken place. On his blog today Rapozo becomes the first elected official to mention that the bike path was actually supposed to be- gasp- for bikes to get from point A to point B.
He starts a pertinent paragraph by saying: “the original intent of the path was for traffic enhancement. In fact, the Federal government provided funds for this County to provide an alternate route for transportation, not a recreational path.”
But then he ends it with what you would expect to hear from a politician in an election year.
“Don’t get me wrong. I fully support the bike path and the recreational use that it provides. This was not the original intent and we need to remember that.”
And what do we do with that remembrance? With that and four bucks you can get a gallon of gas.
Shaylene is, as usual, totally off her rocker again giving a slightly different blow-off to the question of whether our sea-side sidewalk is a park and therefore “no dogs allowed” in a letter to the editor.
“The law prohibits dogs in parks, the bike path is located on ‘park property,’ therefore, dogs are prohibited from being on the bike path.” she maintains although what the heck park property- as it seems distinct from “a park”- is we are still in the dark.
But then she goes on to say since it is a law, even though she apparently can’t cite a specific one, she is going to be vigilant in upholding it.
“I’m sure the rest of the community would take offense if I decided unilaterally to pick and choose which laws I wanted to enforce or not.”
And this woman wants to be our prosecutor? I’m sure we all want somebody enforcing laws they made up.
How did we get to the point where the argument against dogs on the BIKE path is not that it would endanger bicycling commuters-that for which we extracted $40 million in federal funds with a guarantee it would be for “transportation, not recreation”- but that the dogs might reach into the baby carriages and devour a keiki.
How did we get to the point where asking “what the heck is anything but a bicycle doing on the bike path in the first place” elicit a response of “why do you hate dogs so much?”
It’s a damn good thing we are the farthest you can get from Washington D.C. because if they got wind of what’s going on with their transportation money they could very well ask for it back.
Will we ever be able to actually ride a bike on the bike path? When is that U.S. General Accounting Office audit/report due anyway?
The real question may be whether your dog and pony path is worth $40 million. Because the dog and pony show is for a Kaua`i audience only and the feds may well say “we are not amused.”
Saturday, May 10, 2008
PAVLOVIAN PANDERING
PAVLOVIAN PANDERING: There’s so much contained between the lines of the article in the local paper today about a supposed “2.2M surplus” the headline touts it’s hard to know where to focus.
But the theme of the yearly ritualistic conspiracy of misdirection by the Council and the Mayor is the same- shove the costs of neglecting what we already own down the road and spread around enough cash to corporate and special interest to open the spigot to fill your campaign coffers.
Yes it’s an election year and according to the article:
“The mayor proposes using this increased funding (the $2.2M) in part for an $850,000 Lihu`e Development Plan, $150,000 for community gardens, $350,000 for veterans cemetery upgrades and $100,000 in host community benefits for Kekaha (and) $14,000 in additional support for the Civil Air Patrol”
But what most don’t understand is that in addition to the $158 million in the operating budget, we are about to be again indebted- for future Councils to pay back - another $65.2 million in the Capital Improvement Budget (CIP) which we are going to “borrow” through yet another “bond issue” in 2009.
For those who don’t get it, this is money to buy new stuff that will become a fixed pay-back amount in the budget every year- the part that causes us to wonder if we can afford a third of a million dollars for cemetery upkeep and development plans that have been done twice and are collecting shelf dust.
And while we’re buying all this new crap we don’t have money to take care of our old crap because we’re paying off the money we borrowed years ago to buy it.
It’s like borrowing money for a car and then neglecting to change the oil and keep it tuned up because you don’t have the money for maintenance because you’re paying off the loan. Then you have to buy a new car before you’re done paying for the old car because you didn’t maintain it and so it blew up.
Take for example our roads as Glenn Mickens and others have been for years- literally “taking” pieces of them to the Council Chambers- to show how the lack of a program of consistent and cyclical maintenance is costing us many times what it would cost us to maintain them when they get in such bad shape we have to rebuild the road instead of just repaving it.
Despite recognition of this problem from every single councilmember over the past 15 years and promises to fix the system, catch up with standard best practices for maintenance and then institute a program that will repave each mile of county road when it’s appropriate (instead of doing the road the Mayor lives on every year during this and the last administration) we are even farther behind than we were a few years back.
Our parks are a mess- the bathrooms are filthy and broken, the ball fields ill-designed and barely maintained and there’s no or very little money to take care of what we have now. But the upcoming CIP-project-related bond-issue according to the article, calls for more “playground equipment, roller hockey rink covering, skateboard parks and soccer fields” among other things.
This was one of Mickens and the “nit-pickers” main argument against the “bike-path” purchase as well as other nice-to-have-but-are-they-a-need-or-a-want projects- where is the money to maintain them coming from?
We now have wound up with, not just a ribbon of concrete where it’s likely the ocean will be in a decade or two at present erosion rates, but things like new supposed “parks” complete with “comfort stations and pavilions... all of which lack the additional appropriations for even cleaning much less preventive maintenance.
Yet every year we hear from well meaning citizens complaining about the amount we’re spending not considering what we’re wasting by not spending now, much less how we are accomplishing that spending.
Take citizen advocate Fred Well’s letter to the editor this week. He complains about spending in general and wants the budget cut, just as he did last year and the year before . But Fred is a smart-growth advocate and a smart knowledgeable guy who used to be a city manager on the mainland. Proposals he has made and backs will cost money in terms of more personnel in the Planning Department if we are to use smart-growth principles instead of the developer-initiated dumb-growth we use now. It takes money to properly gauge and analyze and accommodate the community’s pulse on both general and specific development projects. Is that the area Fred wants cut?
This is not to pick on Fred, a person that is more community minded than most of us. But the mindless “cut the budget” cries that we hear every May aren’t the mindful type of criticisms that need to be expressed to our lawmakers and administrators, no matter how the system is set up.
It’s doubtful this kind of “inside baseball” will be on the agenda when the elections approach this fall. Instead the newspaper will ask the candidates bland open ended fluff questions that leave all the wiggle room in the world on questions that will make no difference.
With an election approaching, in his blog today Mel Rapozo seems to jump on the mindless “cut the budget” pandering bandwagon with some comments that show how little he really understands what he is doing- or is ignoring it.
He says:
But the theme of the yearly ritualistic conspiracy of misdirection by the Council and the Mayor is the same- shove the costs of neglecting what we already own down the road and spread around enough cash to corporate and special interest to open the spigot to fill your campaign coffers.
Yes it’s an election year and according to the article:
“The mayor proposes using this increased funding (the $2.2M) in part for an $850,000 Lihu`e Development Plan, $150,000 for community gardens, $350,000 for veterans cemetery upgrades and $100,000 in host community benefits for Kekaha (and) $14,000 in additional support for the Civil Air Patrol”
But what most don’t understand is that in addition to the $158 million in the operating budget, we are about to be again indebted- for future Councils to pay back - another $65.2 million in the Capital Improvement Budget (CIP) which we are going to “borrow” through yet another “bond issue” in 2009.
For those who don’t get it, this is money to buy new stuff that will become a fixed pay-back amount in the budget every year- the part that causes us to wonder if we can afford a third of a million dollars for cemetery upkeep and development plans that have been done twice and are collecting shelf dust.
And while we’re buying all this new crap we don’t have money to take care of our old crap because we’re paying off the money we borrowed years ago to buy it.
It’s like borrowing money for a car and then neglecting to change the oil and keep it tuned up because you don’t have the money for maintenance because you’re paying off the loan. Then you have to buy a new car before you’re done paying for the old car because you didn’t maintain it and so it blew up.
Take for example our roads as Glenn Mickens and others have been for years- literally “taking” pieces of them to the Council Chambers- to show how the lack of a program of consistent and cyclical maintenance is costing us many times what it would cost us to maintain them when they get in such bad shape we have to rebuild the road instead of just repaving it.
Despite recognition of this problem from every single councilmember over the past 15 years and promises to fix the system, catch up with standard best practices for maintenance and then institute a program that will repave each mile of county road when it’s appropriate (instead of doing the road the Mayor lives on every year during this and the last administration) we are even farther behind than we were a few years back.
Our parks are a mess- the bathrooms are filthy and broken, the ball fields ill-designed and barely maintained and there’s no or very little money to take care of what we have now. But the upcoming CIP-project-related bond-issue according to the article, calls for more “playground equipment, roller hockey rink covering, skateboard parks and soccer fields” among other things.
This was one of Mickens and the “nit-pickers” main argument against the “bike-path” purchase as well as other nice-to-have-but-are-they-a-need-or-a-want projects- where is the money to maintain them coming from?
We now have wound up with, not just a ribbon of concrete where it’s likely the ocean will be in a decade or two at present erosion rates, but things like new supposed “parks” complete with “comfort stations and pavilions... all of which lack the additional appropriations for even cleaning much less preventive maintenance.
Yet every year we hear from well meaning citizens complaining about the amount we’re spending not considering what we’re wasting by not spending now, much less how we are accomplishing that spending.
Take citizen advocate Fred Well’s letter to the editor this week. He complains about spending in general and wants the budget cut, just as he did last year and the year before . But Fred is a smart-growth advocate and a smart knowledgeable guy who used to be a city manager on the mainland. Proposals he has made and backs will cost money in terms of more personnel in the Planning Department if we are to use smart-growth principles instead of the developer-initiated dumb-growth we use now. It takes money to properly gauge and analyze and accommodate the community’s pulse on both general and specific development projects. Is that the area Fred wants cut?
This is not to pick on Fred, a person that is more community minded than most of us. But the mindless “cut the budget” cries that we hear every May aren’t the mindful type of criticisms that need to be expressed to our lawmakers and administrators, no matter how the system is set up.
It’s doubtful this kind of “inside baseball” will be on the agenda when the elections approach this fall. Instead the newspaper will ask the candidates bland open ended fluff questions that leave all the wiggle room in the world on questions that will make no difference.
With an election approaching, in his blog today Mel Rapozo seems to jump on the mindless “cut the budget” pandering bandwagon with some comments that show how little he really understands what he is doing- or is ignoring it.
He says:
- I feel that we have over budgeted again. I believe that this proposed budget, which simply adds on to the current budget, will generate another huge surplus next year, which is not fiscally responsible.
We did have some things to say in his comments section which we’ll get to in a minute.
Mel doesn’t get into any of the issues we presented here but does bring up things regarding some intricacies such as unfilled personnel positions and their effect on the “surplus”. He suggests “dollar-funding” unfilled positions and apparently using that to “cut taxes”. He doesn’t say where the money could come from when and if those positions are filled if he returned the “surplus” created and doesn’t deny those positions need to be filled to provide essential services.
Unfilled positions is a problem but his solution just plain doesn’t make sense. It reeks of election year pandering.
He also shows his apparent ignorance of the process- or again his turning a blind eye- with a few comments such as these two bullet points.
Require the Administration to obtain Council approval if approved funding is used for purposes other than what was justified in the budget process.
Require the Administration to obtain Council approval whenever positions are reallocated or transferred between departments.
We urge you to read what he says, noting his misperceptions about many things and his conclusion that his fixes would provide “tax relief”
To be fair, it’s certainly a positive trait that Mel has set up a place for exposition of his ideas, leaving himself open to our tirades in opposition or corrections. The tendency of more pols to hide their hands is despicable and telling in identifying why most of us see most of them as crooks and crocks.
But that said, here’s what we said addressing Mel’s post:
Your third and fourth bullet points are already the case Mel as I understand the line item budget process. I’m assuming Ricky W(antenabe) can fill you in on why- he did for me when the Council pulled the plug on program based budgeting during the Kusaka administration. If Department heads are not doing this then their financial shenanigans should be subject to discipline from the Finance Director and it should be apparent in the fiscal audit.
The problem is that I have rarely if ever seen debate, just reading and approval, on most of these communications for approval to shift funds unless on of the councilmembers flags it or more often a member of the public brings it up. Perhaps they are coming before you but you don’t realize what you are approving.
As to filling positions, this needs to be a subject of a performance audit under Charter 3.17. Every Department says there are “no qualified applicants” and blames Human Resources but within each department are dozens of serial “89-day contract” non-civil service employees who are dong the jobs already and would love to go “on the books” and get a civil service position. Is it cronyism? Is it some kind of financial kickback scheme? Is it racism, as some have claimed? Is it simply incompetence of department heads?
I don’t know but until we get to the bottom of why these vacancies persist we will never get the bang for our buck in providing essential services. Perhaps taking out many of the discretionary provisions in the budget ordnance are in order, changing those “mays” to shalls” would help.
All in all I think you’re making the same mistake all pols make- looking at the pot of money as this year’s pot, getting stingy and penny-wise-pound foolish (in an election year of course) and passing that off as frugality, pushing expenses down the road for someone else- maybe a council and mayor in 10 years- to deal with.
If there really is more than is “needed” in the budget we could start with programs that all council members have seen and stated will save money in the long run and catch up on all the deferred maintenance- a promise you made when you first ran for council- such as road paving that is STILL costing us exponentially more in future maintenance than it would cost to catch up and keep the roads maintained in a regular cycle. That was caused by deferring maintenance the same way you are proposing to do again by not funding the full catch up and then saying there is a “surplus”.
Or expanding the bus to keep road costs down- or installing more solar on county facilities. Or fixing some of the waste-treatment facilities before they break down and cause double to cost to fix or replace as has happened twice now.
And for that matter what ever happened to the performance auditor in council services that was appropriated twice but never filled? Rumor had it that there was no one to hire but I don’t remember seeing a solicitation to fill the position. Again we’re back to filling positions but this one you can’t blame on the administration.
I hope you’ll respond in detail to these points Mel.
It’s all a little esoteric to many but if you want to complain about the umpire’s call, you have to know the rules of the game... and watch for that brush-back pitch since it is an election year.
Friday, May 9, 2008
GOING GREYHOUND
GOING GREYHOUND: The Kaua`i Bus has always been somewhat of a joke. Other than those forced to use it because they don’t have a car no one can use it without oodles of spare time and a residence and workplace that are somewhere near the limited number of lines and stops. And in a rural place with a small sparse-density population, that eliminates half the people right off the bat. And by not running past sundown barely running on Saturday and never on a Sunday who’s left?
But it sounds like some concerned citizens tried to take on our public transit deficit at the County Council public hearing on the budget Wednesday (5/7/08).
According to an earlier article at Andrea Bower’s local alternative news site Save Kaua`i “Apollo Kaua`i and Malama Kaua`i, along with many other community organizations, are asking the mayor and council members to make improvements to The Kaua`i Bus in order to increase ridership.”
They state the reasons- all great ones- for the need for expansion of the Bus saying among other things that “(c)limate change has become an undeniable global crisis, and it is our responsibility to take part in solutions to slow its progression. CO2 produced by automobiles is one of the largest contributors to climate change. Increasing bus service, thus ridership, is an effective way for the County to reduce emissions on our Island dramatically.”
But the devil is always in the details and although their proposal for expansion is meant to deal with the need to get us out of our cars and into public transportion it doesn’t deal with the core of the problem- the need to have a car in the first place to live and work on the island.
They propose four major expansions:
“1. An increase in the frequency of busses during peak commuter times on the main lines. The main lines run from Lihue westbound and from Lihue northbound. They currently run every hour from early morning to about 7 pm. We’re asking for the service to be stepped up to every 1⁄2 hour from start of service until 8:30 AM, and from 4 PM until service stops. We feel that this, in combination with the establishment of designated park & rides, will give the largest number of commuters a viable option to use the bus to get to & from work. Estimated cost – approximately $400,000*
2. An increase in service to Hanalei. Currently, on the mainline northbound route, busses run ever hour to Kapa`a but continue only every two hours to Hanalei. Along with the above increases, we are asking that this service be increased to hourly throughout the day.Estimated cost – approximately $300,000*
3. An extension of service until 9:00 PM currently, bus service on all routes stops at 7:00 PM. We are asking for an increase in hourly service on the two main lines until 9:00 pm, which will allow more people to use the bus for evening activities and service jobs whose hours often run into the evening. Estimated cost – approximately $450,000*
4. An extension of the ‘Saturday Schedule’ to Sundays also. The Bus runs on a reduced schedule on Saturdays, but does not run at all on Sundays. We are asking for the same reduced schedule to be extended to Sundays as well. Estimated cost – approximately $350,000*
While these measures might increase ridership among those either forced by their circumstances to take the bus or those who are socially conscious and want to do their part or even those who want to save money and not drive their car sometimes, they don’t address the main cause of people driving their cars- the fact that they have one.
Kaua`i is not a 9-5 community, or even an or 8-4 or 7-3 as is more common among those with professional or trade jobs. Most work in the tourism industry and most of those jobs are in service and an awful lot of that is “shift work”.
These are the lower paid among Kaua`i residents and the ones who need the bus the most. But they can’t rely on a bus if they don’t work daytime only- and so they have to have a car.
And most people who have a car will use their car. It saves time and makes it possible to run errands before and after work. Even if it’s a day when they don’t have errands they will use their car for the convenience if they have one even if the bus were to “work” for them.
This yields a situation where the ones who need the bus the most and so will use it the most- and would be most likely to not even own a car if the service could provide dependable transportation when they get off work at 10 or 11 p.m.- are the ones who can’t possibly live and work under either the current level of service or proposed expansion and so must have a car.
It’s not a forgone conclusion that if the bus ran 24 hours a day- at least once an hour from midnight to 4 and more often otherwise- that everyone will immediately give up their cars, even if all areas and routes were set up to get people to shopping and tourist service areas with minimal need for transfers.
Things like express and local service and enabling people with packages might help more too but there are many who will never give up their cars. But the fact remains that when you look at places that have full-service public transpiration most people don’t even think of owning cars.
And until it is not a question of whether to use the car but whether to own a car, the bus will continue to be our white elephant that everybody wants but no one quite knows how to use or what it’s supposed to be for.
As fuel costs continue to increase exponentially public transport will make more and more economic sense to more and more people. And as younger people move into the job market if they were raised with a full-service public transportation system they will be much more likely to use it.
And perhaps some of the tourists who look at the current state of our system and immediately run to the rent-a-car lot upon arrival might see their way to getting some of those cars off those roads.
But the economic pressure alone won’t overcome the convenience, comfort and time and even necessity factors if those pressures to own a car aren’t fully managed, mitigated and ameliorated.
Money is the main factor but Kaua`i will get it’s fair share of transportation dollars from the State and Federal governments. It’s just a matter of our vision- is it an automobile based six and eight lane superhighways or something else?
Infrastructureal investments will be what determines the future of transportation on Kaua`i and the question is whether the next $100 million chunk will be spent enabling private or public transit.
While the band-aid of the current proposal is a start, until we have a 24/7 system it won’t do anything but perpetuate the current transportation modalities.
And the longer we take to get there by concentrating on the low hanging fruit rather than pruning the trees and planning for future production of the entire orchard, the more fruitless the our efforts and expenditures will be.
Update: The usually responsive County Administration’s Public Information Officer has failed to respond to repeated requests for further information and/or comment on the Dayne Apioalani incident as of close of business hours today.
Meanwhile over at Councilperson Mel Rapozo’s blog http://kauaipolitics.blogspot.com/ concerned citizen Jimmy Trujillo posted Juan Wilson’s account of Dayne Apioalani’s arrest http://kauaipolitics.blogspot.com/2008/05/host-community-benefit-for-kekaha.html?showComment=1210095660000#c7567534154623462385 asking Mel to “comment and provide insight on the recent police action taken against Dayne Apoilani last week”.
We wanted to know http://kauaipolitics.blogspot.com/2008/05/host-community-benefit-for-kekaha.html?showComment=1210283040000#c9123224074387684625 if Mel could explain something to us and asked the following:
One thing Mel is that, if Juan’s account is basically factual, it seems that KPD has plenty of resources for executing warrants and didn’t really need to contract with you to bring these people in... especially ones whose locations are known and who can be contacted with a phone call. I certainly hope you are going to try the telephone before hiring a bunch of goons to bring in people who failed to show up in court.
No wonder the KPD budget is stretched if this is what they consider to be a wise use of resources.
Update 2- The county PIO says that she "asked the Police Chief if he had a response to your query. He declined to comment."
But it sounds like some concerned citizens tried to take on our public transit deficit at the County Council public hearing on the budget Wednesday (5/7/08).
According to an earlier article at Andrea Bower’s local alternative news site Save Kaua`i “Apollo Kaua`i and Malama Kaua`i, along with many other community organizations, are asking the mayor and council members to make improvements to The Kaua`i Bus in order to increase ridership.”
They state the reasons- all great ones- for the need for expansion of the Bus saying among other things that “(c)limate change has become an undeniable global crisis, and it is our responsibility to take part in solutions to slow its progression. CO2 produced by automobiles is one of the largest contributors to climate change. Increasing bus service, thus ridership, is an effective way for the County to reduce emissions on our Island dramatically.”
But the devil is always in the details and although their proposal for expansion is meant to deal with the need to get us out of our cars and into public transportion it doesn’t deal with the core of the problem- the need to have a car in the first place to live and work on the island.
They propose four major expansions:
“1. An increase in the frequency of busses during peak commuter times on the main lines. The main lines run from Lihue westbound and from Lihue northbound. They currently run every hour from early morning to about 7 pm. We’re asking for the service to be stepped up to every 1⁄2 hour from start of service until 8:30 AM, and from 4 PM until service stops. We feel that this, in combination with the establishment of designated park & rides, will give the largest number of commuters a viable option to use the bus to get to & from work. Estimated cost – approximately $400,000*
2. An increase in service to Hanalei. Currently, on the mainline northbound route, busses run ever hour to Kapa`a but continue only every two hours to Hanalei. Along with the above increases, we are asking that this service be increased to hourly throughout the day.Estimated cost – approximately $300,000*
3. An extension of service until 9:00 PM currently, bus service on all routes stops at 7:00 PM. We are asking for an increase in hourly service on the two main lines until 9:00 pm, which will allow more people to use the bus for evening activities and service jobs whose hours often run into the evening. Estimated cost – approximately $450,000*
4. An extension of the ‘Saturday Schedule’ to Sundays also. The Bus runs on a reduced schedule on Saturdays, but does not run at all on Sundays. We are asking for the same reduced schedule to be extended to Sundays as well. Estimated cost – approximately $350,000*
While these measures might increase ridership among those either forced by their circumstances to take the bus or those who are socially conscious and want to do their part or even those who want to save money and not drive their car sometimes, they don’t address the main cause of people driving their cars- the fact that they have one.
Kaua`i is not a 9-5 community, or even an or 8-4 or 7-3 as is more common among those with professional or trade jobs. Most work in the tourism industry and most of those jobs are in service and an awful lot of that is “shift work”.
These are the lower paid among Kaua`i residents and the ones who need the bus the most. But they can’t rely on a bus if they don’t work daytime only- and so they have to have a car.
And most people who have a car will use their car. It saves time and makes it possible to run errands before and after work. Even if it’s a day when they don’t have errands they will use their car for the convenience if they have one even if the bus were to “work” for them.
This yields a situation where the ones who need the bus the most and so will use it the most- and would be most likely to not even own a car if the service could provide dependable transportation when they get off work at 10 or 11 p.m.- are the ones who can’t possibly live and work under either the current level of service or proposed expansion and so must have a car.
It’s not a forgone conclusion that if the bus ran 24 hours a day- at least once an hour from midnight to 4 and more often otherwise- that everyone will immediately give up their cars, even if all areas and routes were set up to get people to shopping and tourist service areas with minimal need for transfers.
Things like express and local service and enabling people with packages might help more too but there are many who will never give up their cars. But the fact remains that when you look at places that have full-service public transpiration most people don’t even think of owning cars.
And until it is not a question of whether to use the car but whether to own a car, the bus will continue to be our white elephant that everybody wants but no one quite knows how to use or what it’s supposed to be for.
As fuel costs continue to increase exponentially public transport will make more and more economic sense to more and more people. And as younger people move into the job market if they were raised with a full-service public transportation system they will be much more likely to use it.
And perhaps some of the tourists who look at the current state of our system and immediately run to the rent-a-car lot upon arrival might see their way to getting some of those cars off those roads.
But the economic pressure alone won’t overcome the convenience, comfort and time and even necessity factors if those pressures to own a car aren’t fully managed, mitigated and ameliorated.
Money is the main factor but Kaua`i will get it’s fair share of transportation dollars from the State and Federal governments. It’s just a matter of our vision- is it an automobile based six and eight lane superhighways or something else?
Infrastructureal investments will be what determines the future of transportation on Kaua`i and the question is whether the next $100 million chunk will be spent enabling private or public transit.
While the band-aid of the current proposal is a start, until we have a 24/7 system it won’t do anything but perpetuate the current transportation modalities.
And the longer we take to get there by concentrating on the low hanging fruit rather than pruning the trees and planning for future production of the entire orchard, the more fruitless the our efforts and expenditures will be.
Update: The usually responsive County Administration’s Public Information Officer has failed to respond to repeated requests for further information and/or comment on the Dayne Apioalani incident as of close of business hours today.
Meanwhile over at Councilperson Mel Rapozo’s blog http://kauaipolitics.blogspot.com/ concerned citizen Jimmy Trujillo posted Juan Wilson’s account of Dayne Apioalani’s arrest http://kauaipolitics.blogspot.com/2008/05/host-community-benefit-for-kekaha.html?showComment=1210095660000#c7567534154623462385 asking Mel to “comment and provide insight on the recent police action taken against Dayne Apoilani last week”.
We wanted to know http://kauaipolitics.blogspot.com/2008/05/host-community-benefit-for-kekaha.html?showComment=1210283040000#c9123224074387684625 if Mel could explain something to us and asked the following:
One thing Mel is that, if Juan’s account is basically factual, it seems that KPD has plenty of resources for executing warrants and didn’t really need to contract with you to bring these people in... especially ones whose locations are known and who can be contacted with a phone call. I certainly hope you are going to try the telephone before hiring a bunch of goons to bring in people who failed to show up in court.
No wonder the KPD budget is stretched if this is what they consider to be a wise use of resources.
Update 2- The county PIO says that she "asked the Police Chief if he had a response to your query. He declined to comment."
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