SEEING- AND HEARING- IS BELIEVING

SEEING- AND HEARING- IS BELIEVING: For some reason we seem to have become the clearinghouse for people calling to find out why the heck recent cablecasts of council meetings look like they were done by an aggregation of orangutans using the very first video cameras ever made.

"What the heck is with Ho`ike this time" they scream into the phone, regarding what most assume is yet another incompetent screwup by the Kaua`i public access TV outlet.

The video looks like a 10th generation re-dub and the audio sounds like it was recorded in a bathtub ever since the council moved back into the Historic County Building and the "automatic" system they had installed during the renovation was fired up.

And that's when it worked. Last week's meeting was pure torture to view with the sound of 120-decibel white noise accompanying the wide view of the panel, and the rest, when it was audible at all, was recorded at barely a whisper.

But after talking to Ho`ike Managing Director J Robertson this morning, we discovered what we suspected all along- for once Ho`ike isn't to blame.

And starting tomorrow if all goes well the "new" automated, voice-activated recording system will be scrapped in favor of the old human-driven cameras and recording devices with a real live director, Bill "BC" Charles, at the helm.

According to Robertson, he met with Council Chair Jay Furfaro last week and Furfaro has agreed to scrub the new installation that was initiated by former Council Chair Kaipo Asing.

Seems Asing thought that system used in courts was the cat's meow so had it ordered and installed without consulting Robertson or anyone else who understood anything about video.

"It's certainly not broadcast quality" Robertson said, understating the look of the JAVS system and explaining that the cost for decent cameras wouldn't have been very much more.

"I wish they would have worked with us," he said.

But while we had the near-impossible-to-reach Robertson on the phone, we asked another question that has been a matter of discontent for many- why the meetings can't be cablecast live like the rest of the country.

When Time Warner took over the local cable system, they finally finished constructing what is known as the "I-Net" which connects government facilities to the public access's "head end" where they send their signal from.

Roberson said it connects the Historic County Building with the administrative offices in the Round Building and surrounding offices as well as all the fire stations, the police and courts complex, all the county neighborhood centers and schools.
But he says, the reason he can't use it is because the administration has refused to let him have access to the signal from the council and planning and police commission meetings.

He says he tried for years when Erik Knutzen was the county IT chief but that Knutzen told him- as he had told us- that both former Mayor Bryan Baptiste and current Mayor Bernard Carvalho wouldn't let them have the live signal, which has been viewable live in administrative offices for many years now.

Robertson said he talked to Furfaro about using the I-Net to put live meetings on Ho`ike and that Furfaro seemed receptive to the idea of just cutting the administration out as a "middleman" and making the signal available directly from the council to Ho`ike.

So are we counting on viewable council meetings beginning tomorrow or live ones in the near future?

What are we- freakin' idiots?

No, that's a question that only someone who has never dealt with the council or Ho`ike would ask expecting a positive response. As usual we'll believe it when we see it.

ANOTHER REVOLTING DEVELOPMENT

ANOTHER REVOLTING DEVELOPMENT: There's an old joke about two guys trying out a new restaurant and when they get their orders and dig in, the first one says "yuck- this food is awful." His friend looks up and stops chewing just long enough to say "yeah- and such small portions."

That pretty much sums up the situation with the Kaua`i County Council's newfangled automatic video recording system which apparently not only produces a washed-out picture and garbled, barely-audible sound, but doesn't automatically produce an end-product that Ho`ike Community Television can actually use on their equipment.

According to Ho`ike last Wednesday’s (October 12) Council Committee meeting is still not being cable cast six days later because council services can't seem to produce and bring them a usable DVD copy for playback.

When the council moved back into the Historic County Building after another renovation- the last one having been done in the 90's- they had installed an automatic recording system with fixed cameras and microphones that no longer block the view of the council for attendees.

But in addition to apparently skimping on the quality of the equipment, they also failed to remember to do it all in a way that produces a DVD for Ho`ike playback when the session is done. Rather, according to Ho`ike, the system only produces a digital version in the recorder.

How hard would it be to do what consumers do at home and simultaneously record the proceedings in real time on a DVD recorder? Who was the Brianiac who didn't understand that the process doesn't end with the recording of the meetings but with the successful TV transmission to the viewers?

According to Ho`ike their phone has been ringing off the hook with a slew of people calling to ask those same questions- and complain that the picture and sound on the Oct. 5 meeting doesn't even look as good as those recordings made on the slowest speed of the first consumer Betamaxes ever produced.

For once our presumption that Ho`ike was to blame apparently was off-base, although when we called a week ago Friday to ask about the Oct 5 meeting they said they didn’t know why they hadn't gotten the DVD from the council and asked us to call and find out why. When we asked sarcastically if that was now our job, we got the customary "click" we're used to from Ho`ike.

But the real idiocy is that even with this new system and the apparent rewiring of the whole Historic County Building, the meetings are still not aired live on television via the same system that pipes it into the county's administrative offices across the street in the round building. That might actually make public testimony via telephone possible, as is the case in many jurisdictions across the country. And we couldn't have that and continue to lag at least a decade behind the times when it comes to public access to government.

Oh yeah- and despite the fact that the council appropriated a new staff position this fiscal year just to post on-line the paperwork that accompanies the weekly agenda you still need to drive to Lihu`e to get it.

As usual, the nauseating fare proffered at Cafe Council Kaua`i is lacking in sufficiency. And we don't expect that to change anytime soon. Perhaps a last line should be added to our old joke... "and it took so long for the waiter to get it here."

IT’S NOT A TURD- IT’S OUR LIVELIHOOD

IT’S NOT A TURD- IT’S OUR LIVELIHOOD: It’s been nothing short of nauseating to watch the way the western-settler, fat-cat, gentlemen-farmers have screwed any chance of an agriculturally successful future and thus rural island culture for the island by spewing their sense of false entitlement in front of the council and planning commission as they whine and snivel that they should be allowed to violate the state law banning vacation rentals on ag land.

Yet who can blame them for taking advantage of scofflaws like Councilperson Jay Furfaro who introduced the bill to somehow make the illegal legal and once-and-we-hope-not-future Councilperson JoAnn Yukimura who drew up the bill?

We still haven’t seen the cablecast of this week’s disgusting installment of “Screw the Public” (aka Furfaro’s Council Planning Committee meeting) due to the usual Ho`ike incompetence and catch-22 runaround – somehow apparently the captioning wasn’t done at the meeting and is being done now by Ho`ike although the only one who can say exactly what the heck is going on and when it might be on is the always out-of-the-office and incommunicado J Robertson... who in the middle of this mess took Friday off and is, as usual, unreachable until Monday, if then.

But thus far no one that we’ve caught at any meeting considering the bill – either at the planning commission or council- has mentioned that state law- HRS 205- specifically bans overnight accommodations for tourism related ag activities, which former Councilperson Mel Rapozo pointed out and later, at our urging, posted on his new “Straight From the Spleen- er, Heart” blog that replaces his now deleted Kaua`i Politics entry that disappeared after he lost the mayoral election in 2008.

It reads in pertinent part:

(b) Within agricultural districts, uses compatible to the activities described in section 205‑2 as determined by the commission shall be permitted; provided that accessory agricultural uses and services described in sections 205‑2 and 205‑4.5 may be further defined by each county by zoning ordinance. Each county shall adopt ordinances setting forth procedures and requirements, including provisions for enforcement, penalties, and administrative oversight, for the review and permitting of agricultural tourism uses and activities as an accessory use on a working farm, or farming operation as defined in section 165‑2; provided that agricultural tourism activities shall not be permissible in the absence of a bona fide farming operation. Ordinances shall include but not be limited to:...

(2) Requirements and restrictions for accessory facilities connected with the farming operation, including gift shops and restaurants; provided that overnight accommodations shall not be permitted;

That’s why the bill originally called for “non-enforcement agreements” even though the bill didn’t mention what was not being enforced in an hilarious-if-it-weren’t-so-asinine provision that had to be changed because the lobbyists and lawyers couldn’t ask for it without doubling over with laughter.

It’s hard to say who the worst jerkwad- or wads- in all this is/are. But when you look at the ag VCR owners who testify it’s hard not to start by blaming them for their own so-called predicament.

After flying in from LA on their magic wallets and cutting up most of the non-subdividable prime ag lots for their luxury homes driving prices for ag land beyond all farming business viability, they now are all suddenly “po' workin’ folk” who regurgitate-on-cue this “oh pity me- and in this bad economy no less- I’ll lose my land if I can’t have my illegal vacation rental- nooo oooone ever toooold meeeee” and similar drivel that just makes you want to scream.

Apparently if you have been illegally running, oh let’s say a drug ring and the cops failed to bust you then we need to let you keep up your trade because it feeds your family or some other irrelevant bullshit.

Next thing you know we’ll be grandfathering in all those who have been breaking into tourist’s cars – we have certainly not been enforcing that law either as the guy who, it was reported this week, has been arrested 74 times and is still on the loose can testify.

But worse is that we haven’t even heard a peep out of any councilperson challenging these chuckleheads as they file before them and blame everyone but themselves after they bought their land presumably with the required full disclosure so knowing full well what the rules were.

Of course the same goes for some of the requests for farm worker housing- or some who even want to put their own house on land they bought on the cheap precisely because it came without any “density” to build a house- and even the ones who, like Councilperson Tim Bynum, live on an “ag condo” so have apparently been violating the law requiring houses on ag land to be “farm dwellings” and so presumably have some nexus to a farming operation other than a mango tree in the yard.

Actually before any of these bills, as the law cited above says, what the county needs to do is to enact an ag tourism bill although even then state law specifically bans overnight accommodations in any ag tourism venture.

But instead of fulfilling that state mandate we’re the first to identify “unimportant” ag lands so we can sell of the rest of our agricultural capability to the next California cretin.

Oh and of course there’s plenty of blame left over for the local newspaper which so far has yet to quote HRS 205’s provision banning overnight tourist accommodations on ag land in the half dozen articles on the bill.

And in case anyone forgets, ALL TVRs outside the designated Visitor Destination Areas, no matter what the zoning, are and always were (since 1976) illegal no matter what Yukimura said and did in trying to make the existing ones legal by grandfathering them in rather than redoubling enforcement efforts.

But then of course the county is noted if not famously persistent for fixing what they don’t like under state law or our charter with an illegal ordinance as in the case we cited Wednesday.

Finally all this couldn’t be done without the complicity of the Planning Commission and Planning Director Ian Costa- along with his hand picked staff of sycophants- whose incompetence and out-and-out corruption has been well documented in this and other spaces.

But apparently this bill trying to make the illegal legal is sailing right along because the last person to blame- all the members of the public- have sat on their thumbs and let the stream of asshole gentleman farmers trying to cash in on the stumblebums in county government, to dominate testimony on the bill.

With once again apologies to Casey Stengle, can’t anyone here play this game?

WAY BACK WITH PEABODY

WAY BACK WITH PEABODY: One of the first things they teach you in Journalism schools is about the lead or “lede” as they spell it in the trade- the first sentence or paragraph that tells the reader in a nutshell what the most important things in the story are.

And the second thing you learn is to not “bury the lede”, meaning you don’t have a “punch line” at the end that reveals the most important information- info that should be in the first 25 words or so.

So maybe it was just being new in town that caused ace reporter at the local newspaper Michael Levine to end a snoozer about the cost control commission’s troubles effecting energy savings with this:

Next month, the commission will host a discussion with television station Ho`ike regarding the broadcast of county government meetings. The Boards and Commissions Office is currently in contract negotiations with Ho`ike, a staff member said.

(Cost Control Commission Chair Randy)Finlay said it would be “fruitless” to hold the discussion after the contract is executed, adding that the county “would appreciate the scrutiny” that the commission offers and that he hopes the status quo month-to-month arrangement will be allowed to continue until after the commission’s August meeting.

If we read this right the big news is that after more than a decade and a half of demands that the county expand their TV coverage of boards and commissions (Bs & Cs) we may actually get to subject some of their all important processes to public scrutiny.

Many of the most corrupt decisions in county government occur for all intent and purpose in total secrecy since there are slew of these Bs & Cs that have most likely never seen a member of the public at their sessions and wouldn’t know what to do with one if someone attended.

Others have been meeting in executive session without any notice and without following procedures for doing so and only complying with the sunshine law when people start showing up... as happened recently with the ethics board.

It’s no wonder- it’s in conformance with the Minotaur conciseness of “doing what’s wrong as long as they can” that has pervaded Kaua`i county operations for decades.

In late 90’s the county council used to meet in executive session preceded by an announcement that they were going into executive session and nothing more- no specific reasons for doing so, no individual sessions for each item and no listing of which eight specific exemption under the sunshine law for each specific item.

After a year of complaints from PNN the council complied with the law but only after then council chair Ron Kouchi told the county attorney to start doing so.

That led a short time later to both PNN and the Honolulu Star Bulletin reporter Anthony Sommer attending a police commission meeting and requesting compliance. That “request” surprisingly spurred compliance the very next meeting when two then-new commissioners, Michael Ching and Carol Furtado demanded the commission follow the law.

Other Bs & Cs have complied with the law over the years but there are still some that act as if someone walked in on their private little wing of the labyrinth if someone actually shows up.

Years previous to the early 90’s when cablecasting of council meetings began, the council was quite the same way according to Jean Holmes who took over the job of editor of the local newspaper in the early 60’s.

She told us that when she came in as editor the council coverage in the newspaper consisted of what one of the councilmen- note the gender specific reference- came by the paper and told them supposedly happened.

Jean says that she decided to attend a council meeting and when she did “they practically had to put on their pants” as she said. There had never been a reporter or pretty much any member of the public- much less a woman- in the council chambers before but she told them they’d better get used to it and made it a point to include objective independent coverage thereafter.

But there are still B’s and C’s that have that reaction when someone walks in.

Beyond the possibility that some other Bs’ and Cs’ meetings might be televised lies the other revelation- that the contract for producing the recordings of them is up for renewal and rather than put the contract out for bid- as the county was forced to do in the past- they are rather “negotiating” a new contract with the notoriously incompetent and sycophantic Ho`ike.

About a decade ago activists demanded that the contract be put out to bid so that one of the myriad of professional video service companies on the island might bid on it.

For a year or so, the contract went to Kaua`i Worldwide Communications (KWC) run by Carol Bain and Ed Coll. They reportedly bid on it as a public service and to show how a well run outfit would do the job even though they knew they would lose money doing so.

And indeed many of the complaints about the Ho`ike service were resolved through KWC’s production.

The distracting and bothersome “open captions” that are used by Ho`ike to this day because they can’t competently produce closed captioning were eliminated and closed captioning was working fine. The recordings were day and time stamped on the screen so they people knew what the date of the meeting being shown was and which point in the meeting they were viewing.

But the reason they knew they would lose money was that although Ho`ike is required to provide for the actual telecast of the meetings no matter who produces them, production itself is up to the county to pay for.

And when the county bought the original equipment, after a few years of Ho`ike production- all without a contract- somehow the equipment became the property of Ho`ike. Also Ho`ike was and is using the money they get from the tax on everyone’s cable bill that supports Public, Government and Education channels to subsidize their bid meaning that other bidders had to compete with an outfit that was not only using their own tax dollars to compete with them but had their equipment paid for.

The county, with the help of Ho`ike, also harassed KWC and after the year was up, they rewrote the procurement specifications to virtually make sure that Ho`ike would be the only bidder. KWC lost money on the deal and couldn’t compete with the Ho`ike bid and Ho`ike has controlled the whole process ever since.

We are somewhat trepidatious that this might be only for the cost control commission. It makes us wonder when reading that “the county ‘would appreciate the scrutiny’ that the commission offers” if the county would televise the meetings of things like the ethics board and many others that might NOT “ appreciate the scrutiny”.

At any rate, it’s not clear from Levine’s coverage whether the county intends to televise all or even any other B and C meetings but if they do so it would seem to require a new open bidding process, not just for the news ones but the current council, police commission and planning commission meetings as well. and they might just consider requiring the equipment the taxpayers paid for be passed on to any new winning bidder as well as making sure the Ho`ike bid doesn’t take advantage of being a quasi-governmental entity.

(PNN) OIP OPENS INVESTIGATION OF COUNCIL’S EXECUTIVE SESSION ON DENYING AGENDA ACCESS TO COUNCILMEMBERS.

OIP OPENS INVESTIGATION OF COUNCIL’S EXECUTIVE SESSION ON DENYING AGENDA ACCESS TO COUNCILMEMBERS.

(PNN) The state Office of Information Practices (OIP) has opened an investigation of the “unforeseen” executive session held at the June 3 meeting of the Kaua`i County Council.

As PNN reported last week, the un-agendaed secret meeting was held to discuss the attempt by Councilperson Tim Bynum to place an amendment to the council rules on the agenda for the purposes of clarifying the rule that states that Chair Kaipo Asing could not block councilmembers from introducing bills and resolutions, as Bynum alleges Asing has routinely done for at least two-and-a-half years.

Bynum has said and presented documentation showing how Asing has used an administrative rule provision requiring Asing “initial” agenda items to block introduction of measures.

A complaint filed by Kaua`i resident Brad Parsons on June 4 asks for an “investigation and enforcement actions by all means necessary” and cites both PNN’s report and one that appeared in the local paper.

Parsons asked that:

the OIP look into the appropriateness of the use of Executive Session during the events of Wed. June 3, 2009, by the Kaua`i County Council described in the above reports. I would also request that the OIP look at the all of the events and supporting documentation at Kauaiinfo.org to develop an effective case for broader action on these unacceptable matters inconsistent with "one man, one vote" standards of representative democracy.

In response OIP launched investigation S INVES-P 09-08 and on June 5 sent the following letter to Asing.

Dear Chair Asing,

The Office of Information Practices has received a complaint from Mr. Brad Parsons concerning the Kaua`i County Council (“the Council). Specifically Mr. Parsons asks whether the executive sessions held on June 3, 2009 violated part 1 of section 92 Hawai`i Revised Statutes (the Sunshine Law). A copy of Mr. Parson’s (sic) complaint is enclosed for your information.

We ask for your assistance in our review of this complaint. Please provide us with a detailed explanation. including any relevant legal citations setting forth the council’s position on this matter and any other information you deem relevant to this inquiry. We request that the council provide this response to the OIP no later than ten days from receipt of this letter.

Thank you for your attention to this matter. If you have any questions or would like to discuss this matter please do not hesitate to contact the undersigned attorney.

Very truly yours,
Jennifer Z. Brooks,
Staff Attorney.

To clarify our coverage of last Thursday, Bynum attempted to place the matter on the agenda by making a “motion to amend” when the matter of the agenda came up at the meeting. That motion was seconded by councilperson Lani Kawahara but the motion was apparently never voted upon by the council.

Instead County Clerk Peter Nakamura reminded Asing that the approval of the agenda was left pending due to a previous motion for approval and second.

The council’s vote to approve was apparently approval of the agenda, not the amendment even though according to rules of order the amendment should have taken precedence.

According to the Sunshine Law and previous OIP rulings “unanticipated” matters that come up during a council meeting may be heard in executive sessions but that is only for items that are actually on the agenda.

Each council agenda contains a caveat saying

(p)ursuant to Haw. Rev. Stat. (“H.R.S.”) §92-7(a), the Council may, when deemed necessary, hold an executive session on any agenda item without written public notice if the executive session was not anticipated in advance.

As to adding a matter to the agenda the Sunshine Law reads

No board shall change the agenda, once filed, by adding items thereto without a two-thirds recorded vote of all members to which the board is entitled; provided that no item shall be added to the agenda if it is of reasonably major importance and action thereon by the board will affect a significant number of persons.

It should be noted that both conditions must be present for the matter to be rejected as an addition to the agenda. Since the current rules call for all councilmembers to be able to add items to the agenda it is unknown how clarifying that council rule- a basic tenet of American republican representational government- would be of “either major importance” or “affect a significant number of persons”.

At the meeting county Attorney Al Castillo briefly maintained that both conditions were met he did not say how, saying only that “council rules are important” and “affect everyone on the island”.

He then repeatedly cut off discussion by of the matter councilmembers Bynum and Kawahara in public session and demanded an executive session, even though his role is advisory.

Those wishing to view the meeting this weekend were greeted by a blank screens on Ch. 53 of Ho`ike Community Television which is paid by the county to tape and cablecast the meetings.

Although PNN called Saturday to alert them to the situation and talked to an employee who said he would take care of the matter, the screen remained blank all weekend during a time when most people are known to watch the meetings, especially those that have been controversial.

Asing and County Clerk Nakamura are in charge of administering the council’s portion of the Ho`ike contract and determine which council sessions will be presented on Public access TV.

In the past OIP has ordered that minutes of executive sessions that were illegally held must be made public immediately. In one such ruling the county sued the OIP delaying release for two years.

Presuming the OIP letter to Asing that was sent Friday arrived yesterday (6/9) a response is due June 19.

GONE TO THE DOGS

GONE TO THE DOGS: The absurdist and wise guy existentialist in us sometimes begs to ask “if a tree doesn’t fall in the forest, does it not make a sound?”..

But somehow that’s a pretty appropriate conundrum for the Kaua`i public access outlet Ho`ike Community TV where, until we called today, they hadn’t received any calls regarding the fact that they’d been off the air since last week.

Some might think it’s because no one noticed but when it comes to Ho`ike it’s just that no one bothered because they knew they would be simply wasting their time complaining.

We spent a three day weekend vainly searching for last Wednesday’s county council meeting which for some reason obviously related to incompetence is usually shown for the first time on Friday nights- an unchanged remnant from the days when council meetings were held on Thursdays

Today, after much badgering for information on the stated “technical problems” the most we could get was that they are attempting to get things going again through their technical people- who just happen to be in Texas- and that they will play both last week’s and this weeks meetings when- or if- they ever fix it.

In their usual tight lipped way they refused to say exactly what the problem was, when it might be fixed or whether the last council meeting would even be cablecast more than once- or whether there would be any kind of announcement of it’s scheduling.

They refused to notify us when it does get on so that we could notify others.

The saga of ineptitude at Ho`ike has begged for exposure for many years, even since we abandoned our Parxist Conspiracy Newsmagazine program after seven years when we were assaulted by a 500 pound employee for trying to tape a public Ho`ike Board of Directors meeting and banned from the premises.

Most other access advocates and producers have simply given up on getting any original programming produced or even on the air other than the usual fare of religious programming and ads for non-profits organizations.

The board was taken over by the evangelical church in the 90’s and the public was shut out of public access governance, as we covered in news stories at the time.

While the access organization on Maui, Akaku, is widely acclaimed feeds their programming on-line and is as high tech, open and accessible as any in the country- all on a budget similar to Ho`ike- access on Kaua`i is virtually unused, many say by design.

While the rest of the video world has gone digital, Ho`ike still reportedly routinely rejects material on DVDs and requires antiquated VHS tapes to be submitted if one wants to get their self produced program on the air.

And don’t try to ask why because the general manage J Robertson is widely known as a totally unreachable figure who, if you do somehow get through to him by accident, will lie to your face until you catch him at it... and sometimes even afterward.

So why does this poster child for ineptitude continue to be the ones that tape- and we mean tape- the council meetings?

Well guess what- the council and administration like it that way just fine thank you since it’s much less likely that you’ll get to see the council meetings if they are either unavailable when they are supposed to be on (as they often are), scheduled at different arbitrarily selected and unannounced-in-advance times or otherwise stale by the time they get on the air.

Council meeting should and could- with the flip of a switch and at zero cost- be streamed live on-line and even cablecast live according to testimony routinely given at council meetings for years by Professor Ed Coll, an information technology specialist at Kaua`i Community College, as well as other producers and technically adept videographers .

But while promises are made by the council yearly to get it together nothing ever happens. Not only won’t they act, they are content to allow the administration to actually oversee the Ho`ike contract to produce tapes of the meetings- a contract that was awarded when it was written specifically for them.

Even though the state sunshine law requires that recordings of meetings be maintained as public records and the council is required to maintain their own records, the recordings of the meetings are the kuleana of the mayor’s office and to actually get copies of them one has to go to- you guessed it- Ho`ike.

And if the lack of public outrage- as evidenced by the fact that no one even complained that the meeting hadn’t aired at its scheduled times until we called today- is any indication things will stay the way they are for some time to come.