(PNN) HOOSER BILL PROPOSES GMO MORETORIUM AND PROHIBIT OPEN AIR TESTING OF EXPERIMENTAL PESTICIDES.

HOOSER BILL PROPOSES GMO MORETORIUM AND PROHIBIT OPEN AIR TESTING OF EXPERIMENTAL PESTICIDES.

(PNN) Kaua`i County Councilmembers Gary Hooser and Tim Bynum will introduce a bill next Wednesday calling for a temporary moratorium on the experimental use and commercial production of genetically modified organisms until such time as the County of Kaua‘i has conducted a complete Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) on the health, environmental, and other effects of the production, propagation, or development of genetically modified organisms within the County.

In addition Bill 2491 would prohibit the open air testing of experimental GMOs during the moratorium, calls for mandatory disclosure of pesticide and genetically modified organisms (GMOs) and sets up pesticide buffer zones.

The bill will introduced at the Kaua`i County Council meeting next Wednesday June 26 sometime after 9 a.m. Public Testimony will be taken and may be presented at the beginning of the meeting and also when it comes up on the agenda later in the day. Those who testify at 9 a.m. will not be permitted to testify again later according to council rules.

The following are some excerpts from proposed Draft Bill (No. 2491), a bill for an ordinance to amend the Kaua'i county code 1987, as amended, by adding a new Article 22 to chapter 22, relating to pesticides and Genetically modified organisms. Further restrictions and definitions apply.

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The purpose of this Article is to establish provisions to inform the public, and protect the public from any direct, indirect, or cumulative negative impacts on the health and the natural environment of the people and place of the County of Kaua‘i, by governing the use of pesticides and genetically modified organisms, and the penalties associated with any violation of this Article, or the laws, rules, or any other requirement that may be authorized by this Article...

Sec. 22-22.4 Mandatory Disclosure of Pesticides, and Genetically Modified Organisms.

(a) It shall be mandatory for all commercial agricultural entities that annually purchase or use in excess of five (5) pounds or fifteen (15) gallons of restricted use pesticides, any amount of any experimental pesticides, or both, during any calendar year to disclose the use of all pesticides (restricted use, general use, and experimental) during that same calendar year....

Sec. 22-22.5 Pesticide Buffer Zones.

(a) Effective January 1, 2014 it shall be mandatory for all commercial agricultural entities that annually purchase or use in excess of five (5) pounds or fifteen (15) gallons of restricted use pesticides, any amount of any experimental pesticides, or both, during any calendar year to restrict the application of all pesticides (restricted use, general use, and experimental) in the (certain defined) areas...

Sec. 22-22.6 Prohibition of Open Air Testing of Experimental Pesticides.

(a) Effective January 1, 2014, it shall be unlawful to test or use any experimental pesticide, except for those fully contained within a laboratory, contained greenhouse, fermenter, or other contained structure...

Sec. 22-22.7 Moratorium.

(a) There shall be a temporary moratorium on the experimental use and commercial production of genetically modified organisms until such time as the County of Kaua‘i has conducted a complete Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) on the health, environmental, and other effects of the production, propagation, or development of genetically modified organisms within the County. The moratorium will further continue until the County has developed and put into place a permitting process sufficient to protect the residents and environment of the County of Kaua‘i from any significant effects that may be identified in the Environmental Impact Statement...

Sec. 22-22.8 Environmental Impact Statement; Administration.

(a) The County of Kaua‘i shall complete an Environmental Impact Statement in order to determine and evaluate significant effects of the production, propagation, or development of genetically modified organisms within the County of Kaua‘i, and the use of all pesticides (restricted use, general use, and experimental) associated with the production, propagation, or development of genetically modified organisms within the County of Kaua‘i...

Sec. 22-22.9 Permitting.

(a) The Department shall develop and implement a permitting process that shall apply to all commercial agricultural entities that intentionally or knowingly possess genetically modified organisms. The permitting process shall include, but not be limited to, provisions that facilitate the elimination or mitigation of significant effects identified in the Environmental Impact Statement referred to in Section 22-22.8 of this Article...

Sec. 22-22.10 Prohibition of Open Air Testing of Experimental Genetically Modified Organisms.

(a) Effective January 1, 2014 and continuing during the moratorium period, it shall be unlawful to test or use any experimental genetically modified organism, except for those fully contained within a laboratory, contained greenhouse, fermenter, or other contained structure...

Sec. 22-22.11 Penalties.

(a) Any person, firm, or corporation, whether as principal, agent, employee, or otherwise, violating or causing or permitting the violation of any of the provisions of this Article, shall be guilty of a misdemeanor, and upon conviction thereof shall be punished by a fine of not more than one-thousand dollars ($1,000.00), or imprisoned not more than one (1) year, or both, for each offense. The continuance of any violation after conviction shall be deemed a new criminal offense for each day that the violation or violations continue.

(b) In addition to any penalty described in Subsection 22-22.11(a), any person, firm, or corporation, whether as principal, agent, employee, or otherwise, violating, causing, or permitting the violation of any of the provisions of this Article, shall be assessed a civil fine of $10,000-$25,000 per day, per violation.

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REPEATING LIKE A ROTTEN EGG SALAD SANDWICH

REPEATING LIKE A ROTTEN EGG SALAD SANDWICH: Though we've been slack in discussing Transient Vacation Rentals (TVRs) in non Visitor Destination Areas (VDAs) of late, reportage has, to understate it, been more than adequately handled by award-winning reporter Joan Conrow whose "blog" posts called "The Abuse Chronicales, have busted through the wall to not just penetrate the pages of the local newspaper (Motto: Who needs news? We've got you tutu's picture on page 1) but land on the floor of the county council.

It would take more concentration than we can muster to review the events leading up to this past Wednesday's appearance before the council by Planning Director Mike Dahilig but fortunately Conrow presented the essentails yesterday. You can check out our past coverage of TVRs here.

Apparently Dahilig is planning to come up with a plan to put together a plan to deal with the mess that he's spent three years (since he took office) planning to remedy... or at least, he has said he was planning to do so.

At one point yesterday he promised to do something about something (it wasn't clear exactly what) within 90 days but upon questioning he couldn't exactly say when he would start that clock. First he has plans to assemble his team to go through all the fake paperwork (he has said he is planning on first finding it in "all those boxes in the hall") and then "galvanizing the team" so they can plan to draw up a plan to start that 90-day clock they're planning... which could take up to six months although there was some talk of 120 days of "galvanizing" to get to the 90 days, by the end of which they should have a plan to tackle at least one- count 'em one- blatantly illegal TVR.

But will his metal plated menagerie answer the question everyone is asking- is how the bleep did all this happen? After all, hundreds of "permits" have been issued without much thought to the contents of three different TVR ordinances passed since 2007.

Forgive us for our skepticism.

Presently the county could be looking at perhaps 644 individual potential lawsuits by permit holders who now, according to Dahilig, can ignore any violations related to building permits and the like and only have to fight violations cause by actual "use." That's due to a complicated bit of property law that, he says, makes sun-setting these TVRs all the more difficult than previous planning department leaders made them already by approving them willy-nilly with little or no deference to the law at the time.

Our point- and, with apologies to Ellen DeGeneres, we do have one- is that all this would have been unnecessary if the county had had the gumption to fight one- count 'em one-single case way back in the 90's... or any time up until the first ordinance was passed

Yesterday, in trying to review the "how the heck did we get here" question Councilmember Tim Bynum- the primary mover behind the TVR ordinances that "grandfathered" existing TVRs in non-VDA areas and eventually even included ones on agriculturally zones land- started his explanation by saying that these TVRs were "always legal" and pointed to the 2000 General Plan (GP) intimating that it demanded- or at least encouraged- the county to do something about it.

A misrepresentation if we ever heard one.

Here's the real true life Hollywood story of how the county could have gotten the courts to rule on one single case saving years of hassle in passing multiple ordinances and now going through potentially dozens of "contested case hearings" before either the planning commission or hired hearings officers, to be followed by lawsuits in state courts by the permit holders don't like the results of those average-$20,000 a pop hearings.

According to those who would have you think that TVRs in non-VDA areas were "always illegal" our Comprehensive Zoning Ordinance failed to make them illegal- even though state law already said the counties were not to permit them.

State law says, in effect, that the county's are instructed to restrict TVRs to VDAs- those Visitor Destination Areas where tourist accommodations are permitted. But our CZO, while saying that TVRs were permitted in VDAs, "is silent" as to banning them in residential and other non-VDAs.

(Parenthetically, specific VDAs are defined in the general plan via maps that show them. On Kaua`i at least, they are in places like Kapa`a town, Po`ipu, parts of Lihu`e and even a small spot in Waimea.)

Now anyone with a brain and a little guts would have selected one- count 'em one- TVR in a non-VDA and taken it to court saying that the "silence" is bull-dinky because the state law had already designated where TVRs were permitted and not permitted.

But the county brain-trust feared lawsuits even though many- us included- had their hair on fire pushing them to take that one- count 'em one- case all the way to the state Supreme Court to get a definitive ruling on what many though was obvious- that it didn't matter what our CZO said- or more precisely didn't say- about TVRs in non VDAs because 1) It stated where they were in fact permitted and 2) state law, which "trumps" the county CZO, clearly says they are not to be permitted in non-VDAs. More on that in a little.

Enter the General Plan Citizens' Advisory Committee (CAC) which, as required by the county charter, met for years in the 90's drawing up a new general plan which was passed, with amendments, in November of 2000... passed by a 4-3 vote at the last meeting of the "old" council where majority support for passage was there- something that, with new members, couldn't be said about the council coming in on Dec 1.

One of the most contentious issues for the CAB was this very issue. And after wrangling for months and months one of the members that had always supported the "take them to court" faction, was finally convinced by the business and tourism members to allow for "grandfathering" of existing TVRs and advising the council to quickly- remember that, quickly- pass an ordinance fixing the "omission" in the CZO.

That member said he was convinced that this would save the county from a long protracted lawsuit- one that might have cost $50,000 or more (remember that number) at the time in outside attorney fees. And besides, there weren't that many as far as anyone knew and the ordinance would make sure that non-use of any use permit would end the use entirely... and so, through attrition, they would eventually all disappear.

The TVR portion of the GP passed, as is, although enough incoming members of the new council had committed to changing that part of the GP "ordinance" and going to court rather than allow grandfathering.

So guess what- it's Kaua`i and with out "bum-bye" attitude, of course nothing happened.

Or at least nothing that anyone knew about.

Meanwhile, back at the Round Building, a deputy county attorney by the name of Kobayashi was working on an opinion, "requested"- alright they actually threatened to sue- by an attorney representing a couple of TVR owners who were friends of- and campaign contributors to- TVR supporter, then-Mayor Maryanne Kusaka.

That opinion ignores the state law calling for permitting of TVRs only in VDA areas and said that TVRs in non-VDA areas were indeed legal because the CZO didn't specifically make them illegal. He ignored the fact that land use laws generally list permitted uses, requiring all other uses to have a "special use permit." For example, just because the CZO is silent on building a rocket launching pad in your back yard that doesn't make it legal to do, at least without a special use permit with public hearings and a ruling by the planning commission.

In fact, that is the way it worked at the time for Bed and Breakfast operations- a use considered less disruptive to residential neighborhoods.

Interestingly Kobayashi has gone on to become a judge and so this opinion from a deputy county attorney- one which no one ever saw because county attorney opinions are considered attorney-client privilege- is now referred to in TVR-owner circles as "The Judge Kobayashi Ruling."

Suddenly- if that's the appropriate word for seven years later- when the county council was considering passing some kind of TVR ordinance, the whole argument that had taken place before the GP CAB almost 10 years earlier resurfaced. People asked "should the county just go to court or should they grandfather the existing TVRs in non-VDA areas and put in measures to assure attrition?".

It was then that the attorney representing TVR owners whipped out the Kobayashi opinion that had been secret all those years saying the owners "depended on it" to presume their TVRs were indeed legal.. due to the "Judge Kobayashi Ruling."

The rest of course is that the counsel knuckled under, unwilling to spend what by then might have by then been maybe $100,000 to follow that "one case" to the state Supreme Court.

But it was during a time when. although briefly. there was actually a functioning press on Kaua`i and they were making hay out of the stack of cash we were spending on fighting lawsuits using "outside counsel."

And so all three ordinances were passed, with some final watering-down of the attrition measures as well as the removal of many of the items that provided expanded access to information for the public as to the permit contents and the like.

Currently there have been 16 contested case hearings costing between $15,000 and $35,000 according to Dahilig. There are 644 "files" and no one knows how many of those will be, at least, taken to contested case hearings. Plus, if the permit holder doesn't like the outcome of the contested case hearing they can go to circuit court where if they lose they can go to the intermediate court of appeals (ICA) and again if they don't like the ICA ruling can go to the state supreme court.

And they can't really be consolidated because each has different circumstances.

We're talking potential millions if not tens of millions in attorney fees on top of the $120,000 it has cost so far if you use the $20,000 average for each contested case hearing that Dahilig referred to Wed. And of course many of those were defended internally meaning the real money hasn't even started to flow from our of county coffers to big-shot Honolulu land-use attorneys.

Watching the council in action for well over 30 years is kind of like watching a Hollywood movie. Whether you liked the first one or not, there's gonna be a plethora of sequels. But often if you want to comprehend "It Came from the CZO- VIII" it helps to watch the first seven.

NO RUNS, NO HITS, JUST ERRORS

NO RUNS, NO HITS, JUST ERRORS: It used to be that when some big corporation or government agency had some hair-brained scheme that was universally opposed on Kaua`i the "pusher" would just push harder.

But many times that's blown up in their faces and in some cases they've eventually had to back down on a project leaving them with no project plus millions of dollars in free publicity... the kind they didn't want.

One recent archetypical example of this was a project to plant trees to burn for electricity and do it on Hawaiian Homes land in Anahola- land that the Hawaiian community there had always thought would eventually be developed for homes for those Hawaiians who qualify.

The company, which had plans and an agreement to lease the land really cheaply, took a slew of body blows at various meetings and now the projects seems to be on its way to the scrap heap.

But after that ignominious instance the latest corporate-governmental "partnership" ploys seems to be, "if they push back hard, get out quickly... and cleanly- a la the PLDC.

But it's being done in a uniquely Hawai`i way.

The next instance was the plan by the semi-autonomous Kaua`i Water Department (KWD) to drill a horizontal potable water well into the "wettest spot in the world"- the sacred "Mount Wai`ale`ale."

Community groups- both environmental and cultural- essentially said "are you nuts?" and geared up for a long drawn out battle.

But instead the KWD announced that, despite all the professionally made charts and graphs they drew up and lugged to the first of many planned community meetings showing the project to be on Wai`ale`ale, in fact some lower level bureaucrat had simply "made a mistake" and instead they really had planned all along to drill into Mount Kahili.

Of course no one explained how it could have been a simple mistake. Nor did they mention that, although you'd need to drive half way across the island to get from the base of one to the base of the other, Mount Kahili is simply the back face of Mount Wai`ale`ale.

And now they've announced that they're canceling the meeting about the "new" Mt Kahili project entirely.

Many think that the whole project is suspicious, saying it's not being done to provide water to current customers but to essentially support massive planned future tourism development... and do it on the backs of the current water-users/rate-payers.

Other say it's because they need all that water for all that North Shore Ag land so that the "seed farmers" can grow more biotech (GMO) corn, soybean, cotton and other "seed." Right now there isn't enough water in the Moloa`a-Kilauea area even for the current small, organic "truck farmers."

But this $50 million drilling project- whether Kahili or Wai`ale`ale- will supply all the water the north shore could use for any kind of agriculture in an area where the irrigation ditch system left over from sugar cane days is now dilapidated to the point where it would be prohibitively costly to repair. Plus, if it could be repaired, there's no easy way to pay for it since it's not the kind of potable county water KWD controls- as was discussed recently by the county council.

It's not that surprising this announcement comes on the heels of that council discussion.

Back to our PR lesson- one that was not lost on the the Coast Guard whose recent announcement that they were going to extend the ocean "danger zone" for the Kekaha shooting range (which sits next door to the Pacific Missile Range Facility [PMRF] Naval Base) was met with a slew of negative comments from fishers, swimmers, surfers and other beach and ocean users.

But today an article in the local newspaper says that they have withdrawn the plans for expansion.

So what happened? The newspaper says:

“I think we could chalk it up to a mistake,” (Lt. Col. Charles) Anthony said by phone Monday. “A project manager had increased the size beyond what we had seen in the earlier drafts. We will be making up a proposal with a much smaller footprint.”

Just a mistake, that's all. Not a blunder by the military where an attempt to control more land and ocean has spurred some opponents to suddenly start talking about it being time to get rid of the shooting range, if not the Navy's next-door missile range, entirely.

Is this the wave of the future? Will Monsanto suddenly announce tomorrow that it had been a mistake to oppose the labeling of GMO products saying it was a decision made by some low level technocrat in Sector "R?"

Dream on.

But locally apparently it's "any port in a storm," the belief being that they can save face with the "I no like say nahting" locals by saying it was all a simple mistake.

But a word to the wise- the natives are becoming restless.

SUBTRACTION BY ADDITION

SUBTRACTION BY ADDITION: As much as our secret life is one of a devoted sports fanatic, this space has had a decided dearth of athletics-related material over the years. And today is really no different.

Yes, our subject de jour is this week's 180 performed by new University of Hawai`i Athletic Directer Ben Jay who, after banning the use of the name "Rainbows" by UH men's teams shortly after his arrival earlier this year, decided this week to once again allow UH teams to use the beloved moniker.

But while it's a sports story everywhere else in the Hawai`i media, let us be the first to remind readers that is actually a long-sought repudiation of former football coach June Jones' bigoted and homophobic striking of the name Rainbow in 2000 because we don't want no sissies or fairies (or any other six-letter "f" word) amongst the macho men of our football team.

Lest we forget that's what Jones said it was all about at the time. He essentially announced that he was worried that his big, bad football heroes were afraid of being teased by other teams over the name "Rainbows" and that it was projecting an image he didn’t want for his team... wink, wink, elbow elbow.

To put it in historical context it was a time shortly after the voters of Hawai`i took away the historic, court-granted right to marry any person one damn well pleases.

And Jones used his position as football coach to project and impose his own intolerance, jumping on the anti-gay bandwagon in no uncertain terms.

It was the first and only time our constitution was changed to actually remove rights rather than protect them and it persists on the books today as a shameful reminder of how lacking in political spines our state legislators remains to this day- unable to even pass the legislation that the constitution allows to fully extend marriage rights to everyone, much less put the repeal of the constitutional amendment on the ballot.

But while the rest of the country moves into the 21st century (the 12th state, Minnesota, just okayed universal marriage rights yesterday) to seemingly compound the problem, Jay's original decision not only confirmed his own homophobia, he did it by exercising the same kind of arrogant decision-making that has brought down many a UH leader... "outgoing" UH President MRC Greenwood coming to mind after a similarly tone deaf performance, hers before a senate committee last fall.

Apparently Jay's reversal has pulled his own fat out of the fire for now. But memories are long and tenures at UH tend to be sort for those who come over to the islands and tell us what we need to do because we're apparently too dumb to manage our own affairs and we've been doing it wrong all along.

The circumstances surrounding Jones 2000 team renaming have been ignored by the Hawai`i press, especially in failing to compare and contrast the attitudes of a mere 13 years ago and this year- a year when news of the first "coming out" by a member of a major US team sport has been greeted with a hearty "ho-hum" in some quarters, many being something less than shocked to find out that some players are gay.

Is 13 years so long ago that no one remembers the bad old days when a football coach could get away with such appallingly bigoted behavior? Or is it just more of the Hawai`i presses "never was heard a discouraging word" attitude toward UH sports which has helped smooth Jay's short stint in charge of UH athletics?

The re-institution of the name "Rainbows" - albeit as part of the name "Rainbow Warriors," lest anyone feel like they're having their manhood challenged- has been said to be due to "tradition." But the end of a tradition of a**hole behavior should be receiving a lot more attention.

Because only if attention is paid to the more shameful parts of the history of the name "Rainbows," can there be a true end of the June Jones era of fear and loathing in the UH locker room.

For my Mommy on Mothers' Day 2013

For my Mommy Amy Dunis Parks nee Maime Dunefsky (1917-1970) on Mothers' Day 2013

I remember how I sat on the floor at my Mommy's feet because I couldn't stand yet. And I remember how much I loved my Mommy.

I remember feeling wobbly just sitting up but my Mommy was right there, sitting at the sewing machine and wearing a long dress and I felt adventurous and brave. And I remember I loved my Mommy.

I sat in a conical beam of light that came through the same window where I sometimes watched the boats go by and I was mesmerized by all those sparkly specks of dust dancing in the light and I looked up when my Mommy said "Andrew?" And I loved my Mommy.

In her hand she held a slice of a tangerine with all the little strings carefully removed and she dangled it just out of my reach and I wanted "up" so I grabbed her dress in my little baby hands and with all my little baby strength I pulled myself up, climbing, climbing, one hand over the other, finally "standing" as it were, on my feet while leaning on her legs and holding on tight with both of my little baby arms. And I loved my Mommy.

And then she put the tangerine in my mouth and I toothlessly "bit" down and the juice filled my mouth and dribbled down my cheeks and all over my chest but I didn't care because I had barely tasted anything but my Mommy's milk before much less anything sooo sweet and it was sooo goood and I wanted sooo much more, more, more. And I loved my Mommy sooo much and wanted her more, more, more.

We did that over and over for what seemed like all day, one tangerine slice after another, while she worked the sewing machine with her feet on the treadle, one hand on the wheel and the other holding tangerine slices for me. Only for me. And I loved my Mommy.

And I would have loved my Mommy even if she didn't take care of me and hold me tightly when I cried and feed me from her breast when I was hungry and clean me up when I made a mess in my pants and keep me safe from all the scarey stuff and read to me and talk to me and coo to me and make funny sounds by blowing on my belly, both of us laughing, laughing, laughing...

The sweet juice kept coming and the light streamed through the window until she wiped my face and hands and belly with a damp washcloth. And even though I didn't like that washcloth I knew she wiped me clean because she loved me.

And I loved my Mommy. MY Mommy.

And my Mommy loved me.

THE LONELY GURGLE

THE LONELY GURGLE: Anyone who has perused this space recently would think that the spate of 11 drowning on Kaua`i this year and the tourism industry's tepid response is an obsession of ours worthy of Melville novel.

Well, dial 1-800-Ishmael. It's apparently been left to us to point out the less-than-in-your-face visitor industry tactics that have not only failed to make tourists sit up and take notice of the fact that DEATH AWAITS YOU OFFSHORE- or even on the edge of it in a few cases- but have actually obscured the dangers that await visitors in the water, fearing that an effectively alarming effort would cause visitors to stay away in droves.

But this past week or so our in-box has been inundated by readers from Florida to Seattle with copies of an article actually calling out local efforts to play down the dangers of the ocean.

So what local publication was it that had the guts to publish a piece that challenges the number one private enterprise in the islands and was so shocking it got picked up across the nation?

The answer? There wasn't a one... a local one at least.

Rather, it was from the Associated Press (AP) wire service, a national- indeed international- enterprise. The article didn't even have a "dateline" indicating it could have been written anywhere.

Now that the cat is out of the bag on the mainland it has apparently become almost impossible for our "newspaper of record"- The Honolulu Star-Advertiser- to ignore that side of the story after running half a dozen "they're doing all they can" pieces.

Today they published- behind their "pay-wall" no less- not a local investigative no-holds-barred expose of the way the tourism industry is murdering tourists for money but the week-plus-old AP piece that everyone except Hawai`i denizens has been seeing for more than a week.

Of course not to be outdone, Civil Beat, the on-line competitor to the S-A, posted a link to a copy of the AP piece from "News12" in Brooklyn, NY... as part of a blog post in which a dozen other links to local news items appeared.

We previously written a series of posts, detailing, among other things, the slick and particularly un-scarry "oh by the way- don't drown" video produced by Mr. Tourism, former Councilmember and still TV star Dickie Chang and gushingly supported by both the Kaua`i Visitors' Bureau and the Kaua`i Ocean Safety Council as well as other tourism industry big-wigs.

Our basic contention has been that, as we said in early March,:

The message we're getting (from the tourism industry and kow-towing "ocean safety" crowd) is "we're doing all we can and we're going to do more to make sure we send a non-threatening, non-scarey message."

Somewhere there's a disconnect here because wherever we go all we hear is people saying that the tourism industry is responsible and needs to change the content of their warnings, not just put up more and bigger TV screens at the airport baggage claim showing beautiful ocean scenes and a whispered voice-over saying "please try to be careful."

The old "if in doubt, don’t go out" adage is obviously not working. Is it to the point where we need ads with pictures of the bloated corpses of drowning victims with something like "The ocean is a killer- this could be you" written across them?

Is it possible to go too far in the other direction? Probably. But the answer to sending out an ineffective message is not to simply make sure that message is repeated more often in more places.

As to the AP article itself it achieves many of its goal through understatement. But this quote from State Rep. Tom Brower (D, Waikiki-Ala Moana-Kakaako) is shocking for the fact that he actually gave voice to what we've been assuming all the other mucky-mucks are thinking. According to the article:

Some legislators think the proposed video might unnecessarily raise fears or hurt the state's idyllic reputation among tourists.

"You don't want to be on a plane and see people getting eaten by sharks..." He added that ocean safety education is important, but "you don't want to beat people over the head with it."

No- better they die than not come, eh Tom?

He's not alone. The AP goes into detail about how the legislature did do something- they passed a non-binding resolution politely asking the airlines to play that half-hearted "nothing to see here" Chang video.

While some airlines hemmed and hawed and basically said "you first" to each other, they couldn't even get a comment out of the rest as to why they won't play it on-board their flights and have left it for Kaua`i County to play it in the Lihu`e airport baggage-claim area- where tourists always want to linger and watch videos instead of grabbing their bags and getting the hell out of there and into the ocean... where they can drown-in-peace.

There has been a respite in the drownings of late- apparently even the tourism industry’s best efforts couldn't keep visitors from hearing about this year's ocean die-in.

But the all-powerful grip of the visitor industry on matters of life and death remains the county's dirty little "pay no attention to the man behind the screen" official state secret that will undoubtedly take more lives once the current hub-bub dies down.

IF YOU CAN BELIEVE YOUR EYES AND EARS

IF YOU CAN BELIEVE YOUR EYES AND EARS: If you've read either Joan Conrow's recap of yesterday's council budget hearings, where her thus-far twelve chapter "Abuse Chronicals" were front and center during a grilling of Planning Director Mike Dahilig, or amazingly enough the local newspaper story about it, you know that something, as usual, stinks at the Lihu`e Round Building and vicinity.

Despite long repeated sessions over the past few years between the council and the planning department assuring the latter that the former would provide all the resources necessary to make sure that Transient Vacation Rentals (TVRs) in non Visitor Destination Areas complied with the law, it has been left to Joan to detail a dozen of the more egregious non-compliance cases... with no action on the part of the county.

The new TVR laws legalized them in the late '00s but included provisions that they had to have been TVRs before the law was passed and that they comply with all existing building and land use laws prior to issuance.

So how's that workin' out for us?

Well apparently, according to records, Conrow has showed most of them were never in compliance to begin with but were passed anyway by Dahilig's predecessor Ian Costa- the well known Good Old Boy (GOB) who was fired as "Acting" (because he wasn't actually qualified) Planning Director amidst an FBI investigation in late 2010 and is now ensconced in the allegedly equally corrupt county Department of Parks and Recreation.

But even if- or maybe especially if- you're read Conrow's chronicles of abuse you really have to watch yesterday's Council vs Dahilig debacle for yourself to understand the hubris of, and outright stonewalling by, the administration.

Dahilig took the job amidst the federal investigation but hasn't done anything anyone can find to even begin exposing the alleged corruption much less what Conrow has shown to be the illegal way the TVR permits were issued. That has left it to Conrow's investigatory prowess to put pressure on the administration and get new Prosecuting Attorney Justin Kollar to speak out on the subject.

.

After a "presentation" at Tuesday's Planning Department Budget Hearing the TVR discussion begins at 0:48:39 on the recording. The real "meat" begins at 1;38:30 with Councilperson Tim Bynum's questioning of Dahilig, then Mel Rapozo at 2:01:00 and Gary Hooser at 2:15:00.

We're a little less charitable toward Dahilig than Conrow was in her description today, saving most of her criticism for Costa who approved most of the TVRs in question. But by any standard Dahilig stonewalled and tried to run out the clock, refusing to answer direct questions, hemming and hawing and repeating flimsy excuses for doing absolutely nothing in his almost two-and-a-half-years on the job.

The point is that regardless of "who started it" Dahilig has done nothing despite those persistent council demands that he ask if he needed more personnel or anything else and the council had his assurances he had all the resources he needed. This back and forth happened not just once but over and over according to strange-bedfellows Bynum and Rapozo who stood ready with pages of transcripts of those offers and broken promises.

Dahilig was asked over and over by Hooser, whether there was one- just one case where there was a document, perhaps "newly discovered," that Conrow might not have seen... one which would make just one case a false charge.

But Dahilig refused to straightforwardly say whether he found any of Joan's dozen cases were incorrect or if she perhaps lacked key documents which Dahilig claimed could be inside one of the many boxes at the planning department- right where they have been sitting for the more than two years since he took office. He couldn't even identify one of those documents that allegedly "could" exist.

Finally it took Gary having to extrapolate a flimsy agreement from Dahilig that no- he couldn't provide even one exculpatory document despite the fact that he’s been tripping over those boxes of unidentified documents that have lined the hallways for more than two years.

Well, as they say, we've seen this movie before. In fact we've written about it many times. It's called "The Fog and it's been part and parcel of the way various administrations have dealt with the council for decades- at times speaking virtually inaudibly, at others saying "we'll get back to ya on that" and at others talking a mile a minute on any subject but the one at hand.

As a matter of fact it was, if not invented, mastered and perfected by the aforementioned Costa, the long-time GOBAG (and girls) and the "star" of "The Fog."

Our suspicion is that either Dahilig is part of the corruption- or at least the cover-up- or he's trying to get through this while showing he's a what they call a "team player," one worthy of continued career opportunities within the county (or, reportedly, the state) crony system.

If you haven't read Conrow's series you're missing the best piece of investigative journalism around. But there's more to come because Kollar seems to be that rare individual in politics who does not do a 180 after getting elected. Instead he's continuing to not just talk the talk but he's getting geared up to walk the walk on TVRs and other issues such as alleged pesticide poisoning by the bio-tech seed-corn industry on the west side, both according to a recent radio interview he granted Conrow where the differences between Kollar and Dahilig were as stark as could be.

This ain't Sinope and we ain't Diogenes. But with Conrow and Kollar we just could put a dent in the cronyism that has shackled economic, environmental and social justice on Kaua`i since plantation days.

(Correction: Ian Costa currently works in the Department of Parks and Recreation, not Public Works. The in-line version has been corrected. We regret the error.)