A MAN, A PLAN, A DEBACLE- RAPOZO

A MAN, A PLAN, A DEBACLE- RAPOZO: After decades of problems keeping the rain off the Kilauea Gym floor, the Director of the Kaua`i Parks and Recreation (P&R) Department, Lenny Rapozo, has finally come up with what many in the administration are calling a "brilliant" multi-pronged approach to fixing the structure which includes covering the current leaky roof with pili grass and moving the whole building 90 degrees to aviod the wet, easterly winds.

"A pili grass roof was good enough for the ancient Hawaiians so it should be good enough for us" said Rapozo, "especially if it's not raining."

The roof has never in human memory actually kept water out- which is thought by many in the Buildings Division of the Department of Public Works to be the main function of a roof- despite 137 attempts to replace it based on 373 different consultants' plans.

Rapozo also had a plan for the leaky door that faces into the rainy trade winds.

"We have hundreds of balloons and dozens of tanks of helium left over from the mayor's last campaign so we can just fill them up and float the building. And the beauty of it is that we can use all those political appointees and mayoral-approved civil servants who owe their jobs to him to turn the whole building, moving the door to a more desirable orientation... whichever way, after trial and error, that turns out to be."

According to Rapozo his own recent research has apparently shown that the current structure sits on the footprint and is a renovated version of the ancient "Kilauea Himanekium" where "pre-western-contact kanaka would go for drink beer." But, Rapozo said he discovered that during a 19th century renovation the building was inadvertently spun around sideways by witches, who were brought over for just such jobs by missionaries who were seeking to allow the structure to receive bigger shipments of bibles they could exchange for surrounding farms and home-sites.

"We're excited by the discovery" said Rapozo whose engineering expertise goes back to his days at Kapa`a High School where he lettered in "Pick-up Sticks" and "Tiddlywinks." He also studied basket-weaving, a skill he said may prove useful in the pili roofing project.

"I think I've got something here that nobody else could- or would- have come up with," Rapozo boasted with a straight face.

There are also plans to replace the wooden basketball floor with concrete and then put down lauhala mats in order to absorb any rainwater in case the pili grass leaks. "But the mats are only for when it rains because no one plays basketball in the rain anyway," said Rapozo. "Besides, the plan is all up here," Rapozo said pointing to his head "so we can save money on design consultants if the pili grass has to be replaced. Since everyone is used to paying over and over for consultants every year or so, we have an unending source of funding for the project, 'cause grass stay cheap, eh?"

Rapozo did not at first indicate where the cheap pili grass would come from since it is an all but extinct species but when asked of his plans for future recreational projects Rapozo said he's thinking of a Youth Program where students grow can pili grass on county land, then sell the product to the county for other roofing projects.

His boss, Mayor Bernard Carvalho applauded Rapozo's ingenuity. "That's why I hired him- since he has no expertise in any one particular area, he tends to think, not just outside the box but outside the entire realm of human endeavor and experience."

Rapozo also talked about- but didn't explain- either using the remaining balloons and helium to actually move Moran Pond at Lydgate or filling the balloons with the mud that now befouls the once popular swimming pools after a previous Rapozian plan to dredge the pools want awry... for some unfathomable reason.

"Then maybe the mud balloons will just float away," he said wistfully

Council Chair Jay Furfaro was cautiously enthusiastic over the plan saying "it wouldn't be the absolute stupidest thing we've ever approved- but it'd be close."

Councilperson JoAnn Yukimura was apparently skeptical but said she would have to see the plans in writing before she could really comment and recommend a thorough study of the project.

But Councilmember Mel Rapozo was both for it and against it, making sure that he didn't state a position until he figured out what the political implications were.

Blogger Andy Parx but did manage to wake up long enough to backhandedly mumble an ambiguous complement saying "it sound just like something Lenny would come up with since no one in the county is smarter or more suited to his job than he is."

HOOK, LINE AND STINKER

HOOK, LINE AND STINKER: During the last month we've used the bill (#2149) to allow camping at Lydgate Park as a kind of case study of the long-practiced and well-honed dance of the headless chickens used by the last three Kaua`i administrations- especially in the Department of Public Works (DPW) and the now spun-off Department of Parks and Recreation (DP&R)- to run out the clock on county council oversight of various and sundry mismanagement schhemes.

But the manner in which DP&R Director Lenny Rapozo's final "rope-a-dope" performance yielded a split decision in favor of the bill's passage last Wednesday, gave a whole meaning to "don't ask me- I'm only in charge here."

Of course Rapozo's use of "the fog" and the "I not here" method of administrative oversight could not have been accomplished without council allies willing to look the other way at the misrepresentations and outright lies as well as the lack of any semblance of competency of Rapozo and his underlings.

After months of non-answers to "the eight questions" that had been repeatedly asked, in writing, of Rapozo, the bill was moved out of committee to the full council where last Wednesday despite the fact that there were amendments pending and it was no where near ready for a vote... something that has inflamed Chair Jay Furfaro's hair on many an occasion in the past.

Rapozo appeared after handing in the alleged answers just that morning, claiming he never had the questions- many of which had been sent in writing months ago- until the previous Friday. And, much to Furfaro's chagrin, they hadn’t even been distributed to councilmembers yet.

The old bait and switch made an appearance too. Seems the originator of "the fog" himself, perennial county appointee Ian Costa who now serves as Rapozo's deputy, had unexpectedly shown up instead of Rapozo the week before with Rapozo conveniently on the mainland, allowing Rapozo to claim he had no idea what had happened the previous week.

As we've previously described, it's a classic move Costa developed during the year-long "Developers Gone Wild," grubbing and grading hearings before the council in the 90's which exposed the early misdeeds of Jimmy Pflueger preceding the deadly Ka Loko Dam break for which Pflueger is scheduled to stand trial for murder later this or next year.

The session began with Council Chair Jay Furfaro waving around what a real plan would look like, taken from a Virginia Beach Virginia campground saying "can you kokua me... this is what I'm looking for Lenny."

The questions dealt with almost everything imaginable from lack of a sufficient number of toilets to insufficient staffing for maintenance and security and were seemingly at least partially a result of there being no written plan to make sure the professed "work-class facility" would even be run in an organized and coherent manager.

But try as he might, Furfaro could not get a commitment from Rapozo to put together such a plan by the time camping was scheduled to begin, 60 days after the passage of the bill.

Finally after twenty minutes of trying to get such a commitment from Rapozo, Furfaro demonstrated the council's archetypical part in the avoidance scheme by declaring Rapozo's "no" to be a "yes."

Of course the run-around can't properly function without an administration shill. The role was made for Councilmember Tim Bynum whose "don't confuse me with the facts" rhetoric, previously honed on the issue of the bike path, consisted of declaring the questions to have been answered already- whether they were or not- and calling all criticism of the not-ready-for-prime-time "plan" to be too "meticulous."

This left an opening for Councilmember Mel Rapozo to perform one of his classic ape-like chest beating routines consisting of lines like "That's our job, to be meticulous... guilty as charged."

But perhaps the most Kafkaesque scene in the melodrama played out over the issue of the "fishermen" who have traditionally frequented the area since, well, forever.

As championed by Councilperson Kipukai Kuali`i the council went back and forth, working to make sure fishers could go to the campground and essentially camp out while fishing without really being official campers.

Of course the task was impossible on its face. How do you allow people to stay overnight in the campground, in their tents, as long as they leave their fishing poles stuck in the sand with the line in the water- as described by Kuali`i- and then distinguish who is actually camping without a permit and who is simply fishing.

The council has been asking Lenny Rapozo- and Costa- for the actual metes and bounds of the camping area rather than providing the cruddy little map with dotted lines that had been made part of the bill. Mel Rapozo- an ex-cop- described the absurdity of the prosecution going to court with such a map and how any good attorney could raise enough questions to make it unenforceable.

The answer apparently was simply, as stated by many, that the standard was "we know who is camping and who is fishing."

Oh great. The island isn't sufficiently wracked with charges of "reverse racism" by the increasing number of uptight, malahini mainlanders who can't distinguish between the word "haole" as used descriptively and the more provocative "stupid f-ing haole." Now we have an area where the line between campers and fishermen is going to be- at least in their eyes- as much a factor of the shade of their skin as anything else.

County Attorney Al Castillo didn't really help by hemming and hawing and finally maintaining that it didn't matter what the law said as long as there was "sufficient notice" in the form of signage to tell the users what made a fisherman a fisherman and what made a camper a camper.

As if.

Finally, the answer was to be as ambiguous as possible and the council inserted language that allows "fishermen" to "fish" any place in the campgrounds where there isn't an actual designated camp site.

However all this probably doesn't matter one whit because, it was revealed, the county's park rangers are never there between 10:30 p.m. and 4 a.m. leaving enforcement of the unenforceable provision an academic matter anyway.

The bill passed with Kuali`i and Mel Rapozo voting against it and now it's up to the DP&R to promulgate administrative rules- which promise to be as vague as the bill- in the next two months and decide which parts of the campground to "open for camping" with no real idea of what is going to happen, in a classic Kaua`i County "ready, fire, aim" manner.

But whatever happens you can bet dollars to donuts that we haven't heard the end of the seven-year saga, especially when the first "you're not fishing, you're camping- I can tell by the color of your skin" ticket is issued.

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Note- We're working with a new editor whose schedule is malleable so, although we intend to keep to the 1 p.m. press time, there may be days when it is decidedly later.

PARKYAKARKUS

PARKYAKARKUS: It was only a matter of time and everyone knew it.

So when the land gluttons Grove Farm announced they were putting up a gate and no trespassing signs at Kipu Falls after countless deaths over the decades- deaths of both locals and tourists, press reports notwithstanding- it wasn't unexpected.

But what was, if not surprising at least gut-grabbing, was the fact that they had offered to turn the area over to the county for a park and the county turned them down due to "liability" according to at least half a dozen press reports.

What- or more to the point "who"- the words "the county" refers to isn't stated but one can only assume it was the administration of Mayor Bernard Carvalho who, without letting anyone know, gave up the chance to obtain an incredible asset for the people of Kaua`i.

What's more it really isn't the administration's decision to make. The county charter makes it plain that the acquisition of property comes under the purview of the county council which apparently was not even asked since any communication would have had to have been placed on the council's agenda for any discussion to have taken place.

Instead, as is typical of Carvalho's administration, the decision was made behind closed doors with no input from the public.

"Liability" has been the cry of past administrations in rejecting donations of property. The second access to Kaupea (Secret) beach was turned down by the Kusaka administration citing liability, although rumor has it that Carvalho has told people that he's working on getting it "donated" to the county. That's fifteen years of no access to the second beach there which often becomes inaccessible from the current county access during the winter.

Liability can and should be able to be minimized and even eliminated, if we assume we actually have people with half a brain in the Parks and Recreation Department who can properly determine signage and other safety measures. Liability is related not to the inherent, natural dangers of an area but to the degree of negligence of the owner in the unique situation that is cited in a lawsuit.

The recent determination that the state was libel for the deaths of the tourist who fell off Wailua falls was not simply because the area is state property but because the signage was so poorly designed and placed that it apparently directed the woman off the cliff.

What Carvalho is essentially saying is that there's no one in his administration competent enough to minimize the liability inherent in owning Kipu Falls.

It's hard to say which is worse; the county turning down the potential gift of one of the most beautiful and popular spots on the island and one that attracts thousands of tourists every year or that they did it secretly without even asking the body that actually has the power to make that determination... much less asking the taxpayers and citizens who would have to bear any burden of any potential liability.

It's not too late for this outrage to be overturned. If you're as pissed off as we are, contact your council at councilmembers@kauai.gov and tell them that you want them to at least look into if not accept Grove Farms offer to turn Kipu Falls over to the county.

WHERE'S THE PROFESSOR WHEN WE NEED HIM?

WHERE'S THE PROFESSOR WHEN WE NEED HIM?: When an illusionist plies his trade his best friend is the old diversion or the misdirection, where the eyes of onlookers are forced to observe a moving object while the prestidigitator "disappears" the object of obfuscation.

Of course it's a lot easier if you only have to deceive a single fool to make the magic happen.

But when that fool is designated to tell the whole town what an amazing trick he just saw it's easier yet to assure that everyone is bamboozled.

So when our "Little Buddy" down at the local newspaper, Leo Azambuja, saw how, as he reported, "(t)hree days waiting for an answer became five months and $28,000 snowballed into $338,500 for an upcoming stretch of the county’s multi-use path in Kapa`a" he made sure he dutifully reported only what "The Skipper" showed him- a bungling administration boondoggle.

It wouldn't be hard to believe what Chair Jay Furfaro wanted our Gilligan to report- that the council, through no fault of their own, was lied to when the usual dullards at the Department of Public Works and their equally clueless allies at the Department of Parks and Recreation misinformed them about the cost of a short stretch of the already ridiculously expensive "bike... er, multi-use path."

But even in an editorial- apparently run by Gilligan who, as first mate, had the run of the ship while Editor Nathan Eagle was away for a week- excoriating the administration for the cost overrun, there was no indication that the truth of the matter was that the council, as they have done over and over on the project, actually approved the "blank check" before they knew the amount or full extent of the work being proposed.

And that little scene has been repeated over and over with the bike path, as well as other projects.

Here's the usual script. The administration comes to the council with a "communication for approval" asking to be given the green light to proceed on, let's say, a portion of the path. The council asks them to come up and give specifics as to, not just cost but sometimes, the actual route the path is supposed to take as well as a dozen other specifics.

The administration representative- sometimes the county engineer, sometimes the head of the building division, sometimes the administrative assistant- sits there and when he's asked for answers, he doesn't really have them but says someone else will come next week to answer them.

And the council, even though they've been stood up and lied to ad nausium in the past, goes ahead and, instead of deferring the matter until they are satisfied, approves the administration's request to proceed.

Sometimes of course they remember to send a new communication "asking the administration to be present to answer questions" as to whatever information they didn't get. But usually after getting the runaround for weeks on end they give up and the matter slips off into council oblivion.

But then, sometimes a year later if we're lucky (more usually it's never), there is such a glaring problem that someone on the council gets pissed off enough to call the administration back in to explain why, as for example in this case, $28K had become $338.5K.

The council of course is then "outraged" to find that they were flim-flammed. But the most important fact- that the project could not have proceeded without their original approval without sufficient information- is buried in their indignation.

That may just be why Furfaro was elected chair- he is the master of the misdirected outrage, puffing out his chest and holding everyone and their uncle (actually when it comes to public works and parks and rec, in many cases they ARE each others' uncles) responsible... except of course the councilmembers who were so diligent in uncovering the latest pig in a poke they had approved.

So join us here next week my friend, you're sure to get a smile, from seven elected stumblebums here on Council's Isle.

YOU CAN’T SMELLTHAT?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The game typically goes like this.

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

Councilperson: Where’s Wendel?”

“He’s not here today”

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

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

“Where’s he?”

“He’s out of town today”

“OK we’ll defer until next week”

Next meeting there’s the department head but no Wendel

“Wendel’s on vacation”

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

BECAUSE THEY CAN

BECAUSE THEY CAN: It sounds like the dog-people carried the dog-day at the dog-path meeting Wednesday according to Nathan Eagle’s account in today’s local paper as well as yesterday’s .new blog entry at Councilman Mel Rapozo’s blog.

Mel’s tome drew more commentary doggerel from those who doggedly persist in thinking “dogs are people too” replete with the god-given constitutional right to “go” wherever they want.,

Mel did not however, despite two promises, clear up that pesky detail that makes the farce all the more farcical- whether the bike path actually is a park at this point in time where dogs would be banned by ordinance

But the newspaper story seemingly confirms- through lack of confirmation, as things usually get authenticated in Kaua`i government circles- what we’ve been saying to no avail- that the path has never legally been designated a county park and therefore dog walking is legal now.

We asked Eagle for a clarification a month ago after he wrote that the path was “considered a linear park” without attribution.

Today Eagle reports that, like Rapozo apparently, he still can’t get an answer out of the Parks And Recreation Department head Bernard Carvalho as to when and how the path magically became a county park without going through any process at all, saying:

Under the county Parks and Recreation Department’s management, the path is a linear park and as such falls under a county ordinance banning animals without permits.

Parks and Recreation Director Bernard Carvalho did not return calls seeking a more detailed explanation as to why the path falls under the park classification.

After a verbal warning process ended in March, the Kaua‘i Police Department started issuing citations to owners walking their dogs on the multi-use path.

We haven’t seen the testimony of the 50 some-odd people who testified at the hearing yet but from Rapozo’s Eagle’s and others’ descriptions it was a banding together of a bunch of dog-loving nut-cases who want to their habit of owning their precious little dirt-collectors shoved down our collective throats.

Many even claim they felt threatened after showing up to say “no” to having to deal with the mess and abuse of dog-lovers who are blind to the problems their pets perpetrate - so left without testifying.

It’s bad enough these days seeing these poor beasts chained up in little yards or in cages, yearning to run around more than an hour a day and being fed moist “animal by-products” if they’re lucky and essentially bread and water if they’re not. Even the stuff we say we wouldn’t feed to a dog is better than what most get... and that’s with the “responsible” owners.

But now everyone on Kaua`i must put up with the conditions created by people who, instead of taking their dogs to areas where people don’t congregate which is most likely what their dog would want, have to combine their own recreational activities with those of their pets.

Don’t have the time to do both? Then don’t have a dog. Life is full of choices.

This isn’t a rights issue. One person’s right to swing their fist ends at another’s jaw. If anyone has a right here it’s the right to walk without being molested by your dog.

And leashes don’t help. Are dog walkers on the path going to stay seven feet away from everyone else if they have a six foot leash? No, they’re going to ignore people who might not appreciate their wet muddy dog rubbing up against them.

There are plenty of dog owners who would complain bitterly if someone smoked a cigarette around them but have no compunction about exposing us to their smelly, filthy, disgusting habit of cohabitating with wolves.

The worst is Becky Rhodes the head of the Human Society. Her inane statements like

“This is a really important time for Kaua‘i.(and) (t)o be known as a dog-hating visitor attraction is not what we want to be known for”

are baffling enough if they weren’t a violation of the prohibitions against non-profits- especially those that operate through taxpayer subsidies- from lobbying for legislation.

It’s pretty baffling how that would happen anyway since tourists don’t bring their dogs and if anything would probably appreciate not having to step in anything or be attacked by dogs, whether leashed or not.

It’s one thing to advocate for the safety and good treatment of pets. It’s another to insist that we all be forced to deal with your pet If anything Rhodes should be saying that responsible pet ownership includes the rights of people who don’t like your pet, which is traditionally the position taken by responsible authorities.

The dog path lobby would have us believe that everyone loves dogs, mom and apple pie in that order and that “all local people have dogs” and that it’s only a bunch of malahini mainlanders trying to stop us from “living our island lifestyle” who are opposed to having dogs run roughshod over humans out for a walk in the park.

But the “local tradition” is to take care of your animals so they doesn’t bother everyone else. We saw enough of roving packs terrorizing neighborhoods as happened way too often 30 years ago as populations moved into residential rather than true rural areas.

Having a dog around is not only not a right but it is a privilege. And it’s one that is abused by those who bring their dogs to areas where people congregate.

According to the article “Veterinarians and community members said it would be a ‘huge disservice’ to not give residents ‘the freedoms that everyone else seems to have.’”

The freedom that everyone else has? What is this now a constitutional right to have your beast slobber all over our faces and terrorize our kids, who incidentally do have the rights you wish your dogs had but doesn’t..

If you want to treat your beast like your kid be our guest. There’s plenty of coo-coo people out there and you have a right to be one of them. But just because you like dog spit on your face doesn’t give you any “rights” to have it lick even our hands- hey we eat with those things- while you stand there saying “isn’t that cute- he likes you”.

Dogs have their place. They can be wonderful companions. But they are a huge responsibility. And their “place” isn’t among those that don’t want to be around them.. A six foot leash doesn’t mean people have to stay 12 feet away from you, it means the ones holding the leash have to control their dogs and keep them away from people without their permission.

SO IF WE DIDN’T STEP IN IT HOW COME I CAN STILL SMELL IT:

SO IF WE DIDN’T STEP IN IT HOW COME I CAN STILL SMELL IT: After taking blind stabs in the dark at Tim Bynum’s proposed “Yes we don’t not allow dogs on the bike path” law Bill #2265 yesterday we finally got a hold of the actual bill and if you enjoyed what we rightly ridiculed and revealed yesterday we’ve got more to whet your dog whistle.

First of all though the public notice explains the absurdity how the Council proposes to make something that’s legal stay legal by making it illegal and then creating an exemption for that illegality that may not be it’s primary effect if not purpose.

Turns out the whole bill may dead since it is apparently illegally posted and noticed

And that’s because no one let the public know that what the bill actually does is surreptitiously give the newly Charter-created “Department” of Parks And Recreation (DP&R) and its Director the responsibility for administration of the County’s parks, taking it away from the County Engineer and the Public Works Department where the old “Office” of Parks and Recreation resided.

It does this by apparently trying to change parts of the Definitions in Chapter 19 Section 19-1.3 although it is done so ineptly as to cause more confusion than it clears up, seemingly deleting the numbering system for some insane reason and deleting at least one references to the Public Works Department or DPW (19-1.3 [3]) but apparently leaving others in (19-1.3 [2]) referring to the County Engineer. It also allows references to the old Parks and Recreation Division of Public Works to remain (19-1.3 [5]) and deletes some words from provisions that were wrongly worded in the first place to refer to a “Department” of Parks and Recreation (19-1.3 [6]) when there was no such thing as a “Department” of P&R when the original ordinance was approved.

This has to be considered a major change of law contained in bill- changing control of all County parks from the DPW to the DP&R. Yet that information does not appear on the public notice filed with the Lieutenant Governor and submitted for publication, in violation of HRS 91 (Administrative Rules) and 92 (Sunshine/open meetings).

But midway exhibit aside, step right up and have your dollar ready – there’s more bizarro-world manipulations and big contortions under the side-show big-top.

We’ve been amused for weeks as County officials have been lying in saying that the bike path was, according to the newspaper “considered a linear park”.

The problem was that no one ever bothered to go through the legal processes to declare it such in just another one of those Henry VIII “I am the law” delusional propagations that supplant promulgations and are so typical of chest-pounding Kaua`i potentates

Yesterday- after reading the public notice for the public hearing next Wednesday- we reported that the new bill is apparently at least attempting to surreptitiously and retroactively declare the bike path to be a park.

But actually we were wrong- it is not going to be a “park” but a “recreational facility” because the part being amended doesn’t refer to parks. It appears in the definition of a “Recreational Facility” (19-1.3 [9]) prospectively adding a paragraph saying

“Shared Use Path shall mean the path surface, as area up to six (6) feet in each side of the surface, immediately adjacent rest areas, and direct access from parking areas.”

This would supposedly bring the path under Section 19-1.4 refers to “General Prohibitions applicable to all Parks and Recreational Facilities” and is where the specific prohibitions are listed.

But that isn’t really clear because it just may be a dangling definition and not part or 19-1.3 [9] at all- and if it is, the term doesn’t join “swimming pools, gymnasiums, community centers pavilions, (and) picnic tables” but just kind of sits there off in the corner... much like the dog turd it seeks to regulate.

But if indeed it is a “recreational facility” the problem is, as we have stated over and over and is documented by every county official directly involved in procuring the funding for this specific path, it is not a Shared Use Path, Multi-Use Path, Dog Path, Bridle path (or for that matter a Bridal Path) elephant path or anything else

No matter what Tim Bynum, Thomas Noyes or Mayor Baptiste- or for that matter that hilariously crazy “believe me not your lyin' eyes” anonymous troll who perpetuates the big lie on various blog entries on the subject- wish it were funded as. it is was and will always be funded as a “primarily for transportation”-use path.

Although recreational use was and is permitted by federal funding law for the specific appropriation for this specific project, the bike path has to be used “primarily for transportation, not recreation” by law and it still lacks the required signature of the U.S. Secretary of Transportation declaring that the County is abiding by the “primarily for transportation, not recreation” provision.

But Bynum, who apparently wrote the bill himself if we can judge by the lack of legal acumen and bill-writing skills is one of those “don’t confuse me with the facts” people.

And it’s no wonder since he actually rode the “it’s not a bike path it’s a multi-use path” bandwagon to elective office. That’s his and their story and he and they are sticking to it, even if they have to put it in a law that could jeopardize the funding and cause the feds who audit these projects to “de-obligate” the $40 million and take it out of the pockets not of the electeds who misrepresented the use but the taxpayers.

Until now it’s been public statements and newspaper articles that left the trail of bread crumbs to our make-believe gingerbread house of a multi-use path. But now it is due to be enshrined in the Kauai` County Code via an ordinance where no one can say they didn’t mean it when they said what a great “recreational” boondoggle it is.

Finally the bill does one more thing... sort of.

Remember a few years back when the Council was going to but didn’t ban all drinking in parks but added a provision banning alcohol in parks from 11 p.m. to 6 a.m. if you didn’t have a camping permit?

Well what was not publicized much at the time was that the provision had a sunset date 18 months after it was enacted. This new Bill #2265 also deletes the section containing the 11-6 provision and the sunset date clause.

This could be considered a “housekeeping measure” but if anyone wants to bring up the ban and push for a new one or a re-upping of the sunsetted provision, this bill would give them an opportunity to bring it up at the public hearing and subsequent committee and council meetings under the State Sunshine Law since the section part is being changed.

We’re also starting a pool – guess the number of people who show up and how long the hearing goes and you win. Winner gets a scoop and a bag to pick up after their kangaroo.

I say 250 and six hours.

The Zoo opens at 1:30 p.m. Wednesday at the Hysteric County Building. Bring any barnyard beasts you wish. As a matter of fact maybe you can walk them there via the path.

They’re all apparently welcome to compete with bicyclists who whip around the corner at 50 mph while commuting to and from work... gee- wonder who’s gonna be left holding the liability bag when the ones who are legally supposed to have priority come upon your chicks and geese and ducks as well as your fringed surrey that fail to scurry.



IRREGULAR APPENDIX: For any who missed all the news and concurrent documentation regarding the funding and requirements for the coastal bike path the paperwork is available through the Department of Public Works’ Buildings Division.

Ask for Doug... he’ll fix ya up with the files for the funding mechanism and compliance with its requirements for the “coastal bike path” project. They’re public information and you can examine them or even get copies.
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But Glenn Mickens (he’s in the book) has copies of them and if you want copies yourself he’ll probably give you a kiss for caring and meet you at the copy place. I have a lot of them myself. Ask Glenn for the “Sweeny Brief” and attachments.

Then you’ll also know why our “coastal multi use path” runs through the Safeway-Foodland parking lots...and over a bridge that took 30 years to build at taxpayer expense instead of making SW and FL pay by honoring a 1978 zoning condition.