SHHHH

SHHHH: Another day another Hawai`i governmental travesty of justice, this time the red-queen-style “execution first, trial later” firing of Hawaii State Ethics Commission Executive Director Dan Mollway after 24 years on the job.

While we’ve criticized Mollway for his lack of aggression and tendency to seek slaps on the wrist in many cases, the way he was fired typifies the shady way many boards and commissions hire and fire their executives behind closed doors.

In response to the news today Disappeared News’ Larry Geller is questioning the firing and:

has faxed a request to the Chair of the Commission requesting copies of the minutes of its executive sessions that included discussion of the termination of Mr. Mollway.

The request is based on the strong public interest in the process by which the Ethics Commission carried out its action, a process that has been criticized in public testimony presented to the Commission. The Commission has declined to post the testimony on its website, but under Hawaii’s public records law it must provide copies to anyone who requests it.

But while Geller is rightfully asking the commission to provide the “secret sauce” there’s really only one person to blame for the surreptitious nature of the whole process- Mollway himself.

Under law, investigatory and/or disciplinary proceedings regarding “personnel matters” are to be closed to the pubic with one exception- the target may request that the matter is dealt with entirely in public.

But Mollway, like almost every other employee in his position, chose to keep the investigation and surrounding documents secret- a traditionally losing strategy.

That’s because the elephant in the room that no one is really mentioning is that these things are usually political in nature, in this case involving a board that has, over eight years, been stacked with appointees of Republican Linda Lingle and as the clock is running out, they’re going after someone that has been a target of partisan snipes for many years.

So why did Mollway choose to keep the investigation under wraps? It’s anyone’s guess but it was probably something he didn’t give much thought to, possibly related to the fact that a medical problem- identified for the first time today as a problem with “migraines”- was at the heart of the matter.

It’s hard to think of many examples of people who decided to make their matter public. But when they do they seem to be successful in turning the tables on the investigatory body because, as anyone whose dealt with governmental secrecy knows, it’s usually the body doing the investigation that has more to hide.

This was shown in archetype during the political persecution of two Kaua`i police commission members who were charged with unethical activities involved in the hiring of former Police Chief KC Lum.

Both Chair Michael Ching and Commissioners Carl Furtado were targets of a Kaua`i Board of Ethics investigation based on allegations contained in a complaint filed by Council Chair Kaipo Asing, at first on official stationary but later, after that was found to be improper and itself a violation of the ethics code, as a private citizen.

But the two chose divergent tactics in fighting the charges with Ching preferring to go the closed door route and Furtado demanding an open review.

The results? While the retired Maui judge appointed to hear Ching’s case didn’t really find a true violation and stated so in his report the ethics board revealed only sections of his report to make it seem like he did and presented those pages to the council to show guilt.

Despite the fact that the whole report surfaced - including the exculpatory portions- when a citizen claimed “ a little bird dropped it through my window”, when he tried to submit it as testimony before the council, they refused to accept it and the actual pages were physically thrown back at him during an open council session.

When he tried to go to the local newspaper with the full report he was equally thwarted by a reporter and editor of questionable intelligence and/or integrity who either couldn’t or didn’t want to figure out what the truth was.

Furtado on the other hand was cleared of charges because under the light of day it was apparent there was no real evidence of unethical activity- or, more importantly, no evidence that the county attorney’s office was willing to state in public and submit to cross-examination.

If Mollway had chosen the open session route it seems that the lack of evidence his attorney has alleged as well as the illegal nature of the firing (apparently based on a medical condition) might well have cause the charges to be dropped rather than expose the commission’s actions to the scrutiny of the press in the high profile case.

If nothing else it should serve as a precautionary tale for those who have the opportunity to open charges against them to public review, turning the intimidation tables on those who would use their office for political vendettas.

I ROLLED OVER- NOW WHERE’S MY BISCUIT

I ROLLED OVER- NOW WHERE’S MY BISCUIT: A tiny 61-word article deep in the business section of the Honolulu Advertiser announced “Lingle signs off on $10.79B budget” today.

Given the impact of such news in Hawai`i that’s pretty appropriate.

Well that would seem a capper to the crapper of the legislative budget and appropriation process. The hard fought funding battle determining who gets the taxpayers’ money to provide both vital and discretionary services went through the process of debate and decision making in the legislative branch and now the executive has signed the budget. The system has worked it’s, if not magic, at least sausage processing for another year.

All that’s left is to simply let the administration spend the money. Right?

You would think so wouldn’t ya. But in Hawai`i nothing is ever simple or as it should be.

For some inane if not insane reason the executive branch in the form of the governor gets another bite of the apple and, despite signing the budget into law, the funds may sit until the 32nd of Never at the sole discretion of the governor.

Every year everyone and everything that needs those funds expended- from schools to highways to the social services providers- sit on egg shells wondering if they will receive the money they need to operate or whether politics will cause them to wind up waiting for Godot or the electrician or someone like him.

And among those complaining most vociferously at this are the legislators who passed the appropriations. Yet astonishingly enough they are also the ones who can. with the stroke of a pen. end this French-farce that’s degenerated into an American “everyone’s lying” sit-com plot.

The provision does not stem from the State Constitution which states

Article VII- Taxation And Finance- Expenditure Controls

Section 5. Provision for the control of the rate of expenditures of appropriated state moneys, and for the reduction of such expenditures under prescribed conditions, shall be made by law

No public money shall be expended except pursuant to appropriations made by law.

So there is no Constitutional provision and as a matter of fact it is a matter of law, which means there is nothing stopping the legislature from merely ending the insane practice that has made many citizens go bonkers after spending three months at the legislature making sure a project gets funded only to find out they didn’t contribute enough to someone’s campaign to get the money they fought hard to win.

Supposedly there is a rhyme to the lack of reason- in case there is a budget shortfall or the money isn’t there. But that “excuse” is one that, like so many others in the state, seems to be a conveniently skewable based on the modern equivalent of the court soothsayers and astrologers- the Council on Revenues, which concocts consistently wrong predictions every few months.

Their notorious “damnable lies”- or statistics as they prefer to call them- make the situation bad enough when they do this in the yearly ritualistic blood-letting toward the end the legislative session turning two-and-a-half months of deliberate attempts to allocate limited funds into a final couple of weeks of crap-shooting by wiping the ledgers clean and instituting last minute slash-and-burn budgeting.

It’s like wheel of fortune where 99% of the spaces say “lose a turn”. Round and round she goes and where she stops doesn’t really matter because they may not give you your prize no matter where she stops.

But it doesn’t ever really matter what the Council say because the governor isn’t even required to rely on their numbers into account but can just seemingly state there isn’t enough money- usually meaning a crony didn’t get a cut.

Here’s the law that seemingly sticks in everyone’s craw:

§37-31 Intent and policy. It is declared to be the policy and intent of the legislature that the total appropriations made by it, or the total of any budget approved by it, for any department or establishment, shall be deemed to be the maximum amount authorized to meet the requirements of the department or establishment for the period of the appropriation, excepting as may otherwise be provided by law, and that the governor and the director of finance should be given the powers granted by sections 37-32 to 37-41 in order that savings may be effected by careful supervision throughout each appropriation period with due regard to changing conditions; and by promoting more economic and efficient management of state departments and establishments.

The various sections 37-32 to 37-41 describe certain exemptions both partial and total for certain areas and departments.

It’s easy to criticize a governor who doesn’t release funds. Especially one like the current governor who uses this privilege to exact political retribution and dictate policy regardless of the legislative process from which the funding was derived, leaving us when it comes to expenditures with essentially only one governmental branch- also known as a totalitarianism

And some say we need to bring back the monarchy. Whaddaya mean “bring back”.

But the real criticism should be reserved for those who we’ll be hearing from as the year progresses with their sack-full of belly-aching over it- the legislators who would rather sit on their port-a-potty throne and complain rather than getting off the pot and changing the law.

But then they wouldn’t be able to tell constituents “oh, we’re sorry- we did the best we could but that mean old governor won’t release the funds... it’s not our fault.” while knowing full well all along that the money they “gave” them will never see any use

Like all good pickpockets they create a diversion and do a handoff before you even know your wallet is gone. And like any good con man they leave you thinking you actually got what they stole from you and leave you thanking them for the theft.

But guess what- this change will never happen because, although the legislatures and governors have done a god job in hiding what’s really going on, the ones who are to blame are the people whose eyes glaze over whenever someone tries to tell them how they’re being scammed.

Will anyone reading this come away and think “I’ve got to talk to my representative and senator and make sure they do this next session”.

Are you kidding? It’s like pulling teeth to get anyone to acknowledge the depths of political depravity right there in front of people’s eyes- the ones which make Hawai`i the world renowned, third-world kleptocracy we all know and love

So as we see funding sit unreleased this year and hear the legislators who appropriated the money engage in the yearly hand-wring and bloviating over it you might remind them who makes and can change the law that allows this “give with one hand and take away with the other” anomaly of governance to happen in the first place.

SICK AS A DOG

SICK AS A DOG: An article buried in the Advertiser’s business section today described yet another example of the absurd “only-in Hawai`i” process whereby money can be appropriated by the legislature, approved by the governor and yet the governor gets a second bite of the political apple by “not releasing” the funds.

We’ve been unable to find anther state or local jurisdiction where this anomaly of process occurs to this degree, although we would love to it hear if anyone has another example.

But that rant is for another day because the underlying issue is that the money that is not being released is to pay doctors who treat Medicaid, Medicare and state “Quest” program patients.

As bad as payments for regular medical services are these days the reimbursements for these patients are pitiful. At most times paying around $37 for an office visit they don’t pay for the lights and the nurses and office staff much less pay the doctor. And so many won’t take patients so covered and the ones who will take them are doing it as a community service, actually losing money on each patient seen.

Everyone wants to do something about the fact that doctors are leaving the state- and especially on the neighbor islands where specialists for the most part don’t exist- and though some have blamed it on “the trial lawyers” and malpractice settlements that’s really a red herring if compared to the often standard-setting low rates for the poor patients doctors see.

So some blame the doctors and some blame the lawyers and everyone blames the politicians. But no one looks at the real problem which can be seen over every bathroom sink in the state- the patients.

As a group and as people tend to do, patients- also known as sick people- fall into two classes: idiots and assholes or a combination of the two in differing ratios.

But the difference is that when it comes to what’s going on under their skin everyone is an expert even though they haven’t the foggiest idea as to what’s inside their outsides much less how it all works.

One of the prime reasons for this obstinate lack of knowledge is seen in the huge market for snake oil “alternative” mumbo-jumbo. And it keeps people ignorant with magical thinking and all sorts of “cures” for those who aren’t sick to begin with to fill the pockets of charlatans of all stripes. We gladly turn over our cash to these people but whenever we really get sick we run to the real doctors who use the state of the art treatments that at least have a prayer of helping those who need it.

And then we lie to the doctor and sit there seething at them for trying to find out what’s wrong with us because we know that it’s really our “aura” or the fact we “don’t love ourself enough” that is the true ailment... but we’ll see this silly doctor because, well, just because.

Could it be because what you were doing- which was essentially nothing- wasn’t working.

It seems that we all expect to live forever because despite the fact that we all know we’re going to get sick and die, somehow when the doctor can’t “cure” us it’s the doctor’s fault we’re sick or dying

“Well my cousin’s auntie had the same thing and she’s fine now and I went to my doctor and he didn’t make me fine so it’s my doctor’s fault- and I want a million dollars.”

Well first of all no one has “the same thing” as anyone else because each body is different as is the degree of health and of course knowledge of the individual. And second of all most wouldn’t know a kidney from a stomach much less what they do. And yet they curse these “stupid doctors” like immortality is their birthright.

A doctor can only do so much and most of the time it is the way a patient approaches their own health and health care that determines the outcome. But we complain that “doctors act like gods” and then go to them and assume they have god-like powers to heal us.

Half the time we lie to the doctor and then go off and don’t take the treatment the doctor gave us. Or we go to the phony doctors- the naturopathic and the implausible homeopathic for instance- and then wonder why we’re still sick. And when we’re finally doubled over and present at the hospital the real doctor can’t “cure” us even though we let this thing go because we programmed ourselves to reject “western medicine” or whatever pejorative we’ve heard from the quacks.

We’re looking for a witchdoctor even while going to the scientist. We even kill ourselves doing this such as the dozens of people we’ve known personally who, when they got cancer went to Mexico to have their blood boiled or got another of those no-treatment treatments. Then they got really sick because the cancer that was easily treatable has now taken over our whole body... And then of course they blame the real doctor because they couldn’t save them.

There is no subject that people know less about but actually somehow think we know more about than the actual anatomy and physiology of our own bodies. Forget patho physiology. How many people would know which is which if you put a kidney and a piece of muscle on a table.. much less a pancreas from a pineal gland... much less what they do, much less how they do it, much less what can go wrong with them, much less how to treat those anomalies we all suffer eventually.

One time in the distant past we were giving a back massage to someone and when we pushed hard on her shoulder she belched. And she actually said, in all seriousness ”oh, I guess I had an air pocket in my shoulder”. And this was an educated woman who took her health seriously.

What the heck do people think is under their skin- just a hodge-podge of bones muscles organs and blood that all somehow arrange and rearrange themselves to keep us breathing and eating?

That’s the way it is with “patients”- most of them don’t know what the aches and pains they have are so they ignore them and treat them as some magical process where if they ignore it- because they have no notion what it is- it will go away.

And when it doesn’t we go to the doctor and lie to them and tell them we don’t know where or how it started and have already decided that the very person they are desperate to have heal them is hell bent on killing or ignoring them.

For example there is virtually no one who has a serious heart attack (the “myocardial infarction” type) and needs by-pass surgery who didn’t have “chest pains” (known as angina) before the attack, usually many times over an extended period. But ask most and will say they never had any either because they didn’t want to admit it to themselves or because they didn’t know what angina feels like despite the valiant attempts to educate them.

And that’s who sits on juries who decide “malpractice”- patients. Yes of course there are lousy irresponsible and/or lazy doctors occasionally. But 99% of the cases in court are there because someone died or was permanently messed up when the doctor’s treatment was unsuccessful.

Capping the amount of a settlement isn’t the answer- it’s redefining what malpractice and negligence are and throwing out cases that don’t meet strict standards based, not on unrealistic expectations but on basic protocol.

Just because you didn’t get treatment B and chose treatment A and died doesn’t mean treatment B would have worked. And even if you can say it would have based on a post-mortem exam, it doesn’t mean the doctor made the wrong decisions should be sued because he or she- with your consent- chose another treatment.

Or even because their diagnosis wasn’t the best....especially when the patient falsely “presented”

And don’t give us that “I didn’t know what I was signing- it was all medical mumbo jumbo”. What the heck do you think we’re trying to tell you... learn something about what’s going on under your skin.

Yes, you’d be shocked to learn- if you listened- that it sometimes some treatments work, sometimes they don’t and doctors don’t always use the right one, not because they’re idiots but because the patient lied to them about what really hurts or just because it the treatment didn’t work- for whatever reason.

Being a doctor involves taking an educated guess, explaining to the patent their options, telling them which one they would recommend and doing it and THEN finding out what happens once they do.

But we patients are often too stupid to live and sometimes seem intent on proving it.