MRC Greenwood Quits After Abercrombie Shortchanges University $22M
Hawaii Republican State Convention May 17-18
45 Students Complete State's First 'Transformation Internship Program'
While Thousands Wait, Sen Malama Solomon gets Lease on 106 ac of DHHL Land
SA: State Sen. Malama Solomon, former Department of Hawaiian Home Lands Commissioner Stuart Hanchett and about 20 other Native Hawaiians are members of an exclusive group.
While on DHHL waitlists for ranching or farming homestead lots, they obtained month-to-month revocable permits for pastoral or agriculture land from the agency, according to a Star-Advertiser analysis of DHHL data.
The moves allowed Solomon, Hanchett and the others, who (with one exception) were nowhere near the top of their lists, to start farming or ranching on trust lands right away, forgoing a years-long wait while keeping their place on the homestead lists.....
"I think it's purposeful," said Maui beneficiary Blossom Feiteira, president of the Association of Hawaiians for Homestead Lands. "It's mind-boggling."....
Solomon is paying 99 cents an acre per month for 106 acres in Waimea on Hawaii island. The parcel, with green rolling hills and ocean views, is above Hawaii Preparatory Academy, the most expensive private school in the state. Solomon has had the permit since 2000.
Hanchett, who served on the Hawaiian Homes Commission from 2005 to 2011, is paying $1.84 an acre monthly for 316 acres in Moloaa on Kauai. Hanchett received a permit for the land, which also features rolling hills and ocean views, in 2003, well before he became a commissioner.
When Hanchett received the permit, he was far from the top of the waitlist for a ranching homestead lot on Kauai. At the end of 2011 he was No. 187, DHHL data show, still facing a years-long wait. He applied for the homestead in 2001.
At the end of 2011, Solomon was No. 74 on a pastoral waitlist for Hawaii island. She applied in 1981.
In the cases of Solomon and Hanchett, both beneficiaries told the Star-Advertiser that the department approached them to ask whether they were interested in renting particular parcels, and they accepted the offers.
Alan Murakami, a Native Hawaiian Legal Corp. attorney, said beneficiaries who use the system to get permit land quickly should not be condemned.... Murakami agreed that the first-come, first-served nature of the program and a lack of transparency "basically victimizes the ignorant."
In response to the Star-Advertiser's findings, the department is placing a 60- to 90-day moratorium on the issuing of any new revocable permits and will look for ways to make the awards more transparent and productive, according to Deputy Director Darrell Young. As part of that review, the agency will re-examine how awards are decided and to whom they are offered.
SA: Solomon Parcel contains more homes than rules allow
read ... Robin Danner's Campaign to Take over DHHL
Danner Pushes to Eliminate non-Hawaiian DHHL Renters
SA: For the past 17 years, James and Jane Sakugawa have rented roughly 5,000 acres of ranch property on Maui from the Department of Hawaiian Home Lands.
That is 80 percent of all land DHHL is leasing to tenants on that island through its revocable-permit program.
Yet the Sakugawas are not Native Hawaiian beneficiaries.
Only 65 of the 178 revocable permits, or 36 percent, are held by beneficiaries, according to DHHL data.
For general leases, which are longer-term rental agreements for nonhomestead land, (such as Hilo WalMart, Target, Safeway) the picture is far worse. Only 17 of 126 accounts, or 13 percent, are held by Native Hawaiian individuals or organizations....
On the Big Island, for instance, Kahua Ranch in 2011 was awarded a revocable permit for 1,720 acres in Kawaihae. The rent is 35 cents an acre monthly.
"There's no excuse not to give that land to Native Hawaiians. Absolutely none," said David Kimo Frankel, an attorney for the Native Hawaiian Legal Corp. (Frankel and some 'rent-a-protesters' tried to stop the 'Big Box' stores in Hilo. By doing so, they undermine revenues to DHHL and make the department dependent on the political will of the Legislature.)
Young said DHHL isn't legally required to give Native Hawaiians preferences for revocable permits, but that will be among the ideas considered in the department's review.
read ... a Danner Power Play now that Inouye is Dead
Blackmail: Greenwood Out, Apple Next?
Ferd's Words: The University of Hawaii athletic department has real and pressing financial problems, but is blackmailing its declining constituency the way it wants to go about fixing them right now?
You have to wonder, because that's how Manoa chancellor Tom Apple's clumsy pay-up-or-maybe-we'll-close-up comments Monday are being perceived.
Apple told Ka Leo O Hawaii, the student newspaper, "If we're not breaking even (financially) in three years, I really have to look at whether we will continue Division IA athletics."
"I will be looking for those other forms of support for athletics to really see that there are people who really do care," Apple told Ka Leo. "There's one thing to say, 'Go Warriors!' It's another to say, 'Go Warriors -- here's my money!' "
In March, Apple told the Star-Advertiser he intended to seek the retirement of an $11.3 million accumulated deficit and would present at the Board of Regents' May meeting (next week) a financial plan that "works toward" ending future deficits. He said, "I think we have a pretty solid plan going forward."
Tell, us, please, that threatening to scuttle athletics isn't the whole of his "plan."...
the fear is they will turn off more people than they inspire, that dire threats will adversely affect recruiting and donations....
Meanwhile, Apple is, apparently, asking students to ante up and the faculty to acquiesce on funding, telling Ka Leo, "As students, are you gonna come to the games? Are you willing to pitch in to help athletics? If, in the end, this kind of three-year window, we don't see support ... students say we don't wanna pay more; faculty say we don't want money coming from academics to go to athletes; then the message I will get is that, 'Well, it may be the only game in town, but it's not an important one.' Then, we'll make the decision."
As State Rep. K. Mark Takai put it, "We need to build the base back up. We need to bring everybody back together and I don't think people come back with threats."
read ... Apple’s perceived threats won’t have positive effect
Republican Bills Pass Legislature
CB: This year, the caucus pushed measures to protect school kids and seniors, help people deal with the cost of living and doing business, and to make government more transparent and to improve elections.
As sometimes happens, policy ideas in GOP bills are also found in Democrats' bills. For example, the GOP's House Bill 303 that sought to protect elders from financial abuse, is similar to House Bill 3, sponsored by the bipartisan Kupuna Caucus.
The House GOP also called for repeal of the PLDC (as did Slom). Six of the seven House Republicans joined a lot of Democrats in co-sponsoring Democrat Cindy Evan's House Bill 1133, the vehicle that become the repeal bill.
Minority Leader Aaron Ling Johanson told Civil Beat, "I think we are pleased that some of the things we advocated for are coming to fruition in bills passed, whether proffered by the minority caucus or some other authors."
..."With respect to process, there is a definitely greater receptiveness to our ideas," he said. "Some of the minority caucus bills actually were heard and moved out of first committee, and that is helpful and appreciated. Some bills of individual minority members passed as well."
One of those, House Bill 1374, is on the governor's desk. The bill, a bipartisan measure with Johanson as chief sponsor, reforms the state procurement process.
To support his position that House legislators had real success, Johanson's office passed along a list of four caucus bills that were incorporated into other bills that passed, and a list of bills that came from Republicans but were not caucus measures.
read ... Hawaii GOP Legislators Fail To Get Caucus Bills Passed
Hanabusa Defended Secret Labor Contract
ILind: Back in my days at the Star-Bulletin, I reported on strange union contract involving the Laborers Union.
One of the state’s largest refuse disposal firms signed a labor contract making it a “union shop” but didn’t tell its workers for more than 17 years, according to a lawsuit filed in federal court.
The labor contract between Honolulu Disposal Service, Inc. and the Laborers’ International Union Local 368 was renewed and updated five times between 1979 and 1996, but they “failed or refused to inform” most employees of its existence, the suit says.
“It’s mind-boggling,” said Honolulu attorney Jim Bickerton, who filed the suit along with co-counsel Barry Sullivan.
Although the company signed a full contract with the union, they later claimed to have a side deal, an oral agreement that only a handful of workers would receive the union benefits. The deal didn’t become known until another union moved to organize the company’s employees and the company stepped forward to say that they already had a union.
It turned out that Hanabusa represented the Laborers Union and its attempts to defend the secret contract.
It’s just one lesser known example of what’s out there in Hanabusa’s background, along with the funny ties with developer Jeff Stone and the Ko Olina fun and games.
RELATED: www.TheRealHanabusa.com
read ... 17 Years Secret Contract
Public Not Invited to Abercrombie Political Campaign Opener
WHT: The low-key event was attended by swarms of local politicos, government appointees, and former and current elected officials. Takamine said Abercrombie supporters were only notified of the event, which included lunch, in the past few days.
Abercrombie singled out five Hilo High students, members of the school’s 25-member robotics team, which won the 2013 Pan-Pacific VEX Regionals in Honolulu recently against teams from China, Taiwan, the mainland and Hawaii, qualifying the team for the World VEX Championship. “We have some of the best and brightest kids in the world,” Abercrombie said.
“We don’t get much recognition,” said junior Robotics Team member Matt Pearring. “This was nice.”
Abercrombie visited Maui yesterday and is going to Kauai tomorrow to make similar announcements of his candidacy for re-election. Stressing the importance of the Neighbor Islands in statewide campaigns, Abercrombie said, “We’re essentially a rural state. There is a highly concentrated urban core on Oahu, and a vast diverse urban population in the rest of the state.”
Abercrombie introduced Chuck Freedman, who chaired Shatz’s campaign for Lt. Gov. in 2010. Freedman pitched for Shatz to keep the Senate seat vacated by the late Sen. Dan Inouye, to which Shatz was appointed by Abercrcombie following Inouye’s death in December.
read ... Keep the Public Away
Welfare Cheats Steal $48M from State
KHON: we found in welfare overpayments: $48.4 million. “It is significant,” McManaman said, “and I don’t think there’s any disagreement the state of Hawaii, the Department of Human Services, needs to do better.”....
Felony theft charges get filed, and judgments just in the past year have been doled out for everywhere from $12,000 to $111,000.
More are currently pending. Pending cases include Diane Gorospe (also known as Diane Leong), a state welfare eligibility worker who allegedly racked up $27,000 in benefits for herself that DHS and the Attorney General allege she wasn’t eligible for. She has since quit....
“A lot of times we don’t discover these frauds unless somebody reports them,” Young said. “Someone says she has 6 kids in the home, who is going to go out and check that those 6 kids are actually there? Normally unless somebody complains or you get a disgruntled spouse, we’re never going to find out.”....
“During the recession we lost 16 positions in our investigation staff,” McManaman said. “During the last 2 years we’ve seen a restoration of 8 of those positions.”...
In the past few years, nearly $2 million due back to DHS has been written off or waivered.
“Some of it at the end of the day quite frankly will be uncollectable,” McManaman said.
Others cases – even the criminal ones — are being paid back so slowly it barely makes a dent.
“The law says you can only order what the person can pay, so we end up with people stealing $50,000 who are ordered to pay $10 a month,” Young said, “Which means they’ll never pay off the full restitution ordered.”
“If we have to we can up the ceiling, and that’s something we should consider doing,” Mizuno said.
Mizuno is already getting started. Monday he gave KHON2 a draft of two bills ready to submit in the next legislative session. One would pay for more DHS investigators, and the other would get money back more quickly from those who owe.
read ... Welfare Cheats
Solar Scammers: Half of Installations Were Fraudulent
EE: Forest City Enterprises of Cleveland, where Arakaki works as project developer, manages these homes and opted to add photovoltaics. Within a few years, he said, the panels could top more than 5,000 Marine and Navy dwellings.
"The sky's the limit," Arakaki said, explaining that Forest City ultimately hopes to have solar on 80 percent of its military buildings. "If we're able to accomplish this, then it will be among the largest, if not the largest rooftop PV development in the state."
Hawaii’s Legislature last week passed a measure aimed at buttressing the expansion further. The state will sell bonds to provide loans for residents wanting solar. Consumers will repay the debts through their monthly electric bills (ClimateWire, May 3)....
The state gives roughly the lesser of 35 percent of costs or $5,000 for a residential system and $500,000 for a business-sized project. But that incentive came under fire last year amid charges that it was being abused. Some households and businesses were claiming the benefit multiple times for the same location.
Democratic Gov. Neil Abercrombie's administration issued a temporary administrative rule reinterpreting what qualifies for the credit. That change has cut in half how much people can deduct for installing systems, solar supporters said. (So previously, half of installations were fraudulent.)
The future of Hawaii's solar tax credit isn't clear. Problems arose with it because the state awarded benefits per "system." Some companies and residents counted each connection to an inverter as a separate system and claimed the tax benefit for each.
The state in 2007 had said that was allowable, said Robert Harris, executive director of Sierra Club Hawaii. But state Sen. Sam Slom (R) said people exploited the credit.
"I have friends in the solar industry, they admit it, that there were abuses," Slom said. "They would break projects up into segments and get credit for each one."
The benefit cost Hawaii $65.4 million in 2011, based on tax returns. There were projections it would grow to $170 million last year, an estimate based on permits taken out. An analysis from the Economic Research Organization at the University of Hawaii forecast it could swell to $2.1 billion without a policy change....
The agency's temporary rule effective this year defined a residential system as 5 kilowatts and a business one as 1 megawatt. It said that benefits exceeding $5,000 or $500,000 must be prorated based on a formula....
The rule threatens larger projects, many of which had been planned years in advance, said Duda with the Hawaii PV Coalition. "The utility-scale stuff has been pretty comprehensively damaged."
The Legislature wrestled with a bill that would have superseded the administration's rule, but that died in committee last month.
read ... An accidental admission
Hawaii Historic Preservation Division Still On Federal Thin Ice
CB: Officials from the National Park Service flew in from Washington D.C. last week to determine whether the State Historic Preservation Division had met all the requirements laid out in a 2010 "corrective action plan." SHPD risked losing its federal certification and funding if it failed to meet the benchmarks.
However, it appears SHPD has been given a reprieve, despite not meeting all of the requirements and ongoing concerns about the division's leadership.
“I think it’s safe to say that the (corrective action plan) will be extended,” said William Aila, chair of Hawaii’sDepartment of Land and Natural Resources, which oversees SHPD. He told Civil Beat that Park Service officials had noted significant improvement within the division, but wanted SHPD to continue to work on a couple of areas, including an inventory and survey of historic properties.
Aila said it would be premature to elaborate at this time as National Park Service officials would be sending an official letter with information about the review in the coming weeks.
SHPD’s woes have attracted the attention of Hawaii’s top political leaders concerned with the high-stake repercussions if the state agency were to be stripped of its certification and funding. Billions of dollars in projects in Hawaii that require federal funding, licensing or permits could be delayed, including the $5.26 billion Honolulu rail project.
Related: Deadline for Public Comment on Rail AIS May 30
read ... Hawaii Historic Preservation Division Still On Federal Thin Ice
DoE: Can Change at the Top Overcome Years of Failure?
HB: The agency's temporary rule effective this year defined a residential system as 5 kilowatts and a business one as 1 megawatt. It said that benefits exceeding $5,000 or $500,000 must be prorated based on a formula.
"That kind of changed the whole game," said state Sen. Mike Gabbard (D), a supporter of solar incentives.
The rule threatens larger projects, many of which had been planned years in advance, said Duda with the Hawaii PV Coalition. "The utility-scale stuff has been pretty comprehensively damaged."
The Legislature wrestled with a bill that would have superseded the administration's rule, but that died in committee last month....
These are big changes. The question, of course, is whether they’re enough to fix what’s wrong with public education in Hawaii. After all, as the only statewide school system in the country, DOE is an enormous institution. With 178,000 students and more than 20,000 employees (plus about 22,000 casual hires) it consumes nearly a quarter of the state’s budget. Yet, it’s one of the worst performing school systems in the nation. This is reflected not only in a level of student achievement that ranks among the bottom 10 states, but in the bloated, inefficient and sometimes corrupt bureaucracy of the DOE itself.
Years of Failure: For nearly a decade, the state auditor has issued a steady stream of blistering reports that testify to this lack of accountability:
- A 2006 audit castigated administrators at Kailua High School for their “low priority on maintaining financial records and accounting for and protecting resources,” and found that as much as half the school’s $2 million inventory “may be fictitious.”
- A 2008 audit of the state’s Hawaiian Studies Program found the system completely “lacking accountability for the program’s intended outcomes,” and that schools were able to divert funds from the program “with impunity.”
- A pair of scathing audits in 2009 pilloried DOE for “inappropriate procurement practices and a culture of disregard” that led to “waste, abuse and improper consultant relationships” and “possible instances of procurement fraud.”
- A 2010 letter to the state Senate noted that an audit of the Waters of Life Public Charter School was impossible because school administrators could not provide any of the appropriate financial documentation. A follow-up performance audit in 2011 criticized the state’s entire public charter-school program for failing “to comply with state law and principles of public accounting.”
- A performance audit of the school bus system in July 2012 said “ineffective planning for bus services has resulted in routes that are not evaluated for cost, efficiency or adherence to safety guidelines.” It may also have identified fraud on a statewide scale.
In order to fix a system this broken, Horner says, BOE had to start at the top.
read ... Report Card: School Administrators
Hawaii Schools Chaotic
HM: How pervasive is bullying? According to the DOE, bullying has increased from under 600 incidents in the 2010-2011 school year to more than 700 last year.
And about 47 percent of Hawaii teachers said that students’ misbehavior interfered with their ability to teach, based on a 2011 Indicators of School Crime and Safety report, released by the National Association of Education Statistics and the Department of Justice. That put Hawaii’s numbers among the worst in the country.
Yearly statewide reporting of misconduct also gives us a sense of what’s going on in classrooms. The DOE has rules and options for discipline. Some are cut and dried: If a student brings a gun on campus, he is dismissed from school for a calendar year. But bullying is a class B offense, with 16 options for disciplinary action, ranging from after-school detention to disciplinary transfer.
Since 1999, the highest number of incidents has involved class D misconduct, which is disorderly conduct and insubordination. At its high, in the year 1999-2000 there were 68 incidents per 1,000 students. In 2009-10, the last year for which data was available, it was 35 per 1,000, a new low.
Violent misconduct, class A, has been the second-highest category each year since 1999. That number has stayed fairly constant, with a high of 20 incidents per 1,000 students in 2006-’07 and the most recent data showing 14 incidents per 1,000 students in 2009-’10.
This data seems to indicate Hawaii’s schools aren’t unsafe, but chaotic.
CB: Hawaii Teacher: Creating The Perfect Bubble For Better Learning
read ... Are Hawaii Schools Safe?
College students say 'Easy A' courses waste time & money
HNN: Food and World Culture, Introduction to Art History, Ceramics 100.
Colleges offer a variety of classes and it's no secret on campus there are also courses to pick up an 'Easy A.'
Some students have to take certain classes, while others choose them to perk their grade point average.
"My introduction to theatre class, all we did was play these improv games," said Davis Kop, a junior at Hawaii Pacific University. "It was fun, but I could tell that I just had to show up and it kind of just boosted my gpa."
It takes at least 120 credits to graduate from the University of Hawaii at Manoa and HPU. Both have degree plans requiring general education courses, regardless of major.
Students tell us it's no secret many classes taken simply fill a schedule.
"I did have an art class that was pretty ridiculous when I first started here, but most recently, it was a speech class," HPU graduate student Tiana Orta said. "It was fun, but it definitely had nothing to do with my degree."
Students at Kapiolani Community College can earn degrees by taking classes like Introduction to Color or The History of Surfing.
CB: Is A College Education Still Worth The Price?
read ... Easy A
Money in Politics Report: Top Donors to Hawaii's Legislators Revealed
HR: The Hawaii Association of Realtors was the top donor to Hawaii lawmakers in 2011 and 2012, with the association donating $110,100 to 83 percent of the state's 76 lawmakers.
Not far behind the realtors' group was the Hawaii State Teachers Association, the state's only union for Hawaii's public school teachers, which donated $108,250 to Hawaii lawmakers.
Another labor organization, Hawaii Operating Engineers, donated $73,000 to their favorite lawmakers.
Rounding out the top 5 contributors are Hawaii's two most influential lobbyists, John Radcliffe and George "Red" Morris, who between them locally represent the interests of many of the nation's largest industries and businesses....
To see more about Hawaii lawmakers and who contributes to them, log on here
read ... Money
Hong argues conspiracy in Elections Division suit
WHT: “This was an attempt to power grab, take over the election office,” Hong argued in 3rd Circuit Court, before Judge Elizabeth Strance....
Hong said Yagong, the former County Council chairman, and Kawauchi, the former county clerk, initiated the investigation into whether Nakamoto and Ayau were aware of alleged parties where county employees consumed alcohol at the county’s elections warehouse, and allegations that the elections warehouse manager, Glen Shikuma, was making campaign signs and other signs at the warehouse, which is county property....
Francis Jung, attorney for Yagong and Kawauchi, argued Hong presented no evidence that the former clerk and council member acted outside their authority. He said the two, after learning Shikuma may have been printing counterfeit signs featuring Hello Kitty, Titleist and Arnold Palmer logos without obtaining copyright, were also trying to protect the county from liability under state and federal laws, including the Lanham Act, which protects trademarks, and the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act, better known as RICO....
“If defamation is the actual issue here, it’s elementary, the statements have to be false,” Jung said. “If this is all they have, these statements are neither false nor defamatory.”
read ... Hong argues conspiracy in Elections Division suit
War In Waikiki? The Fight Over The Natatorium Is Far From Over
CB: Friends of the Natatorium is a nonprofit that wants to see the World War I memorial restored, and has already threatened lawsuits and other regulatory delay tactics that its members hope will derail the $18.4 million beach expansion plan.
And the nonprofit — which is the main proponent of modernizing the Natatorium and its saltwater swimming pool — isn’t alone in its concern.
Honolulu City Councilman Stanley Chang is asking his constituents to weigh in on the proposal after learning about it last week.
The Kapiolani Park Preservation Society is also trying to distance itself from the project after one of its prominent members spoke out in support of it at the behest of Abercrombie and Caldwell.
read ... Profitable Fight
Lost in the Budget, $20M ML&P Pension Fund Bailout Money Found
SA: Lawmakers approved $20 million of general obligation bond financing in the state budget as a capital improvement project to buy 270 acres north of Honolua Bay at Lipoa Point in West Maui.
Two early versions of House Bill 1424 that proposed the purchase included funding, but the funding language was removed from HB 1424 before it passed. HB 1424 instructs the state Department of Land and Natural Resources to negotiate a purchase.
The $20 million was included in the budget bill, or HB 200.
read ... yesterday they thought the money wasn't there
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