Rail Tax: 2022 Sunset is Only Remaining Check on HART Spending
Kanaiolowalu: How to Make Your Girlfriend Rich
Guam, Puerto Rico, Hawaii, Alaska Join Call for Jones Act Reform
DBEDT: International Students Contribute Over $205M to Economy
Ige Names Appointees to Head DLIR, OIMT
City launches Important Agricultural Lands (IAL) website
Grassroot: Public-private partnerships for Hawaii Hospitals
DLNR Seeks Comment on 2015 Outdoor Recreation Plan
Civil Beat: Kenoi Should Resign--Mayor just a Common Thief
CB: The once-popular Big Island mayor should step down, as investigations proceed on $22,000 in personal charges on his government purchasing card....
Kenoi’s case begs a question: Is there a moral or ethical distinction between a person who uses a stolen credit card to fraudulently purchase goods and the elected person who uses a government credit card reserved solely for official use for personal expenses instead?
This case represents an early test for Hawaii’s new attorney general, who was asked to take on the investigation by a county prosecutor understandably concerned about the appearance of impartiality with one county office investigating another....
read ... Resign
Intent to Defraud: Kenoi ethics to be Examined by Maui Counsel
SA: ...A Hawaii County ethics complaint filed against Mayor Billy Kenoi and Finance Director Deanna Sako over Kenoi's use of his county-issued purchasing card will be handled by the Maui County Corporation Counsel's Office "to avoid even the appearance of a conflict of interest," Hawaii County Corporation Counsel Molly A. Stebbins said Wednesday.
"Our office has sought assistance from the Maui Office of the Corporation Counsel in previous ethics cases involving a conflict of interest," Stebbins said in a statement.
Kenoi has come under fire for using his "pCard" to pay for everything from an $892 tab at an Oahu hostess bar, $565 for his Hawaii Bar Association dues, a $1,200 surfboard and a $1,900 bicycle -- reimbursing Hawaii County $26,000 for personal and government-related purchases.
The ethics complaint was made by Hawaii island resident Lanric Hyland, calling for both Kenoi and Sako to be removed from office.
Hawaii County's code of ethics has a fair-treatment provision -- similar to the state's -- that says workers cannot use their positions to secure or grant unwarranted privileges or advantages for themselves or others.
In an ethics probe, investigators do not have to address intent to defraud, which is the standard that prosecutors must prove in a criminal theft case....
read ... Intent to Defraud
Caldwell Admits GE Tax Hike is to Extend Rail to Manoa, Kapolei
SA: State lawmakers continue to carve out a plan that would extend Oahu's rail tax, as project supporters and opponents fiercely debate the best direction for rail at the state Capitol.
On Tuesday, the Senate Ways and Means Committee voted 8-2 to advance House Bill 134, which would extend the rail tax by five years, through 2027. It would also limit those tax dollars to building the project; the money wouldn't be used for operations.
Rail officials, led by Honolulu Mayor Kirk Caldwell, again pressed for lawmakers to instead pass a 25-year tax extension that would allow crews to keep building the system to Kapolei and the University of Hawaii at Manoa campus — as the public originally envisioned. Caldwell suggested that lawmakers could revisit the project five years after passing an extension to decide whether to proceed with the tax. It would allow the Legislature "to hold our feet to the fire," he said.
However, committee chairwoman Sen. Jill Tokuda pressed back. She said that any tax extension passed this year should go toward only getting rail past its current fiscal crisis and finishing the original 20-mile system.
"The Senate is just trying to help you finish what you started," Tokuda (D, Kailua-Kaneohe) told Caldwell during a Ways and Means meeting Tuesday.
read ... Yes. It Was all Hype
Telescope Protesters Will Stay until OHA Gets Pay
SA: "We cannot stand down," declared Kealoha Pisciotta, a longtime Mauna Kea astronomy critic and one of the leaders of the "protectors" of the mountain....
On Friday, OHA trustee Peter Apo called for a monthlong moratorium giving the governor time to assemble a panel and start reassessing the state's oversight of the ceded lands on which the 11,288-acre Maunakea Science Reserve sits. Apo argues that the state doesn't give cultural concerns the same weight (ie cash) as environmental and other issues as it should....
In related news, Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper on Monday announced that his government will contribute up to $243.5 million over the next 10 years to the Thirty Meter Telescope.
Canada joins Japan, China, India and the United States as partners in the venture, described as the most advanced and powerful optical telescope on Earth, capable of viewing galaxies at the edge of the observable universe....
(When OHA gets paid, the protesters will vanish.)
read ... Cash Payoff Coming
HGEA Still Looking for Excuses to Oppose Maui Memorial joining Hawaii Pacific Health
KHON: ...The entity now in discussion with Maui Memorial is Hawaii Pacific Health, a not-for-profit health care system with three anchor hospitals on Oahu including Straub Clinic and Hospital, Kapiolani Medical Center for Women and Children, and Pali Momi Medical Center. The fourth anchor is found on Kauai: Wilcox Memorial Hospital.
Maui Memorial Medical Center is facing a looming budget crisis with a projected $800 million deficit in 10 years.
KHON2 asked Ray Vara, president and chief executive officer of Hawaii Pacific Health, how his organization can make the partnership work with a hospital that has been losing money for years.
“Hawaii Pacific Health has a proven record of providing sustainable health care for the people of Hawaii,” said Vara, “and we think Maui will fit nicely for our organization.”
KHON2 also asked if the partnership were to happen, would Hawaii Pacific Health call for cuts in staff or services?
“That’s not an evaluation we’ve done yet,” said Vara. “What we’re focused on is a better, safer care closer to home.”
The union that represents a large number of employees at Maui Memorial has concerns about the proposed partnership.
“I think we question the wisdom and the public policy determination that looks at only one hospital – Maui Memorial – and not the entire system (Hawaii Health Systems Corporation, which runs the state hospital system),” said Randy Perreira, executive director of the Hawaii Government Employees Association, “and we’re concerned that a lot of effort is placed on Maui and perhaps some special interest involved for the potential vendor.” (Translation: I don't have any excuse for opposing this. I'm just trying to keep hospital workers salaries low by keeping them in the HGEA where I use them as a power base. Once they find out they can earn more in the private sector, I'm finished. And, as I said before, 'f*** you.')
Wesley Lo, chief executive officer for Maui Memorial, told KHON2 that “as you can imagine, cutting $28 million for any hospital’s operations would be devastating… This is a pretty critical time for us now.”
KITV: Maui Memorial could join new healthcare network
read ... Maui Memorial
Hawaii veterans wait longer for care on outer islands
AP: Veterans in parts of Hawaii are waiting shorter lengths of time to see doctors than those in many other states.
But new numbers suggest that on neighbor islands veterans tend to wait longer for care, especially at the Hilo VA Clinic....
Veterans say wait times for doctors have reduced. But they say they still have problems getting enrolled in the system.
The regional VA is planning to spend $6.5 million to add 115 positions to its staff this year.
AP: VA makes little headway in fight to shorten waits for care
read ... Outer Islands
Senate Committee Sets Hearing for Ige’s New Choice to Head DLNR
CB: The Senate Water and Land Committee, chaired by Sen. Laura Thielen, has set a hearing for 2:45 p.m., April 17, to consider the appointment of Suzanne Case to lead the Department of Land and Natural Resources.
Unlike Gov. David Ige’s last nomination for that job, Carleton Ching, this one is expected to clear the committee with ease and go on to pass the full Senate. That’s because Case is an environmentalist as opposed to a lobbyist for land developers.
read ... Hearing
14 Burials Found in Rail Path
SA: Rail workers have reportedly uncovered 14 distinct sets of iwi kupuna, or ancestral human remains, in the path of Oahu's future rail transit line so far. This week island burial leaders endorsed a plan for most of those remains to stay protected where they lie.
The Oahu Island Burial Council voted unanimously Wednesday to recommend preserving in place 12 of the 13 iwi kupuna found in rail-related archaeological survey digs between Chinatown and Ala Moana Center. The last of those 13 iwi kupuna, a fragment, will be moved from one trench in the middle of Halekauwila Street to a nearby trench along the sidewalk, rail officials told the burial council.
Meanwhile, a 14th set of remains was discovered Dec. 4 near McGrew Point in Aiea, rail officials said. It's the first iwi kupuna reported discovered during project construction. Honolulu Authority for Rapid Transportation officials said they've reported the remains to the State Historic Preservation Division to follow the protocol for such findings.
read ... 14 so far
Mainland Homosexuals Winning Easily in Legislature
HRC: The Senate Committee on Judiciary and Labor held a hearing on HB 631, which would allow transgender people to more easily change their birth certificates. The bill ensures that transgender people are able to change their birth certificates to reflect their correct (false) name and gender....
The committee passed the bill unanimously on Monday. It will now go to the full Senate for a vote. This legislation has already passed the Hawaii House.
Yesterday, the Senate Committees on Judiciary and Labor and Ways and Means held a hearing on HB 819, a comprehensive anti-bullying bill that provides specific protection for LGBT students (who are being turned gay by child molesters, but hey we won't talk about that because its not PC to admit that people aren't 'born gay')....
How Bullying Works: The transsexual agenda for Hawaii schools
read ... Gay Agenda
UH Women's Studies Prof: 'Yes means Yes' is all about Money
CB: ...To be clear, I am not arguing against improved gender violence prevention education and more effective policies and complaint response at UH. I am suggesting however, that we think carefully before using policy to create sexual conduct rules for adults in a higher education setting that are not legally applicable to young adults in any other milieu. Infantilizing adult students attending college and university because we have collectively failed to address the problem of gender violence on our campuses is not the right answer to this complex problem. It will make an already difficult and historically under-resourced problem at UH even harder to address.
We need to do some really difficult substantive change work if we intend to improve the environment on campus and reduce incidence and prevalence of gender violence. The most difficult part, ironically, will be not falling into the trap of making policy changes merely to limit the institution’s liability. There will always be people who care most about that and many of them, unfortunately, hold the purse strings at UH.
But when reducing liability is the primary motivation, decisions are made based on cost-benefit analysis, and some will be short-sighted and simply wrong. In the end, we will wind up in the same boat we’re in right now because we’ve cut corners and avoided the deeper fix. If we think about solving the problem of gender violence on our campuses with a longer view and from a student-oriented perspective, we end up with better prevention and better response programs and as an artifact of those, we will reduce our liability.
(Clue: Faculty are concerned about what will happen with student rape claims against them under the new policy.)
Related: University Snoops in Rape Victims' Medical Files to Save Money on Litigation--Legally
read ... Hippensteele
Ige: 'Absurd' Road Construction Delays Put Hawaii on Federal 'Watch List'
WHT: After a recent meeting with the federal Secretary of Transportation Anthony Foxx, it became clear once again the state needs to move faster on projects like the Queen Kaahumanu Highway widening project, Ige said. Foxx impressed upon him that states which accept federal highway money but don’t start spending it in six months get put on a “watch list.”
“When you go on a watch list after six months, and you have projects that have gone years without a notice to proceed, that’s absurd,” Ige said.
“I got home and I told (Interim Hawaii Department of Transportation Director) Ford Fuchigami, I don’t care what you have to do, we really got to get this project moving,” Ige said.
The $80 million project will get underway “certainly by the end of the year if not much sooner,” Ige said. A memorandum of agreement for the project between state, federal and local stakeholders was recently completed.
Ige said he met with federal officials in Washington, D.C., as part of an effort to be more aggressive about capturing and spending federal funds...
To help move the Queen Kaahumanu project — which has been stalled since 2008 — Ige said the state has engaged the federal government in helping to prepare the environmental assessments for the project. The move ensures the feds won’t come along later and require more homework, Ige said.
HNN: Drivers blame rail work for blowouts
read ... Absurd
Hawaii health officials hope to bring back bill to release millions in federal funding for Medicaid
PBN: A bill that could release $20 million in federal funding for a community health center program aiding thousands of Hawaii Medicaid patients with multiple chronic conditions was not scheduled for a hearing by the Tuesday legislative deadline, but Hawaii health officials hope to bring it back to the table.
House Bill 1161 would enable the health centers to apply for federal funds targeted to help low-income patients with multiple complex diseases who receive health insurance through Medicaid. The measure also includes appropriations to restore basic adult dental benefits to Medicaid enrollees.
Under an Affordable Care Act 9-to-1 match program, the federal government would contribute $18 million to match Hawaii community health centers’ already committed $2 million for the health homes program.
read ... HB1161
Kauai Anti-GMO Trial Begins, Judge Rules There are no Health Concerns
AP: There are southwest Kauai residents who can't enjoy simple things in their homes, such as just sitting on a couch to relax, without first wiping off dust that blows from nearby fields where genetically modified crops are tested, an attorney representing a group of them told a jury on Wednesday.
The group of Waimea residents are suing seed company DuPont Pioneer, saying the pesticide-laden dust not only affects their quality of life, it diminishes property values, harms the environment and is unhealthy.
A judge, however, granted a defense motion to exclude evidence or arguments regarding health and environmental issues. The motion argued that it's a property-damage case and that plaintiffs haven't said they suffered any injuries. (That's right folks. There are no health concerns. Not a single human being has ever been harmed by GMOs anywhere, ever.)
The lawsuit was first filed in state court in 2011, before Kauai and other Hawaii counties attempted to regulate genetically modified organisms, known as GMOs, in response to citizen concerns. The lawsuit was later transferred to federal court in Honolulu.
SA: Pesticides cited in lawsuit are not mentioned in trial, proceedings focus on Red Dust
read ... Trial Begins
Anti-GMO ex-Councilman Wants to Open Marijuana 'Dispensary'
KE: With the state Legislature pondering bills decriminalizing marijuana possession and authorizing medical marijuana dispensaries, Kauai County Council Chair Mel Rapozo has introduced a resolution opposing both.
HB 321, scheduled for a Senate committee vote today, fills a major puka in the state's 15-year-old medical marijuana law by creating a dispensary system that allows patients to legally obtain the herb. Counties could not use zoning laws to prohibit dispensaries.
Rep. Dee Morikawa voted for the bill, Rep. Derek Kamakami supported it with reservations and Rep. Jimmy Tokioka voted against it. Mel hopes to convince his colleagues today to also oppose the measure.
Hmmm. I wonder if Mel found out that former Councilman Tim Bynum wants to start a dispensary, and that soured him on the bill.
read ... Selling Modified Weed
Tobacco-Free Coalition cleared on lobbying charges
WHT: Hawaii County code requires lobbyists to register within five days of becoming a lobbyist, defined as any individual engaged for pay or other consideration who spends more than five hours in any month or $275 in any six-month period for the purpose of “attempting to influence legislative or administrative action by communicating or urging others to communicate with public officials.”
“You’re agreeing that you should register as lobbyists based on the fact that you had paid employees who were attempting to influence members of the County Council?” asked board member Douglass Adams.
Coalition members appeared numerous times to testify in favor of two bills regulating electronic cigarettes and tobacco products over the past two years, despite not registering as lobbyists.
One of the bills passed the council Nov. 20, 2013, after being introduced Oct. 15 of that year. The other was introduced Oct. 14 of last year and passed Dec. 17.
Three members of the coalition didn’t register as lobbyists until Dec. 3, 10 and 11 of last year.
“It was brought to our attention in 2014,” Yamauchi said. “We’d always been registered at the state level. … It was an oversight not registering at the local level.”
It’s a petty misdemeanor to willfully fail to register as a lobbyist, under the county ethics code. The board agreed that the coalition’s actions weren’t willful, and therefore weren’t subject to the penalty.
Mariner Revell, owner of Irie Hawaii Smoke Shops, had filed the original complaint against Council Chairman Dru Kanuha. Revell charged in his complaint that Kanuha violated the “fair treatment” provisions of the county ethics code when he conferred with unregistered lobbyists on his bills but wouldn’t meet with him.
read ... Lobbying
NextEra’s Bid Could Lead to Dissolution of HEI
GT: “Who would have thought that NextEra making a play for HEI just might lead to the dissolution of HEI as we’ve known it?”
KHON: Neighbor island mayors discuss forming own utility
read ... Suuurprise!
Oil Refiner Says LNG is a Bad Idea
PBN: Liquefied natural gas, which is scheduled to be shipped into Hawaii in bulk amounts for power generation purposes as a replacement to oil, is not economical for the state, the head of Par Petroleum, which owns Hawaii’s largest oil refinery, told PBN on Wednesday.
Joseph Israel, president and CEO of Houston-based Par Petroleum (NYSE: PARR), contends that LNG is still a fossil fuel, and, as a bridge fuel for a state moving closer to integrating more renewable energy, doesn’t make any sense.
“[Hawaii] is just too far away and too small of a market,” he told PBN in an exclusive interview. “The market is comfortable with [oil] pricing in the mid-term. [The] combination of the long distance and the small market cannot justify a $300 million to $500 million infrastructure [commitment getting a] reasonable rate of return.”
read ... Self-Interest at Work
Youth Quit Gov't Jobs Fast After Getting Taste of Red Tape
CB: Young people are finding it hard to work in government jobs that bog them down in red tape and archaic computer systems. In that regard, Hawaii is among the worst.... Last year, the Office of Personnel Management reported that millennials leave their government jobs after just 3.8 years — a significantly shorter service than their older government colleagues and the national average. According to The Hill, millennials “quickly leave when they feel caught in a slog of forms and red tape upon taking up the position.”
read ... Millenials
Hawaii Export Sector Growing Fast, But Still Smallest in US
SA: Hawaii exported $1.5 billion worth of goods and services last year, up 150 percent from $600 million in 2013 and up 253 percent from $400 million in 2004, according to a report scheduled for release Thursday by the United States Trade Representative.
There were 6,198 jobs in Hawaii that were supported either directly or indirectly by the goods exported from the islands in 2014. And of the 862 exporting Hawaii companies in 2013 — the most recent data available —87.1 percent were small or medium-size businesses....
Still, exports are a small part of Hawaii's nearly $80 billion economy, and Hawaii ranked last among the 50 states for total value of exports and number of jobs supported by exports in 2014.
However, in terms of percentage growth, the state ranked third — primarily because it is coming from such a low base.
Over the last 10 years, the value of Hawaii's exports increased 253 percent from $400 million in 2004. The number of jobs supported directly and indirectly by the export of goods over the last five years rose 66 percent from 3,743 jobs in 2009.
By comparison, Texas ranks No. 1 in both categories in terms of raw numbers in 2014 with $289 billion worth of exports and 1.1 million jobs supported by exports.
read ... Exports
State Senator says prisons should review work furlough policies
HNN: Inmates Kalani Tavares. 34, and Robert S. Gibson, 31, were caught yesterday not long after a 9-1-1 call from a home on Matlock Avenue. Police arrested the men on suspicion of Kidnapping, Robbery and Impersonating law enforcement officers. The victims were three women and a man, all in their 50s. No one was injured and it is not clear if any weapons were used.
The Depart of Public Safety said Tavares and Gibson were due to return to Oahu Community Correctional Centers work furlough module by 5 p.m. Both men were already repeat felons. Tavares had served eight years of a 20 year sentence for burglary, kidnapping, robbery and car theft; Gibson was near the end of a five-year sentence for theft and burglary.
State Senate Public Safety Chairman Willie Espero said he expects prison officials to review how they choose inmates for work furloughs and that it's unfortunate that the arrest could make it harder for deserving inmates to take advantage of the important program.
read ... Furlough
Patrick Oki stepping aside from managing PKF Pacific Hawaii
PBN: PKF Pacific Hawaii said Wednesday that Managing Partner Patrick Oki — who was arrested over the weekend on 13 counts of alleged theft, forgery, and money laundering — is stepping aside from the day to day management of the Honolulu-based accounting firm.
The firm is moving forward with a three-person executive committee with Reg Baker, who joined PKF as a partner in October, serving as chair alongside PKF partners Rodney Lee and Tyler Kimura.
KHON: PKF has 21 employees total and its partners and managers have accrued more than 150 years of cumulative accounting experience
read ... Stepping Aside
OHA provides funding to support Na Pua No`eau
UH: The Office of Hawaiian Affairs is providing a total of $896,232 to the University of Hawaiʻi at Hilo Na Pua No`eau program, the Center for Gifted and Talented Native Hawaiian Children. Na Pua No`eau provides Native Hawaiian students Kindergarten through college with learning opportunities as a University of Hawaiʻi Center. Students have direct access to UH facilities and faculty where they are guided and supported in their educational and career goals. Na Pua No`eau has staff and offices at the University’s campuses on O`ahu, Kaua`i, Maui, Lana`i, Moloka`i, and Hawaiʻi Island.
Background: Illegal Debate--Secret Report: OHA Trustees to Cut Funding for Hawaiian Charter Schools?
read ... Reversal?
Honokaa High principal under fire from HSTA
HNN: The principal of Honokaa High and Intermediate School is under fire from some teachers and parents and is the target of a rare-but-significant class-action grievance filed by the public school teachers' union.
Marcella McClelland has been principal at the 650-student school for the last two years. Monday night she walked out of a School Community Council meeting at the school as parents tried to ask her questions.
"I'm done. Thank you very much. I'm sorry, you don't get to talk to me that way," McClelland said as she packed up her papers and left the room.
Kim Erb, the parent of a Honokaa high student, questioned McClelland about allegations she's demoting respected veteran teachers and replacing them with inexperienced ones.
"Why do we have four to five teachers that are not licensed in this state to teach at this high school? Why do you have several, three to four teachers from Waimea Elementary who are elementary teachers teaching high school students that are not highly qualified?" Erb asked, as McClelland departed.
read ... Honokaa
Ige vs Feds: Keauhou aquifer is county’s responsibility
WHT: On the question of whether the state Commission on Water Resource Management should designate the Keauhou aquifer a state water management area, Ige said the state water code is clear.
“It is the county’s responsibility to manage the water resources until use approaches sustainable yield,” Ige said. “The water commission tells me we are not even halfway there.”
Current draw from the aquifer is 14 million gallons a day. Sustainable yield is pegged at 38 million gallons a day. Ige said he trusts the commission will look at the laws he helped draft as a state representative.
“The county has responsibility until uses reaches 80 percent of sustainable yield,” he said. “The state can only intercede if the county has failed to manage the resource.”
The National Park Service petitioned CWRM in the fall of 2013 to designate the aquifer, which would put in place a system of state oversight of permits. Last December, the commission ordered the National Park Service and the Hawaii County Department of Water Supply to explore alternatives for protecting the aquifer from future pumping. The commission won’t make a final decision until at least June.
Ige noted that he doesn’t control the decisions made by the body.
“I have confidence the commission will make the correct decision,” he said.
read ... Home Rule
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