Abercrombie, Wife, and Murdered Legislator on Hawaii Democratic Socialist Membership List
Penny Pritzker: Waikiki Hotel Workers Union to Protest Obama Commerce Nominee
Kakaako: HCDA to Release TOD Plan, Hold Open House
OHA Urged to Back Hawaiian Immersion Focus for Paia Elementary School
After Banning Fishing, NOAA Kills Sharks to Save Monk Seals
End of Life Workshop Featuring Scott Makuakane
Hawaii Congressional Delegation How They Voted May 20, 2013
Hawaii Filmmakers Investigate 'Honor Killings' in US
Highlights from Hawaii GOP Convention
Consequences for Bad Government Behavior? Sen. Sam Slom to Address Maui TEA Party
Native Hawaiian Advancement: Keli’i Akina to Speak in Hilo
Abercrombie Signs Seat belt Law, Calculates Savings at $7226 per Victim
Abercrombie Defends Convention-goers Fired for Hawaii Pension Conference 'Boondoggle'
Council Raids Slush Fund to Reject Caldwell's Tax Hike, Pay for Union Contracts
SA: Last week, Mayor Kirk Caldwell and his Cabinet warned Council members they would likely need to raise bus fares or property taxes, or cut services, to deal with up to an estimated $67.5 million gap in the budget caused largely by the Council's decision to reject a hike in the city fuel tax that would have raised an additional $15 million. Other increased costs were $10 million in grants-in-aid issued to nonprofits, and $37.5 million to pay for 4 percent salary and wage raises for the city's employees.
The latest version, presented to the administration Monday afternoon by Council Budget Chairwoman Ann Kobayashi, creates a single, $70 million "salary provisional account" that allows the administration more flexibility in its funding for the impending pay raises. The money would come from accrued funding set aside for vacant positions, vacation for departing city employees and other salary needs.
It negates an earlier move by the Council to cut in half the accrued funding placed into individual departments' budgets, a move that Caldwell and his lieutenants objected to strenuously. They argued that not only was money there to be used for anticipated pay increases, but that it also would give them the flexibility needed to conduct regular city business. Council members pointed out that previous administrations have never spent all the funding for vacant positions and instead used it as a "slush fund."
read ... Council unveils $2 billion operating budget
Luke Targets 'Vacant Positions'
Borreca: the state budget adds up the number of employees in each state department and records the salaries. If the department has a job listed, even though no one is currently in that position, the salary is still counted.
The bureaucrat's secret used to be that if you didn't hire anyone for the position, you could use that money for other stuff, like overtime or vacation pay. Departments would then come back to the Legislature and say they needed a higher position count because they didn't have enough people to get the job done.
This year Luke called them on that.
"We don't want to penalize a department, if they need these things, but we had to have a clearer picture," Luke said, explaining that her committee at first knocked out 1,000 state positions.
In all, $168 million in vacant positions was spotlighted.
The final number was reduced, but Luke made it clear to all departments that hiding the money in unfilled positions is not a game with a future.
read ... Luke gives agencies notice: Loose fiscal times are over
UH legal bill for Greenwood's $2 million demand letter: $53K
HNN: The University of Hawaii spent more than $53,000 hiring well-known Honolulu attorney Bill McCorriston to represent the UH Board of Regents after UH President MRC Greenwood sent the regents a letter offering to
leave the university for a payment of $2 million....
The faculty union said if the $53,831 was spent in the classroom instead of on legal bills, the money could have funded 13 more UH classes taught by part-time lecturers, three graduate student scholarships or one full-time community college lecturer's salary, not including benefits.
read ... UH legal bill for Greenwood's $2 million demand letter: $53K
Teacher: No Administration Support for School Discipline
CB: I was a ‘floater’ at Campbell my first year, which means I didn’t have a classroom of my own. Instead, I ‘floated’ from classroom to classroom between bells. I got used to the barrage of F-words, B-words, and homophobic slurs flying around every time I walked between classrooms, but I made it my mission to stop every kid I saw wearing a T-shirt with a half-naked stripper, marijuana leaf, or profanity plastered on the front. I was cursed out at least a half-dozen times.
The first couple times, I immediately wrote to the administration, but with each email I sent, the deafening silence of my inbox increasingly rattled my sense of right and wrong and my role as a teacher within a school. I didn’t stop intervening, but I did stop reporting it to the administration.
One day, I walked into the boys’ bathroom to find a student holding a joint. Since he knew I wouldn’t be able to identify him if he got away from me, he bolted out the door, hoping the whole incident might just disappear.
He was a larger guy and I was training for the Honolulu marathon at the time, so it wasn’t hard for me to catch up. I thought it was almost comical the way he desperately weaved and turned sharp corners while I lackadaisically bounded after. After a minute, he stopped. I walked up to him as he was bent over, covered in sweat, and breathing heavily. “All done?” I asked. He shook his head yes. “Follow me.”
In the Vice Principal’s office, I was given a verbal warning for chasing a student and I managed to segue that into a conversation about my previous emails. I was told that security’s duty was to secure the campus and keep kids safe, and that while they were capable of citing a student for violating dress code, it was not their duty. I was also told that the administration was too busy to address every issue in which a teacher has a run-in with a student on the open campus, and that my duty as a teacher was to be the instructional leaders of my classroom, not an enforcer of codes of conduct outside my classroom. I was told that, as a teacher, if I didn’t have time to follow up on conflicts with students that I initiated, I needed to choose my battles more carefully. The message was clear — don't bother.
read ... No Discipline
Obama Salutes Transsexual Agenda for Hawaii Schools
White House News Release: Kim Coco Iwamoto, a certified therapeutic foster parent, was elected to Hawaii’s State Board of Education in 2006 and re-elected in 2010. During her time in office, Commissioner Iwamoto was able to implement many of the policy recommendations of the Department of Education’s Safe School Community Advisory Committee, and in 2011, she drafted the Hawaii Safe Schools Act, which gave the legislature and the governor an opportunity to join the effort to reduce bullying and harassment in public schools. The bill was signed into law later that year. In 2012, Commissioner Iwamoto was appointed and confirmed to the Hawaii State Civil Rights Commission.
read ... White House to honor LGBT leaders as "Champions of Change"
Democrats Thrown Out of Army Facility
CB: ...the party had reserved Kilauea Military Camp (KMC) several months ago, party members were only informed late last week that political activity was not allowed at the facility.
"They told us it was political, even though it was not political," party member Frankie Stapleton said Monday. "There was no campaigning. We were getting legislative updates from federal and state officials. There were forums in the afternoon with people speaking pro and con about important local issues."
The U.S. Department of the Army, which has authority over KMC, made a different determination.
"This type of event is not authorized in Department of Defense facilities," said Larry Reilly, chief of public affairs forIMCOM-Pacific, which is headquartered at Fort Shafter on Oahu. "When they made the initial request, it wasn't specific exactly what type of meeting it was, until more information came to the forefront. That was a couple weeks ago. We then sent this to legal review and determined, unfortunately, that it was an event that should not be conducted on government property or DoD (property) in particular."
Stapleton, who is party secretary for Hawaii's County's District 4 (Puna, Kau), said the Hawaii County Democratic Party had held its convention at KMC just four years ago. Republicans have also convened at the facility, she said, which is located at 4,000 feet in Hawaii Volcanoes National Park.
Fortunately, Big Isle Democrats were able to get the word out that the convention had been relocated to Volcano Art Center's Niaulani Campus, just a few miles away. Participants included Gov. Neil Abercrombie, U.S. Sen.Brian Schatz and U.S. Rep. Colleen Hanabusa.
read ... Thrown Out
Medical marijuana primed for overhaul
SA: House Bill 668 would transfer administration of the medical marijuana program to the Department of Health from the Department of Public Safety. Changes would not take effect until Jan. 1, 2015, giving the Health Department and the Legislature time to study proposed rules and a structure for how the program would be administered.
Senate Bill 642 would make more substantive amendments, such as changing the amounts of the plant patients may possess. The measure would allow patients to have an "adequate supply" of 4 ounces and seven total plants, regardless of the plants' maturity....
The bills also would allow a patient to obtain a medical marijuana certificate from a primary-care physician who specifies the patient suffers from a debilitating illness such that the potential benefits of marijuana use would outweigh any health risks. Patients still would have to register with the Department of Health, and law enforcement agencies would be allowed to inquire about a patient's registration status at any time.
Both measures are subject to action by the governor, who has until July 9 to decide on all bills. He must inform the Legislature by June 24 of which bills he might veto....
"There are some physicians who wouldn't touch this issue with their patients," said Charlie Cook, a community organizer for the Drug Policy Action Group.
read ... Overhaul
Inmate deaths a call to action
SA: The problem of prison suicide has been around for years and is frequently under study. It remains a leading cause of deaths in jails, according to the National Center on Institutions and Alternatives, at a rate that is about triple what it is for the general population.
However, there is hope that prisons that employ best practices can show significant improvement. One of the center's currently cited reports is "National Study of Jail Suicide," released in 2010. That year the center logged the suicide rate in county jails at 38 deaths per 100,000 inmates, a dramatic decrease from the 107 suicides per 100,000 reported in 1986.
The report author, Lindsay Hayes, has attributed improvements to better suicide prevention programming, training of jail staff and increased, detailed inquiry of suicide risk factors during the prison intake process.
Such factors are being reviewed by Hawaii's Public Safety officials, said Deputy Director Max Otani. There is an ongoing exchange involving the department's mental health services office and security personnel over "how better to identify and work with offenders who pose a risk of harming themselves," Otani said in a written statement.
Officials are looking at policies and procedures, with corrections officers undergoing more training and additional surveillance cameras being installed, he added.
The national study showed that the majority of cases happen within the first few months — many within the first few days — after the inmate's arrival. About 38 percent were found to have a history of mental illness, according to the report.
ILind: Why Are So Many Inmates Committing Suicide?
read ... Inmate deaths a call to action
Maui County Demands Property Return from Profitable Non-Profit
MN: Maui County filed a lawsuit against Wailuku Main Street Association Inc./Tri-Isle Main Street Resource Center on Monday afternoon claiming that the organization violated its county grant agreement and that the agency should return more than $11,000 worth of personal property bought with county funds and any remaining funding obtained under the agreement.
According to the lawsuit in 2nd Circuit Court, the county on Oct. 26 terminated its $243,000 grant agreement with the longtime nonprofit organization....
Hugh Jones, supervising state deputy attorney general in the Tax & Charities Division who is heading the state's investigation into WMSA, embraced the county's actions.
"The county has shown a great deal of patience with the organization before filing this lawsuit," he said Monday. "We are pleased they are enforcing the county grant requirement."
He added that his office is concerned about the solvency of WMSA.
"In addition to being sued by its former lessor for delinquent rent, and the shuttering of its office and dismissal of its staff, the county's filing demanding the return of all unspent grant money and property purchased with taxpayer funding, the attorney general remains concerned, as it was before, that WMSA is at the point of insolvency and no longer able to perform its tax-exempt charitable purpose," he said. "The attorney general stands by its initial findings and conclusions issued in September 2012."
WMSA's website said it was established in 1986 to foster economic revitalization as well as historic preservation of Wailuku and Maui's other small towns.
It has received more than $2.2 million in grants from Maui County since 2002.
read ... County seeks return of property in WMSA suit
Towing Companies Bill to kick boot competitors awaits governor's move
SA: The Hawaii State Towing Association supports the proposed statewide boot ban, arguing that the practice allows "rogue private sector booters to victimize motorists by demanding unregulated and exorbitant cash points for release of their vehicle." By locking a vehicle in place, the boots don't serve a business's goal of opening up its parking stall for potential customers, the towing association further argued.
The measure is opposed by at least one local boot company, Honolulu-based Hawaii Boot Removal Services. Representatives of the company could not be reached for comment Monday.
DN: Frankenbill SB1214 against wheel booting awaits Governor’s action
read ... Will he Sign it?
Ala Wai Canal: Oversight Is As Murky As The Water
CB: canoe paddlers regularly complain of infections and residents recoil from the smelly brown water where tires, plastic food wrappers and beer bottles float in the near stagnant canal....
In 1998, the task force estimated that 1,500 truckloads of sediment a year were being washed into the canal — a rate that would turn the canal into a mass of muck in about 50 years if not dredged, the panel predicted.
Cleaning that contaminated sediment out the canal is an expensive proposition. So far, cleanup has been largely through dredging, with tons of contaminated sediments dumped offshore.
Still, the canal has only been partially dredged three times in its history — in 1967, 1978 and 2002.
The 1998 task force said it needed to be dredged every 10 years — a cost the group estimated to be $10 million each time.
But there are no current plans to dredge the canal again, according to Carty Chang, chief engineer at Hawaii’s Department of Land and Natural Resources, which owns the canal and manages it.
Chang said that the department is waiting to see if dredging is part of a U.S. Army Corps of Engineers proposal that is expected to recommend ways to redesign the canal to prevent flooding.
read ... Ala Wai Canal: Oversight Is As Murky As The Water
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