DOGGIE DADA: Much has been written in the past two days about the “new” county attorney’s opinion regarding the county charter’s section 20.02(d) that prohibits any “officer of employee of the county (from) appear(ing) in behalf of private interests before any county board, commission or agency.”.
Two articles in the local paper (one linking to a pdf copy of the opinion) and an editorial laid out many of the absurdities of trying to say that, because reading the law in one somewhat absurd interpretation could lead to absurd results- like preventing someone from getting a water meter or a driver’s license- the whole law should not be enforced.
Then there’s the letter to the editor from Horace Stoessel who analyzes the opinion further and delineates the problems with the opinion. And of course blogger and attorney Charley Foster also got straight to the point once again.
We won’t rehash what they said. But though each is spot on as to what they do present, each fails to look at what the opinion, penned by Deputy County Attorney Mauna Kea Trask, actually says, especially regarding what if anything is new about it as compared to one penned over a year ago.
Of course as the newspaper article points out the opinion is still “fatally flawed” in trying to allow the county ordinance to be read “with” the charter even though the ordinance, which conflicts with the charter, must adhere to the charter not override it. In addition just because the ordinance covers some situations of conflict-of-interest doesn’t mean it covers all of them, another apparent contention.
We say apparent because the opinion goes into great detail about what the ordinance says but then abruptly ends without attempting to show it’s relationship to the charter or the conclusion.
In fact, as Stoessel writes, the ordinance never mentioned 20.02 much less provision "d" and rather only deals with 20.01.
Trask is apparently either an incredibly bad attorney or is disingenuously trying to support a forgone conclusion by presenting a wordy opinion that says nothing directly related to the matter at hand, selectively picking and choosing citations to twist the law to it.
The fatal flaw is contained early in the opinion when Trask cites HRS §1-16 which states that "laws in pari materia, or upon the same subject matter, shall be construed with reference to each other. What is clear in one statute may be called in aid to explain what is doubtful in another."
The problem with that is that under other provisions he conveniently omits, it applies under the supremacy doctrine- flowing from federal to state to local and giving constitutional documents supremacy over legislation at each level- which means that laws of the same jurisdictional level must be read together but when one law trumps another the lower law is null and void. In other words charter provisions must be read equally together but when comparing a charter provision to a county ordinance the charter always rules if they conflict.
But the one “new” citation when compared to the prior opinion is an actual HRS (state law) provision that deals with the oft cited circumstance of alleged “absurd results” of applying a law in a strict construction manner.
Trask writes that:
HRS §1-15 states, "Where the words of a law are ambiguous:
(1) The meaning of the ambiguous words may be sought by examining the context, with which the ambiguous words, phrases, and sentences may be compared, in order to ascertain their true meaning.
(2) The reason and spirit of the law, and the cause which induced the legislature to enact it, may be considered to discover its true meaning.
(3) Every construction which leads to an absurdity shall be rejected."
The key is number three. Even though he tries to define “public interest” to be the opposite of private interest rather than personal interest- a matter we went into in depth in previous posts- even under his interpretation the law simply says that any time any constriction of a law yields an absurd result that specific result of that specific application is to be discarded.
So if the law were to prohibit one from getting a driver’s license the law simply does not apply in that specific circumstance.
This finally undermines the arguments of some on the board- specifically Mark Hubbard, Lei Fuller and to some extent Judy Lenthall- that because there might be absurd results in some contrived situations the whole law should be discarded including the blatant potential conflicts-of-interest violations that the law was designed to eliminate.
That should at least, if nothing else, end the raising of the red herring of the “absurd results”- the one Hubbard has clung to saying that because he could be denied a building permit he should be allowed to violate the law by appearing before county entities on behalf of a private interest.
While that solves one big impediment to enforcement of the charter it does leave one big question. Even though normal rational people would be able to tell these absurd results from those that are not absurd the three BOE members listed above have all been in violation of the real not-so-absurd provisions and so have been reluctant to essentially rule against themselves by fairly judging the applicability.
One of the contentions has been that non-profit 501(c)3 organizations should not be included because they “do good in the community”, something we have discussed and shown to be bogus in many situations at least according to those who oppose the goals of certain non-profits. For instance the Chamber of Commerce and the Sierra Club might not see the other one as doing good or benefiting the community.
But attorney-blogger Foster points out another reason by saying that non-profits often appear- as in Lenthall’s case as the Executive Director of the Kaua`i Food Bank- to ask for funds. He says that because there are limited funds for non-profits in government coffers, the “favor” of one non-profit over another is exactly what the charter provision envisions and is one of the main reasons it is included.
At this point unless the three obstructionist BOE members drop their silly self-interested positions and stop blocking enforcement, they are themselves guilty of another provision in the same charter section that prohibits using their positions to gain favor or grant special privileges for themselves or others.
The only problem there is, as we stated before, the BOE is the entity that is designated to hear any complaint like that. And presumably they would be the ones to determine what is and isn’t an absurd result of application.
As we said before as long as they, as a quasi judicial county entity, keep obstructing justice the courts may be the only resort for the community.
Tuesday, September 15, 2009
Monday, September 14, 2009
BITING THE METER READER
BITING THE METER READER: We normally try to scour all of the available resources regarding an issue before we open our fat trap but we must be missing something about the “rate hike” being requested by our Kaua`i Island Utility Co-op (KIUC).
Now don’t get us wrong- this piece of crap co-op has been a scam since day one and we wouldn’t trust anyone who holds an executive staff position or sits on the board – including the two new “people’s reps” who upon seating have suddenly become silent bookends to the corrupt old boys and girls sitting around the table- any farther than an electrical jolt from an exposed wire would throw them.
But we can’t help but wonder what the real effect of the rate hike will be in terms of our bills.
Let’s start with the oft repeated explanation by the KIUC mucky- mucks- the premise behind the “energy adjustment” portion of our monthly bill.
We’ve been told over and over that the actual “base rates” were set more than a decade ago and that in the intervening time the price of oil has skyrocketed so that the “energy adjustment” is simply the difference between the actual cost to provide electricity every month and the amount that “base rate” – one that was established by the PUC would yield.
Fine. But then explain why it matters if that base rate is increased, in terms of the net effect on our bills.
Doesn’t the amount of the energy adjustment go down the same amount the rate goes up?
Presumably the price of oil is not going down and in fact the rate being requested will still result in an "energy adjustment” every month because even the new rate is set below the market rate for fossil fuel.
And presumably, even if the price of oil dipped below the amount the new rate would provide we would then have a negative energy adjustment that month as, we understand, the PUC rate rules provide for.
So what’s the difference if KIUC raises it’s basic rate? Our actual bill shouldn’t be effected at all.
Now of course the “trust issue” and how that plays into it is another matter- perhaps there’s some kind of loophole in the law that negates these premises and conclusions. As we said we often either find out about some provision after we’ve “completed” our research on a subject or, more often, the level of corruption is so high on Kaua`i that KIUC will just flout the law and end up charging us more no matter what the law says.
Of course the request for a rate increase itself should raise our suspicions just because we have to ask why KIUC would be so intent on raising the basic rates if they aren’t going to be colleting more.. as they claim they will be.
But if someone who is fighting hard on our behalf before the PUC to keep the rates where they are- or someone at KIUC who is fighting supposedly to increase their revenues- can explain what the fight is about, we’re all ears.
----------
Note- No, we haven’t shirked examining the latest dust up at the Board of Ethics and the new County Attorney’s opinion. We’re still “shouldering” some severe discomfort and so are still limiting the length of these posts but we’ll try to cover the latest tomorrow or soon thereafter.
Now don’t get us wrong- this piece of crap co-op has been a scam since day one and we wouldn’t trust anyone who holds an executive staff position or sits on the board – including the two new “people’s reps” who upon seating have suddenly become silent bookends to the corrupt old boys and girls sitting around the table- any farther than an electrical jolt from an exposed wire would throw them.
But we can’t help but wonder what the real effect of the rate hike will be in terms of our bills.
Let’s start with the oft repeated explanation by the KIUC mucky- mucks- the premise behind the “energy adjustment” portion of our monthly bill.
We’ve been told over and over that the actual “base rates” were set more than a decade ago and that in the intervening time the price of oil has skyrocketed so that the “energy adjustment” is simply the difference between the actual cost to provide electricity every month and the amount that “base rate” – one that was established by the PUC would yield.
Fine. But then explain why it matters if that base rate is increased, in terms of the net effect on our bills.
Doesn’t the amount of the energy adjustment go down the same amount the rate goes up?
Presumably the price of oil is not going down and in fact the rate being requested will still result in an "energy adjustment” every month because even the new rate is set below the market rate for fossil fuel.
And presumably, even if the price of oil dipped below the amount the new rate would provide we would then have a negative energy adjustment that month as, we understand, the PUC rate rules provide for.
So what’s the difference if KIUC raises it’s basic rate? Our actual bill shouldn’t be effected at all.
Now of course the “trust issue” and how that plays into it is another matter- perhaps there’s some kind of loophole in the law that negates these premises and conclusions. As we said we often either find out about some provision after we’ve “completed” our research on a subject or, more often, the level of corruption is so high on Kaua`i that KIUC will just flout the law and end up charging us more no matter what the law says.
Of course the request for a rate increase itself should raise our suspicions just because we have to ask why KIUC would be so intent on raising the basic rates if they aren’t going to be colleting more.. as they claim they will be.
But if someone who is fighting hard on our behalf before the PUC to keep the rates where they are- or someone at KIUC who is fighting supposedly to increase their revenues- can explain what the fight is about, we’re all ears.
----------
Note- No, we haven’t shirked examining the latest dust up at the Board of Ethics and the new County Attorney’s opinion. We’re still “shouldering” some severe discomfort and so are still limiting the length of these posts but we’ll try to cover the latest tomorrow or soon thereafter.
Friday, September 11, 2009
A DEAFER EAR
A DEAFER EAR: A month ago today we detailed the latest in the sad story of KKCR, the so-called “community and supposedly non-commercial” radio station in Princeville and the completion of the takeover by the LA music industry that began in the mid 90’s- as PNN detailed in a Parxist Conspiracy TV newsmagazine episode in 1999- with the appointment of a long-time music industry insider as general manager last year.
We included updates of our investigative report PNN Investigative Report: KKCR- A Study In Brown And White that’s been linked on our right rail since we completed it a year ago April.
Today we received an open letter from former programmer Katy Rose and what she’s found out is about to happen with the slot and program she established, confirming much of what we wrote on August 11. We reproduce it in full below.
To recap- essentially, with the possible exception of Rose and her partner Jimmy Trujillo, local public affairs programming has remained bare bones over the years with a rotating series of white KKCR clique members and long time “insiders” who can be trusted to produce ill-informed pap, solely in two, one-and-a-half hour slots a week on Tuesdays and Thursdays.
Those are the times reserved for general local public affairs programming and the rest is music, although Trujillo has sought to add on one more day a week with varied success due to the imposition of the same onerous requirements that apply to music programmers.
We detailed how local people have been systematically excluded over the years and how and why only an expansion of public affairs slots and a concerted effort to recruit experienced and talented public affairs programmers- something there is no shortage of on the island- could serve the needs of the community beyond the current virtually all music programming.
We exposed how most local people have given up on trying to overcome the “club” atmosphere at the station and how, despite the need for local public affairs programming those who might serve they need are forced to compete for slots with the slew of “vanity radio” music programmers.
As we said only by first opening up and reserving more local public affair programming slots and actively recruiting local people- and not forcing them to go through the backbiting, ass-kissing process that music programmers go though to secure their slots- would anyone bother to try to break the barrier.
We even provided a member of the KKCR Public Advisory Committee with a long list of possible and suggested programmers- people who currently write and speak on local issues who are articulate and well informed and would probably be able to make the time to inform the public. But, as we said when we submitted the list, not if they were treated as if they were seeking one of those “personality” music programs slots as they are called on the mainland at Pacifica Radio where they do separate out the processes for recruiting music and public affairs programmers
After that we were approached by one board member who first chided us for being “negative” and too critical last month and then, oblivious to what we wrote, demanded the list and essentially asked if these people were willing to go through the same process and volunteer requirements as music programmers- failing to recognize that that very attitude was what was keeping these people from KKCR’s airwaves despite the lip-service KKCR pays in acknowledging the severe need for local public affairs programming.
Anyway all this typing has us clutching at our shoulder so here’s Katy’s letter open letter. It should serve as a reminder of why as we said last time:
If at this point KKCR opens up a bunch of slots and gets down on their knees and begs them to produce programming, we’ll get down on ours and salute the flying pigs.
---------------
An Open Letter (from Katy Rose) To My Friends And Allies:
Kaua`i Community Radio management is choosing a replacement host for the program I helped produce until my recent move, and they are leaning toward the appointment of a KKCR insider who holds distinctly Rightist views. I think it is important to preserve the program for a thoughtful Leftist perspective, and to cultivate new voices for the airwaves. I want to explain why I believe that, and ask you to help ensure that it happens.
As you know, my time at KKCR was fractious. Two years ago, an alliance of former and current programmers, community advisory board members, and concerned Kaua`i citizens joined forces to protest what we identified as a systemic problem of racial exclusion at KKCR and to organize a grassroots push for a more democratic, inclusive, vibrant, and relevant community radio station.
We stridently challenged the institutionalized racism that we had identified, and helped to educate the broader community about the nature of systems of oppression that keep valuable resources like media access out of the hands of local working-class people, dissident thinkers, and Kanaka Maoli on Kaua`i.
In our work, we developed a comprehensive set of demands that we presented to KKCR, and we organized significant turn-out for public meetings in which community members voiced their concern about the direction of the station. In an important but not central victory, this grass-roots alliance was able to pressure the station to re-instate programmers who had been suspended during the struggle, including myself and my former co-producer Jimmy Trujillo, and Kanaka Maoli sovereignty activist Kaiulani Huff.
My aim as a volunteer producer at KKCR was to develop an intellectually challenging public-affairs program which explored in depth the theory and practice of radical and progressive social movements. I felt it was important to provide an alternative to the generally unplanned, unprepared, anything-goes, directionless programming that was the norm for afternoon public affairs programs at KKCR.
I also felt that although some programmers at KKCR might identify themselves as “liberal” or “progressive,” the spectrum of Left thinking extends beyond these reformist trends and it is very rare to hear that reflected in any media at all, let alone community radio.
To that end, I spent significant time reading, researching, and preparing for interviews with a range of critical social actors from a variety of Leftist tendencies and struggles. Among the many important topics we covered were anti-racism; the role of non-Native allies in Native peoples’ struggles; the scholarly work of Kanaka Maoli and local-Asian academics critiquing colonialism; demilitarization organizing in Hawaii; the struggles of workers, including Hawaii’s public workers and the workers employed by Superferry-builder Austal-USA in Alabama; the LGBTQ movement; direct action; anarchism and socialism; state suppression of peoples’ movements, and more.
I was primarily concerned with exploring autonomous grass-roots struggle, rather than political-party activism or reformist appeals to politicians and legislators. It was critically important to me to prioritize the voices of women, people of color, youth, Native people, queer people, and workers. Some people call this “giving a voice to the voiceless,” but I totally disagree with this framing. We have voices! We just need more ears out there to hear them!
One of the obstacles to opening up KKCR to under-represented voices and demographics in our community is that the “in-crowd” tends to know very few people outside of their circle. So, chances are, they’ll pick someone they already know to fill an empty spot on the air, rather than doing the difficult and uncomfortable work (for some) of meeting the people where they’re at.
So, I am asking you to consider being a community radio programmer, or to encourage someone else you know to become one. It sounds intimidating. I know. I had never done it before and I had to learn everything from square one. I also felt that I was “putting myself out there” in a way that felt awkward at first. But when I thought about it as community service, and realized that it really wasn’t about showing off or having my ego stroked, I was able to let go of a lot of my fear and hesitation.
In my opinion, the last thing KKCR needs is another public-affairs time slot to be filled by someone who is already hosting another program, espouses mainstream, conservative opinions already well-represented in commercial and community radio alike, and who is already a KKCR “insider.” We fought to expand KKCR, not contract it.
But the reality is that KKCR is not going to come to us – we have to go to KKCR. A few years ago, I was encouraged by two close comrades to step up and apply for an open time slot, which I did, despite all my doubts.
Now I’m encouraging you to do the same. I’ll be honest with you: you will probably run into obstacles thrown in your path. You will most certainly have to deal with some bullshit. But I think that community radio is important enough – particularly in this time of rapid social change – to fight for.
Save KKCR – for the people!
Toward freedom,
Katy
----------
Happy 9-11 everyone. Don’t forget to send a card. (What, too soon?)
We included updates of our investigative report PNN Investigative Report: KKCR- A Study In Brown And White that’s been linked on our right rail since we completed it a year ago April.
Today we received an open letter from former programmer Katy Rose and what she’s found out is about to happen with the slot and program she established, confirming much of what we wrote on August 11. We reproduce it in full below.
To recap- essentially, with the possible exception of Rose and her partner Jimmy Trujillo, local public affairs programming has remained bare bones over the years with a rotating series of white KKCR clique members and long time “insiders” who can be trusted to produce ill-informed pap, solely in two, one-and-a-half hour slots a week on Tuesdays and Thursdays.
Those are the times reserved for general local public affairs programming and the rest is music, although Trujillo has sought to add on one more day a week with varied success due to the imposition of the same onerous requirements that apply to music programmers.
We detailed how local people have been systematically excluded over the years and how and why only an expansion of public affairs slots and a concerted effort to recruit experienced and talented public affairs programmers- something there is no shortage of on the island- could serve the needs of the community beyond the current virtually all music programming.
We exposed how most local people have given up on trying to overcome the “club” atmosphere at the station and how, despite the need for local public affairs programming those who might serve they need are forced to compete for slots with the slew of “vanity radio” music programmers.
As we said only by first opening up and reserving more local public affair programming slots and actively recruiting local people- and not forcing them to go through the backbiting, ass-kissing process that music programmers go though to secure their slots- would anyone bother to try to break the barrier.
We even provided a member of the KKCR Public Advisory Committee with a long list of possible and suggested programmers- people who currently write and speak on local issues who are articulate and well informed and would probably be able to make the time to inform the public. But, as we said when we submitted the list, not if they were treated as if they were seeking one of those “personality” music programs slots as they are called on the mainland at Pacifica Radio where they do separate out the processes for recruiting music and public affairs programmers
After that we were approached by one board member who first chided us for being “negative” and too critical last month and then, oblivious to what we wrote, demanded the list and essentially asked if these people were willing to go through the same process and volunteer requirements as music programmers- failing to recognize that that very attitude was what was keeping these people from KKCR’s airwaves despite the lip-service KKCR pays in acknowledging the severe need for local public affairs programming.
Anyway all this typing has us clutching at our shoulder so here’s Katy’s letter open letter. It should serve as a reminder of why as we said last time:
If at this point KKCR opens up a bunch of slots and gets down on their knees and begs them to produce programming, we’ll get down on ours and salute the flying pigs.
---------------
An Open Letter (from Katy Rose) To My Friends And Allies:
Kaua`i Community Radio management is choosing a replacement host for the program I helped produce until my recent move, and they are leaning toward the appointment of a KKCR insider who holds distinctly Rightist views. I think it is important to preserve the program for a thoughtful Leftist perspective, and to cultivate new voices for the airwaves. I want to explain why I believe that, and ask you to help ensure that it happens.
As you know, my time at KKCR was fractious. Two years ago, an alliance of former and current programmers, community advisory board members, and concerned Kaua`i citizens joined forces to protest what we identified as a systemic problem of racial exclusion at KKCR and to organize a grassroots push for a more democratic, inclusive, vibrant, and relevant community radio station.
We stridently challenged the institutionalized racism that we had identified, and helped to educate the broader community about the nature of systems of oppression that keep valuable resources like media access out of the hands of local working-class people, dissident thinkers, and Kanaka Maoli on Kaua`i.
In our work, we developed a comprehensive set of demands that we presented to KKCR, and we organized significant turn-out for public meetings in which community members voiced their concern about the direction of the station. In an important but not central victory, this grass-roots alliance was able to pressure the station to re-instate programmers who had been suspended during the struggle, including myself and my former co-producer Jimmy Trujillo, and Kanaka Maoli sovereignty activist Kaiulani Huff.
My aim as a volunteer producer at KKCR was to develop an intellectually challenging public-affairs program which explored in depth the theory and practice of radical and progressive social movements. I felt it was important to provide an alternative to the generally unplanned, unprepared, anything-goes, directionless programming that was the norm for afternoon public affairs programs at KKCR.
I also felt that although some programmers at KKCR might identify themselves as “liberal” or “progressive,” the spectrum of Left thinking extends beyond these reformist trends and it is very rare to hear that reflected in any media at all, let alone community radio.
To that end, I spent significant time reading, researching, and preparing for interviews with a range of critical social actors from a variety of Leftist tendencies and struggles. Among the many important topics we covered were anti-racism; the role of non-Native allies in Native peoples’ struggles; the scholarly work of Kanaka Maoli and local-Asian academics critiquing colonialism; demilitarization organizing in Hawaii; the struggles of workers, including Hawaii’s public workers and the workers employed by Superferry-builder Austal-USA in Alabama; the LGBTQ movement; direct action; anarchism and socialism; state suppression of peoples’ movements, and more.
I was primarily concerned with exploring autonomous grass-roots struggle, rather than political-party activism or reformist appeals to politicians and legislators. It was critically important to me to prioritize the voices of women, people of color, youth, Native people, queer people, and workers. Some people call this “giving a voice to the voiceless,” but I totally disagree with this framing. We have voices! We just need more ears out there to hear them!
One of the obstacles to opening up KKCR to under-represented voices and demographics in our community is that the “in-crowd” tends to know very few people outside of their circle. So, chances are, they’ll pick someone they already know to fill an empty spot on the air, rather than doing the difficult and uncomfortable work (for some) of meeting the people where they’re at.
So, I am asking you to consider being a community radio programmer, or to encourage someone else you know to become one. It sounds intimidating. I know. I had never done it before and I had to learn everything from square one. I also felt that I was “putting myself out there” in a way that felt awkward at first. But when I thought about it as community service, and realized that it really wasn’t about showing off or having my ego stroked, I was able to let go of a lot of my fear and hesitation.
In my opinion, the last thing KKCR needs is another public-affairs time slot to be filled by someone who is already hosting another program, espouses mainstream, conservative opinions already well-represented in commercial and community radio alike, and who is already a KKCR “insider.” We fought to expand KKCR, not contract it.
But the reality is that KKCR is not going to come to us – we have to go to KKCR. A few years ago, I was encouraged by two close comrades to step up and apply for an open time slot, which I did, despite all my doubts.
Now I’m encouraging you to do the same. I’ll be honest with you: you will probably run into obstacles thrown in your path. You will most certainly have to deal with some bullshit. But I think that community radio is important enough – particularly in this time of rapid social change – to fight for.
Save KKCR – for the people!
Toward freedom,
Katy
----------
Happy 9-11 everyone. Don’t forget to send a card. (What, too soon?)
Thursday, September 10, 2009
ABSURDLY GOOD
ABSURDLY GOOD: Last week we got an email from a friend who we greatly admire and respect who does many good things for the community- including undertaking a leadership role in a non profit endeavor that works on environmental projects.
Sometimes this person represents the group before the council and planning commission but also serves on a county board.
And, to our dismay, (s)he defended this dual role because (s)he believes that, despite the notorious charter section 20,02(d) that forbids such a combination of activity it would be an “absurd result” if the law were to be enforced because (s)he was “doing good things for the community”.
So it was with great amusement that we read that Mattie Yoshioka, CEO of the Kaua`i Economic Development Board (KEDB) said exactly the same thing when, as the local newspaper’s Michael Levine reported this week, she was told by the Board of Ethics (BOE) that, despite many ruling to the contrary recently- including two favoring similarly conflicted BOE members- she and she alone would be in violation if she continued to serve on the Charter Review Commission and continue to testify before the council for KEDB.
If there was ever someone who the law was made for it would be Yoshioka and KEDB.
For the uninformed, Yoshioka was arguably one of, if not the first “old girls” in the “old boys club”, serving in any number of positions under former Mayor Maryanne Kusaka and later Mayor Bryan Baptiste before parlaying her insider status into a job for KEDB.
KEDB for its part has been a relentless pro-development and sometimes shady operation started by the now disgraced and convicted Gary Baldwin who used “the board” to serve his and the business interests of his cronies such as former PMRF Commander Bob Mullins, enabling many to line their pockets with government dollars.
As reported by PNN in the 90’s on our Parxist Conspiracy TV newsmagazine, Baldwin and Mullins- who was Kusaka’s Administrative Assistant at the time- arranged to steal federal, hurricane-related, economic development money then-destined to revitalize Hanapepe and use it instead to build the West Kaua`i High Tech Center in Waimea which serves to provide office space to defense contractors doing business at the PMRF, the Navy base in Mana.
Mullins then quit the Kusaka administration, joined “the board” and got a job heading up defense contractor Textron’s Kaua`i operations and promptly moved into one of the offices the money paid for.
That was just one of many KEBD shenanigans designed to pad the bank accounts of various private interests, investors, developers and assorted greedy bastards using county money to do it.
And Baldwin also served on the Planning Commission in blatant violation of 200.02(d)
Although Baldwin fled the island after his shady past was reveled and was then convicted of defrauding a doctor on the mainland before he ever came to Kaua`i, his creation KEDB has continued to serve in a similar manner under a series of directors including now Yoshioka
We’re sure that Yoshioka- just like our friend- really believes that she does “good” for the island but we’re just as sure that each would think what the other does many times interferes with the good they are doing.
And that’s the point in this whole business of ignoring the charter provision. Even if a “good for the island” standard was adopted- which would certainly be unconstitutionally vague if enacted- who is the arbiter of “good” as blogger Charley Foster asked Tuesday in an excellent analysis of the law and the lack of enforcement.
And that’s why the law is there- it even handedly makes sure that no one can use their influence as a county official to further their own idea of good. because to do otherwise would lead to the “absurd result” we have today of a small handful of revolving-door, well- connected old boys and girls enriching themselves and their cronies by serving both the public and private sector.
It’s a positive development for the BOE to finally tell someone “no”. Now the question is whether they will revisit their recent decision regarding a few others- and even delve into the dozens of those whose disclosure forms reveal similar conflicts.
We’re not holding our breath for a BOE that serves as the Minotaur’s gatekeepers to suddenly stop doing what’s wrong as long as they can.
Sometimes this person represents the group before the council and planning commission but also serves on a county board.
And, to our dismay, (s)he defended this dual role because (s)he believes that, despite the notorious charter section 20,02(d) that forbids such a combination of activity it would be an “absurd result” if the law were to be enforced because (s)he was “doing good things for the community”.
So it was with great amusement that we read that Mattie Yoshioka, CEO of the Kaua`i Economic Development Board (KEDB) said exactly the same thing when, as the local newspaper’s Michael Levine reported this week, she was told by the Board of Ethics (BOE) that, despite many ruling to the contrary recently- including two favoring similarly conflicted BOE members- she and she alone would be in violation if she continued to serve on the Charter Review Commission and continue to testify before the council for KEDB.
If there was ever someone who the law was made for it would be Yoshioka and KEDB.
For the uninformed, Yoshioka was arguably one of, if not the first “old girls” in the “old boys club”, serving in any number of positions under former Mayor Maryanne Kusaka and later Mayor Bryan Baptiste before parlaying her insider status into a job for KEDB.
KEDB for its part has been a relentless pro-development and sometimes shady operation started by the now disgraced and convicted Gary Baldwin who used “the board” to serve his and the business interests of his cronies such as former PMRF Commander Bob Mullins, enabling many to line their pockets with government dollars.
As reported by PNN in the 90’s on our Parxist Conspiracy TV newsmagazine, Baldwin and Mullins- who was Kusaka’s Administrative Assistant at the time- arranged to steal federal, hurricane-related, economic development money then-destined to revitalize Hanapepe and use it instead to build the West Kaua`i High Tech Center in Waimea which serves to provide office space to defense contractors doing business at the PMRF, the Navy base in Mana.
Mullins then quit the Kusaka administration, joined “the board” and got a job heading up defense contractor Textron’s Kaua`i operations and promptly moved into one of the offices the money paid for.
That was just one of many KEBD shenanigans designed to pad the bank accounts of various private interests, investors, developers and assorted greedy bastards using county money to do it.
And Baldwin also served on the Planning Commission in blatant violation of 200.02(d)
Although Baldwin fled the island after his shady past was reveled and was then convicted of defrauding a doctor on the mainland before he ever came to Kaua`i, his creation KEDB has continued to serve in a similar manner under a series of directors including now Yoshioka
We’re sure that Yoshioka- just like our friend- really believes that she does “good” for the island but we’re just as sure that each would think what the other does many times interferes with the good they are doing.
And that’s the point in this whole business of ignoring the charter provision. Even if a “good for the island” standard was adopted- which would certainly be unconstitutionally vague if enacted- who is the arbiter of “good” as blogger Charley Foster asked Tuesday in an excellent analysis of the law and the lack of enforcement.
And that’s why the law is there- it even handedly makes sure that no one can use their influence as a county official to further their own idea of good. because to do otherwise would lead to the “absurd result” we have today of a small handful of revolving-door, well- connected old boys and girls enriching themselves and their cronies by serving both the public and private sector.
It’s a positive development for the BOE to finally tell someone “no”. Now the question is whether they will revisit their recent decision regarding a few others- and even delve into the dozens of those whose disclosure forms reveal similar conflicts.
We’re not holding our breath for a BOE that serves as the Minotaur’s gatekeepers to suddenly stop doing what’s wrong as long as they can.
Tuesday, September 8, 2009
THE AXE AIN’T ALL THAT’S TOO DULL
THE AXE AIN’T ALL THAT’S TOO DULL: Don’t you just love the tone deaf way the county does things. Last week a press release announced that:
The latest edition of the “Kaua`i Recycling Guide” is now available free of charge at all public libraries, HI-5 bottle redemption centers, Kaua`i Resource Center, and the mayor’s office.
Individuals and groups can also contact the County Recycling Office for copies of the recycling guide.
Now the next thing you would expect to read is where to get this valuable information on line- after all, we are talking about keeping trash out of the landfill.
But such intuitive leaps of thought are something Kaua`i county apparently needs to hire a consultant to figure out. A search of the county web site shows no such booklet exists. Instead, the release continues:
“I encourage everyone to pick up a free copy of the Kaua`i Recycling Guide for comprehensive information on the 3Rs and composting,” said Mayor Bernard Carvalho, Jr. “If we all do our part to minimize waste and maximize resource recovery, it will help preserve landfill space and conserve our natural resources and energy.”...
The 22-page recycling guide highlights all local waste diversion opportunities with detailed information on how to reduce, reuse, recycle, and compost through a variety of county programs as well as other options.
So in order to “minimize waste and maximize resource recovery, (and) help preserve landfill space and conserve our natural resources and energy” we’re killing who knows how many trees and spending who knows how many taxpayer bucks to print up a bunch of presumably quality 22 page brochures (if it’s on plain white paper we’ll eat one) that people will pick up and possibly read before throwing it in the rubbish where it will no doubt become grist for the landfill.
And if people do keep them we can just imagine conversations that will no doubt ensue.
“Honey, can we recycle this piece of crap we don’t need or want anymore”
“I don’t know, check that recycling guide we picked up six months ago”
“Where is it”
“Oh- It must be here somewhere in this mess- don’t you have it”
“Oh I thought you had it”
“I think we recycled it”
The release doesn’t not say whether the brochures themselves are even recyclable- much less made from recycled materials- since on Kaua`i there actually are paper goods that are not recyclable... along with all sorts of other things you’d normally be able to recycle anywhere else like all plastics 1-7 and steel cans... which is the reason we need such a pamphlet so people will know what recyclables they can throw in the landfill.
There’s a hole in Kekaha dear Liza dear Liza
Can’t anyone here play this game?
The latest edition of the “Kaua`i Recycling Guide” is now available free of charge at all public libraries, HI-5 bottle redemption centers, Kaua`i Resource Center, and the mayor’s office.
Individuals and groups can also contact the County Recycling Office for copies of the recycling guide.
Now the next thing you would expect to read is where to get this valuable information on line- after all, we are talking about keeping trash out of the landfill.
But such intuitive leaps of thought are something Kaua`i county apparently needs to hire a consultant to figure out. A search of the county web site shows no such booklet exists. Instead, the release continues:
“I encourage everyone to pick up a free copy of the Kaua`i Recycling Guide for comprehensive information on the 3Rs and composting,” said Mayor Bernard Carvalho, Jr. “If we all do our part to minimize waste and maximize resource recovery, it will help preserve landfill space and conserve our natural resources and energy.”...
The 22-page recycling guide highlights all local waste diversion opportunities with detailed information on how to reduce, reuse, recycle, and compost through a variety of county programs as well as other options.
So in order to “minimize waste and maximize resource recovery, (and) help preserve landfill space and conserve our natural resources and energy” we’re killing who knows how many trees and spending who knows how many taxpayer bucks to print up a bunch of presumably quality 22 page brochures (if it’s on plain white paper we’ll eat one) that people will pick up and possibly read before throwing it in the rubbish where it will no doubt become grist for the landfill.
And if people do keep them we can just imagine conversations that will no doubt ensue.
“Honey, can we recycle this piece of crap we don’t need or want anymore”
“I don’t know, check that recycling guide we picked up six months ago”
“Where is it”
“Oh- It must be here somewhere in this mess- don’t you have it”
“Oh I thought you had it”
“I think we recycled it”
The release doesn’t not say whether the brochures themselves are even recyclable- much less made from recycled materials- since on Kaua`i there actually are paper goods that are not recyclable... along with all sorts of other things you’d normally be able to recycle anywhere else like all plastics 1-7 and steel cans... which is the reason we need such a pamphlet so people will know what recyclables they can throw in the landfill.
There’s a hole in Kekaha dear Liza dear Liza
Can’t anyone here play this game?
Monday, September 7, 2009
SLICK ‘N’ SICK
SLICK ‘N’ SICK: One of the benefits of temporarily losing all but a tortured ability to type is that it’s freed up lot’s of reading time.
Today we perused the latest entry by Matt Taibbi of Rolling Stone, the premier writer of political discourse of our times.
In Sick and Wrong: How Washington is Screwing Up Health Care Reform- and Why It May Take a Revolt To Fix It he details the five ways Obama and the congressional Democrats took the long sought single payer solution to the insurance-company-scam heath care and turned it into “more dogshit”.
After detailing all the excruciating machination he sums it up saying:
To recap, here's what ended up happening with health care. First, they gave away single-payer before a single gavel had fallen, apparently as a bargaining chip to the very insurers mostly responsible for creating the crisis in the first place. Then they watered down the public option so as to make it almost meaningless, while simultaneously beefing up the individual mandate, which would force millions of people now uninsured to buy a product that is no longer certain to be either cheaper or more likely to prevent them from going bankrupt. The bill won't make drugs cheaper, and it might make paperwork for doctors even more unwieldy and complex than it is now. In fact, the various reform measures suck so badly that PhRMA, the notorious mouthpiece for the pharmaceutical industry which last year spent more than $20 million lobbying against health care reform, is now gratefully spending more than seven times that much on a marketing campaign to help the president get what he wants.
Don’t miss the details- if you don’t have one already it’ll give you a pre-existing condition.
Today we perused the latest entry by Matt Taibbi of Rolling Stone, the premier writer of political discourse of our times.
In Sick and Wrong: How Washington is Screwing Up Health Care Reform- and Why It May Take a Revolt To Fix It he details the five ways Obama and the congressional Democrats took the long sought single payer solution to the insurance-company-scam heath care and turned it into “more dogshit”.
After detailing all the excruciating machination he sums it up saying:
To recap, here's what ended up happening with health care. First, they gave away single-payer before a single gavel had fallen, apparently as a bargaining chip to the very insurers mostly responsible for creating the crisis in the first place. Then they watered down the public option so as to make it almost meaningless, while simultaneously beefing up the individual mandate, which would force millions of people now uninsured to buy a product that is no longer certain to be either cheaper or more likely to prevent them from going bankrupt. The bill won't make drugs cheaper, and it might make paperwork for doctors even more unwieldy and complex than it is now. In fact, the various reform measures suck so badly that PhRMA, the notorious mouthpiece for the pharmaceutical industry which last year spent more than $20 million lobbying against health care reform, is now gratefully spending more than seven times that much on a marketing campaign to help the president get what he wants.
Don’t miss the details- if you don’t have one already it’ll give you a pre-existing condition.
Friday, September 4, 2009
DA KINDEST CUT
DA KINDEST CUT: We’ve often said that, what with the cretinous clotch of county and corporate crooks, clods and cronies on Kaua`i, we could do this column with one hand tied behind our back.
But when the rotator cuff hit the knife for a long overdue repair this past Tuesday the surgical saw proved too much for that old saw leaving us with a southpaw’s nightmare of right-hand-only typing for this, our 500th post.
We’re hoping to be bilaterally hunting and pecking soon.
Meanwhile you can now entertain yourself with a DVD copy of Anne Keala Kelly’s film NOHO HEWA: The Wrongful Occupation of Hawai`i, which won the Best Documentary award at the last Hawaii International Film Festival
The incredibly powerful piece- which we had the pleasure of seeing at KCC earlier this year- has been a labor of love for Kelly for many years now. It’s available at www.nohohewa.com You can contact Keala at nohohewa (at) gmail.com.
But when the rotator cuff hit the knife for a long overdue repair this past Tuesday the surgical saw proved too much for that old saw leaving us with a southpaw’s nightmare of right-hand-only typing for this, our 500th post.
We’re hoping to be bilaterally hunting and pecking soon.
Meanwhile you can now entertain yourself with a DVD copy of Anne Keala Kelly’s film NOHO HEWA: The Wrongful Occupation of Hawai`i, which won the Best Documentary award at the last Hawaii International Film Festival
The incredibly powerful piece- which we had the pleasure of seeing at KCC earlier this year- has been a labor of love for Kelly for many years now. It’s available at www.nohohewa.com You can contact Keala at nohohewa (at) gmail.com.
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