Talking Turkey about Hawaii’s Spending
Jeffrey Portnoy appointed to UH Board of Regents
UH task force on veterans affairs formed
DHHL Updates Legislature on Audit, Loan Delinquencies
HHC Approves Pilot Program for Delinquent Leaseholders
Informational Briefing to Consider UH Budget
While Ripping Off Ratepayers, Water Board Gives $1.5M to Former Exec
HNN: The City Ethics Commission is investigating allegations of illegal contract awards at the Honolulu Board of Water Supply.
The Board's Chief Engineer Ernest Lau requested the probe into the $1.5 million contract with a company headed by the board's former chief information officer Brian McKee.
"The BWS will conduct an investigation into any criminal procurement violations and will suspend contracts with Mr. Brian McKee until such time that we can review the findings of the investigative report," said Lau, who signed the contract.
Lau's comments came in a letter to environmental activist Carroll Cox, who had asked for details on the board's contract with McKee's company UTC-10 Consulting LLC.
On Friday morning, an Ethics Commission investigator was at the board, requesting documentation. The investigator also called potential witnesses.
"It is public corruption. I would say it's the poster child because checks and balance were not in place," said Cox.
"This is what I believe is the perfect case of a white-collar crime."
According to documents obtained by Hawaii News Now, the water utility provided lucrative perks for UTC-10's subcontractor, including $9,100 a month for apartment rent and more than $2,000 monthly for meals and groceries
Details: The Carroll Cox Show - 11/10/13
read ... Ethics Commission probes BWS contract
State Takeover? Bailout? $10M Mansha Contract Saved Hawaii from Incompetent CGI?
KHON: Andrews had gotten a warning from vendor CGI ahead of time that the key security functions meant to protect applicants identities weren't ready to go.
She told the state too, on Sept. 30, and the Connector pulled the plug on enrollments for a couple weeks. The site re-launched Oct. 15.
The risks of 1st-and-goal flubs were essentially foreshadowed by Matsuda in his role as the governor's Affordable Care Act implementation manager when he told the Connector board last March that they may “must focus on the successful launch of an initial minimalist version of the exchange…” in order to make an October 1 rollout, according to a memo he gave the board.
Such problems were known to be big enough that this call came last spring:
“There was trouble on the horizon and the governor called Tom Matsuda and myself in and said ‘I would like you to come and help,’" explains Sonny Bhagowalia, the state’s chief information officer, in charge of the state Office of Information Management & Technology. “It was in bad shape when we came in to try to help, a lot to do, to try to fix in 5 months."
So despite already being on the hook for tens of millions with its CGI contract, the Connector also hired another vendor -- this time a multimillion dollar project management (IPMO) company called Mansha, which got to work by the summer under the state tech department's oversight.
“How is the amount of money that Mansha is making to do this justified, especially for the compressed timeframe they have to do this?” KHON2 asked. “It's more than $10 million."
"I think the IPMO contractor is unbelievable,” Bhagowalia said. “They've been absolutely excellent. If it wasn't for the IPMO as the contractor and some of our involvement, you would not have made 10/15 not a chance.”
SA: Matsuda will not seek top position
read ... $10M+ Mansha?
Insurance Company Bailout: Another ACA hidden gem
MN: ...deep in the Department of Health and Human Services news release about the president's decision was this little gem:
"Though this transitional policy was not anticipated by health insurance issuers when setting rates for 2014, the risk corridor program should help ameliorate unanticipated changes in premium revenue. We intend to explore ways to modify the risk corridor program final rules to provide additional assistance."
Rubio announced in his WSJ article that he would seek legislation to get rid of these "bailouts" of insurance companies.
It is common knowledge that citizens could qualify for subsidies in the form of tax credits if they purchased a plan through an exchange. But this was the first we had heard that the government is also on the hook to subsidize participating insurance companies.
It would make sense for those companies to put attractive (unprofitable) rates out there for the first three years to gain market share if they knew the government would underwrite any resulting losses.
But what happens to rates when those "risk corridors" disappear? Or is the plan for them to never disappear?
read ... Maui News
Sandwich Isles Communications: State Gives Hee Family Permission to Continue Stealing
CB: Hawaii’s consumer advocate, Jeff Ono, says he has no objections to re-certifying Sandwich Isles Communications and its affiliate, Pa Makani, so the companies can continue receiving federal subsidies to provide telecommunications services to rural residents.
Hawaii’s Public Utilities Commission will make a final ruling on the certification, taking into account Ono’s “statement of position,” which he filed with the commission on Wednesday.
Ono’s support for the companies comes in spite of major concerns raised about Sandwich Isles by the Federal Communications Commission....
Background: Sandwich Isles Communications: Political Connections Pay Off
read ... Hawaii’s Consumer Advocate Gives Sandwich Isles the OK
20 Years after Apology: Akaka Gang Remains Frustrated, Uncertain of Path
SA: The U.S. resolution was endorsed by all four Democratic members of Hawaii's congressional delegation -- U.S. Sens. Daniel Inouye and Daniel Akaka and U.S. Reps. Patsy Mink and Neil Abercrombie.
The apology was cited by the Hawaii Supreme Court in its 2008 ruling upholding a moratorium preventing the state from selling ceded lands that once belonged to the Hawaiian kingdom. But the U.S. Supreme Court overturned the decision in 2009, saying the resolution did not take away the state's sovereign authority to sell the lands.
And it has been highlighted in the congressional campaign to support the Akaka Bill that seeks to set up a process for Native Hawaiians to negotiate with the federal government on land and cultural issues. But the bill has been stalled by Senate Republicans for more than a decade, and supporters this year called on President Barack Obama to investigate the possibility of administratively awarding federal recognition to Native Hawaiians, effectively bypassing Congress.
This is not the solution Siu and other independence activists seek.
"Instead of returning our country, the U.S. is trying to further subdue the Hawaiian people by offering to turn 'Native Hawaiians' into a 'federally recognized' Native American Indian tribe. This is not reconciliation; this is humiliation." Siu said.
In its testimony in support of the state Legislature's resolution, the Office of Hawaiian Affairs said in the past 20 years, "new issues and debates have arisen regarding the proper means to address the ongoing historical harms and challenges faced by Native Hawaiians in restoring and maintaining their culture, cultural values and self determination."
OHA officials pointed out that the apology resolution was "a rare act of self-criticism" expressing a "clear commitment" to reconciliation with Native Hawaiians.
But, they noted, "lasting reconciliation continues to be a long and uncertain one."
read ... 20 years of Nothing
Hawaii State Hospital, No Guards, Patients can Refuse Treatment
KITV: "I have around the facility, 300 cameras and those are monitored 24 hours a day and seven days a week," said interim administrator William Elliot.
But there are no armed guards. That's mandatory because this is a hospital... Not a prison.
So when there's trouble, protocols in place can conflict with instincts.
"When you see an emergency on the street your natural reaction is to help but we have learned that jumping right in sometimes you will get hurt and it becomes more challenging, said Dr. William Sheehan.
Each worker is provided a mobile device –a kind of panic button that allows the employee to call for help immediately.
So when someone is attacked, the idea is to make sure there is sufficient back-up to intervene.
And there are strict rules for handling patients, more and more of whom are suffering from mental illness and brain damage due to drugs like crystal meth.
The patents have a right to refuse treatment and the hospital has to go to courts to over-ride that and only in extreme situations.
"A person could come here and be psychotic and be in need of medication and cannot have an order to treat and go for a period of time without medication," Sheehan said. (Lunatics in control of the asylum.)
SA: Improve security at State Hospital
SA: Hospital staffing defended
read ... Hawaii State Hospital shows security measures in place
Key witness in ex-police major's case released from prison -- Served less than 1 year
SA: A government witness who told a federal grand jury that she and retired police Maj. Carlton Nishimura schemed to accept protection money from the operator of an illegal gambling house, recorded herself later telling her previous lawyer that she lied to the grand jury, then went in front of the grand jury again to say she didn't lie, has spent less than a year behind bars for two separate drug convictions.
Authorities at the Federal Detention Center in Honolulu released Doni Mei Imose Crisolo on Friday, said William Harrison, Crisolo's new lawyer.
U.S. District Chief Judge Susan Oki Mollway on Tuesday sentenced Crisolo to a year and a day in prison for conspiracy and other charges stemming from her role in a methamphetamine trafficking ring and to a concurrent 10-month term for possessing 7.7 grams of the drug while attempting to board a flight to Las Vegas last November. Mollway also fined Crisolo $4,075 for both cases.
Crisolo, 42, had been in custody since her arrest at Honolulu Airport last November.
read ... Soft on Crime
Wind Farm Operator Pleads Guilty to Killing Eagles, Other Protected Birds
AP: A major U.S. power company has pleaded guilty to killing eagles and other birds at two Wyoming wind farms and agreed to pay $1 million as part of the first enforcement of environmental laws protecting birds against wind energy facilities.
Until the settlement announced Friday with Duke Energy Corp. and its renewable energy arm, not a single wind energy company had been prosecuted for a death of an eagle or other protected bird — even though each death is a violation of federal law, unless a company has a federal permit. Not a single wind energy facility has obtained a permit.
The Charlotte, N.C.-based company pleaded guilty to killing 14 eagles and 149 other birds at its Top of the World and Campbell Hill wind farms outside Casper, Wyo. All the deaths, which included golden eagles, hawks, blackbirds, wrens and sparrows, occurred from 2009 to 2013.
"Wind energy is not green if it is killing hundreds of thousands of birds," said George Fenwick, president of the American Bird Conservancy, which supports properly sited wind farms. "The unfortunate reality is that the flagrant violations of the law seen in this case are widespread."
There could be more enforcement. The Fish and Wildlife Service is investigating 18 bird-death cases involving wind-power facilities, and about a half-dozen have been referred to the Justice Department.
Feds Propose Plan to Kill Hawaii Owls, Egrets
Proposed Kahuku Windfarm Would Kill Endangered Birds, Bats